Praise for first cops at Cleo Smith campsite

The police officers who arrived first to help find Cleo Smith were quick to declare the family tent a possible crime scene, the detective in charge of the investigation has revealed.

Missing four-year-old Cleo Smith. Picture: Instagram Ellie Smith

The police officers who arrived first to help find Cleo Smith were quick to declare the family tent a possible crime scene, the detective in charge of the investigation into her disappearance has revealed.

Homicide squad detectives left Perth for the Blowholes Campground at 11am on October 16, 5½ hours after Cleo’s mother reported her missing.

Detective Inspector Rod Wilde has revealed the actions of police on the day Cleo vanished as amateur sleuths theorise online and others troll her mother, Ellie Smith, and stepfather Jake Gliddon.

Since the McGowan government announced a $1m reward for information that leads to Cleo’s return or a conviction over her disappearance, bounty hunters have arrived in her home town of Carnarvon from across the state.

Ms Smith gave Cleo a drink of water at 1.30am on October 16, then woke about 6am to discover her gone. Her sleeping bag was missing and the tent flap closest to her mattress was opened to a height police say Cleo could not have reached.

Mr Wilde, in charge of a team of more than 100 officers on the case, said Ms Smith called triple-0 from the campground, 960km north of Perth, at 6.23am.

A police car was dispatched from Carnarvon station with lights and sirens on just before 6.30am. It travelled 74km in 40 minutes, arriving at the campground at 7.10am.

A second police car arrived shortly after. The officers talked to Ms Smith and Mr Gliddon before taping off the family tent and surrounding area – creating what is known as a protected forensic area that nobody except police can enter – at 7.42am.

“They did a great job by establishing a protected forensic area containing the tent and all the evidence that may be within that, immediately,” Mr Wilde said.

At 8.34am police set up a roadblock at the main exit from the campground, searching cars.

Mr Wilde confirmed police still did not know who was driving a car seen turning off the road from the campground and south on to North West Coastal Highway between 3am and 3.30am on the day Cleo vanished. “It is a priority to identify who was in that vehicle. So we’d like that person to come forward, anyone in that ­vehicle.”