Sex offenders questioned over little Cleo Smith’s disappearance

Police have spoken to every known sex offender in the WA region where four-year-old Cleo Smith vanished on Saturday.

Police have spoken to every known sex offender in the region where four-year-old Cleo Smith mysteriously vanished from her family’s tent in the early hours of Saturday morning.

West Australian Police Commissioner Chris Dawson described the land search for Cleo as at a crucial stage on Wednesday, the fifth day, and revealed the search area around the Blowholes Campground 960km north of Perth was expanded based on advice from health practitioners about “surviva­bility if Cleo had been on foot”.

An image posted to the Instagram of Ellie Smith, mother of missing girl Cleo Smith.

“We also have broadened it out to any vehicles and transport in and around the area in case there’s a possibility that she may have been taken in a vehicle … we’re not ruling anything out,” he said.

As police on horseback and searchers on foot continued to comb the scrub and rocky cliffs around the Blowholes on Wednesday, Inspector Jon Munday told reporters at the campground that his team would remain “until we can put our hand on our heart and say Cleo is not in the search area”.

Police have repeatedly stressed they were open-minded on whether Cleo wandered off or was taken from the tent by a person or persons. On Wednesday, Inspector Munday said the tent flap closest to where Cleo was sleeping was open to a height she could not have reached herself.

“The positioning of that zipper for the flap is one of the circumstances that causes us to have grave concerns for Cleo’s safety,” he said.

Cleo’s sleeping bag was still missing, he added.

Police confirmed they had not ruled out reports from campers who say they heard car wheels screeching about 3am on Saturday, three hours before Cleo’s mother, Ellie Smith, woke to find the tent open and Cleo gone. The tent was large, with an internal divider.

Inspector Munday said there were no suspects but up to 20 known sex offenders in and near the fruit-growing town of Carnarvon, 50km south of the campsite, had been identified and spoken to.

Police say Cleo was with her mother, her mother’s partner, Jake Gliddon, and baby sister Isla at the Blowholes campground on Friday evening and was last seen inside the tent about 1.30am when Ms Smith got up to give her a drink.

Missing girl Cleo Smith, 4. Picture: Facebook

The Blowholes campsite, 70km north of Carnarvon, where Cleo vanished from the family tent.

Police confirmed that they had interviewed Cleo’s biological ­father, who voluntarily gave a statement to police in Mandurah on Monday.

He was never a person of interest and police are satisfied his movements are accounted for.

On Wednesday morning, WA Police Deputy Commissioner Daryl Gaunt offered the most comprehensive details yet about the police response to Cleo’s disappearance, including that the investigation involving homicide detectives was being scaled up while the search and rescue mission operated in parallel.

Deputy commissioner Gaunt said police had spoken extensively to Cleo’s mother and stepfather to “lock down time frames” and confirm other details. He said everyone felt for Cleo’s family.

“They are the parents of a missing child,” Deputy Commissioner Gaunt said.

On Tuesday, Ms Smith sat with her partner Mr Gliddon in a police truck at the campsite as she gave an emotional account of the events of Friday night and Saturday morning.

She said somebody must know what happened to her daughter and asked anyone with information to report it to police.

Missing girl Cleo Smith, 4, pictured her sister. Source: Facebook.

A pink flower and butterfly-patterned pyjama suit similar to that worn by Cleo Smith before she went missing from a WA Campground.