‘Help us find Cleo,’ begs desperate mother Ellie Smith

The mother of Cleo Smith speaks of the moment she woke inside the family tent to find her little girl gone.

Missing girl Cleo Smith, left, with mum Ellie Smith her sister and partner Jake Gliddon. Source: Facebook.

Wet-eyed and struggling to speak at times, the mother of missing West Australian girl Cleo Smith has told of the moment she woke inside the family tent on Saturday morning to find it “completely open” and her little girl gone.

Homicide detectives and forensic police officers were at the popular Blowholes Campground 960km north of Perth searching vehicles and shacks on Tuesday, as the police response to four-year-old Cleo’s disappearance began to look more and more like an abduction investigation.

Police were examining large volumes of dashcam footage from across the Gascoyne region and from roadhouses on the highways either side of the camping ground.

Police horses were being transported to the site late on Tuesday to assist with the ground search through coastal scrub and along rocky cliffs.

“She won’t even leave my side if I’m walking in the shops,” her mother Ellie Smith said. “She would never leave us. She would never leave the tent.

“She was wearing a jumpsuit and she can’t go the toilet without my help unzipping it. She would never leave that tent alone.”

The Blowholes Campground is about 50km north of the fruit-growing town of Carnarvon, where Ms Smith, her partner Jake Gliddon, Cleo and her younger sister Isla live.

The family arrived at the Blowholes on Friday evening. Cleo was wearing pink pyjamas when she went to bed in a grey sleeping bag on a mattress next to her baby ­sister’s cot. By 6am, Cleo was not there. Her sleeping bag was gone as well.

Speaking inside a police truck at the campsite on Tuesday, Ms Smith sat beside Mr Gliddon as she described the events of Friday night and Saturday morning when the family slept in a tent with a divider inside.

She said she got Cleo a drink of water at 1.30am. At about 6am she got up to give baby Isla a bottle and that is when she discovered Cleo was not in the tent.

“Friday night we came to the blowholes. We got here about 6.30, or just before dark. We were able to put the tent up, put a ­gazebo up, got everything ready for both the girls so then they could go to bed,” Ms Smith said.

Cleo Smith. Picture: Facebook

“We made them dinner. Cleo, she went to bed probably about 8 o’clock. Our little one had ­dinner, she went to bed. We had dinner we went to bed.

“That was about it. We went to sleep. Cleo woke up at 1.30 and she wanted a drink of water. I got up, got her a drink of water and yeah she went to bed.

“I checked on Isla, made sure Isla was okay. I got back in bed. That was it really. We went back to sleep, woke up to Isla wanting a bottle.

“As we passed the divider, um, I went into the other room and, um, the zipper was open, Cleo was gone.”

Ms Smith said that “the tent was completely open, it was about 30cm from being open and I turned around to Jake and I just said like ‘Cleo’s gone’.”

“We went looking, checking, making sure like she wasn’t around the tent and then we got in the car driving everywhere,” Ms Smith said.

She said she and Mr Gliddon went to familiar places “and we couldn’t find her and then we realised we have to call the cops she is not here”.

Police search the area where Cleo Smith was last seen at the Blowholes campsite, 70km north of Carnarvon, Western Australia.

Earlier on Tuesday, wild weather paused the search for Cleo in the coastal scrub and along the rocky cliffs near the campsite. However, as the rain eased, State Emergency Services staff and volunteers resumed their search, as police and Australian Defence Force drones continued to scour the area.

Mid-West Gascoyne Inspector John Munday has previously told reporters: “Unfortunately, we haven’t had any major breakthroughs. We’re trying to paint a picture of who was around here.”

Wiping away tears, Ms Smith said she felt how no mother should ever feel, and admitted Cleo must be terrified.

“She’s beautiful, delicate, she has like the biggest heart. She is so funny. She loves rocks. She collects rocks. She loves makeup and dressing up. Every day she wants to wear a princess dress. She is so sweet,” Ms Smith said.

Ms Smith and Mr Gliddon urged people to tell police anything that might help find Cleo.