Cleo Smith search: Who would abduct a child? Previous cases offer clues

Police are yet to make a breakthrough in the search for missing four-year-old Cleo Smith but one expert has shed light on how child abductors think.

The suspected abduction of four-year-old Cleo Smith may have looked like a spontaneous, opportunistic act but forensic experts say abductors have usually rehearsed the act over and over again before an opportunity presents.

Missing girl Cleo Smith, 4. Police believe she may have been abducted.

Cleo disappeared from her family's tent on October 16. Picture: WA Police

Quanne Diec, 12 disappeared from Granville in 1998, Karmein Chan, 13, was abducted in 1991 in Victoria, Rahma el-Dennaoui was snatched from her bed in Lurnea in 2005 and three-year-old William Tyrrell went missing from his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall in 2014. All cases remain unsolved abductions.

“There are a range of scenarios with child abduction, one common one is people who want to have a child will steal one, and the other one is sadistic killers and the other one, which may not be applicable in this case, is kidnappings for ransom,” he said.

Granville girl Quanne Diec disappeared in 1998, aged 12.

Rahma El-Dennaoui was 19 months when she was snatched from her Lurnea home.

In Cleo Smith’s case, police now believe Cleo was abducted after extensive land and sea searchers revealed no trace.

But sneaking into a tent and taking a child with no-one waking takes planning and calm nerves.

“Planning can be within 24 hours or within weeks, it could be a crime of opportunity in that they have seen a target, studied it, thought about it and planned it but planning can be last minute,” Dr Parmegiani said.

“With sadistic killers, there is a large component of fantasy and lot of rehearsal and planning in one’s mind about how they would do things in terms of obtaining the right equipment, mapping routes etc, but that is a rehearsed scenario in one’s mind.

“You see this planning in sex offenders and sadistic murderers where they make notes, may have recorded the fantasy about what they would do, they might even communicate it on social media anonymously but there is a lot of fantasy behind the act and it can precede it by sometimes years.”

William Tyrrell was abducted from Kendall in 2013.

Karmein Chan, 13, was abducted and murdered in 1991. Picture: Andrew Tauber

The offender is also likely to have a history of break and enter.

“If they were cool, calm and collected you’d assume they are sociopaths and have a long history of break, enter and steal and similar crimes in the past, whereas if they were a first-time offender they would be bumbling and tripping over and indeed lucky to get away with it.

“Someone who is in the mind of committing that offence are less anxious than others, their heart rate might not go as high as yours, so if someone has broken into places where there are people asleep, whether it is a house or a tent, they have been desensitised to the anxiety normally associated with committing a criminal act, it becomes easier to do.”

An estimated 20 registered sex offenders in the area have been questions by police and police are still seeking information from the public about a car that was seen turning right out of the road leading out of the campgrounds between 3am and 3:30am, shortly before Chloe was reported missing.

“How many sex offenders are living in some communities is astounding. Unfortunately in my career it is not surprising but, when you are confronted with it, you wonder how many there are overall in our society,” Dr Parmegiani said.

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Originally published as Cleo Smith search: Who would abduct a child? Previous cases offer clues