Hunt for Australian Madeleine McCann

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... eared.html

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Inside the mind of a child abductor
EXCLUSIVE: Inside the mind of a child abductor: Leading criminal psychologist gives a profile of the monster who could have taken Cleo Smith - as detectives confirm they believe she was snatched

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This missing person case shakes Australia and shows eerie parallels to the British Maddie McCann , who disappeared from an apartment complex in Portugal one night in May 2007.

Perth - Cleo Smith (4) has been wanted since Saturday morning. Authorities of the state of Western Australia have now offered a reward of one million Australian dollars (around 640,000 euros) for information on the whereabouts of the child.

BILD

[catkins]

This missing person case shakes Australia and shows eerie parallels to the British Maddie McCann , who disappeared from an apartment complex in Portugal one night in May 2007.

Perth - Cleo Smith (4) has been wanted since Saturday morning. Authorities of the state of Western Australia have now offered a reward of one million Australian dollars (around 640,000 euros) for information on the whereabouts of the child.

BILD

I really hope they find her.

[sal]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -back.html

Cleo's mum bursts into tears in new interview as she reveals her last moments with missing toddler, shares a message she wants EVERYONE to hear - and responds to online conspiracy theories
Cleo Smith's devastated mother has burst into tears during TV interview
Ellie Smith shared a message for Cleo saying 'I love you... and want you home'
She also had a message for Cleo's abductor: 'Just give her back to us'
Friends and family of Cleo's slammed heartless trolls for spreading theories
Police say Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon are not suspects in Cleo's disappearance
By LEVI PARSONS and CHARLOTTE KARP FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

PUBLISHED: 15:49, 25 October 2021 | UPDATED: 22:10, 25 October 2021


Cleo Smith's devastated mother burst into tears during a TV interview as she urged anyone with information on the missing toddler to call police because 'we want our daughter back and she wants us'.

Wiping away tears, Ellie Smith shared a message for Cleo when she spoke to Channel Seven's Flashpoint program - 10 days after the four-year-old vanished from Blowholes campsite near Carnarvon on the north-west coast of WA.

'I love you,' the distraught mother said with Cleo's stepfather Jake Gliddon by her side. 'We miss you and we want you home.'

[Alibongo]

My heart sank when I read about this little girl I knew it wouldn't be long before the finger pointing started.

[Winter]

My heart sank when I read about this little girl I knew it wouldn't be long before the finger pointing started.

Me too
Really wish they would stop referring to these missing children with Madeleine's name. It shows no respect to these children in their own right, nor Madeleine.

[sal]

Saddos with nothing better to do

A friend of the family, who did not wish to be named, and was exposed to the flurry of hatred, told the West Australian the insensitive and hurtful posts were an 'utter disgrace'.

'Most of the Facebook comments are being made by parents themselves and I think that's disgusting,' he said.

'Just imagine if it happened to them and they had to read all these horrible comments during undoubtedly the hardest time of their lives.

'The police have cleared Jake and Ellie from being suspects. I have known them for years and I can tell you they are the best people I know and my heart aches for them.

'They did not have anything to do with this and those sitting behind their keyboards should just leave this poor family alone.'

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-31/ ... /100577156

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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16615465/ ... -vanished/

[Alibongo]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... i=10158313

I'm lost for words what incredible news.
Those fingers pointing nasties need to crawl back under their stones now.

[Pedro]

CLEO Smith has been FOUND alive and well in a locked house after weeks of frantic searching for the tot

[jjbd]

Great news - what a relief for her and her family

[jjbd]

by Verdi 23.10.21 16:32
If you watch the video footage again there is no meaning, no feeling, no expression, no emotion - the woman can't even feign distress.

She talks roughly about the lay-out of the tent, there was a divider, Cleo was sleeping where the zipper tent entrance was.

So many parallels with Kate McCann's version of events and her use of language, I'll wager the mother has been watching the case very carefully in preparation of her debut before the camera.

This case stinks.

NO verdi - it is YOU that stinks.

[jjbd]

by PeterMac 19.10.21 12:16
Now watch the video of the "Emotional Appeal".

Quick wide of an imaginary tear, then smiling and grinning. Boyfriend / new husband playing NO Part and not even looking at her. Arms folded tight across his chest.

[jjbd]

She said 'My name is Cleo',"

[Carana]

Girl who vanished from Australian campsite found alive in locked house close to home

By Hilary Whiteman, Angus Watson and Samantha Beech, CNN

Updated 0748 GMT (1548 HKT) November 3, 2021

(CNN)Just after midnight Wednesday, police in Western Australia broke down the door of a locked home in the small town of Carnarvon, ending an extensive 18-day search for a missing 4-year-old girl.
A police video caught the moment an officer picked up the child and asked her, "What's your name? The girl replied, "My name is Cleo," according to police.

Cleo Smith's rescue came more than two weeks after she disappeared from her family's tent at a remote campsite at Quobba Blowholes, a popular tourist spot on the coast, around 950 kilometers (590 miles) north of Perth.

Her disappearance triggered a massive police search that initially covered several square kilometers around the site and later extended nationwide as alerts were issued for sightings of the girl.

On Wednesday, police said evidence had led them to that specific home, a short drive from the family residence where her distraught parents had spent weeks anxiously waiting for updates about the police investigation.

"We were looking for a needle in a haystack and we found it, that led us to what happened at 12:46 a.m. this morning," Deputy Police Commissioner Col Blanch told 6PR radio.

Officers entered the locked home and found Cleo alone in one of the rooms, Blanch said. "When she said 'My name is Cleo,' I don't think there was a dry eye in the house," he added.

"I have seen seasoned detectives openly crying with relief. I am speechless which is very rare ... this is something we all hoped in our hearts, and it has come true."

Cleo's mother, Ellie Smith, who had issued tearful pleas for help in finding her child, posted to Instagram: "Our family is whole again."

A 36-year-old local man with "no family connection" is in police custody, WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson told ABC Radio Perth. He was not in the house at the time of the raid, Blanch said, and is currently being questioned. Police don't suspect anyone else of being involved, they said.

Cleo disappeared in the early hours of October 16 from the family's tent at a campsite near the Blowholes, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of the home in Carnarvon.

They'd arrived the night before on their first camping trip as a family of four. Around 8 p.m. Cleo settled in for the night in a sleeping bag, lying just feet away from her mother, stepfather and baby sister, police said.
Smith said Cleo had woken at 1:30 a.m. and asked her for a drink of water before going back to sleep. When Smith woke again at 6 a.m., Cleo was gone.

As police swarmed to the scene, helicopters and drones scanned the rugged landscape near the campsite, a short walk from the coast where waves smash up against the cliffs.

Justin Borg, from Coral Coast Helicopter Services, deployed a team to scan the area -- they ended up searching for three days. He described the sandy hills as slow-moving terrain, the type of ground that made walking slow and difficult: "It's soft sand and prickly underfoot," he said.

"When we hadn't found her by the first hour or two, then we were automatically thinking that she's been taken," Borg added.

Coral Coast Helicopter Services scanned the coast for three days in the search for Cleo Smith. Credit: Coral Coast Helicopter Services

Cleo's sleeping bag was also missing and the zip on the tent was at such a height that police surmised she had been abducted.

Smith and her partner, Jake Gliddon, made public appeals for help to find their child.

"Everyone asks us what you need -- all we really need is our little girl home," said Smith, who described her daughter as beautiful and delicate with "the biggest heart."

"Every day she wants to wear a princess dress," she said. "She's so sweet -- everything you'd want in a little girl."


$1 million reward
Less than one week into the search, the Western Australia government offered a reward of 1 million Australian dollars ($750,000) for information leading to Cleo's discovery.

Information poured in, including more than 200 reports of possible sightings of the girl, none of which were confirmed to be Cleo. Hours of CCTV and dashcam footage was uploaded to the police website for analysis.

Meanwhile, a massive campaign was building online to find Cleo.

If that was my child I would want someone to do the exact same thing

Evelyn Fowkes, Bring Cleo Smith Home Facebook site

Volunteers running the Facebook site Bring Cleo Smith Home called businesses to request stickers, flyers and posters showing Cleo's face. About 50,000 were printed and plastered throughout Carnarvon and across the state.

Evelyn Fowkes, a mother in Perth who has never met the family, started the Facebook page to take pressure off Cleo's mother, who was being bombarded with messages. Soon Fowkes was joined by a team of volunteer admins and moderators, mostly mothers, who worked to keep Cleo's case in the public eye.
The page now has more than 65,000 members worldwide, including in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.

"If that was my child I would want someone to do the exact same thing," Fowkes said.

Ashleigh Flynn, who worked as a volunteer admin from the other side of the country in Brisbane, said the team was overwhelmed by the news Cleo had been found: "We're just in shock, so many tears of joy. And I think Australia's crying with us."

Cleo was last seen sleeping in a red and black sleeping bag and was wearing a pink/purple one-piece sleep-suit with a blue and yellow pattern.

Cleo was last seen sleeping in a red and black sleeping bag and was wearing a pink/purple one-piece sleep-suit with a blue and yellow pattern.

The investigation
Throughout the investigation, police said they had no suspects and repeatedly ruled out Cleo's family as having any involvement in her disappearance.

One of the few leads came from witnesses who reported seeing a car heading south on the main road from the campsite to Carnarvon at around 3 a.m. on the day Cleo disappeared. Police urged the driver or occupants of the vehicle to come forward. As of Tuesday, police hadn't revealed if they had found that car.

Earlier this week, police sorted through hundreds of bags of trash collected from roadside bins north and south of the campsite where Cleo went missing. Officers also started visiting homes in the Carnarvon area, looking for any sign of the girl.

Officers collected more than 50 cubic metres of trash from roadside bins as far north as Minilya to as far south as Geraldton.

Officers collected more than 50 cubic metres of trash from roadside bins as far north as Minilya to as far south as Geraldton.

WA Police Minister Paul Papalia told reporters Wednesday Cleo's rescue was the result of "hard police grind" -- not a tip-off or a single suspicious event.

Over 18 days, police gathered masses of evidence, including interviews, CCTV footage, phone data and 1,000 calls from people offering information that once analyzed pointed in the direction of the house.
Detective Senior Sergeant Cameron Blaine was one of four officers who entered the single-story house with a search warrant just after midnight Wednesday and found Cleo in a bedroom.

"To see her sitting there in the way that she was was incredible," Blaine told reporters.
"I just wanted to be absolutely sure it was her, so I said, 'What's your name?'" he said.

I just wanted to be absolutely sure it was her, so I said, 'What's your name?'

Cameron Blaine, WA Police

Blaine said he asked her the same question three times before she answered, then once satisfied they had found Cleo, police took her outside to their car and called her parents. A family liaison officer passed on the news that she'd be found with the words: "We've got someone here who wants to speak to you."
"It was a wonderful feeling to be able to make that call," Blaine said.

Xanthe Mallett, a criminologist from the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, said Cleo's recovery after so long was "extraordinary" and that the chances of finding a missing child after a suspected abduction by a stranger were "very low."

"When a child goes missing, especially after this length of time, everyone was thinking the worst, and it's just such an amazing outcome," she said.

Mallett said Western Australia Police appeared to be closing in on Cleo earlier this week by releasing only small and apparently strategic amounts of information to the public.

A sign offering a $1 million reward for information on missing girl Cleo Smith on a digital tower in Yagan Square in Perth, on October 30.

"They were using public support and the pressure that they were leveraging through the media, to put pressure on people or maybe around the offender who may have known something," she said.
Police said it was unlikely anyone would claim the million dollar reward, as Cleo's rescue was the result of painstaking work by the police.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan said he received a message from the state's police commissioner in the middle of the night informing him Cleo had been found. He also sent an image of Cleo sitting in a hospital bed, smiling, McGowan added.

"This is great news and uplifting for the entire country and especially for those people who put their heart and soul into finding little Cleo," McGowan said. "And I know they're so proud and pleased of what has been achieved."

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the news as "wonderful" on his official Twitter account. "What wonderful, relieving news," he said. "Cleo Smith has been found and is home safe and sound. Our prayers answered. Thank you to the many police officers involved in finding Cleo and supporting her family."

Anusha Rathi contributed to this report.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/02/amer ... index.html

[Alibongo]

My eyes sprung a leak when I heard she'd been found.

[jjbd]

by Jill Havern Today at 8:46
I wonder what'll happen to the $87,000 dollars that was raised on the GoFundMe page?

Does it go back to the donors?

They should take advise from amaral - he is the expert in GoFundMe scams.

[Whiterose]

Wow so happy when I read the news this morning SHE'S ALIVE!1.

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There is much more to come out here.

Enter dubious weather reports - doctored last photo - and disregard any witness identifications.

[jjbd]

There is much more to come out here.

Enter dubious weather reports - doctored last photo - and disregard any witness identifications.

Shannon Matthews

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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16623687/ ... und-alive/

GIVES US HOPE' Madeleine McCann’s parents ‘have hope’ they will find missing daughter after Cleo Smith found alive and well

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How police KNEW Cleo Smith's parents were innocent from the start despite bugging their phones after the four-year-old's mysterious campsite 'abduction'
Rescued Cleo Smith's mum and step-dad subjected to unfounded allegations
WA Police confidently eliminated Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon as suspects
Police understood to have cleared parents after routine surveillance of them
They tapped their phones to watch out for an incriminating comments or calls
But they quickly became confident the couple were definitely not involved
By PETER VINCENT FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

PUBLISHED: 14:43, 3 November 2021 | UPDATED: 16:26, 3 November 2021

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A key part of the extraordinary investigation that led to the rescue of Cleo Smith was the clearing of her parents from any suspicion of guilt, after police monitored the couple and tapped their phones before concluding they were definitely not involved.

After the four-year-old went missing in highly unusual circumstances from her mum and step father's tent while camping in Western Australia on October 16, suspicion unfairly - but inevitably - fell on them.

Initially, police said they 'weren't ruling anything out' in relation to her bizarre disappearance, which took place in the middle of the night with nothing but a few shaky leads.

Read More

But authorities, and even the West Australian Premier, Mark McGowan, definitively ruled out Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon as suspects after intense surveillance in the midst of epic investigations that will go down in police folklore.

Cleo was rescued from a Carnarvon home on Wednesday before 1am in what is being regarded as a world-leading operation, bursting through a door and finding the little girl sat alone in a room playing with toys.

A key part of police's extraordinary investigations that led to them rescuing the abducted Cleo Smith was the definitive dismissal of her parents (pictured) from any suspicion of guilt +12
A key part of police's extraordinary investigations that led to them rescuing the abducted Cleo Smith was the definitive dismissal of her parents (pictured) from any suspicion of guilt

Cleo was rescued from a Carnarvon home on Wednesday before 1am in what is being regarded as a world-first operation - much to the delight of her mother (pictured, her Instagram post after the little girl was found) +12
Cleo was rescued from a Carnarvon home on Wednesday before 1am in what is being regarded as a world-first operation - much to the delight of her mother (pictured, her Instagram post after the little girl was found)

Police were confident early on that Cleo's mum and step-father (pictured with the four-year-old) were innocent of any wrongdoing +12
Police were confident early on that Cleo's mum and step-father (pictured with the four-year-old) were innocent of any wrongdoing

A 36-year-old Carnarvon man, with no connection to the family, is in custody and due to face charges over her alleged abduction.

So how and why were Cleo's parents definitively cleared before she was even found?

It is understood that as soon as Cleo disappeared, West Australian police began extensive surveillance on the parents.

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That involved WA Police tapping the phone calls of Ms Smith and Mr Gliddon for any conversations that might suggest guilt or show an inconsistency in their story - neither of which ever materialised.

The surveillance is believed to have been standard procedure.

Authorities are also understood to have monitored the anguished couple for suspicious remarks and behaviour, partly through ongoing interviews and contact with them.

Police often ask persons of interest in a major crime investigation the same questions several times in different ways in an effort to find inconsistencies in their stories.

Ms Smith and Mr Gliddon were understood to have been rock solid in their accounts and squeaky clean in all observed conversations.

By the second week of the investigations, with hope fading and trolls beginning to point the finger at the parents, authorities were convinced they bore no guilt and were hiding nothing.

'We want to make it clear — they are not suspects in this investigation. They have been helping us,' the lead investigator, Detective Superintendent Rod Wilde, said last week.

On Monday, Mr McGowan took the unusual step of publicly defending Ms Smith and Mr Gliddon.

The first picture of Cleo Smith, safe and sound in hospital, after she was rescued from a house in Carnarvon, in northwest Western Australia, where she was held for 18 days +12
The first picture of Cleo Smith, safe and sound in hospital, after she was rescued from a house in Carnarvon, in northwest Western Australia, where she was held for 18 days

Lead investigator, Detective Superintendent Rod Wilde (pictured) said publicly that Ms Smith and Mr Gliddons were not suspects last week +12
Lead investigator, Detective Superintendent Rod Wilde (pictured) said publicly that Ms Smith and Mr Gliddons were not suspects last week

So confident were authorities that Cleo's anguished parents were not involved that WA Premier Mark McGowan (pictured) went public to defend them +12
So confident were authorities that Cleo's anguished parents were not involved that WA Premier Mark McGowan (pictured) went public to defend them

They say the most horrible and shocking things that they'd never say otherwise. I just urge them to stop,' Mr McGowan said.

He added those who hurled anonymous insults online were nothing but cowards and there needed to be a return to treating people with decency and respect - particularly in a case like this where people were distraught.

Since Cleo vanished from her family's campsite, social media sleuths filled online forums with conspiracy theories falsely claiming that the girl's parents were involved - despite detectives making clear early on they were not being treated as suspects.

Within minutes of the news breaking she had been found on Wednesday, people flocked online to denounce those who pointed the finger at Cleo's mum Ellie Smith and step dad Jake Gliddon - demanding they issue the parents an apology.


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How Cleo Smith's alleged abductor was 'obsessed with dolls and created social media profiles of his imaginary family' – as confronting photos emerge of blacked out windows on his derelict house