Today, Wednesday, a four-year-old Australian girl was found “safe” in a house, nearly three weeks after she went missing on October 16 while participating in a camp with her parents, police said.
Cleo Smith went missing while with her parents in a camp in Western Australia. The authorities mobilized great capabilities by air, sea and land to search for the girl, with the help of hundreds of policemen.
Police found the girl inside a house locked with keys in Carnavron, near where the girl was seen 18 days ago, police said.
“One of the policemen took her in his arms and asked her what’s your name?”, Assistant Commissioner Cole Blanc said. “My name is Cleo.”
The police, who stormed the house around the first hour after midnight, indicated that they had arrested a man for questioning.
Cleo was later returned to her parents.
“Our family is fully healed,” mum Ellie Smith said in a message she posted on Instagram alongside a picture of her daughter.
She described the desperation she felt when she found out at six in the morning that the family tent was open and her eldest daughter had disappeared.
Her comments sparked a great wave of solidarity across Australia.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police described this rescue operation as “amazing”, saying, “This is very rare, this is something we wished to have from our heart and it has become a reality.”
Police did not give any details about the circumstances of Chloe’s loss, nor how to find her.
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