Australian Police have released an emotional recording of the moment they burst into a house and found missing four-year-old Cleo Smith sitting on the floor of a bedroom.
‘We’ve got her, we’ve got her,’ an officer says before asking the child what her name is.
When there is no immediate response, he asks again: ‘What’s your name sweetheart?’
‘M-My name is Cleo,’ the little girl says in a trembling voice.
‘Your name is Cleo,’ the relieved officer tells her.
‘You’re alright, bubby.’
Cleo disappeared from her family’s tent at a campsite in Western Australia on October 16, triggering a massive search.
She was found alone inside a room in a locked house two weeks later after police carried out a raid in the early hours of Wednesday morning, when a 36-year-old man was also arrested.
The house was about a six minutes’ drive away from Cleo’s family address in Carnarvon.
Authorities say the man in custody has no connection to the Smith family. He is expected to be charged this afternoon.Detective Sergeant Cameron Blaine, one of the officers who found her, said Cleo was alert and aware at the time she was rescued.
The lights had been on in the house and she had been playing with toys.
He told reporters of his joy and relief to find the child alive and well.
‘It was amazing to see her behave like a normal four-year-old child would,’ he said.
He added that he had been to see Cleo since her rescue and she had been ‘bubbly and laughing’ and playing in her backyard.
‘She was eating an icy pole, she told me it was very sticky to eat, she was just delightful.’
Police added that the family would be counselled on the next steps in the probe.
Detective Wilde said they had experts who would interview Cleo, cautioning that it had to be done very carefully and that it could take days before they were able to get any information from her.
Cleo’s disappearance generated huge media attention, with some comparing it to that of Madeleine McCann who disappeared from holiday accommodation in Portugal in 2007.
Police had offered a A$1,000,000 (£543,000) reward for information about the child’s whereabouts.
She had last been seen in her family’s tent at the remote Blowholes Shacks campsite, roughly 560 miles north of Perth, at around 1.30am on Saturday October 16.
But she had vanished by the time her parents woke up at 6.30am.
As part of the investigation, officers collected more than 50 cubic metres of rubbish from roadside bins to hunt for clues that might lead to Cleo.
Detectives said they were led to the house by forensic leads as well as phone data.
‘It’s a big jigsaw, you know, everything contributed, certainly phone data helped us and that will come apparent,’ said D
eputy Police Commissioner Col Blanch.‘But there were lots of things, that when we put the puzzle together it all led to one place, and that’s where we found .’
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