Cleo Smith: Search for 'Aussie Madeleine McCann' as public told to check bins for missing girl, 4

This video ^^^ highlights a very important factor as regards interpretation .... 'bias'.

In short, you can find anything to support your argument if you look hard enough but evidence of selective research is invariably overlooked in favour of self-interest.

In the case of missing Madeleine McCann I've seen hundreds of examples of people across social media scratching around looking for that quotation or video footage to confirm guilt. no matter how inconsequential, with little or no regard for the method of presentation, such as editing and selective text which is taken out of context.

'Did you kill your daughter' .... 'no, and that's an emphatic no' being a prime example !!!

Children go missing every day of every week of every month of every year, they seldom command attention outside of those directly involved.  

Add the name Madeleine McCann to any missing child case and you can be sure of instant notoriety. closely followed by the inevitable trial by media, the bias!  The armchair detective desperately trying to find that sign of guilt.

Thanks to Gerry and Kate McCann - consider yourselves 21st century Frankensteins.  You've created a monster.

Still, it's a good marketing ploy.

Vera Krista,

Can I respectfully ask that you stop copying articles over to the forum and using the centre edit format.  It makes it very difficult to read.

Also at the foot of your last post ^^^ there is a big black hole what's it supposed to be?

Verdi wrote:Vera Krista,

Can I respectfully ask that you stop copying articles over to the forum and using the centre edit format.  It makes it very difficult to read.

Also at the foot of your last post ^^^ there is a big black hole what's it supposed to be?

I inserted the Daily Mail link. OK I won't centralise it.

Thankee very much.

Where is the Daily Mail link?

Cleo Smith Go Fund Me page raises $75,000 of $5000 goal as mum Ellie says thanks

https://7news.com.au/news/wa/cleo-smith-go-fund-me-page-raises-75000-of-5000-goal-as-mum-ellie-says-thanks-c-4340464

Strike that last post of mine, think I've found it for meself..



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10143165/Cleo-Smith-Carnarvon-disappearance-Police-finally-reveal-timeline-day-vanished.html

Inside the search for Australia's 'Madeleine McCann' as girl, 4, feared abducted

Cleo Smith went missing from her tent at a campsite two weeks ago and no trace of her has so far been found in a case that has been compared to the disappearance of 'Madeleine McCann'

Cleo Smith has now been missing for two weeks as police continue to appeal for information

ByTim Hanlon

06:50, 30 Oct 2021

Friends of a missing girl's family have told how they joined the initial search for the missing toddler hoping she was just playing a game before realising she was probably abducted.

The initial search for four-year-old Cleo Smith, who has now been missing for two weeks, involved close friends after she disappeared from the Blowholes campsite near Carnarvon, Australia.

It is a case that has shocked the country and is being compared to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Cleo’s mum Ellie had discovered that the toddler was missing from the tent around 6am and that was when the search got underway on October 16.


Cleo's mum Ellie noticed she was missing around 6am in the morning and started the search ( Image:
Facebook)

The conditions with remote terrain meant it was difficult to search the area with some people using quad bikes and even a drone.

Police now believe that Cleo must have been abducted as it would be strange for a four-year-old to wander very far. On top of the fact that her sleeping bag also has vanished with her.

A friend of the family is hoping that Cleo will still turn up safe and sound.

"And we were still in hope that she was just kind of coming out of a hiding spot," one friend told The West Australian.


The search has been made a lot more complicated by the remoteness of the location ( Image:
WA Police)

"I mean, we've got to just hope that she shows up and that she came home in the end. I mean, you can't lose hope otherwise you start to lose yourself."

Police have said they were at the campsite less than an hour after Cleo was found to be not in the tent by her mum.

A call was logged at 6.23am by Ellie to say that her daughter was missing - almost straight away - despite having initially felt that she spent hours looking for Cleo first.

"Police arrived at 7.10am and by 7.26am set up a protected site," revealed Det Superintendent Rob Wilde.

Then by 11am homicide detectives were at the scene and searches were taking place of cars at the campsite.

Det Supt Wilde said that police had responded to around 200 possible sightings of Cleo around the country but none have been the little girl.

"Unfortunately all of those have proved unfruitful," Mr Wilde said.

"That's been national as well, other policing jurisdictions have helped us and followed those leads through for us, so we're very grateful for that."

Police are still appealing for information and believe she was abducted but they have no suspects yet.

They are trying to gather more information over a car that left the campsite at about 3am with its tyres heard to be screeching.

More than 100 visitors to the Blowholes campsite so far have been interviewed.

"We do however believe there are still other campers that were staying in that Blowholes vicinity who we have not yet identified," he said.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/inside-search-australias-madeleine-mccann-25334580

Criminal 'profilers' psychologists can be more trouble than they're worth. I sense another Discovery+ documentary in the making..

Major twist in hunt for missing Cleo Smith as expert claims police are 'close to cracking the case' – and reveals the genius reason detectives are withholding information from the public

Criminal psychologist says police closer to finding Cleo Smith than public thinks
Tim Watson-Munro suggested detectives could be withholding information
He added it was a strategy to avoid giving people 'red flags' during investigation
The four-year-old has now been missing for two weeks from Western Australia
Police say all 200 reported sightings were tragically false alarms in investigation
But they urge the public to continue reporting any information they may have

By Miriah Davis For Daily Mail Australia and Aidan Wondracz For Daily Mail Australia and Brittany Chain For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 07:39, 30 October 2021 | Updated: 11:40, 30 October 2021

A criminal psychologist has suggested police could be closer to cracking the case of missing Cleo Smith than the public may believe.

The four-year-old vanished from the Blowholes campground near Carnarvon in the early morning of October 16.

As the search for little Cleo reaches its second week, detectives are in a race against time to locate her whereabouts before the trail runs cold.

Criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro said police were throwing every available resource into the investigation and claimed they could be close to cracking the case.

'I think they probably know more than they are letting on,' Mr Watson-Munro told Sunrise on Saturday.

'It could be a ruse to flush out other people who think they are not in the frame at the moment.'

He added police could be strategically withholding certain information from the public, to prevent giving people 'red flags' about the ongoing investigation.

Earlier, family friends opened up on the first few hours of the frantic search for missing Cleo and the hopes the four-year-old was just playing hide and seek.

They were among the first to join a search party on the day her mother discovered she was missing from her tent.

One friend said they launched a drone to search the surrounding inhospitable terrain while others jumped on quad bikes.

The search party was weighed down by a terrible feeling of shock at the sudden disappearance but also hope that Cleo would suddenly reappear.

'And we were still in hope that she was just kind of coming out of a hiding spot,' one friend told The West Australian.

I mean, we've got to just hope that she shows up and that she came home in the end. I mean, you can't lose hope otherwise you start to lose yourself.'

Cleo had been sleeping in a family tent with her mother Ellie, 18-month-old sister Isla and stepdad Jake Gliddon when she disappeared with her sleeping bag.

The family friend recalled a shaken and distraught Ellie trying to comfort Isla while the family joined the search.

Cleo's uncle was also among the search party who arrived at the campground around the same time as the family friend.

They claimed the uncle frantically overtook them while driving on the road in order to reach the campground and begin searching as soon as possible.

'So he overtook me when we got on the bitumen,' they said.

'I don't think anyone gave a f*** if they got caught by police. There's a bigger fish to fry than giving everyone a fine that's trying to find Cleo.'

The family friend said hope of finding the little girl was slowly beginning to fade before it was replaced by a much more sinister fear.

Police now believe that Cleo had been abducted from the family tent she was sleeping in on the night she vanished.

The friend claimed they had early suspicions as it was unlikely a four-year-old girl would be able to walk very far on her own through the surrounding rugged terrain.

They also hit back at trolls who have pointed the finger at the family for the sudden disappearance - even though police have ruled out the mother and stepfather as suspects.

'How many times have the police and media said that the parents aren't suspects? Countless times, but people still don't believe them,' they said.

'Ellie and Jake would do anything for anyone. They love, as parents do, their kids.'

Police have revealed they were on the scene less than an hour after Cleo Smith's mother woke up and found her four-year-old missing.

On Friday morning local time (2pm AEST), Detective Superintendent Rob Wilde revealed Ellie first called 000 at 6.23am - despite initial reports she searched the campground for hours before police arrived.

'Police arrived at 7.10am and by 7.26am set up a protected site,' he revealed.

Inspector Jon Munday initially told the public police arrived 'about mid-morning' at the scene, but this was proven incorrect on Friday.

By 11am, homicide detectives had been sent to the area and police were already searching cars in and out of the campsite.

'Those police did a really good and thorough job,' Mr Wilde said.

Police were unable to check inside many of the shacks immediately because most were bolted shut with padlocks.

Mr Wilde also explained away the lapse in time before detectives searched the family home in Carnarvon, citing the need for 'priorities' in a case as far reaching as Cleo's.

'Our priority was at Blowholes and in the tent,' he said. 'We knew from what Ellie and Jake had told us that she went missing from the campsite', so the home was not considered a priority.

It comes after it was revealed detectives in the 100-strong taskforce had responded to 200 potential sightings of Cleo in the two weeks since she disappeared.

'Unfortunately all of those have proved unfruitful,' Mr Wilde said.

'That's been national as well, other policing jurisdictions have helped us and followed those leads through for us, so we're very grateful for that.'

They're still desperately trying to find Cleo's sleeping bag.

While none of the leads have been accurate yet, he is still calling on the public to continue searching for Cleo and reporting any potentially useful information.

Police initially believed Cleo simply wandered off at the remote campsite, but are now convinced she was snatched in the dead of night by a child predator.

Investigators scoured the area, conducting sea, air and land searches, but there was no sign of the missing child and police admit they have no 'concrete' suspects.

Superintendent Wilde said more than 100 campers who stayed at the Blowholes site have been interviewed by police.

'We do however believe there are still other campers that were staying in that Blowholes vicinity who we have not yet identified,' he said.

Detectives have 'fully reviewed past incidents' that have been reported at the site after Daily Mail Australia revealed a mother complained in 2014 of a 'man in his 40s trying to lure her daughter to his car'.

The girl's distressed mother lodged a complaint with police at the time, warning the man asked her daughter to 'go for a drive in his car' but she refused and ran back to her family.

In the attempted abduction from 2014, the little girl wasn't able to provide a thorough description of the man's appearance, and it appears nothing ever came of the police report.

But she shared the post publicly hoping to warn other parents who might bring their children to the area, adding it would be a 'good time to remind our precious ones of stranger danger'.

Mr Wilde said all previous complaints had been investigated and that nothing of a similar nature had been reported recently.

Police are also still scrambling to find a car witnesses say was travelling in the vicinity at the same time where Cleo disappeared.

The vehicle was turning south off Blowholes Road, near the area Cleo's family was camping, and headed for Carnarvon.

The timing of the car sighting coincides with evidence from other campers that they heard the sound of screeching tyres rapidly leaving the campsite about 3am.



The witnesses were travelling north on the North West Coastal Highway on their way to work when they spotted the mysterious car leaving the camping ground.

They were unable to give a description of the car or how many people were inside as it was too dark.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday revealed the Australian Federal Police are using sophisticated technologies to help track Cleo down.

Without getting into specifics, he said there are options available to the officers globally that could bring Cleo home.

According to Australian National University astrophysicist Brad Tucker, Mr Morrison could be referring to satellite data that might've captured key moments from the campground on the night Cleo disappeared.

'The high resolution ones, you're a bit more limited, so they're not going to be overhead at every single point – every half a day, sure, but not every hour or minute,' he told WAToday.

'If they think there was something during the day at the campsite that was present on the day Cleo went missing, such as a car, they may be trying to use satellite imagery to track down a timeline.

'There is a strong chance they may have gotten something, it may not have been the highest resolution, but it could have been something.'

Timeline of events the day Cleo's family realise she's missing

About 6am: Ellie Smith wakes up and realises Cleo and her sleeping bag are missing.

6.23am — Ellie calls 000 to report her eldest daughter missing as she continues to search the camp ground.

6.30am — The first two officers are dispatched from Carnarvon police station. They travel to Blowholes as a matter of priority, with sirens and lights.

6.41am — A second police car with another two officers is sent to Blowholes, also with lights and sirens.

7.10am — The first police car arrives. The second is only minutes behind.

7.26am — Police on the scene establish a protected forensic area which is taped off to the public, surrounding the family tent where Cleo was last seen.

7.33am — A drone operator is called upon to search from the skies.

7.44am — A third police car is dispatched to the Blowholes.

8am — Family and friends of Cleo's parents begin to arrive to help with the ground search.

Another group of detectives briefly searches Cleo's home to make sure she's not there. They then head to Blowholes and begin stopping cars coming into and leaving the area.

8.09am — A helicopter from a local company arrived at the scene and started searching as police request an SES team attend the Blowholes search.

8.24am - Police airwing and volunteer marine searchers are called in to assist with the search.

8.34am — Roadblocks are set up at the entrance of Blowholes as detectives gather the names, registration details and addresses of people coming and going. Police search cars.

9.25am — Nine SES personel arrive at the Blowholes to assist with the search.

9.30am — Detectives sit down with a distressed Ellie and remain by her side for the rest of the day while other search crews hunt for Cleo.

11am — Homicide detectives from the Major Crime Division are called and begin travelling from Perth to assist with the search.

1pm — More homicide detectives and search experts are flown in from Perth.

3pm — Officers and search experts arrive in Carnarvon to offer their expertise.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10146955/Criminal-psychologist-Tim-Watson-Munro-claims-WA-police-close-cracking-case-Cleo-Smith.html
.

NationalWestern Australia

Mystery of Cleo Smith disappearance deepens

Police fear four-year-old Cleo Smith was abducted from her family’s tent as they search for clues about her mysterious disappearance.

Sarah Sharples - October 30, 2021 - 6:54PM

[Video]

It’s been more than 14 days since Western Australian girl Cleo Smith vanished from the tent where her parents and baby sister were also sleeping. Her disappearance remains a mystery.

The four-year-old has vanished without a trace after her mum Ellie Smith woke at 6am to find her missing on Saturday, October 16.

The last time her mother saw the little girl was at 1.30am when she asked for a drink of water. The family’s tent was set up at a remote campsite at the Blowholes, which is almost 10 hours away from Perth.

Her sleeping bag was missing and the entrance to the tent was unzipped to a height that the young girl could not have reached to let herself out - signs she may have been abducted in the middle of the night.

How the day unfolded

When Cleo’s parents discovered her missing, they conducted a frantic search of the campsite before making a Triple 0 call at 6.23am.

Seven minutes later police were dispatched, arriving at the campsite at around 7.10am, with a drone requested at 7.30am.

A roadblock was set up at 8.34am to the entrance to the Blowholes camp and the site was cordoned off about two hours after the police arrived.

Homicide were detectives were sent to the scene later that day.

Since then police have conducted numerous land, air and sea searches in one of the biggest hunts in WA history.

They have also forensically examined the family home in Carnarvon for further clues about Cleo’s disappearance, including dusting windows and doors for fingerprints and taking away brown paper bags.

Her family are not considered suspects by police.

They have not returned to their modest home. It’s too painful to be there without Cleo.

The little girl’s scooter still sits out the front of the house.

The WA government has offered a $1 million reward to help solve the case and there has been a nationwide appeal calling on the public to help.

There are now 100 members of Taskforce Rodia, which was set up in the wake of Cleo’s disappearance. But heartbreakingly, there are still no signs of Cleo, with fears she could be anywhere in Australia by now.

Mysterious car

The Blowholes is in such a remote part of the country that there is only one sealed road into the area, which comes off the North West Coastal Highway and ends at the campsite.

Police are searching for a car that was spotted in the darkness by two men - apparently heading to work - and have appealed for the driver to come forward.

It was seen turning right off Blowholes Rd onto North West Coastal Hwy, heading towards Carnarvon, between 3am and 3.30am the day Cleo disappeared. The description given was of a passenger vehicle, such as a sedan or wagon.

Police have repeatedly indicated the person may not be a suspect but may have relevant information. But it’s been a week since the appeal and no one has come forward.

CCTV footage from a Rio Tinto mine site and nutrition business along the Blowholes Road have given no more clues about the car and who was in it.

Disturbingly, there are a number of dirt roads and trails where someone could disappear without being seen and police have indicated they are looking into them.

A back way out of the campsite is also being investigated by police.

Despite collecting CCTV from across the state there have been no solid leads for police.

Carvarvon locals have rallied around the young family, with missing child posters and stickers flooding the town on business doors, as well as people’s cars.


Carnarvon locals help in the search for Cleo Smith. Picture: ABC News

No suspects

Lead investigator Detective Superintendent Rod Wilde confirmed on Friday that police did not have any suspects “at this stage” in the mysterious case.

He flew into the town on Thursday to meet with Cleo’s parents and to tour the campsite, revealing 100 people at the Blowholes on the day of the girl’s disappearance had been interviewed, but they still had others to find.

There’s also been 200 reported sightings of Cleo, but all have led to nothing.

Superintendent Wilde also confirmed police were reviewing past reports of approaches to children in the area amid rumours of prior predatory behaviour.

Meanwhile, the Blowholes campsite has reopened this week and some caravans are parked at the site, while a few people have pitched their tent in the remote area.

Cleo’s mum shared a reward poster for her little girl just two days ago on Instagram and urged people to call Crimestoppers with any information at all.

The key times on Saturday, October 16:

Just before 6.30am the first car with two officers was sent to the scene under priority two, with lights and sirens going, arriving at 7.10am;

6.41am a second vehicle was sent, followed by a third at 7.44am;

7.26am a protected forensic area was set up at the scene;

7.33am police requested a drone operator attend;

8am some family and friends arrived to help with the search. Meanwhile, detectives visited the family home, then went to the Blowholes and began stopping vehicles close to the search area;

8.09am a local company helicopter arrived to help with the search;

8.11am SES team requested and they arrived just over an hour later;

8.24am Inspector Jon Munday arranged to leave Geraldton to take command in Carnarvon. Police air wing and volunteer search and rescue were also contacted;

8.34am police set up a roadblock at the Blowholes;

9.30am detectives sat with Ms Smith and remained with her all day; and

11am homicide detectives were deployed.

https://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/disburbing-clues-about-cleo-smiths-fate-police-fear-she-was-abducted/news-story/8571b6961500a991aaf171b0f8380bbb

Seems to me a strange place to take very young children for a holiday - even camping.

Still, nowt like folk.

This seems to be the new Tent that they were using. 

The Coleman range comes complete with internal strip lights which are Battery powered. It seems the Campsite costs $11 a night, payable and bookable online. Not all Campers had registered however.





Adult Sleeping bag and Child Pyjamas to scale.

Police search mountains of rubbish for clues about missing Cleo Smith

By Sarah Swain

10:20pm Nov 1, 2021

Investigators are sifting through piles of rubbish as the desperate search for missing WA girl Cleo Smith continues.

Mountains of rubbish have been collected from roadside bins as far south as Geraldton, more than 500 kilometres from where she vanished, and as far north as Minilya, 165 kilometres away.

The rubbish was packed into two trucks and transported to Perth, where four forensics officials and 20 officers have spent two days sorting through hundreds of bags in an effort to find any items that may offer clues.


Investigators are sifting through piles of rubbish as the desperate search for missing WA girl, Cleo Smith, four, continues. (Supplied)

WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said officers were not giving up.

"We've got thousands of (pieces of) really important information plus of course the thousands of forensic items we've seized, but it's now been 16 days," he said.

"Every day that goes past is most difficult for Cleo's parents and loved ones, obviously we share their concern.

'We never give up hope and it's most important that we remain focussed on the goal and the goal is clearly to find Cleo."

Cleo's mother, Ellie Smith, posted another plea on social media.

"Every day is getting harder without my shining bright light," she said.

"Today she's missed Halloween with her family - her cousins, aunties, uncles, nannas and pop but most of all her parents and baby sister.

"She is loved, she is happy, she loves dressing up whether it be a princess or a doctor.

"I need my baby girl home, please I beg you!"

Detectives were also at the Carnarvon harbour, still tracking down everyone who was near the Blowholes campsite where Cleo disappeared from a tent.


Investigators are sifting through piles of rubbish as the desperate search for missing WA girl, Cleo Smith, four, continues. (Supplied)

Drone operators are mapping a 50 kilometre radius of the remote area.

But still a mystery is whoever drove a car south from Blowholes Road around the time Cleo disappeared.

Having raised almost $90,000, a fundraising page set up by a family friend has now been closed at the request of Cleo's parents.

The money will help pay for the helicopters and search teams, with any leftover going to Ellie and Jake, who have thanked the community for their generosity.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/missing-cleo-smith-wa-police-search-rubbish-perth/d70ef9ef-2867-4857-943d-101b9b8fda45

Cleo Smith search: Police say tent zipper was up too high for girl to have opened herself | 7NEWS

Oct 20, 2021

Any money left over from the go fund me thing is going to Cleo's mother??

I don't go along with crowd funding.

Where cash is floating about, folk develop very sticky fingers - the temptation is too strong to resist.

Easy to say I would never take what's not rightfully mine - never say never.

Verdi wrote:Cleo Smith search: Police say tent zipper was up too high for girl to have opened herself | 7NEWS

Logically it would be too high for a 4 year to open the zipper..  I don't know, maybe it's me thinking like that.

I don't like it, either. I'm suspicious by nature, and imo any 'leftover' - why not spend it all, and 'leave no stone unturned'? - should go to  charities.

If the zipper opens from bottom to top, as I suspect it would, then she would be able to open to her own height, and then as she squeezed through the gap the slider could / might / have moved higher.

Irrelevant.   


And possibly a diversion to take their eyes off the squirrel.  Like high shelves and Tannerman. 

The zips on some sports outfits, like ski jackets and trousers, close with the slider in the DOWN position which sounds counterintuitive until you realise that a day of energetic flexing and falling over might otherwise cause it to sip down from the UP position.
***
My day back-pack has two sliders on the full zip which allows the entire pack to be opened out flat like a Clam.
They should be put together in the lowest DOWN position, or the pack can open unnoticed during the day.

Here is what seems to be the same Tent setup video.

Thanks very much Silentscope, this video goes a long way to explain why Cleo was in the front part of the tent.

The baby was also in the front part of the tent, in a cot next to Cleo.

Now progress has been made re the tent, is there any info on the vehicle(s) the couple were driving?

That's a lot of kit for my family runaround.

So a baby and a four year old were on their own, in an accessible and separate room from their mother?

wrong tent. the model they used had also 2 side entrances/exits as an extra. 

this is the video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNRYzI9oUZ8

Coleman Instant Up 8P Silver Series Tent - Side Entry Walkthrough

most european models would have sleeping spaces aside, most in separate inner tents, i can not see how to let sleep 8 people in this model. maybe on the conservative 60 cm sleeping mats in a row. 

we had a lot of different model tents during many years. i do not know the quality of this tent, but most zippers you could easily open by tucking on the fabric. it is not good for the zippers, but that was exactly what we did when we were children. 

this tent used with the divider, would just make 2 compartments, but each would have a side entrance/exit with their own zipper. so there is not really a front, or back room. 

most people just sleep through the noise of a zipper coming up, or down. it is such a normal sound on a camping ground, it would not alarm anyone. with the sea, wind and nature, it is not a sound that would stand out.