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

by **crusader** 01.11.21 19:24

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

by **crusader** 01.11.21 19:48

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

by **ShiningInLuz** 01.11.21 20:31

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.

by Guest 01.11.21 20:49

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

by Guest 01.11.21 20:55

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.

by **Silentscope** 01.11.21 21:13

If the Children had been in the back of the Tent, any Abduction would have meant crossing over the Parents twice.

Going in and coming out.

Or someone would have had to cut the back open.

The side entrance Tent version is not the same as that which is now set up in the Police Garage. (See Post [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] up Thread)

The Family vehicle is believed to be a White RODEO pickup.It was on Facebook but the Accounts have been closed due to Trolling.

Here is a Stock Picture of one.

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by **crusader** 01.11.21 21:17

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This is a good photo of the tent with extra doors.

by **crusader** 01.11.21 21:24

by Guest 01.11.21 21:35

it is the same model, the side model has also a door at the front, that picture is just taken from the back.

so nobody had to have taken a route over the bedding of the parents, because this was a model that had two side entrances/exits, the divider is just a loose thin fabric, clipped into the middle.

this is an picture of the tent on the camping, you can see the orange band, where the zipper for the front is under, and the open side entrances/exits.

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look at the placing of the gazebo.

this picture gives the tent from the backside, the side that is shown on your picture.

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the coleman with side entrances is a newer model.

by **Silentscope** 01.11.21 21:37

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It may be it is all the same Tent, but the version has multiple ways of setting it up?

Here is the Coleman tent range link: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by **crusader** 01.11.21 21:44

I wonder how the abductor knew which compartment Cleo was in.

by Guest 01.11.21 22:20

no, it are simply two different models from coleman the silver series had a earlier model with the front entrance.

the zippers will be there in this model, of course it is choice which you use, but there still are zippers on the sides, to open from both compartments. the zippers are there. that has nothing to do with choices.

the first coleman silver series 8p had no side entrances/exits, but just 4 windows , as in 2 on each side.

and if this is the same model, it is even so, that each compartment, had two entrances/exits.

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go with your mouse over the picture for large view, then you are able to look in the back, the zipper in the back is also a door.

so it means , it did not make out, where both children have slept, both compartments had access from two sides. this model does not have a true back or front. and even the divider is just a piece of fabric clipped into the middle of the tent.

so there is no safer option to keep children in this model tent.

for me it is also a non-question, if you have experience with tents, it is silly to think, that it could be hard to get something, or even someone out of a tent. there are no safe tents for that. yes, there are better options in tents to choose, if you do not want to let your children walk out all to easy.

the only question could be, was this child able to open up a zipper and leave on her one. all there is, is from the mother, that the zipper was open to a height cleo could not have reached by her own.

because the police did not find any trace, that cleo left on her own, that option is not out of the investigation, but it is ranked down to far less likely. that part of the investigation has reached its limits by now.
more likely is foul play by person, or persons not known. so that's where the investigation is on for now.

by Vera Krista 02.11.21 9:27

[size=47]Cleo Smith detectives work on opportunistic abduction theory as they track down Blowholes campers[/size]

Detectives are inching closer to identifying every person in the area when Cleo Smith disappeared from a remote WA campsite, and they believe an opportunistic abductor snatched her.
Acting Police Commissioner Col Blanch told ABC Radio police were "getting closer and closer".
"And we've tracked down people that we didn't know, we've found them and we have eliminated them, and that's our focus at the moment — eliminate as many people as possible."
Four-year-old Cleo vanished from her family's tent at the Blowholes campsite, about 80 kilometres north of Carnarvon, in the early hours of October 16.
She was not in the tent when her parents awoke at 6:30am, nor was her sleeping bag, and the tent's zipper had been undone to a height the little girl could not have reached.
Lead investigator Superintendent Rod Wilde told Nine Radio police had interviewed more than 110 people who were at the Blowholes campsite that night and believed there were only a "small handful" of people they had not yet tracked down.
"I think it's more than likely an opportunistic type event," he said.

Police look for ground disturbance

Col Blanch said the forensic work on the ground involved creating a detailed map of every inch of the area, using drones, aircraft, and satellite technology to look for any disturbances in sand and other potential evidence.
"Now we're in a stage where we need to forensically go over that ground inch by inch to see what disturbances might be in nearby areas for any sort of evidence which might give an inkling as to what happened," Acting Commissioner Blanch said.
"It could be tyre tracks, it could be the sleeping bag, it could be anything."
He said police were in the process of securing satellite images captured over the area around that time, and were trawling through thousands of lines of data captured by mobile towers in the area.
"It is an investigative function for police to find out who was in the area at the time and perhaps the direction of movement — so what tower they started connecting to as they moved off."

Alternate escape routes investigated

While there has been focus placed on a mystery car seen turning off the Blowholes Road towards Carnarvon about 3:30am the morning Cleo Smith disappeared, other roads were also being investigated.
Acting Commissioner Col Blanch said there were many dirt roads and other routes which could have allowed an abductor to avoid detection.
"The Quobba Blowholes is a very remote area, you would need vehicles that are capable of doing that, you would be looking for a four-wheel-drive type vehicle," he said.
"But absolutely there are ways to go that aren't on the main road."
While police believe it is likely to have been an opportunistic abduction, Col Blanch said they were yet to rule out the possibility Cleo had been watched or followed at the campsite or even earlier.
"One of the most important things in an investigation like this is to eliminate everyone that was present at the campsite," he said.
"We need to know everyone who was there, and then we work out their movements, what they were doing, we take their DNA, their fingerprints, and that's all for elimination."
"We are left with a group of people that we would put more focus on."

Hard to keep up hope: police

The Acting Commissioner conceded that as time went on, keeping hopes high was not easy.
"It is difficult to keep the hope up, there is no doubt about it, the longer it goes, but I know those investigators are still focused absolutely on this case trying to bring Cleo home," he said.
"This has absolutely hit the heart of everyone in Western Australia, the Australian community, it's gone international.
"This is something we really want to solve, I look at my phone every morning hoping we've got an answer, it hasn't come yet, and I hope it does."
The Acting Commissioner also shed light on the make-up of the 100-officer Taskforce Rodia which is investigating Cleo's disappearance.
"We have nearly 50 officers up in Carnarvon, up at the Blowholes, working every day, and we have another 50 down in Perth," he said.
"And that ranges from detectives to analysts, forensic specialists, we're going to send the TRG up there to have a closer look and do some line searches, we've got drone pilots, we've got air wing.
"We basically have most of the police force specialist services and detectives working on it."

Cleo's family 'had quiet night'

Detective Superintendent Wilde revealed that on the night the family arrived at the campsite, they did not have any direct interactions with other campers.
"They had a quiet night around the campfire and that was it," he said.
"We know they got there on the Friday night, and it was getting dark, so there would have been limited opportunity for someone to observe Cleo at that time."
He also said video on either Ellie Smith's or Jake Gliddon's phone corroborated the fact Cleo was at the campsite on the night in question.
"We've got some evidence off the parents' phone, which obviously we can geolocate and all of those types of things, which puts them at that location, at that time, with footage of Cleo on it," he said.
Superintendent Wilde said police dogs had not been deployed at the site, but they could be used at a future date.
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by Guest 02.11.21 11:35

onehand wrote:because the police did not find any trace, that cleo left on her own, that option is not out of the investigation, but it is ranked down to far less likely. that part of the investigation has reached its limits by now.
more likely is foul play by person, or persons not known. so that's where the investigation is on for now.

Quite so!

But when you consider social media is still chewing over the probability of Madeleine McCann having been 'abducted' on the night of 3rd May 2007, fourteen and a half years ago, what can you expect.

Sometimes it's difficult to keep matters on track, even on such a well respected platform as CMOMM. Age old debunked myth rears it's ugly head over and over again, if we don't nip it in the bud we are back to square one - trial by myth!

Having the name Madeleine McCann appended to the disappearance of little Cleo Smith, I fear will have similar consequences. Indeed it already has.

Trial by media.

by **Silentscope** 02.11.21 18:31

Cleo Smith search: Cadaver dogs might be flown in from interstate to help police

The West Australian

Tue, 2 November 2021 10:00AM
John Flint

Police had spoken to more than 110 people at the campsite during the search for Cleo Smith.

Fortress WA will have to lower its drawbridge to the eastern states if police want to enlist the help of cadaver dogs and their handlers from NSW or Queensland in the hunt for clues to the whereabouts of Cleo Smith.

Taskforce Rodia detectives haven’t given up hope of finding Cleo alive, but have to contemplate all eventualities.

Officer-in-charge Detective Superintendent Rod Wilde has revealed drafting dogs into the search was “something that we may consider.”

WA Police doesn’t have any cadaver dogs in its canine ranks. “But we do have access to other Australian police jurisdictions resources, if and when required,” a police spokesman said.

Police scour dark web for signs of missing four-year-old
NSW and Queensland Police both have Human Remains Detection Specialist dogs.

Det-Supt Wilde said his team of about 100 officers were “painstakingly” going through all the information gathered so far.

Frustratingly, they’d still not identified everyone who’d been at the Blowholes camping grounds when Cleo was suspected to have been abducted.

“We have identified and spoken to over 110 people that were there on that evening. We still believe there may be a couple more that haven’t come forward,” he told 6PR.

“Obviously, we would be keen for those persons to come forward so we can speak to them.

“Maybe they hold some information that could be critical to the investigation.” Only by speaking to everyone can they “piece together what actually happened that night.”

“We’ve spoken to everyone (in the immediate vicinity of the tent), but there’s nothing that has come out of that so far,” he added.

The senior detective acknowledged the case was unusual, given the risks an and effort an offender would have gone to approach the tent, unzip it, steal Cleo inside her sleeping bag and get away, without disturbing her sleeping parents or anyone else nearby.

“That’s what we’re trying to understand,” he said. The Taskforce chief also agreed that there was only a small window of time for someone to see Cleo before she was tucked into her sleeping bag.

He believed it was “more than likely an opportunistic type event.” “It was getting dark so there would have been limited opportunity for people to observe Cleo at that time.”

Det-Supt Wilde shared more details about family’s activities after they arrived at the site around 6pm on October 15.

“They pitched the tent, had some dinner, then the kids being young went to sleep around eight o’clock,” he said. Cleo’s mum and stepdad sat around a campfire, next to the tent, before retiring for the night.

We’re doing a lot of work forensically said Rod Wilde. They hadn’t socialised with anyone else, he said. Ellie Smith saw her four-year-old daughter for the last time at about 1.30am when Cleo had woken up and asked for a drink of water.

Det-Supt Wilde re-iterated there was “no evidence to suggest that (the parents) are suspects or had any involvement in Cleo’s disappearance.”

Video footage off one of the parent’s phones had confirmed Cleo’s presence at the campsite that evening, he added.

Detectives were casting the net “far and wide” for possible suspects”

“We’re doing a lot of work forensically ... The team’s really busy,” he said. “There’s a lot of work in front of us, but we’re making progress.”

He thanked the public for 1000-plus calls with information. Crucially, he still needed the public’s help to identify the occupants of a car that was sighted turning south off Blowholes Road onto the Northwest Coastal Highway towards Carnarvon between 3am and 3.30am on October 16.

“It is of interest to us,” he said. “If anyone knows the person or people that were in that vehicle, if they could phone that information through to Crimestoppers that would be of great assistance. It may be that they were just innocently on that road. We just need to speak to them to establish exactly what they were doing there at that time.”

The car was observed at the turn-off by the occupants of another vehicle that was heading north on the highway. They were unable to discern the make or colour of the mystery car.

Source:
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by **Cammerigal** 02.11.21 21:11

‘My name is Cleo’: Missing four-year-old found locked in Carnarvon home
Marta Pascual Juanola; Sydney Morning Herald [paywalled]

WA Police have found missing four-year-old Cleo Smith alive and well after more than two weeks of searching along the state’s north-west coast.
Officers broke into a locked house in the town of Carnarvon, about 900 kilometres north of Perth, about 1am WA time where they found the young girl in one of the rooms.
Four-year-old Cleo Smith has been found alive after more than two weeks of searching.
Deputy Police Commissioner Col Blanch said one of the officers had taken Cleo into his arms and asked her what her name was.
“My name is Cleo,” the four-year-old responded.
Cleo Smith abduction probably ‘opportunistic’, taskforce boss says
Cleo disappeared from her family’s tent at the Quobba Blowholes, a popular camping ground 50 minutes drive from her home in Carnarvon, some time between the hours of 1.30am and 6am on October 16.
The fact her sleeping bag was also missing and the tent zip would have been out of reach for such a young child led police to believe she had been abducted, sparking a major land and air search.
On Tuesday, the officer in charge of the operation, superintendent Rod Wilde, revealed he believed the girl’s suspected abduction had been an opportunistic incident rather than a planned event.
“We know [Cleo’s family] got there that night ... it was getting dark,” he told Radio 6PR.
“So that would have been limited opportunity for people to observe Cleo at that time.”
Cleo was reunited with her parents shortly after being found by police.
In a statement released on Wednesday morning, Mr Blanch thanked Cleo’s parents, the WA community and all the volunteers that had participated in the search.
“It’s my privilege to announce that in the early hours of this morning the Western Australia Police Force rescued Cleo Smith,” he said.
“It’s the outcome we’ve achieved because of some incredible police work.”
A man from Carnarvon had been arrested and was being questioned by police.
“We’ll have more to say on the rescue of Cleo as the day unfolds,” he said.
“For now – welcome home Cleo.”

by sequested 02.11.21 21:13

Wonder if he’ll be known to the family or even a relative ?

by Guest 02.11.21 21:16

She's alive and unharmed. Bless her.

by **crusader** 02.11.21 21:27

Thank goodness for that, I had a feeling she would be found alive.

I'm having a sherry to celebrate them finding her, chin chin. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

by **Jill Havern** 02.11.21 21:47

Great news!

What about the GoFundMe?

by **Silentscope** 02.11.21 21:48

Great news, it will be interesting to see how this all went…

Now the investigation can really start.

Well done Oz Cops! Good job!

by Guest 03.11.21 0:16

Hallelujah !!!

I watched this earlier..

Australian girl Cleo Smith found alive after going missing 18 days ago

Nov 3, 2021

F -A - B - U - L - O - U - S !!!

by **PeterMac** 03.11.21 5:13

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So NOT Australian Maddie then !

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? ? ? Known to each other ? ? ?

by Guest 03.11.21 7:35

Nick Ferrari has referred to Cleo as 'the Australian Madeleine McCann' five times so far.

by Guest 03.11.21 8:25

great job done, well 'done' is overrated, the investigation will go on a roll for the next months.
it will give a lot of direct concerned parties a well deserved rest in their minds.

it is a very welcome, but rare occasion, that the missing child is found by police. and alive and 'well' makes it even better.

it is sad, to see madeleine mccann is now growing into a thing, no more than a synonym, a verb for missing children. madeleine and cleo are still real people, who deserve their own attention.
it is not very polite to use a not solved missing child's case as the format for all missing children. all cases are different, about different people.
there is simply no room for a tv format, or tabloid format. all missing children are real people, all are true victims in their own right.

by **Jill Havern** 03.11.21 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?

by Doug D 03.11.21 9:34

PeterMac:

'? ? ? Known to each other ? ? ?'

Campsite 75 miles from home, yet she is ‘abducted’ and then taken by a 35 year old (similar age to the couple?) to a house 2 miles away from where she lived.

Rather blows this one out of the water:

‘On Tuesday, the officer in charge of the operation, superintendent Rod Wilde, revealed he believed the girl’s suspected abduction had been an opportunistic incident rather than a planned event.’

I can’t believe the ‘buying nappies’ story is how he was identified(quite likely not even still wearing them). Rather suspect the estranged dad may have been instrumental in giving some useful pointers as to where she may have been.

‘Shannon Matthews’ anyone?