Cleo Smith: Grim twist as police sort through mountain of rubbish for clues

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Detectives investigating the disappearance of Cleo Smith have sorted through mounds of rubbish from roadside bins located hundreds of kilometres away from the campsite she vanished from. 

WA Police released pictures last night showing forensics officers examining 50 cubic metres of garbage collected from receptacles as far south as Geraldton, about 500km from the Blowholes Campground, and Mirilya, about 165km to its north.  

It comes as officers issued an extraordinary plea for dash cam and CCTV footage from within a 1000km radius of where the pre-schooler vanished more than a fortnight ago. 

Detectives said they are particularly interested in video recordings between 6pm on Friday October 15 and 6pm on Sunday October 17 at a list of specific locations, suggesting they may be closing in on the brazen child predator.

Investigators are seeking footage from motel check in, service stations, fast food outlets, truck stops, free camping areas, children’s clothing stores, pharmacies and camping stores.

The selective list appears to indicate that police may be narrowing in on the suspect who is believed to have snatched the four-year-old from the Blowholes campsite near Carnarvon , in the northwest of the state on October 16.

‘Detectives continue to seek dashcam, CCTV or any other footage within a 1000KM radius of the campsite near Carnarvon but only as far south as Lancelin,’ WA police said in a social media alert. 

‘It doesn’t matter how insignificant you think it might be.’

Investigators last week undertook the mammoth task of scouring nearby roads and highways in areas surrounding the Blowholes campsite, trawling through rubbish bins in search of degraded clues. 

They also door-knocked homes near the child’s family house in Carnarvon, to determine if neighbours had seen anything suspicious in the prior days and weeks.

The development comes as a family-of-seven who were camping less than 100 metres from where Cleo was abducted, have broken their silence about their ‘scarred’ and heartbreaking stay at the site.

It has been 16 days since the little girl was kidnapped while she was sleeping beside her parents and younger sister in their family tent during the early hours of the morning. 

Detectives attached to the massive police operation dedicated to Cleo’s disappearance spent Sunday door-knocking homes 5km from the youngster’s hometown of Carnarvon as the search enters its third week.

Queensland couple Rob and Kira Prince were camping at the Blowholes at the time and have described their stay which they’ll never forget ‘for all the wrong reasons.’ 

The couple are travelling around the country in a campervan with their five children, which they’re documenting on the Our Aussie Adventure Facebook page.

The family uploaded photos of their time at Quobba Blow Holes and shared a police flyer regarding Cleo’s disappearance.

‘This camp was beautiful with both rugged cliff faces with powerful waves and lagoon like beaches and the blowholes were absolutely incredible,’ the family posted on Sunday.

‘Unfortunately our stay here was scarred by the disappearance of Cleo Smith from a tent less than 100m from our site.’

‘With four-year-olds of our own this was truly terrifying and heartbreaking. It is a day we will never forget – for all the wrong reasons.

‘While we physically moved on from here once the campground closed, emotionally we are very much still there longing for a positive outcome for Cleo and her family.’

The family told The West Australian they’ve spoken to police ‘a number of times.’

Detectives door-knocked a number of homes along the North West Coastal Highway in the North Plantations, 5km from  Cleo’s hometown on Sunday.

The reason for the visits hasn’t been made public, Nine News reported.

It comes as Cleo’s frantic mum issued yet another public appeal on social media for her daughter to come home.

‘My kind hearted baby girl mummy wants you home,’ Ellie Smith wrote in an Instagram story on Sunday.

Ms Smith also posted a missing persons image of Cleo urging anyone with information to contact police.

She and Cleo’s stepfather Jake Gliddon have been ruled out  by police of having have had any involvement in the girl’s disappearance.

Earlier on Sunday, the owner of a shack which captured the voice of Cleo on its CCTV system has opened up about the ‘panicked’ moments after the little girl vanished. 

Dave Sadecky, handed over the crucial CCTV of little Cleo to police which placed her at the campsite on the night before she vanished.

The motion sensitive camera is installed inside their beach shack which was just 20 metres away from the family tent and takes a wide-angled photo of everyone who enters or leaves it.

The camera captures audio and images from inside a painted wooden box with a glass front and would not appear obvious to those passing by.

When Mr Sadecky and his wife learnt of the news surrounding the four-year-old, they immediately jumped on their quad bikes to join the search. 

‘I didn’t know the ins and outs of what was going on but everyone was panicked,’ Mr Sadecky told The West Australian.

‘People dropped everything and came to help … they were everywhere on Saturday like ants — it’s not a normal sight.’

The couple ended up scouring the area for 10 hours on the day Cleo was last seen.

She had woken up at 1.30am on the Saturday to ask her mother Ellie for a sip of water but when her parents woke again at about 6am, Cleo was gone.

‘Everyone was emotional, people were clearly stressed and anxious but wanted to help. We’ve never had anything like this happen before. We’re there every other weekend, we’re kicking ourselves we weren’t there that night,’ Mr Sadecky said.

He said the campsite would now be ‘tainted’ from what happened, a local at Blowholes himself.

He added there was a tight-knit community in the area and that often people would leave their doors unlocked.

Meanwhile, a close family friend of Cleo’s mother Ellie Smith and stepdad Jake Gliddon said detectives are not wanting to give them any ‘false hope’.

‘There’s nothing worse than saying, ”We’re going to find her”, or, ”We think we’ve got the person”, and then they don’t have the person or they don’t find her,’ the friend told the West.

‘Police aren’t going to give you false hope and that’s what we said from day one.’

The family friend had been at the campsite at the time Cleo went missing and helped scour the area in search of the four-year-old.

He said her distraught parents have also had to deal with online trolls who pointed the finger at them in the days following their daughter’s disappearance.

Police have ruled out both Ms Smith and Mr Gliddon as suspects and Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting they had anything to do with her disappearance.

‘I know it’s affecting them. Fingers crossed they aren’t looking at it too much,’ the friend said. 

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,’ Detective Superintendent Rob 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.’ 

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.