Cleo Smith: Bombshell as missing Australian girl claims a woman looked after her in WA
EXCLUSIVE: Cleo Smith BOMBSHELL as brave four-year-old tells cops a WOMAN ‘brushed her hair and dressed her’ while she was allegedly held captive for 18 days in doll-obsessed loner’s derelict home – as hunt begins for mystery accomplice
Cleo Smith told detectives that a mystery woman was also present in the housePolice are now scrambling to track down the unknown woman who ‘dressed her’ The four-year-old was found at a home in Carnarvon, WA, after 18 days missingLocal man Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, has been charged with kidnapping Forensic investigators are continuing to scour the property looking for evidence
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A mystery woman could be key to the Cleo Smith investigation after the little girl told investigators a female would come to her accused kidnapper’s house to ‘look after her’.
The new development came to light during delicate police interviews with the four-year-old, who allegedly spent 18 days locked up inside a house in Carnarvon, in Western Australia‘s northwest.
Local man Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, has been charged with kidnapping and remains in a Perth jail, as a team of elite detectives returned to the remote town on Monday in the hunt for more clues.
Sources close to the investigation told Daily Mail Australia Cleo has mentioned that a woman visited the Tonkin Crescent duplex during the time she was allegedly held captive, and helped care for her.
Cleo allegedly told investigators the woman helped to dress her and brush her hair.
Local man Terence Darrell Kelly, 36 (pictured), has been charged over the kidnapping off Cleo Smith – but police are now probing the possibility of a ‘mystery woman’ also being involved
Forensic police have been scouring Terence Kelly’s duplex in Carnarvon, Western Australia (pictured) for the past six days searching for evidence
Cleo Smith (pictured with her police rescuers) was allegedly found in a room in Kelly’s home by detectives who used mobile data to track down her alleged abductor
Cleo was found in the early hours of last Wednesday morning after being missing since October 16, when she was allegedly abducted from her family’s tent at the remote blowholes campsite about 75km away.
The preschooler was awake and ‘playing with toys’ when detectives broke down the door of the house, just after 1.30am.
Bodycam footage shows the brave little girl being carried out the Tonkin Crescent address with her hair clean and brushed and her pyjamas appearing freshly washed.
Police had initially stated no other suspects were being sought in relation to the matter, alleging that Kelly acted alone.
With the landmark case appearing to be wrapped up, a team of detectives who helped track down Cleo have since raced back to Carnarvon from Perth as they probe the possibility another person was involved.
The investigators are expected to remain in the small town for at least another week as forensic specialists continue to scour the alleged abductor’s home for evidence another suspect may have been there.
Pictured: Detective Sergeant Cameron Blaine tells Cleo: ‘We’re gonna take you to see your mummy and daddy’. He has since revealed police were trying to ‘ascertain whether there was anyone else involved
Detective senior sergeant Cameron Blaine, who was captured on police bodycam vision rescuing Cleo from her ordeal, has remained tight-lipped about the latest developments in the case but said police have ‘more work to do.’
‘Our focus this week is for us to ascertain whether there was anyone else involved. That’s why we are still here,’ he said after stepping off the plane.
‘So, we just ask that if there was anyone that had any contact with Mr Kelly, whether you saw him, whether you met with him, whether you spoke to him on the phone during the relevant period to please make yourself known to police.’
Daily Mail Australia sought comment from the WA Police about the mystery woman.
A spokesperson said investigators would not comment specifically claims another person could be involved, but added ‘inquiries are continuing’.
Cleo Smith’s alleged kidnapper Terry Kelly, 36, is pictured with Bratz dolls on his social media
Bizarre details have emerged about the accused’s strange obsession with toys as numerous social media account’s linked to Kelly show a room full of children’s dolls
Specialist child interview officers attached to the child abuse squad in Perth began the delicate task of sitting down with Cleo on Thursday.
The process of uncovering what happened could take several weeks.
For a sixth straight day forensic officers have combed through Kelly’s house and gathering evidence for laboratory examination which could indicate the presence of another person.
Trailer-loads of evidence have been bagged up and removed from the alleged abductor’s property during that time with the top-to-bottom search of the roped-off commission house likely to go on for several weeks as prosecutors build their case against Kelly.
Since his arrest, it’s been revealed he had an obsession with collecting dolls and boasted about his love for girl’s toys on various social media pages.
One photograph he posted shows Bratz and Disney princess dolls stacked from floor to ceiling.
Two trailer-loads of evidence were bagged up and removed from the alleged abductor’s home on Sunday
The top to bottom search of the roped-off commission house is likely to go on for several weeks
The bagged up items will be sent away for forensic testing as prosecutors build their case against Kelly
It comes as audio emerged of an Aboriginal elder who raised Kelly calling him a gift from God and a ‘beautiful little boy’.
Respected Gascoyne elder Penny Walker revealing how Kelly, now 36, was ‘thrown away’ by his drug-addict biological mother.
She handed him over to her ‘Aunty Penny’, who had all six of her own children taken into care because of an alcohol problem when she was younger.
‘I looked down at him and this little boy – God was giving me something back into my life what the welfare took off me – my children,’ said Ms Walker, who died in 2020.
‘His mum didn’t want him and she threw him away.’
Kelly lived alone at Ms Walker’s dilapidated home after her death last year at the age of 77.
The tapes reveal he was brought up with Ms Walker’s two other grandsons after her daughter died from multiple sclerosis.
Cleo Smith has since been reunited with mother Ellie Smith and stepfather Jake Gliddon (pictured)
‘God was giving my children back to me in a different way. So I have this little boy beautiful little boy, Terry,’ she said. ‘Two year old, jet black curly hair.’
Kelly’s early upbringing has been revealed in snippets of oral history archives in an interview she gave in May 2019 for the State Library of Western Australia.
She had her own troubled early life a as part of the Stolen Generation and spent her childhood in the Moore River Native Settlement and New Norcia Mission.
Ms Walker suffered sexual abuses and floggings, she said, and later slept in toilets as an adult while enduring domestic violence.
Authorities put her on a bus to Carnarvon, 1000km north of Perth, and she said in the tapes: ‘I never looked back.’
After her own problems with drink and her six children being taken by the state, she turned her life around and became a respected member of the community.
Penny Walker talked about Terry Kelly (pictured) being a ‘beautiful little boy’ with ‘jet black curly hair’ in audio recordings for the oral history archive at Western Australia’s State Library
