Cleo Smith: “Serious concerns” for Australian girl missing from beach camp

Australian police say they have “grave concerns” about a four-year-old girl who went missing from a remote coastal campground over the weekend.

Cleo Smith was last seen sleeping in her family’s tent at Quobba Blowholes campsite in Western Australia early Saturday morning.

Her mother said the tent was open early the next morning and the girl was gone, along with her sleeping bag.

Extensive air and sea research continues.

Ellie Smith told local media about their “horrible” past few days. “We haven’t really slept,” he said at an emotional press conference.

“Everyone asks us what we need and all we need is our baby girl at home … The worst part is we can’t do anything else. It’s out of our hands, so we feel hopeless and out of control.”

The case attracted national attention.

Authorities did not disclose any information on what they think happened to the girl, but said they “will leave no stone unturned.”

On Tuesday morning, regional inspector Jon Munday told the Sunrise TV show that investigators could not rule out the possibility that she might have been “taken and removed from the area.”

“A lot of people” had remained at the camp when Cleo went missing, he added, and the police were “tracking and tracing” everyone who had been there on Friday night.

Australian media reported that Cleo’s family had traveled to the remote site, about 900 km (560 miles) north of Perth, over the weekend for a camping trip.

The Quobba Blowhole site, in Macleod, is a local attraction on the state’s Coral Coast, known for its windswept ocean landscapes, sea caves and lagoons.

Ellie Smith said she put Cleo to sleep after dinner on Friday night, seeing her again at 1:30 am when she woke up asking for water.

Cleo was sleeping on an air mattress next to her younger sister’s cot in a separate room of the family tent, Ms. Smith said. She saw the curtain open and Cleo leave at 6:00 am when she went to give her youngest daughter a bottle, she added.

“We went hunting, hiking, making sure it wasn’t around the tent,” Ms. Smith said.

“Then we got in the car and started shooting everywhere … We realized we had to call the police because she wasn’t there.”

At times, bad weather hampered searches, however police squads were seen scouring the deserted white beaches and bush for signs of Cleo on Tuesday. Private helicopter services and mounted police also joined the effort.

Police said they concentrated their research on a row of shacks near the coast.

By the end of Monday, they had curtailed their search efforts from the water, local media reported.