Cleo Smith: Shocked neighbours speak out after missing WA girl found alive inside a home
How neighbours of ‘quiet man’ arrested after Cleo Smith was found locked in his house raised the alarm after spotting him buying NAPPIES at Woolworths
Cleo Smith was found inside a Carnavon home by police about 1am WednesdayA 36-year-old man was arrested at the house and is being questioned by police Neighbours have described seeing the ‘quiet man’ buying nappies on Monday Top cop said detectives had received information that led them to the house
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Shocked neighbours have described seeing a ‘quiet man’ buying Kimbies brand nappies at Woolworths just two days before Cleo Smith was found alive inside a locked home.
Police teams found the four-year-old girl inside a Carnarvon home about 1am on Wednesday – 18 days after she vanished from her family’s Blowholes campsite.
A 36-year-old man from Carnarvon was arrested at the home and taken into custody to be questioned by detectives. He has no connection to the family.
One neighbour said he saw the man at the supermarket buying diapers, which seemed odd as he does not have any children.
‘The other day – on Monday – we saw him in Woolworths buying Kimbies [nappies] and that,’ he told Sunrise.
‘But we didn’t click on what he was buying them for.’
Cleo Smith has been found alive and well, 18 days after she vanished from a tent
The man said everyone in the street – which is just a seven minute drive from Cleo’s family home – is familiar with each other, but they tend to keep to themselves.
‘Everyone knows the person who stays at that house, but no one would have thought it would be him,’ he said.
‘We were shocked.’
WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said the arrest came after detectives received information that led them to the house.
He said police will not be able to provide too many details about the case as the investigation remains ongoing, but said ‘phone data was critical’ in cracking the case open.
Cleo was reunited with her relieved parents a short time after being found and is now in hospital receiving care.
Neighbours awoke to frantic scenes as police cars and detectives packed into their street, piling into and out of the home where Cleo was recovered.
‘We stood back and waited but after that, we saw someone, on the detective’s shoulder,’ he said.
‘We thought it might be the little girl, which it was. I went closer to the detectives car and I saw her in the back of the car with the detective, he was holding her.’
A shocked neighbour (pictured) of the man arrested after Cleo was found locked in his house has described spotting him buying nappies at Woolworths two days earlier
A map shows how Cleo smith was found 73.7km south of the campsite she vanished from more than two weeks ago
Another neighbour said she received a call from her nephew at 4.30am who broke the news the little girl had been located.
‘I was very pleased, I jumped out of bed and I have been awake since,’ she told 9News.
The woman said she was shocked to walk outside to a sea of police and realise just how close the little girl was to her home.
‘The main thing is that she has been found well and alive,’ she said.
‘Well done to the Western Australia Police.’
WA Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch confirmed the great news just before 7am AEDT that little Cleo is alive and well.
‘One of the officers picked her up into his arms and asked her ‘what’s your name?’ he said.
‘She said: ‘My name is Cleo’.
‘This is the outcome we all hoped and prayed for,’ Deputy Commissioner Blanch said.
‘It’s the outcome we’ve achieved because of some incredible police work.
‘I want to thank Cleo’s parents, the Western Australian community and the many volunteers.
‘And of course, I want to thank my colleagues in the Western Australia Police Force.’
Cleo Smith (pictured) has miraculously been found alive after vanishing from a remote campsite in Western Australia
The news has sparked an outpouring of relief worldwide.
‘What wonderful, relieving news,’ Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison tweeted from Glasgow.
‘Cleo Smith has been found and is home safe and sound.
‘Our prayers answered.
‘Thank you to the many police officers involved in finding Cleo and supporting her family.
Cleo disappeared from her family’s tent between 1.30am and 6.30am on October 16 as her mother Ellie Smith, step father Jake Gliddon and baby sister Isla were sleeping nearby.
The home she was found in is just 73.7km south of the campsite she vanished from, raising the possibility the missing little girl was right under the noses of police for the entire 18 day period she was missing.
Her disappearance sparked a widespread search operation and major police investigation, with the state government offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Cleo’s location.
Police say the girl’s disappearance was immediately treated with the highest priority, although it took two hours to establish a roadblock at the site.
Detectives have made several visits to Cleo’s family home in Carnarvon, sought CCTV footage from a range of businesses in the area and collected samples from a campfire at the Blowholes site.
