How WA police are scouring the land for clues to Cleo Smith disappearance from Carnarvon blowholes
While police have not given up hope a land search will lead them to missing four-year-old Cleo Smith, they are methodically scouring the terrain for any evidence of more sinister reasons for her disappearance.
Police are examining every square metre of ground for any piece of information, from wheel marks to reports of noises or anything out of the ordinary that could help find her.
Key points:
- Police are not treating the disappearance of Cleo Smith as an abduction
- They are primarily treating the case as a 'search and rescue mission'
- But there is a separate investigation into what else may have happened to the little girl
They have stressed five days since she disappeared from her family's campsite at the Blowholes, about 70 kilometres north of the Gascoyne town of Carnarvon on the edge of the Indian Ocean, that they are not treating her disappearance as an abduction.
"To say we are treating this as an abduction is not correct," Acting Deputy Commissioner Daryl Gaunt said.
"We're treating it as a search and rescue mission, first and foremost. And that remains our mission — to find Cleo."
But Acting Deputy Commissioner Daryl Gaunt agreed it did not seem likely Cleo simply walked out of the tent into the night and took her sleeping bag, which is also missing.
"No, it doesn't. It's every parent's worst nightmare and all of our hearts go out to the family in the circumstances," he told commercial radio.
Police are running a search and rescue operation and an investigation into what has happened to Cleo in parallel.
Cleo's mother gave an emotional interview on Tuesday, saying Cleo was not the sort of child to wander off on her own.
Police sifting through evidence gleaned from public and land search
As officers, including on horseback, SES volunteers and others comb every inch of ground, police are sifting through a large amount of information and potential evidence gathered from the public and the terrain.
That is understood to include DNA swabs from everyone who was at the Blowholes campground on Friday night and Saturday morning, when Cleo's mother Ellie Smith said she woke to find her daughter was gone.
Mr Gaunt said there were a large number of witnesses who were either there or in the area at the time.
"We've had a lot of information both from the large number of people in the campground or who had been in the campground, who have provided us with information about certain noises and certain activities they suspect may have been going on," he said.
"We've investigated and responded to the vast majority of that. Most of them are explained."
How police and SES scour the land for clues
The ABC understands in cases such as this one, police conduct forensic line searches of the area.
SES volunteers and sometimes police trainees join regular officers in a shoulder-to-shoulder line carefully walking across the ground one step at a time.
If someone spots something of interest, they call out and a forensic or other officer will come and examine it.
They may then put a flag on that spot or tag the item.
The line search continues until the team can categorically say the area has been thoroughly searched for all possible evidence. The same area can be gone over several times.
It will help them create a map of the wider search area detailing which parts have been examined and if anything was found.
"Our search is for everything," Mr Gaunt said.
"And at this stage, we're not really finding much that tends to give us an impression one way or another as to what's happened."
The DNA samples from people in the Blowholes area will allow police to establish who was there. If they find other DNA not attributable to those people, they know it belongs to an unknown person.
"All of the shacks that are up there have been searched," Mr Gaunt said.
All, any bit of infrastructure in the area. We continue to search along the coastline for any sign. All of those things are being done."
Police play down sex offender angle
Police are confident Cleo was at the Blowholes campsite.
Mr Gaunt said no member of the public had reported seeing her but there was other technological evidence, which he did not want to disclose, which pointed to her presence at the Blowholes campsite.
"There's nothing to infer that she wasn't there at this stage," he said.
He said there were between 10 and 20 registered sex offenders in the wider Carnarvon area, but played down that part of the investigation.
"Part of the investigative strategies have included reaching them and making inquiries into their whereabouts and movements and at this point in time, we're very comfortable where we sit with those inquiries," he said.
Cleo's mother Ellie Smith on Tuesday said she thought someone must know where her daughter was.
"We hold hope that she's here, because if I think about her being taken it's pretty, you know, a million other things cross our mind," she said.
She pleaded with anyone with information to tell police.
Just report it. What if it was your child and someone knew and didn't say something," she said.
Jason @BeardedOverland www.beardedadv.blogspot.com
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