4-year-old Australian woman found more than two weeks after her disappearance

A four-year-old Australian girl who disappeared on October 16 while camping with her parents was found "safe and sound" in a house on Wednesday November 3, police said.

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Cleo Smith went missing while camping with her family in Western Australia. Significant air, sea and land searches involving a hundred police officers were immediately launched. The girl was found by police in a locked house in Carnarvon, near where she was last seen 18 days earlier, police said. "One of the officers hugged her and asked her, 'What's your name?'" Assistant Police Commissioner Col Blanch said. The little girl then replied, "My name is Cleo."

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The police, who forced the entrance to the house where she was around 1 a.m., said they had arrested a man for questioning. He is 36 and has no connection to the family, Commissioner Chris Dawson of Western Australia Police said. Cleo joined her parents soon after. “Our family is complete again,” said her mother, Ellie Smith, in a message accompanying a photo of her daughter posted on Instagram. She had told of her immense despair when she discovered at 6 a.m. that the family tent was open and that her eldest daughter had disappeared.

His statements sparked a huge outpouring of solidarity across Australia. On a radio, Commissioner Blanch described the rescue as “simply incredible”. "It's very rare. This is something we hoped for wholeheartedly and it has come true.” For two weeks, the search to find Cleo had been followed by the whole country. Following the reunion between the little girl and her parents, many Australians expressed their joy on social media.

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