Cleo Smith search: WA Police still looking for Blowholes campers from night of disappearance

Police believe they have identified everyone who was camping close to Cleo Smith and her family the night she disappeared but say there are still “less than a handful” of people who were camping further away yet to come forward.

Det-Supt Rod Wilde, who is leading Taskforce Rodia which is dedicated to finding Cleo, said investigators had now spoken with more than 110 people who were at the Blowholes on October 16 but still wanted others to provide information to police.

“We still believe there may be a couple more that have not come forward for various reasons that may have been camping further away,” he told 6PR.

“We are keen for those persons to come forward so we can speak to them. It may be that they witnessed something that can help us.”

Supt Wilde said police had verified Cleo was at the camp site on the night she disappeared through videos on a parent’s phone that had a geo-location tag. This matched audio from CCTV at a nearby shack that captured her voice.

“We’ve got that CCTV but there is also some video evidence we have recovered off the parent’s phone which puts the family there and Cleo there at the camp site on that evening,” he said.

“We have some independent forensic material that corroborates that fact.”

Supt Rod Wilde said police were looking at all angles in relation to the four-year-old’s suspected abduction, which includes people close to the family. But he stressed her parents were not considered suspects.

“We keep an open mind with these things but certainly there is no evidence to suggest that they are suspects or had any involvement in Cleo’s disappearance,” he said. “We cast the net far and wide and we look at all of those possibilities and certainly people close to the family and all of those people that were in the vicinity.”

Police have received more than 1000 Crime Stoppers tip-offs about Cleo’s disappearance, but the driver of the car seen turning of Blowholes Road on the night of her suspected abduction is yet to come forward.

Nearly two weeks ago police issued an appeal to identify the driver and potential occupants of a car seen turning off Blowholes Road about 3am on the morning she vanished. It was made after two people, who drove past the turn-off, reported the car was headed south on the North West Coastal Highway.

The little girl vanished from her family’s tent during a camping trip 70km north of Carnarvon.

Supt Wilde said the mystery of how someone could have kidnapped Cleo from the tent while she was wrapped up in her sleeping bag without attracting attention still had his team baffled.

“We are still looking through that forensically,” Supt Wilde said. “That’s what we’re trying to solve and understand. It is more than likely an opportunistic event. There would have been limited time for people to observe Cleo at that time.”