Cleo Smith: Tent zipper detail revealed as army called in
<p><em>Image: Facebook </em></p>
<p>Members of the Australian Defence Force have joined the search for missing four-year-old girl Cleo Smith after police revealed an important new detail that casts doubt on the theory she simply wandered off.</p>
<p>Cleo has been missing for six days now after vanishing from her parents’ tent during a during a weekend camping trip.</p>
<p>She woke up at 1:30 am on Saturday and asked her mum Ellie for a drink.</p>
<p>When Ellie and her partner Jake Gliddon woke up at about 6am, the little girl was gone.</p>
<p>Search efforts around the Blowholes campsite in Macleod, about 70km north of Carnarvon, have proven fruitless, prompting concerns she was abducted.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, four members of the army assisted SES volunteers in the search. They were seen launching a drone over the desolate shrubbery.</p>
<p>Thursday marks a sixth straight day of search efforts around the area.</p>
<p>But the theory that she was abducted is becoming more likely with police revealing a key detail on the tent the family had been sleeping in.</p>
<p>When Ellie woke up, one of the flaps in the tent was already opened.</p>
<p>Police say the zipper was too high for it to have been opened by Cleo.</p>
<p>“The tent certainly has multiple entries,” inspector Jon Munday said.</p>
<p>“One of the major circumstances that has given us the cause for alarm for Cleo’s safety is the fact that one of those zippered entryways was opened.</p>
<p>“The positioning of that zipper for the flap is one of the circumstances that has caused us to have grave concerns for Cleo’s safety.”</p>
<p>Up to 20 registered sex offenders in the area are now under the microscope of police and have been spoken to.</p>
<p>The national appeal was earlier issued amid fears Cleo was taken interstate.</p>
<p>The police agencies in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia all shared online the West Australian Police’s post with images and information about the missing girl.</p>
<p>Munday says, however, that police will remain at the Blowholes for the time being, with the focus moving from “high probability” areas to less likely locations.</p>
<p>“We will be here until we are satisfied that Cleo is not in this area, we have searched thoroughly all the high probability areas,” he said.</p>
<p>“We are now extended into further reaches of the places where Cleo could have possibly walked her.”</p>
<p>“We are hopeful that Cleo is still alive and we’re operating on the premise that she is still alive, so we’re going to keep searching until we find her.”</p>
<p>Ellie and Jake spoke earlier this week to plead for anyone with information to come forward.</p>
