She was found alive and well on 3 November, after police raided the home of Terence Darrell Kelly in the nearby town of Carnarvon. Her safe recovery after eighteen days was described as extremely rare, and received widespread news coverage and social media reaction both across Australia and internationally.
About 1am on Wednesday 3 November 2021, police stormed Kelly's locked housing commission duplex in nearby Carnarvon and found the girl playing with toy cars alone in a bedroom. She was being held just a few kilometres from her family home, about an hour south of the wilderness campsite where she was kidnapped.
He took part in meetings, went shopping, attended arts and crafts activities, and visited relatives. When he was home, Kelly said during his police interview that there were times when he smacked Cleo or “roughed her up” for being “bossy” and asking for chocolate – but that he had not wanted to hurt her badly.
A man has been jailed for 13 years and six months for abducting a four-year-old girl from a remote Western Australia (WA) campsite. Terence Kelly, 37, pleaded guilty last year to taking Cleo Smith from her family's tent in October 2021.
Kayla, now 15, is home safe with her father after a shop owner recognised her from the Netflix show Unsolved Mysteries and alerted police.
Cleo Smith was kidnapped for 18 days during 2021. During the ordeal, doll collector Kelly kept Cleo locked in a room in his Carnavon house, the door to which had been modified so it could only be locked from the hallway side.
Cleo Smith disappeared from her family's tent in Western Australia in October, sparking a major search operation that many feared would end in tragedy. But the little girl was found 18 days later alone inside a locked house in the coastal town of Carnarvon, a short drive from where she went missing.
Cleo's biological father 'overjoyed'
“We are all absolutely overjoyed at the good news this morning, and so happy that Cleo has been reunited with her mum and dad,” he said. “Thank you to everyone who helped look for her and bring her home, particularly the WA Police, SES and the Carnarvon community.
Terence Kelly was high on methamphetamine and looking for things to steal when he came across four-year-old Cleo Smith sleeping in her family's tent in regional Western Australia and decided to abduct her.
Terence Kelly was sentenced to 13 years and six months in jail in WA's District Court on Wednesday over a charge of stealing a child that he pleaded guilty to in January last year. He will be eligible for parole after serving 11 and a half years, backdated to his arrest on November 3, 2021.
Parents Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon have reportedly accepted a $2 million cheque from the Nine Network to tell their story of the events that unfolded over the course of 18 harrowing days and the efforts to find the four-year-old.
Cleo Smith's parents determined kidnap ordeal won't define her as triple zero call and policy bodycam revealed.
Ellie Smith said while her family was trying to move on, speaking about Terence Kelly – who snatched Cleo from the family's tent at a remote campsite on Western Australia's Gascoyne coast on October 16, 2021 – was difficult.
Police found Cleo Smith alone in a house in Carnarvon, a town of 5,000 people, 18 days after she went missing last October. The search for her had captivated Australians, and the police who found her wept with relief when she told them, “My name is Cleo,” when they asked her identity.
Jane, Arnna and Grant Beaumont lived with their parents, Grant "Jim" Beaumont, a former serviceman and taxi driver, and Nancy Beaumont (née Ellis), who had married in December 1955. Their house was at 109 Harding Street, Somerton Park, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide.
The Dutch. In 1606 Captain Willem Janszoon became the first European to discover what is now Australia.
Cleo Smith's mother has broken her silence after her daughter's kidnapper was jailed, saying: “The anger always will be there.” Terrence Kelly was jailed for 13½ years on Wednesday for abducting the then four-year-old from her family's tent at the Blowholes Campground in the middle of the night in October 2021.
Cleo's parents are separated. She lives with her mother Ellie Smith and stepfather Jake Gliddon. Cleo's biological father is Daniel Staines.
Cleo Smith's biological father Daniel Staines has sp...
As of Tuesday, Superintendent Wilde said police had spoken to more than 110 people at the campsite but wanted “less than a handful” of others to provide information. Police had stressed that Ms Smith and Cleo's stepfather Jake Gliddon were not suspects.
Meanwhile, Cleo gets pregnant, is rejected by her child's father, and has a stillbirth — all while cleaning the family's house, nurturing its children, and doing their laundry by hand.
Little Cleo Smith was one such case that captured the public's attention she went missing for 18 days in Australia last year. She was eventually found in the home of 36-year-old Terrence Kelly who has today pleaded guilty to her abduction.
The disappearance of Jane, Arnna, and Grant Beaumont on Australia Day in 1966 became one of the country's enduring mysteries and remains unsolved. The children — aged 9, 7 and 4 — left their Somerton Park home for a day at Glenelg beach, but never came home.
A four-year-old girl allegedly abducted from her family's tent in remote Western Australia 19 days ago has been found alive. Cleo Smith was found by police in a private home around 30 miles from the campsite and has been reunited with her parents, Western Australia police said in a statement.
Ayling is working with BBC Studios to tell her story after she was abducted in Italy in 2017, having traveled to Milan for a photo shoot. She was freed unharmed after six days.