"Cleo is a lazy child, when we come back from a walk she is always exhausted. She would never go around alone, at night, walking, never, never, never": so Ellie Smith, the mother of the little girl of four years disappeared in Australia from the campsite where he was with his parents.
A desperate appeal made on TV to the whole country, in the hope that someone can bring her baby back to her and in a story that sadly has many similarities with the case of little Maddie mcCann, the English girl who disappeared and was never found again while she was in family vacation in Portugal in 2007.
Cleo disappeared in the night between Saturday and Sunday from the tent where she slept with her family: mother Ellie, stepfather Jack, little sister of less than one year. The mother's story repeats itself over and over again: he gave her a drink at half past one on Saturday night, then went to sleep in the same tent, separated into two rooms, the parents on one side, the girls on the other.
At half past six Ellie got up because the youngest was calling her, and only then the tragic discovery: the zipper of the tent was open and the little Cleo disappeared, with all the sleeping bag that contained her.
THE INVESTIGATIONS - It is precisely this last detail that makes us fear the worst: a kidnapping, even if the police are not unbalanced and even if some people who were in the same campsite as Quobba Blowholes, in an area of shrubs and rocks behind a white sand beach, they claim to have heard the noise of a car in the night.
"Everyone asks us what we need in these hours and all we need is for our little girl to come home ...", the desperate appeal of mother Ellie, holding in her hands a photo of smiling Cloe wearing a pink tutu.
After realizing the disappearance, Ellie and her partner immediately started looking for the little girl everywhere, desperate. Not finding it, they got into the car hoping to be able to locate it more easily but there was nothing to do. At that point they called the police and along the coast that overlooks the Indian Ocean for miles, a helicopter and several drones have since begun to search for the baby, while the agents searched shacks and caves.
The situation was also made more difficult by the heavy rains that hit the area yesterday, blocking searches for hours, then resumed with the police on horseback. But so far to no avail.
"A thousand thoughts cross our minds," Mom said, her eyes streaked with tears and asking anyone who has seen any "even seemingly insignificant" detail to report it to the police immediately.
The investigations are not leaving out any hypothesis, and the agents have also contacted Cleo's natural father, who seems totally unrelated to the story, as well as all the guests of the camp that was full during the weekend.
THE PREVIOUS TRAGIC - In Australia there would also be the tragic precedent of a similar story: the story of Azaria, the little girl of just two months who disappeared during a camping holiday in August 1980. The parents said they saw a dingo sneak into the tent, but the investigation ended in 1982 with the conviction of the mother for killing her daughter and father for aiding and abetting. The whole of Australia followed the process which had a notable media coverage with the press siding mostly against the parents. But in 1986 the police, following another case, found evidence in the camp that proved the child's father and mother right, proving that the story of the dingo was true. The trial was reopened, they were both acquitted and compensated. And from the story was made a film with Maryl Streep, "A Cry in the Dark".
(Unioneonline / vl)
