Cleo Smith smiles from ear to ear in photographs as eight-year-old thrives in new life years after her abduction horrified Australia

Five years after she vanished into the darkness and sparked a frantic nationwide manhunt, Cleo Smith is now thriving – a living symbol of one of Australia’s most extraordinary child abduction cases.

Cleo was four when she was snatched from her sleeping bag in the early hours of October 16, 2021, while camping with her parents Ellie and Jake and baby sister Isla at the Blowholes campsite at Point Quobba in Western Australia‘s rugged north-west.

Police and rescue personnel, aided by helicopters and drones, spent nearly three weeks scouring the remote region during a mammoth operation.

As days passed without a breakthrough, fears grew that the little girl would never be found alive.

Then, in a moment that stunned the nation, Cleo was discovered 18 days later inside the Carnarvon home of drug addict Terence Darrell Kelly, just minutes from her family home.

Millions of people around the globe watched the emotional footage as officers asked the small child: ‘What’s your name?’ – to which she quietly replied, ‘My name is Cleo.’

Kelly, who had an obsession with children’s Bratz dolls, later pleaded guilty to kidnapping Cleo and keeping her captive just four kilometres from her family.

He was jailed for 13 years.

+5
View gallery

Cleo Smith (front left) with her mum Ellie, stepfather Jake and little sister Isla

+5
View gallery

Terence Darrell Kelly (pictured) was jailed for 13 years for the abduction of Cleo Smith

+5
View gallery

After 18 days Cleo Smith was found at the home of Kelly (pictured) in her home town of Carnarvon in WA’s north

In the years since the ordeal and intense media spotlight, Cleo’s family have largely stayed out of the public eye.

Glimpses of her recovery emerged in 2023, when she appeared in photos from her parents’ wedding, followed by images in 2024 celebrating her seventh birthday and winning gold at her first gymnastics competition.

In early 2022, the family gave a rare insight into their trauma in a controversial, reportedly $2million interview with Nine.

Speaking on 60 Minutes again on Sunday, Ellie revealed she knew almost instantly something was terribly wrong when Cleo, now eight, disappeared along with her sleeping bag.

‘There were no drag marks of the sleeping bag, we knew she couldn’t have carried it,’ she said.

‘We were hoping she was just around the corner.

‘Deep down we knew she did not walk away. She was taken.’

Ellie said she was stunned when police called to say her daughter had been found and was at the local emergency department.

+5
View gallery

Cleo Smith (pictured) will turn 9 next month

+5
View gallery

Cleo Smith (pictured) competing at her first international gymnastics competition in Singapore

‘There was no way I thought that anyone in Carnarvon that did it,’ she said.

‘We grew up there, I was born there, and someone that lived there and grew there was the person that did it.’

The family is still healing from the trauma, but in a remarkable turnaround, Cleo’s mum says life is now mostly positive.

She describes her daughter as a happy, social child who adores her little sister Isla and has plenty of friends at school.

The brave youngster has even thrown herself into new activities, joining the local swimming club – though it’s gymnastics that has truly captured her heart.

In a huge milestone, Cleo has just returned from her first overseas trip, competing in an international gymnastics competition in Singapore in a powerful sign of just how far she has come.

SOURCE: Cleo Smith smiles from ear to ear in photographs as eight-year-old thrives in new life years after her abduction horrified Australia | Daily Mail Online