The days are long for Det Supt Rod Wilde, the man tasked with unravelling what happened to four-year-old Cleo Smith at the Blowholes campsite in Western Australia.
With 40 years of policing under his belt, including 18 with the major crime squad, Wilde is no stranger to missing children cases or working under the glare of media scrutiny.
But while many of his most high-profile investigations are cold cases, the search for Cleo tops Australia’s most urgent unsolved crimes list.
Under huge pressure to crack a case that has garnered worldwide media attention, Wilde touched down in the regional town of Carnarvon, about 10 hours north of Perth, just days ago to briefly join his officers at the investigation coalface.
It is two weeks today since Cleo vanished in the dead of night and without trace from her family tent at the remote and wild Blowholes campground.
Since that puzzling night, forensic and veteran police officers from the specially created taskforce Rodia have been stationed at the nearby town of Carnarvon, systematically scouring for clues to Cleo’s whereabouts.
Alongside them are a community struggling to comprehend that something so sinister may have happened to one of their own, and bounty hunters chasing information to potentially cash in on the WA government’s $1m reward for finding Cleo.
Under Wilde’s lead, a 100-strong police operation is now trying to rule out campers who were staying at the remote site when the girl disappeared.
Forensics officers have searched the weatherboard home of Cleo’s mum, Ellie Smith, and her partner, Jake Gliddon, three times in the past week – once to check for signs of a stalker, and twice more to look for any further clues to what may have happened to Cleo.
After examining the fence, windowsills and exterior of the property, Wilde said officers found no evidence that Cleo was snatched by someone who had prowled the South Carnarvon home beforehand.
With his team working late into the night and despite 200 reported and discounted Cleo sightings, Wilde said they still have no suspects.
He emphasised that the search of Cleo’s house was nothing more than routine procedure.
“It’s part of what we do in major investigations like this,” Wilde said. “Just so we don’t miss anything – leave no stone unturned.”
Meanwhile, the nation’s main crime-fighting agency has stepped into the ring and, according to media reports, is using spy planes to comb the area.
On Thursday, Seven News reported that reconnaissance planes – essentially military aircraft able to collect images and carry out real-time surveillance – are part of the technology being used.
While the prime minister, Scott Morrison, has confirmed that Australian federal police were helping with the operation, he was tight-lipped about the “advanced capabilities” and “tradecraft” being deployed.
“I just want to assure everybody over there in WA, particularly the family and friends of poor Cleo, this is really capturing the minds of the country,” Morrison said in a radio interview.
“It certainly has captured our minds here and our hearts go out to them.”
Overwhelming sadness
What police have revealed is that “credible sources” reported seeing a passenger vehicle turning off the Blowholes Road on to the highway around the time Cleo was likely abducted.
“If anyone saw car movements at or around 3am heading south on the coastal highway from Blowholes Road, that is one of our investigative areas of focus,” acting police commissioner Col Blanch said.
“It’s not to say we’re saying that is the person. But, certainly, driving around at 3am, coming out of there would pique our interest.”
CCTV from warehouses in Carnarvon’s light industrial area and homes and business on the main North West Coastal Highway have been obtained by police.
More than 100 campers have also been questioned, but Wilde said there are some people who were at the isolated camp – an hour north of Carnarvon – on 16 October who are still to be identified.
On Wednesday, as Smith and Gliddon visited Carnarvon police station, forensic police returned to the Blowholes campground to take ash samples from old fire pits.
Wilde has said that police will fully review all relevant past incidents, including a 2014 report that a girl was asked at the Blowholes to get into a small red car being driven by a man in his 40s. On that occasion, the girl fled, and the mother reported the incident to police.
“We’re going back and checking through all reports, but I can say there’s been nothing of a similar nature [to the Cleo disappearance] in recent times,” Wilde said.
At the campsite, where wild, dense scrub and spinifex surround tents and a handful of run-down shacks, there is little left of the massive search party that scoured the dunes just two weeks before, bar a few pink and orange ribbons tied to doorknobs.
They are a symbol, it seems, of the places police have already swept.
While the shacks are all but deserted, about 10 campers were set up at the quiet, windy spot this week. The patch of ground where Cleo was last seen in her family tent lay empty on Wednesday.
Melbourne University associate professor Andrew Dodd, currently on long service leave, arrived at the Blowhole campsite as part of his long-planned travel itinerary.
He said the camp was quiet and people were going about their business, but that there was a sense of overwhelming sadness that something profoundly awful had happened.
“You find yourself just looking at the verge as you’re driving along the road for a sign of a red sleeping bag,” Dodd said.
“Just everyone gets tuned into it, but you also get overwhelmed with the sense of just how impossible the task is to find somebody out here.”
Bounty hunters
Carnarvon shire president Eddie Smith says his town is doing everything it can to help find Cleo, but people are hurting.
Tempers have flared since the usually quiet town, best known for fishing and agriculture, was inundated with media. Locals have been contacted by self-appointed investigators and heartless comments about the family have been shared on social media.
Reports that bounty hunters may search abandoned buildings and vast salt lakes for clues have authorities urging people not to do anything stupid.
“It’s very dry, inhospitable country, there is no real shade, so common sense needs to prevail,” Smith said. “The coast near the blowholes is an extremely safe beach, but north and south of that not so much.”
A GoFundMe page, organised by a family friend to raise money for local businesses that helped in the search, has so far raised more than $84,000.
Smith says community members have been upset by media reports of sex offenders living in the area.
“Carnarvon looks after its own, it’s very parochial and very stoic and [Cleo’s disappearance] is not something that this community would have ever expected to happen here,” Smith said.
“The blowholes were the playground for our town,” he said. “Everybody looked after everybody, everybody really did and there was never a concern, and that has now been destroyed.”
On Thursday night, a vigil was held at the local church for school friends, teachers and families.
“As a community we will stay positive, I’m sure our positivity will end up with the best possible outcome occurring.”
Day for Daniel
On Friday, Australia’s largest child safety education and awareness fundraising day was held in memory of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe, who was abducted and killed on the Sunshine Coast almost 18 years ago.
Daniel’s father told the West Australian that he felt immediate flashbacks when he heard about Cleo.
“We could feel their emotion as they were speaking because we have walked in their shoes. We have sat in that chair.
“We just felt totally overwhelmed, as I’m sure Cleo’s parents did, and you wonder: ‘What is the point? If there’s been some misadventure, will this make a difference?’
“To make that public appeal is incredibly difficult, but it does serve a purpose.”
The WA premier Mark McGowan has pleaded for anyone with information to contact police. “We need everyone to keep an eye out, no matter where they are in WA.
“I urge you if you know her whereabouts, if you have any knowledge, if you have any tips – please pass it on to police.
“Please let’s get little Cleo home to her family.”
