West Australian police are using drones and aircraft to create a detailed map of the Blowholes campsite as they look for “disturbances in the sand” during the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of four-year-old Cleo Smith.
Police recruits are also sifting through a mountain of rubbish collected from roadside bins stretching more than 600km along Western Australia’s north-west coast in the hope of finding any clue that could lead to Cleo.
The four-year-old vanished from the Blowholes campsite on the coast of Macleod, about 950km north of Perth, on 16 October.
Her mum, Ellie Smith, was the last known person to see her when the family were camping almost three weeks ago. She said her daughter woke about 1.30am asking for water before going back to bed. In the morning Cleo and her sleeping bag were gone from the family’s tent.
Acting police commissioner Col Blanch on Tuesday said the force was using drones as they looked to “map every inch” of the area.
“We are looking for disturbances in sand,” he told ABC radio. “We’ve used satellite technology, we used aircraft to take high-definition photos. We really need to make a good quality mapping of that area to make sure that we cover every inch.”
Blanch said the initial search focused on looking for Cleo if she had potentially wandered off. “Now we are in a stage where we need to forensically go over that ground inch by inch to see what disturbances might be in the nearby areas for any sort of evidence that might give an inkling as to what happened,” he said on Tuesday.
Authorities are conducting line searches too. WA police had previously said there was nothing to suggest the account given by Cleo’s parents was anything but “accurate and truthful”. Guardian Australia is not suggesting they were involved in Cleo’s disappearance.
More than 50 cubic metres of rubbish has been collected from bins stretching as far south as Geraldton, more than 500km from where Cleo vanished, and as far north as Minilya, 165km away.
WA police believe Cleo may have been abducted, with the state government offering a $1m reward for any information that helps them find the people or person responsible for her disappearance.
The rubbish was packed into trucks and transported to Perth where four forensics officers and 20 officers spent days sorting through hundreds of bags in an effort to find any items that may assist in the investigation.
The search of the rubbish was “still going on today and will take a while to get through,” Blanch said on Tuesday.
He said police were still looking for a vehicle they believed turned off Blowholes Road about 3.30am on the day Cleo went missing and drove south towards Carnarvon along the coast road.
The acting commissioner said it was thought to be a “smaller passenger-type vehicle”. That sighting remained a “significant focus of the investigation,” he said.
Blanch said given the remoteness of the area there were some potential routes from the campsite to Carnarvon without any CCTV coverage.
Asked if Cleo could have been watched or followed at the campsite, he said investigators were keeping an open mind so “all avenues are still a possibility”.
But the detective leading the investigation, Det Supt Rod Wilde, believes she was likely taken by an “opportunistic” offender.
Wilde said on Tuesday the family had stayed near their tent all evening and had not socialised with other campers.
“I think it’s more than likely an opportunistic-type event,” he told Perth radio 6PR. “We know they got there on the Friday night, it was getting dark, and there would have been limited opportunity for people to observe Cleo at that time.”
There are 100 people on the taskforce searching for Cleo – 50 locally and 50 in Perth. The working theory is that she was still in WA because it was a “high-risk proposition” someone would try and take her out of the state, Blanch said.
He called on people in the community to look out for anyone they knew behaving strangely “or a little bit off” after 16 October.
The acting commissioner said it was difficult to remain hopeful as the search dragged on but investigators were “focused absolutely on this case trying to bring Cleo home”.
Crime Stoppers have had 200 possible sightings of Cleo since she went missing and members of the public have come forward with hours of CCTV and dashcam footage in the hope that it helps.
“It’s been two weeks since four-year-old Cleo Smith was last seen, and while the search for answers continues we’d like to take a moment to thank the public for their ongoing assistance, attention and support for the investigation,” WA police said in a statement on Sunday.
“This investigation could not progress without new information, and we’re receiving that every day from people who want to help, who want to see Cleo return home to her family.”
- with Australian Associated Press
