Cleo Smith, who had been missing for 18 days after disappearing from the family tent at the Quobba Blowholes campground, was found "alive and well" in the early hours of Wednesday morning at a residential address.
Cleo Smith's mother has declared "our family is whole again" after the snatched four-year-old was rescued by police who smashed into a house early today.
Cleo was found "alive and well" after police broke into a house early this morning.
Police raided the house in Carnarvon in Western Australia -about 70km from the campsite she vanished from 18 days ago - to rescue the girl.
A man at the house is now being questioned by detectives.
Police broke into the property at 1am today (local time).
Cleo was last seen in the early hours of Saturday, October 16, in her family tent at the Blowholes beachside campground in Western Australia's Gascoyne region.
Her disappearance captivated Australia and the world.
Police were adamant she could not have unzipped the tent and disappeared on her own.
Her parents said from the outset that they were convinced she had been abducted.
Cleo Smith went missing on October 16. Photo / Facebook
Her mother said Cleo woke up at 1.30am asking for a glass of water - but by 6am she had vanished.
The house in Carnarvon where Cleo was found is about 70km from the campsite where the four-year-old disappeared.
Source: news.com.au
For weeks officers have been questioning people who were at the campsite, mapping CCTV cameras, using drones to help with the search and even shifting through tonnes of rubbish for any clues to her whereabouts.
Abduction likely an 'opportunistic' event
Lead investigator into Cleo's disappearance, Detective Superintendent Rod Wilde revealed on Tuesday that police believed the four-year-old was likely targeted in an "opportunistic type event".
"We know they got there … on the Friday night. It was getting dark and so there would have been limited opportunity for people to observe Cleo at that time," he had said.
Cleo's mother Ellie Smith and stepfather Jake Gliddon.
Wilde said police were examining how someone could take Cleo from the tent without attracting attention.
"That's what we're trying to resolve, that's what were trying to understand," he said on Tuesday.
"We're doing a lot of work forensically … we've had over 1000 calls to Crime Stoppers."
Witnesses saw car at abduction site
One of the major focuses of the investigation had revolved around a report from two people who said they saw a car turn right off Blowholes Rd onto North West Coastal Highway, heading towards Carnarvon, between 3am and 3.30am on the day Cleo vanished.
Yesterday it was revealed police had discovered multiple escape routes that avoid CCTV cameras between the campsite and the town of Carnarvon, which is about 70km away.
This means Cleo's potential abductor could have left the campground without being spotted by any cameras.
Before Cleo's discovery, Blanch had said that the working theory was that she was likely still in Western Australia.
He said the focus at the moment was eliminating "as many people as possible" as suspects, along with forensically going over the ground "inch by inch" for any evidence or clues.
"It could be tyre tracks, it could be the sleeping bag — it could be anything," he said.
