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Cleo Smith search: Distraught parents Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon remain at isolated Blowholes campsite

Brianna DuganThe West Australian

As the search for Cleo Smith nears its seventh day, the little girl’s mother and stepfather remain at the isolated camp site where she was last seen, hoping against the odds she will be found safe nearby.

The Quobba Blowholes camp site would normally be bustling with holidaymakers at this time of the year, but a glaring electronic sign looms over anyone trying to access Blowholes road, warning them the attraction is closed, having been declared a crime scene.

A police guard stands sentry, barring entry 4km from where Cleo went missing.

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Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon are now the only people — other than those searching for their little girl — who remain at the campground.

Mounted Police search bushland on Blowholes Road.
Camera IconMounted Police search bushland on Blowholes Road. Credit: Jackson Flindell/The West Australian

Hundreds of searchers have combed an area of more than 20sqkm searching for any trace of the four-year-old or the red sleeping bag also missing from her family’s tent. So far, they’ve come up empty handed.

Police have now conceded it’s unlikely Cleo wandered off alone. The previously unthinkable — that someone else unzipped the tent and snatched her in the dead of night metres from where her parents lay sleeping — is now the more probable scenario.

Corporal Robin Downes from the Pilbara Regiment launches a drone near the lighthouse.
Camera IconCorporal Robin Downes from the Pilbara Regiment launches a drone near the lighthouse. Credit: Jackson Flindell/The West Australian

The search is continuing at the Blowholes, but it will transition from a search looking for a missing person to one combing for evidence pointing to who stole her from her family.

Police — including mounted officers, forensics and homicide detectives — as well as SES crews combed the landscape on Thursday. It’s understood crews covered a 10km radius from the camp site, re-covering ground already searched.

Australian Army Reservists Corporal Robin Downes and Private Julian McQuade were deployed to the Quobba lighthouse early Thursday morning to send a drone into the air.

The Police have deployed drones in the search for missing Cleo Smith.
Camera IconThe Police have deployed drones in the search for missing Cleo Smith. Credit: Jackson Flindell/The West Australian

A police drone was back scouring over the ocean on Thursday afternoon.

The marine component of the search for Cleo was officially abandoned on Monday.

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