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It’s been five years since Cleo Smith’s disappearance and rescue dominated headlines in Australia and around the world.
Whilst camping with her parents and little sister Isla at the Quobba Blowholes in Western Australia, four-year-old Cleo was taken on the morning of October 16, 2021.
When her mother Ellie Gliddon went to check on her daughter, the tent zipper was pushed up much higher than Cleo could have possibly reached.
“The second we realised she was gone and her sleeping bag was gone,” Ellie said at the time. “That was the second we knew she did not walk away.”
What ensued was one of the largest police operations in Western Australia’s history, and 18 excruciating days of waiting and investigations before she was found.
Now nine-years-old, we’re looking at where Cleo is today.
Where is Cleo Smith now?
Since she was found, Cleo’s family has worked hard to return to normalcy back home in WA.
In an update with 60 Minutes in June 2024, Ellie revealed that Cleo is happy and loves her sister and friends at school.
Reporter Tara Brown also explained that Cleo’s joined the local swimming club and loves doing gymnastics.
At the time, she had just returned from competing in an international gymnastics competition in Singapore.
What happened to Terence Kelly?
Terrence Darrell Kelly pleaded guilty to abducting Cleo in 2022 and won’t be eligible for parole until he has spent 11 years and six months in jail.
In 2023, Kelly was sentenced to 13 years and six months behind bars.
At the time, Julie Wager, the Chief Judge of the WA District Court, explained to a court in Perth that he had injected methylamphetamine on the night Cleo was abducted, adding that he suffered from a severe and complex personality disorder.
Wagner also said that his sentence was reduced by 25 per cent from the maximum 20-year sentence for stealing a child due to his early guilty plea.
At the time of his arrest, Kelly revealed in a police interview that Cleo had cried when she was left alone, and smacked her for asking for chocolate and being bossy. He also revealed that he “roughed her up a few times”, but did not want to badly hurt her.
Kelly also told the police he had tried to restrain her, but she fought back.
“The fear and distress caused to them [Cleo’s parents] over those 18 days was immeasurable,” Wager said.
“The child’s life and that of her family has been permanently impacted, and that impact will never go away.”
At the time, the court was told that she was locked in a room inside Kelly’s property that had a mattress on the floor.
How did Cleo Smith get found?
It was the moment that stopped the nation – when detectives safely located Cleo in Terence Kelly’s home, just minutes from her family’s house in Carnavon, 18 days after her disappearance.
Hours after she was rescued, the police released the audio of them asking her for her name.
“My name is Cleo,” she said, which was met with relief and joy from the officers present.
Shortly after her rescue, WA police commissioner Chris Dawson told the ABC that a “police tip-off” led to her rescue, where they followed up on some information.
“We put everything we had at it. So obviously, our homicide squad — trained, experienced investigators/detectives, our analysts, our technical people, drone pilots, air-wing, the whole lot,” he said of the November 3 operation.
“We mounted our general duties police who did a tremendous job within minutes of arriving; the first officers on the scene, within minutes, declared it a forensic scene and sealed it off, which was just really, really good policing.”
“From that moment on, it’s just been a really dedicated team of well over 100 on the scene itself, and we were prepared for a long haul, but we’re so, so pleased.”
