A mystery in the state of Victoria and grave concern for the life of a little girl:
The Western Australian government has offered a prize of Australian million dollars ($ 750,000) for information leading to the whereabouts of Clio Smith, a 4-year-old girl who has been missing for six days.
Smith disappeared from her family's tent at the Blowholes campsite in McLeod, about 50 miles north of Carnerbon, in the early hours of last Saturday morning, according to police.
Since her disappearance, search crews have scanned the area and the nearby beach, but so far have found no sign of the girl or her black-and-red sleeping bag.
Police now believe she was abducted.
"Given the information taken from the scene, the fact that the search lasted a relatively long time and we have not yet been able to locate it, makes us believe it was taken from the tent," Western Australia Police Chief Crime Division Commander Rod Wilde said at a news conference today (Thursday).
"We imagined we could locate it, given the amount of resources and the thorough search that is being done," he added.
Detectives said there was grave concern about the girl's fate.
Due to a small amount of clues to further investigation and searches, the Prime Minister of Western Australia, Mark McGuan and the Minister of Police, Paul Papalia, announced a monetary reward for any information that would lead to Cleo's whereabouts, or the arrest and conviction of the person or people involved in her disappearance.
They said they were "praying for a positive outcome".
Search for 4-year-old Cleo Smith // Photo: Reuters
"I would like to believe that most people would have willingly reported if they had information that could help the police, but if this award motivates someone to help bring Cleo home, then the government is happy to offer it," Papalia said.
Last Tuesday, Cleo's frightened mother, Eli Smith, and her partner, Jake Glidon, made a public appeal for help finding the girl.
"So many have helped us, supported us. Everyone is asking us what we can help and what we need. All we really need is our little girl at home," Smith told CNN.
She described her daughter as a dome, delicate and with "the biggest heart."
Gone at night
Smith recently saw Cleo, her eldest daughter, inside the family tent at 1:30 p.m., when the girl asked to drink water.
Then they both went back to sleep.
When the mother woke up at 6:00 a.m. to feed Cleo's younger sister, the 4-year-old girl was missing.
When it became clear that she had disappeared, they called the police.
The search teams first concentrated on the water and then moved to land.
They searched a number of huts located along the shoreline at the site, but to no avail.
The search
Bad weather made the search difficult for several hours on Tuesday when the search for the missing girl began.
The next day, rescue crews scanned an area of four square miles around where Cleo was last seen.
UAVs were sent over stormy seas and nearby cliffs and crews scanned the area on foot, vehicles and bicycles.
At a news conference last Wednesday, Police Superintendent John Mondai told reporters that police would not stop the search until they were convinced Clio was no longer in the search area.
"It's frustrating and it's discouraging," Monday said.
He said the police do not rule out any scenario but are currently only focusing on finding Cleo: "We are not taking any option off the table. We are just exhausting all the opportunities and all the possibilities."
