A four-year-old girl missing for 18 days in a remote part of Western Australia has been found alive and well in a locked house, police have said.

Cleo Smith disappeared from her family's tent at a campsite near the town of Carnarvon on 16 October, triggering a massive search effort.

Police smashed their way into a locked house in Carnarvon at 01:00 local time, where they found her.

A 36-year-old man from Carnarvon is in custody and being questioned by police.

"A police team broke their way into a locked house... They found little Cleo in one of the rooms," Western Australian Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch said in a statement on Wednesday.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59143494

I'm glad they found her alive. After this long I was pretty much expecting a horrible story about her turning up in shallow grave somewhere, if at all.

I hope she's ok.

Cleo Smith found: Taxi dash-cam vision captures moment police swoop on Terence Darrell Kelly
Ben Downie & Michael Traill
The West Australian
Thu, 4 November 2021 12:53PM
Grainy taxi dash-cam footage has captured the dramatic moment police finally swooped on the man who allegedly abducted Cleo Smith.

Terence Darrell Kelly was only kilometres from the home police say Cleo was locked inside when they pulled him from the his car and pinned him to the ground.

At 11.24pm on Tuesday, just over an hour before Cleo was rescued, police surrounded Australia’s most wanted man on Robinson Street in front of shocked onlookers.

“It was like a high speed chase first, there was one car and then police cars,” Deane Mitchell told 7NEWS on Thursday night.

“(I thought) something’s going on, that’s not right.”

It is understood female relatives were inside the car with Mr Kelly during his arrest and he told officers he didn’t know what they were talking about when questioned about Cleo, 7NEWS reported.

Another witness said police were “chasing” Mr Kelly in his car before his was swooped on.

“The cops were chasing that car initially and they were all surrounding that car,” he said.

“And we saw one of the detectives on top of the guy pinning him down on the curb. . . you know really rigorously.”

Mr Kelly was charged by police on Thursday over Cleo’s abduction from the Carnarvon Blowholes campsite.

Among his charges was one count of forcibly taking a child under 16.

During his first court the magistrate described Mr Kelly’s case as “notorious”.

The 36-year-old man wore a black T-shirt and appeared stern when he sat in the dock, manned by two police officers.

Mr Kelly was represented by a Geraldton Aboriginal Legal Service lawyer, who appeared via video link, and did not make a bail application.
https://thewest.com.au/news/cleo-smith/ ... -c-4436841

Aaaah, a good ending at last, in a swamp of grim news.

So let's pop a joke, no biggie.