See, Hear the Moment Cleo Smith Was Rescued

Audio and video have been released
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 5, 2021 2:38 AM CDT

"My name is Cleo." So says the 4-year-old Australian girl who was found early Wednesday after vanishing from her family's tent during a camping trip 18 days earlier in an audio recording of the incredible rescue. Video footage was released as well, People reports. In it, Smith can be seen as she's held by an officer outside the home in Carnarvon, about 62 miles from the campground, where she was found. "When she said, 'My name is Cleo,' I don't think there was a dry eye in the house," Western Australia's deputy police commissioner said in an interview on Australian television.

Australia's ABC.net delves into the social media accounts of suspect Terence Darrell Kelly, 36. One profile appears to indicate an obsession with Bratz dolls, showing pictures of shelves full of the toys and images of a person who appears to be Kelly using a Bratz-like filter making his eyes bigger. Cleo was playing with toys when she was found, physically unharmed, but authorities have not said what type of toy specifically. Cleo will be interviewed by child specialists about what she went through, ABC.net reports.

For now, it's still not clear what happened to the little girl, but a detective said after her discovery, per NPR, "I'm amazed that she seems to be so well-adjusted and happy, and it was really ... heartwarming to see that she's still bubbly and she's laughing. ... Just to see her behaving quite naturally like a 4-year-old girl should do and just enjoying being in the presence of her little sister and her family was good." A politician who visited her adds, "She's bubbly, playing, friendly, sweet. She was eating an icy pole, she spilt it every way. She told me it was very, very sticky, which I believed, and she was just delightful." (More Australia stories.)

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