Cleo Smith’s mum posts heartbreaking photo of daughter, 4, and begs ‘please come home’ after ‘abduction’

CLEO Smith’s distraught mum has posted a heartbreaking picture of her missing daughter begging her to “please come home.”

The four-year-old disappeared from her family’s remote camp site in Western Australia on Saturday morning.

instagramCleo’s mum Ellie posted a picture of the missing girl on Instagram[/caption]

ABC NewsThe distraught mother urged her child to ‘come home to me’[/caption]

Police now fear the little girl was snatched from her tent admitting they are looking for “a body.”

Her mum Ellie today posted a picture of the child holding an ice cream along with the caption: “My sweet girl. Come home to me.”

She added: “If anyone sees anything at all please call the police.”

Deputy police commissioner Col Blanch admitted today that investigators are searching for the child’s remains.

He said: “Cleo disappeared from her family’s tent, despite an extensive land, sea and air search, we have not yet located her body.”

The law enforcement chief said that if the little girl had left her tent by herself then she would have been found by now

“That leads us to believe she was taken,” Mr Blanch added.

He later said police are keeping an open mind and would not comment further on whether it was likely the girl has been “buried in the area.”

Detective Superintendent Rod Wilde said police “hold great fears for her safety”.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan said police are searching “around the clock” for the little girl while announcing a $1m reward to her find her.

This is quickest time such a reward has been issued after the disappearance of an Australian.

The family’s camp where Cleo was last seen is located 47 miles from Carnarvon and 544 miles from Perth.

Mum-of-two Ellie says her daughter woke up at 1.30am on Saturday asking for a drink of water – and that was the last time she spoke to her.

Ellie and partner Jake woke up again at around 6am to find Cleo had gone.

The child along with her pinks pyjamas and red sleeping bag were nowhere to be found.

More than 100 cops, soldiers, volunteers and local Aboriginal bush trackers are currently involved in an “extensive land, sea and air search”.

Members of the homicide squad joined the search for the girl at the weekend.

Police fear that Cleo could have been snatched and driven eight hours before police even reached the camp site on Saturday.

They said the child “could be anywhere.”

9NewsCleo vanished from a remote campsite in Western Australia on Saturday[/caption]

Detectives admit known sex offenders were in the area at the time.

Mr Blanch said cops are looking through “hundreds of Crime Stoppers reports” lodged since Saturday morning.

He said: “The process of any investigation is a process of elimination.

“If we can prove a person was not there, then they’re off the list.”

Cops have questioned all the local registered sex offenders as well as nearby campers – with the investigation coming to a standstill, reports say.

Cleo’s biological father Daniel Staines has also been spoken to as part of standard police procedure but he is not a suspect.

Daniel lives more than 600 miles south of where his daughter was last seen.

The next step for police is to try and trace missing CCTV and dashcam footage taken from the area in the hope it could uncover clues.

Locals have been urged to check bins and roadsides for the red sleeping bag that Cleo was using the night she vanished.

The local land search is expected to end in the next 24 hours with the hunt for the child going nationwide.

Detective Superintendent Wilde said: “We have got the nation looking for Cleo.

“Today’s announcement is to say everyone needs to be looking for Cleo.

“Look at people who have acted strangely since the 16th (of October), look at people who have been in that area … ask questions.”

As the search moves nationwide, the family will stay at the camp site in the faint hope Cleo wanders back.

Inspector Jon Munday said yesterday that a new piece of information suggests the child was kidnapped.

He told reporters that the child was too short to reach the zipper to open the tent on her own.

This rules out the theory that Cleo left the camp site on her own in the early hours of the morning.

Munday said: “One of the major circumstances that has given us the cause for alarm for Cleo’s safety is the fact that one of those zippered entryways was opened.

“The positioning of that zipper for the flap is one of the circumstances that has caused us to have grave concerns for Cleo’s safety.”

Munday confirmed that cops had not identified any suspects.

Her mum Ellie said the four-year-old would never have run off by herself

She said: “She’s lazy when it comes to walking. She would never leave that tent alone.”

Police said they are looking into reports that a car was heard screeching around the area at 3am on Saturday – 90 minutes after Cleo was last seen.

Deputy Police Commissioner Darryl Gaunt said: “It’s a little bit unsubstantiated but we’re not ruling it out.”

He added it was just one of several reports from people who noticed odd activities or noises during the night.

Gaunt said cops had “investigated and responded to the vast majority” of these reports and had been able to explain “most of them”.

Speaking about the search earlier this week, mum Ellie said: “We’re going to find her — we have to.”

Asked if someone may have taken her daughter, Ellie said someone has to know where she is.

“It’s been four days – they have to,” she says.

NSW Police ForceThe child was wearing distinctive pink pyjamas[/caption]

NSW Police ForcePolice released a picture of a sleeping bag like the one Cleo was using[/caption]