True crime case: The four-year-old who was kidnapped for 18 days | 60 Minutes Australia

good evening and welcome to a special edition of 60 minutes I'm Tara Brown everyone in Australia recognizes this beautiful face Cleo Smith the little girl who was abducted from her parents tent at a remote West Australian campsite for 18 long days and nights we all held our breath desperately hoping though not really believing she'd be found but she was thanks to one of the most meticulous and determined police investigations ever undertaken tonight the untold story of Cleo Smith's kidnapping and rescue the dramatic new footage and extraordinary new insights which culminated in the happiest four words ever heard from a four-year-old my name is Cleo it's 10 degrees at six o'clock good morning the man who's confessed to abducting Cleo Smith is said to learn his fate today we've been waiting for this day we've been waiting for sentencing [Music] this is the day that he gets Justice because of what he's done [Music] happily Little Cleo Smith is blissfully unaware of the gravity of this day Terence Kelly pleaded guilty last year to snatching the then four-year-old he faces up to 20 years behind bars for her abduction her parents Ellie and Jake are preparing to come face to face with her kidnapper 37 year old Terence Kelly thank you it's been a bruising journey to Justice that's taken more than 500 Days so the emotions going to court terrified what are you terrified about senior I think of Cleo and how scared she was knowing that that's who she was looking at and not her parents not her family nor her sister it was him and that's what terrifies me that confounded and captivated the nation and the world missing in the Savage landscape of a remote Australian campsite where was Little Cleo Smith an exhaustive search on foot and in the air a tireless investigation and a daring police raid then what seemed impossible the heart-wrenching rescue I've got a hey Bobbies what's your name what's your name sweat up um hello does she ask you questions about those 18 days when she was away from you does she talk about it at all she knows that a bad man took her and he's in jail now so she's safe [Music] tonight what we've never heard before the trauma of that first frantic morning hi um [Music] Ellie Smith's emotional May Day call on October the 16th 2021 launched the desperate 18-day hunt for her daughter Cleo had inexplicably disappeared in the dark of the night from the family tent at the quabba blowholes in Northwestern wa have we checked everywhere in those first desperate moments Ellie and Jake were already contemplating the unthinkable how soon did you believe Cleo was not at the blowholes but that she had been taken the second we realized her like she was gone and her sleeping bag was gone yeah that was the second we knew she did not walk away there was no drag marks of this sleeping bag um we knew she couldn't have carried it I mean we were hoping she was around the corner and that's it was just a nightmare you know deep down wait deep down we knew she did not walk away she was taken within a mere seven minutes of Ellie's triple zero call police were on their way the first time from their body cameras we see Ellie's controlled anguish on that terrifying morning that's our temperature there we woke up this morning and she was missing yeah she's missing her sleeping bags with me this week's thermal black and red sleeping bag right um quite heavier carrying it Cleo had last been seen at 1 30 a.m in the tent she shared with her parents and baby sister when she'd asked for a drink of water before going back to sleep when Ellie and Jake woke just after 6 a.m Cleo was gone so were you were both in the tent yeah well so we're on the left side they told me not to go near the yes but we're on the left side she was in the right um obviously we've been around for 10 now for the last hour but yeah so is it just you and your partner that were here you held it together so well yeah I think I just went into survival mode can you describe again I know you just did got like blonde honey here oh green eyes she's in a purple bonds Wonder suit and with florals hang on the second thing on a second sorry is there a part of you that's screaming inside going please just stop talking to me and go find my daughter yeah yeah I think that was the whole time now every question like we knew how important it was so we were trying to help as much as we could but on the inside we're just like you know like why are you here can you please like like go and look and you go search go help it's every parent's worst nightmare immediately there you feel and it goes to your heart what they had to confront wa police Minister Paul papalea can now reveal the extraordinary seriousness with which Cleo's disappearance was treated right from the very start the first two officers who responded to that call for a missing child within four minutes of arrival had established a crime scene why did they do that they listened to Ellie and Jake and they made that call and the zip the zip was open if it was open and it was open basically like three quarters of the way and she's quite small and little like I don't see her opening it the whole way yeah um they continue to enact a search for a missing child but they also concurrently established a crime scene which is really critical and from then on almost every police officer who made a decision regarding this investigation made the right call so was it such a critical situation that if any of them had made the wrong call Cleo may not be here today very possibly approach was urgent what they had to sift through and investigate was mind-boggling to do it in 18 days was remarkable for all that time the Assumption was Cleo was alive [Music] it was crucial that they had the mindset that it was an abduction and they were going to find her they were going to rescue her I've talked to investigators in that team and they never gave up on the idea that they were seeking to locate and return her to her family they were yet to know but the man they were chasing was Terence Kelly from Cleo's hometown of carnarvon [Music] high on the drug ice he'd driven an hour north to the Campsite in the early hours of the morning with the intent to steal it took just one Unthinkable moment for this Petty Thief to become a child abductor On The Run snatching Cleo as she slept what were you told was the reason why he did it what did police say to you about why Terence Kelly took clear it's just it's disgusting 1-0 Canaveral one zero this is kalbari one zero over car battery one zero this is on the day four-year-old Cleo Smith disappeared SES search leader Steve cable made a frantic 500 kilometer Dash to the quabba blow holes an hour north of carnarvon Roger I'm approaching the search area what is your location over ready to coordinate one of the most intensive manhunts in Australian history [Music] you've done searches here before you knew this landscape when you heard that it was a four-year-old girl lost here for me the concern was the ocean covers a little girl that age if she got there far you called you off anymore and what could have happened we will do a circular search around the tent size Steve headed up the search for Cleo alongside Elsa Alston the SES team leader in carnarvon if I was going to search at 150 from here that's the bearing I go on what lay before them was the daunting terrain around the quabba campsite what drove them was the face of Little Cleo how worried were you quite worried I think you try and bore yourself up with where we're out there searching for a day and we'll find her you know that's that's what you cling on to [Music] day after day up to 60 SES volunteers formed the front line in a grueling battle against time to find the little girl this is really where it all began this is the campsite yeah it still chills me what was it like when you got here um it was eerily quiet it had gone from that initial chaos where there were people frantically looking everywhere they could to this cord and off site so it just stood as a sort of a bit of a bacon to remind us more we're all here really first did you get a sense while you were there how invested how emotionally invested some of these volunteers were I mean some of them were our closest friends they were out there doing everything they could day in day out and they'll still coming back with no no outcome no results no matter how much they tried that but she wasn't there the greatest fear for those searching for Clio was that they wouldn't find her in time but as the hours stretched into days the universal conclusion was that she hadn't fallen from these treacherous Cliffs nor was she lying unfound under some salt Bush it was clear Cleo was not here but that offered no comfort for the alternative that she'd been snatched by a stranger was far more terrifying [Music] five days in marked a new devastating reality for Ellie and Jake Cleo could not be found the search of the blowholes was officially over it was time to go home I think that was the hardest part for me was watching the Entourage leave um knowing that their child seat was empty and as a parent I thought I don't I don't know how you do that how you summon the strengths to leave this place where you had your child with you last yeah I just I watched them leave and I had to sort of have a quiet moment to myself at that point yeah one terrifying door shut and a bigger terrifying door opened and she was taken someone came and took her and that door was the only door then just terrible [Music] with the SES search over 140 police were now on the hunt for Cleo and her abductor police from carnarvon and Perth detectives forensics and data analysts were feverishly working around the clock police Minister Paul papalia was across every aspect of this immense investigation there was a massive amount of data that had to be assessed and analyzed there were tens of thousands of hours of CCTV imagery from service stations from private houses from small businesses within a thousand kilometer radius they deployed officers to search rubbish bins to eliminate potential evidence and searching vehicles and and people driving through them it just meant that every thread potential thread was looked at that would say yeah so in the site itself there were 110 campers there had been people by the time the police arrived who'd Departed and others who had arrived it was just a massive volume of information to sift through as the police investigation would ultimately reveal Terence Kelly was a man on a mission having left carnarvon for the Campsite in the dead of the night what have police told you about his movements and you you were all sleeping you thought safely in your tent he was on drugs and he was coming to steelster still yes still from cars or Shacks that's all he was there for and he opened our tent and she was there so he just swept her up and it put her in the car and did please tell you the journey he then took he went the dirt track home yeah to avoid being detected yeah detected he turned his phone off so none you he'll say he took the dirt track home um the plan was in action then Terence Kelly had made a Monumental era one that would break open the case and ultimately lead to him being identified as a suspect [Music] somewhere along his journey at 305 am he turned his phone back on registering a solitary ping with this mobile phone tower how critical was this bit of technology in identifying Terence Kelly as a potential suspect yeah it's pretty striking this Tower was the site that recorded thousands of phones hundreds of thousands of data sets and in that captured one bit of information that led to the investigation of Kelly as the as the suspect so that put him on the list yes amongst a lot of other people and a lot of information but it was ultimately the start of of that threat of Investigation by a sheer Quirk of Fate it was just 2018 when the new tower was built a short distance from the campsite it was The Stroke of Luck that changed everything once they got that ping that really opened up a window into the life of Terence Kelly for police yes having got that ping from that device it gave the police that starting point how would the police have approached telecommunications engineer Professor Mark Gregory at Melbourne's rmit says that single ping revealed a treasure Trove of Secrets was that a Eureka moment yes most certainly was the tower at the blowholes didn't just identify the phone operated by Terence Kelly through detailed data analysis it yielded so much more so the information from the phone's house is not just about where the phone is it's about how the phone has been used yes they get information about what websites what applications have been running and other information that can help create a picture about you know the individual that's using that device and so all of these little breadcrumbs helps the police put together a picture and and eventually that picture leads them to to the suspect Napa was fast data magnet and so police had to sort through rule out and prioritize a mountain of complex information from one Tower they would have hundreds of thousands of data sets this man was a needle in a haystack that's right in retrospect people think this was obvious it's only obvious after they've removed all the other clutter the hundreds of thousands of leads that were wrong then it becomes clear [Music] ance Kelly was in the sights of police [Music] Cleo's 18-day ordeal was about to come to an end but only now the extent of her torment can be shared do you feel anger when you hear that yeah of course I mean you know someone's tied our child up to someone's heard our kid like we are angry and will always be angry for nearly three weeks the eyes of the world were on the isolated town of carnarvon in Western Australia as it searched and grieved for little Clio it must have been a huge disruption at the time it was a significant impact on our town the amount of people that actually got on board and tried to help during the search yeah it was just it was absolutely out of control like so many here Shire president Eddie Smith was convinced that Cleo had been taken by an outsider to learn that the perpetrator of this was from within the carnarvon community not just a little girl but the man who did this to her what was that like it was a shock absolute shock and it was the entire town was this doesn't happen in our town yeah and it's carnarvon's at home this sort of thing happens in the rest of the world not not in Carmen [Music] back in those dark days of Cleo's disappearance mum and dad Ellie and Jake endured the most excruciating waiting game with the search over they could do nothing else but Appeal on social media for help every day is getting hard without my shining bright light today she's missed Halloween with her family she needs us and we need her I need my baby girl home please I beg you Millions read Ellie's heartbreaking pleas including as we now know Terence Kelly it was basically um commenting saying Whoever has her to return her and he had her yeah he knew that we were begging for our daughter back he was responding to us begging and did nothing yeah he did nothing he would go home every night knowing that he had her [Music] while he was cruelly playing with them what kelly didn't know was that police were closing in information from various government agencies from Kelly's social media use to his phone data and criminal history the complex threads of a determined investigation were coming together the police Minister Paul papalea can now reveal there were other potential culprits but as each was ruled out Kelly's name Rose to the top of the suspect list it began as a massive wide spectrum of investigation and narrowed and narrowed and narrowed and just prior to his arrest they became more focused on him foreign [Music] the wa police hunt for Cleo spanned an extraordinary 1 000 kilometer radius but for the entire 18 days she was missing Cleo was here locked inside Terence Kelly's house the four-year-old was breathtakingly close to those who were searching for her the hardest a mere two minute drive from the carnarvon police station just over three kilometers from her home from her desperate mum and dad within hours of Kelly being identified as the prime suspect detectives were ready to swoop even then the situation was so fluid they didn't know where Cleo was whether she was alive or dead or even if they had the right man but the risk of waiting was too great on Tuesday November the 2nd 2021 they sat off Kelly's house watched him leave and then just before midnight pulled him over what sparked the police to arrest him in the manner in which they did which was away from the house he was driving it was planned for the early hours of the next day but um it was brought forward because of the erratic nature of his behavior he was driving erratically and they couldn't anticipate what he was about to do they could potentially fear that he would try and evade them and get away what was it like to learn that they swooped on Terence Kelly within hours of learning that he was the Prime Suspect I mean we had no idea they were fast they were efficient yeah um the second that they got details in like they they jumped I think they acted they did what they needed to do it's the right call they made the right call under difficult circumstances yes thank goodness Cleo was in that house Cameron how are you doing is that good it was the most precious moment that touched the world because so many feared it would never come Cleo was alive remarkably she'd been hidden in plain sight can you come to terms with how close she was to you for all that time no no when the police called and said we have her I was like where are you and they're like oh at the hospital I'm like get away um they're like no in carnavan like in emergency and also what there was no way I thought it was anyone in Canada I mean their towns our home um the communities like our family ugh we grew up there I was born there and someone that lived there and grew there was the person that did it [Music] since Cleo's rescue much more has come to light about Terence Kelly's motivations a troubled man he was a meth addict and a loner who mostly dwelled in a bizarre imaginary world shared with Bratz dolls and a fake online family what were you told was the reason why he did it what did police say to you about why Terence Kelly took clear he had his fantasies and he was trying to make them come to life you know he wanted a daughter he wanted a wife and he had all this these different Facebook pages set up to be his family he already had that in action but he needed it in real life so he had to make that come to life um it just happened to be that it was our tent that he got into so he was fulfilling a fantasy of having a real little yeah yeah he wanted a little girl that this little doll looked like one of his doubles here um it's just it's disgusting [Music] once caught Terence Kelly admitted his crimes immediately confessing to how he treated Cleo during her 18 days locked in his home tying up the four-year-old with sticky tape and as he described it roughing her up when she dared to ask for chocolate disturbing evidence Ellie and Jake had to sit through in court listening to the details of him having you know a roughed Cleo up having tied her with tape those details that must have been harrowing to listen to I mean he's just it's disgusting to hear that someone's like capable of doing that to a child let alone our child um you know clearly was so innocent and she is such a ball of sunshine it's just heartbreaking despite Terence Kelly's delusional drug adult state of mind there is no doubt he knew what he was doing he changed the locks on the bedroom door where Cleo was held and he even turned on the radio to drown out her cries for her parents we heard in court that Cleo had heard her name on the radio the radio that had been set up to disguise her crying out for you yeah what was that like to hear in court obviously it it hurts to know that she was crying out for help and we weren't there um it hurts to know that she was crying out for help and to ignored him it was ignored yeah did you feel anger when you hear that yeah of course I mean you know someone's tied out sometimes you know tied them up with sticky tape someone's heard our kid like we are angry and we'll always be angry but we've also gotta keep moving forward fall clear [Music] front of Mind always is Cleo's well-being her recovery a day-to-day challenge for this courageous young family I mean we have hard days just like Claire has nightmares but we've also gotta you know put on that brave face clear they were just like you know Red Dirt um and gorgeous and it was so stunning and then there's a night around the campfire with Jake and Ellie Smith and their love of the outdoors is infectious everywhere we went to was so beautiful it just made us realize how beautiful Australia really is but in the immediate aftermath of Cleo's extraordinary rescue they embraced it like they'd never done before taking their daughters on a great escape around Australia fear like what was the anticipation like getting on the road behind the wheel for the first time too scary obviously we'd never really traveled neither of us have ever done such a thing even though it was scary it was just what we needed to do [Applause] [Music] where are we off to [Music] you don't know on an adventure and first off exhale [Music] it was a four-month adventure that took Cleo and her little sister Isla far from carnarvon a road trip to remember to help them all forget the horror of Cleo's 18-day kidnapping ordeal was packing up and leaving running away um not running away just I guess trying to find us again um as a family so it was nice I think it was it was a great it's good to get up yeah it was a great decision and we were able to find ourselves again um after trauma [Music] Cleo Strokes me as a girl is always in a hurry always as long as she's running jumping dancing she's happy here she goes yeah she does have a lot of good days and now she's such a happy little girl as happy as Cleo is she remains a little girl Changed by her kidnapping being cocooned with her family on their caravanning holiday love and reassurance was the perfect antidote we were just in such a small space and I think that was what she needed having us all there did she Express needs that you hadn't heard before you know like please don't leave me alone or I want to sleep with the lights on or yeah definitely we had to make sure she felt safe and she felt comfortable she was always a really independent little girl like she would love sleeping by herself she would love her own space her own area and now she's a lot more with us um which is great where we don't mind yeah um we love a snuggle you can only imagine the fear Cleo felt when she was kidnapped and healed by Terence Kelly 18 days that would have felt like a lifetime for this little girl [Music] even the love and protection of her family can't erase the terror that still plagues Cleo in her most unguarded moments [Music] she still has her sad nights her Nightmare Nights something she just can't explain yeah what are the sad nights about what what has she said about if she doesn't have the words to explain what she's sad about she just knows that's how she feels so they're just sad nights her Nightmare Nights are the worst nights yeah and they still happen yeah yeah how frequently ah every week must be hard to see a little girl scared yeah what do you do to try to make her feel safer um yeah reassure that everything's fine let's make her a few chocolates yes she's got your measure that's it the 4th of April this year was a landmark day for Cleo's nervous parents Ellie and Jake we've been waiting for this day we've been waiting for sentencing the day Terence Kelly would finally learn his fate for kidnapping their daughter it's like this big ball of anger that's been building up every day and once I hit him dates I'm hoping I'm hoping I can let go of that anger it didn't take long for chief judge Julie wager to sum up the pain Terence Kelly inflicted on Cleo and her family the fear and distress caused to them over those 18 days was immeasurable the child's life and that of her family has been permanently impacted and that impact will never go away she sentenced Kelly to 13 and a half years for child stealing despite reliving the details of his awful crime just as they have throughout Ellie and Jake maintained their dignity we have clear we have her family together and we try not to dwell on him and um the bad bits of what happened obviously we're still sad hurt scared uh Angry terrified but we we try not to let it rule our life so it is hard talking about him and what happened because we don't want that to be our sole purpose of our emotions Cleo Smith's kidnapping changed the lives of so many especially those who sacrificed so much to try to find her the Elsa and Steve from the SES clio's extraordinary rescue was a moment like no other still gives me goosebumps I actually was woken up to the news and people's well my phone was pinging yes my husband came upstairs and was shouting and I think I could my neighbors probably still had the yelling in the screen I thought oh just incredible absolute Jubilation just the best day around town people put up signs I know the SS unit we went down and everyone bought whatever fairy lights they had we made aside so lovely fairy lights and signs I thought you might go to the pub we did that too yeah and all the town was out everybody was out you just needed to be out together and everybody had to share it yeah fast yes yes they were incredible that town um you know it's always going to be our town we don't live there anymore but it's always our home you know to the police they've done everything they still do you know they go beyond to their job everyone helped us in so many different ways we're so grateful for that Cleo clearly relishes being home back with her family for all that she endured nothing can dampen her insatiable Lust For Life can you ever say no to that local it took a bit yeah it took a bit to say no but we we do I mean we still need a treater yeah um normal [Music] she has school she loves her school she loves ballet she's just starting tap and she wants to do horse riding she has so much to live for she's five and she's such a vibrant little soul we're grateful for having our little girl home I'm Tara Brown thanks for watching 60 Minutes Australia subscribe to our Channel now for brand new stories and exclusive Clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minutes segments and full episodes of 60 Minutes on 9now.com and the nine Now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 990,883

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Tom Steinfort, 60Mins, Amelia Adams, news, world news, news australia, investigative journalism, 60 minutes australia youtube, 60 minutes youtube, 60 minutes episodes, 60 minutes australia episodes, 60 minutes australia, 60 minutes, cleo, my name is cleo, cleo smith, ellie smith, missing child, missing persons, quobba blowhole, campsite, kidnapping, terence kelly, terence darrell kelly, wa police, true crime

Id: 09psie1InBc

Length: 40min 55sec (2455 seconds)

Published: Sun May 14 2023