WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Kidnapped Aussie child's miracle outback rescue | 60 Minutes Australia

to begin the 44th season of our show a very special program tonight about a courageous and beautiful little girl for 18 days last october and november cleo smith was the most talked about child in the country and the unluckiest in the middle of the first night of a family camping holiday the four-year-old vanished at first it was thought she'd wandered off but it quickly became clear something much more sinister had happened cleo had been kidnapped as days turned to weeks everyone feared the worst but then even more remarkably she was found telling her rescuers four words we'll now never forget my name is cleo two three four five cleo smith the little girl lost for 18 long days [Music] the bright and bubbly four-year-old who made her way into our hearts and whose recovery continues to captivate us [Music] how is she coping with the attention oh she loves it yeah loves it she loves it she just loves it she um she we were in perth um at the end of last year and someone went up to her and they're like hi cleo like you know hi how are you and she's like hi just full of excitement that you know someone's saying hi to her and she's we walked away and she's like mom how does she know my name it's the name we will never forget what's your name put your name spread out my name is claire three months after their precious daughter was rescued by police mum and dad ellie smith and jake glidden are learning to live in the aftermath of one of the most extraordinary child abductions we've ever seen as is cleo how is cleo going right now [Music] she's she's okay yeah um every day is a new day um yeah she has her ups and downs every day yeah every day and night um is different but she's okay she's happy she's bubbly she's sad she's angry uh but she's she's getting there leo cleo are you there cleo smith was gone launching one of the nation's biggest hunts for a missing child snatched in the dark the four-year-old had disappeared into the night taken as her parents slept sparking a search like no other we're going as hard as we can to try and find cleo 18 days of heartache for a little girl who could be anywhere we had no idea we had nothing the whole time we had no no clue then the most startling breakthrough clio found and rescued just seven kilometers from home the man who took her a local and a loner terence kelly was in fact following one of your social media accounts uh yeah and what is that like to learn it's so heartless i was begging for my daughter and someone had her and was reading me begging for her back it's just disgusting tonight the untold story of cleo's abduction ellie and jake revealed details we've never heard before the clues that were kept secret and inside the house the first insight of what cleo endured has cleo told you whether she felt safe or scared she uh she told us that she was scared she was locked locked in a room and she was scared and she didn't know like where we were have you seen the images that have been broadcast that show the inside of terence kelly's home yes yeah what was it like for you to see that the room with floor floor to ceiling shelves lined with dolls sickening yeah it was like it's just disgusting that obviously like that's what what he wanted he won a little doll [Music] less than an hour north of cleo smith's home of carnarvon nearly a thousand kilometers north of perth powerful ocean swells force water through sea caves and narrow passages [Music] known as the quabber blow holes they were a spectacular playground for jake and ellie who first came here when they were kids we grew up there um yeah we grew up fishing and diving crayfish and yeah yeah it was always been up there really yeah it was such a safe place it was the perfect setting for treasured family time a place they'd always loved so on friday the 15th of october ellie and jake headed to their old stomping ground with cleo and her baby sister six-month-old isla never imagining they were about to suffer every parent's greatest fear it was our first camping trip as a full family and how did cleo feel about being there she was excited because she hadn't been camping in so long she'd been telling us she's the whole weekend before i was like yeah we're gonna go camping and she's like oh i'm so excited i can't wait and yeah we took a bike as well and that was another reason why we camped there because it had access for her to it's pretty hard grounds yeah it was hard grounded right up and down it jake ellie and the two kids got to the campsite at about 6 30 that friday evening and very quickly set up before the sun went down it looked very much like this their brand new tent was divided into two spaces by thin nylon sheet with jake and ellie in this room and the two girls in the other and so effectively then how close are you sleeping to your children in that time we basically had a queen blob mattress and that just fits yeah just just fitted in that one room and then it has that privacy screen which again thinners paper and then we had the portacot and cleo so it was basically all of us basically beside each other yeah pretty close [Music] by the time the sun had set their campsite was ready soon it would be bedtime for cleo she had dinner and then we set up the fire she had some marshmallows she said like mum i'm tired and i was like okay took her in tucked her into bed and she just went to sleep what sort of a night was it it was pretty windy yeah there's lots of shacks tin shacks so they're pretty noisy and then the ruffling against a tent and the waves everything was just bashing and it was so windy and so noisy but you did hear cleo at about 1 30 a.m yeah she woke up and she was mom i'm thirsty i gave her some water she popped herself back into bed so i just popped my head through checked on her and that was it really she was fine claire got into bed said goodnight mum i jumped into bed and that was it [Music] that final good night from cleo was the last moment of normal for this unsuspecting family just four and a half hours later their lives would be shattered by the unthinkable mum woke at six am the entrance to the girl side of the tent was wide open cleo was missing as i'd step through the divider the our tent was open and obviously my first thing is i look for the children and um yeah and claire was gone and i've turned around to jake and i'm i said like clara's gone and he's like what and then he was like in so much shock because she wouldn't leave the tent yeah i said gone and he's like what and jake's gone outside and he's walking around the tent he's like like i can't find her and it was just a nightmare really straight-up nightmare from that second cleo cleo wasn't in the tent and she wasn't anywhere nearby there was no sign of her can you hear me i was a bit bit worried because i didn't think she would actually leave the tent by herself because she is pretty pretty timid scared of the dark so i knew she wouldn't be out there by herself you know at this stage is it panic in the pit of your stomach is that the feeling or is that yet to come oh pretty straight it was straight the second we realized she wasn't there because we knew who she is as a person like she wouldn't just leave so we knew straight away but you know in your heart you still need a look for her around the corner because she's still hoping no she just got up she's she's just gone gone to the toilet by herself [Music] but adding to the confusion and horror cleo's sleeping bag had also disappeared as we turned around we realized the sleeping bag was missing and it was gone and that then jake started looking on the floor i thought she just followed her she's dragged it but there's no drag marks for the sleeping bag no i couldn't see any footprints from her and yeah it was yeah it just kept looking and looking and pretty much checked all the chats that were closed yeah just kept yeah doing what you could i guess on foot and then we um grabbed isla got in the car we looked up and down um right down to the beach coastline yeah the beach out um went through the beach and that's when we um we called triple zero do you remember the words you used to triple zero oh i said i said uh you know my daughter's missing i can't i can't find my daughter not only was cleo gone along with her missing sleeping bag there were other clues too clues we can only now share that cleo had been abducted i mean i was it was undone ours was um opened does it creep you out a bit that he was so close to you you were so close to him yeah it was you know so close same tent like it was the same tent and he's taken a step in there and grabbed our child and was sleeping right next to it all [Music] ellie i know your first reaction when you saw that cleo was not in the tent was cleo's gone but but when did the moment hit you that cleo was gone that she wasn't just outside the tent that she wasn't in the sand dunes that she was gone gone gone i felt like my my heart was it told me like she's not here she's not gonna run into my arms today she's not gonna run down a sand dune she was basically nowhere near me and that was the second i realized that someone had her and both my head and my heart connected to that someone has her and someone had my baby having your heart and your mind come together how terrifying was that i don't think words could really describe how i felt in that moment it was it was nothing that i ever want anyone to feel i didn't know where my baby was and while saying that i also knew someone had taken her [Music] at the age of 24 ellie smith had to confront what most parents dread to even imagine all her mothering instincts told her her girl had not wandered off but she desperately hoped she was wrong [Music] we are throwing everything we can at this and to try and get a breakthrough but unfortunately at this point in time we don't have any answers as to where cleo is within minutes of jake and ellie's emergency call to report clio missing police are at the campsite and what followed was one of the most exhaustive searches in australian history [Music] at one point there's a chopper in the sky there are drones there are police on horseback there are ses volunteers searching the scrub somebody described it as a scene out of mad max that that's what it looked like is it was insane the amount of people like our community just stood together and helped us so much any anyone that could help helped that's the bearing i go on [Music] cleo's greatest chance of being found was in the first minutes and hours after her disappearance but as night fell there was no sign of the little girl it's been over 24 hours since i last saw the sparkle in my little girl's eyes please help me find her if you hear or see anything at all please call the police 1 30 a.m the day after she's gone missing you turned to social media yeah was that your idea ellie or did the police ask you to do that oh they asked us to stash social media and don't read everything that's on it but it was the only thing we felt like we could do get the word out there more yeah more people than know the better you in fact posted countless heart-wrenching posts and again people have described it as living the horror in real time with you was it just about sharing information and seeking information or or was it an outlet for you was it your way of coping i don't know it was it was just the only thing we could really do anything else we couldn't we couldn't do anything ellie and jake were barred from searching by police their agonising task was merely to watch and wait as for the next week police continued to comb the campsite and search the vehicles of anyone coming or going as the days mounted the desperation grew where was cleo could this little girl still be alive that whole time i just felt powerless because you're acting against your instincts aren't you yeah yeah definitely yeah everything inside your body is saying you know get in the car go here go there look ask everyone you know have you seen her like this is her but you can't day four is a bit of a hurdle for you guys in the search for cleo the weather is really terrible and delays the surge at this stage i mean when you talk four days it's you can't even believe that you have to say four days your child is missing but at this stage are you [Music] understanding how critical time is and that as each day progresses the likelihood of good news is becoming less the chance of survival is becoming less yeah they're explaining it to us pretty much every day how the odds are dropping the statistics can be terribly grim i mean you know yeah the experts say in in cases like this children are killed normally within three to six hours yeah yeah and you wear a total statistic who told them who told them straight away straight away um yeah they didn't want to give any false hope to us yeah was that just sending you crazy yeah yeah i remember on the thursday that they decided to um tell us that they were ending the ses search and i was basically on the floor crying um and they basically said you know she's not here we can have my heart so she's not here and it just kind of confirmed everything that we knew why were you crying i guess all hoped that she was going to run down that sand hill at you know with her arms open it was gone now it was holding on to hope that someone had her that would give her back did you ever lose that hope no no not at all ellie and jake always believed a stranger had taken cleo now witness accounts were emerging that would prove them right a fellow camper reported to police hearing the sound of a car screeching at around 3 a.m the morning cleo disappeared other reports came in of a car turning off blow holes road and heading in the direction of carnarvon just before 3 30 am but it's only now that jake and ellie can reveal there were other critical clues that pointed to an abduction clues we've not heard before it came to light a little later that a footprint had been found outside your camp did the police talk to you about that unidentified footprint uh not outside the tent no um there was one inside the tent um and there was some dna but we weren't given too much detail on it again they kept us in the dark we still don't know on discovering cleo missing ellie immediately noticed the flap to the girl's side of the tent was open police calculated the zip was too high for cleo to have reached meaning someone else had to have opened it someone we now discover who first spied on cleo's parents as they too slept in the tent i think the one thing that really surprised a lot of people is that when the zipper to the tent was used to open it and and cleo was snatched that you guys didn't hear it given that you were sleeping so close yeah well it was windy it was quite loud with background noise so yeah but hearing that zip i mean our our zip was undone ours was um opened yeah uh probably about 30 40 centimeters and i mean we didn't even hear that um so who knows if when it was opened it was just open really slowly or we don't know and so the fact that your zipper is opened as well as the access flap to the girls what does that suggest she's come to look yeah so obviously he didn't know where she was she didn't know what he didn't know what side of the tench she was in he must have looked at ours realised not in this side when's the other side closed out i will didn't even close it just left it yeah math might have put his head through i realized yeah she's not on the side and then gone on the other side and that's where she was well does it creep you out a bit that he was so close to you you were so close to him yes you know so close same ten like it was the same tent and he's taken a step in there grabbed our child and we're sleeping right next to it all it's it was right next to either australia yes so not only did he have access obviously to cleo but he had access to isla and we were no meter away from them and it was just yeah it was just so gut-wrenching that someone could step into a tent and take our child [Music] as we now know it was terrence kelly who carried out that unthinkable audacious act he's pleaded guilty to kidnapping although there is still much to understand in this case but one thing is clear jake and ellie did not know the man who took their child they're convinced the abduction was frighteningly opportunistic and they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time an innocently placed bike drawing him in what do you think happened given that clearly this man was looking for your daughter how do you think it came about what do you think happened from what we know i mean we know facts and [Music] apparently we we weren't a target um it was just the time and the place that he could do it um claire had a bike yeah a little pink bike at the front at the front which indicated we had a child in that tent and that was all he needed to know and how we meant to know putting a a little girl's bike at the front of our tent indicated for someone to get her so there's been no suggestion that he watched you while you set up the campsite he he wasn't there when we were sitting up no he came after he seen the bike he seen that we had a child and it was just the time and the place for that person to take her but back in that first week after cleo had gone missing ellie and jake had to confront the most traumatic moment of the entire ordeal that was pretty yeah with a hundred sense i've had to do i think yeah it was just [Music] again we just felt empty numb [Music] when you take yourselves back to that moment getting in that car with one child not two it must have just been awful yeah it's a long drive home yeah with a hundred cents of again we just felt empty numb yeah jake glidden and ellie smith had stayed at the blowhole's campsite willing their missing daughter cleo to return to them we were still trying to hold hope that she just wandered off and we knew the second that we left campsite we wouldn't see anyone looking for her [Music] six days after cleo disappeared from their tent leaving the campsite to return to carnarvon was the very worst moment for ellie and jake in a way it was a wrenching goodbye to cleo on that thursday we knew she she wasn't there anymore not packing up they'd done their job then we had to put all of our hope into the homicide play squad now like ellie and jake police were convinced a kidnapper had taken the four-year-old so the hunt for cleo moved from a search operation to a criminal investigation and that sees the forensics team at your house we see you jake letting police in what was that like for you now for your house to be uh searched in that way treated in that way a bit confronting really to know someone that they thought someone was scoping out a house and following us and up to the coast that kind of thing um but it was good to see that they're actually investigating doing that kind of thing so it was kind of relief as well so they're actually investigating and doing that but just having police on your property it created a picture i think for some people aha now you know now now they're on to some someone and it's their family yeah all we were trying to do was help them and people would be like oh they know something they know that it's them they know it's this or and really like we're giving them our keys we're helping them at breaking point worried sick about their missing child ellie and jake were further targeted by heartless couch detectives and keyboard trolls why was this child left alone in a tent who does that something seems off with him i just have a bad feeling he knows more of course they'll deny it but where are the lie detector tests the social media frenzy was sure that as cleo's step-dad jake had killed cleo and ellie also had something to do with it you know people they just had so much hate in their heart that they would message parents that have had their child taken from them telling them you've done this you you know go kill yourself go tell the police you know the truth and like they have no idea who we are as people or any of the situation at all but yet they had the like the audacity to message us and accuse us of something that they have no idea about jake what sort of messages were you getting uh pretty much similar to ellie what have you done to cleo bring her back did you kill her yeah kill yourself heaps of yeah same sort of thing pretty much pointing it at me yeah being step dad yeah i think that's pretty much what it was yeah what sort of impact did it have on you at the time um a lot of it was pretty much ignored and didn't open just tried to stay on off social media as much like that kind of as much as you could i was very opposite to jake i would read every message that i got um i opened everything and it was terrible it was you know we're in such a dark place you know part of our family is missing and getting these messages some people like that never met me like have no idea who we are and you're telling me that i could do something like that it's just it's so disgusting it just kept confirming that there are such terrible people in the world that could write these messages or let alone take my child it was yeah it was so bad why did you keep reading them because i couldn't do anything couldn't do anything else and i guess i was reading the negative because it was so much positive as well people messaging through with such beautiful stories and being so kind but then i was drowned out by a lot of hate as well [Music] as the days turned into the third week police did not waver from their investigation sifting through 17 tons of rubbish collected from 600 kilometers of highway combing phone records cctv footage satellite imagery and collecting dna and fingerprints they were looking everywhere and speaking to anyone who might hold a vital clue but cleo was nowhere and mum and dad were distraught pleading for help once more 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 but there was no mercy and no leads that ellie and jake knew of just mounting misery 17 days without cleo and they were at their bleakest it was melbourne cup day and um yeah i guess like i don't know it was just kind of one of those nights where we we just kind of hugged each other and we just it was just so long and we're just we just kept going like you know how is this still happening to us we just couldn't believe that this was our life right now um you know we were missing our daughter and we never thought that we'd ever be in that position because why would you so it was just everything was flooding emotional nightmare yeah it was just one of our yeah massive emotional night [Music] this was the moment they were closest to giving up hope of ever seeing cleo again but what jake and ellie didn't know was that very night police had just found the final piece of the puzzle that would lead them to cleo so you went to bed in one of your lowest most emotional moods and you woke up at 1am to a phone call yes it was one o'clock in the morning um i was asleep uh when the phone call came through i was like this is either a good or bad yeah that was probably the most scariest but most beautiful phone call ever as the desperate search for cleo smith reached day 18 as much as we hoped very few of us believed she would turn up alive after such a long time and with no concrete leads something very special was required to bring this little girl home well in the early hours of november 3rd last year defying all odds the miracle her parents had prayed for [Music] it was one o'clock in the morning i was asleep when the phone call came through and i was like this is either good or bad and i've answered it and straight away i've got someone who wants to say hello to you and i'll swear i'll say oh my god no no way like i swear i am the only recording record and claire got onto the phone and she's like hi mommy and i was like hi baby i'm like hi and i'm smacking jake i'm like wake up wake up you know it was such a beautiful moment but it was so scary because we had no idea where she was um jake when did you come too at what point did you realize what was going on after being thumped on the chest pretty much when i heard her voice through the phone i could hear it i just needed to see why she was hitting me you didn't think you were dreaming no i think you're like jake turner and he's like is that clear is that really clear and i'm like yeah family oh my god cleo had been hidden in plain sight at 12 45 a.m police found her on her own locked in a room inside a locked house just seven kilometers from her own home all their tireless effort was about this one extraordinary unforgettable moment what's your name you're right what's your name what's your name my jake and ellie knew nothing of the raid had no idea to expect that call they'd been so desperate for incredibly their daughter was safe and well and waiting for them in the carnavan hospital a mere two-minute drive away i was like in canaan he's like yeah and i was like i was like what and jake's like in carvin and i'm like yeah okay okay we were just both just like you know crying and shaking and yeah we're just a mess just hours before cleo was rescued police had finally pieced together overlapping data collected from phone records number plate recognition and cctv that led them to terrence kelly they sat off his house waiting for him to leave and once he did they pounced pulling him over and arresting him the coast was now clear for detectives to force their way into his house hoping to find cleo but not really knowing what awaited them what they found was astounding did you walk or did you run through the doors of the hospital well because of covert we had to press we had to wait at the entrance and press a button and they're like oh you're clear's parents will let you through [Music] so i was like oh okay and then we had to wait so i was like and so [Laughter] you see her yeah yeah she was sitting on the bed um and we just kind of ran out to her and like hi she's like hi mom like nothing had happened hi mom and i'm like hi i'm like i miss you she's like yeah i missed you too and um yeah it was just it was beautiful and i'm like i'm holding her and i'm like i miss you she's like i think she's like cuddling her and i'm like hi jake's right behind me and we're trying to take turns but both don't want to let it go this was the iconic image of cleo seen around the world the proof that she was okay beaming and bubbly as ever and seemingly undaunted by her ordeal what do you think cleo understood of that moment i don't think she really did i still don't think she really understood what happened in general um you know being so young and at that age do you think cleo had an understanding of time do you think she knew she hadn't seen you for 18 days i don't think she understood as in such the days but she knew it was a long time yeah she did amaze everybody i think by looking so well the images that were released of her she looked after 18 days away from you she she looked healthy she didn't look traumatized were you struck by that yourselves not really i think because we've seen like her hair was cut her hair was dyed so i guess we kind of seen the little things people didn't and you saw that immediately yeah yeah to learn their daughter's hair had been cut and died felt like such a personal intrusion it stole some of the joy from their long-awaited reunion i was just angry that someone tried changing her to kind of fit what they wanted did she talk to you about that has she spoken to you about the haircuts and the hair color and she said yeah like you know she had a she got the pink put in her hair and then it washed out she said it didn't work and um and then we had to then get a haircut again because it was basically all cut into chunks and did cleo tell you how she felt about that happening to her not really again i think she was really confused yeah as to why it was happening in general for you to know that a stranger had done this to your daughter what was that like i was like i i'm gonna like yeah it just explode i was just so angry the things that she was saying and i was just i just needed a second to get away so i didn't you know give off my anger while she was there because i didn't want her to know how that was how i was feeling [Music] it was here in this nondescript house it's believed cleo was kept for nearly three weeks terence kelly's social media posts revealed the interior and his weird obsession with bratz dolls like that's what he wanted he won a little doll which is so sickening and disgusting is there anything else that you can tell me about what you know about that house or the conditions in which cleo was kept ah so when the police found cleo she was awake so one o'clock in the morning she was awake playing with cars just little little cars so her night and day was very mixed up she told us that she could hear dogs barking um and the police have confirmed that the house is basically how it has been posted on social media yeah so there is the dolls and everything like that and is that your understanding that she was locked in that room for 18 days that's where she was kept we don't know exactly what room um and we don't know if she was moved at all in the house at that house for 18 days we don't know if she was yeah we don't know if she was in that one room or if she was moved in like the same house but different rooms um the only thing we know is she did wash that pink dye out of her hair and that's as far as we know of her moving around the house knowing that cleo is so young knowing she's scared of the dark knowing that she's without you what is it like to know that he left her in that room you know she he wasn't there when she was found other times he'd been seen around town either betting at the tab or or supposedly shopping for nappies to know that she was all by herself what does that do to you both oh it makes you angry upset yeah i think it holds like a lot of anger but at the same time i guess for me as mother like he wasn't there to be able to hurt her as well so i feel like you know it might have been that time that she was safe from him i know this is a really hard area to canvas but has anybody suggested to you what this man intended to do with cleo i don't think we really know what his intentions were um i think from what we know i don't know if he even knew what his intentions were going to be in the days and weeks after the hospital reunion ellie and jake have learned more from cleo but understandably it's slow going still to this day we don't know the full story but it was just minor minor things that she would say um her necklace was taken off her and um she would turn around and say you know but my necklace is still at that place and but yeah we she's blocked out a lot um as to what's happened she's kind of went into survivor mode and pushed it very far away yeah did does she remember being taken from the tent or has she blocked that out she remembers um why she was taken so she tells us that she was taken because um her baby sister was sick yeah and so she needed to be taken away from us so then we could help her baby sister she just knows a reason as to what he's told her what was that like to learn yeah pretty angry after we just kind of started realizing you know the story that she's been told we held a lot of anger but because we kind of wanted to have our hearts full of you know no hate or anything like that while we helped her heal and we healed ourselves yeah and that's still to this day what we're doing how far from healed do you feel you are and she is we've got a long way to go um and so does she you know she's probably going to be dealing with this for the rest of her life and you know we're we're going to eventually have to find out everything that's happened and we're going to have to carry that as well you can have this it's her picture but as you'll see this family is far from broken with big plans for the future are you defiant about that that this man can't rob you of everything we don't want to let go of everything that we've we are and who we are i think it's the start of our new beginning [Music] what's your name what's your name my name is reliving this most precious moment the rescue of their daughter cleo is an emotional experience for jake glidden and ellie smith not just for the 18-day ordeal she was put through but for the extraordinary work it took to get her back mummy big hugs kisses um yeah and lots of tears [Music] i honestly cannot say thank you enough to uh everyone that was involved everyone that lent a helping hand a police community every volunteer place it was just it was such a hard time uh going through everything we're going through but everyone did everything they could and it really did show i mean we we got the outcome we wanted because of them because of everyone that helped out for little cleo the joy of being home that first morning is captured in this video the family has shared for the first time there is nothing sweeter but even in those first magical hours together ellie could see her daughter had changed it was probably like seven o'clock in the morning um so that was only six hours after we got her back and she was jumping around you know dancing singing she was so happy um and that was just yeah it was such a beautiful moment just to see her as the old cleo um but you could still see there was like for us you know we've seen her do it a million times before and now a million after and it's still different she's still different she and she always will be but that's just our life now is there grief involved in that for you yeah definitely like um as a parent you want to make sure that they stay as a child for as long as they can because you don't want them to be in this big bad world and [Music] she lost that and that was taken from her for the little girl who was scared of the dark her terrifying kidnapping has left cleo with new fears and sleepless nights yeah she hates doors being shut yeah even still yeah still to this day like the first week it was probably the worst um we had to have all the doors open all the lights on uh just to for her to go to sleep and even then she'll wake up screaming uh and yeah it was it was nightmare after nightmare um after being through the nightmare really that must be heartbreaking to experience yeah yeah it was and then you know to try not to cry in front of your child it was you know by watching it go through so much and being so much pain again you know and people are still still going on on social media and attacking us and they don't even know what we've gone through or what we're still going through it's yeah it's terrible two weeks ago terence kelly pleaded guilty to abducting cleo he'll be back in court next month facing other charges for ellie and jake knowing who took their daughter is a crucial step towards normality in terms of getting on with your lives without fear um [Music] having some resolution is it important oh definitely yeah that you know who the person was and and and that he is being punished for it yes it was a relief that we could still go back to our family home we you know without thinking someone's watching us um or thinking [Music] you know anything like that could ever happen again um so it was it was nice to know that yeah i guess we were as safe as we could be yeah again you speak of your own anger directed at the man who took her has cleo expressed anger or has she expressed any feelings or thoughts about this man uh not directly um [Music] but she her emotions are very up and down um yeah she was very angry she would lash out a lot of the time like she never really understood her feelings so you know during our healing process that's kind of what we're doing helping her understand [Music] uh it's okay to be angry it's okay to be sad it's okay to be happy we're just helping her along the way of her journey now and i guess i mean you would be desperate wouldn't you to know everything there is to know but you can't can you can't push a child in that way oh no never we're content that we didn't want her to relive that um so we didn't ask her any questions as to what's happened why would you want to put your child back through that it was the place they loved most but where they experienced the very worst the quavo blowhole campsite where jake and ellie spent so much of their childhoods is somewhere they can never return to pretty much our favorite place to go is ruined now yeah we don't really want to go back we can't go back there now i you know there's no way in hell that i can ever see them heels again and not think about the times where you know i was i was sitting and waiting for claire to run down into my arms and say you know i'm here okay what are you doing creating fingernails whose fingernails are you painting daddy and so they have a big announcement to make with great excitement as well as some regret for leaving their beloved community behind they're hitting the road we're we're gonna move um we're gonna get a caravan um and we're gonna tour wa as much as we can but since you can't cross the border yeah we can't cross the border so until the borders are open um we want to do all of australia um but until find somewhere to have a new start yeah fresh start so there's lots of camping ahead of you just not at the blowhole and it's going to have locks and oh my gosh everything that looks really beautiful baby [Music] it's not so much about running away from bad memories but creating the best ones so now i go to school tuesday tuesday go to school are you defiant about that that this man can't rob you of everything that yeah we're trying to put it into a positive side of you know we're going to travel let the girls experience you know a different life to what we originally thought but they're going to have such an amazing life and we're going to stay positive about that i mean who wouldn't want to go traveling what do you think it is about cleo's story which is your story that has really captured the the imagination and the heart of perfect strangers all around the world i think everyone had their heartstrings pulled when she was taken and then when she was found i think it really just it hit everyone's hearts and they felt part of our family maybe i could ease [Music] cleo's rescue took everyone's breath away her abduction was a shocking and outrageous act that seemed certain to end in tragedy but while ellie and jake suffered every minute of those 18 torturous days remarkably they always believed cleo would come home and finally she did we knew from the beginning like we know how strong she is and so many people laughed when i i said that you know she's so strong and but she is and she proved that and we knew it all along that she could get through it we're just crying happy tears now for cleo and our family being whole again of course you know your story makes everyone want to go home and hug their children just a little bit more yeah definitely it makes us want to grow women hug girl children a little bit more hello 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 nine now dot com dot a u and the nine now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 3,570,546

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, karl stefanovic, 60Mins, #60Mins, cleo smith, carnarvon, terence kelly, manhunt, kidnap, abduction, western australia, jake gliddon, missing child, search, true crime, miracle, rescue, happy ending, world exclusive, terrance, terrence, dolls, creepy, little girl, taken, snatched

Id: uZANGTKgBbw

Length: 59min 59sec (3599 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 06 2022