The mother of Cleo Smith has told of the moment she realised her four-year-old girl was missing – and how they are “learning” to “go through our days again”.  

A land and sea search was launched after the girl disappeared from her family’s tent on a campsite in Western Australia last October.

Police found Cleo 18 days later “alive and well” inside a locked house in her hometown of Carnarvon, about 60 miles from the campsite.

The Nine Network’s 60 Minutes broadcast an interview with the family on Sunday night in what was called a “world exclusive”.

They asked the family about the moment it was realised “Cleo was gone” and that “she wasn’t just outside the tent, that she wasn’t in the sand dunes”.

Her mother, Ellie Smith, said: “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 the sand dune’.

“She was basically nowhere near me. And that was the second I realised that someone had her, and both my head and my heart connected to that.

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“Someone has her and someone had my baby.”

Asked about how the child was coping, she added: “She’s learning and so are we as to how to go through our days again, after everything that’s happened. But she’s okay.”

Nine Network said it was “very pleased” with the interview, adding it was the most watched 60 Minutes episode this year.

Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, has pleaded guilty to a charge of child stealing and is due to face court again in March.

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