Cleo Smith’s parents have closed the door on the home where they spent 18 tortured days praying for their little girl’s return after she was abducted by a stranger.
Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon sold their three‑bedroom, one‑bathroom fibro house in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, about a 10‑hour drive north of Perth, for $300,000 last month – almost double the $120,000 they paid for it in April 2021.
It was the home they were living in when Cleo was taken from the remote Blowholes campsite at Point Quobba in an abduction that shocked Australia.
Cleo was just four when she was taken from her sleeping bag in the early hours of October 16, 2021, while camping with her mother, stepfather and baby sister.
Police and rescue personnel, aided by helicopters and drones, spent nearly three weeks scouring the Western Australian scrub during mammoth operation.
Experts began to fear Cleo was dead after days of searching produced no leads.
Eighteen days after she vanished, police miraculously found her inside the Carnarvon home of Terence Darrell Kelly – just minutes from her family’s house.
Millions of Aussies watched the heart-wrenching moment officers asked the girl ‘What’s your name?’ who replied in a small voice ‘My name is Cleo’.
Cleo Smith (pictured) was reunited with her family 18 days after she was abducted
Terence Darrell Kelly (pictured) was jailed for more than 13 years for the abduction of Cleo Smith on October 16, 2021
Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon have sold the three‑bedroom, one‑bathroom fibro house (pictured) in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, about a 10‑hour drive north of Perth
Kelly, an avid collector of children’s Bratz dolls, later pleaded guilty to kidnapping Cleo and holding her in his home, only four kilometres away from her family.
Images of the home show a pink-walled room, believed to have been Cleo’s, where she would have resumed her regular life after being rescued by police.
The family moved away from their hometown of Carnarvon to a bigger five-bedroom house in regional WA which they bought for $375,000.
More than four years on from the horrific kidnapping and intense media scrutiny, Cleo’s family have remained largely quiet in the wake of her ordeal.
A picture was shared of her at her parents wedding in 2023 and in 2024, Ms Smith posted photos of Cleo celebrating her seventh birthday, and later winning a gold medal in her first gymnastics competition.
In early 2022, the Nine Network secured a controversial, estimated $2million interview with the family about the lingering impacts of the ordeal.
Ms Smith slammed Kelly’s motives for stealing Cleo were ‘disgusting’ after a psychologist report found he had abducted Cleo to realise his idealised fantasy of having a little girl he could dress up, play and be with.
‘She still has her sad nights, her nightmare nights… [it is] something she just can’t explain,’ Cleo’s mother Ellie Smith said.
Police released a photo of four-year-old Cleo Smith after she was rescued on November 3, 2021 after being missing for 18 days
Images of the home show a pink walled room, believed to have been Cleo’s, where she resumed her regular life after being rescued by police
‘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.’
Ms Smith said it angered her to hear in court that Cleo had been roughed up, tied to a chair with sticky tape and was crying out for help.
‘Obviously, we’re still sad, hurt, scared, angry, terrified, but we, we try not to let it rule our life,’ she said at the time.
