“We were ... looking for a needle in a haystack and we found it,” Western Australian Police Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch said.
girl whose disappearance horrified and riveted the nation was found in a locked house in her hometown on Wednesday, police said.
Cleo, who went missing with her sleeping bag from a campsite in the Australian outback on Oct. 16, has been returned to her parents, police said. Police have arrested a man, 36, whose name has not been released. Police originally searched the area surrounding the campsite, but upon further investigation found it was more likely an abduction. Cleo would have been much too short to have zipped the tent back up to the height it was left at, they said.
Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said body camera video of four police officers breaking into the house with a search warrant and finding Cleo brought a tear to his eye.She was “as well as you can expect,” Dawson said.“The fact that that nightmare has come to an end and our worst fears were not realized is just a huge relief, a moment for great joy,” he added.
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