Four-year-old Cleo Smith disappeared in October last year while camping with her parents in Western Australia. Her disappearance sparked a large-scale search that swept the entire country. Finally, a few weeks later, the police found her alive and well at the home of a strange man in her hometown of Carnarvon, a short drive from the camp where she had disappeared.

This weekend, her mother and stepfather will be giving an extended interview on the 60 Minutes Show about the events. In it, they will tell how Cleo deals with the kidnapping, but also how her new knowledge affects her life. “We were in Perth and someone walked up to her and said, ‘Hi Cleo.’ And she said: Hey! Hi!” According to her mother, she is reacting well to the situation, but she doesn’t quite understand it. “As we walked away, she said, Mama, why do you know my name?”

Negative feedback

In addition to the interview, there will also be a short documentary series and some other stories on the other platforms of the media channel. But the interview also caused a lot of negative reactions. For example, the family will receive about 2 million Australian dollars (just under 1.3 million euros) for the interview. Investigators associated with the case would not participate and the police would also have declined, saying the interview was “extremely inappropriate” because the trial is still pending.