The shattered mother of a four-year-old girl who went missing from an Australian camp site has revealed that she awoke to find the tent door hanging 'completely open' and the child's sleeping bag gone.
Cleo Smith was last seen by her mother Ellie at around 1.30am on Saturday when the little girl asked for a sip of water in their tent at the remote Blowholes beach camping ground in Western Australia.
The devastated mother-of-two said she woke up at 6am to find Cleo had vanished along with her sleeping bag and the tent flap hanging open.
She turned to her partner Jake Gliddon, the girl's stepfather, and said: 'Cleo's gone Jake.'
The couple began to frantically search their tent and the surrounding campsite in hopes they would find the child before notifying police.
Ms Smith fought back tears as she said that Cleo would 'never leave that tent alone' at a press conference alongside Mr Gliddon on Sunday.
The case drew immediate comparisons with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann - who went missing from her family's apartment at the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal aged three in 2007 and has not been seen since.
Ellie Smith and her partner, Jake Gliddon (pictured) have fronted the media for the first time since four-year-old Cleo went missing near the Blowholes campsite north of Carnarvon in Western Australia four days ago
Police referenced an 'interaction' between the four-year-old and her parents (pictured with her mum Ellie and partner Jake Gliddon) about 1.30am on Saturday - sparking intense public scrutiny that something sinister occurred
Ms Smith said Cleo would never have left the tent on her own and said she would have asked her mum for help unzipping her one-piece sleeping suit.
'She's lazy when it comes to walking. She'd never leave that tent alone,' she said, adding that someone has to know where the little girl is.
Cleo had been in a sleeping bag next on a mattress next to the cot holding her younger sister Isla, while her parents slept on a blow-up mattress.
'The tent was completely open. It was about 30cm from open,' she said.
'We grew up here, we literally grew up 100 metres from where we stayed at the same age. So we just looked everywhere that we went as kids and we couldn't find her.
'We realised we had to call the cops because she wasn't here.'
Ms Smith said the couple have barely slept since the four-year-old vanished and described the last few days without Cleo as 'horrendous'.
The devastated mum said she has no clue what happened to her daughter and despite thinking of 'a million' different scenarios still feels helpless.
'The worst part is that there's nothing more we can do. It's out of our hands now and we feel hopeless and out of control,' she admitted.
'We hold hope that she is still here somewhere. If I think about the idea of her being taken, a million things cross my mind.'
She said while her friends, family and the local community had been 'so supportive', all she wanted was her 'beautiful, funny and delicate' four-year-old to come home.
The couple have asked the public to report anything they see 'big or small' to police.
'I know she can get through whatever she's going through,' a teary Ms Smith said.
'We're going to find her, we have to'.
Heartbroken mother Ellie Smith said her daughter (pictured) would never have left the tent on her own and said someone has to know where she is
It marked the first time the couple have spoken publicly since little Cleo vanished, with Ms Smith issuing an urgent plea for help to social media on Sunday.
'It's been over 24 hours since I last saw the sparkle in my little girl's eyes!' she wrote on Facebook.
'Please help me find her! If you hear or see anything at all please call the police.'
An intense search for the missing four-year-old resumed about midday local time after wild weather and a storm cell forced emergency services to call it quits.
It comes after Daily Mail Australia revealed Cleo woke up in the middle of the night and asked her parents for a sip of water hours before she disappeared.
Police referenced an 'interaction' between the four-year-old and her parents about 1.30am on Saturday - sparking intense public scrutiny that something sinister occurred.
But Daily Mail Australia confirmed the detective was referring to something as innocuous as 'asking for a sip of water' in the middle of the night, before she rolled over and went back to sleep.
'There is nothing to suggest anything suspicious occurred in that moment,' a police source said.
Cleo Smith woke up in the middle of the night and asked her parents for a sip of water hours before she disappeared
A land search was suspended on Tuesday due to wild winds and an intense storm
Social media sleuths seized on the detective's turn of phrase, suspecting something more dramatic had taken place.
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