ABDUCTION CASE
Cleo Smith suspect seen ‘with car full of DOLLS’ days after four-year-old went missing, neighbours say
THE man suspected of abducting Cleo Smith was spotted with a car full of dolls after the four-year-old went missing, his neighbour claims.
Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, appeared in court on Thursday after he was charged with forcibly taking a child under 16.
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Kelly was arrested on Tuesday night just before officers swooped on a property where they found Cleo, who has now been reunited with her family.
But just over a week ago, one neighbour told that he saw the accused kidnapper with more than ten dolls in the back of his blue Mazda.
Henry Dodd said the dolls were brand new and were still in their packaging "as if they had been collected from the post office".
"There were around ten or twelve dolls... and it looked like he had picked them up after they were delivered somewhere," he told the publication.
"You could see them in their boxes like he ordered them online. They were all piled in the back of his car."
Mr Dodd went on to say that he thought the sight was "weird" and that he didn't realise Kelly had an entire room full of toys in his house until it was reported on Wednesday.
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He also said that he passed on the observation to local police to which they told the Mail that "police have their own way of deciding what to follow up and not follow up on".
On Thursday it was revealed that Kelly was obsessed with Bratz dolls with pictures showing dozens of them in the house where she was found.
One of Kelly’s many social media profiles is a Facebook page devoted to his obsession with Bratz dolls, an American brand featuring scantily clad teenage figures.
On the page, posted a video of himself with a filter showing hearts with the words “I love my dolls”.
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Another picture shows a room dedicated to the dolls, with shelves stacked to the ceiling showing a large number still in the boxes, the
Kelly is also pictured with one of the dolls in each hand wearing a Bratz t-shirt with the words: “Nothing beats chilling at home with by Bratz dolls”.
He also uploaded photos to Facebook in April 2020 showing him taking a doll for a car drive.
“I love taking my dolls for drive around and doing their hair and taking selfies in public”, he captioned the post.
Police were asked about the alleged doll obsession and whether Kelly might have used the toys to lure Cleo but said they would not be commenting on it.
DRAMATIC ARREST
Grainey dashcam footage shows the moment police swooped on Kelly on Tuesday night.
The doll-obsessed man was just metres away from his home where the four-year-old Cleo was locked inside.
On Tuesday at 11.24pm, over an hour before Cleo was rescued, police surrounded Kelly in front of shocked onlookers.
“It was like a high-speed chase first, there was one car and then police cars,” Deane Mitchell told .
“[I thought] something’s going on, that’s not right.”
It is understood that Kelly's female relatives were in the car when he was bundled out of the vehicle.
Another witness said that police were "chasing" the suspect before surrounding him.
“And we saw one of the detectives on top of the guy pinning him down on the curb. . . you know really rigorously," the witness said.
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In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Cleo was carried to safety after she was found safe 18 days after vanishing from Blowholes Campground - just 43 miles from her home in Carnarvon, Western Australia.
Police allege that Kelly snatched the little girl from her family tent while she slept at the campsite with her family on October 16.
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Inside Cleo Smith kidnap suspect’s home ‘filled with dozens of Bratz dolls where four-year-old was rescued’
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