The search for missing four-year-old Cleo Smith is set to continue as police admit there's evidence to suggest she was taken from her West Australian campsite.
Authorities have confirmed the family's tent was found open at a height Cleo could not have reached when she disappeared from the popular Blowholes site, on WA's northwest coast, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Her red and black sleeping bag is also missing.
Homicide detectives are assisting local police and investigators have spoken to up to 20 registered sex offenders in the Carnarvon area, but say there are currently no suspects.
Detectives are also re-examining nearby shacks along the coastline as the search for the girl enters its sixth day.
"There's circumstances around her disappearance that make it very concerning and it's things like the fact that the (tent) zipper was allegedly up so high, the sleeping bag is missing," Inspector Jon Munday told reporters on Wednesday.
"We are hopeful that Cleo is still alive and we're operating on the premise that she is still alive, so we're going to keep searching until we find her."
Inspector Munday said the family were Carnarvon locals and he understood they had set up their tent "in the same vicinity as people they knew".
Cleo's mother Ellie Smith has said the little girl would never wander off on her own and someone must know where she is.
She said she and her partner Jake Gliddon had last seen Cleo about 1.30am on Saturday in the family's tent. They woke around 6am, when Cleo's baby sister Isla wanted a bottle, to discover Cleo was gone and the tent was "completely open".
"She would never leave us, she would never leave the tent," Ms Smith said, describing Cleo as a beautiful and delicate girl with "the biggest heart".
© AAP 2021