Four-year-old Gus vanished from the Oak Park sheep station owned by his grandparents Shannon and Josie Murray, 400km north of Adelaide, ten months ago.
HER FAMILY SAYS THEY DESERVE ANSWERS..! – A SECRET SEARCH FOR A MISSING MOTHER OF TWO HAS BEEN REVEALED JUST KILOMETRES FROM THE GUS LAMONT SEARCH.
As police scour the South Australian outback for the remains of little Gus Lamont, a second, secret search for the body of a young mother continues just kilometres away.
Four-year-old Gus vanished from the Oak Park sheep station owned by his grandparents Shannon and Josie Murray, 400km north of Adelaide, ten months ago.
Police have so far failed to find a single clue, but believe he is dead, either accidentally or otherwise, and suspect the involvement of his grandmother Josie, 75.
But the Daily Mail can now reveal that police are also still searching for a second missing body.
Mother-of-two Tanja Ebert, 23, vanished in August 2017 from Oulnina Park, a sprawling sheep station which partially borders the Murrays’ huge property.
She lived with her pastoralist husband Michael Burdon, 41, who police believed was responsible for her murder, and who shot himself in front of officers while they were still looking for her.
The German-born mum’s family told the Daily Mail they remain bitter at the police ‘incompetence’ over her case.
They blame the way her disappearance was handled by police for Mr Burdon’s suicide six days after Ms Ebert was reported missing.
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Tanja Ebert, 23, vanished from her sheep station near Yunta in 2017 and is feared murdered
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Tanja and husband Michael Burdon on a family trip to Adelaide with their young sons
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Gus Lamont vanished just 50km from where police have been searching for Tanja
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The two missing people are from neighbouring sheep stations – Oak Park and Oulnina Park
After Mr Burdon’s suicide, police said he was the prime suspect for his wife’s murder.
Ms Ebert remains a missing person, with Crime Stoppers offering a $200,000 reward for anyone with information on her disappearance.
Mr Burdon shot himself dead outside the family homestead – just 50km away from the Murrays’ neighbouring homestead.
His mother, Marlis Burdon, 85, from Port Lincoln in the state’s west, told the Daily Mail he was hounded to his death by ‘relentless police harassment’.
She said her son was pushed over the edge during five hours of ‘aggressive’ questioning by detectives in his kitchen on the day he killed himself.
Ms Burdon is now concerned Josie Murray is facing similar police treatment after she was declared a suspect in February when police ‘identified discrepancies’ in the timeline surrounding Gus’ disappearance.
Police seized computers and vehicles for forensic testing in January, and arrested her for possession of a prohibited gun silencer found as they searched the Oak Park homestead.
The gun charge was unrelated to Gus’s disappearance, and Murray was fined $10,500 after pleading guilty at Adelaide Magistrates Court last month.
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Burdon’s mother Marlis remains bitter about how police handled the investigation
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Crime Stoppers is offering a $200,000 reward for information on Tanja’s disappearance
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Oulnina Park Station, near Manna Hill, was sold a year after the crime shocked South Australia
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EXCLUSIVE
Never-before-seen family pic of little Gus revealed – and key question cops still won’t answer
Ms Burdon said she was ‘concerned’ at how police were handling Gus’s case, which brought back painful memories of Ms Ebert’s disappearance and her son’s death.
‘They are incompetent,’ she said. ‘I wish police would have their fingers smacked.
‘After Michael died, they were rough, not nice. They were belittling what I had to say and made me feel like I was guilty of a crime.
Mr Burdon’s sister Deborah Nikou added: ‘With Michael, they pushed and pushed and pushed, and it was too much for him.’
‘It’s probably the same in Josie’s case. It’s too much. What this says to me is they have little evidence [about Gus] and what little they do have, they’re hammering it.’
Ms Ebert left Cologne in 2012 aged 18, and travelled to Australia on a backpacking adventure.
She found herself working as a bartender at the Olary Pub, one of the few bars on the Barrier Highway connecting NSW with South Australia.
She met Mr Burdon there, who was working the land with his father Peter, owner of Oulnina Station.
Despite an 18-year age difference, romance bloomed between Ms Ebert and Mr Burdon and she moved to his outback property where they had two sons.
In 2014, Mr Burdon’s father Peter died of a brain tumour and Michael inherited the property.
