Australians have reacted angrily after police announced on Monday that they were launching a fresh hunt for missing South Australian four-year-old Gus Lamont.
South Australia Police revealed they will finally begin searching a series of remote mineshafts in South Australia’s mid-north on Tuesday.
It comes as the hunt for missing toddler approaches two months to the day since he vanished without a single trace being found.
The latest phase of the investigation will see officers use specialised equipment to examine six uncovered, unfenced mineshafts located between 5.5km and 12km from the Oak Park homestead where Gus was last seen.
‘Police were not previously aware of the location of these sites,’ an official media release admitted on Monday.
The news prompted a furious backlash on social media, with many questioning how police weren’t aware of six mineshafts so close to where Gus went missing on the evening of September 27.
‘Keystone cops,’ one Facebook user posted in response to the update.
Referencing slapstick comedy movies from the 1920s, the phrase now usually refers to ‘a person noted for bungling inefficiency’, according to dictionary.com.
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Gus Lamont vanished almost two months ago from his grandparents’ outback homestead
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Police have searched up to a 5.5km radius of the home, including in dams
Other social media users were also quick to criticise why the mines weren’t looked at sooner.
‘They’re searching NOW? Who’s in charge of this circus investigation,’ one post read.
‘FFS do they even know what they’re doing?’ demanded one.
‘So SAPOL didn’t search these previously because from what I’ve read, they didn’t know (the mineshafts) existed?’ another added.
‘But we saw photos of mineshafts? I have always been positive that the police are doing all they can but I have changed my opinion. Nothing makes sense.’
Just six days into the search for Gus on October 2, the Daily Mail spoke with local station owners who revealed the area is dotted with disused mineshafts and water wells from a bygone era.
At the time, one longtime resident said the possibility of Gus falling down one of them was ‘the talk among the locals’.
They were used as water sources for livestock and for those ‘chasing the gold dream’ back in the day, according to the source.
Many of these sinister holes are invisible to an adult’s naked eye – much less a meandering child’s.
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A Yunta landowner shared a picture of a disused mineshaft with Daily Mail on October 2
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An aerial view of the Murray family’s sprawling sheep station near Yunta
The station owner, who wished to remain anonymous, owns more than 30,000 acres of land that has been in his family for multiple generations, and is still stumbling across disused shafts and wells.
‘Most aren’t on any maps – I’m still finding new spots on my property,’ he said.
The local shared a picture of one of the mines he had recently discovered, which reveals why they are so difficult to see.
‘Most have different-coloured material around them from being dug out, but some are flush with the ground and have overgrowth all around them,’ he added.
‘Some are easy to see, some definitely not.’
SA Police refused to comment on the row on Monday.
But in a press release, SA Police Deputy Commissioner Linda Williams said, ‘We are determined to explore every avenue in an effort to locate Gus Lamont and provide some closure for his family.
‘These searches will either locate evidence or eliminate these locations from further investigation by the Task Force.’
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Gus’s devastated grandparent Josie Murray, seen in Jamestown earlier this month
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Gus’s grandmother Shannon Murray was seen in Peterborough earlier in November
Police say the fresh search area is to make sure every possible location of interest around the homestead is checked thoroughly.
The renewed hunt comes after police drained a large dam on the property on October 31, ruling out concerns that Gus may have drowned.
It followed extensive ground and aerial searches involving SA Police, ADF personnel, SES volunteers, Indigenous trackers and local landholders.
Earlier, on October 17, police had ended a four-day search of Oak Park Station, building on an initial ten-day operation launched immediately after Gus disappeared.
The ground search at Oak Park Station has now extended 5.5km from the homestead.
Police said they continue to pursue multiple lines of inquiry, though investigators say nothing uncovered so far points to foul play.
Gus’s family remain fully cooperative with police and are being supported by a dedicated victim contact officer as the search for answers soon enters its third month.
Despite one of the largest search efforts in the country’s history, involving the Australian Defence Force, helicopters with thermal imaging and Aboriginal trackers – no trace of Gus has been found eight weeks after his disappearance.
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Mum Jessica Murray and dad Joshua Lamont pictured in 2018
The boy was last seen in the early evening, playing on a mound of dirt by his grandmother Shannon Murray. When she returned 30 minutes later to call him inside, he had vanished.
Gus lived on the station with his transgender grandparent Josie Murray, his mother Jessica and his younger brother, Ronnie.
It has been reported that Gus’s mum Jessica was with Josie looking for lost sheep about 10km from the homestead when Gus disappeared.
A close family friend suggested Gus may have simply wandered off to look for his mother.
‘It is very easy to get lost on a station that size,’ said the friend.
‘Shannon grew up out there and she almost got lost a few years ago.
‘Her and Josie were out on motorbikes sorting out the sheep one afternoon and they got separated for a while.
‘She had to turn off her bike to listen out for Josie’s to find her way back.’
The friend revealed Gus was ‘a happy little boy, happy to do his own thing. But when you address him, he gets shy and hides’.
Gus’s father Joshua Lamont was living in a farmhouse in Belalie North – a two-hour drive away from the Murray’s Outback sheep station – while still in a relationship with Jess.
It is understood Mr Lamont only found out his child was missing when police woke him up at his farmhouse, hours after Gus had vanished.
He now appears to be living in Adelaide, more than 290km away from where his son was last seen.
Jessica has not been seen in public since Gus vanished on September 27.
SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15319931/gus-lamont-police.html
