Gus Lamont has been missing for two months to the day and police efforts to find the boy have turned up nothing but a boot-print deemed “unrelated” to the case.

His grandmother last saw him playing in a mound of dirt outside her Oak Park homestead on September 27, while she looked after his younger brother Ronnie inside the home.

His mother and other grandparent were tending sheep on another part of the 6,000-hectare property, about 40km south of Yunta and 250km northeast of Adelaide.

Police wrapped up their most recent effort to find him on Wednesday, after scouring six uncovered mineshafts on the property.

They looked inside the shafts – some shallow and others as deep as 20 metres – for more than ten hours on Tuesday.

Gus Lamont has now been missing for two months, after disappearing from the Oak Park Homestead on September 27. Picture: Tim Joy.
Officers returned again on Wednesday and scoured the rugged ground about 10km northeast of the homestead by foot.

But detectives were left with no further clues as to the four-year-old’s whereabouts, only able to rule out the possibility he was in any of the shafts.

A 10-day search conducted shortly after Gus vanished included local property owners and trackers.

Only a single footprint was found on September 30, roughly 500m from where he was last seen.

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Investigators dismissed it as irrelevant.

The original searches included mounted operations units and Polair and extended well beyond the homestead.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens at one point admitted the search had been more difficult than expected.

Gus was last seen playing in a mound of dirt before vanishing, without a single trace of the four-year-old discovered in the time since. Picture: Tim Joy.
“There are lots of places a small child might find themselves which are hard to identify,” he said of the terrain in September.

The four-year-old had been wearing a long-sleeved shirt, boots, a hat, and long pants when he disappeared.

Police had been hoping to find any of Gus’ belongings on the property to at least provide a clue to the direction the young boy headed.

Patrols, including Australian Defence Force personnel, SES volunteers and police, later scoured a 5.5km radius encompassing the homestead from which young Gus disappeared.

But the four-day search turned up no signs of the boy or evidence that might help investigators.

“Four-year-olds, they drop everything,” Yorke Mid North Superintendent Mark Syrus said in early October.

“The fact we haven’t found a hat or a shoe or something is pretty unusual.”

Police then drained a 4.5 metre-deep dam on the station.

Early dives into the dam uncovered no clues for investigators, but still they decided to drain it “out of an abundance of caution” at the beginning of November.

The total search area is understood to span about 500 square kilometres.

Police must now consider other avenues of inquiry, former homicide detective Gary Jubelin told Today this week.

Police have drained damns in Oak Park station, sent cameras down 20m mineshafts and walked dozens of square kilometres in brutal conditions in the effort to find the young boy. Picture: Dean Martin.
Investigators will “look back at all the information they’ve got and explore all the opportunities,” he said.

“The fact that they’re searching so far away from where Gus first disappeared suggests to me they’re looking at possible intervention,” he said.

Online speculators have aired varying theories surrounding his disappearance, ranging from abduction to the involvement of wild animals.

All of which remain so far unsubstantiated.

In her most recent update, Deputy Commissioner of SA Police Linda Williams said police were still committed to exploring every avenue to locate Gus Lamont.

Police’s most recent search ended on Wednesday, and once again turned up no trace of the four-year-old. Picture: NewsWire / Brett Hartwig.
Police still say they are keeping open multiple lines of inquiry into the missing person case.

So far, though, they have told the public their investigations have not uncovered any evidence of foul play.

“The family of Gus Lamont have continued to cooperate fully with police and are being supported by a victim contact officer,” SA Police said this week.

SOURCE: https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/crime/gus-lamonts-disappearance-hits-two-month-mark-as-search-area-edges-closer-to-500sqm/news-story/418600a14f109a9f152f6892af042e58