If a widened search for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont produces no evidence of his whereabouts, ‘alternative theories’ must be explored, veteran private investigator Ken Gamble has told the Daily Mail’s Trial Australia podcast.

Gus vanished from his grandparents’ remote South Australian homestead on September 27, 2025.

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.

The boy was last seen by his grandmother playing on a mound of dirt outside in the early evening. When she returned 30 minutes later to call him inside, he had vanished. Police are not treating the disappearance as suspicious.

However, the lack of footprints, any items of clothing or remains has been described as ‘unusual’ by authorities, given the 150,000 acres of land searched by ground and air.

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Gus Lamont vanished from his grandparents’ remote South Australian homestead on September 27, 2025

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The boy was last seen by his grandmother playing on a mound of dirt outside in the early evening. When she returned 30 minutes later to call him inside, he had vanished

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Ken Gamble (pictured) a professional private investigator said there was currently a ‘lack of evidence’ Gus ever left his family’s homestead

Speaking to Daily Mail crime reporter Wayne Flower, Ken Gamble, a professional private investigator and Chair of IFW Global, a cybercrime prevention firm, said there was currently a ‘lack of evidence’ Gus ever left his family’s homestead.

He however cautioned the general public not to jump to any conclusions, expressing his full confidence in the police’s investigation and stating ‘we simply do not know’ what happened to Gus.

‘There’s a lack of evidence of Gus walking away [from the homestead]’, Gamble said.

‘There’s a lack of footprints – that may indicate that someone removed him from that location.

‘It is always a missing persons case until proven otherwise. We’ve had many cases where people have disappeared in what I believe was foul play, yet the police maintain these are still missing persons cases.

‘The bottom line is that nobody knows and nobody will be able to guess. The work has to be done.

‘If Gus is not found in a 5km range and a grid search is done, that’s evidence to show he probably hasn’t walked away. Then you’d start looking at the other alternatives.’

Theories to explain Gus’s disappearance range widely, from falling into a wombat burrow to abduction, though police have found no evidence of foul play.

The official police theory remains that Gus simply wandered off and got lost. Authorities described him as ‘an adventurous child and good walker’ – though he had never previously left the family property alone.

Gamble suggested that during the initial search, police could have underestimated the distance the four-year-old was able to travel by foot.

By the time the search area was expanded, the private investigator theorised Gus may have sought shelter in a difficult-to-reach location that searchers missed.

‘I would have searched in a much wider range than two kilometers’, Gamble said.

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Gamble suggested that during the initial search, police could have underestimated the distance the four-year-old was able to travel by foot

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By the time the search area was expanded, the private investigator theorised Gus may have sought shelter in a difficult-to-reach location that searchers missed

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‘That radius is a long way for a little boy. But I don’t think we can underestimate how far a boy of that age can walk if he’s disorientated and determined.

‘I don’t want to call it a mistake. But it was possibly an oversight. I would have done 5 kilometers.

‘In that terrain, there are places where people can disappear. I think there’s a possibility he’s gone to a location, maybe sought shelter and essentially perished in that area.

‘He could be hiding somewhere and it may be very hard to find that location if he’s deceased. You would literally have to stumble across it before you find the body.’

Gamble said that while police maintain Gus’s disappearance is a missing persons case, investigators would not publicly reveal if they were pursuing alternative theories, as doing so could compromise the investigation.

He said: ‘Let’s say there was a suspicion it was an abduction – the police would be looking at all the potential suspects – and saying, how could it have been carried out?

‘Are there any vehicles going into that area at that time? There’s a lack of CCTV anywhere in that whole area, so you’re not going to get much evidence. Are there any witnesses that might have seen something suspicious?

‘All of that, they’re not going to give that information to the public because they don’t want a potential offender to be tipped off.

‘We have got to be very careful not to speculate. Just because police have not said anything, that doesn’t mean there maybe an alternate theory they are investigating.’