When South Australia Police confirmed on Monday they were returning this week to the scene of Gus Lamont’s disappearance for a fifth time, I had a sinking feeling.

For two months, they have desperately searched for clues about the four-year-old’s disappearance from his grandmothers’ Outback property one Saturday afternoon.

The boy was last seen on September 27, playing in a sand pile outside the remote sheep station, 40km south of Yunta.

SAPOL confirmed STAR Group Officers and Taskforce Horizon will search six mineshafts near Oak Park Station, and insisted again there has been no evidence of foul play.

‘The uncovered and unfenced shafts are located between 5.5km and 12km from the Oak Park homestead in areas not searched on foot by police,’ they said in a media release.

‘Police were not previously aware of the location of these sites.’

The mention of mine shafts sent a shiver down my spine.

On October 2, I reported that locals believed little Gus may have accidentally fallen into one of the many abandoned mine shafts from a bygone gold-rush era, or into an old stock well.

Four-year-old Gus has been missing since 5.30pm on September 27

Police on Tuesday returned to the area to search recently uncovered abandoned mineshafts – an example of which is seen here in a photo taken on a different property

At the time, a nearby station owner said residents of Yunta – a dusty speck on the map with two operational petrol stations, a post office and a pub serving just 60 locals – feared Gus might have vanished into one of the old mine shafts, which are often concealed by more than a century of red dust and saltbush.

‘That’s the talk [among locals],’ he said at the time.

Police have not revealed why they are now scouring six mine shafts; however, locals suspect they might be acting on the results of infrared drone technology that was deployed during the initial days of the search.

At the time, police said it would take some weeks to analyse the data.

‘We have used these highly technical drones that collect data from the landscape but that data has to be analysed through an IT system,’ SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens previously said.

‘I would expect that we will be deploying our investigators and our search experts up there as we process information that we’ve collected on previous visits.’

When Daily Mail asked why they had singled out this area almost two months after Gus vanished, and when they found out about the mines, police refused to comment.

Earlier this month, in an interview with this publication, private investigator Ken Gamble suggested police should use LiDAR technology – a laser-based mapping system that specialises in precise terrain imaging via drone technology.

Gus’ grandparent Josie Murray was photographed recently in Jamestown

When he vanished, Gus was in the care of his maternal grandmother, Shannon Murray

Police will be searching six mineshafts between 5km and 12km from the Murray homestead

When Daily Mail asked police whether they had deployed LiDAR technology in the search for Gus, they would not comment.

Now, a local familiar with the case – which has attracted global attention and fevered internet speculation – has confirmed that police did, in fact, use LiDAR in their search for Gus, speculating that the data retrieved has revealed the location of the mines.

It is believed that some of those mines are outside the boundaries of Oak Park Station, which is owned by Gus’ grandparents, Shannon and Josie Murray.

The property has been passed down through Shannon’s maternal line for generations.

‘Some of these mines may actually be on neighbouring stations,’ a local source said.

While online sleuths have speculated that the Murrays would have known the location of some of these shafts, those who know the region like the back of their hand say many remain undetected.

One station owner, who wished to remain anonymous, has more than 30,000 acres of land that has been in his family for multiple generations, yet he still stumbles across disused shafts and wells.

‘Most aren’t on any maps. If [Gus’ grandparents] have owned that property for a while, they might know where they are – although I’m still finding new spots on my property,’ he said.

Many of these sinister shafts are invisible to an adult’s naked eye – much less a meandering child’s.

A mine shaft and a trommel used for finding gold was seen outside the Murray home

Several land, air and waterway searches have been conducted in the hunt for Gus

The source shared a picture of one of the mines he had recently discovered, which shows why they are so difficult to see.

The Yunta region has a rich history in both gold and copper mining.

In 1887, people hoping to strike it rich flocked to the area after a gold discovery north-east of the township, inspiring what was known as the King’s Bluff Rush.

Hundreds of prospectors fossicked in the surrounding area.

According to the ABC, documents published on an SA government mining database refer to early copper mining about ‘four miles south’ of what appears to be the homestead on the station where Gus went missing.

Indeed, the Murray family themselves appear to be no strangers to the mining industry.

An aerial photograph of their homestead showed a trommel – a machine used for sorting earth and gold prospecting – as well as a mine shaft, right next to the sand pile on which Gus was playing before he disappeared.

That mine has no doubt been thoroughly searched by investigators given its proximity to Gus’ last-known location.

Josie Murray, a transgender woman, was 10km north of the homestead when Gus vanished

Shannon Murray cradles daughter Jessica – Gus’ mother – as an infant in this rare family photo

Gus’ parents, Jessica and Joshua, are pictured at the 2018 SA Music Awards

Shannon Murray and her partner Josie – a transgender woman who transitioned some years ago – inherited the sprawling station from her mother’s side of the family.

Shannon’s parents, Clair and Vincent Pfeiffer, a WWII prisoner of war, died in the early 2000s, and handed it down to the Murrays through a family trust.

During their marriage, Shannon and Josie had one child together, daughter Jessica, who is the mother of Gus and his one-year-old brother Ronnie.

Gus and Ronnie’s father, Joshua Lamont, lived a two-hour drive away in Belalie North, near Jamestown, in a farmhouse he purchased for $80,000 in 2021.

A friend previously said the couple had a ‘commuter relationship’, and suggested that Joshua and Josie did not see eye to eye.

The source claimed Josh felt that Oak Park, a working sheep station, was not the right place to raise children. A neighbour added that he was renovating his home in the hope of Jessica, Gus and Ronnie moving in with him.

On the night Gus vanished, he and brother Ronnie were in the care of Shannon while Josie and Jessica were searching for lost sheep 10km north of the homestead.

It is understood that Joshua learned of his son’s disappearance when police woke him up late in the evening of September 27.

Cloth nappies hanging on the line suggest Jessica and Ronnie are still at the homestead

Oak Park is a 40km drive from the nearest paved road – the Barrier Highway

Joshua’s parents, David and Christine Lamont, live rurally near Mt Gambier, in the state’s south-east.

When Daily Mail approached them for comment recently, a family friend insisted they would never speak about their grandson’s disappearance.

Shannon and Josie too have steadfastly refused media interviews – with Josie waving a shotgun when a Daily Mail reporter approached them at Oak Park last month.

In early November, the couple were pictured in public for the first time when they attended a business meeting at a café in Peterborough, and were later seen running errands in the crop-farming community of Jamestown.

Since Gus went missing, social media has been awash with theories about what happened to him.

Given the farm’s incredibly remote location, abduction is highly unlikely.

And suggestions that he was taken by an animal may be wide of the mark, given there are few dingoes in the region.

Gus would have also been too heavy to be picked up by a bird of prey, and a wild-pig attack would have left evidence.

The family have consistently cooperated with police, and have been supported by a victim contact officer. There is no suggestion they were involved in the boy’s disappearance.

Distraught Joshua is understood to be living in Adelaide and working as a tradie

A child’s bikes could be seen at Josh’s now-abandoned Belalie North farmhouse in October

Police, the SES, the ADF, AirPol and an Aboriginal tracker have scoured a 5.5km radius – or 95 sq km – surrounding the Murray homestead across several land and water searches.

The original search area extended well beyond this, with the use of the mounted operations unit and PolAir. This area has been estimated at 470 sq km, police have said.

A solitary footprint, which matched the shoes Gus was wearing, was discovered in the red dust in the early days of the hunt, but was later ruled unlikely to be relevant.

After the first week, police were forced to concede the child – who was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, pants, boots and a hat – was unlikely to have survived the harsh desert conditions.

Aboriginal tracker Ronald Boland joined the search in its early days

A solitary footprint in the dust is the only possible evidence found so far

Police deputy commissioner Linda Williams is determined to get closure for the family

In Yunta, overnight temperatures at that time of year can fall to near zero.

Last month, police drained a dam 600m from the property in the hope of finding Gus’ remains tangled in the weeds after an accidental drowning, but came up with nothing.

SAPOL Deputy Commissioner Linda Williams said the new mineshaft searches were part of their determination 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.’

SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15322719/Gus-Lamont-locals-theory-search-Yunta.html