My heart pounded as we tore down the bumpy dirt track, red dust billowing behind us, choking the air and blurring my view of Josie Murray standing on the verandah of Oak Park Station clutching a pump-action shotgun.
It had been more than a month since her four-year-old grandson, Gus Lamont, vanished from the same property while playing in a pile of sand metres from the homestead I had just fled.
Despite three extensive searches by police, air crews, divers and volunteers, not a single trace of the little boy has been found.
And since that day, the family has remained fiercely private – refusing public appeals and even turning away well-meaning strangers who offered to help search.
When news first broke of Gus’s mysterious disappearance, no photos were released and details about his family were kept under wraps.
Grandparents Josie and Shannon Murray have remained holed up at their remote Yunta property in South Australia.
The whereabouts of Gus’s mother, Jessica Murray, and his baby brother, Ronnie, remain unknown. Locals tell me they have not been seen in town for weeks.
Meanwhile Gus’s father, Josh Lamont, seems to have completely abandoned the home he was renovating for his young family in nearby Belalie North.
Josie Murray standing on the verandah of Oak Park Station clutching a pump-action shotgun
The first photo of missing boy Gus Lamont wasn’t released until six days after he was last seen
Gus’s parents, Jessica Murray and Josh Lamont, have kept a low profile since their son went missing. (They are pictured together at the South Australian Music Awards in 2019)
Friends say he has ‘gone to ground’ and is struggling to cope as the weeks drag on with no answers.
As a journalist with more than 20 years’ experience, I have seen the many ways people cope with unimaginable loss – but this case is unlike any I’ve encountered.
The silence, the tension and the way everyone connected to the property seems to shut down when asked about Gus is unlike anything I have witnessed before.
That was why I travelled to the Outback to find out what was going on.
It took weeks of investigating, interviews and even a public confrontation – but I finally unearthed the local secret that I believe explains the family’s behaviour.
It’s a revelation so shocking that those involved are still haunted by it to this day.
To understand the mindset of the grieving Murray family, I need to take you back 16 years.
It was a dark, drizzly morning in July 2009 when a police officer stopped to question a man wandering along the Barrier Highway, not far from the Murrays’ property.
There is silence when anyone connected to the property is asked about Gus
He was Shane Andrew Robinson, a violent criminal with more than 80 convictions on his record.
His list of crimes ranged from holding a teenager hostage at knifepoint during a police siege, to stabbing a man at a train station and the horrific rape of a 12-year-old girl.
Having already breached his parole conditions, and with a warrant out for his arrest, Robinson was a man with no respect for the law and nothing left to lose.
Shortly after being stopped by police, he stabbed the officer in the shoulder and stole his patrol car.
An hour later, the knifeman ran over a pedestrian in nearby Yunta before making his way to the Murrays’ neighbour’s property, Bullyaninnie Station.
He broke into the homestead, taking the terrified 75-year-old resident hostage for hours.
Later, he forced the elderly woman to open a gun safe where 16 firearms were kept. It was then she saw her chance to escape and raise the alarm.
Officers surrounded the house in a chilling stand-off as they attempted to negotiate with Robinson before he shot himself.
Shane Andrew Robinson, a violent criminal with more than 80 convictions, shot himself during a siege with police after breaking into a homestead neighbouring the Murrays’ Oak Park
This map shows the proximity of Bullyaninnie Station – the site of Robinson’s last stand with SA Police – to Oak Park Station. It’s believed the incident had a profound effect on the Murrays
The knifeman took a hostage at Bullyaninnie Station, next door to the Murrays, in July 2009
It is not known at what stage the Murrays became aware of the incident, and their relationship with the hostage cannot be revealed for legal reasons.
Jess would have been a young woman at the time, the news no doubt shattering her sheltered life on their remote farm.
Josie, having recently transitioned and wanting nothing more than privacy, was left to support her wife Shannon, who had lived on the station all her life and knew the woman well.
Understandably, they were traumatised by the unspeakable crime – but Josie became especially distressed by the intense public interest and media coverage.
The story made headlines for years after – including when Coroner Mark Johns found that Robinson’s violent rampage could have been averted if police had acted sooner to stop his increasingly erratic behaviour.
Johns slammed the South Australia Police force, calling their failure to pursue Robinson over repeated parole breaches ‘profoundly disturbing’.
Knowing the tragedy could have been avoided, the small community of Yunta felt betrayed and many lost all trust in the authorities.
Then, when little Gus vanished near the site of the siege, it all came flooding back.
Not just the memories – but the police, the media and the public scrutiny.
There have been three separate searches of the property, but police have failed to find any trace of Gus
Josie, who transitioned many years ago, is a fiercely private woman
Once again, all eyes were on the tiny town of barely 60 people – and, once again, they felt abandoned by those meant to protect them.
When I arrived in Yunta to speak to locals, the welcome was not frosty, but wary.
The community is scared, still haunted by the nightmare that unfolded 16 years ago.
More than a month after Gus vanished without a trace, many struggle to understand how a little boy could simply wander off and disappear.
Their minds are never far from Robinson – the evil stranger who brought unimaginable tragedy during 12 hours of terror.
Now, as hopes fade of finding Gus alive, so too does the belief that his disappearance was an accident. Daily Mail does not suggest any member of Gus’s family was involved in his disappearance.
It was Shannon Murray who wearily greeted me at Oak Park Station last week, but she told me she had no comment on her grandson.
It was when I was leaving that Josie exited the other side of the house, rounding the corner and brandishing a shotgun.
It was when I was leaving that Josie exited the other side of the house brandishing a shotgun
Door knocks are never easy – but more often than not, people welcome the chance to speak.
Some are seeking the public’s help, others want to raise awareness. Sometimes, they simply need to share a warning or offer a few heartfelt words for someone they loved.
Having a gun waved in my direction was certainly a first. I guess turning up at the same time that a snake was apparently seen nearby was bad timing.
But as the family continues to choose silence, the small town of Yunta – and the rest of Australia – is left grappling with more questions than answers.
SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15252059/Gus-Lamont-town-secret-Jonica-Bray.html
