Search for boy missing on outback sheep station turns to ‘recovery mission’

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Police say the search for missing four-year-old boy Gus Lamont on his family’s outback sheep station has turned into a recovery mission, deploying technology previously used in a high-profile murder case to find any sign of the boy.

Augustus “Gus” Lamont was last seen playing on a mound of dirt at about 5pm on Saturday, September 27, on his family’s Oak Park Station homestead.

Police are scaling back their search for missing boy Gus, last seen near Yunta, South Australia.

The boy was reportedly left alone for half an hour before his grandmother attempted to call him inside, only to find him missing.

The family searched for three hours before calling police, with state emergency services, helicopters and Aboriginal trackers descending on the sprawling 60,000 station for 10 days searching for the boy.

The scale on the property, which is about 300 kilometres north-east of Adelaide and near the country town of Yunta, was formally scaled back on Tuesday.

The news of the formal scale-back comes after a searcher who had joined the family while looking for Gus told the Adelaide Advertiser it was his belief the boy was “no longer on the property”.

Jason O’Connell told the newspaper he and his partner Jen had spent more than 90 hours searching the homestead, but “he’s not on that property”.

“If he was in a bad way or if he passed away, we’d listen for foxes … look for birds of prey,” O’Connell said.

“No birds of prey means he’s not there.”

He said the couple were joined in the search by Gus’ father, and the disappearance had “pretty much devastated him”.

South Australian police Assistant Commissioner Ian Parrott said the family had been spoken to by officers a week ago about the boy’s declining chances of survival, but crews had kept searching.

“Senior police spoke to Gus’ family and prepared them for the fact that Gus may not have survived due to the passage of time, his age and the nature of the terrain he is missing in,” he said.

“This assessment was based on medical evidence from a doctor who is recognised by the Australian rescue authorities as an expert opinion on time frame for survival.

“While those involved in the search have been hoping for a miracle, over the past 48 hours the search has shifted to a recovery operation.

“At this point, no trace of Gus has been located. No tangible pieces of evidence, such as footprints, a hat or clothing, have been located to identify any direction of travel to assist searchers.”

A boot-print found in the ongoing search for missing four-year-old, Gus.

Parrott made the comment after a footprint was discovered on the property during the search, and was theorised to be from the four-year-old boy, before being ruled not connected to Gus’ disappearance.

SA Police Acting Commissioner Linda Williams also revealed on Tuesday a special drone with infrared technology was sent out to search the property throughout the weekend.

It was the same technology used to find the remains of Port Lincoln man Julian Story, who was allegedly killed by his girlfriend Tamika Chesser, a former contestant on Beauty and the Geek in 2010.

“The results of that drone analysis are still being analysed,” Williams said.

“We hope to have those results in coming weeks. It’s quite complex technology, so it will take a little while for to work through, but if any information comes that directs us to conduct further searches in specific areas, we will be doing that in coming weeks.”

Williams emphasised Gus’ family had been helpful throughout the search for the missing boy, echoing Parrott’s comments last week.

“The family have continued to cooperate with fully with police and have consented to every request that we have made of them thus far,” she said.

Parrott previously lashed “keyboard detectives” for attempting to cast doubt on Gus’ family.

“Can I just remind people that it’s not helpful,” he said.

“It is not appropriate to speculate in these circumstances. If you were to put yourselves in the shoes of a family, who would be clearly distraught about the loss of a small child, it paints a little bit of a different picture.”

Williams said the case had been handed to the missing persons section of the Major Crime Investigation Branch, which is standard practice.