Gus Lamont: Former SES volunteer’s heartbreaking claim as ground search for four-year-old is called off

Shortly after police made the heartbreaking decision to call off the ground search for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont, a former SES volunteer involved in the effort has come forward with a gut-wrenching revelation.

Gus wandered off from his family’s sheep station property outside of Yunta around 5pm on September 27 and has not been seen since.

All available emergency services, SES, the ADF and an army of volunteers scoured the area for days, while drones and helicopters attempted to find traces of the young boy from above.

One of the volunteers, who reportedly searched for 90 hours and covered more than 1200km of land, has now revealed that there is “zero evidence” little Gus is on the property he vanished from.

Jason O’Connell combed through Oak Park Station with his wife Jen, telling The Advertiser, “it’s just wide, open land.”

“There’s really not much there, and with our lights I’m surprised because we just didn’t find anything,” the 50-year-old ex-SES volunteer said.

“He’s not on that property.”

Mr O’Connell, who is a wildlife carer, said the absence of birds of prey in the area was another troubling sign.

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

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

Speaking to 7NEWS, Mr O’Connell said it’s incredibly rare to not find a single trace of a person who has gone missing.

“I just don’t get how (Gus) vanished like that,” he said.

The little boy was last seen in a blue Minions shirt playing outside around 5pm on the evening of September 27. When his grandmother went to call him inside 30 minutes later, there was no sign of him.

On Sunday, police made the call to hand over the investigation to the major crime squad.

“The investigation will now be managed by the missing persons investigation section. This is where all long-term cases such as this are managed and investigated, and is standard practice,” a South Australia Police spokesperson confirmed.

The heartbreaking development came after police shifted their focus to a “recovery phase” after discussing the situation with Gus’ parents.

“Gus is a little four-year-old blond, curly hair, smiling face young fellow who has been missing from a farm property about 43km south of the township of Yunta since last Saturday,” Assistant Commissioner Ian Parrott said at a media conference last week.

“He’s been described as an adventurous child, shy, but he is also pretty good walker. But he’s never left the family property with any distance previously that we’re aware of.”

As each day has passed the chances of finding the little boy alive have diminished and police stated they think Gus has probably not survived.

“From early Sunday morning, all the resources were involved in the search to that time were rapidly increased. Clearly everyone understands the urgency of a situation with a missing person, but particularly a four-year-old child,” Mr Parrott said.

“This has been ongoing and unwavering since that time and the search for Gus has probably been one of the largest, most intensive, searches for a missing person conducted in South Australia in recent times.”

The search has been one of largest in South Australia’s history, with authorities covering over 47,000 hectares.