Police again search Oak Park Station for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont amid heavy rainfall
Police hope South Australia’s record rainfall could help their search for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont, who was last seen almost six months ago.
Record rainfall in South Australia could help police in their search for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont, a senior police officer has revealed.
Officers returned to Oak Park Station near Yunta in the state’s north on Wednesday, with a police spokesman declaring the team would be “searching several locations on the property for evidence in the case”.
Gus was last seen at his family’s property about 5pm on September 27.
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His disappearance triggered an enormous search effort involving dozens of police, rescue teams and volunteers who scoured the country side.
The search for Gus is being investigated as a major crime.
Now, with South Australia having experienced above-average rainfall in the past fortnight, police say the wet weather could offer new opportunities in their search efforts.
“The recent significant weather event with the rain up there is leading to assessing what other new opportunities might exist in relation to searching, but the current searching was planned,” Detective Inspector Andrew Macrae said.
Record rainfall was recorded in parts of the state, including near the station where Gus was last seen in Yunta.
Inspector Macrae would not comment further on what police hoped to find due to the “ongoing investigation”.
Police revealed last month they identified a suspect who was known to the boy but was not one of Gus’s parents.
South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens told ABC Radio Adelaide earlier this month that two of Gus’s relatives were “not co-operating” with investigators.
“We are still working with Gus’s mum and dad and there are other members of the family who are no longer co-operating,” he said.
“We will be going back to the property, I can’t say when, I can’t say what the reasons will be, that’s entirely up to the taskforce, but the work is ongoing.”
Mr Stevens said investigators had ruled out the possibility of Gus wandering off and getting lost.
“There has not been one single piece of evidence that we have located during the searching exercise, the most extensive search I think arguably in the history of South Australia, that has given us any indication that he did wander off,” Mr Stevens said.
Gus’s parents said his disappearance had been “unbearable” in an impassioned public plea issued last month.
“We are united in our grief, and we are united in our search for answers about what happened to our little boy, Gus, who means everything to us,” they said in a statement.
“If someone knows what happened, we are pleading with that person – or anyone who may have seen or heard anything – to please come forward.
“Even the smallest detail could give us the answers we so desperately need.
“We also want to express our deepest gratitude to everyone involved in the search for Gus.”
Along with the statement, they released unseen footage and video of Gus in the hope it would compel anyone with new information to come forward.
Gus’s grandparents Josie and Shannon Murray also released a statement through their lawyers, saying they were devastated that his disappearance had been labelled a major crime.
“The family has co-operated fully with the investigation and want nothing more than to find Gus and reunite him with his mum and dad,” the statement read.
Ms Murray was charged with unrelated firearms offences following a search of the station last month.
Originally published as Police again search Oak Park Station for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont
