NEW GUS LAMONT BOMBSHELL: GRANDMOTHER’S HEARTBREAKING ACCOUNT REVEALS PREVIOUSLY UNHEARD DETAILS ABOUT THE MISSING BOY’S FINAL MONTHS
New haunting details have emerged in the disappearance of Gus Lamont, who vanished without a trace in the South Australian outback.
Gus disappeared at the family’s Oak Park Station near Yunta on September 27 last year. Multiple searches of the isolated sheep homestead in the months since have left more questions than answers.
Now, Gus’ grandmother Josie Murray, 75, has spoken for the first time as part of a major joint investigation by 7NEWS Adelaide and Spotlight which has revealed new details about what may have happened to the little boy.
In a chilling revelation, Murray revealed the four-year-old had gone missing on the property once before.
“Shan had taken him down to the Shearer’s quarters while Jess and I were out mustering and he had wandered off… Shan couldn’t find him when she was going to come home,” Murray told 7NEWS Spotlight in the tell-all interview to air on Sunday at 8.30pm.
“She came home and told us Gus had gone for a walk somewhere… I was the one who found him.”
The Timeline
For the first time, Gus’ family have revealed their own version of events in the crucial hours after the young boy disappeared, as well as the detailed timeline of the search that unfolded on their rural property.
“I remember looking at the watch when we’d put the sheep through into the right paddock, and it was 10 past, and we drove straight back without any holdups. So yeah, right back there at 5.30pm,” she said.
Murray said after she got home, Gus’ other grandparent, Shannon, said Gus was playing outside.
“We were on the front veranda and Shan said that Gus was just down near what we call the ‘bomb shelter plane’, and when we had a look, (there was) no sign,” she said.
“And we said to Shannon, ‘When did you last see him?’ And she said, ‘Five o’clock.’ And so in that half‑hour timeframe, he disappeared.”
Murray said the family were initially worried about Gus getting into an area where they were building a new cellar.
“We immediately were a little bit concerned about the cellar we were building, because it was possible he could have fallen down there,” Murray said.
“So that’s one of the first things we did. We looked… there was no sign that he’d been down there, no blood on the concrete floor, nothing.”
The desperate search before dark
Murray describes how the family scrambled to search the property as daylight faded, checking dams, tanks and outbuildings before making the call to authorities.
“So we had a quick conference and decided what to do, and we decided we better jump on the bikes and go and look,” she said.
“I don’t know what time that was, but after we’d searched on foot, I remember saying, ‘we’ve got 45 minutes of daylight, we better get with it’.
“We were concentrating within probably three‑quarters of a kilometre or a kilometre of the homestead, just searching where the tanks were, the dams, down by the cottage. I think we went to the shearing shed – I’d be surprised if we didn’t.”
Murray said as light began to fade, the family regrouped at home to decide their next moves.
“We kept (the search) up until it was getting to the dark stage, and then we went home and went into the kitchen, and I think the question was raised – ‘how soon do we notify the authorities that we might have a missing child?’ and we need to do something about it,” she said.
“I seem to recall it was sometime around eight o’clock that we actually made the call.”
What followed was months of searches by police, SES and volunteers covering hundreds of kilometres.
During the investigation that followed, Murray herself was interviewed by police into Gus’ disappearance, but was never charged.
“We say ‘how, why’… we just can’t believe it,” she said.
“To be accused of doing something like this… you could not wish a more horrible experience on anyone.”
7NEWS Adelaide crime reporter Hannah Foord joins Michael Usher to piece together the timeline and the unanswered questions in one of Australia’s most perplexing missing persons cases.
“This is the interview that could provide answers to the many questions being asked about the disappearance of little Gus,” Usher said.
“His grandmother has never spoken before, but in an extraordinary set of circumstances has now given her first interview.”
SOURCE: https://7news.com.au/news/gus-lamonts-grandmother-drops-bombshell-revelation-his-behaviour-in-major-7news-spotlight-exclusive-c-22462357
