Further search likely for Gus Lamont, after cadaver dog brought in
A Police Commissioner Grant Stevens says officers will be returning to Oak Park station frequently in the coming months as they continue their investigation into the disappearance of Gus Lamont.
Source: SA Police
The latest search at the remote property where four-year-old Gus Lamont vanished has concluded without police finding evidence.
A cadaver dog was brought from interstate to assist in this week’s renewed search for the boy, who was last seen by his grandmother playing at the Oak Park Station homestead in South Australia’s Mid North on September 27.
The search covered numerous buildings and structures at the station and at several locations adjoining the property.
SA Police released a video documenting this week’s search at Oak Park Station in their quest to find evidence connected to the little boy’s disappearance.
Officers inspected an outhouse with fresh cement and a water tank at a neighbouring property.
“Today’s searches involved Polair and a cadaver dog from interstate to assist in locating human remains,” police said.
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“Unfortunately, no evidence was located during the intensive searches.”
On Wednesday, SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said there was likely to be a further search of the area in coming weeks.
“Gus went missing on September 27 and we still don’t have clarity as to exactly where Gus might be,” he said.
“It is fair to assume there is more work to be done. As with any major your crime investigation, we don’t rest until we have a resolution.”
Stevens said police were still exploring every possibility in relation to the boy’s disappearance.
“We didn’t simply focus on the search of a missing child on the property,” he said.
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“We were looking at other possibilities as well. That has been the focus of our investigation from the outset of the notification of Gus’s disappearance.”
Police announced on Monday that they were returning to the station for two days “to continue searching for evidence”.
On February 5, police declared Gus’s disappearance a major crime and said someone living at the remote station was a suspect in the case and his likely death.
They confirmed the boy’s grandparents, his mother and his younger brother were at the property at the time he disappeared but emphasised his parents were not suspects.
Gus’s grandparents Josie and Shannon Murray released a brief statement via their lawyers saying they were “absolutely devastated” by the police statements.
“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,” they said.
Josie Murray was arrested and charged with unrelated firearms offences on Monday. The 75-year-old will appear in the Peterborough Magistrates Court on May 6.
Investigators searched the station homestead on January 14 and 15, seizing items including a vehicle, a motorcycle and electronic devices for forensic testing.
Gus’s disappearance sparked intensive searches spanning almost 500 square kilometres and involving hundreds of police and volunteers as well as aerial support and mounted units.
-with AAP
