Authorities have ended their latest efforts to find a four-year-old boy whose disappearance in South Australia’s rugged outback shocked the nation.
The on-foot operation to find Gus Lamont covered 95 square kilometers and included areas previously combed by police and the Australian Defense Force (ADF).
South Australian police confirmed on Friday that despite “extensive, thorough and protracted” efforts, the search had yielded no new evidence.
“Police had hoped that an extensive search of the ground would turn up some evidence of Gus, but that was not the case,” they said.
“The fact that Gus is a young child, the terrain is very rough, rugged and subject to changeable weather conditions made the search difficult and more challenging for those involved.”
Gus went missing on September 27 while playing outside his home on a remote farm near Yunta in South Australia, about 300km from Adelaide.
His grandmother left him unattended for about 30 minutes before finding him missing, sparking one of the largest ground and air searches in state history.
Known to be adventurous but shy, Gus was last seen wearing a gray hat, light gray pants, boots and a blue long-sleeved T-shirt with a yellow Minion design.
(South Australian Police)
The boy’s disappearance attracted national attention, with images of his blond, curly hair widely circulated in the media and online speculation abounding. A number of other fake images of the boy have also been circulated online, including several claiming that the case was made.
Police have previously urged the public to refrain from unconfirmed “opinions” and rely on reliable sources of information.
Police do not suspect foul play and have now described the case as a “recovery operation”. SA Police said in a statement: “Initially, police hoped to find Gus alive, but unfortunately the search has turned into a recovery operation.”
Earlier this month, police launched one of the biggest and most intensive searches in South Australia in years for the blond boy, with the help of sniffer dogs, drones and helicopters, but six days after he went missing, he has yet to be found.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Ian Parrott said in a press conference at the time that the search had been scaled back but they would continue to investigate all lines of inquiry. “We are confident that we have done absolutely everything we can to locate Gus in the search area, but despite our best efforts we have not been able to locate him and unfortunately we now have to scale back our search for Gus,” he said at the time.
About 50 workers worked on the ground to search for the boy near the homestead and the surrounding bush, which took up 470 square meters. area during the past week. According to the police, the search covered about 25 km on foot each day.
On Tuesday, search teams found a footprint about 500m from the sheep farm, but no further evidence.
Officials resumed the search on Tuesday, this time joined by about 80 Australian Defense Force personnel. Police Commissioner Grant Stevens explained that the expanded search area was determined by updated assessments by survivability, medical and search experts, rather than new leads.
SA Prime Minister Petras Malinauskas said that “his thoughts are with Gus and his family”.
“We would like to see this matter resolved, but not more than the family itself,” he said Friday.
“I’m proud of the way the South Australian Police, along with the other agencies that helped, particularly the ADF, but others, did everything.
Speaking about Gus’s family, Commissioner Stevens said: “You can imagine how they feel … not having answers as to where Gus is and what happened to him. It would be traumatic for any family.
Nikii Smith, president of the Center for Missing Persons, described the situations as “heartbreaking” for the families involved.
“It’s very difficult to understand what families are going through,” she said Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions from the beginning.
“It’s heartbreaking because it reveals everything that happened in the early days with our loved ones – it makes it fresh,” she said.
The boy’s family, through a spokesman, previously said they were “devastated” and “deeply distressed” by his disappearance.