Australia AUSTRALIA - 4YO AUGUST (GUS) Missing from rural family home in Outback, Yunta, South Australia, 27th Sept 2025

[Warshawski]

“The newly established Taskforce Horizon, made up of 12 specialists, will analyse all information from the search and provide advice on the ongoing operation.

As the search resumed, Daily Mail made an eerie discovery just 400m from his grandparents Shannon and Josie Murray's house.

A meticulously maintained grave is partially hidden among a stand of scrub, behind a fence, with the cross-shaped headstone revealing a baby boy had previously perished in the area.

It's understood Shannon and Josie inherited Oak Park sheep station from Shannon's parents, Vincent - a WWII prisoner of war - and Clair Pfeiffer.

On the headstone, under the words 'My Jesus mercy', the inscription shows that a John Smallacombe had passed away aged eight months in July, 1917.

It is not known if the child was an ancestor of Gus and his family.

Clair's maiden name was Jones.

If Gus is somehow still alive, the property may one day be passed to him.

Gus' mother Jessica and his one-year-old brother Ronnie also live at Oak Park.”

The spine-chilling find metres from where little Gus Lamont vanished

Searchers have once again begun to scour the harsh South Australian landscape in their search for Gus Lamont, who went missing at his family's Oak Park Station homestead.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I have to wonder how the Daily Mail happened upon the grave site of that little one ( who has nothing to do with this situation) Whoever suffered that loss, my heart p

<modsnip: Sleuthing family background is not allowed>

I’d hazard a guess that Shannon & R / Josie are well into their 70s. .. and certainly would find it difficult to run a place with the suggested 3000 head of sheep on their own.

It’s my thought that where once it was a ‘sheep station’, the property no longer carries stock.

I have no idea how many children Shannon & her partner have, but it’s been publicised that their daughter Jess ( mother of Gus + his 1 yr old brother Ronnie ) also lives on the place - which given the number of buildings seems quite feasible. And just a thought - perhaps grandparents do the childcare while Jess is at work .

However, none of those ramblings have found Gus. . It’s just not fathomable to me that a child disappears from what should be a safe environ, free from human predators etc. Sadly it has such vibes of little William Tyrrell’s disappearance. And similarly, the longer this goes on, the slimmer are the chances of him being recovered.

All just my opinion .

 

[Curiousobserver]

BBM, and I agree.

I’ve suggested a few times here that imo there had to be a reason why (I think but I can’t substantiate) a recently turned 4 year would head off in a different direction to his food, pretty much on the time he would normally come inside to eat.

Little kids get hungry, . and in my experience their tummies are pretty good ‘clocks’.

If he’s genuinely the bush kid that he’s reported to be, I can’t see him going for a walk or following off after some animal / lizard / whatever - and then getting lost. It’s salt bush plains, not a jungle, it’s not scrub country, it’s not rugged & dangerous terrain. The house lights were on, people were calling, I’d suggest maybe they were even eventually out in vehicle searching.

And if he’s not a bush kid, even more reason I think he’d get scared and come back.

What I can envisage is him going in search of ‘something’, a tool etc, to aid the project he’s working on, and perhaps succumbing to an accident.

Having a pretty good knowledge of country properties & their residential surroundings, I’d suggest any number of potential hazards, particularly for one so young. … but then I get caught up in the fact that surely Police & family will have been immediately on to that & thoroughly checked every centimetre.

The logical thing is human intervention (in whatever form) but police seem adamant that isn’t the case.

I just hope & pray that answers come very soon. I can’t imagine the toll on his family

This is what I have been thinking- he could be right there on the main property somewhere hidden in an unexpected place.

I can't imagine a 4 yr old getting that far away in that terrain.

The example I am thinking of from my past- my younger brother wiggled under the barn at my house to look for his toy that fell through the floor crack when he was around 5 or 6. The space was very small and he got himself stuck, fortunately he was able to make noise and there were people around to reach in and drag him out.

What if Gus did something similar and couldn't make any noise due to positional asphyxia. He could be in a very unexpected place that you might have to dismantle to find him in.

 

[Warshawski]

The sheep usually don't get rounded up for feeding.

They graze over the property, or in a paddock which may be a fair distance from the house.
There would be dams for water.

If there is a shortage of grass, farmers would take hay etc to where the sheep are

From my recollections of being born into a sheep station, there’s full days consumed even though the sheep ‘graze’ them selves.
An important factor is changing their locations / moving them to different paddocks, for various reasons,
Sheep eat close to the ground and can ruin the productivity of land if not correctly managed.

As with all livestock producers, sheep growers have to check their stock for any signs of distress or problems, also to tend to negating predators, ensuring internal & boundary fences are maintained, yards are maintained or rebuilt, machinery is maintained / repaired, vet equipment is always stocked, there may be a stock crate to build for back of truck, a water pump to repair, troughs to clean, dogs & horses to care for, in lambing season it’s often into doctor & midwife territory, then the poddying after .... it’s never ending as it’s on continuous rotation,

Just my personal opinion

 

[Warshawski]

“In a 7NEWS exclusive, it’s been revealed Gus’s grandmother was inside the homestead looking after his young brother at the time the boy went missing, while Gus’s mother and another grandparent were out on the station attending the sheep.”

42K views · 312 reactions | EXCLUSIVE: 7NEWS has new details about the night that four-year-old Gus Lamont vanished on his family's outback property near Yunta. We can reveal what family members were doing when he disappeared. Latest: https://tinyu

EXCLUSIVE: 7NEWS has new details about the night that four-year-old Gus Lamont vanished on his family's outback property near Yunta. We can reveal what family members were doing when he disappeared....

www.facebook.com

As I suspected. Jess and Josie off doing farm stuff… my heart breaks for Gus’s grandmother as she is no doubt blaming herself

 

[Megnut]

This is what I have been thinking- he could be right there on the main property somewhere hidden in an unexpected place.

I can't imagine a 4 yr old getting that far away in that terrain.

The example I am thinking of from my past- my younger brother wiggled under the barn at my house to look for his toy that fell through the floor crack when he was around 5 or 6. The space was very small and he got himself stuck, fortunately he was able to make noise and there were people around to reach in and drag him out.

What if Gus did something similar and couldn't make any noise due to positional asphyxia. He could be in a very unexpected place that you might have to dismantle to find him in.

I think this is the most likely explanation. And that, despite the extensive search and passage of time, he'll be found relatively close to where he wasn't missing, somehow encapsated.

JMO

 

[whitelilac]

So if only one adult was present and wasn't watching him for half an hour how is it possible to know for sure someone hasnt arrived on the property and taken him?

I don't have a theory either way on whether someone did or didn't but how would they be able to rule that out?

If someone arrived at the property, they would have had business at the property and likely were expected. I don't see a person drive all that distance from elsewhere and through 6 gates to abduct a boy playing outside. An abductor would have no idea if Gus was even playing outside or being watched by one of the adults. This imo is not an opportunistic nor premeditated crime on the part of a stranger or worker. If some such person was expected, the investigators would surely know about it.

I still believe he is on that property, hidden and undiscovered , or curled up under a salt bush if he did wander. As for that second sand pile that was pointed out only yesterday, and does not look flattened out....seems to me they ought to have dug that up on the first day. But given the intensity of the search, maybe that red sand pile is compacted and hard like the first one, and was dismissed.

 

[tedtink]

This is what I have been thinking- he could be right there on the main property somewhere hidden in an unexpected place.

I can't imagine a 4 yr old getting that far away in that terrain.

The example I am thinking of from my past- my younger brother wiggled under the barn at my house to look for his toy that fell through the floor crack when he was around 5 or 6. The space was very small and he got himself stuck, fortunately he was able to make noise and there were people around to reach in and drag him out.

What if Gus did something similar and couldn't make any noise due to positional asphyxia. He could be in a very unexpected place that you might have to dismantle to find him in.

I did think that may be the case at the beginning, but now......over 2 weeks later.........in that heat.......I think the scent of a cadaver, fly activity etc would be extremely noticeable.

Having experienced the intense aroma of an elderly neighbour who'd passed, inside his home, during the summer months who'd been deceased for a couple of weeks - Well......I won't elaborate further, but it would absolutely not be missed.
jmo

 

[statt#1]

I too think this little guy is somewhere around the main buildings there, not terribly far from the spot he's reported to have last been seen. He probably climbed up somewhere, or crawled in somewhere that we adults would never dream. If not that, then my suspicion grows, indeed I have a bad feeling that something else, someone, some how, knows something. Of course, I am the suspicious type

 

[musicaljoke]

So if only one adult was present and wasn't watching him for half an hour how is it possible to know for sure someone hasnt arrived on the property and taken him?

I don't have a theory either way on whether someone did or didn't but how would they be able to rule that out?

The gates may have been left exactly as they were when mom went through them earlier which suggests that no one went through them. Although I know nothing of these specific gates, I know from years of farm animal veterinary work, that not all gates are the same. One gate might rest on a stump. Another might have two loops of the chain and through the top of a peg. Another might be joined in the centre with a once-over knotted chain. Another has a wire loop or a pin, and so on. It would be quite a miracle if a stranger opened and closed all the gates and left them exactly as they were ... twice.

 

[jessicalouise]

If someone arrived at the property, they would have had business at the property and likely were expected. I don't see a person drive all that distance from elsewhere and through 6 gates to abduct a boy playing outside. An abductor would have no idea if Gus was even playing outside or being watched by one of the adults. This imo is not an opportunistic nor premeditated crime on the part of a stranger or worker. If some such person was expected, the investigators would surely know about it.

I still believe he is on that property, hidden and undiscovered , or curled up under a salt bush if he did wander. As for that second sand pile that was pointed out only yesterday, and does not look flattened out....seems to me they ought to have dug that up on the first day. But given the intensity of the search, maybe that red sand pile is compacted and hard like the first one, and was dismissed.

How do they know it wasn't someone known to them? No one was supervising. The gates arent near the property.
Youre personally ruling it out based on the fact its too rural and a cumbersome exercise for a stranger. But it wouldn't be if someone knew the property.
They seem to be quite a well known family and no doubt many people have been to the property for various reasons over the years.

Unless it's a V8 or ute/truck cars can be pretty quiet these days. Grandma would have been more focused on tending to the 1 year old.

 

[jessicalouise]

Ah. OK. Looks like I was wrong. According to Commissioner Stevens "nothing is off the table. We are endeavouring to recover Gus for his family." [Towards the end of the article.]

Sinister fears over link between missing Gus and wild-eyed man

Gus disappeared from his grandparents' remote South Australian property near Yunta on September 27 while playing near a mound of dirt.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[FromGermany1]

Ah. OK. Looks like I was wrong. According to Commissioner Stevens "nothing is off the table. We are endeavouring to recover Gus for his family." [Towards the end of the article.]

Sinister fears over link between missing Gus and wild-eyed man

Gus disappeared from his grandparents' remote South Australian property near Yunta on September 27 while playing near a mound of dirt.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Interesting and mysterious.

 

[statt#1]

This comment causes me to raise an eyebrow.....

Tracker and former policeman Aaron Stuart, who has assisted in the investigation, said:

"I honestly believe the answer is back there on the property. Go back, rethink it, reinterview everybody, but take them back not 30 minutes, take them back a week."

Sinister fears over link between missing Gus and wild-eyed man

Gus disappeared from his grandparents' remote South Australian property near Yunta on September 27 while playing near a mound of dirt.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Dotta]

This comment causes me to raise an eyebrow.....

Tracker and former policeman Aaron Stuart, who has assisted in the investigation, said:

"I honestly believe the answer is back there on the property. Go back, rethink it, reinterview everybody, but take them back not 30 minutes, take them back a week."

Sinister fears over link between missing Gus and wild-eyed man

Gus disappeared from his grandparents' remote South Australian property near Yunta on September 27 while playing near a mound of dirt.

www.dailymail.co.uk

This is exactly what IMO
an experienced Policeman/Detective
- either former or current -
should say.
Yes!!!

JMO

 

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[spiritualdreaming]

Mods please feel free to delete this if it's too off-topic, but I was curious about little John and found what I'm fairly certain are his birth and death records on Ancestry (although the date and age are slightly off from what is apparently on the headstone): John Ingals Smallacombe and his twin brother Clarence Francis were born on 21st October 1916, and John passed away on 25th May 1917. Clarence lived until 1962. (Ancestry link - hopefully that works!)

I don't think this baby is related to Gus or his family as it seems that the Smallacombes didn't stay on the property for very long, based on the birth records of their other children.

Daily Fail has just sensationalized that grave. I also researched the grave and found a death notice on Trove and yes the dates seem a bit off. The Smallacombes was linked to Paratoo. Under the photo of the grave it says "on a property near to where Gus went missing".

I think you'll find that some of Paratoo's boundary is shared with the junk yard boundary that's now owned by the Murray's. Year's ago the junk yard by have been Paratoo property and sold off. But there is quite a few entries regarding "Smallacombe" on Trove.

But totally agree that Smallacombe family name is definitely not linked with Gus’s Ancestry.

Trove

Australia’s free online research portal. Trove is a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of Partner organisations around Australia.

trove.nla.gov.au

 

[seasideForest]

Daily Fail has just sensationalized that grave.

Agree. Daily Fail provided clickbait. "Eerie discovery". Not really. Just grave of long-deceased child on family's private land, no connection to this case at all.

 

[SouthAussie]

Agree. Daily Fail provided clickbait. "Eerie discovery". Not really. Just grave of long-deceased child on family's private land, no connection to this case at all.

And if they were familiar with the outback, they would know that there are a number of very old graves at various isolated properties. All clearly marked and treated with care ... until there was no-one left to tend the graves.

imo

 

[seasideForest]

And if they were familiar with the outback, they would know that there are a number of very old graves at various isolated properties

As there are in other places too, not just in the outback or indeed Australia but that doesn't interest the daily fail IMO, they just want to make more money on non-news, even if their photos are often good and some information good and reliable. You just need to be able to sift through their writing for relevant facts, and discarding click-bait. MOO

 

[Lady-J]

If someone arrived at the property, they would have had business at the property and likely were expected. I don't see a person drive all that distance from elsewhere and through 6 gates to abduct a boy playing outside. An abductor would have no idea if Gus was even playing outside or being watched by one of the adults. This imo is not an opportunistic nor premeditated crime on the part of a stranger or worker. If some such person was expected, the investigators would surely know about it.

I still believe he is on that property, hidden and undiscovered , or curled up under a salt bush if he did wander. As for that second sand pile that was pointed out only yesterday, and does not look flattened out....seems to me they ought to have dug that up on the first day. But given the intensity of the search, maybe that red sand pile is compacted and hard like the first one, and was dismissed.

Could someone have possibly been driving past for whatever reason and seen Gus from the road, grabbed him and continued on without anyone noticing ?