POLICE have made the heartbreaking decision to scale back the massive search for missing four-year-old August “Gus” Lamont.
Officers spent a week scouring the South Australian outback but failed to find any trace of him.
The operation – one of the largest in the state’s history – has now been handed to the Missing Persons Investigation Section, shifting from a rescue mission to a long-term inquiry.
Assistant Police Commissioner Ian Parrott confirmed on Friday the grim turn, saying it was “unlikely Gus will be found alive” after days of freezing nights and harsh terrain.
“While we’ve all been hoping for a miracle, that miracle was not eventuated,” Commissioner Parrott said.
“We’re confident that we’ve done absolutely everything we can to locate Gus within the search area, but despite our best efforts, we have not been able to locate him, and unfortunately, we are now having to scale back this search for Gus.”
Gus vanished last Saturday evening while playing outside his grandparents’ remote homestead about 24 miles south of Yunta, north-east of Adelaide.
His grandmother last saw him at 5pm on a dirt mound, but by 5.30pm he was gone.
The only clue searchers uncovered was a single child-sized footprint about 500 metres from the homestead.
No clothing, hat, or any other sign of the boy has been found.
The search has covered hundreds of square miles of scrub and red dust, with police, SES crews, Australian Defence Force personnel, drones, sniffer dogs, helicopters and local volunteers.
At its peak, more than 100 people were on the ground each day.
But professional survival experts warned that a four-year-old in Gus’s thin clothing faced almost impossible odds after so many nights in near-freezing temperatures.
He was wearing a grey broad-brimmed hat, a blue Minions shirt, light grey pants and boots.
Commissioner Parrott said: “In the last 48 hours, despite the professional advice it being unlikely that Gus would have survived, we have maintained and in fact increased the effort to try and locate him and bring him back to his family.
“In the last 48 hours, despite the professional advice it being unlikely that Gus would have survived, we have maintained and in fact increased the effort to try and locate him and bring him back to his family,”
ADF crews were stood down on Friday afternoon as police vehicles began to pull back from the isolated property.
Cops have now scaled back the search for Gus Lamont after a week[/caption]
Family clinging to hope
Earlier this week, family friend Bill Harbison released a statement on behalf of Gus’s devastated relatives.
“This has come as a shock to our family and friends, and we are struggling to comprehend what has happened,” he said.
“Gus’s absence is felt in all of us and we miss him more than words can express.
“Our hearts are aching, and we are holding onto hope that he will be found and returned to us safely.”
Locals have voiced fears the little boy could have stumbled into one of the region’s many unmarked mine shafts or wells.
Some of these century-old relics from gold and livestock days are almost invisible in the rugged country.
Police stressed they believe Gus simply wandered off and was not taken, describing the case as “very tragic” but with no evidence of foul play.
Yorke Mid North Superintendent Mark Syrus said it was “unusual” for Gus to roam so far but “who knows what goes through a four-year-old’s mind?”
The case is now officially a missing persons investigation — but police vowed not to stop searching for answers.
“We will continue to pursue ongoing lines of inquiry, and we will not rest until we can try and find the answer to why Gus has gone missing, and hopefully, for the family, return him to them,” Commissioner Parrott said.
The operation has shifted from a rescue mission to a missing persons investigation[/caption]
