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

[Ellery84]

View attachment 623601
Does it really matter what pile of dirt? Why is everyone so interested.?
Of course searchers have gone all over this place. Police have also had over a month to go over anything in and around the homestead. You have to back then in that they checked everything square CM.

What interests me most from that photo is perhaps the smaller building close to the red pile is where Shannon was looking after the kids. Makes sense as you don't want a 4yo out of sight. She would have been comfortable knowing she could just walk to the window or door to check on him.
Probably my biggest take from it is getting a good look at the road. The building is perhaps obscured from road visibility and perhaps sound from the road too. Let's say she left the back door open for Gus and shut the front, because we all know what happens when it's a bit windy with door open on opposite ends!

Anyway just a bit of rambling thoughts.

Great post. There is a lot going on in this photo.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

By a red pile of dirt that's exactly what is meant. The dirt is a red colour like a lot of dirt in some outback areas.

I don't actually recall it being said what colour the soil or dirt was but I've missed a lot recently.

 

[sportstergirl]

Where there any deliveries the day Gus went missing?
Could he have got in a vehicle or trailer?
A long shot but it's looking like he isn't on the farm.
Has it been windy or rained to have removed footprints etc?
I dont know Australia but are there predators like wolves or big cats?

 

[MelmothTheLost]

By a red pile of dirt that's exactly what is meant. The dirt is a red colour like a lot of dirt in some outback areas.

I don't actually recall it being said what colour the soil or dirt was but I've missed a lot recently.

It's also worth bearing in mind that fresh materials such as sand are much brighter or deeper in colour than stuff that has been standing long enough to dry out on the surface.

 

[sunspun]

I think the women's weekly article is simply taking it's cue from the DM article which mentions red pile. I searched hard ( though quickly) and could find no other reports that specify red pile. Most reports actually use the term mound of dirt, with the ABC also in early reports using sand. Those with more details say he was playing Infront of the homestead.

My take is that the Police updates in late Sept/early Oct used the term mound of dirt. I'd guess that in interviews and whatnot, police also used the term sand interchangeably and I think, Imo, this is probably the way it was phrased by SM.

The police obviously know the relevant locations and would have integrated it into their searches.

But fwiw, I don't believe the red dirt pile ever came from the police and no other reports as far as I can tell mention it independent of the DM. Jmo

I remembered it as being called a sand pit from the beginning. But when I saw references to a red dirt pile, I realized that the sandy pile by the trampoline, where I previously thought he was, probably wasn't even the right one. That seems pretty crucial to me! But now it gets worse, because it's now been pointed out that there are actually multiple red dirt piles, and I don't know if we've been given any clues even as to which pile of whatever it was that Gus was last seen in, allegedly. So we don't even know how near or far he was from the house where Shannon was cooking dinner. We don't know if she could look out a window and see him.

And the inconsistent reporting and/or statements, as well as careless, or should probably say, imprecise terminology, used by seemingly everyone, does not help matters. For example, a red dirt pile could probably be called a sand pit, right? Or no, maybe they're not close enough to be interchangeable. I don't know. But could a sand pit be called a red dirt pile? I think that's a hard no. CMIIW! But if it's that pile of sand there by the trampoline, I wouldn't believe anyone was calling that a pile of red dirt. The sandy-colored one! Not a red dirt pile.

And since the place he was playing has been called a sand pit as well as a red dirt pile, I do not believe it's that sand pile by the trampoline that he was supposedly playing in. I do believe that it would be the pile of red dirt. BUT there's more than one! So which? I think it's the one circled in that pic above, the one pretty much right in front of what looks like a house to me, kind of built into or out of the ground. But that's the problem, I'm really just guessing! But this is where it all begins, so it must be important!

But then again, the reason that something that seems to me to be so important, is being spoken of ambiguously and well... as if it doesn't matter!... might be because it really isn't important after all, because it might not even be a true and factual element in the case at all. It might be being used to stand in for something else, because it "sounds better", or because when it comes down to it, they really don't know where he was before he couldn't be found. I'm not saying they don't know this, but I'm saying it would help explain to me why something seemingly an important piece of the story turned out to be so hard to nail down. And might be because it really doesn't matter after all.

 

[FromGermany1]

Was grandma Shannon cooking or doing a walk? I saw both on the thread meanwhile.

Was she doing both perhaps, let her stew or else simmering away AND doing a walk?
If she wasn't in the kitchen the whole time and out of sight, little Gus could have sneaked into the kitchen and out of curiosity wanted to have a look into the pot and scalded himself badly. Maybe, he was still able to flee from sheer terror and agony and hid himself, then he deceased.

Until now I belonged to the team "no accident", but I'm just changing my mind a bit .... (certainly because I'm just cooking a big pot of soup).

 

[Sillybilly]

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[musicaljoke]

Was grandma Shannon cooking or doing a walk? I saw both on the thread meanwhile.

Was she doing both perhaps, let her stew or else simmering away AND doing a walk?
If she wasn't in the kitchen the whole time and out of sight, little Gus could have sneaked into the kitchen and out of curiosity wanted to have a look into the pot and scalded himself badly. Maybe, he was still able to flee from sheer terror and agony and hid himself, then he deceased.

Until now I belonged to the team "no accident", but I'm just changing my mind a bit .... (certainly because I'm just cooking a big pot of soup).

Surely a four year old would know not to get up to the stove. In any case, there is no evidence to support this theory. A very injured child likely would have been found because he would not easily be able to hide in such a way that no one would be able to find him.

 

[RedHaus]

[RE: sand pile / red dirt pile / sand pit]

... the reason that something that seems to me to be so important, is being spoken of ambiguously and well... as if it doesn't matter!... might be because it really isn't important after all, because it might not even be a true and factual element in the case at all.

RS&BBM
An excellent deduction of the meager data we have. If your conclusion is correct (I'm starting to consider that myself), then it supports a variety of 'non-wandering' theories we've pondered.

IMO.

 

[nao]

Moo...the child's play area, is going to be close to house in an area with shade. This is sunny n hot outback Australia. Let's be logical...moo

 

[drsleuth]

DBM

 

[TMich6811]

Moo...the child's play area, is going to be close to house in an area with shade. This is sunny n hot outback Australia. Let's be logical...moo

Good point about shade. What would the temperature have been that day

 

[drsleuth]

Good point about shade. What would the temperature have been that day

Sat 27/9 Min 5.2 Max 27.5
Sun 28/9 Min 6.1 Max 22.7
Mon 29/9 Min 8.6 Max 28.1
Tues 30/9 Min 13.5 Max 21.7

All in degrees celsius

https://www.bom.gov.au/climate/dwo/202509/html/IDCJDW5075.202509.shtml

 

[katydid23]

Ok, I'm just pointing out that the sandpile we first thought he had been playing in was not where he was playing. There's a different pile nearby as seen in these pics that is the one he was playing in, if we have it right. And it happens to be red looking. I think it's pretty important to get it correct where he was said to be last seen. And we still may not have it right!

Which house was Shannon in? There is one very close to the red dirt. And another home very close to the sandpile.

I wonder which house Shannon was cooking dinner in? One of the homes is very far from the red dirt, and it would be hard to see him from the windows or front yard.

 

[Kemug]

And me too

We're all being bribed with guardianship to hang around!

 

[Kemug]

Surely if Shannon had gone for a walk she would have taken little Ronnie with her?

 

[kiwi50]

We're all being bribed with guardianship to hang around!

Nobody’s bribed me !

 

[Kemug]

Nobody’s bribed me !

You're probably next!

 

[SouthAussie]

Surely if Shannon had gone for a walk she would have taken little Ronnie with her?

A link was asked for about any walk Shannon may have done. (here) It wasn't provided AFAIK.
I haven't seen any MSM about Shannon being on a walk. Maybe someone else has?

And yes, I think if Shannon had been walking at that time both Ronnie and Gus would have been with her. Kids enjoy a walk. But I don't think Shannon was on a walk at that time. She was inside the homestead.

imo

 

[Raina_the_observer]

This is from the same post by @Marg944 from Oct 14 earlier in this thread. I believe it shows both the red pile of dirt and the sand pile. And more than one report stated he was playing in the pile of red dirt. The post by @Marg944 on Oct 14 includes a video, and the poster said that the red dirt is pointed out at :50 in the video.

IMO both piles are of red sand/soil excavated from the site, likely to do with the construction of the newer building on the left. One pile is older and the oxides have faded, or perhaps just dug up from slightly deeper.