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

[SouthAussie]

"No sign of" is very neutral language and doesn't mean that there was no foul play.

There's still a lot of uncertainty about what actually happened at the homestead and on the station that day. In fact there seems to be so much contradiction that it feels as though we are being deliberately gaslit. Maybe that is the police's intention.

Perhaps, but people change their minds. Maybe when Gus first went missing it looked just like any other missing kid in the outback. Sometimes those kids are found safe and sometimes their remains are found some time later. But when there is no trace at all of a child reported missing after 6 weeks, maybe people start to wonder if something was more wrong than they thought and become more willing to talk to reporters. Maybe.

I sometimes think that the DM publishes these types of things because they want to know the details, and they hope someone (the police) will come out and correct them.

imo

 

[Lady-J]

It’s doing my head in trying to work out what has happened to Gus.!!!
There’s not much to work with.
We have

• No evidence of Gus wandering
• Not an animal
• No evidence of foul play
• Family cooperating with police
• Zero to little chance of him being taken in such a remote area
• Not in the dam
• One footprint (hang on, he has two legs)

A child can’t vanish!!!

Would the family cover up an accident such as Gus being run over? (I’d say no, theres no reason).

If it was a different type of accident where someone in the family lost their temper and accidentally caused Gus’s death would they ALL agree to lie and cover manslaughter up? (I wouldn’t think so unless it benefits everyone or fear is involved moo. I wouldn’t)
If they decided on a cover up would they ALL be able to get their stories the same when individually questioned by police with the same questions asked in different ways ? (Doubt that).
Would they ALL be able to get the who went where looking for Gus answers the same if they were lying? And who went searching in what direction in the car or on a bike looking for Gus? (I’m assuming they did that ) , and what the other family members were doing while you were doing that? etc. ( that would stuff most people up)

What do the police tell the public when version of events don’t match up?

Are the police waiting for someone to crack or come forward with information?

How far can a four year old go in a few hours of daylight?

Did he get bitten by a snake? If so why wasn’t he found?
Could he have gone miles, been bitten by a snake, crawled under a bush and gone undetected?

So many questions going round my head.
My thoughts only, not saying that the family are responsible, they must be distraught.

 

[SouthAussie]

I can read this Daily Mail disrespectful garbage using Opera.

I've only recently installed it had to look at the settings.

Thanks, Tootsie. I managed to read it now.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

The Daily Mail article claims that trial nursery day in March appears to be when the photo released of Gus was taken. And that as far as they can establish nobody outside of the immediate family has seen him since.

On the subject of the photo, we have discussed before why that was the only one released. What if it was the only one that exists?

With pretty much everyone and his dog these days having a smart phone with a decent camera, we're used to people taking hundreds, if not thousands, of photos of their kids from birth onwards (and plastering them all over social media). Even if people aren't that way inclined surely we would expect a mother to take photos of her kids every so often, even if only once a month. Gus playing in the sand pile. Gus on his new trike. Gus on his birthday. Gus with dad. Etc.

What if the delay in releasing a photo of Gus was partly because they didn't have an up to date one to release?

What if, without that photo taken in March, presumably at the school, we wouldn't even know what he looked like?

 

[BreakingNews]

Must be geoblocked. I get the same message with the link you provided. On Google and Safari browsers here.

"Sorry, we can't find the page you are looking for. Would you like to go back to where you were, or search for it?"​

Wonder why they would geoblock it here.

That is odd that we can't get that link in Australia. Fake news?

 

[Lady-J]

Oops! Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to cut off your post. I started replying then decided to start a new thread .

Omg I’m out of control, my posts aren’t doing what they’re supposed to, they’ve got a mind of their own.

I will put my phone down and stop it

 

[Sarahlou]

On the subject of the photo, we have discussed before why that was the only one released. What if it was the only one that exists?

With pretty much everyone and his dog these days having a smart phone with a decent camera, we're used to people taking hundreds, if not thousands, of photos of their kids from birth onwards (and plastering them all over social media). Even if people aren't that way inclined surely we would expect a mother to take photos of her kids every so often, even if only once a month. Gus playing in the sand pile. Gus on his new trike. Gus on his birthday. Gus with dad. Etc.

What if the delay in releasing a photo of Gus was partly because they didn't have an up to date one to release?

What if, without that photo taken in March, presumably at the school, we wouldn't even know what he looked like?

It's definitely possible the one in March was the most up to date one of him. It does seem unusual if there weren't more pictures.

That is odd that we can't get that link in Australia. Fake news?

I can think of two cases in the past where links were blocked in Australia, the information was true but for whatever reasons (prejudicing the trials?) the information wasn't allowed to be published there at that time.

 

[SouthAussie]

That is odd that we can't get that link in Australia. Fake news?

They went to Josh's property, somehow read a calendar entry that said 'term starts', presumed that was the day that Gus had his introduction day at a local nursery school (in March), described the condition of the house, the driveway, saw the fridge/freezer in the kitchen had its doors ajar ....

(paraphrased from the linked article)

Maybe they have been officially warned to stay away from Gus' family (since the rifle incident) so they geoblocked?

Or they screwed up their settings when they published the article and will correct them when they read Websleuths.

imo

 

[Bats]

On the subject of the photo, we have discussed before why that was the only one released. What if it was the only one that exists?

With pretty much everyone and his dog these days having a smart phone with a decent camera, we're used to people taking hundreds, if not thousands, of photos of their kids from birth onwards (and plastering them all over social media). Even if people aren't that way inclined surely we would expect a mother to take photos of her kids every so often, even if only once a month. Gus playing in the sand pile. Gus on his new trike. Gus on his birthday. Gus with dad. Etc.

What if the delay in releasing a photo of Gus was partly because they didn't have an up to date one to release?

What if, without that photo taken in March, presumably at the school, we wouldn't even know what he looked like?

I personally wouldn't read into this too much. I remember when Samantha Murphy was declared missing, people were wondering all sorts of things about the single photo of her that Police released to the public. I expect there is a reason why Police release few details of this nature.

 

[sunspun]

They went to Josh's property, somehow read a calendar entry that said 'term starts', presumed that was the day that Gus had his introduction day at a local nursery school (in March), described the condition of the house, the driveway, saw the fridge/freezer in the kitchen had its doors ajar ....

(paraphrased from the linked article)

Maybe they have been officially warned to stay away from Gus' family (since the rifle incident) so they geoblocked?

Or they screwed up their settings when they published the article and will correct them when they read Websleuths.

imo

Are you saying they (who? DM?) saw that the fridge and freezer doors in Josh's kitchen were open, and there was no one in the house? Did they mention if there was furniture still in the house?

Sounds to me like Josh is currently defrosting his freezer, or he's moved out!

... the plot thickens?

 

[SouthAussie]

Are you saying they (who? DM?) saw that the fridge and freezer doors in Josh's kitchen were open, and there was no one in the house? Did they mention if there was furniture still in the house?

Sounds to me like Josh is currently defrosting his freezer, or he's moved out!

... the plot thickens?

The DM says spartan interior, looks to have been abandoned for a while. Which I think we knew because someone who knew Josh told the DM that Josh hadn't been back to the house weeks ago.

imo

 

[sunspun]

Geobocked? Interesting .....

I could paste the relevant sections but unfortunately that would amount to rather more than 10% of the article.

Basically they claim that:

• Gus attended an introduction day at the local school in March with a school start day of (presumably this coming) January
• The published photograph of him appears to have been taken at the introduction day
• They have visited almost every property in Yunta to speak to residents about when Gus was last seen by outsiders.

"As far as we can establish, that nursery school visit also represents the last time anyone outside of the child’s immediate family can remember seeing him."

And:

"Put another way, the missing boy seems to have barely left his home in the six months leading up to the day he vanished. The only people who had seen him alive during that period were the ones who then reported him missing."

On a lighter note, they report that Josh's old band was called The Cut Snakes.

ETA: Link for completeness: Missing Outback boy trans gran greets Mail reporter with shotgun

Wow. That's a crazy article! Do you think they would have written and published it, if the drama with Josie and the gun hadn't happened?

Because that's just how it comes across to me... that they wrote it because they were mad about that incident! Maybe they felt like they got too much negative publicity from it, or that they were the ones who came out looking like the bad guys, when they thought it would be the other way around. But that's as crazy as that article, surely they would never get revenge like that by writing an article that all but accuses the family of who knows what all kinds of wrongdoing?? They obviously wrote it to raise suspicions of the family, particularly among their community, imo.

But really when you think about it, is it actually saying anything that bad or suspicious? Their whole point, imo, was to say that Gus hadn't left his home for the last 6 months or so. But how often did he leave his home in the 6 months before that? Or before that? There's nothing wrong with him not ever going in to town with his family, is there? And where else should he be going, if he's not yet going to school? Besides, just because no one said they remembered seeing him away from his home, doesn't mean he never left there. If he did go anywhere, it probably wouldn't have been very often, and he probably didn't have much chance to interact with people if he did. And it doesn't sound like they have people out to the station just to visit them much, so how would people be expected to see him anywhere? He's not a real man-about-town just yet!

So I personally don't feel this was the hit-piece that I really believe the DM was trying to write. And I think it was a bad move on their part, even if it wasn't in retaliation for the trespassing incident. But that being said, some things the article insinuates are things I've been concerned about as well. The timeline of that day and the whereabouts of all the people that day, imo, have never been satisfactorily established. Some things seem to be stated too vaguely or ambiguously, as if they don't want to be pinned down on any details or something like that. Inconsistencies and ambiguities raise red flags in my mind, can't help that.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Are you saying they (who? DM?) saw that the fridge and freezer doors in Josh's kitchen were open, and there was no one in the house? Did they mention if there was furniture still in the house?

Sounds to me like Josh is currently defrosting his freezer, or he's moved out!

... the plot thickens?

I seem to recall it was reported that he was currently living in Adelaide with either friends or family. I guess if he wasn't planning to return to his property for some time the electricity might have been turned off so emptying and defrosting the fridge would have made sense.

 

[sunspun]

The DM says spartan interior, looks to have been abandoned for a while. Which I think we knew because someone who knew Josh told the DM that Josh hadn't been back to the house weeks ago.

imo

Oh! I missed that somehow! I didn't realize Josh hadn't been staying there. Well, I guess we know he's not staying with the family at the station. So does anyone know where he is??

I wonder if Gus's family even knows where he went? This is just sounding really strange.
Gus is still missing, and now his dad hasn't been home for weeks, so like almost the whole time he's been missing? Did he own that house or rent it? I just don't know what to think about that. Maybe people know perfectly well where he is. Maybe he just got tired of reporters bothering him or something, and went somewhere quiet. I hope somebody knows where he is.

 

[sunspun]

I seem to recall it was reported that he was currently living in Adelaide with either friends or family. I guess if he wasn't planning to return to his property for some time the electricity might have been turned off so emptying and defrosting the fridge would have made sense.

OK yes that makes perfect sense. I'm glad he's not missing too.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I personally wouldn't read into this too much. I remember when Samantha Murphy was declared missing, people were wondering all sorts of things about the single photo of her that Police released to the public. I expect there is a reason why Police release few details of this nature.

Of course there could be an entirely benign reason behind this, but I'm mindful that in the early stages of the search and investigation we did discuss the reason for the delay in releasing the photo and concluded that it was because the police believed him to be lost on the property. However, it's not unreasonable to ask why the photo which was eventually released seems to have been 6 months old. Kids at that age can change a lot over 6 or 12 months so why would you not release the most recent one which gives an accurate image of the kid who's missing?

 

[sunspun]

Of course there could be an entirely benign reason behind this, but I'm mindful that in the early stages of the search and investigation we did discuss the reason for the delay in releasing the photo and concluded that it was because the police believed him to be lost on the property. However, it's not unreasonable to ask why the photo which was eventually released seems to have been 6 months old. Kids at that age can change a lot over 6 or 12 months so why would you not release the most recent one which gives an accurate image of the kid who's missing?

And hadn't he fairly recently had a birthday too? Even if there was no birthday party, I'd still think they would have taken his picture on his birthday. Maybe they don't even celebrate, who knows.

 

[sunspun]

Has anyone ever seen a picture of his mother Jess? Maybe I've seen them and just forgotten, but right now, I can't remember ever seeing her.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

And hadn't he fairly recently had a birthday too? Even if there was no birthday party, I'd still think they would have taken his picture on his birthday. Maybe they don't even celebrate, who knows.

Yes, you're right. It was said fairly early on that he had only recently turned 4. It would be bloody sad if a child didn't have a photo taken of him on his birthday opening a few presents or blowing out a few candles on a cake.

 

[sunspun]

So the pic of Gus was on his Training Day, was that what they called it? Does that mean he was officially enrolled in school for some term coming up soon? When was that supposed to start? Was it near the station or near Josh's house? I understood that it would be a different school, depending on if he was living at his dad's house or at the station, but maybe that's not true.