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

[jepop]

Police and family would have been talking all along. So many questions apart from the hours around Gus's disappearance. List of all workers. Any discontented workers, any enemies or people who might want to do you an ill-turn? Finances, with documentation. Who are the neighbours, who had met Gus and when, any unusual interactions or interest shown in Gus? What were the plans for his schooling? What was your relationship with Gus's father? What about other family members?

Good points. An investigation is dynamic in real time. It unfolds. Imo from the very first week a variety of officers and detectives were interacting with family and local folk, entirely separate roles from liaison/support officers.

Wanted to expand out a bit re some of my thoughts on abduction by 3rd party. Imo a subset of investigators were addressing this behind the scenes in the first week, parallel to searches (the early statements by police spokes-people strongly indicate that). linked *
Stuff like interviews with family and neighbours re strange vehicles, looking for out of place tire tracks, establishing alibis for the dad and the local station people. Moo

Additionally, I believe Supt Fielke said as much in the presser when ruling out abduction as unlikely in the extreme, to the point where it becomes unreasonable to go on considering it sans any evidence.

Police also had innate conditions to consider, per supt Fielke; 45 km distant from main road; only two dirt roads and not public; only 4 w/d access; locked gates; unknown 3rd party can't know when Gus would or wouldn't be outside; unknown party (and vehicle) can't case the goings on at the homestead in person without being observed as not belonging there and so forth. Jmo

Re photo release: I think it was primarily due diligence that prompted police to release a photo towards the end of the first week ( Thurs Oct 1).

Only a day or so later, police spokesman addressed the public noting the influx of calls. Yet he felt compelled to ask the public to not clog up lines with irrelevant opinions (see link*).

Moo If the release of photo did result in any tips re possible sightings of Gus, then I assume those were assessed and eliminated.

*Summary of week 1 investigation, search efforts, police communications

What we know about search for missing boy on sheep station

Authorities are searching for a missing four-year-old boy on a sheep grazing station in the mid-north of South Australia. Here's what we know about the search so far.

www.abc.net.au

Re Feb 5th Presser

Inside the 'textbook' search for Gus Lamont

A retired police officer who helped pioneer search guidelines used during the investigation into the disappearance of Gus Lamont, praises the efforts to find the missing boy and expresses support for the detectives' conclusions.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Serononin]

Going back through the major crimes presser, and something stuck out: the items they seized from the house. While the reason for the interest in the vehicle and motorcycle they seized seems pretty self-evident, since they're the most likely way Gus could have been moved from the property (although they could also have additional involvement if Gus was struck or accidentally got trapped in the vehicle and overheated), this part:

QUESTION: "You also mentioned electronical devices. Can you elaborate on what they are?"

DARREN FIELKE: "Phones, computers, iPads."

The phones make sense even from just a GPS location tracking sense if SAPOL thought they might be carried on the suspect when moving Gus, but include the computers and iPads? You wouldn't pack a computer to go quickly hide a body. This sounds like they're looking for evidence of communication about this with someone else, search history, and/or pictures stored on them (if the last, possibly either just trying to better establish a better timeline of when Gus can be confirmed alive or something more nefarious). Work for the digital forensics analysts.

MOO, but might be a hint as to the lines of inquiry they're currently pursuing, since they'd probably need to have the warrant specifically written to include these sorts of items before they seized them (right?).

BBM

It makes me think of the Ana Walshe case, where Brian Walshe deleted his search history on his phone, but because of device syncing, his searches were still visible when investigators searched his son's iPad