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

[Dotta]

Well,
at least Police found a reason to arrest and charge hehehe
No lame excuses or bewildered looks.
Ooops!

"Do the crime
Do the time"

JMO

 

[washysmum]

I’m also wondering why it was Josie who was charged? I mean, both grandparents live on the property and I expect Shannon too should know how to use firearms considering her outback background? And maybe having some in her name? Why couldn’t she have been the one to be charged with illegal possession of the silencer?

And I was also wondering if they collect fingerprints at the station because of such charges? Could they have needed a pretext to collect Josie’s fingerprints, for example? I’m not familiar with Australian laws.

All moo and speculation.

In my experience, it’s most likely they were stored in her room and possibly she admitted to being the owner. When there’s multiple occupants in the house, it tends to come down to who was in closest proximity, in a shared room case, it may be known who is the person in question. My opinion only from my personal experiences

 

[essareem]

In my experience, it’s most likely they were stored in her room and possibly she admitted to being the owner. When there’s multiple occupants in the house, it tends to come down to who was in closest proximity, in a shared room case, it may be known who is the person in question. My opinion only from my personal experiences

In Australia, we have to store firearms, ammunition, and firearm parts such as moderators in special gun safes with strict requirements.

 

[washysmum]

Well,
at least Police found a reason to arrest and charge hehehe
No lame excuses or bewildered looks.
Ooops!

"Do the crime
Do the time"

In Australia, we have to store firearms, ammunition, and firearm parts such as moderators in special gun safes with strict requirements.

Yes I’m in Australia, ( and proud of our gun laws) but I’ve also been around the underbelly of Australia in my younger years, so I know how easy firearms can be illegally obtained and not stored correctly. ( and I’ve made many crime stoppers reports ) I’ve know legal owners who also don’t do the correct thing.. slightly off topic but a few years back I was using my sons nerf gun in the front yard and half hour later literally got jumped by cops with guns drawn, i wet my pants, my son got the toy guns out and showed them, we all laughed after but I’m glad it’s taken that serious here to

 

[essareem]

I do not understand why she would need a silencer living way out in the scrub.

I have been around guns for quite a while, both as shooter and observer on large properties in different states of Australia. I've never seen a shooter or a farmer use a silencer, but that's not to say it doesn't happen.

I can see the reason for it, if you're shooting at a mob of feral pests such as pigs, goats etc, a silencer might stop them from scattering immediately. You could eliminate more of them at once.

 

[washysmum]

Dbm

 

[Morequestionsthananswers]

«The whole story is horrible, if what we believe is all true.»

This is a quote from a Volunteer Mr Aldrich cited in the article who was part of the team that was supposed to go out to a location in the national park right before the police announced their search.

This gives me chills, I don’t want to imagine what he means by that. That poor b

JMO, it is possible that they bought it and forgot it before a license was needed, or might even have been something that SM's father, Vincent, had purchased and stashed somewhere before he died. But according to the law linked earlier, an unknowing violation like that doesn't legally let you off the hook if you get caught with one.

Perhaps due to the remoteness it was considered by them unnecessary to have a license.

 

[linge]

Perhaps due to the remoteness it was considered by them unnecessary to have a license.

From a 'the police will never know' mindset, a 'this is my domain and I make my own rules' mindset, or were you thinking of other possibilities?

Edit to add: Forgot the small town favorite: 'We have one cop, I know him, and he doesn't care, so why bother?'

 

[Morequestionsthananswers]

I really hope it’s true that Jason O’Connell has an independent search team ready to go and begins his own investigation (as Rob Parsons did in the Celine Cremer case).

 

[Morequestionsthananswers]

From a 'the police will never know' mindset, a 'this is my domain and I make my own rules' mindset, or were you thinking of other possibilities?

From a police will never know mindset.

 

[Morequestionsthananswers]

Dbm

 

[Kemug]

Re the grandmothers - what do they care about the most, I wonder? Each other? Themselves? Their daughter? Their grandsons? Or is it the property maybe, beyond anything else?

 

[Cagney&Lacey]

I'm leaning towards 'self preservation'

 

[Ellery84]

Re the grandmothers - what do they care about the most, I wonder? Each other? Themselves? Their daughter? Their grandsons? Or is it the property maybe, beyond anything else?

Maybe money, self preservation, legacy, reputation. Not sure; just a guess. IMO

 

[linge]

Re the grandmothers - what do they care about the most, I wonder? Each other? Themselves? Their daughter? Their grandsons? Or is it the property maybe, beyond anything else?

If they're innocent and have already told SAPOL all they know, those priorities aren't necessarily in conflict enough to have to choose. If they were both involved in some capacity, might be different for both of them and reflect the role they each played in it.

It's a really good question that we don't know nearly enough to be able to answer.

 

[Raina_the_observer]

South Australian police have inspected an outhouse with freshly laid cement and a water tank as part of the latest search for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont in the state’s Mid North.

I could not imagine someone who lived out there ever contaminating a water tank.
Septic tanks but not water tanks.
But I would have thought that the water tanks would have all been searched when Gus first went missing in case he accidentally entered a tank. Same as they checked all the dams.

 

[HoneyBunOne]

I could not imagine someone who lived out there ever contaminating a water tank.
Septic tanks but not water tanks.
But I would have thought that the water tanks would have all been searched when Gus first went missing in case he accidentally entered a tank. Same as they checked all the dams.

True, water is a precious resource, especially out there. We do know a lot of "stuff" was lying around the property at the time Gus went missing, and I'm not sure where all the water tanks near the home were located, but is there a chance Gus was able to enter one and drowned? Death by misadventure because he was unsupervised for a period of time?

Talking about water tank deaths and periods of time passing, check out the Elisa Lam story.

 

[BreakingNews]

Think your questions here are important ones. I'm very curious if the second one stopped cooperating with SAPOL before or right after the firearms arrest.

From cases I've followed, it doesn't seem very uncommon for the partner of someone suspected of a crime who was initially helpful to LE to then stop helping and take the 'side' of that partner being investigated against police, particularly as the investigation ramps up enough to start feeling harassed. A lot of the time it seems to be feeling sorry for the partner ('they're all alone,' 'no one else believes them,' 'they need me,' 'the cops are picking on them,' 'it's not fair'), either believing innocence ('they could never') or feeling guilty, like it's a betrayal, for doubting innocence (or being made to feel guilty for it; 'You know me better than anyone, how could you believe I could ever kill someone?' paraphrasing many a killer), loyalty, as you say, getting sucked back into the 'we're a team, we're in this together, it's us against the world' mindset. Feelings of love, trust, history, loyalty, obligation don't just switch off when someone you have deep connections with is suspected of a terrible crime, they're both powerful forces that drive decisions all on their own and also things that can be actively manipulated by others.

But if this arrest was used as an opportunity to separate and question them, and the way it played out ended in the second one ending cooperation, it's possible something in the course of it made the previously cooperative non-suspect (or their lawyer) realize they were beginning to be implicated in this too, if they helped in a cover up or something of that nature. Or if somehow wholly innocent and genuinely in the dark as to what happened to Gus, possibly been shocked by the implications of the questions being asked, didn't believe it was possible the other could do what the police were suggesting, went into denial, whatever. Or even just realized that their own answers were beginning to make the suspect look more guilty, despite maybe initially believing that cooperating would help prove innocence. And any of those things could have been the push needed to comply with what the suspect probably already wanted, which was for them to help stonewall SAPOL, be a united front giving them nothing more than they already have.

JMO.

They have both lawyered up. It seems obvious to me that each lawyer would tell their client not to say another word. Especially without their lawyer present. Otherwise why lawyer up, then not heed their advice. It's their right not to speak. Nothing sinister about it.

 

[Morequestionsthananswers]

Going on what I read important information seems to have been dismissed by police when Jason O’Connell searched alongside Josh Lamont. I discovered it today while looking at Jasons fb page - it’s a public statement, no need to be friends, anyone can read it.

 

[washysmum]

They have both lawyered up. It seems obvious to me that each lawyer would tell their client not to say another word. Especially without their lawyer present. Otherwise why lawyer up, then not heed their advice. It's their right not to speak. Nothing sinister about it.

Very normal to obtain legal representation to act on your behalf,legally, as per our rights we don’t have to comment or speak to police beyond confirming our id, and every lawyer would encourage you to invoke this right