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

[Green beans]

I watched the presser thanks for posting it slouth! So impressed by the imagery obtained. Wow! I felt like this image in particular of person on motorbike was shown to send a strong message. The hair colour looks like SM, imo

 

[Bigditch]

The elephant in the room.

Dbm

 

[statt#1]

"The grandparents of Gus Lamont say they are "absolutely devastated" after SA Police declared the disappearance of the four-year-old boy a major crime."

Gus Lamont's grandparents 'absolutely devastated' by major crime declaration

The grandparents of missing four-year-old boy Gus Lamont say the family has "cooperated fully with the investigation and want nothing more than to find Gus and reunite him with his mum and dad".

www.abc.net.au

 

[steff13]

That last sentence sounds weird 'want nothing'. Is it a double negative, or an oxymoron or one of those things? It sounds how William Tyrrell ex foster mother talked

I feel like "want nothing more" is a fairly common turn of phrase. They're saying there's nothing they want more than to find Gus.

 

[FromGermany1]

I relistened recently and yes. But moo the letters are mentioned during the section where the general number of tips and the form they arrived in was being laid out by police. Nothing further was said about them or any of the other tips. So moo this was just part of delineating the work undertaken during the investigation.

I'm wondering, if 1 letter was written by the tracker, who said, he will tell the story about little Gus later on?

 

[Orbweaver]

From : Firearms Act 2015

"15—Grant of licences(1) The Registrar may only refuse an application for a firearms licence if the Registrar isnot satisfied—"
(b) that the applicant is a fit and proper person to hold the licence; or"

"7—Fit and proper person"

"(4) In deciding whether a person is a fit and proper person for a purpose under this Act—
(a) regard may be had to the reputation, honesty and integrity of the person, closeassociates of the person and any people with whom the person associates; and
(b) regard must be had to—
(i) any risk of the person using a firearm for an unlawful purpose; or
(ii) any risk of the person using a firearm to harm himself or herself; or
(iii) any risk that the person will cause injury or harm to another by the use or threatened use of a firearm; or
(iv) any risk of the person failing to exercise continuous and responsible control over a firearm,and, in that connection, regard may be had to the person's past behaviour,instability, intemperate habits, way of living or domestic circumstances."

Man oh man. As an American, I wish this was the world I lived in. These seem like extremely reasonable stipulations for gun ownership. But because I live in the U.S. and I am a woman who has lived alone on remote properties, I'm (reluctantly) a gun owner. I don't mean to add fuel to the gun discussion because I remember feeling like it got old quick when the incident happened but I've seen people go after snakes with guns. If you see someone walking by a ditch with a shot gun in the south, they've probably seen a copperhead or something. A spray of bird shot from a 12 gauge'll get 'em (though I'm not a fan of killing snakes/native species/literally anything just because they exist and I'm afraid of them!).
That said - if I'm holding a gun and someone approaches me, I either put it down or verbally warn them of the threat (bear, cougar, etc.) so that they don't put themselves in danger. Unfortunately, I have had to approach people on a past very remote property with a firearm. In that case, it was holstered/open carried because the intention was to *not* have to use it. The only time you greet someone (that you're not going hunting/shooting with) with a gun in your hand is to threaten them. Again, this is the perspective of an American living in a very different reality but this is my experience having worked/lived on farms and in logging country.

Ok thanks for lending me your ears/eyes - I had to get that outta my head because it was just circling around in there.

P.S. shooting at a snake in a pool is truly buckwild and I totally get why that person was the talk of the town haha

 

[washysmum]

Do we know if they had any employees that worked at the farm? I feel like with a property that big they would have some kind of help for mustering and such.

I've always thought the case was sus but I've also always felt like it wasn't the parents or grandparents but someone else who lived or worked at the property

Been through this train of thought , LE confirmed no one outside of the family was on the property at the time

 

[FromGermany1]

I have the impression that the police are looking at Shannon. Just my own impression from what I have read. We know absolutely nothing about her personality traits because she has kept a very low profile.

I feel that people have super-imposed their own feelings onto her, when we actually know nothing at all about her personality.

imo

I noticed, that she didn't want to show her face, whereas JM did or does. Can someone really be that shy? MOO

 

[washysmum]

I for one have not ruled out that he didn't wander somewhere and got stuck.
Searches have missed missing people in the past. many times.

Just because the Police say it, doesn't mean it's not still a possibility, unless they know something solid that we don't. which could be possible.

The fact that they do say it makes me think they have more than changing timelines.

I have a problem with jumping on someone because their memory four months later has changed.
If it was me, I'd be in trouble. This many months later I'm sure my memory would have changed too.

People's memories do change over time.

Over time you start to doubt your recollection.

And then there's age related possible memory problems


So far, nowhere near enough information for me to know for a fact that they have a suspect who committed a crime.

Not possible at this point; the land has been throughly searched. The area is not populated. Not a ton of predators in the area, all signs point to one person, as per LE statements. There is foul play involved, only ending that makes sense unfortunately

 

[Lucy6226]

I can believe a scenario where SM is responsible, whether accidental or otherwise, and JM helps cover it up. JMs 'aggression' comes from wanting to protect SM at all costs. MOO.

Edited to add:- I can also imagine that Gus may have been unsupervised a lot longer than SM stated originally.

 

[Dotta]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2019759037248614733

 

[Hexe]

Just wanted to point out that the inconsistencies mentioned by the LE do not have to be between the statements made by different people. Most difficult thing for the people lying is, well, keeping their story consistent when they have to repeat it. Maybe the suspect person gave the versions of their whereabouts that were differing too much to ignore it as just fallibility of a human memory?

MOO

 

[washysmum]

This is the case that made me as an Australian join after over a decade of lurking here. Because so many ppl really don’t comprehend the vastness of the outback and the fact no one else could possibly be involved but the person last with Gus.

 

[Detechtive]

No worries, we can agree to disagree. Just wish you wouldn't say extreme things like The defensiveness of JM regardless of whether the DM reporter was intrusive, is insane IMO.

I don't think an alternate opinion of others is insane. We all look at things from our own perspective. As you know, I lived in the SA outback for many years and my perspective is different from yours.

Josie should not have had the gun there, could have placed it down.
But even if they had yelled at the reporters, the DM would have blown it up. "We innocently trespassed to ask questions, and they YELLED at us". Photos included.

The police chose to 'believe' Josie's statement, even if they didn't really believe it.

imo

No I didn’t mean to say your opinion was insane. I meant that the defensiveness shown by JM was insane. Having different opinions is not an issue, if you pointed a gun at me for doing something you didn’t like, that would be insane. IMO

 

[Detechtive]

No worries, we can agree to disagree. Just wish you wouldn't say extreme things like The defensiveness of JM regardless of whether the DM reporter was intrusive, is insane IMO.

I don't think an alternate opinion of others is insane. We all look at things from our own perspective. As you know, I lived in the SA outback for many years and my perspective is different from yours.

Josie should not have had the gun there, could have placed it down.
But even if they had yelled at the reporters, the DM would have blown it up. "We innocently trespassed to ask questions, and they YELLED at us". Photos included.

The police chose to 'believe' Josie's statement, even if they didn't really believe it.

imo

I agree the DM was out of line and in my view - that particular reporter travels all over the country to attach herself to the most famous cases because she wants to be some sort of influencer and it’s revolting.

Still think the gun was insane.

IMO

 

[SouthAussie]

No I didn’t mean to say your opinion was insane. I meant that the defensiveness shown by JM was insane. Having different opinions is not an issue, if you pointed a gun at me for doing something you didn’t like, that would be insane. IMO

Oh okay, sorry for the confusion.

Maybe Lucy's post explains the defensiveness. Because Shannon said she was dealing with the reporters, and then Josie stepped in. IDK

I can believe a scenario where SM is responsible, whether accidental or otherwise, and JM helps cover it up. JMs 'aggression' comes from wanting to protect SM at all costs. MOO.

Edited to add:- I can also imagine that Gus may have been unsupervised a lot longer than SM stated originally.

 

[TardisGirl]

For me the fact Gus didn’t live full time at the station changes things in my mind slightly. There was talk about how farm kids are adventurous, brave, independent and used to the bush etc. if Gus isn’t as familiar as people thought an accident could be more likely. Lots of machinery and vehicles around that would attract him and he wouldn’t know the danger. It is still feasible he is trapped/hidden somewhere just not found. Also IMO this would make him less likely to wander off into the unknown.
Just wondering also, I assume the police used cadaver or blood dogs? I’ve not seen any mention of them only scent tracking. If Gus had been killed accidentally or not a dog would pick that up I thought?

 

[Detechtive]

That last sentence sounds weird 'want nothing'. Is it a double negative, or an oxymoron or one of those things? It sounds how William Tyrrell ex foster mother talked

It’s not the ‘want nothing’ that disturbs me, it’s the extreme language like “absolutely devastating” that does. Having just lost someone very close to me - closer than a grandchild connection, and being an emotional person, those words would not come to me. It’s more melancholy, more deep aching sadness. I couldn’t care less what the media or anyone else thought about my feelings and would certainly not be wanting to tell people how absolutely devastated I am - I feel like this is an attempt to control the social narrative which I find quite manipulative but on par with someone who is able to kill and dispose of a child or hide murder- like Erin Patterson did in her media statement “I’m devastated”.

iMO

 

[jepop]

when there's a crime. we couldn't be certain there was a crime. all we really knew was a boy was missing.

frankly, we still don't know there was a crime, though the police believing they've now ruled out wandering off does make it likely.

I can't recall the exact words at the presser, something like they have a "very high degree" of confidence Gus did not wander.

I rewatched recently and I'm certain at the time they were saying this, they did also qualify that if new info was to come in to support the wandering theory they would follow it up. So whilst wandering is deemed highly unlikely and investigators have a very high degree of confidence, imo police have not written wandering off at this point in time as in no possibility whatsoever.

Link to presser in a post of mine just up thread. Not sure of time stamp but I did hear this. If requested I'll locate the time stamp but jmo I don't think it's that important.

 

[mickey2942]

Either way, charges of child neglect should have been brought forth earlier. Who leaves a 4 year old outside in the bush? "Go play in the dirt"? Really?!

I don't like it when children "dissappear", and there are no charges at all. Come on...someone was supposedly in charge of the child. And if not, charge who should have been.