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

[obscidian_scribe]

Jason O'Connell, from Mid North Wildlife Rescue South Australia, volunteered his services within hours of Gus vanishing from his family's farm, drawing on decades of his SES training and specialist tracking skills to assist Major Crimes detectives.

The veteran searcher said there are 'two locations off property' that had raised concerns with his team based on what they saw, heard or were told by family.

He did not go into specifics about what was of interest at the two sites or whether any items had been found, but said one, a conservation park, was now a focus for police based on his tip, and that his team could not go there until cops had 'done their work'.

Mr O'Connell and his partner Jen Balchin previously spent about 100 hours scouring the isolated property, travelling more than 1200km across rough terrain and often searching alone through the night.

Gus Lamont search focusing on a new area beyond farm where he vanished

Jason O'Connell, from Mid North Wildlife Rescue South Australia , volunteered his services within hours of Gus vanishing from his family's farm, drawing on decades of his SES training.

www.dailymail.co.uk

«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 baby.

 

[Fantastic]

Grandma Josie is fiercely protective of her privacy, when a reporter visited, she saw her off, while holding a shotgun.

The dark past haunting town where Gus Lamont vanished: JONICA BRAY

When news first broke of Gus's mysterious disappearance, no photos were released and details of the family's identity and dynamics were kept tightly under wraps - now I know why.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[seasideForest]

This means police are clearly communicating the charges have nothing to do with the major crime which is suspected and currently being investigated. That's what unrelated means.

I thought I'd picked up on some threads that police don't actually have to quite honest in their phrasing of these kinds of things, for tactical reasons? That was maybe on the Jack and Lilly thread in Canada. Might not be the same for Australia?
JMO

 

[seasideForest]

MOO
Sadly a lot of people find it difficult to admit when they've done something wrong, even when its an accident. It seems in some people's minds, its much easier to run away from or hide the truth.

MOO

RSBMFF
Or easier to try and blame somebody else.

A bit off-topic, but fwiw I grew up in a family where it was generally best not to admit to having done something wrong not even wrong 'by accident'. Much better to blame somebody else, and that included adults blaming children... For me up into my 30s admitting to a mistake felt like I was about to be emotionally annihilated. The cause in our family's case is multi-generational trauma and I've been able to move beyond it only through trauma therapy. Others in my family have not moved beyond the instinct to blame others... or even done any therapy. Before I was in therapy I didn't even understand why I so badly wanted to find out 'who was at fault' in every day life situations rather than anything tragic like this case or cases where there are legal implications. It wasn't till I was deep in therapy that the fear of impending emotional annihilation came up. I'm not excusing my past behaviour but trying to explain how it could come about since my family will not be the only family around with such behaviour. otoh I cannot imagine trying to run from this amount of 'mistake' or accident or whatever it was. But again, people are different and react differently.

JMO

 

[seasideForest]

Yes they can iMO. Concrete is actually porous so properly trained dogs can get the scent even if buried many feet down, is my understanding

JMO

Correct. Somebody even provided a link from the BBC explaining it all, further upthread.