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

[SilentHill]

I think little Gus looks awfully sad in that video

JMO but I think comments like this one or feeling 'sorry' for him being barefoot or discussing dark circles around his eyes and insinuating abuse is sadly exactly why there has been a delay in pictures/videos of him being circulated by his parents. He looks like a happy child to me.

 

[hoodunnit]

It takes a lot of concentration to ride a balance bike ... steering, balancing, and watching where they are going - all at the same time.
The 4 year old in my family does not ride as well as that. But has a look of concentration when practising on the balance bike.

imo

It does take a lot of concentration, but I still see sadness. MOO

 

[SouthAussie]

JMO but I think comments like this one or feeling 'sorry' for him being barefoot or discussing dark circles around his eyes and insinuating abuse is sadly exactly why there has been a delay in pictures/videos of him being circulated by his parents. He looks like a happy child to me.

Pretty soon Gus' parents will regret putting out the photo and video.
They will wish they just screenshotted the hat, and had that screenshot published.

imo

 

[_sleuthdog_]

JMO but I think comments like this one or feeling 'sorry' for him being barefoot or discussing dark circles around his eyes and insinuating abuse is sadly exactly why there has been a delay in pictures/videos of him being circulated by his parents. He looks like a happy child to me.

Pretty soon Gus' parents will regret putting out the photo and video.
They will wish they just screenshotted the hat, and had that screenshot published.

imo

Agree. I don't think Gus looks sad or bruised or any of those things but the images are out there now and people will put all kinds of specualtion forward. I said a number of pages back that this is why I completely understand why the parents would be hesitating on putting images out there of their loved, lost little boy.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Either they have heard the rumours, and want to emphasise that they are united/together.
Or they are not together, but they are on the same page as far as Gus is concerned.

My reading of it is they they are united in wanting to find out what happened to Gus.

Nothing about their statement makes me think they are a couple.

 

[Bats]

I think little Gus looks awfully sad in that video

I don't see that at all.

But hey, if you see that, perhaps he had just been told to go and do his chores? I would have been devastated at being told that when I was 4 years old.

 

[Kemug]

He definitely looks a little older in these photos.

 

[PolyDot]

I think the video of this beautiful alive little boy on his balance bike, is to pull on the heartstrings/emotions of the grandparent (in my view Shannon) who is covering (in my view) for Jose. They are "pleading" with her to do the right thing.

Imoo maybe grandparents already seen this and many photos of Gus , wonder if police have be consulted / involved in the release of more photos , or advice of others . Still confused as to why now and who are they appeal to for info.

 

[PolyDot]

I'm not sure
if any pleading/appeal will work with alleged perp if there was foul play.

This appeal may only work with some kind of witness
or a person who suspects something
but still is unwilling (for whatever reason)
to contact Police.

I don't understand
why it was not delivered in September and why photos and video weren't shown then,
at the very beginning???

What was the problem?
I understand the appeal is made solely by parents.
It is parents' right to appeal.
Did anybody hold them back then?

But what do I know??
Nothing.
And I honestly don't know what to think about all this.

JMO

Agree , just unsure who they are appealing to for info - was this released on request of police ?

 

[PolyDot]

A newly released video of missing four‑year‑old August “Gus” Lamont has revealed a crucial detail that could help find answers in the missing child case.

7NEWS understands the wide‑brimmed grey felt hat he is seen wearing in the footage is the same hat he was wearing when he disappeared 150 days ago.

Clue in outback disappearance of Gus Lamont

A newly released video may hold a crucial detail to help find answers in what happened to the four-year-old.

7news.com.au

Ok so releasing photo could be about jogging people’s memory about seeing little boy in that hat ,or seeing that hat somewhere. If Gus was seen locally in that hat , that could confirm last time he was seen alive by someone other than family ?? Moo

 

[Dotta]

The Search Continues

 

[PolyDot]

With Jess having been publicly and strongly cleared, to me that seems to say that Jess' account of the day appears to be true to the police.

imo

Imoo - but are they saying that , police say there are discrepancies with the timeline, they haven’t said whose account of the timeline is incorrect / doesn’t make sense ,

 

[JLZ]

These last few updates have felt like SAPOL pointing everyone in a direction without naming names. They’re not saying it outright, but they’re giving enough detail that any adult can work out what they mean. Someone knows something. Someone has stopped cooperating. This is now a major crime. That isn’t “lost in the scrub” language.

Now we get this statement from the parents, plus a new photo and that short video of Gus just riding his bike in the dirt. Absolute gut punch.

And read the wording.

“answers about what happened”
“we know someone out there may have information”
“we are pleading with that person”
“even the smallest detail”

To me that’s pressure. It’s a permission slip. Not for vigilante nonsense. But for serious, persistent questioning. This is exactly the kind of moment where the polite silence brigade needs to sit down.

(mod snip telling others how to post)

So where is the media now. If this is what the parents and police are signalling, why aren’t journalists hammering the timeline, the inconsistencies, the lack of cooperation, every single day until someone breaks. If you want truth, pressure is part of how you get it.

The wording you quote, it sounds very standard to me. Not personal to this case at all. What I find notable about the Jess and Josh release is that, circumstances being what they are, J&J have thanked police and said nothing in support of her parents.

I also think a reason for the release is to speak to a potential witness who may have remained silent on something prejudicial to her parent/s out of loyalty to Jess herself. And she's saying she doesn't want that.

 

[Athena Holmes]

Imoo maybe grandparents already seen this and many photos of Gus , wonder if police have be consulted / involved in the release of more photos , or advice of others . Still confused as to why now and who are they appeal to for info.

Yes the grandparents may have previously seen the video. However it seems unlikely that someone responsible/covering for his death would willingly spend time watching old videos and reminiscing. A more probable reaction would be avoidance or dissociation. In contrast, the public release of the video would compel the grandparents to confront those memories directly.

 

[Ruminations]

Why on earfh would the grandparents resent Gus? Surely they would be so happy to have an heir to the property, and then 2?

Exactly.

If the inheritance was the motive, case closed. The baby brother did it.

MOO

 

[Ruminations]

Perhaps SAPOL had suspicions from the start? In other missing children cases the timings are usually released early on, eg “X had lunch with A and B, then played by themselves for a while until at around 2pm they decided to walk the 5 minutes to their friend’s house. The last sighting of them was in Acacia Avenue shortly after 2pm”, etc. With this case, we don’t know anything about that day - when did Jess and Josie leave? Did Jess see Gus before she left? Did they return for lunch? Did Shannon ‘discover Gus was missing’ while they were out? What time did they return? etc.

So maybe no such timetable for the day was released because SAPOL had reason to doubt it would be anywhere near accurate so might mislead.

LE doesn't usually fill in the blanks in cases like this, IMO, but family does in appeals to the public, plus the press usually finds more associates and sources of mixed quality in terms of trial-admissible information.

It flummoxes me that we know nothing about the day. But it is not because LE seems different. It is because of this family's private style plus just how isolated the station life is. The press has followed every lead... this person buying cake, that person moved house, etc.,...but the press hasn't been able to develop a timeline for us in this case.


MOO

 

[Ruminations]

Well, as soon as I saw the video, the first question I asked myself is WHY was, at the very least, the pic of that hat cropped and released to the public? The hat and maybe the boots (if pebbles got in, they rubbed Gus' feet) would have been lost or shed by a 4 year old wandering off.

The hat was about the most useful thing to release ASAP.

But....I can't assume that the family did not, for instance, give that video or the pic of hat to trackers and searchers. So I'm trying not to overreact to the late release of the info.

MOO

 

[Ruminations]

I think little Gus looks awfully sad in that video

I thought that it kind of looked like b roll footage. Which is what it has become, indeed.

The still pic, in contrast, looked like a fun moment to capture- dog stole the human car seat-back seat fun to remember.

I don't think that Gus looked terribly sad in that footage, but it was not the kind of moment that one thinks to get out the camera. Like, if he were having a particularly happy time. Or like he just mastered gliding on the bike. The moment seemed more ho-hum than sad to me. His whole family are not big smilers, and that does not mean they are unhappy.

OTOH, it was an excellent pic of the hat that probably would have been the first thing found if Gus had wandered off. LE chose to release a picture of the product from a catalogue- a tee shirt like Gus'. It makes me wonder if LE were pretty convinced from jump that Gus hadn't wandered off.

MOO

 

[dennistakes14theteam]

why are they only releasing the video / hat pics now?? why the initial reluctance to release a picture at all? the latest statement makes it sound as if they think someone random came along and took him but if that's true then why not make an appeal when he first went missing? its all very well appealing now but I think the best time to have done so was at the beginning. So I will assume that the latest statement is actually aimed at specific people / persons that for whatever reason they can't make a direct appeal to yet