A year after four-year-old Gus Lamont vanished in Australia, police believe someone knows more
A boy of four, Gus Lamont, has not been found a year after disappearing in the South Australian outback, despite a search covering 700 square kilometres. Police believe someone knows where he went and have offered a 1 million dollar reward.
A four-year-old boy, Gus Lamont, remains missing a year after he disappeared in the outback of South Australia. Police believe someone knows what happened to the child and are offering a reward of 1 million dollars for information. The case is reported by the British newspaper The Guardian.
Gus vanished from his family's home at Oak Park Station, about 300 kilometres from Adelaide. His grandmother last saw him playing in a sandpit on Saturday, 27 September 2025, at about 5 pm. Roughly half an hour later, when she went to call him, he was gone.
His parents, Joshua Lamont and Jessica Murray, say they were gripped by panic. Murray notes that during the time he has been missing, Gus should have celebrated his fifth birthday, as well as his little brother's first birthday, with the family.
The largest search in the state's history
The search area covered 700 square kilometres, about the size of Singapore. Buildings, scrubby stands of trees and long stretches of creeks and waterways were checked; three dams were searched and then drained, and open mine shafts were examined. Police named the operation Task Force Horizon and describe it as the largest and most intensive search for a missing person in South Australia.
By February, when the case was declared a major crime, almost five months after the disappearance, nearly 300 police, defence and emergency service staff, volunteers and Aboriginal trackers had taken part. They used dogs, searched on foot and on horseback, and drove all-terrain vehicles. Drones and aircraft photographed ever wider areas around the home, with the images analysed by artificial intelligence and later checked by people.
Suspicion and rumours
Police have a suspect from within Gus's household, but stressed that it is neither of his parents. His grandparents, Josie and Shannon Murray, issued a statement saying they were devastated by the police announcement and want nothing more than to find Gus. Josie Murray told Channel Seven that the family would check nests in case a wedge-tailed eagle had taken the boy; police firmly reject that possibility.
False reports have also spread online, claiming the boy had "miraculously returned" or that his clothes or backpack had been found. The day after the reward was announced, police had already received calls with information about the boy.
Police admit: "We believe someone knows something. We don't believe a four-year-old child can simply disappear."
