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Today marks the beginning of a renewed search effort for four-year-old Gus Lamont, who vanished from his family’s remote property in South Australia nearly two months ago.
Authorities have announced that, starting this morning, they will be examining six mine shafts located in the isolated area where Gus was last spotted.
Police revealed that they were previously unaware of the existence of these shafts.
Gus was last seen by his grandmother around 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 27, as he played on a pile of dirt near the family’s Oak Park Station homestead, situated approximately 43 kilometers from Yunta.
By 5:30 p.m., the young boy, described as both shy and adventurous, had disappeared, prompting an extensive search by both ground and air across the property and surrounding regions.
The new search will last for three days.
It will involve STAR Group officers and Task Force Horizon officers using specialised equipment to search six mine shafts in the area.
The uncovered, unfenced shafts are between 5.5km and 12km from the Oak Park homestead, in areas not searched on foot by police.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Linda Williams said the new searches were part of ongoing investigations.
“We are determined to explore every avenue in an effort to locate Gus Lamont and provide some closure for his family,” she said.
“These searches will either locate evidence or eliminate these locations from further investigation by the Task Force.”
This followed extensive ground and air searches of the area surrounding the Oak Park Station homestead.
The ground search has now extended to 5.5km from the homestead.
This equates to 95sq/km searched on foot.
This area searched with the help of aircraft and mounted officers has been estimated at 470sqkm, with no sign of the child.
Police stressed that no part of the investigation had turned up any suggestion of foul play.