Former emergency volunteer says ‘zero evidence’ missing boy Gus Lamont is on property

Four-year-old Gus Lamont has been missing in South Australia for over a week. Photo / SA Police

A former State Emergency Service (SES) volunteer who has scoured regional South Australia in the search for missing 4-year-old Gus says there is “zero evidence” the child is on the property.

August “Gus” Lamont was last seen playing in the sand at a family sheep station about 40km south of the town of Yunta, about 5pm on Saturday, September 27 (local time).

On Friday, SA Police Assistant Commissioner Ian Parrott said police would scale back their search for the boy almost one week after he vanished, saying searchers had been “hoping for a miracle, but that miracle has not eventuated”.

“We’re confident that we’ve done absolutely everything we can to locate Gus within the search area, but despite our best efforts, we have not been able to locate him and, unfortunately, we are now having to scale back this search for Gus,” he said.

The Australian Defence Force were told to stand down on Friday afternoon, after they were called in to assist with the search.

“We will not rest until we can try and find the answer, why Gus has gone missing,” Parrott said.

Former SES volunteer Jason O'Connell and his partner Jen spent over 90 hours searching for Gus.

Speaking to the Adelaide Advertiser, former SES volunteer Jason O’Connell said the searched land was barren and bare, and showed no sign the child was there.

He and his partner Jen had been searching the Oak Park Station near Yunta for over 90 hours, and failed to find any clue of Gus.

“It’s just wide, open land,” he told the outlet.

“There’s really not much there and, with our lights, I’m surprised because we just didn’t find anything. He’s not on that property.”

He said the search on Monday night included Gus’ father, who was “devastated” by his son’s disappearance.

“It pretty much devastated him,” O’Connell said.

“It’s his little boy, and he’s pretty close to his son.”

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