{"id":196314,"date":"2025-10-07T23:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/196314\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T23:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:37:14","slug":"gus-lamont-friend-says-four-year-olds-family-are-hurting-beyond-belief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/196314\/","title":{"rendered":"Gus Lamont: Friend says four-year-old\u2019s family are \u2018hurting beyond belief\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend and former neighbour of the Lamont family has offered a deeply emotional glimpse into the anguish gripping South Australia\u2019s rural outback following the disappearance of four-year-old Gus Lamont.<\/p>\n

Gus was last seen by his grandmother in a blue Minions shirt playing outside on a mound of dirt at his family\u2019s Oak Park Station homestead in Yunta before he vanished around 5-5.30pm on Saturday, 27 September.<\/p>\n

Despite extensive efforts involving helicopters, drones, ground crews and volunteers, police have now scaled back the operation after medical experts advised there was little hope of finding the boy alive.<\/p>\n

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Alex Thomas, who grew up on a station 75km from Yunta, revealed to The Advertiser<\/a> that the tragedy has shaken the entire rural community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s painful because of the trauma the situation is inflicting on one of our own, alongside those who know the family and the wider rural community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who\u2019s ever lived on the land is feeling this pain because it could have been any of our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

She described Gus\u2019 deep connection to the land, a place that may seem unforgiving to outsiders, but is familiar to those raised on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those not from the area, the landscape seems quite harsh, but for Gus \u2013 it\u2019s this kid\u2019s backyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be a big backyard but he knows that place like the back of his little hands, not unlike his parents, and his parents\u2019 parents; there\u2019s a wisdom, a confidence and a know-how that comes with that generational upbringing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe search was one of the largest ever undertaken by South Australia Police. Credit: SAPOL<\/p>\n

Ms Thomas has also called for an end to speculation around Gus\u2019 appearance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to gently inform people about the realities of rural life and ask them for their compassion and understanding,\u201d she told the outlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause this family \u2013 this gentle and loving family \u2013 they\u2019re not headlines, they are not a spectacle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are real people who are hurting beyond belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe search was one of the largest ever undertaken by South Australia Police. Credit: SAPOL<\/p>\n

On Sunday, police made the call to hand over the investigation to the missing persons team, which is managed by the major crimes squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice are actively looking to rule out every investigation opportunity and will search the property when any potential evidence that could be connected to Gus is identified,\u201d Deputy Commissioner Linda Williams said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

A significant search was conducted on the property on Monday after a small footprint was located around a dam approximately 5.5km west of the homestead.<\/p>\n

However, the footprint was found not to be related to Gus.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe footprint found by police. Credit: SAPOL<\/p>\n

On Friday and Saturday night, a significant aerial search of the property was undertaken using a special drone with infrared capabilities.<\/p>\n

Due to the complexity of the technology, the results could take weeks to return.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will never give up hope of finding Gus,\u201d Ms Williams added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are further lines of enquiry being undertaken and the family have continued to cooperate with fully with police.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A friend and former neighbour of the Lamont family has offered a deeply emotional glimpse into the anguish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,43,44,1124,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-196314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-south-australia","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}