{"id":829309,"date":"2026-07-28T15:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829309\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T15:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:26:13","slug":"ocean-search-for-missing-baby-boy-suspended-because-of-rough-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829309\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean search for missing baby boy suspended because of rough weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

The search for a three-month-old baby boy still missing after the bodies of his mother and sister were recovered from waters off SA’s South East has been suspended because of weather conditions, police say.<\/p>\n

Police said it was too dangerous to continue the search off Port MacDonnell, and it was halted about 3:30pm on Tuesday but that it would resume tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Trent Cox, officer in charge of the Limestone Coast Region, said while police held grave concerns, they would leave “no stone unturned”.<\/p>\n

“The information we have from survivability experts is that it is very, very unlikely the missing baby has survived,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[But] we will continue to search until the expert advice tells us that there is no prospect of finding the child alive.”<\/p>\n

\"Cliffs<\/p>\n

Emergency services have searched the area for a second day. (ABC News: Guido Salazar)<\/p>\n

The girl who died was 23 months old, while their mother was a 36-year-old from Compton, near Mount Gambier.<\/p>\n

Their bodies were recovered <\/a>on Monday.<\/p>\n

“We are keeping a very open mind as to the circumstances that led to the mother and daughter being in the water, and the other child being missing,” Superintendent Cox said.<\/p>\n

“There are a number of scenarios we’re investigating.”<\/p>\n

Police said today’s weather conditions had been challenging, and that high winds had meant the search was confined to land.<\/p>\n

“[Conditions] did not enable us to get water assets on the water,” Superintendent Cox said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, authorities said the missing boy was “about” two months old, and Superintendent Cox later described him as a three-month-old.<\/p>\n

Police investigating ‘number of theories’<\/p>\n

The tragedy first came to light about 11:15am on Monday, when emergency services were called to Cape Northumberland, a headland near Port MacDonnell distinguished by rugged cliffs.<\/p>\n

Police said the woman’s car \u2014 a white Isuzu MU-X, with South Australian registration S592 BJR \u2014 was found “abandoned with its engine running”.<\/p>\n

They said there was “no information to suggest” anyone else was involved in the incident.<\/p>\n

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas today sounded a note of caution, warning that there was a need to be “careful not to jump to conclusions”.<\/p>\n

“It’s very difficult at this point in time to understand exactly what transpired here,” Mr Malinauskas said.<\/p>\n

“There are a number of theories that the police are actively investigating.”<\/p>\n

\"Cliffs<\/p>\n

The area is characterised by its rough conditions. (ABC News: Guido Salazar)<\/p>\n

Police have asked anyone with information about the woman’s car, or with dash cam footage that could assist, to contact them.<\/p>\n

The search and investigation has involved SES volunteers, SA Police’s Water Operations Unit, Major Crime investigators, the Forensic Response Section and other maritime agencies.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Cox said weather conditions were expected to be more favourable on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“The forecast is that it’s not as extreme as today \u2014 still challenging. It’s an exposed area,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ll be out there at first light again, we’ll hold a briefing for our emergency services personnel and volunteers who are assisting, as well as the police.”<\/p>\n

The search was expected to resume about 8am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The search for a three-month-old baby boy still missing after the bodies of his mother and sister were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18994,1300,43,5035,45318,44853,44,2950,1157,144026,41,39,42,40,16642],"class_list":["post-829309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-baby","tag-death","tag-headlines","tag-marine","tag-missing","tag-mother","tag-news","tag-person","tag-rescue","tag-toddler","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829309","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=829309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}