By Eva Blandis and Sara Garcia, ABC
Gus Lamont vanished on his family’s property late last year.
Photo: ABC/SUPPLIED: SA Police
South Australia’s Police Commissioner has said that two members of missing boy Gus Lamont‘s family are “not cooperating” with investigators, but a police spokesperson said they could not comment further on the number of suspects in the case.
Police declared the four-year-old boy’s disappearance a major crime on 5 February, saying a person who resides at Oak Park had withdrawn their support for the police and was no longer cooperating with them, and police were considering that person a suspect.
The next day,Gus’s grandparents, Josie and Shannon Murray, issued a statement saying the family had “cooperated fully with the investigation”.
On Wednesday, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens told ABC Radio Adelaide “members” of the family were “not cooperating” with police.
“As far as I’m aware, it’s status quo, from the most recent reports, we are still working with Gus’s mum and dad and there are other members of the family who are no longer cooperating,” he said.
He was unable to confirm if either of Gus’s parents, Jess or Josh, are living at the family’s station.
Following Stevens’s interview, a SA Police spokesperson confirmed “that two family members are only communicating [with police] via their legal representatives”.
When asked by the ABC if there were any further suspects, a police spokesperson said they were “unable to make any further comment at this point”.
Stevens also said the investigation into Gus’s disappearance remains a “top priority” with police “looking at any opportunity” to bring closure to his parents.
Gus was reported missing from his family’s station, in SA’s Mid North, last September.
Police established Task Force Horizon in October to probe Gus’s disappearance and were initially investigating whether the boy had wandered off.
On Wednesday morning, Stevens also confirmed investigators will return to the station but that he was not sure when or where.
Australian police first launched a search for Gus in late September.
Photo: ABC/SUPPLIED: SA Police
“The task force, which comprises over a dozen people, detectives, forensic specialists … will clearly be looking at any opportunity to provide closure to Gus’s mum and dad,” he said.
“We will be going back to the property, I can’t say when, I can’t say what the reasons will be, that’s entirely up to the Task Force but the work is ongoing.”
Gus’s disappearance ‘top priority’
The commissioner said that the task force, and necessary resources, will be kept on the case “whilst there’s work to be done”.
“Gus Lamont is one of the top priorities for South Australia Police,” he said.
“The resources that are necessary will be kept on the task force until such time as the assessments are that would be a waste of those resources because of the diminishing work that can be undertaken by a team of that size.”
Stevens said he is only briefed on “significant milestone events” in the case, and when funding is needed for “specialist activities”.
“I’m allowing the task force to do its work,” he said.
Detectives searched a property owned by Gus Lamont’s family last month but did not find anything.
Photo: ABC News:/Rachael Merritt
Not ‘one single piece’ of evidence Gus ‘wandered off’
Stevens reiterated that police “have all but ruled out Gus having wandered off”.
“There has not been one single piece of evidence that we have located during that searching exercise, the most extensive search I think arguably in the history of South Australia, that has given us any indication that he did wander off,” he said.
Last month, police arrested and charged Josie Murray, 75, with unrelated firearms offences following a search at the station.
Last week Gus’s parents released a new image and video of Gus, as well as a statement appealing for any information that could help to find the four-year-old.
“Our lives have been shattered, and every moment without him is unbearable,” they said.
“We know someone out there may have information.
“If someone knows what happened, we are pleading with that person – or anyone who may have seen or heard anything – to please come forward.
“Even the smallest detail could give us the answers we so desperately need.”
Stevens told ABC Radio Adelaide that it “must be their darkest days”.
“You can’t imagine what this family is going through, as they say this must be their darkest days,” he said.
– ABC