Gus has been missing since September last year. Photo \/ SA Police<\/p>\n
The legal team confirmed they were representing Gus\u2019 grandparents in a statement released on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndrew Ey and Casey Isaacs can confirm that we act for Josie Murray and Shannon Murray respectively,\u201d the lawyers said.<\/p>\n
They said the grandparents would not be making any further comment but wished to issue the following statement: \u201cWe are absolutely devastated by the media release of SAPOL Major Crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe family has co-operated fully with the investigation and want nothing more than to find Gus and reunite him with his mum and dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isaacs confirmed on Thursday he was acting for Gus\u2019 biological grandmother Shannon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been co-operating but we won\u2019t be commenting,\u201d he told the Adelaide Advertiser on Thursday.<\/p>\n
It is not unusual for potential witnesses to seek legal advice.<\/p>\n
There is no suggestion that Josie or Shannon Murray were involved in Gus\u2019 disappearance.<\/p>\n
Police identify suspect<\/p>\n
Speaking on Thursday afternoon, Detective Superintendent Darren Fielke said there had been \u201cdiscrepancies\u201d and \u201cinconsistencies\u201d in the information provided by some of Gus\u2019 family members.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result of these inconsistencies, and investigations into them, a person who resides at Oak Park Station has withdrawn their support for the police and is no longer co-operating with us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Superintendent Fielke said the suspect was not one of Gus\u2019 parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe person who has withdrawn their co-operation is now considered a suspect in the disappearance of Gus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do want to stress, however, that Gus\u2019 parents are not suspects in his disappearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t give you any more information about the suspect or where the suspect is and why that person is a suspect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we have a suspect in an investigation, it can \u2026 have its own challenges, so we\u2019re working through those.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, when we line (up) the information that we received from the family, against what we\u2019ve been doing concurrently in relation to searching and the abduction possibility \u2013 all of that information has taken some time to get here, or to get to this point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During Thursday\u2019s press conference, Superintendent Fielke compared the search area with the size of Adelaide.<\/p>\n
Using a map of the search area overlaid on to a map of Adelaide, he said the area takes up the majority of the inner suburban metropolitan area of Adelaide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what it looks like if you overlaid that into the CBD \u2026 you can see that five square kilometres takes up the majority of the inner suburban metropolitan area of Adelaide,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a significant distance that\u2019s all been searched on foot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat search has been overseen by police forward commanders, experienced police forward commanders and very experienced field search controllers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a large degree of confidence that area has been searched thoroughly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators returned to the property on January 14 and 15, carrying out a forensic search in which detectives seized a vehicle, a motorcycle and electronic devices for examination.<\/p>\n
Those items are now subject to forensic testing, police say.<\/p>\n
Two theories ruled out<\/p>\n
Investigators have so far pursued three key theories in their search for Gus \u2013 two of which have now been ruled out.<\/p>\n
Superintendent Fielke confirmed investigators \u201cdon\u2019t believe, now, that Gus is alive\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe search for Gus was based on him walking off from Oak Park Station and becoming lost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This is the foot search area by square kilometres \u2013 a 5.47km radius at Oak Park Station in the search for Gus Lamont. Image \/ SA Police<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of three investigation options that have been explored by the members attached to Taskforce Horizon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other two investigation options are focused on Gus being abducted (by an unknown person) from Oak Park Station, or whether someone known to him was involved in his disappearance and suspected death.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said despite all efforts from those searching, there was \u201cno evidence, physical or otherwise, to suggest that Gus has merely wandered off from the Park homestead\u201d.<\/p>\n
In investigating the possibility Gus was abducted by an unknown person, officers spoke to all people who \u201cpresent a risk profile associated with abduction or child offending\u201d, Superintendent Fielke said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have identified and spoken to neighbours and people who were or had been working on Oak Park Station or neighbouring properties at around the time of Gus\u2019 disappearance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have identified people and vehicles in the vicinity of or travelling around the area of Oak Park station at the time of Gus\u2019 disappearance. All of those people have been contacted and discounted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police say the investigation is now focusing on persons known to Gus possibly being involved in his disappearance and suspected death.<\/p>\n
\u201cI anticipate there will be further searches at Oak Park Station and at several sites on an adjacent national park to locate Gus as new information and intelligence comes to hand,\u201d Fielke said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe disappearance of any child is tragic and distressing \u2013 not just for Gus\u2019 parents, but also the entire community sharing their grief.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can reassure the community that despite the complex and challenging nature of the investigation, Taskforce Horizon will continue to thoroughly and meticulously investigate the disappearance of Gus until we get a resolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all focused and determined to locate Gus and return him to his parents.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Nothing off table\u2019 in searches<\/p>\n
Police have maintained \u201cno stone has been left unturned\u201d in the search for Gus, which has been the largest and most intensive effort undertaken by SA Police in regard to a missing person.<\/p>\n
It has involved 163 SAPOL members and more than 200 additional resources including the SES, Australian Defence Force, an indigenous tracker and community volunteers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery police officer and civilian involved was invested in the search and had only one focus \u2013 to find Gus and return him to his parents,\u201d Superintendent Fielke said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, despite our efforts we have not yet been able to locate Gus.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said eight separate searches had been conducted at Oak Park Station, and several others had been completed in the 5.47km radius of the homestead across several days.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may ask \u2018Why 5.47km?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe national search and rescue manual indicates to us, scientifically, soundly based statistical data that children 4 to 6 years of age are located 95% of the time within 5.47km of their last known place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Previous searches of the area \u2013 which is about 43km south of Yunta in the state\u2019s Mid North \u2013 included six unsealed, unfenced mine shafts in November and a dam on the remote sheep station in October.<\/p>\n
Neither search resulted in any trace of the little boy.<\/p>\n
A single footprint was discovered about 500m from where Gus vanished, though police dismissed it as not being from the boy.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gus has been missing since September last year. Photo \/ SA Police The legal team confirmed they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[47179,74,1135,15117,1848,27126,13912,9770,38802,57026,305,42,82,57027,6093,6501,43,1118,675,12860,11165,19687,165,8229,40,38,41,39,1803],"class_list":["post-270113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-4yearold","tag-after","tag-australian","tag-boy","tag-boys","tag-break","tag-broken","tag-disappearance","tag-grandparents","tag-gus","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-identified","tag-lamont","tag-little","tag-missing","tag-news","tag-of","tag-police","tag-revealed","tag-silence","tag-suspect","tag-their","tag-they","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}