{"id":270785,"date":"2026-02-06T14:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/270785\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T14:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:45:17","slug":"grandparents-shocked-missing-victoria-boy-case-declared-a-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/270785\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandparents shocked missing Victoria boy case declared a crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

The grandparents of a missing four-year-old boy say they are “absolutely devastated” after a family member was declared a suspect<\/a> in his likely death.<\/p>\n

Gus Lamont was last seen by his grandmother playing at the homestead of a sprawling sheep station in outback South Australia on September 27.<\/p>\n

Police on Thursday declared his disappearance a major crime, saying they had a suspect who lived at Oak Park Station.<\/p>\n

They confirmed the boy’s grandparents, his mother and his younger brother were at the property at the time he disappeared but stressed his parents were not suspects.<\/p>\n

Gus’s grandparents Josie and Shannon Murray released a brief statement via their lawyers, Andrew Ey and Casey Isaacs respectively, on Friday.<\/p>\n

“We are absolutely devastated by the media release of SAPOL Major Crime,” it read, referring to the South Australian Police update.<\/p>\n

“The family has co-operated fully with the investigation and want nothing more than to find Gus and reunite him with his mum and dad.”<\/p>\n

Their lawyers told AAP the couple would not comment further.<\/p>\n

Detective Superintendent Darren Fielke said on Thursday a person who lived at Oak Park Station had withdrawn co-operation with the investigation after “a number of inconsistencies and discrepancies” were identified in the information they provided.<\/p>\n

Gus’s disappearance sparked intensive searches spanning almost 500sq km and involving hundreds of police and volunteers using aerial support and mounted units.<\/p>\n

Fielke said initial searches were based on Gus walking off the station and becoming lost but the case was now a major crime.<\/p>\n

The two other investigation options were focused on Gus being abducted or whether someone known to him was involved in his disappearance and suspected death.<\/p>\n

“We don’t believe now that Gus is alive,” Fielke said.<\/p>\n

Investigators searched the homestead on January 14 and 15, seizing items including a vehicle, a motorcycle and electronic devices for forensic testing.<\/p>\n

Fielke said ground and aerial searches failed to locate Gus or any items belonging to him and family members had provided information that police had reviewed.<\/p>\n

“As a result of that, we have identified a number of inconsistencies and discrepancies with that information as it relates to timelines and the version of events provided to us by the family members,” he said. <\/p>\n

“It’s challenging, it’s delicate at times when you’re dealing with family members … our people have been unwavering and kept an open mind.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The grandparents of a missing four-year-old boy say they are “absolutely devastated” after a family member was declared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-270785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-crime-and-justice","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270785","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=270785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}