{"id":489269,"date":"2026-06-22T03:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T03:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/489269\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T03:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T03:13:13","slug":"grandmother-of-missing-four-year-old-gus-lamont-breaks-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/489269\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandmother of missing four-year-old Gus Lamont breaks silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The grandmother of a missing four-year-old boy<\/a> from South Australia’s Far North has spoken publicly about the case for the first time since his disappearance nine months ago. <\/p>\n

Gus Lamont was last seen by one of his grandmothers playing at the family homestead at Oak Park Station on September 27, 2025. <\/p>\n

On February 5, 2026, police declared the boy’s disappearance a major crime and said someone living at the remote station was a suspect in the case and his likely death.<\/p>\n

His grandmother Josie Murray, 75, revealed to 7News that police consider her their main suspect, and believe she may have been involved in covering up the four-year-old’s death. <\/p>\n

“They think that I buried him, took him out and buried him. That\u2019s all they\u2019ve said so far,” she said. <\/p>\n

She described the allegations of her involvement as “ludicrous”, and strongly denied any involvement in the case. <\/p>\n

“It just doesn\u2019t make sense. Why would you inflict what\u2019s happening to us now? why would you do that to yourself?” she said as she held back tears. <\/p>\n

She said the boy had gone missing before, but he knew the land well and was “just a normal, happy, four-year-old child”.<\/p>\n

Murray told 7News she maintained her belief that Gus may have been abducted by a stranger, despite police repeatedly stating that an abduction was considered highly unlikely, given the station’s isolated location.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Murray pleaded guilty to possessing a silencer for a .22 rifle, after the Adelaide Magistrates Court heard she had a previous conviction involving the theft of unsecured firearms by a fugitive.<\/p>\n

Josie Murray, 75, pleaded guilty to one aggravated charge of possessing a silencer \u2013 unrelated to the four-year-old’s disappearance. (Source: Nine)<\/p>\n

She was fined AU$10,500, and disqualified from owning a firearms licence for five years. <\/p>\n

Her lawyer said it was it had been “an extremely difficult time for my client”. <\/p>\n

“A grandchild went missing on the property late last year,” he said.<\/p>\n

Gus’ disappearance sparked intensive searches spanning almost 500sq km.<\/p>\n

South Australian Police said the investigation into the disappearance of four-year-old Gus has been one of “the largest and most intensive undertaken” in connection with a missing person.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

In May, police searched several wells and bores in the area following recent heavy rain and flooding on the property. (Source: South Australia Police)<\/p>\n

“Sadly \u2013 despite 11 individual, large-scale searches of Oak Park Station \u2013 no evidence relating to Gus Lamont\u2019s disappearance has been located,” a spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

Police previously confirmed his grandmothers, his mother and his younger brother were at the property at the time he disappeared but emphasised his parents were not suspects.<\/p>\n

Detectives also said a family member living at the property had withdrawn co-operation from police.<\/p>\n

Both grandparents previously released a statement saying the family had co-operated with the investigation and wanted nothing more than to reunite Gus with his parents.<\/p>\n

From the time Gus disappeared SA Police have been investigating three specific lines of inquiry \u2013 that Gus had wandered off and become lost; that he had been abducted; or that a person known to him was involved in his disappearance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The grandmother of a missing four-year-old boy from South Australia’s Far North has spoken publicly about the case…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-489269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489269","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=489269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}