The grandmother of missing South Australian boy Gus Lamont has spoken publicly for the first time, revealing the devastating toll of being treated as a suspect in one of Australia’s most baffling missing persons cases.
Four-year-old Gus vanished from his family’s remote Oak Park Station near Yunta in September last year, sparking an enormous search effort that has so far failed to uncover any trace of him. Police later declared the case a major crime investigation.
In an emotional interview with 7NEWS Spotlight, Gus’s grandmother, Josie Murray, said police had told her they believed she may have been involved in covering up the little boy’s death – something she strongly denies.
“To be accused of doing something like this … you could not wish a more horrible experience on anyone,” she said.
Murray also shared troubling details from the day Gus disappeared, including spotting a heavy bedstead that appeared to have been moved and small wheel tracks nearby – clues she believes may point to something more sinister. “A child would not be able to shift it,” she said. “And then I saw wheel tracks going down past where the bedstead was and past where the weather station was, and these wheel tracks were small.”
She has raised the possibility that Gus may have been abducted, rather than wandering off alone in the vast outback property. According to Murray, the four-year-old had previously gone missing briefly on the station before being found safe, adding another layer of concern to the family’s recollections.
The case has remained one of South Australia’s most intense investigations, involving multiple large-scale searches, specialist trackers, drones and even the Australian Defence Force, but no evidence has been found.
Despite the scrutiny and heartbreak, Murray says the family has not given up hope.
Nearly nine months on, the mystery of what happened to Gus remains unsolved, and for those closest to him, the questions only seem to be growing.
Images: SA Police, 7 News
