Suspect identified in disappearance of four-year-old boy in Australia’s outback

Gus Lamont went missing on 27 September last year while playing outside his home in remote South Australia

Police in South Australia have declared the disappearance of a four-year-old boy last year a “major crime” and identified a person who lived at the family’s property as a suspect.

Gus Lamont went missing on 27 September last year while playing outside his home in remote Oak Park Station near Yunta in South Australia.

His grandmother had left him unattended for around 30 minutes and found him gone, sparking one of the largest land and air searches in the state’s history. Gus, known for being adventurous yet shy, was last seen wearing a grey hat, light-grey trousers, boots, and a blue long-sleeved T-shirt with a yellow Minion design.

Search for Gus was scaled back on 3 October last year, and by 17 October authorities said they were concluding the latest effort to locate him.

Gus’s disappearance had captured national attention, with images of the boy with blond and curly hair circulating widely in the media. A number of fake images of the boy were also spread online, including several claiming to show breakthrough in the case. South Australians were asked to leave a light on in their homes overnight as the search was wound down – to show support for Gus and his family.

On Thursday, detective superintendent Darren Fielke said: “A person who resides at Oak Park Station has withdrawn their support for the police and is no longer cooperating with us.

“The person who has withdrawn their co-operation is now considered a suspect in the disappearance of Gus.

“I do want to stress, however, that Gus's parents are not suspects in his disappearance.”

Officers seized a vehicle, a motorcycle, and electronic devices during a forensic search in January.

(SAPOL)

Volunteers in the local community were heavily involved in the search effort, including former State Emergency Service personnel and others who knew the land well.

In a statement, South Australia Police (SAPOL) said: “On 2 February 2026 Task Force Horizon officers searched several locations around Oak Park Station for the remains of Gus.”

(South Australia Police)

The SAPOL statement said the task force is now focusing the investigation on persons known to Gus as possibly being “involved in his disappearance and suspected death”.

Police had earlier urged the public to refrain from sharing unverified “opinions” and instead rely on credible sources for information.

Mr Fielke said: “At this time despite all of the combined search efforts we have found no evidence physical or otherwise to suggest that Gus has merely wandered off from the Oak Park homestead.

“You can see from the level of searching that has been undertaken we have a high level of confidence that he hasn’t wandered off.”

He said police had found “no evidence to suggest that Gus was abducted from the property”.

“If Gus was abducted, it’s absolutely fortuitous.”

“There’s no pattern of Gus playing outside at Oak Park Station, for someone to start to get a dossier together on movements and time of the day, et cetera – we’re very confident is very, very unlikely. So, the opportunity for anyone to abduct Gus is extremely low,” he said.

Mr Fielke added that the search for the four-year-old “has been the largest and most intensive missing person search ever undertaken by (South Australia Police) SAPOL”.

“The foot search has been unprecedented and the resources that have been used have been significant.

“We won’t stop pulling all the levers we can to find him,” he said.