Police expand search for missing boy Gus in outback SA after advice from ‘survival specialists’ | South Australia

Police say the family of missing four-year-old Gus Lamont have been “patient” but traumatized as they launch a new, expanded phase of the rescue operation.

Blonde, curly-haired Gus, described by a family member as shy but adventurous, had gone missing from his family’s rural sheep station more than two weeks ago.

At 5pm on Saturday, September 27, Gus’s grandmother saw him playing on a mound of dirt at her farmhouse near Yunta, about 300km from Adelaide.

When she went to look for him 30 minutes later, he was gone.

Gus was wearing a blue t-shirt with a yellow Minion on the front, a gray sun hat, light gray long pants, and boots.

The search was scaled back a week ago, but on Tuesday South Australian police expanded the search area with the help of Australian Defense Force (ADF) personnel.

SA police commissioner Grant Stevens said there was no evidence the incident was anything other than a case of a missing child.

“This [renewed effort] It is not based on new information. This is based on our search coordinator experts, our medical experts, our survival experts considering every possibility, and we’re exhausting those possibilities,” Stevens said Tuesday.

Stevens said there were recommendations “about survival and the distance that Gus could possibly travel” and that “we’re expanding that further now to make sure that we take those opportunities if there’s a chance we can find Gus.”

“There is nothing to suggest foul play… Our focus is largely on a thorough search of the property based on Gus being on the loose and we are hopeful we can find him and return him to his family.

“We are very grateful to them [ADF] support and assistance helps us expand our search area beyond where we are currently searching… We are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to recover Gus from the property.”

A week earlier, the senior constable prepared Gus’ family for the fact that he might not survive “due to the passage of time, his age and the nature of the terrain in which he disappeared”.

They said at the time that those involved in the search were “hoping for a miracle” but that the search turned into a rescue operation and that it would be scaled down and handed over to the missing persons team.

SA police said it was “one of the largest, most intense and longest-running searches” ever carried out. The initial ground search, carried out by police, defense personnel and volunteers, was assisted by a Polair helicopter with infrared technology.

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On Tuesday, Stevens said the final phase of the search would take up to two days and that police were considering using private drones. He said he wasn’t hopeful they would get anything significant from the thermal drone data currently being analyzed.

So far the overall search has covered approximately 470 square kilometers of “unusual terrain”. Police have established Taskforce Horizon to co-ordinate the ongoing investigation.

Last week, a helicopter and trackers searched a dam after a small boot print was found, but it turned out it didn’t belong to Gus.

– Additional reporting by Australian Associated Press