WHAT HAPPENED TO GUS?

An expert criminologist shares her theory on what happened to the missing boy

- 

Nearly a month has passed since “shy but adventurous” Gus Lamont was last seen playing on a mound of red dirt on his family’s remote sheep station on the edge of South Australia’s Red Centre.

Dressed in a blue T-shirt with a yellow Minion on the front, and with his distinctive curly blonde hair, four-year-old Gus was outside the homestead on his grandparent's 60,000 hectare sheep station at around 5pm when his grandmother went to check on him.

Thirty minutes later, she went to call him inside for dinner and he had vanished. For the next three hours, as the light began to fade, the family frantically searched the Oak Park Station property for Gus, but there was no sign of him. At 8.30pm on Saturday 27 September they called the police.

At the time of going to print, South Australian Police, battling extreme heat and strong winds, had renewed their search with a dedicated task force, with police revealing it is “one of the largest, most intensive and most protracted searches” they have ever undertaken.

Eighteen police officers were joined by 82 Australian Defence Force members and seven SES volunteers, combing the outback for any signs of Gus.

“With temperatures of 36 degrees and strong northerly winds in the search area on day three, searching is expected to start at sunrise and conclude at midday,” a police spokesperson told media on October 15.

A PolAir helicopter with infrared technology was deployed and an area of 470 sq km of “unusual terrain” was searched.

WORST NIGHTMARE

As his heartbroken family cling onto hope that he will be found alive, some experts, like criminologist Xanthe Mallett, are concerned a third party is potentially behind Gus’ disappearance.