Haunting new details have emerged in the case of four-year-old Gus Lamont, who vanished from a remote sheep station in the Australian outback nearly a year ago. His grandmother, Josie Murray, has broken her silence in her first public interview, revealing that the boy had previously gone missing on the property and describing the frantic hours after his disappearance.
Grandmother Recalls Previous Disappearance
In an interview with 7NEWS Spotlight, Murray recounted an earlier incident where Gus wandered off. “Shan had taken him down to the Shearer’s quarters while Jess and I were out mustering and he had wandered off... Shan couldn’t find him when she was going to come home,” she said. The interview sheds new light on the crucial hours after Gus vanished last September.
The Day Gus Disappeared
On September 27, Gus was last seen playing outside near a “bomb shelter plane” on Oak Park Station near Yunta. Murray returned to the homestead around 5:30 pm after working with sheep. She said another grandparent, Shannon, told them Gus had been playing outside. “We said to Shannon, ‘When did you last see him?’ And she said, ‘Five o’clock’,” Murray recalled. “And so in that half-hour timeframe, he disappeared.”
The family initially feared Gus might have fallen into a cellar under construction. “We immediately were a little bit concerned about the cellar we were building, because it was possible he could have fallen down there,” she said. The area was searched, but “there was no sign that he’d been down there, no blood on the concrete floor, nothing.”
Extensive Search and Police Investigation
Family members searched dams, water tanks, and buildings before darkness fell. The first call to emergency services was made around 8 pm. South Australia Police conducted extensive searches covering about 470 square kilometres around the homestead. In late October, a 12-member taskforce was appointed and identified “inconsistencies and discrepancies” in the timeline.
In March, police confirmed that some relatives were not cooperating. Lawyers for the grandparents responded: Andrew Ey, representing Josie Murray, said “no further comment at this stage,” while Casey Isaacs, representing Shannon Murray, stated his client “is co-operating through her solicitor.”
Suspect Treatment and Grandmother’s Response
When the case became a major crime investigation on February 5, Detective Superintendent Darren Fielke revealed that someone living at the property had withdrawn assistance and was being treated as a suspect. Josie Murray was interviewed but never charged. Reflecting on the ordeal, she said: “We say ‘how, why’... we just can’t believe it. To be accused of doing something like this... you could not wish a more horrible experience on anyone.”
The 7NEWS Spotlight programme reconstructs the timeline and examines unanswered questions. Host Michael Usher said: “This is the interview that could provide answers to the many questions being asked about the disappearance of little Gus. His grandmother has never spoken before, but in an extraordinary set of circumstances has now given her first interview.” The episode airs on Channel Seven and 7plus at 8:30 pm local time.
