Gus Lamont case: Key suspect identified in disappearance of four-year-old by South Australia Police

In a latest revelation, South Australia Police have identified a key suspect in the disappearance of four-year-old Gus Lamont, whose case has now been declared a major crime. Gus vanished on September 27, 2025 from his family’s remote Oak Park Station property near Yunta in outback South Australia after being seen playing outside. Authorities say the suspect is someone who lived at the property and is known to the boy, and has since stopped cooperating with investigators due to inconsistencies in their statements. Police have stressed that Gus’s parents are not suspects and continue a detailed investigation, though no trace of the child has yet been found.

According to Sky News Australia, Major Crime officer in charge Detective Superintendent Darren Fielke said that after more than four months of investigation, police no longer believe four-year-old Gus is alive. Gus was last seen playing outside his family’s homestead at Oak Park in South Australia’s Mid North around 5 PM on September 27. About 30 minutes later, his grandmother called him inside, but he was gone.

Police carried out two large-scale searches but found no confirmed trace of the child. Fielke said investigators noticed several inconsistencies in statements from family members who were at the property that day. He also revealed that a person living at Oak Park has stopped cooperating with police, as reported by Sky News Australia.

"As a result of these inconsistencies and investigations into them, a person who resides at Oak Park station has withdrawn their support for the police and is no longer cooperating with us," Fielke told reporters, as quoted by Sky News Australia.

"On January 14 and 15 this year, taskforce horizon investigators attended Oak Park Station, and executed a search warrant.

"Further comprehensive forensic searches were conducted at the Oak Park station home stead. A number of items were seized, including a vehicle, a motorcycle, and some electronic devices.

"All of these items are now subject to forensic testing. The person who has withdrawn their co-operation is now considered a suspect in the disappearance of Gus."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," Fielke added.

According to Police, they examined three main possibilities in the investigation into Gus’s disappearance. One option was that Gus may have wandered away from Oak Park Station, where he lived. Another was that he could have been abducted. The third possibility is that someone known to Gus was involved in his disappearance and suspected death.

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," Superintendent Fielke said as quoted by RNZ.