Police in Australia scaled back the search for a four-year-old boy who went missing six days ago, conceding that he was likely dead.
August Lamont, also called Gus, went missing Saturday afternoon from his family’s sheep station in the remote mid-north of South Australia. He was last seen playing outside a dirt mound in an area 40km south of Yutna, nearly 300km north of Adelaide.
Police, assisted by sniffer dogs, drones and helicopters, launched one of the largest and most intensive searches of South Australia in recent years to find the blond-haired boy, but were unable to locate him even after six days.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, assistant police commissioner Ian Parrott said that the search had been scaled back but they would continue to investigate all lines of inquiry.
“Whilst we have all been hoping for a miracle, that miracle has not eventuated, and in the last 48 hours, despite the professional advice, it being unlikely that Gus would have survived, we have maintained and in fact increased the effort to try and locate him and bring him to his family,” he said.
“We are confident that we’ve done absolutely everything we can to locate Gus within the search area, but despite our best efforts, we have not been able to locate him, and unfortunately, we are now having to scale back this search for Gus.”
Mr Parrott said senior officers spoke to the boy’s family and prepared them for the fact that Gus might “not have survived due to the passage of time, his age, and the nature of the terrain”.
Around 50 personnel worked on the ground to search for the boy near the homestead and surrounding bush, covering a 470 square metre area over the past week. Searches by foot covered about 25km every day, police said.
On Tuesday, search teams found a footprint around 500m from the sheep homestead but no further clues.
Mr Parrott said it had been a “difficult time” for police and local community members.
“We all feel the pain and the heartache associated with a young person going missing,” he said.
“The willingness for people to help has been amazing, that community spirit has really shone through this process, as has the outpouring of sympathy and acknowledgement from the broader community of South Australia.”
Police phone lines had been “inundated” with calls since authorities released a photo of Gus on Thursday, senior constable Peter Williams told ABC Radio Adelaide on Friday.
Mr Williams urged the public to contact authorities only with information that could genuinely assist.
