“Whilst we have all been hoping for a miracle, that miracle has not eventuated,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Assistant Commissioner Ian Parrott said.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, at no point has there been any significant evidence to \u2026 give us any clues to where he may have gone,” he said on Friday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Police released a photo of missing four-year-old Gus on Thursday.\u00a0 (Supplied: SAPOL)<\/p>\n
Assistant Commissioner Parrott said an “astronomical” amount of resources, including police, SES, ADF personnel and community volunteers had been dedicated to the search.<\/p>\n
“The search for Gus has probably been one of the largest, most intensive searches for a missing person conducted in South Australia in recent times,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’re confident we have 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.”<\/p>\n
He said the police presence at the property would be diminished <\/strong>and defence personnel would be stood down this afternoon.<\/p>\n But police will continue to investigate ongoing lines of inquiry.<\/p>\n The search for Gus is entering the sixth day. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)<\/p>\n “We’re very confident that with all the info available to us at this point, Gus has wandered away from the property,” he said.<\/p>\n “This is clearly now what appears to be a very tragic set of circumstances and we hold out hope that we may be able to find Gus and return him to his family.<\/p>\n “[We] will not rest until we can try and find the answer to why Gus has gone missing.”<\/p>\n ‘Difficult’ search<\/p>\n Assistant Commissioner Parrott said no less than 50 people had been on the ground searching the homestead and surrounding bush for “hours and hours” over the past week, covering a 470 square metre area.<\/p>\n “Our searches on foot have covered approximately 25 kilometres each and every day of this search,” he said.<\/p>\n He said it’s been a difficult time for police and community members who took part in the search, with many feeling “demoralised” about the outcome.<\/p>\n “We all feel the pain and the heartache that’s associated with a young person going missing,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n he said. Assistant Commissioner Ian Parrott says the search for Gus has been once of the largest searches in SA in recent times. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n He said police had spoken with Gus’s family earlier this week to prepare them for the possibility he may not be found.<\/p>\n “Any family that loses a family member is traumatised by the loss \u2026 life is not supposed to work where a parent loses a child,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Police phone lines ‘inundated’<\/p>\n Assistant Commissioner Parrott\u00a0said speculation and theories online from “keyboard detectives” about Gus’s disappearance were not welcome and were hurtful to the family.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Can I just remind people that it’s not helpful, it\u2019s not appropriate to speculate in these circumstances,” he said.<\/p>\n “It becomes incredibly traumatic and upsetting \u2026 particularly in circumstances where you don’t necessarily know the answers.”<\/p>\n It comes as police say their phone lines are being tied up with unwelcome speculation about the fate of the missing boy.<\/p>\n On Friday, the presence of police personnel, SES volunteers and the Australian Defence Force had noticeably decreased around the homestead.<\/p>\n Mounted police joined the search efforts earlier this week.\u00a0 (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)<\/p>\n Senior Constable Peter Williams told ABC Radio Adelaide police phone lines had been “inundated” with information since the photo was released yesterday.<\/p>\n “I do remind people that the purpose of the image going out is for anyone who’s got actual information that may assist the investigation,” Senior Constable Williams said.<\/p>\n “We just ask people, we’re not after your opinions. We’re after help with the investigation.<\/p>\n “If it is just an opinion, perhaps keep it to yourself, but if you’ve got factual information, feel free to give us a call and provide that.”<\/p>\n ‘Very difficult time’\u00a0<\/p>\n Gus was last seen playing in sand on his family’s sheep station, about 40 kilometres south of Yunta, late Saturday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n More than 100 police, SES and community volunteers have been involved in the daily search effort, assisted by sniffer dogs, drone and helicopter assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Tuesday, a footprint was discovered around 500 metres from the homestead where Gus was last seen.<\/p>\n Officer in charge of the Yorke and Mid North region, Superintendent Mark Syrus said it’s possible the print might have been left by Gus in the days before his disappearance.<\/p>\n Mr Williams said the search entering its seventh day had marked a “very difficult time” for those on the ground searching.<\/p>\n “The reality is, unless he’s come across a water source or vegetation to be able to provide some sort of food source, the outcome could be more grim,” he said.<\/p>\n “The reality is they’re not giving up hope.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australian Police are scaling back the search for a four-year-old boy, who disappeared in the state\u2019s mid-north…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":271540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,4471,141902,141900,140945,50,141901,128568,20517,17477,5812,141903,140944],"class_list":{"0":"post-274099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-child","10":"tag-day-7","11":"tag-gus","12":"tag-missing-boy","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-peter-williams","15":"tag-phone-line","16":"tag-photo","17":"tag-sa-police","18":"tag-search","19":"tag-sheep-station","20":"tag-yunta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115309318393173047","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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