Desperate Search for Missing 4yo Boy Enters Third Day: Police Scour Isolated Sheep Farm in South Australia’s Mid-North
- Four-year-old Gus vanished from his family’s homestead on Saturday evening, sparking a massive search operation involving police horses, water operations, and drones.
- Police say time is of the essence as they scour the remote property, with temperatures expected to drop overnight, putting the young boy’s life at risk.
- Gus’s family is “devastated” as they wait anxiously for news of their son’s whereabouts, with Premier Peter Malinauskas saying the situation is “one of the most terrifying circumstances” for any parent.
Panic has set in as the search for a missing 4-year-old boy enters its third day in South Australia’s mid-north. Gus, a curious and adventurous young boy, was last seen playing outside his family’s isolated sheep farm on Saturday evening.
Police say Gus was wearing a grey sun hat, a cobalt blue long-sleeve T-shirt with a yellow Minion picture on the front, light grey pants, and boots when he vanished. His grandmother had been keeping an eye on him, but when she went to check on him, he was nowhere to be found.
Yorke Mid North Superintendent Mark Syrus said police were working closely with Gus’s family to inform the search efforts. “We understand he’s a pretty quiet sort of lad, but he is a country lad and he’s pretty adventurous as well,” he said.
A police helicopter with an infrared camera was deployed on Saturday night, but failed to locate the boy. The search continued on Sunday, with police completing an extensive ground search using trail bikes, ATVs, and a drone covering a 2.5km radius search area.
SA Police Senior Constable Matt Hale said police were “still being hopeful for a good outcome” but acknowledged that time was of the essence. “At the end of the day, being out in the open is not good and exposure whether it’s in the summer or in the winter can be very, very dangerous, especially for young ones,” he said.
Water operations police will join the search on Monday, scouring dams and tanks on the property, while SA Police’s Mounted Operations Unit will also join the ground search.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said the situation was “probably one of the most terrifying circumstances that any parent or guardian could contemplate”. “I think every single parent across the state will have in their thoughts and in their prayers the family of Gus and maintain the hope that young Gus will be found at some point in the not too distant future,” he said.