Hopes of a breakthrough in Australia’s most enduring cold case are dashed after excavation at factory site draws a blank

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Excavation at a factory site in Adelaide has been called off after failing to find the remains of the three missing Beaumont children who have been missing since Australia Day 1966.

Police were following a fresh lead in their search for nine-year-old Jane, seven-year-old Arnna and four-year-old Grant who never returned to their Glenelg home after setting off for an afternoon at the beach.

New dig planned in hunt for missing Beaumont children Read more

But the dig on Friday at the site at North Plympton uncovered only animal bones, said chief superintendent Des Bray, dashing hopes of a major breakthrough in Australia’s most enduring cold case.

“I can confirm that we have searched the areas of interest and reached the bottom of those areas and gone well below so that we can be 100% certain,” Bray told reporters gathered at ther site . “I can confirm we have found bones of various animals, but there has been nothing human located on the site.

“Sadly this means for the Beaumont family that we still have no answers. But we will always do anything humanly possible to locate the Beaumont children and take them home to their family.”

Attention was focused on a small section of ground at the site where recent scientific tests revealed the possible presence of a large hole dug there around the same time the three children went missing.



Play Video 1:50 New search under way for missing Beaumont children – video

The children’s disappearance 52 years ago sparked a huge search, but they were never found.

In 2013 new information focused the investigation on a factory west of Adelaide, after two brothers told police they had spent the 1966 Australia Day weekend digging a large hole there at the request of the owner, Harry Phipps.

Phipps died in 2004, but his son, who accused his father of years of sexual abuse, believed he had a part in the crime.

He also bore a resemblance to an identikit picture prepared at the time, and lived close to Glenelg beach.

An excavation at the North Plympton site in 2013 found nothing, but police now believed they may have been digging in the wrong spot.

Detective chief inspector Greg Hutchins, one of the officers leading the search, said police had been regularly in touch with the children’s parents, Jim and Nancy Beaumont.

“Clearly the parents of the three Beaumont children have suffered significantly over the last 52 years,” he said.

A range of experts watched the dig, including a forensic anthropologist, a criminologist, crime scene examiners and officers from the major crime division.