Current 4yo Boy Missing Yunta SA

[shorsky]

It's bigger than a pain in the arse.
But 5 gates it is.
You can argue with him ,because I've been losing that argument for over 40 years.
I'm not sure someone would open 6 gates for kidnapping Gus. Family member would though

There are other properties past Oak Park Station so there will be others using that road. And I imagine there’s trucks, fuel delivery etc.
Mailman - maybe Gus saw some he thought was mailman an walked down to Oak Park Road - about 500 maybe. He’d do that easy in 15 mins.

 

[shorsky]

https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/874e9cc15a1b8d95c88e3316910d5cdb

Looks like one gate at least on the property aside from the grid further in from the home.
Haven’t seen any others. Would be good to see an aerial view of the whole property and service roads just to make more sense of the area.

If that gate is the entrance into the property off Oak Park Road, the house isn’t visible from there, and neither would anyone coming in there be visible from the house.

 

[Frank Bunn]

I’ve only used the images I can see from google maps and it’s not super clear but there is something of an entrance/grate near the homestead but doesn’t appear to be anything directly off the main entrance road. But a property that big they may enter via numerous directions depending on where they’ve been.

It looks like there's one driveway away from the house with maybe a cattle grid and fences either side of it. Then it splits off to Oak Park Road in two different directions. It's hard to tell where any gates might be.

 

[Sqotty from office works]

Just saw channel 9 morning news on search.
They've showed scrub 5ft high .
Could hide an adult un bush that thick.

 

[MP_]

Just saw channel 9 morning news on search.
They've showed scrub 5ft high .
Could hide an adult un bush that thick.

Yeah I saw a paddock they were going through yesterday and it was at least 3-4ft high saltbush

 

[FR0GGY]

I saw a report that the mum and a grandma were 10km away at the time attending to sheep.
I’m not one to blame family usually but in this case being so remote I don’t see many realistic alternatives.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Check out this place less than 1 km west of the homestead. It looks like a dumping ground for old vehicles. Let's hope they have searched it thoroughly.

 

[CodyRose]

I saw a report that the mum and a grandma were 10km away at the time attending to sheep.
I’m not one to blame family usually but in this case being so remote I don’t see many realistic alternatives.

A four year old needs to be within the line of sight at all time.

 

[Underarrest_]

I’m curious about the timeline from 5.30 to 8.30 when police were called.
I’d imagine it could take a while to check around the buildings/property.
How easy would it be to look once it’s fallen dark? Or is this why it took sometime?

 

[Underarrest_]

Have no idea about this other missing person in SA but also curious why Benjamin’s last name hasn’t been released. Is this normal? Is there some reason?
Is it normal to have polair, indigenous trackers, ses looking for a person who’s driven eratically, after they’ve found the car and know he’s no longer driving?
Maybe because of mental health concerns?

 

[Kurve]

Have no idea about this other missing person in SA but also curious why Benjamin’s last name hasn’t been released. Is this normal? Is there some reason?
Is it normal to have polair, indigenous trackers, ses looking for a person who’s driven eratically, after they’ve found the car and know he’s no longer driving?
Maybe because of mental health concerns?

Not unusual I wouldn't think, if nobody has come forward to say they picked him up and emergency services are in the area anyway.

If it's not uncommon to see abadoned vehicles in the outback. Unless you know someone local, it can be real expensive to get your car out of a predicament. Some people don't have the money and just leave their car wherever it stacked or ran out of fuel.

Maybe they also want to find this man and try rule him out of any involvement as well. Question him if he saw anything.

 

[DropBearess]

Have no idea about this other missing person in SA but also curious why Benjamin’s last name hasn’t been released. Is this normal? Is there some reason?
Is it normal to have polair, indigenous trackers, ses looking for a person who’s driven eratically, after they’ve found the car and know he’s no longer driving?
Maybe because of mental health concerns?

Yes! Good sleuthing! I sniffed this out too. A missing adult in SA rarely gets a mention so soon unless they are armed and dangerous. The appeals and multiple resources being used to locate Benjamin are astonishing. Do we get a trophy if we have nailed a connection?

 

[Edna Mode]

I’m curious about the timeline from 5.30 to 8.30 when police were called.
I’d imagine it could take a while to check around the buildings/property.
How easy would it be to look once it’s fallen dark? Or is this why it took sometime?

Gus was discovered missing at the property south of Yunta at 5:30pm and the police were called three hours later

 

[Underarrest_]

Yes! Good sleuthing! I sniffed this out too. A missing adult in SA rarely gets a mention so soon unless they are armed and dangerous. The appeals and multiple resources being used to locate Benjamin are astonishing. Do we get a trophy if we have nailed a connection?

If not is there a trophy for trying?

 

[Underarrest_]

Yes! Good sleuthing! I sniffed this out too. A missing adult in SA rarely gets a mention so soon unless they are armed and dangerous. The appeals and multiple resources being used to locate Benjamin are astonishing. Do we get a trophy if we have nailed a connection?

It is strange though.
Honestly I don’t know what to make of this whole case.
Another small child just missing without a trace.

 

[Kurve]

It is strange though.
Honestly I don’t know what to make of this whole case.
Another small child just missing without a trace.

It's that he was sighted at around 5.00pm and gone by 5.30pm that seems odd. How far could a 4yo walk where nobody can find him in that time frame?

 

[Underarrest_]

It's that he was sighted at around 5.00pm and gone by 5.30pm that seems odd. How far could a 4yo walk where nobody can find him in that time frame?

Yes and not found after three hours of searching or even after police were called in to look all night.

 

[Percel]

A kid could walk a long way in a few hours in a straight line, while family searchers could have started in the completely wrong direction. By the time three hours are up and LEA are involved he could have been 5-10 kms away. Every meter walked in a different direction by two different parties will be time critical to backtrack on.

Not to mention hiding amongst some of the denser scrub on the property.

 

[31550]

A kid could walk a long way in a few hours in a straight line, while family searchers could have started in the completely wrong direction. By the time three hours are up and LEA are involved he could have been 5-10 kms away. Every meter walked in a different direction by two different parties will be time critical to backtrack on.

Not to mention hiding amongst some of the denser scrub on the property.

Possible but highly unlikely.
If he was last seen in the dirt mound / "sandpit" at 5pm, then the logical direction to search would be in the direction of the sandpit and beyond, He didn't return to the house, or he would have been seen. He would probably normally fed in the evening, and it would have been dark around 7pm, so he would be unlikely to keep walking AWAY from the house. I don't believe any child would deliberately continue to wander in the dark AWAY from lights etc. If he became lost in the dark he is more likely to stay put and shelter than keep going IMO. He would have been reasonably familiar with the immediate landscape, at least in daylight. We don't know his mental capacity, so he may have acted somewhat irrationally. Clearly, the assumption made by the residents was that he would by found by them before dark - if they had insufficient people or resources to look for him they would probably have called for assistance much earlier. The only way he could disappear without trace under his own steam in 3 hours is if nobody actually looked for him at all until the police arrived IMO.

 

[Percel]

Possible but highly unlikely.
If he was last seen in the dirt mound / "sandpit" at 5pm, then the logical direction to search would be in the direction of the sandpit and beyond, He didn't return to the house, or he would have been seen. He would probably normally fed in the evening, and it would have been dark around 7pm, so he would be unlikely to keep walking AWAY from the house. I don't believe any child would deliberately continue to wander in the dark AWAY from lights etc. If he became lost in the dark he is more likely to stay put and shelter than keep going IMO. He would have been reasonably familiar with the immediate landscape, at least in daylight. We don't know his mental capacity, so he may have acted somewhat irrationally. Clearly, the assumption made by the residents was that he would by found by them before dark - if they had insufficient people or resources to look for him they would probably have called for assistance much earlier. The only way he could disappear without trace under his own steam in 3 hours is if nobody actually looked for him at all until the police arrived IMO.

It’s difficult to say what child would have done, we know nothing about him, whether are not there are other mitigating circumstances in his behavioural. I would never state how a child would think in this situation without the entire picture.

My theory was purely a possibility on searching.

There are so many variables in play here, and way too many foreither of us to state with any sense of certainty exactly what happened,

E.g who said he could see lights, what if he couldn’t ? What if he doesn’t understan he should seek shelter?

 

[Jim Cricket]

Sunset on the day he disappeared was pre daylight saving and at 6.11pm Yunta time.

 

[31550]

It’s difficult to say what child would have done, we know nothing about him, whether are not there are other mitigating circumstances in his behavioural. I would never state how a child would think in this situation without the entire picture.

My theory was purely a possibility on searching.

There are so many variables in play here, and way too many foreither of us to state with any sense of certainty exactly what happened,

E.g who said he could see lights, what if he couldn’t ? What if he doesn’t understan he should seek shelter?

Agree. But it was yourself who floated the possibility that he wandered a long way in a straight line for a few hours.
IMO this scenario is less likely than any alternatives for a normal 4YO boy.
If his mental or physical capacity was somewhat diminished, I think its even LESS likely.

 

[Kurve]

I'm thinking if they're calling him and he'd lost direction, he'd turn and head towards their voices.

Sound carries out there and nobody heard him crying or trying to call out the whole night?

 

[zedx]

I'm thinking if they're calling him and he'd lost direction, he'd turn and head towards their voices.

Sound carries out there and nobody heard him crying or trying to call out the whole night?

But thats only if he could tell where the sound was coming from. Quite often if I hear a car door slam or start up and I honestly can not tell if it is out the front my house or the house behind me or next to me.

 

[MP_]

It's that he was sighted at around 5.00pm and gone by 5.30pm that seems odd. How far could a 4yo walk where nobody can find him in that time frame?

To be fair look at that property, where do you initially start? Just around the premises I guess so I’d imagine there’d be a few hours just there, now if he’d decided to go for a walk for that whole three hours he’s going to be a reasonable distance out. Then you’d be guessing which direction he went. With only potentially 3 or maybe four people looking it would have been hard to find him in the dark with literally no light pollution and not knowing which direction to look.
Just while I’m thinking about it do we know if this kid was verbal ?