The family of missing boy Gus Lamont is planning to search eagle nests on their outback property in the slim hope of finding a trace of the little boy who vanished almost a year ago.
Gus would have turned five last month, but at his home near Yunta, it’s like time has stood still.
“Hopefully he’s turned five somewhere and he’s still out there,” his grandmother Josie Murray said.
The little boy’s favourite parts of the Oak Park Station property were the hills he would ride, the garage and woodwork shed but they now show no sign of his playful nature.
“I’d see his footprints and he’d be drawing in the sawdust. He’d leave little marks around, so it wasn’t unusual for him to be in here,” Murray said.
But his grandparents are refusing to believe he won’t be returned.
“I just have a feeling that he’s still alive,” Murray said.
The wild theory that Gus was taken by a wedge-tailed eagle is set to be tested again, with the family hoping to search every eagle’s nest on the property in the slim hope of finding new evidence.
“The eagle aspect should be looked at. I mean, that is certainly, it’s highly unlikely, but it’s not impossible,” Murray said.
A year on since the little boy disappeared from the property, Josie is pleading with police to stop treating her like a suspect.
“For me to know that they’re wasting their time and that time would be better spent trying to find out what did happen to him is enormously frustrating,” she said.
The milestone of Gus’ disappearance will be marked on Sunday, exactly a year on since that heartbreaking night.
The family are hoping his name and his case isn’t forgotten as time goes on.
The investigation has been painstaking for task force detectives who’ve been working through a list of 500 people who were in the area when he disappeared.
The property has been searched 11 times, three dams drained, and six mine shafts checked.
Police are holding out hope that a new lead will help them solve this baffling case.