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Mystery of the Beaumont children.


Jazzy Jan

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This story is gripping the whole of Australia today as dig for children's remains begin. 

Beaumont children search continues to capture the nation 52 years after their disappearance

Beaumont children photographed at the Twelve Apostles.

It's one of Australia's most enduring mysteries — the disappearance of the Beaumont children.

On Australia Day of 1966, Jane, 9, Arnna, 7, and Grant, 4, left their Somerton Park home in Adelaide for an unsupervised day at the beach, but they never came home.

It's a cold case that South Australian Police have never given up on, and now, 52 years later, a new search of a North Plympton factory site is taking place — giving everyone new hope that this mystery could be solved.

So, how has the Beaumont children's story unfolded?

The day they disappeared

January 26, 1966

At 10am, the children left their home travelling by bus to the Glenelg beach.

Their parents Jim and Nancy Beaumont expected the children to come home by 2:00pm.

 

When the children didn't return home, the Beaumonts called the police that evening.

A South Australian Police log detailed the following:

  • 7:20pm — South Australia Women Police Office report children missing, reported to Glenelg Police by father minutes before. Father and police carried out thorough search of beach area.
  • 8:40pm — Local police searched the Brighton foreshore; officers also search West Beach and Henley Beach for children.
  • 9:50pm — Sea Rescue Squadron volunteers offer to search coastline, police decline official expression but advise squadron can search on their own accord.
  • 10:00pm — Police check with father who reports he has spoken with friends and relatives and cannot locate children. The father authorises police to supply radio stations with public announcements.
  • 10:17pm — Three police officers report they have searched vessels at Boat Haven and surrounding lawns, with the children not sighted.

Witnesses come forward

 

In the days following the children's disappearance, crowds of people gathered to watch police in their search.

Volunteers helped police in what was the largest scale search in South Australia's history.

The beach was scoured, drains were flushed and hundreds of witnesses came forward.

Several witnesses provided a description of the children being seen with a tall, tanned, thin-faced man, with short blond hair.

Although statements from the Beaumont parents reported the children had left home that morning with six shillings and sixpence, a shopkeeper at a Glenelg bakery recalled Jane buying cakes and a meat pie with a one pound note.

A composite image sketch of the man was produced with hopes of identifying.

Clairvoyant flown in to help

November 8, 1966

Dutch clairvoyant Gerard Croiset was flown to Adelaide nine months after the children disappeared to assist with investigations.

His trip was funded by a local businessman, but Mr Croiset's insights provided no real answers.

 

He claimed the children were buried under a newly constructed warehouse on an old brick factory site in Somerton Park, drawing a huge community response.

Enough money was raised to fund an excavation of the factory, against the advice of police and the government, but nothing was found.

Beaumonts sent letters in cruel hoax

1968

Two letters were sent to the Beaumont parents two years after the children disappeared.

The letters were supposedly written by their eldest daughter, Jane, and a man who was looking after them in Victoria.

 

The first letter requested the parents meet the man for a handover of the children, which they did, but no one came to meet them.

The second letter detailed how the man spotted a detective following the parents and decided to leave.

In 1981, it was claimed handwriting experts were almost certain one letter was written by Jane.

The author has since been identified by forensic fingerprinting as a man who had written them as a joke.

Harry Phipps named as a suspect

2013

In 2013, after conducting its own investigation, Channel 7 named local businessman Harry Phipps as a potential suspect.

Adelaide businessman and suspect Harry Phipps

This was based on information Mr Phipps' son, Haydn, gave to former detective Bill Hayes.

Haydn Phipps, who was 15 at the time the children went missing, claimed to have seen the children at his family home in Glenelg.

He also told police he was violently abused by his father as a child.

The information led to a search at a North Plympton factory, New Castalloy, formerly owned by Mr Phipps.

Mr Phipps died in 2004.

Police used ground penetrating radar and excavated one area of site, but nothing was found.

The naming of Mr Phipps during Channel 7's investigation led to two brothers coming forward, claiming they may have inadvertently dug the Beaumont children's grave.

They said Mr Phipps had paid them in the days after the children's disappearance to dig a large hole at the factory site.

 

Police announce new search

January 22, 2018

SA Police announced it would be doing a new search of the New Castalloy site following another investigation by Channel 7.

The network paid for geophysical testing of an area of the site by Flinders University, which showed an anomaly.

 

While the testing did not detect bones, it showed the soil at the site had been moved.

Police said the new findings warranted further investigation.

Search takes place

February 2, 2018

Police and forensic experts begin to excavate the site at New Castalloy.

While police said they are hopeful of finding something relating to the Beaumont children, they also want to "temper expectations".

An excavator digs up an area of the New Castalloy site in Adelaide's North Plympton in a new search for the Beaumont children

 

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The excavation found only animal bones.  The whole of Australia was listening for news on the excavation today. It is our most talked about cold case and everybody wanted the Beaumont children's bodies finally found and properly laid to rest. Such a dreadful case that has always been talked about and investigated.  

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3 hours ago, karbatal said:

Wow! 

What a disturbing story. Poor parents.  Those fake letters! What a nightmare. 

 

34 minutes ago, Lolo said:

Sad and disturbing. What happened to those poor children? Seems like this is going to be in the dark forever. Frustrating and tragic on so many levels...

It  is our most famous and disturbing case. Countless theories, searches and suspects have been discussed. The children were last seen with a young man by several witnesses and no one has identified him. A lot has said it took away the innocence of Australian life. Everyone wanted it solved today.  

 

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25 minutes ago, Jazzy Jan said:

Sadly, I don't think it will ever be solved.  I shudder to think what happened to the children.  

What is really weird too is that the experts thought the letter was written by the girl but then afterwards they proved it was some joke from a jerk. But how could this person write a letter that could fool those experts in caligraphy???? 

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Such a tragic story. I can't imagine the life of these parents after that. 

And that cruel man sending the fake letters. That is so terrible. Why would someone do that ?? Human being can be so cruel sometimes. 


I read an interesting article in the newspaper, the other day. It was about parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook mass shooting. Many years later, they still get letters from people claiming the shooting is fake, it was all staged and it never happened. They even received death threats from conspiracy theorists.
These poor parents, I just can't imagine how they must feel when they got the letters... :confused: 

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4 minutes ago, horn said:

This is so sad.

But first of all, why did the parents allow such them (9yo/7yo/4yo) to go to beach without any adult?

I guess it was just different times and from what I understood it was not very far. And they must have been familiar with taking the bus. I used to go to a nearby lake alone all the time, with my bike, as a kid. It's so sad that this is unimaginable nowadays... How will I ever be able to give my kids the space they need? How can you let go with stories like this in mind? It's hard and frightening. 

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13 minutes ago, horn said:

This is so sad.

But first of all, why did the parents allow such them (9yo/7yo/4yo) to go to beach without any adult?

It was normal back then. In fact the over controlling of kids is pretty recent. When I was a kid I went everywhere and I was only like 9 years old! 

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4 minutes ago, Lolo said:

I guess it was just different times and from what I understood it was not very far. And they must have been familiar with taking the bus. I used to go to a nearby lake alone all the time, with my bike, as a kid. It's so sad that this is unimaginable nowadays... How will I ever be able to give my kids the space they need? How can you let go with stories like this in mind? It's hard and frightening. 

Well, this is the big lie we suffer these days. I mean, those poor Beaumont children had bad luck, but thousands and thousands of other kids did the same and didnt' have any problem. The same happens nowadays, kids are overprotected because we fear something may happen to them.

But I understand your fears. Just the mere thought that your kids can suffer anything makes you over protective. Now we have so much information that there's no scape. The big like, that fake feeling that things are more sick and dangerous today than before is part of our society. There's no scape. 

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Yeah, it was different back then. Over-parenting is pretty recent indeed. I was 9 years old, took the public bus to go downtown at the librairy. It was just pretty normal. 

Today if a kid cross the street he'll get punished right away. 

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