NATION No luck in cold case dig
EXCAVATION at a factory site in Adelaide was called off after workers failed to find the remains of the missing Beaumont children, ensuring the 50- year mystery of their disappearance would continue.
The dig yesterday uncovered some animal bones but nothing related to the Beaumont children, Chief Superintendent Des Bray said.
“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 per cent certain,” Supt Bray said. “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.”
The dig was sparked by recent scientific studies that revealed signs of a large hole dug on the Plympton North site about the time went missing.
Jane, 9, Arnna, 7, and Grant, 4, never returned after leaving the children their parents’ Glenelg home for an afternoon at the beach on Australia Day, 1966.
Their disappearance sparked an intensive search but they were never found, making it Australia’s most enduring cold case.
In 2013, new information focused the investigation on a factory west of Adelaide, after two brothers told police they spent the 1966 Australia Day weekend digging a large hole there at the request of 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.
Other family members dis- credited the son’s story in the years since. Phipps – who lived close to Glenelg Beach – also bore a resemblance to an identikit picture of a potential suspect, which had been prepared at the time. An initial excavation at his factory site proved fruitless.
Supt Bray said the children’s parents Nancy and Jim Beaumont had been told of the outcome of the latest investigations but declined to comment on their response. The couple are now aged in their 90s.