On January 26, 1966, Jane, Arnna and Grant Beaumont disappeared without a trace.Jane, 9, Arnna, 7, and Grant, 4, left their family home at Somerton Park at 10:00am.It was Australia Day and they were to spend the day, unsupervised, at Glenelg Beach — which at the time was not unusual.But the three children would never be seen by their parents again.
The operational log made public by South Australian Police (SAPOL) 50 years after the disappearance details its response after the children were reported missing.Interestingly, it lists two unusual discrepancies recorded in the statement made by the children's father.Initially the father reported the children had left the house at 1:00pm and were due home at 5:00pm.He stated the siblings had gone to Glenelg to swim in an area between Jetty Road and Anzac Highway.But Mr Beaumont's statement was later amended to read that the children had left home at 10:00am and were due to return at 2:00pm.Also, in a phone call conducted on the night of January 26, Mr Beaumont said the eldest girl could barely swim and the others could not.
7:20pm — 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.
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 they had left home with sixpence, a shopkeeper recalled Jane buying pasties and a meat pie with a one pound note.Mrs Beaumont later said the children had left the house with only six shillings and sixpence.Police believed the associated man may have given the money to the children.A composite sketch of the suspect was produced, and later given further detail, with hopes of identifying him.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Dutch clairvoyant Gerard Croiset was flown to Adelaide on November 8, 1966 by a local businessman to help with stalled investigations.Croiset's insights provided no real answers.He claimed the children were buried under a newly constructed warehouse on an old brick factory site, drawing a huge community response.Enough money was raised to fund an excavation of the factory in North Plympton, against the advice of the police and government.No bodies were found.Police later used ground-penetrating radar and excavated a one-metre-square section of the site in November 2013.They found no evidence and the investigation surrounding the site and its former owner are now closed.
Two letters were delivered to the Beaumont parents two years after the children's disappearance.The letters were supposedly authored by their eldest child 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.The parents obliged and travelled to the agreed meeting area but no-one was there to meet them.A second letter arrived detailing how the man had spotted a detective following the parents and decided to leave.In 1981 it was claimed that handwriting experts were almost certain one letter was written by Jane.The author has since been identified by forensic fingerprinting as a now-41-year-old man who had written them as a joke.
Over the years many suspects have been suggested, investigated and discarded by police.In the week before the 50th anniversary of the children's disappearance, Detective Superintendent Des Bray said police still received up to one call every four days about the case.In the past two years more than 160 calls had been received."There have been hundreds of people put forward over time," Detective Superintendent Bray said.Theories have included links to convicted paedophiles or murderers who were known to be in the area at the time.Detective Superintendent Bray said the case might also have links to the unsolved disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon from Adelaide Oval in 1973.He urged members of the public who may have withheld information about the case to come forward."The window of opportunity to get a result is in decline," he said."The person who committed this offence, if alive today, would be somewhere between the age of 70 and 100."
