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One of Australia's most tragic, highest profile and longest standing murder mysteries may finally be solved tomorrow.
The Beaumont children — Jane, 9, Arnna, 7, and Grant, 4 — disappeared from Glenelg Beach (South Australia) on January 26, 1966.
Their disappearance resulted in one of the largest police investigations in Australian history and after over 50 years remains one of Australia's most infamous cold cases. The huge attention given to the case, its significance in Australian criminal history, and the fact that the mystery of their disappearance has never been explained, has led to the story being regularly revisited over the years by the press and public.
Now, with a dig scheduled tomorrow by police, this case may finally be solved.
Although a couple of year old, this news item from Youtube probably provides the best single summary of the case I have seen. But there are many, many more to choose from.
Police to dig for Beaumont children's remains on Friday
Excavation of an Adelaide industrial site, which could be the resting place of the Beaumont children, will be carried out on Friday, police have confirmed.
A range of experts will be involved in the dig at the New Castalloy site at North Plympton, which will begin about 8:00am.
The site was formerly owned by Adelaide businessman Harry Phipps, who died in 2004 but is still considered a person of interest in the case.
An anthropologist from South Australian Forensic Services will be on site, along with police from Major Crime and Forensic Response, a member of the SES and an expert from Flinders University.
The North Plympton site has been investigated before, but became a renewed focus of police efforts in recent months.
Recent geophysical testing uncovered the anomaly at the spot where two brothers said they dug a hole for Mr Phipps the same year the Beaumonts disappeared.
The area of interest is about 6 square metres in area and about 2.5 to 3 metres deep.
Police have spoken of the need to "temper expectations".
"There's never been anything to prove that the Beaumont children are in the hole," Superintendent Bray said.
However, former South Australian Police detective Bill Hayes described the new information that prompted police to search the site as the "best lead there has ever been in the case".
I so hate to hear that a murderer has deceased without being brought to justice, even without being disturbed by a scare of the prospect of imminent arrest.
I so hate to hear that a murderer has deceased without being brought to justice, even without being disturbed by a scare of the prospect of imminent arrest.
Couldn't agree more.
Though there is a certain mystique about people getting away with cleverly carried out 'victim-less' crimes - like DB Cooper for instance - murders are something altogether different.
The pain and suffering the murderer in this case created has lasted over 50 years and my heart goes out to the parents, now in their 90s, who are awaiting the results of this mornings dig.
That dig starts in about 2 hours from now incidentally.
The dig at an Adelaide factory site for any remains of the missing Beaumont children has been called off, South Australian police have confirmed.
Detective Chief Superintendent Des Bray told the media that nothing of interest to the investigation had been found and the latest search had been abandoned.
Experts, including an anthropologist, spent most of Friday at the factory site at North Plympton, but police said only "non-human bones" were found.
"I can confirm that we have found bones of various animals, possibly cows, horses and sheep, but there is nothing human that has been located," Superintendent Bray said.
Superintendent Bray said the elderly parents of the three children would not be forgotten after the latest search effort.
"Sadly this means for the Beaumont family we still have no answers, we still have a lot of work to do," he said.
"I don't think there's anybody in the country that doesn't want to find the Beaumont children," he said.
"I issued a warning at the start of this that we needed to temper expectations and that was for a reason.
"It's disappointing, it's not surprising, but we'll continue to work to find the Beaumont children."
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