The Beaumont Children

Siblings Jane (Aged 9), Arnna (Aged 7) and Grant (Aged 4) disappeared from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia in 1966.

Just after half past eight in the morning the Beaumont children left their home in Somerton Park and walked the short distance to the bus stop. Nancy, the children's mother waved them goodbye, not knowing she would never see them again. Nancy started growing concerned when her children had not returned by 2pm, she alerted her husband Jim and they both set about in search of their children, three hours had passed with no success, they decided to call the police and so began the biggest manhunt in Australian history.

The Police together with the Army, Navy,Airforce and civilians set out in search of the missing siblings, they searched the beach, cliffs, storm drains but no trace of the children was ever found. The Police began to have their suspicions that the children had been abducted, a local resident came forward with information that they had seen a man playing with children on the beach on the day of the siblings disappearance. She described the man as 6ft tall, thin with light colored hair, later on another witness came forward she informed police that she was sat on a bench with an elderly couple when a man with three children came up to her and informed them that their money had been stolen. Nancy the children's mother confirmed that indeed she had given her children money to purchase food that day.

A psychic named Gerard Croiset, who had repeatedly assisted the Netherlands's police on missing persons claimed the siblings were dead, they psychic claimed he had seen a vision of the children being trapped by rocks in an underground cave and that they would never be found as the entrance was sealed. It was agreed to fly the Psychic to Australia to help pinpoint the location from his vision. Gerard was unsuccessful in finding the place from his vision due to the interference of the gathering media covering the case blocking his psychic powers.

Arthur Stanley Brown a prolific child rapist and murderer, was regarded by the police to fit the description of the man seen with the siblings before their disappearance. More importantly there were reports he may had been in the area at the time and was known to murder children of the same family, however the police could not defiantly place Brown near to where the Beaumont's disappeared.

So what happened to The Beaumont Children?

In my mind it's still a possibility that Brown abducted and murdered the siblings, in that case following his usual MO he would have disposed of them in the bush land and they are still out there waiting to be discovered. Brown died in 2002 and still remains the prime suspect for the siblings disappearance and also other unsolved child murders and disappearances. Of course another theory that the siblings simply had some sort of accident where they were either claimed by the sea or some sort of landslide leading to their bodies being buried.

54 years later and this case remains one of Australia's oldest cold cases. Sadly Nancy died in 2019 at the age 92 never knowing what happened to her babies. Jim is still alive and well.