Grant Beaumont, 97, dies 57 years after his 3 children vanished in a case that rocked the world
ABERFOYLE PARK, AUSTRALIA: Grant Alfred Beaumont, the father of three missing children who vanished in 1966 and were never found has died. He was 97. Grant died four years after his wife and mother-of-three Nancy Alfred died in 2019. The disappearance of their children has remained one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in Australia.
On Australia Day in 1966, Jane Beaumont, then aged nine, and her siblings Arnna, age seven, and Grant who was four years old, left their parents' home to spend the afternoon at nearby Glenelg Beach in suburban Adelaide. They never came back. Large-scale search efforts were launched in response to the disappearance, but the trio was never located.
READ MORE
Mandy Leger: JJ Vallow’s biological mom died from ‘anguish and stress’ after losing son
CCTV clip shows toddler's last moments before he drowned in a creek in Easter egg hunt tragedy
The children left for swimming but never returned
Beaumont also known as Jim died on April 9. A funeral notice that the publication said was released on Saturday described Beaumont as "reunited in heaven'" with the three children. "Loved uncle of Kate and Papa Grant of Emily and Zoe," the notice wrote.
Reportedly, the children boarded a bus near their home at about 8.45 am and traveled together to go swimming at Glenelg Beach between Jetty Road and the Anzac Highway. The children who were due home at about 2 pm failed to get back. Beaumont then reported his three children as missing at about 7.20 pm.
Extensive searches of the area could not locate the trio
Police conducted an extensive search of the area for the night, but the trio could not be found. Since their disappearance, several theories have surfaced on the children's disappearance with suspects also being questioned, however, no one has been ever charged. The case still remains open. Beaumont and Nancy ended their marriage in divorce at the beginning of 1970. As per the death announcement, Beaumont was privately cremated.
A 2013 breakthrough when a son alleged pedophile father buried them in a hole
Breakthrough in the investigation finally occurred in 2013 when two brothers said they were instructed to dig a hole at a plant west of Adelaide for businessman Harry Phipps on the weekend the children vanished. Phipps passed away in 2004, but his son, who accused his father of sexual abuse for years, thought he was involved in the crime, the Daily Mail reported.
Bill Hayes, a former police officer, later admitted that he discussed the location of the Beaumont children's last resting place with Phipps, the main suspect. At the North Plympton industrial site, Hayes claimed that Hayden Phipps had informed him that his father was a pedophile and that the children had been interred there in a sandpit.
However, a few months later, authorities said that Harry Phipps was no longer a suspect and that the accusations against him had been refuted. Bevan Spencer von Einem and other well-known child predators reportedly have been implicated in the kidnapping throughout the years. In the most recent development, Police questioned an elderly man facing child sex charges in 2016 regarding the disappearance of the Beaumont children.