3 Kids Vanished in 1966. Police Still Get Hundreds of Tips

Case of missing Beaumont children rocked Australia
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 17, 2016 5:31 PM CDT
Updated Jul 23, 2016 4:32 PM CDT
3 Kids Vanished in 1966. Police Still Get Hundreds of Tips
Jane, Arnna, and Grant.   (SA Police)

On Jan. 26, 1966, Australian Jane Beaumont, 9, had been tasked with watching her two younger siblings at the Glenelg beach, as she had done on past occasions. Except this time, Jane, 7-year-old Arnna, and 4-year-old Grant never returned to their suburban Adelaide home. Though police had some clues to work from—OZY reports the children were seen speaking to a blond man, bought a meat pie with money their parents say they didn't leave the house with, and were seen heading home by a postman—the truth of their disappearance persists more than 50 years later in a case that forever altered the way Australians parented. In January, international coverage amped up again as the 50-year anniversary approached; one particular development led authorities to hunt down details of an already deceased suspect. It didn't pan out.

But the coverage may have had an effect: News.com.au in January reported that over the past two years, police have fielded 159 calls about the case, or one every four days on average. Two months later, Australia's ABC reported that 246 calls had been received so far in 2016. But the case is now so old that the person who committed the crime is either dead or between 70 and 100 in age, Detective Superintendent Des Bray notes. "The window of opportunity to get a result is in decline." A $1 million reward is being offered to anyone who can provide new information. Police excavated a site in connection with the case as recently as 2013, reports ABC. (Read about another baffling mystery that, oddly, also involves a beach near Adelaide.)

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