Australia’s most haunting cold case reopened in February 2025 after a $10,000 anonymous donation funded a week-long dig at the former Castalloy factory site in North Plympton. Investigators sifted 10,000 tons of soil and found nothing, leaving the fate of Jane, 9, Arnna, 7, and Grant, 4, unchanged since 26 January 1966.
> At a Glance
> – The Beaumont children vanished from Glenelg Beach on Australia Day 1966 after last being seen with an unknown man
> – Three excavations (2013, 2018, 2025) of the same factory site have produced no physical evidence
> – Parents Jim and Nancy Beaumont died without answers in 2023 and 2019 respectively
> – Why it matters: The case reshaped child-safety norms and remains open, with police still sifting through fresh tips generated by the latest search
The siblings left their Somerton Park home unsupervised at 9:45 a.m., carrying only six shillings and sixpence. A bus driver and the local postman saw them en route to Glenelg Beach, two miles away. By 11:15-11:30 a.m. they were inside a beachside bakery buying food with a £1 note-money their parents insist they never gave them.
The Man on the Beach
Multiple witnesses saw the children playing with a tan, thin-faced man with short blonde hair. The group was later observed walking away from the beach together. No one reported seeing them after that.
- Bakery purchase with unexplained £1 note deemed “most significant clue” by detectives
- Last confirmed sighting: 11:30 a.m.
- Parents raised alarm at 7 p.m.; police search began immediately
Dead Ends & Hoaxes
A Dutch psychic, Gerard Croiset, was flown in by a businessman and twice named burial sites-first a coastal cave, then beneath a Somerton Park factory-but digs found nothing. In 1968, two forged letters purporting to be from Jane lured the parents to a meeting; no one arrived and police later branded the letters a cruel hoax.
| Suspect | Age in 1966 | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Bevan Spencer von Einem | 20 | Investigated, no evidence |
| Arthur Stanley Brown | 54 | Investigated, no charges |
| Harry Phipps (industrialist) | Named by son and two diggers | Factory dug thrice, no remains found |
Factory Focus
In 2013, Haydn Phipms told police he saw the children in his father Harry’s Glenelg backyard on the day they vanished. Two brothers, Robin and David Harkin, later claimed that three days after the disappearance Harry Phipps paid them as kids to dig a “grave-sized” hole on the Castalloy factory grounds. Ground-penetrating radar in November 2013 and follow-up digs in January 2018 and February 2025 each yielded only animal bones.
Lead private investigator Frank Pangallo after the 2025 dig:
> “I think we can walk away satisfied we’re not going to find the remains here.”
> “A lot of crimes are solved when the public comes forward with new information… more information has come forward that we now need to sift through.”
Key Takeaways
- 59 years on, the Beaumont case remains Australia’s most infamous unsolved child disappearance
- Three large-scale excavations at the same factory site have found no forensic link
- Police maintain a $1 million reward and continue to analyse fresh tips
- The tragedy spurred nationwide changes in parental supervision and child-safety education
With both parents now deceased, investigators urge anyone with information-however old-to come forward, keeping alive the possibility that Australia’s longest-running mystery might still be solved.
