The Beaumont Children: Australia's Enduring Mystery
59 years after three siblings vanished from a beach near Adelaide, the case remains unsolved—and the search continues
Sagsdetaljer
Quick Facts
Quick Facts
On 26 January 1966—Australia Day—three siblings caught a bus to Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia, intending to spend the afternoon swimming. Jane Nartare Beaumont, aged 9, her sister Arnna Kathleen, 7, and their younger brother Grant Ellis, just 4 years old, would never return home.
The children were last confirmed sighted at Colley Reserve and Wenzel's cake shop on Moseley Street in Glenelg. Witnesses reported seeing them in the company of a tall man in his mid-30s, with fairish to light-brown hair, a thin face, and a sun-tanned complexion. Beyond that sighting, the trail went cold—and remains cold to this day.
What followed was one of Australia's most extensive missing-persons investigations. Police launched a massive search operation that covered 30 miles of coastline from Henley Beach to Aldinga, with officers combing sand dunes, caves, backyards, toolsheds, and storm drains. The local marina was drained entirely, and 65 police officers and cadets grid-searched 70 acres of the surrounding area. Sixty officers conducted door-to-door canvassing of more than 400 homes in search of the mysterious "Tall Man." The Australian government offered a £500 reward—equivalent to roughly $8,000 USD today—for information leading to the children's recovery.
Despite these extraordinary efforts, no bodies were ever found. No arrests were made. No definitive answers emerged. The investigation, while thorough by the standards of the 1960s, ultimately led nowhere.
The mystery deepened when the case attracted international attention. In November 1966, Dutch psychic Gerard Croiset visited Adelaide and claimed the children had suffocated in a collapse and were buried near a beach or warehouse site. Searches based on his assertions yielded nothing. Over the decades, various suspects have been linked to the disappearance—most notably Bevan Spencer von Einem, who was implicated by a witness known as "Mr B"—but nothing has been proven. The case remains officially unsolved.
