Beaumont search: Another despondent end in quest for the awful truth

There were no bodies. There were no clues to help police. There were just more questions as another earnest search for the remains of Grant, Arnna and Jane Beaumont.

• Beaumont search: Harry Phipps ‘is still the only credible suspect’
• Beaumont Children: Satin Man author standing by theory
• Police end dig having found no human remains

IN less than 10 hours, a wave of genuine optimism evaporated into disappointment.

There were no bodies. There were no clues to help police. There were just more questions.

Police confirmed that two brothers had indeed dug a large hole for Castalloy owner Harry Phipps days after Australia Day in 1966.

But the arduous dig also disproved the tantalising leap of logic that the hole contained the skeletons of Jane, Arnna and Grant Beaumont.

Major Crime Detective Superintendent Des Bray gathered the media throng just after 5pm to confirm what most had already worked out — this was yet another dead end for police and the children’s elderly parents, Jim and Nancy. Supt Bray also spoke of the ordeal which has enveloped Harry Phipps’ remaining relatives.

Former police officer Mostyn Matters who took the original police report walks with Stuart Mullins, researcher and co-author of The Satin Man Picture: Dylan Coker

“It is worth reflecting on how this affected the wider Phipps family, no doubt they have had an extremely difficult time with the allegations that have been made,” he said.

“We haven’t found anything associated with the disappearance, we do have some inquiring left to do into the allegations made against Mr Phipps, but I won’t be commenting on that investigation at all.”

Co-author of the book The Satin Man, Stuart Mullins, said the disappointment at not finding the Beaumonts did nothing to diminish his staunch belief that Phipps was the killer.

“Absolutely not — because what we’ve got is a 14-year old girl that was raped, that was sodomised in a horrific way here by Harry Phipps,” Mr Mullins said. “That can’t be discarded, he is a predator, he is a paedophile.”

A forensic crime scene investigator looking at items found in the soil. Picture: Dylan Coker

Mr Mullins said he still believed the harrowing evidence of Phipps’ late son Haydn, that his father was a deviant paedophile who brought three children to their Glenelg home.

Any development in the Beaumont case attracts an influx of information to police.

Supt Bray said Crime Stoppers fielded up to 60 new calls in the past week.

“But with a crime from 50 years ago the simplest of inquiries become difficult and time consuming and sometimes it means you can’t resolve it one way or another,” he said.

With Harry Phipps’ name now included on the sprawling list of suspects, the empty result of the dig means those with alternative theories will be emboldened again that theirs is the key. Stuart Mullins’ belief that Phipps killed the children remains. The multitude of unproven theories remains.

So does the agony of the unknown for Jim and Nancy Beaumont.