Beaumont children: Last dig leads to surprise reunion nearly 60 years later
As the last-ditch dig continues for the missing Beaumont children, an unexpected reunion has taken place at the former Castalloy factory site.
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The Beaumont dig site was the scene of an unexpected reunion on Monday, as two of the police officers involved with the case in the 1960s were reunited.
Ian Atkins, now 80, was a uniformed officer in January 1966, when the Beaumont children disappeared.
Throughout his 33-year career with SA police, he worked the case alongside Mostyn Matters, who at 93 is the oldest surviving detective from that era.
On the day the children disappeared, Mr Atkins was in the north of SA for a raid.
He recalled when news of the abduction broke, he and his team returned to Adelaide.
On Monday, Mr Atkins arrived at the Beaumont dig site simply to “have a look”, not expecting to see his old colleague Mr Matters, who arrived shortly after with author Stuart Mullins.
The two shook hands and exchanged memories of their time working the Beaumont case.
Mr Atkins said he doesn’t believe the Beaumont children are buried at the North Plympton site, but conceded every detective who worked the case had a different version of what happened.
He told The Advertiser he attended break-ins at Castalloy several times over his career, and had met businessman owner Harry Phipps, who died in 2004, on multiple occasions.
He said he was “quite surprised” to hear Mr Phipps’ name brought up as the prime suspect years later.
“The Harry Phipps I spoke to was a reasonable sort of person,” Mr Atkins said.
Author Stuart Mullins said part of the reason Mr Phipps is considered a prime suspect are the banknotes multiple people involved in the case received from him, which Mr Mullins said were “very uncommon”.
“The thing with Phipps that fits the part is Jane (Beaumont) getting a pound note, and the boys that dug that hole got paid in pound notes,” Mr Mullins said.
“To see a pound note in my mum’s purse was a wow factor, and the two boys remember getting paid in pound notes.”
Shortly before her disappearance along with her siblings on January 26, 1966, Jane Beaumont bought lunch with a pound note, which was more money than her mother said she had given her that day.
The two boys who were spotted digging a hole on the Castalloy land shortly after the disappearances claimed to have been paid in pound notes by Mr Phipps.
Mr Atkins said that police in the 1960s “didn’t have any real suspects”, but he personally had suspicions about a man he remembers being arrested for sexual assault of a minor shortly before the disappearances.
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Originally published as Beaumont children: Last dig leads to surprise reunion nearly 60 years later
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