Frank Pangallo MLC flooded with tips on Beaumont Children case as Adelaide dig continues

The search for any evidence of the Beaumont children has entered its fourth day, with an MLC revealing the compelling new leads flowing into his office.

Frank Pangallo MLC is being flooded with new leads on the state’s most famous cold case as excavators continue searching for the remains of children Jane, Arnna and Grant Beaumont, who vanished in 1966.

As the ambitious week-long dig, organised by Mr Pangallo, entered its fourth day on Wednesday, excavators dug at a previously unexplored part of the former Castalloy factory site in North Plympton.

Mr Pangallo said that wanting to leave “no stone unturned”, the project team had decided to explore what he called a “fourth site” where a shed had stood on a concrete slab, located near the site of the previous dig in 2018.

MP Frank Pangallo and Professor Maciej Henneberg at the site on Wednesday. Image/Russell Millard Photography

Excavation at the old Castalloy site on 26 February 2025. Picture: Supplied

The efforts did not uncover new evidence on Wednesday, but Mr Pangallo struck an optimistic tone in comments to reporters at the site, saying the dig had encouraged hundreds of people to contact his office with information on the cold case.

“I’ve got 300 emails that I have to go through,” he said.

“(My office manager) has done nothing but answer calls from the public.

“I also had a call last week from a very credible woman who described a person who had raped her in the mid 1960s outside of the Hindmarsh Soccer Stadium. And the description of the person certainly matched the person of interest in the Beaumont case.

“The person was wearing a trench coat, had a distinctive hat and also had a large American car. And she identified that car as a Pontiac Parisienne.”

Mr Pangallo said police had taken no interest after the woman, now in her 60s, reported her alleged rape when she was just 15 years old.

A Pontiac had been driven by the suspect Harry Phipps, according to Stuart Mullins’ book The Satin Man.

Two men had come forward in 2013 claiming Mr Phipps, a businessman, had curiously paid them to dig a hole at the old Castalloy factory just three days after the Beaumont children’s disappearance.

Jane, Grant and Arnna Beaumont.

Author Stuart Mullins chats with forensic archaeologist Professor Maciej Henneberg. Picture:Russell Millard Photography

The claim had prompted police to search for the hole at the Castalloy site in 2013 and 2018. Mr Pangallo organised a final dig this year before the government-owned land is sold to developers.

On Saturday, Mr Pangallo revealed a person close to the Beaumonts had phoned him, telling him Mr Phipps’ niece married a cousin of the children’s father, Jim.

There is no suggestion she had anything to do with their disappearance.

Retired detective Bill Hayes said he believed the businessman was still the prime suspect and called the new link “very significant”.

Few people gathered at the Mooringe Ave site on Wednesday, after dozens of onlookers and true crime enthusiasts from SA and interstate had visited on Monday.

Mr Pangallo said the team planned to finish digging on Saturday.

Originally published as Frank Pangallo MLC flooded with tips on Beaumont Children case as Adelaide dig continues