Episode 26 - The Beaumont Children

0:16 Welcome back to Crime Besties to another episode. Hey, Meg, how's it going? Good. Thanks. How are you? I am great, I am loving. We've got some really warm weather today and it's been sunny and delightful. We're leading up to Christmas, which is so incredibly exciting. So this is our. It's stressful. It is stressful, but it is also. I just love this time of year. Oh do you? I love it. Christmas fanatic? I'm Grinch, I reckon. You are not. I love Christmas, but I also like oh, it's just, it's painful.

0:50 It is. I mean, it's, it's a lot of extra work. Yeah, Yeah. And a lot of extra like mental load isn't there because, yeah, you know, it disproportionately falls to, to the mums to sort things out. Generally speaking, not always, but in general. I know I've done. So I think I spoke about this last week, big proponent of the online shopping for Christmas because I think that takes away the having to go to the supermarket, to the shopping centres, which are already feral. So we're recording this in late November.

1:20 The I went to the shops on Wednesday during the day, middle of the day. I just had to pick up a couple of things. I had to park so bloody far away, which did not. No, that's not. I was not happy about that. I couldn't believe it. No, it's insane. Like and I try and stick to sort of smaller shopping complexes rather than the last large ones. That's a good idea. Reason that I just figure I've got a few around me that have got a good amount of shops that you need, you know, Yeah, that I can I sort of try and avoid the giant, you know, shopping centres because it's just gross and people are I hold.

1:53 Oh. People are horrible. Yeah, yeah. I was pulling out of a car park the other day and there was a like a Bank of cars lining up to get out of the car park of this shopping centre. Yeah, and I sort of pulled my car out. I'd reversed in, so I was pulling straight out into the line of traffic. This woman fully sucked up the bum of the car in front of her so I couldn't come out. I'm like, so for the sake of being one extra car ahead, yeah, you're just being an asshole. Asshole. Oh yeah, so they're more important than you?

2:21 Oh yeah, yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, Spirit of Christmas, my ass. Totally. That's the stuff about Christmas that I can't stand. I, yeah, I love the whole, like, you know, it's the, the magic of it all for the kids. I'm all for that. Yeah, 'cause I'm really pissed at Australia Post right now actually, for that reason. They've ruined the magic of Christmas. Like do you know what they've removed? The Christmas letter. Yeah, the Santa letter. You now put the letter to go and walk in and hand it over and they hand you a letter.

2:47 What that? Here's one that Santa prepared earlier for you. Yeah. Because we do that as part of a bit of an educational thing of like, you know, that you write your letter and we all walk up to the post office and they all put them in the box. Not this year. This. Year. I'm really annoyed. I've actually done my Karen and I've put in a complaint. You won't. You won't be the only one. Oh, surely not. Hinder teachers, unite. Oh. Oh, teachers everywhere unite. This is a joke. Mothers fathers unite. Oh my God.

3:17 It's the magic of it that they get a letter in the mail from Santa like saying yes, it's the same one that they the sibling got, but you know. Oh, the kids don't even notice that because all they care about is that they got a letter. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. No. Oh, my God, don't. There's a few things you just shouldn't mess with. Yeah, with that stuff. Agreed. Yeah, I'm. Yeah, I'm. I'm so on the fence of like, being a Grinch in that matter. I like, I very much am. Like all for the magic. Yeah, the A holes at the shopping, the shopping centres, they can go fuck off.

3:43 Yeah, totally. This is why online shopping is the way to go. But then you, you know, you always have to go and get the last minute bits and pieces. Have you made a list or how do you go about it? Oh. I wish I was that way. I haven't, I haven't like I have a list of who I have to buy for, OK. And I sort of like I'd use an app now, which. Oh yeah, you've been holding out on me. I don't know about this app. It's there's heaps of them actually you can download and try. Like I've tried a few different ones each year I pretty much download a different one.

4:10 OK. But yeah, I'm not finding it helping. Like is it? Like lacking inspiration. No, it's not so much that, it's just the keeping track of it. Oh, OK. I think I'm just better off having a piece of paper and it all written on. Yeah, OK. Like than the app situation. So I think I probably need to break away from that. OK, but you should. Yeah, because I I can go a little bit crazy. Yeah, it's easy to do. I've found this year, buy the things that I need to buy for, like my nieces and nephews have been really easy.

4:38 In fact, my kids, my eldest son, Oliver, he has nailed the gifts that I've bought for our nieces and nephews because he was just all over it. And when he told me these suggestions, I was like, oh, absolutely. Like that is such a good idea, such a good idea. So that's been good. Well, that's good. He needs to come come my way. Oh, he'd be more than happy to provide his consultation services, but I'm really struggling on what to get our kids because what they want is something that they're not gonna get.

5:07 I feel you on that. Yeah, my niece actually, And my kids have now taken lead from her because she's like 12. So she's done a PowerPoint presentation. And my kids have decided to do that this year for the first year. And I'm loving it because it's got the links and everything. And she's at that age where she wants mecha cosmetic stuff and she wants, you know, certain clothing. Like she was so gorgeous the other day. She says to me, she goes, you know, Ani, Meg, you know, when I was a kid and, you know, you'd unwrap the Christmas present, there'd be clothes in there and I'd be like, oh, you know, I don't like that.

5:36 We don't want that. That's not toys. Well now if it's clothes, I'm like, I'm really happy intended. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, there's a lot of clothes on there and stuff, but it's certain brands that she wants and yeah, she's very specific around those things. So I love the links and they were perfect. But then, well, I was going through it the other day and my boys like to buy his their cousin's presents. They and we just keep a little cap of, you know, a price on it and they go, they think about it, but with Taylor's.

6:00 List. I love that and. There she'd put a mini karaoke machine to which my boys were like, we're buying Taylor that. Yeah. And then I let. So I let her mum know going on, don't let anyone else buy that. The boys are buying that. She's like, yeah, that was an oversight on my behalf to let her put that on there. I don't remember that being on there. I've actually, I'm going to put my hat in the ring here, but I've actually bought a mini karaoke machine for my 2 because one of the things that they love to do is they've, they've created this band and they like to put on concerts and stuff.

6:30 And at the moment they, well, they don't have an amplifier. Probably a good. I don't know that or a weight one, no, but I was like, I think they would love a carry like the so you I think you just Bluetooth your phone to it and plays the song and you can sing over the top of it. So it's a cool little present idea. So. Yeah, you'll link it up to like, Spotify, basically. He's got the words in front of you then and everything like what my son does. So yeah, he's actually spotted and gone. Oh, I want one of them Tyrant.

6:53 I just. Don't know. They're not actually that expensive. They're not. They're really affordable. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm all over it. Well, now that we've gone through our Christmas list, do you have any shout outs for today? I do have a shout out today. This one's from Tiktok. It was Carolyn Horton has been commenting on our Tiktoks lately saying that she's enjoying the podcast and has been it listens as soon as they're released, which is just. So thanks for joining us. And I don't know where you're from or anything, but yeah, that's really exciting that someone's that keen that they're, you know, the minute we release, they're jumping on the on the listen.

7:28 I just love it. So thank you. Yeah, thank you. And join our journey, yeah. Thanks so much. We, We're getting so much really lovely feedback and we really appreciate it. We find it really motivating. And also like at the end when we finish recording an episode, sometimes we're like, oh God, like, did we do OK or like, are people actually gonna wanna listen to this? Yeah. But the fact that we're getting such nice feedback, we appreciate it. And it means that, you know, it gives us a bit of a bit of a confidence boost and, you know, sort of keep going with it.

7:58 Yeah. Because it is quite a daunting thing to to put yourself out there. I'm finding the more the bigger it's getting, the more daunted I am by. Yeah, like literally what to like starting out there, there's those numbers, Yeah. Of like, like if I was stood in a room and spoke to that many people who have listened to our podcast in last week, that would be a bit scary. Yeah, yeah, we're going to do a little Q&A sort of release over the holidays. So if you've got any questions you want to ask us about our process or what we, you know, how we go about doing what we do, or if you've got any questions for us at all, hit us up DMS, hit us up on the socials and and.

8:35 To you, are you a Gen. Z or?

8:39 Close enough. And we will. Yeah. We'll include that in our Q&A episode. Absolutely. No, That's perfect. Yeah, I've had to do that, like a lot of people who I know like when I see face to face ask. So how do you go about doing it? So yeah, we'll answer a lot of those questions. Yeah, I love it. When we sort of leave the school grounds on a Friday, we generally get the what are you doing today? You know, like recording. Like they're like, Oh my God, like, where do you do that? How? Do you do it? What do you do?

9:03 Yeah, yeah. Cool. Sounds great. Very good. Should we get into this case for today? We should. We should. So we're talking about the Beaumont children today. This is an icon, Nick. It's, I don't know, you're part of Australian history. I think it's shaped Australia really. I mean, you know, it's one of the, it's that case that kind of probably it, it changed how parents thought about their children being unsupervised and things outside of the family home. And that I think it made the Australia particularly start feeling a little bit more, oh, we shouldn't.

9:38 Maybe that the world isn't as nice a place as we thought. Yeah, but strange danger coming in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, 'cause it kind of freaks me out when you first read what these kids were doing at what age. Oh, I know. It was a different time. Different. Time entirely that this was very normal I mean so when we we get into this it's kind of like don't judge the parents because this was everyone was doing it was it was the way of life yeah. Which, you know, when I reflect back on it, you just kind of go, wouldn't that have been a lovely time to live in and wish that that was possible for our kids to have that independence and things?

10:08 Yeah. But yeah. It's funny because like my 10 year old son, he, he's craving independence now. He's I can see he's ready to sort of take that next step and he wants to do things on his own. Yeah, but in the world we live in now, I'm not comfortable. I'm not ready for that. He's like, there's it's too, the world is a scary place. And I know we do a true crime podcast, so they're probably exposed to it a lot more. But you know, when you think about, and this comes up in this case too, it come, it's come up in many of the cases that we've spoken about already.

10:42 And I'm sure it will in future episodes, too. If you look up sex offenders in your area, it's astounding the amount that are out there who are on a register. Yeah. And like just living in your street or potentially next door or in the block over and you don't even know they're there. It. It terrifies me. Absolutely. And I mean, these days too, like it's not that. It's not that there's necessarily when there's more people in the population. So yes. But I mean, ratio wise, they've always been there.

11:13 These people have always existed in our society, unfortunately, but these days they just seem to be able to access more too. Which is really. Have access to kids because you think about like obviously the Internet games online that there's they don't have to they're not visible to the children for who they are they can actually groom them as being. Some children or some of their same age or yeah, really cover up who they are and. And until they want them to know who they are, that's it. Yeah, yeah.

11:44 Very creepy, very scary. So. The Beaumont children disappeared from Glenelg Beach in South Australia on Australia Day on the 26th of January in 1966. Yeah, Jane Natair Beaumont was born on the 10th of September 1956. Anna Kathleen was born on the 11th of November 1958 and Grant Ellis was born on the 12th of July in 1961. So at the time Jane was 9, Anna was 7 and Grant was 4. The they grew up, so they were born to parents Grant, who went by the name Jim. Yep. So yeah, we'll refer to him as Jim. Jim, it's easier because obviously little 4 year old Grant will refer to him as Grant.

12:31 Yep. So Jim Beaumont, he was a former serviceman so he served in the Australian Army. Then he was a taxi driver and he was quite successful in that. He owned a couple of cab licenses back in the day, which is, you know, he had a nice little business going for him. Yeah. But then at the time, I think just moving on to different opportunities. He became a travelling salesman, I think, for a linen company. Is that right? Yeah. And he was, again, he was really successful in that. He sounds like he was a really lovely man.

13:06 He adored his children. He didn't like being away from them because obviously the work took him as a travelling salesman. It took him away from the kids and the family for a few days at a time. And things like he didn't like, he wanted to be with his family, but. But they, he knew that. But the money it was able to bring to them was really worth it. So they did leave a comfortable life. They weren't, you know, absolutely rolling in dough, but they were living a very comfortable life. And that meant that, yeah, they could have that kind of lifestyle.

13:32 Yeah. Yeah. Which was, you know, it was hard for him, but he was willing to do it for his family. Yeah. Yeah. Nancy Beaumont, she was born, Nancy Ellis was their mum and she was a stay at home homemaker, which was I think very typical of a mum in the 50s and 60s. She stayed home and. I loved how a lot of things I read and listened to about this was that she was a stay at home mum, but she wasn't often at home, yeah. I love that she's. Good on her. She was, yeah. She would volunteer with different groups.

14:02 She would be out socialising. She was busy. She was, you know, so she was doing lots of things for the kids and part of all of that, but she was out and about and doing things and. And she didn't, they didn't have, they only had one car which Jim used to use for his travelling salesman job. So she'd just jump on her bike and ride around and yeah, go and visit people and have a have a grand old time. She said. It sounded like she was very social and as you said, really community mind and involved with the community, the broader community as well as her kids, you know, activities specifically for.

14:32 Sure. And this meant that then obviously then, you know, with the children of that that age, so 9, seven and four in that day and age, it was very normal that that a nine year old would sort of be part of like raising the younger children. So there's lots of times where the three children were at home or out in the, in the community themselves without an adult. So Jane was very much a carer to the children. She would be babysit the children if the parents, they were both home and going out and things.

15:00 And there was a letter that I read, Oh, I've seen that Jane wrote her family her 'cause she'd, she'd always, they, they'd gone out for the night, her parents. So she was at home with the kids and babysitting. And so she'd put the younger ones to bed and she'd then put herself to bed. So incredibly responsible. Gosh, if my kids, I can just imagine the house when I got home, imagine that they'd all be awake still. Yeah, she, yeah, put herself to bed, but on her way to bed had written a note to them about, you know, what she'd been up to that day and how things had gone with the younger children and asking her parents, you know, things like, I hope you've had a lovely night out and enjoyed yourselves and.

15:36 She was like, and I've changed Grant's nappy right before I went to bed so he doesn't wet through and like she was just so she was what an incredibly mature young this girl. Away my 9 year old would do any of. No, no. Wow. Gosh. So Nancy and Jim actually met at a pub? I did that. Yeah. They Jim sort of walked into this pub. Nancy was having a meal with a couple of friends and he saw her sort of, you know, it was one of those real true sort of love story type things and saw her across a crowded room and, and instantly was like, I need to meet this woman.

16:13 Yeah. And they dated for a very occulted for a very short amount of time before they got married. I think it was less than six months. So they were married in December of 1955, so and it pretty much on the money. Nine months later Jane was born, Yeah. And they lived in Summerton Park in South Australia, in Harding Street. They, they lived as you were saying, they lived a very comfortable life, but you know, as not rolling, not rolling in it by any stretch of the imagination, but they lived in this really beautiful home in a really lovely area and Glenelg Beach.

16:49 Have you ever been? There not and this Adelaide is somewhere that I haven't visited. I've visited a few places just out of Adelaide around SA, but not Adelaide itself. I've never been now. But having said that, I'm actually really shocked that this is our first episode with an Adelaide case though, because there's some very interesting stuff that's gone on around and Adelaide over the years. I know you know what though, when I was researching this, some things came up like just in the look and I'm like, I didn't even know that that there were cases.

17:15 I was like, oh, I didn't realize that happened in Adelaide. Yeah, Adelaide's crazy. Yeah. Yeah, like. So what is that we will show I was. Like we could almost do like just an Adelaide special. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Glenelg Beach is stunning, like it is paradise. The water is crystal clear, the beaches are like beautiful, you know, white sand and a really lovely place to grow up for the kids. I think Glenoge was about a 2 kilometer like walk or you know. 2 kilometers, yeah, very close for. Them, they used to walk if it wasn't too hot, but they, you know, if if needed, they could also catch the bus down there or Jim would drop them off the day before this horrific series of sequence of events.

18:01 So on the 25th of January, Jim was on his way to Where was he going? He was going to some Snowtown. Snowtown, yes, which we will come. Back to, but not today. Yeah, again, another good S Australian case. Jeez. Yeah, we will do an episode on Snowtown for like, for sure. Oh. My God, Jess. So Jim's gone down. He was on his way down to Snowtown to as part of his travelling linen sales. Yeah. And he dropped the kids at Glenelg Beach. They'd spent the morning there. They'd caught the bus home, got home and everything was hunky Dory.

18:38 You know, Nancy was waiting for them and they went about their day. So the next morning on Australia Day. So I believe that it wasn't a public holiday, no. So now we have a public holiday on January the 26th, no matter what day of the week that falls on. Back then they actually just got a long weekend at the closest Friday or Monday, but. We're now back to doing that. So we now have like if it falls on a weekend, you now get the Monday off. Yeah, but this wasn't, this wasn't a weekend, was it? Oh, I think it was like a it was like a Wednesday or something.

19:15 It was a random day of the week. The public holiday was a weekend for that reason, Yeah, I don't. Think so. So then the public holiday was like the following Monday or something to have a long weekend. Got it. So it wasn't. It was Australia Day, but it wasn't actually a gazetted public. Holiday, yes, yeah, yeah. And anyway, so the kids apparently woke up and it was a really gonna be a really hot day. And they'd sort of bugged Nancy that they wanted to go down to the beach. And she wasn't all that keen on the beach.

19:40 She didn't enjoy it. She hated sand, apparently, and hated the mess and the muck of being there. Jim loved taking the kids, but he was in snow town on business. So they sort of bugged her. And she was like, well, you know what, yeah, that's fine. You guys can can go down there. Because it was so hot, she didn't want them walking or riding their bikes down to the beach. So she I think it was forecast to be about 40°. Celsius that day, which is like 105 Fahrenheit for our American friends. And we know you're out there.

20:12 Yeah. And they, so the kids have, you know, got their belongings together. They've got towels, a beach bag. Jane got a little purse because she was so responsible. Nancy obviously gave her the money and it was just coins. I think it was 8 shillings and sixpence or something she gave her, which was enough to cover the bus fare down there, some lunch, like a pie, a pasty sorry for lunch and their bus fare back. And then Jane also took her a Jane Austen novel that she was reading. Isn't that cute? It was a little women, I think.

20:46 Yeah, Little women. Yeah. Yeah. So the kids go down. The bus stop was literally not even 200 meters from their front door. So Nancy actually watched the kids walk to the bus stop and get on the bus. There was an old couple on the bus who witnessed the kids being there. Apparently Jane was sitting up the back reading her book, and her little sister and brother were being a bit naughty and, like, poking their hands out the window and really trying to get a rise out of Jane. But she was just sitting there reading a little.

21:15 I love reading Little Women. She's so good. Yeah, well, they were probably try to be. They're probably being little, little shits. Yeah. She's just being super excited about going to the beach. Yeah. Fun. This is the thing. I mean, you hear all that of like that they had that kind of that independence and going to the beach on their own. I mean, yeah, our kids would absolutely revel in that, but there's just no way. There's just. There's no way. Man, but yeah, it was just the norm. That was just very typical of the time that that was, no one would have batten an eyelid that that's what the kids were doing on their own.

21:45 Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so they got off the bus about a block back from the beach and sort of made their way down to the beach. Jane. So Jim has spoken about Jane's, how responsible she was. Yeah, she was an amazing swimmer. The other two were good enough swimmers, but not as good as Jane. Yeah, they had. So rule of not being allowed to go out past their belly buttons. I love that which I think Jane fully enforced like you imagine first child the responsible one. Yeah. Yeah, there'd be no, there'd be no going beyond your belly button if Jane was in charge.

22:20 So they've gone out and they've had like, what seems to be a really nice morning at the beach. Yeah. The police over the time have pretty much, I think it's pretty solidly known what the sequence of events is because they've been able to over the time and very early on establish a, a pretty vague timeline. But over the time when more and more witnesses have come forward, they've actually been able to establish a a pretty solid timeline for what happened that day. Wasn't an overly populated area in that like that people knew everyone like it wasn't these the the Beaumont children were known to people in the area.

23:02 So there was there was the witnesses around the place were kind of like, Oh yeah, they're the but that's the Beaumont kids like, or, you know, I've seen them here before. They were not known that they were. That's what that that's what their surname was. But they would, you know, roughly known. And yeah, so there was also particularly like, there was like a postman who who saw them and back in the state, they knew who their postman was. The kids spoke to their postman and said hi to him because he would.

23:25 Probably left him a bottle of beer at Christmas. Absolutely. Well, they saw him like twice a day back then, like, you know, so yeah, they, they did say hi to him. So he, he knew when he saw them and and that they had seen him. So yeah, there was plenty of incidences where they can actually pinpoint the timeline of where the kids were and what they were doing throughout that time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've got a very, like broad timeline written down. I might just go through that and you can talk to those points.

23:52 Yeah. So as I said, heat wave, we know that on January the 25th, they've had a really successful go at this. And it wasn't the first time that they'd been to the beach on their own, but literally the day before they'd done what they were meant to do. And within the week or so before that, Anna made a comment to Nancy about Jane having a boyfriend. I believe it was actually that morning the the 26th that that that comment was made too. OK, that right. OK, well, that's Oh my God, that's telling. So I'm I wonder then whether they've seen him the day before?

24:31 This is it. That's where they were kind of like we think that. Yeah, because, yeah, so the comment was, you know, that. Yeah, that Jane has a boyfriend. Jane has a boyfriend. Yeah, yeah. Which Nancy sort of put off of like, you know, other found some play friends, some, you know, other kids at the at the beach, which is great. And, you know, and as kids do though, you know, that's how Anna has seen it and, you know, and picking on Jane a bit ignored it like totally like whatever. Nothing that that was insignificant when it was said.

24:59 But in hindsight, it sort of go there sort of seems to be someone that they had ditched, she knew down around the beach area. Yeah, so a bit of a bit of a red flag, but it's not like Anna's gone. Oh Mum, it's a man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some old dudes hanging around hanging around with Jane. Yeah, yeah. It just was what it was, Yes. So the kids have gone on, gotten on the bus at 10:30 AM That's 100% known because Nancy saw them get on the bus. The couple, the old couple who were on the bus completely corroborate that the bus driver apparently was a bit not quite sure, but I mean, they had enough evidence to to know that that's what.

25:37 That's what. Happened Nancy's. Nancy expected that the kids would be back, so she told them to catch the midday bus back home, which they'd done the day before on January the 25th. She has, sorry. She finished her chores. So the kids have gone off at 10:30. She's finished her chores, ridden her bike over to a friend's place and had a coffee. And then she's come back to be at the bus stop by 12:05 or whatever time it was meant to get back. And the kids didn't get off the bus. She expected them to get off.

26:06 And she's like, well, they've probably just missed the bus. Yeah, lost track of time. So the next bus. Certainly hasn't panicked at that at all, really. Like, it's just, you know, I'll tell them off when they get home. But you know. Whatever. And she could have, like, if she was worried, she probably would have ridden her bike down there to see. Yeah, but she wasn't. No, no, just waited for the next bus. Yeah, which was 2 at 2:00 PM, the 2:00 bus comes, they're not on it. At about 250, Jim comes home.

26:33 Yeah. So he was not due to come home until the following day, but sales hadn't been great. Long week with the public holiday, sort of, you know, thing like yeah, going Harry was expecting so better off the game came home, yeah. So he decided to surprise everyone. They didn't know he was coming home early. But when he gets home and the kids aren't there and Nancy's like, oh, the kids were meant to be on the 12:00 bus and they haven't. They're not on the 2:00 bus. And she was just sort of starting to get a little bit concerned.

27:00 Yeah. At 3:00. So the next bus was due at 3:00 PM. And again, they weren't on that bus at 3:30. They decided, Right, They've had enough time. Now. If they needed to walk home, they could have walked home in this time. Yeah. They decided, OK, now's the time to maybe go out and start looking. So they decided that Nancy would stay at home just in case the kids showed up. Yeah. And obviously Jim would take the car and drive down to Glenelg Beach, following the route that they would if they were walking home that that's probably the way they would go.

27:34 Jim had an unsuccessful go at that. He said, though it was so busy down there because not only was it still kind of summer holidays for school kids anyway, Yeah, there were so many people down there. It was so hot. They weren't where he would have expected them to be. Where they. Were their main spots where they go? Yeah, yeah. No sign of them, No. So he then goes back home, picks up Nancy, and together they go looking. They look at the shops the kids would frequent. Friends houses I think they popped into just to see if they'd seen them and yeah, no sign of them.

28:11 Not at all, no. So by 6:30 they decide that they will go to the police and report the kids missing. To the police's credit, because you've got to think again, contextually of the time, kidnappings weren't something that happened. There was certainly more concerned that something had gone wrong insert like an injury or, you know, the children had fallen and hurt themselves or got stuck somewhere. That was more their thought process. Actually, an abduction of three children particularly just unheard of completely.

28:40 The thought of someone being able to, you know, manage to kidnap all three children without, you know, in date and broad daylight was just completely unheard of, not even really on their radar. No, it was more that, you know, had they fallen off the site, off the Cliff somewhere, had drawn or drowned, found. Yeah. So they were more the police were more interested in looking at into those avenues. Yeah. Which, yeah, absolutely. I think that was the right thing to do. For sure. I mean, the local police immediately called headquarters in Adelaide to file the report and they sent out detectives straight away.

29:10 Yeah, yeah, as you said, they thought possibly drowning. So when they started searching, they're looking for, they're looking in storm water drains. They're flushing out, yeah, flushing out stormwater drains to see if there's anything there. The thing that sort of tips them to the fact that maybe something else is going on is the fact that they can't find a single possession of the kids stuff. So. Yeah, if they're drowned or something that you'd still find their towels and things on the beach. Exactly.

29:36 Or their penis, or the yeah, the books or anything. Because they did have things with them, like Jane had a little bag with her, you know, to have all of the money and thing and her purse was inside baths. Yep. And all and their towels that they had for the beach because they laid, you know, that they take them down and lay them out on the grass and on the and on the sand. So they had things that they would have left behind. So there was an an incident. Yeah, they would find those things. So the kids, they found, they put together that the kids had 17 items with them.

30:04 Yeah, including like, their bathers. And so Jane was wearing pink bathers, Anna was wearing red green a Grant was wearing green and white shorts with no top because you know, the ozone layer was still intact back in 1966. They had their 8 shillings and sixpence and other bits and pieces all in a bag. So 17 items all together. They thought they had some shorts that they. Would change into and. Change into so nothing was found, not one item of anything the police decide. So there was apparently a sighting of them at 7:00.

30:42 So a lot of people came forward because this was starting to then make the the late night news. Yes, that night. So I think there's like, there must have been like a 10:00 PM news broadcast on the radio. I think that was the first thing to come. Out, they did try and get some things out as quickly as they could, but I mean people didn't sit around. We didn't watch as much television so and it was more the radio they'd listen to in the evening before bed. But you know, there was obviously was television, but it wasn't as watched or it was harder to get this.

31:08 Information TV finish at a certain time. Yeah, we just. Shut off, shut off, yes. So I don't even know that there would have been a broadcast at that time of night by the time they were getting the information. Could have been the last broadcast might have been at 8:00 PM or something like yeah, yeah. Yeah. So they've, you know, they've done that. But that has brought a lot of witnesses or people who thought they'd seen the kids to the police station. And one of the detectives, I've listened to an interview with him and he said there was a line of people out the door at the police station.

31:40 He said we couldn't handle it. Yeah, it was. There was so much information and we were taking statements from every single person who came along and we had no way of then investigating or verifying. What they were saying. So we had to try and weed through all of the information and look, people were trying to help be helpful, but a lot of the sightings were not. Yeah, verifiable or maybe weren't quite accurate. Accurate timings weren't accurate. Yeah. There was a supposed sighting of them at a Marina at 7:00 PM on the night that they weren't missing, which timing wise does not actually fit that it was them.

32:19 But to the police's credit, they actually drained that Marina. Yes. And did you? Did you have you seen footage of it? No, I haven't. Oh, my God. So they've drained this Marina, but there's still, like, silt and mud, essentially. And they got the cadets, the police cadets to wade through it. They were literally belly deep. Yeah. In this silt. And it would have. Can you imagine how disgusting and stinky that would be? Probably What? Did find in there? Yeah. Oh. Yuck. But again, yeah, nothing of the kids was found in there, none of the possessions.

32:54 And so you know, onwards and upwards. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so even like the poster in the poster I was talking about earlier, his first actual recount of the situation was that he'd seen of kids in the afternoon at about 3:00 PM or something around that time, which then he realized, Oh my gosh, no, it wasn't. It was in the morning, which that threw them a little bit too with other timelines. So there was a lot to get through and a lot to then clarify and, you know, make sure people were telling, you know, not that not telling the truth, but as in, like, you know, they're remembering it correctly and telling the right information.

33:24 So that's a huge task, especially with no computers. This would all be handwritten notes from police trying to get down everything from everyone. But yeah, a lot of people wanting to help, though, a lot of people interested in. I mean, this was huge at the time, even that, you know, people were very concerned about this. Yeah. Yeah, and they didn't have a shortage of volunteers helping to search for the kids either. No, at 11:00 AM, we know they, the kids walked to Collie Reserve, which is just right next to Glenelg Beach, just on off the side of the beach.

33:54 Yeah. And there was a sprinkler there. They were playing under the sprinkler. A school friend of Jane saw them there. So we know, we know it was definitely them. They, Yep, they had a chat and they, a woman who was sitting so the collie reserve across the road from that is a Boat Club and an older woman was sitting at the side of the Boat Club just watching the world go by for an hour or so. She saw the three kids and a man approached the children and she says in her statement that the kids were really familiar with him, so much so that Jane was jumping over him and flicking with.

34:30 Towels and yeah, jumping over him as he was lying there. Like they were very familiar with this man. Yeah. So this kind of, I think speaks to the fact that this he he knew them. Yeah, they knew. They knew him. They were familiar enough that they had some kind of a rapport with him. I mean to be jumping all over him and playing with him in that way. And from what Jim and Nancy say about Jane, particularly being the older responsible, one of the children, she was a shy girl. She wasn't someone who would speak to strangers at all.

35:05 Like they were very adamant around that. And many other people have have corroborated that in terms of school friends and things of like what kind of personality she was and and how she would have handled situations like that. So were very that when her parents heard about this, that there was this man that the the children were playing with like this, they were really shocked because that's just not Jane would have not interacted with someone who was not known to them as a family. Yeah. So yeah, it was very interesting.

35:35 So this speaks to me, a long, long standing sort of period of grooming of the children. Yeah. They'd been on summer holidays, you know, since before Christmas. They would go to the beach almost every day, Yeah. Has he actually had interactions with them over that time, like on a daily or you know, every second day sort of basis like. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. It is interesting. Like managed to get a description of this man that was seen with him by multiple people, sort of there was the older woman on the bench was able to give a very good description, but other people corroborated that this was sort of what the man looked like and very much so.

36:18 So he was described as being tall with fairish to light brown hair, with a thin face, suntan complexion, medium build and aged around his mid 30s. So that was what they went with. And they actually did drew a composite of who that looked like. So they had quite a good description, very clear around who this man would be. So yeah, basically that's where they've sort of got that information that the children were with this person and at roughly what times. But then it sort of disappears from there in terms of trail.

36:54 So there's a couple of sightings from the of them interestingly, like they go, they go to the bakery to purchase lunch. And so the lady behind the counter there remembers it very distinctly that the children arrived to buy lunch, which was budget. It was well after the time they were expected to be home on that 12:00 PM. I believe it was around about the 2:00 mark they were even. It was at no 15 ish. 12:15 They went into the bakery about 12:12. 15 yeah. So they were expected to be home by then. Yeah, but yeah.

37:22 12:15 They were at the bakery buying lunch and they bought quite a number of things. They bought like 5 pasties a meat pie, which the woman noted to she knew the children that she'd seen them in with their their parents and things, and she noted that they'd never bought a meat pie before. They were pasty pasty family for. For those of you who don't know what a pasty is, oh delightful, Yum, delightful pastry with veggies and meat inside. And you know, gotta have good old tomato sauce on top of. It and then a meat pie for our American friends.

37:51 I don't know what that is either. You do put meat in a pie? Yeah. It's the greatest thing on Earth. There are a few times in life where a meat pie is called for. Yes, grand final day. Grand final day for sure. 100% yeah and a birthday party. Party pie, Mini party pie. You can't have a kids birthday party without party pie. No, no. So yeah, they bought yeah, the five pasty pasties, a meat pie. They bought 3 big bottles of lemonade, so this was more food than they would have needed for three children.

38:24 Like, that's right, finger buns. Yeah. So 6. So you're looking more like they're purchasing for six people by counting at least. At least, Yeah, at least six, because they've got 6 hot. Food. Items. Yeah, and they've got the six finger buns and. 3, three big bottles of giant bottles of lemonade, lemonade. So yeah, a lot of food and a lot of yeah, a lot to consume. So but they've also then to pay for this, which there's no way the, the money that their mom had given them would have covered that, but they've handed over a 1 LB note to pay for this.

38:54 Now, a 1 LB note back in the day was a lot of money, equivalent to around about $40 today. So it was, it was noted by the woman behind the counter because no one brought in 1 LB notes like that was a lot of money. So she I mean gave them change. And you know, from that 1 LB note, I mean that God sounds like God. It sounds like heaven doesn't 1 LB and you get all. That all that. And some change, and some change to go home with too. But yeah, so that was, it was very notable by the woman in there in in there sort of going what's going, She did sort of query what, yeah, what was going on there.

39:28 Grant made a comment to her that the meat pie was for the the man. The man. Yeah. And she was like, oh, but there was no man with them. They came in alone. Yes, and it's not like there was a man. Wavering in the background? No SO. She she just noted it as being odd. Yeah, but I mean, she was just selling them what she was selling them. Yeah, it was what it was. Yes, yeah. They were then spotted back in Collie Reserve and an elderly couple was there at the time and spotted them and at the time this man approached them and asked the elderly couple about some missing money.

40:05 So what had happened was somehow. The kid, the money that the kids had had gone missing. Now again, we are in 1966. It was not a time where you would worry about somebody stealing, you know, your, your, what was it shillings and expense. It was just people were trustworthy and you could leave your belongings on the beach and go for a bit of a swim and not worry about someone nicking off with your stuff. So the this man has gone up to the elderly couple and said, oh, have you seen the kids money?

40:38 It's gone missing. Yeah. What's your theory on the money she? Said our money's gone missing. Oh. Sorry, he absolutely did this. Is interesting language to use like that. He he's basically putting himself as they're all they are together. They're yeah, which is interesting. The other thing that the couple noted and reported to police was that he helped the kids get changed. Yes, and the woman of the couple said that it was a bit odd because Jane was nine years old and perfectly capable of putting on her own shorts, but he put them on for her.

41:11 Oh, mm, hmm, mm, hmm. It gives me the heebie jeebies. Absolutely. The man then went into the chain, like there was a little toilet sort of block there, and the man went into the toilet block to change. And the kids waited for him, waited outside. But he had nothing else with him. He literally had like his shorts that he was wearing. He didn't he wasn't carrying anything. He didn't have a bag. So that is interesting as well that he didn't have anything else with him. So people sort of wore it. Wonder what are the possessions he had with him.

41:47 Like there was nothing he wasn't carrying a wallet, you know, so he didn't have wouldn't have had maybe that 1 LB note with him at that time because he had nowhere to keep it. Like there wasn't things on him. Keys. Yeah, no, no bag. It is very interesting, Yeah. The elderly couple then left Collie Reserve. They were just done doing whatever they were doing for the day and went home. And that was the last fully corroborated sighting of the children. Yeah. So this and that was at about 12:30. Yeah.

42:24 So from 12:30 we know what was going on with Nancy. She was at home waiting for them. What came after that is still largely unknown. Yes, yeah.

42:42 The police were a little bit, they weren't really sure where to go. They'd never come across something like this before. Certainly, as you said, not of three children going missing or being kidnapped. The thought of kidnapping was sort of really now starting to take a bit of hold because they were like, well, what else could have happened? We've searched all of the places where they could have like fallen in a drain or hurt themselves or they could have walked off. They thought the police even on the day that they went missing, the police actually went to the house to do a search around there because they thought that maybe they felt like they might get into trouble because they'd missed the first bus and they were hiding at home somewhere.

43:23 Yeah, they weren't. No. So they then the police then were looking. OK, well let's look at sex offenders in known sex offenders in the area and see where we go with that. They were able to amazing police work but they were able to provide an alibi for every known sex offender in with I think it was within a 5 kilometre radius. Does that sound? Like, that's right. Yeah, yeah. So that would have been a lot of people. Mm hmm. Yeah, because this would have been so scary for everyone at that point though, because it was like 3 days later on the 29th of January that the Sunday Mail, actually their newspaper that morning, the headline was sex crime now feared.

44:06 I mean, Can you imagine as a parent, like just that dawning on you of like, that's if that's possibly what's happened to these three kids, Like, that would just be horrendous. Yeah. You can't even imagine. It not not so I mean that's where it's like really shaped Australia, you know these sorts of things that's kind of open parents minds up I guess to the possibilities of being out, you know the kids being out unsupervised but. I think it's probably worth mentioning now too, that Nancy and Jim were, I guess investigated as well, because we know that, you know, it's, it's possible and actually quite likely that people known to the children were involved with this.

44:44 They 100% have been ruled out. They have not like Jim's alibi was was completely corroborated. Nancy's was to, they have always, they always, they were, they always help the police. They always did everything that was asked of them. Every they participated in all the interviews that they were asked to do. They they did everything. They were not involved in this at all. No, I watched a TikTok about this where they were suggesting that. Oh yeah, suggesting that. Well, have they actually been looked into?

45:21 And I'm like, no, we are not going down that conspiracy theory pathway. There is no evidence to suggest it. In fact, there is only evidence to the contrary. Yeah, they've, I mean, they've got absolutely absolute alibis, the two parents, I mean, there's nothing pointing towards them. And not only that, I mean what plays out which we can go through of that for the year over the years of this of like how things that people came up of like theories around what happened and they were willing to hear all of it and and take it all on and pursue any Ave.

45:51 to find these children. It's not like they, I don't know, shut down and wouldn't participate in these things And they, you know, fell for certain things in certain ways, you know, and followed things through to their own detriment because I mean, God would've been heartbreaking when find out these things aren't true and they haven't found their children still. So, I mean, they've been through hell. Absolute hell yeah. Nancy left the kids rooms or and Jim, they left the kids rooms exactly the way they found them.

46:19 And I in watching an interview with Jim, he was he was more sort of media like fronted to the media more frequently. There's not a lot of interviews with Nancy. But Jim, he was in one of the interviews I watched. My God, my heart broke for him. But he said they've chosen to believe that the children alive and are alive and well. So this, this interview was I think, maybe a month or two after the kids disappeared. Yeah. He said we choose to believe that the kids are alive and well and will return to US one day.

46:53 Oh. Oh my. Gosh, I don't know. They didn't move out of that home at all for years. Like, you know, because the Nancy was had said that, you know, it would would be wrong for the children if they came home and found that we weren't there, you know. So I mean, I think to the point where she probably didn't live much of A life after that because he was terrified of not being there when the kids turned. Like, oh, it would just be awful. Horrible. Yeah, the police were investigating whether the kids had been taken potentially to New Zealand because in 1966 you didn't need a passport to go to New Zealand.

47:24 They were looking all across the country to see whether they'd been taken, you know, anywhere there was. All over the place were, you know, coming in with tips and things of sightings of the children, as far as, you know, Victoria, Tasmania, yeah, all sorts of stories, you know. And so, yeah, I mean, all these things were checked, were followed up as they should have been, you know, But also, you know, they were skeptical when these sorts of things came in, but followed them up for sure. Yeah, yeah.

47:51 There was a really interesting incident that happened in September of 1966, so seven months after the kids went missing. Senior Constable was, he was based in, I think he was like one of the border towns between Victoria and SA and he was making a phone call to headquarters. His name was Senior Constable Ron Gross. He picked up the line and do you ever remember getting a cross line? Oh yes, gosh. So back in the day you could, I guess our phone system wasn't amazing. I don't actually know. How it happened, similar or I don't know.

48:24 Yeah, I. Don't think so, because I remember like, you can pick it up and you could hear people talking. Yeah, you didn't even have to. I don't even think you had to dial. I'm not sure. No, you must have had to have dialed. You had to have dialed to get. It out of yeah, yeah anyway, but whatever. It definitely. Happen. It absolutely happened, Yeah. And you could hear a conversation between two people. He, this senior constable picks up the phone to make his phone call and he overhears a cross line conversation saying we're bringing the Beaumont kids back from home at Hobart.

48:56 We're tired and we think it's time to give up. Yeah, Gross reported this to the homicide squad as he absolutely should have done. And it really got Jim and Nancy's hopes up and they so much so that Jim actually drove to Gross to talk to him face to face to fully get it from him story to hear it from him.

49:20 Unfortunately, we later find out that they were able to to track these two women down and they were actually, they were talking about the Beaumont children in the conversation. But then the bit where they were saying it's we're tired and we think it's time to give up and bringing kids back from Hobart, That wasn't actually in relation to the to the Beaumont. No, it was in relation to something else. And again, that that was all checked out and, and the women were not, the women were not speaking out of turn or anything like that.

49:48 It was just a bit of a misinterpretation of a conversation that had been overheard out of context. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, heartbreaking. Then to like, I mean that thought of like, you know, that you finally works, that found something, found where they are or something. And then to, you know, get that blow that it's not awful, but. Yeah, for three, it took them three days to trace that call, the women in that call and in that time which. Is pretty impressive to be honest. Like I I think that's pretty.

50:12 I think so, too. Yeah. But in that time, Nancy went on TV. This is one of her very few TV interviews. Yeah. And she said, please listen with your heart and let them come home. Oh gosh, so another Ave. that people went down was that they got a lot of psychics and clairvoyance involved too, which again, as you all know, I am clairvoyant. Like, yeah. You've mentioned you've mentioned this before. I can tell you all very clearly and honestly that all clairvoyance are shit ass and don't know what they're talking about.

50:47 But anyway, that's my, my, my psychic abilities. But there was this very, very well known psychic. So he was Corsette was his name Gerard. Gerard Corsette. So Dutch. Yes, Dutch. So he, he was from back home. If he was like commenting on the Beaumont children that he was, he believed they'd have been there for them to be in, you know, this particular place that he'd seen things. And so over here in Australia, people were finding out that information and following up some things that he was coming out with.

51:20 But it got to a point where they were like, oh, if only he could be here, then he'd be able to see it better because he'd been, you know, he'd probably pick it up more being closer, I think. People had been like literally posting him photos of the area and yeah, he'd be like, Oh, no, I need to now see a of this. And they but, you know, they'd snail, you know, snail mail. Yeah, it over to him. And so it was taking a really long time. And yeah, so he agreed to come out to Australia, so people got together and like and brought him out here.

51:48 It was funded by an Adelaide businessman. Yeah, yeah. Which in the end he did. He ended up taking no payment for coming out. Yeah. I think I would have paid for his airfare or something like that. But he he, he was very like, I mean, good on him. Like he believes that. He thinks he knew stuff, but yeah, so. And he didn't take payment for being here at the time. Can I just, can I just interject just real quick. So when he arrived in Adelaide, so the The Beatles had been in Adelaide 2 years prior.

52:15 When he arrived in Adelaide, there were more people to greet him at the airport than they were to greet The Beatles. For God's sake, that's. A joke. I'm sorry that can't. I think it goes to show just how impactful this bonus. Public interest in this case was huge and I do get that, but. The Beatles, guys, come on, The Beatles. Okay, anyway, sorry, no, no going very important. Yeah, so he came out and he when he got here, he just sort of following different avenues and switching and changing and oh, now I need to be taken to here and now I need to be taken to there.

52:57 And the whole time he was being, you know, taking these places, he had a slew of people in tow of like, you know, just onlookers, but also media, etcetera. And look, the Beaumont's, the Beaumont's weren't, they didn't buy into this a whole lot, but they certainly were grateful for anyone, you know, trying to help them out. So they were very much like, we'll see what comes with this. But he, he became very 'cause it became very fixed on a particular factory where he believed that the children had not come to harm from another person.

53:25 He believed that there was an accident and that that had caused their deaths. And so he ended up becoming very fixated on a particular factory where he felt that they had passed away. But that factory had recently just had some upgrades to it and some new concrete laid. And so the the building owners weren't too keen to demolish the works they had had done, which I can understand that too just based on a clairvoyant sort of absolutely guy coming in. Think that the company like it was a brick mill or something and they had these long shoots that went sort of underground or something like.

53:58 That. Yeah. And they, those shoots had been filled in with concrete for this, whatever they were doing to the to the factory. Yeah. And what the owners of the factory said was we thoroughly, thoroughly checked each thing before we filled it with concrete. Yeah, they were. They were very confident that there wasn't anything there to be, that whatever they works they had done had done that There was not nothing untoward in there. So yeah. But anyway, locals all got together and they ended up raising $40,000, which would have been a lot of money.

54:31 But in that time, I just, that seems, yeah, like a hell of a lot to have raised to be able to demolish this area. And so it was done And, and, and lo and behold, nothing was found. And also to back that up again, I mean, and real credit to the owners of the building, when the building then in, I think it was, oh gosh, 19, I want to say, oh gosh, what year was it? It was quite a bit later. The building was actually flagged for being demolished entirely. I think it was in like 96 or. Something like it was a yeah, it was a long time later, but yeah, so like, yeah, around that time that they, the building was flagged to be demolished.

55:10 And so when that happened, they they basically said, well, let's do a really, really thorough check of everything when that occurred. And again, nothing was found. So in that process as well. So it was very clear that there was nothing that unfortunately, I don't think Mr. Mr. Closet was on to anything, unfortunately, in the that factory. So he went home having not found really what was wanted at that point. Yeah, so once again, I guess the Beaumont family had been, you know, led to nothing. But the next one was this one really killed me.

55:48 Was that two years after the children's disappearance? February of 1968. Yeah, some letters arrived at the Beaumont's house, 1 written from Jane and one written by the man who had abducted them. The point of these letters was so convincing of that the police actually looked at them and checked because obviously, as we spoke earlier, Jane liked to write letters and she often did that for her parents. They so they had evidence of her handwriting. And so looking at the handwriting of Jane's that they knew was Jane's, and looking at these letters, they really couldn't rule out that this wasn't Jane writing the letters.

56:29 There was enough similarities to say that this could be Jane, especially with our guests considering that she's two years older. There was one little hint in there that this cost possibly couldn't be real, in that they had spelt Anna's name wrong and put and spelt Anna with 1 N instead of two. So that was a little bit of a red flag of like. I think to me, I think that's a massive. Red flag. I think so too. Knowing Jane's personality type, the fact that she was a letter writer and obviously writing was a really strong point for her.

57:00 Writing and reading was very much her thing. I don't think she would have misspelt her. Neither do I. Name. And I think to me that that is enough. My only thing with it with that I then go you can't just go with that and go, Oh, this isn't it is a trauma base. Sure. This. You don't know what that child's been through to kind of go. She spelled her sister's name wrong. Is that enough to go? We're not even going to follow this. Up Oh, even if she'd spelled, even if she they'd given completely different names, I think he would have still held out hope and tried for it.

57:32 Absolutely as a. Parent. So in these letters, Jane spoke that the fact that the man had taken them and had been nice to them, but, and he was ready to give them back to their parents. And to do that, that the parents would need to come to Victoria, to Dandenong and, and they,

57:51 yeah, to pick the children up. They could come and meet the the man there and pick the children up. So, but the catch was that they were not to involve the police. So obviously they, the parents did speak to the police and showed them these letters. And that's where they looked at them and said, yeah, well, let's follow this up. So they wrote back and organized a pickup of the children and the detective, detective from from Adelaide who was heading up the the investigation went over with them. Now he made a little bit of a slight mistake.

58:24 Unfortunately, this police officer because he booked into a hotel in Dandenong in Victoria under his real name. So his name was Detective Sergeant Stan Swain. Yes. So he used that full name, or not detective, but Stan Swain. Now, because this case was so widely known, the locals knew that name and knew that he was connected to the Beaumont. No, you know what happened. So this, this bit got me the, the hotel, the apparently they'd had a spate of yes, like robberies and that kind of thing. So the hotel manager, yeah, would call the police to do a background check on anyone who booked in.

59:05 That's right. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's and so, yeah. That blows my mind. Like he's a you're a hotel. Yeah. Like you've just got to take who comes. Are you literally doing a background check on everyone who comes in? But he was, Yeah. And he? Didn't know them already he was doing background checks on them yes. So they will. So the cops were like, Oh no, we that's Detective Swain. Like, you know that he's. From the homicide, the homicide squad, but. It was then connected up, but hang on, that's the Beaumont kids like he was in charge.

59:31 He's he heads up that because he'd been known he'd been out in the media. So unfortunately, this guy let it slip. That's who was staying at the hotel. He. Contacted a reporter from the Herald's son. What an asshole. Yeah. I mean, you don't know why he was there, whether it was just, you know, pleasure or for work, but he'd made an assumption that he was in town on the Beaumont case. Unfortunately, he was true. It was true that that's what that was linked to. So anyway, the day come, the day comes where Jim is out there waiting to hopefully have his kids be delivered.

1:00:03 To him, yeah, at the Dandenong Post Office, he's told to wait out there at 8:50 AM on the 26th of February, and he waited. Waited. He stood. Out there and waited. He was told to wear white pants and a dark shirt so that he could be identified by the man. Yeah, again, he's done that. The local post office received a telephone call from a man with a deep voice. Yeah, at about 9:00 AM And the person was asked to relay a message to Jim saying we're just running a bit late. Yeah, hold on, hold on, hold on.

1:00:37 Throughout the course of the day, several other businesses surrounding the post office's post office received similar calls. And Jim just kept getting in. These random people coming up to him going, oh, just hold on. The person who you're meeting won't be much longer. They're on their way. They're on the way. Jim stood out the front of that post office for three days. That just breaks my heart. It's horrible, it's horrible. So in the end the guy called it off because he had contacted the police.

1:01:09 They left Melbourne, went back to Adelaide and found another letter from the man explaining that unfortunately you had got the police involved and therefore I couldn't bring the children to you, which just would have, I mean, that would have just killed me. Like, absolutely horrible. But he also said in that letter, yeah, like he basically said it's too late now because you've contacted the police. But don't worry, I'll put them on a train to Adelaide, have their bedrooms ready. Oh God, how disgusting.

1:01:40 Because then they're hanging on to that awful. But then he also said this bit creeped me out. Oh yeah, I'm taking extra good care of the kiddies. Oh, kiddies, sorry, no, but it so to rule out that guy took a very long time. So it wasn't until 1992 when forensics increased their technology ability to be able to like look at fingerprints that were on the letters. And unfortunately, it confirmed that, yes, this man, that with the fingerprints on the letters, they were able to track him down and spoke to him.

1:02:16 And at this point, the man was 41 years of age, so making him only 17 at the time of writing. The letters confirmed that this guy had nothing to do with the Beaumont children and that unfortunately, he thought at 17 years of age that that was something funny to do. He wasn't charged in any way. It was. Something that he expressed deep regret and remorse for. He, I couldn't believe he'd done it. And I guess once he'd gotten into it and it just sort of snowballed and he just kept it going. Yeah. Shame on him.

1:02:44 I mean at 17 years old you should absolutely know better than I would hate. That a 17 year old in this day and age would know better than that, let alone back then. Yeah. I mean, at 17 years, probably working full time out in the, you know, out in a job somewhere. But oh, yeah. Awful. So, yeah, not until 1992 because they ruled that out, that that was where the kids were. You know, it's pretty sickening, but unfortunately we go on then to look at where, what other suspects they, they looked at throughout this.

1:03:11 So because there were quite a few that came up, I know we were talking about earlier about this sort of looking at this case really opened up quite a few other cases within Adelaide. Yeah. That we've looked at that, yeah, far more than we realized that we're there. There's a couple here that I'm adding to our list of, of cases that we want to look at because there's some interesting characters that got looked at through this process, some that were categorically ruled out. Yep. And Yep, worked out that yes, no, that person had nothing to do with this.

1:03:37 But others to this day are still on that list of possibility of being culprits of this this horrible, horrible incident. Which one would you like to start with? I was actually. Do you think we should talk about Joanne and Kirsty first? Well. Oh yeah. OK, yeah. And yeah. And sort of like form, form around that. Yeah, for sure. On the 25th of August in 1973, there was a similar abduction that occurred at Adelaide Oval, 11 year old Joanne and four year old Christy who were friends. They were known to their parents, were known to one another.

1:04:10 Family. They didn't really know each other though, The two kids, not more parents, Yeah. They were at a footy match and Kirsty the little 4 year old needed to go to the toilet and Joanne was like oh I'll take her, no worries. They went to the toilet and about, you know, they, the parents expected them to be back within 5 odd minutes. 20 minutes later the girls still hadn't come back so they raised the alarm. There were police on site at the at the Oval. Well, it took them a couple of times to get people on board to start looking.

1:04:39 Yeah. Because again, it was the time was like, oh, they'll turn up. Although do you think at the back of their mind, like obviously the fact that the Beaumont case had happened, I know it was many, many years before or eight years before. Yeah, they probably acted in a slightly different way to what they would have had the Beaumont case not happened. Oh. I think so, yeah. There were witnesses that who saw the girls being taken out of the southern gate of the of the Oval and they were struggling.

1:05:07 Why didn't those witnesses step in and do something? Well, they assumed it was apparent, you know, struggling with a young kid like it. And I, I, it's, yeah, blows your mind. But yeah, a lot of people saw this father like as they thought he was with two young kids and yeah, the younger one was, you know, being being a pain. And so he picked her, picked that one up and had him and had her under his arm, right. And the older 1 so. People assumed he was a parent. Assumed it was the have you? Seen the identity sketch of him, of this yeah person.

1:05:38 It is so similar, yeah, to the one that was done of the Beaumont's captor. Yeah. So are they linked? Are they not? He was described as average height, stooped posture. He was wearing a wide brimmed Acoubra hat when you actually put the identicate photos side by side. Yes, one, the only difference is the hat. Yeah, yeah, like it's. So similar, yes, so so similar, absolutely. And the, the identicate sketch of the of the Adelaide Oval man was a lot better informed because they had so many witnesses.

1:06:13 There were four or five people, I think, who put together, who helped put together the sketch. Yeah. So the fact that they were able to get such a likeness to the Beaumont sketch, which I think was informed by one or two people, yeah. Interest. It's very interesting, very interesting. So there's sort of, yeah, this idea that these two cases are linked. Yeah, we can't confirm that at all, but that's just the idea. Is that quite possibly the person who who took Joanne and Kirstie also took the three Beaumont children?

1:06:47 Yeah. So let's now go through the list of who that person could potentially be. Let's let's do that. Should we start with maybe the most evil man on earth? Oh yeah, that's probably a good idea. Yeah, Bev and Spencer von Inem. Oh my God. Oh my freaking God. OK, so the biggest thing with with Von Inam, I got his name right. He oh God, I don't even know where to start with this. I don't I didn't do a massive deep dive into him because I was like, oh God, this is a whole case on its own. It it absolutely is.

1:07:21 I've never heard of him until this point. Like, so I have to admit that this is not someone who was on my radar at all. But Oh, my God, I'm now like he's on the list for later on. So he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1984 for murdering a a boy mate named the name of Richard Kelvin. He was a teenage boy of a news reader, actually, Rob Kelvin in Adelaide. So he he was, you know, had a bit of notoriety, you know, in that sense. But yeah, so, yeah, awful, absolutely awful. And what he did to poor Richard was horrific.

1:07:54 So whilst he was in jail, I believe he spoke to a man who has only been identified as Mr. B. Mr. B has related quite a few of of Von Ayman's confessions, so they believe that he has committed far more murders than just the one that he's been linked to quite a few different cases. I read somewhere that it's potentially over 20. Yeah. 20, yeah. Crazy, but in particular he apparently claims to have been He claims, according to Mr. B, he claimed to having taken the Beaumont children's children and conducting experiments on them.

1:08:35 Now according to Mr. B von Eimann says that he joined the three children together and that in that process he was successful, and that one of the children though did pass away, which meant that he then killed the other two children. Had two cat 2. Which was disappointing to him, and then he disposed of their bodies like that just is utterly one of the most revolting things I've ever heard. He is. You're right, he's absolutely a piece of shit. God. So yes, von Einman is a disgusting piece of shirt, but the biggest thing that links him in terms of this case, sorry, he also does claim that he took the Adelaide Oval children as well.

1:09:26 So he also has claims to that. Now The thing is he resembles the description of the Adelaide Oval and then obviously the Beaumont children's kidnapping like very much so to AT he is very much looks like this person. So there's that. The only thing is that they believe is that he was a little bit too young for the age he would have been, early 20s at this time of the Beaumont children. I, I, I've read that, yeah. But if the witnesses say, the witnesses say he's in his 30s, and if he had this tanned, leathery skin that can age you.

1:10:05 So to me that doesn't really rule him out. I don't know that I would necessarily like to. I wouldn't like to be asked how old do I think someone is, even in under the pressure of like, you know, this, you're identifying someone who's kidnapped three children in their 20s and their 30s. Yeah. Like, because some people look older than they should and other people look younger than they do. Like, Yep, I don't. I doesn't. That doesn't rule him out to me. Yep. The other thing was he was known to frequent Glenelg Beach and perv on the changing rooms.

1:10:37 Yeah. He was described as preoccupied with children, so the the look the Beaumont children, though the other thing they do sort of say is that their Beaumont children were younger than his typical. Yeah, because he normally went for like teenage boys didn't. He yeah, yeah. So that doesn't quite fit. And again as well, with the Adelaide Oval being two young girls. Yeah. But who knows? I mean, serial killers are known to branch out. It doesn't seem too far from other of things he's done. So to me he's pretty up there as a possibility and he certainly has not been ruled out to this day.

1:11:16 Or that's the other thing. There's footage of Channel 7 news now, I believe. Oh, it was archival footage, but I couldn't, I couldn't pinpoint what year the actual footage was from that in the background of the news reporter comment talking about the Beaumont children. He is potentially being identified in the background of that. So they've ruled that out. Oh, have they? That has since yes. So they, at the time, they thought that it was him. Yes. And the police really went went for it yeah. That really pushed them to investigate.

1:11:51 Yeah, right. A lot more because again, it's known that often murderers will revisit the scene of their crime. They that it was many, many years later that it was actually found that wasn't him. OK, All right. They were able to use some kind of facial recognition software. OK, so it was much further down later. Yeah. To actually show that the bone structure wasn't right. And it wasn't. It wasn't. Him. OK, cool. Still doesn't really mount. Though no, no, he's still actively on their suspect list. Yes, oh God, so he's, we are definitely following up and doing more on him, 'cause that is just touching the surface.

1:12:28 Oh, it's barely even touching the surface. I know, but I'm the same as you. I hadn't heard of him, but. Never heard of him, no, but I do know. And all of Adelaide being like a centre for some freaking well shit. So yeah, we'll get in there. We'll get there. We'll get there. All right. Next suspect? All right, who do you want to go to next? Do we want to do so? Arthur Stanley Brown? Yeah. Yeah. So he was convicted of murdering 2 two sisters in Townsville. I believe he was also a sexual perpetrator, but they ended up ruling him out because at the time of the Beaumont abduction he would have been 53 years of age and it was just too old.

1:13:09 He was too old. That's right, he was the other end of the spectrum. Yeah, he and it was just not. There were certain other things that they also used to rule it, but I think his age was a really big one because he looked every bit of his 53 years and potentially beyond. But other than that, he did bear quite a resemblance to the picture. And he was also in the area at the time. He was known to be in South Australia at that time. Whether it was in Glenelg or not, I don't know. Yeah. But so he there were there was enough there to legitimately and quite, you know, to have him on the suspect.

1:13:40 List. Yeah, yeah. We've got James Ryan O'Neal. Yep, he murdered a nine year old boy in Tasmania. He told acquaintances that he was involved with the Beaumont children's disappearance. This gets me these guys that just claim all these different cases. So how many? Of them have. Yeah, there's the. Police. The police discounted him, but why do you? Know, Oh my gosh, I'd have to have a little look because I oh, that's right, because they couldn't actually prove he was even in Adelaide. So he'd actually, he's actually never been to Adelaide.

1:14:11 So he's only been to like his work brought him to like Cooper, Pedie and SA in that sense, but not as far down as to get into Glenelg, right. So they could not place him. There at OK. No. So he was, yeah, he was. He was the one who claimed to have done it, but when they looked into it they were like Nah, he's never even been in Glenelg. OK. Yeah, I wasn't sure. I actually couldn't find that. Yeah, that's good. The next suspect I've got on my list is Derek Ernest Percy. He was a child murderer, Yes.

1:14:38 Convicted. His psychiatrist was interviewed as well during the course of this and basically said that even if even if Percy had have done it, he probably wouldn't remember it due to his psychosis. That's right. So he's actually still. 'Cause he was never I don't think he's actually convicted or he's convicted. No, he is he the one that due to his he didn't he didn't get put to trial for certain cases though, because because of that Alzheimer's and dementia that he was diagnosed with in the end, yeah, they ended up not trying him for a certain case or a couple of cases.

1:15:12 I. Think you're right. I think he was also the police thought he was probably too young at the time of the I think he would. Have been only like 17 or 17 or something, which was, yeah, again, I think you could tell the difference between like a guy between their 20s, thirties and then teenagers. Yeah. Yeah, it brings him that a little bit too young, yeah. We then have Ellen Anthony Munroe. Do you remember how all these bloody bastards have middle names that are notable? Yes, yes. OK, so we've got Ellen Anthony Munroe.

1:15:40 He was a former Scout master and he had been charged with ten child sex offences, the first of which occurred in 1962. So he wasn't convicted until after the Beaumont children disappeared, but he was certainly perpetrating sex offences against children from, you know, a few years before. He wrote in his own diary on the day of the disappearance of the Beaumont children that he was actually on Glen Hag at Glen Hag beach that day. Yeah. And obviously the police have found that diary and put him. So he's at the site now.

1:16:15 If all of these things come to be true, there were a number of sex offenders just on Glenelg Beach. Just on Glenelg beach which just randomly shit. That's creepy as when you sort of do that. And there's a. How many public things have you been at with your kids that you don't know? How many of these people are flirting around? Oh, it makes you sick? You can't think about it because you literally never leave the. House. No. No. Oh God, I'm just telling her right now my sister-in-law cannot listen to this episode because she's already paranoid about my niece being kid.

1:16:51 All right, you might need to give her the heads up on this one. Do this episode, Catherine.

1:16:57 Or or tune out an hour ago now. This brings us to my front runner. Yes, yeah, yeah, I think he's Harry. Easy. Yeah, I think Harry Phipps. Harry Phipps Now what a character he is, what an. Absolute character. He is known as the Satin man. He has a sexual response to satin fabric. I think I just vomited my mouth, yuck. Yup. Sorry would wear satin and people like would see him escalate. That's a good way to put it. Like people knew this about him. Yeah, like a disgusting human being. Gross. He was a really wealthy man.

1:17:48 He owned several businesses in and around Glenelg. His son Hayden, on the day of the disappearance of the Beaumont children, saw three kids walk into the house with his dad. He then so sees three kids going to the house. He was a teenager at the time. He was outside smoking and you know, doing his own thing. A little while later Now does did he hear the four bangs? Yes. Yep, 4 bangs heard at some. Point. During the afternoon, yeah, which which were gun he thought were gunshots. Yeah. Four large bags were taken out of the house by Harry.

1:18:33 They. Were like and put him to the surfboard. Bags. Yeah, like nylon? Yeah, like polyester type. Yeah, tough bags. Yep. With loading. Heavy in them. Yep, loaded into the boot of his car. When Hayden went inside shortly thereafter, the kids were nowhere to be seen and he hadn't seen them exiting them again. No. On the day on the 26th of of January 1966, Harry hired two brothers. Two young brothers paid them a 1 LB note each to dig a hole at the site of his business. The hole was to be two meters by 1m by 2m deep.

1:19:17 What size is that? Do you think? What would fit? What would fit in a hole of that size?

1:19:27 When some publicity came out about the Beaumont children, so they the boys who dug the hole, I think they were 16. The brothers were 16 and 17 at the time. They don't this money went on their merry way, thought nothing else of it. They were then watching a there was a 7 news did an investigation. I think this was in the 90s and it was on TV and it prompted one of the brothers to go, Oh my God. I think that was the day that we worked for Harry and, and certain things just really started falling into place for him.

1:19:58 And he contacted the police and they decided to do a search of Harry's.

1:20:07 What was it? It was like a building. It was a factory, yeah, but what did they? Do there do you know? Oh God. I can't remember now off the top of my head. I think it had something to do with like concrete or something. No, I've lost I've. No, it might. It might come. Is it in my notes? But anyway, they've they've used Graham penetrating radar to have a look because the site looked very, very different to the when the boys were there digging the hole. Many like. Whatever they were like, whatever they made at this factory, they had these sand pits, yes, but they maybe.

1:20:38 He was like. Smelting, smelting. That sounds really, really yes. And but these sand pits would kind of like it would get filled and so therefore they'd move and do another spot and then they'd do another spot. So it wasn't because that was thing where like they were trying to pinpoint they over the phone where this spot was that they need to dig. And it was assumed that the where they needed to dig. And later, the boys have thought what they're now men. They said that the spot was not. That's not the spot.

1:21:05 The sandpit wasn't there when we dug. It's been moved. Yep. So yeah, it was something to do with sand pits that they would fill. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, when they used the ground penetrating radar and did some digs of the site, nothing was ever. Found. Nothing's been found. There's been a dig in 2018 that was pretty extensive, not huge, but that's where they said that they reckon they dug in the wrong spot. But yeah, nothing has been found at the factory. But it's not to say that he didn't move them at some point either or.

1:21:34 Just put it out there like. Absolutely. I wouldn't be shocked. I mean, it was such a huge, well publicized case, particularly for that time too. Yeah, that I wouldn't be surprised if he had paid someone else a 1 LB note to go and dig that up and move it somewhere else. Absolutely. So yeah, that's that'd be that's interesting. Yeah, so he, so Harry perpetrated sexual crimes against his own child as well against his son Hayden. Yeah, which is very much believed in corroborate. Like I said, it's not corroborated, but like he's, he's very convincing that this is absolute truth that that's who he.

1:22:04 And he confessed to certain people throughout his life who were able to back that up as well at it's not like, you know, this came out at a time that was just going to put his dad in the shit or anything like that. This was well and truly known that that had happened. Yeah. So the. Sorry, no, you're correct. The police went and conducted a search of the house. So Harry, I believe, had passed away at this point. He passed away in 2004. Yeah. The book The Satin Man was released in 2013. OK. So yeah, we're sort of looking like quite a long time through it all happened and.

1:22:35 And the fact that he's well and truly dead by the time they're looking into him. Yeah, so. They went, the police went and searched his home because they'd had, you know, all of this evidence that sort of, you know, spoke to needing to investigate him again and investigate further. Yeah, and his second wife still lived in that house. Mm hmm. The house that the well that Hayden saw these three children go into and no children come out of. Yeah, 4 bags and all that stuff. When the detective walked into the house, he noted that there was a white.

1:23:06 Person, the detective was the author of the book. Oh, was. It yes, sorry, yes, no, sorry, sorry. So the author of the book had gone to visit his second wife and have and have a chat with her about the situation. And he was looking around and he went down, I think it was in the basement or something and he spotted this and it was actually beige. It was never white. It was a so he knew that, but in the public they had spoken about this white purse, but he knew it was actually beige. And so he spotted it on the shelf and he asked her about it, to which she said, oh, I just bought that at the op shop yesterday.

1:23:39 Like, well, then how come it's down here like buried in like, you know, what would you something you bought yesterday is just down here like you know. It'd be on the kitchen. Anyway, yeah, and he and so she sort of snatched it off him and he then went away knowing what he had seen. He knew that it was the make of it. It was the age of it, everything was it was Jane's purse that she had on the day that it very much resembled that. Obviously can't prove that, but that's what he he very clearly. Is very that I know he noted he's like, well, you've got millions and millions and millions of dollars.

1:24:15 Mm hmm why are you going to the op shop and in a cheap old shitty? Purse Yeah. So he then contacted the police and was like, sorry, you need to go in there and like, you know, look OK then the police have arrived, OK to do a search and lo and behold, Purse is gone. Purse is gone. She got rid of it. Where did she put it? Oh, I don't know. Don't know where it is. Oh, I don't know where it is. I don't know what you're talking about. No, no, she got. Yeah, threw it out.

1:24:43 Yeah. So apparently Hayden, who has been interviewed extensively, like not in public, but the author of the book has spoken to him very much and also have place. But from all accounts, like the second wife particularly knew who Harry Phipps was and potentially would have protected him. Yeah. I don't know what she had to gain from protecting him. He was well and truly deceased by this time. It sounds like he wasn't a very nice husband. He certainly wasn't an obviously wasn't a nice father. He wasn't a good human being.

1:25:18 What was she protecting? Who knows? Who knows? People work in very mysterious ways. They. Look, the impacts of, of the Beaumont children's disappearance, you know, it had a significant impact on Jim and Nancy's marriage in the early 1970s. They divorced. Their marriage just couldn't survive the, the trauma and everything that they'd been through. I, my heart breaks for them. They remained in contact though, because obviously they had this shared trauma and although they lived apart, I believe they remained in contact for, you know, for, for the rest of their lives.

1:25:56 Yeah, and unfortunately 2018 Nancy passed away in the September. She was aged 92. And then in April of just 2023, Grant passed away at the age of 97. And so they've both passed away never knowing what's happened to their children. No, all I can think is that they're wherever they are, they're back with their kids now because that's the only thing I the only positive that I can think of that. I thought I'd leave it on a note of describing what the kids were like and what what people had described them as.

1:26:28 And it sounds like, you know, the world lost three really amazing people that day. Or we don't know when, But at some point, Jane was described as academic. She wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. Oh, silly. Girl. She was really bright. She was mature. Her dad described her as more like a 15 year old than a nine year old. And you can tell by the the responsibility she was given that she relished in that. Yeah, she was maternal and she loved writing letters to people which they've kept, you know, they were able to keep a lot of the letters that Jane had written them.

1:27:05 And I know that brought her mum and dad a lot of comfort over the years. Yeah, Anna was 7 and she was a real extrovert, outgoing, I think typical middle child. She was really affectionate and loved her brother and sister and her mum and dad so very much. And she was a wonderful performer. She loved putting on plays and dancing and really, you can imagine the the bright and vibrant spirit that she was. And then there was Grant. He was four years old, so he hadn't had a lot of time on this earth, but he certainly was developing his own little personality.

1:27:39 He wanted to be just like his dad. And he had a little red car that he'd drive around the back of the back of their house with because, you know, his dad used to be a taxi driver. Yeah, apparently he was a little gentleman and just really loving and kind and he was a really sweet and friendly young boy. So, you know, the the world has has missed out on having these three people. I know it's really easy when people die or go missing to sort of cast these, you know, positive lights on them and not really looking at at any other aspects.

1:28:12 But these were three innocent, beautiful children. They had the world as their oyster. Really. Like, you know, their, their potential was endless. Yeah. Heartbreaking. So heartbreaking. Can't even imagine being Jim and Nancy at that, you know, dealing with that at all. No. Hopefully we never, ever will have to no and stay tuned. I mean, you know, this remains a cold case. It's, you know, reviewed. However, often cold cases are reviewed obviously if new information comes to light. Technologies get better and, you know, things like that and people's people's memories on these sorts of things, they're usually pretty accurate still, you know, like, even though we we lose a few more every now and then, you know, linked to this case, but who knows?

1:28:56 Something might come up. Yeah, yeah. And we might get AI mean we've never thought we'd find a solution to the easy street murders, but it looks like we're getting closer to that one, you know, so it's it's yeah. Interesting if we can get an answer. Yeah, I just also wanted to make a note about ambiguous loss because I think that's really relevant in this case. Ambiguous loss is when you don't actually know what's happened to the person. So this is the case for families of missing people all around the world.

1:29:24 And it's the not knowing that is so difficult. There's no, I'm not saying that had they known that the kids had been murdered or again, we don't know. It's the not knowing that is just that. Already away the thought of that. You know you're going on. You know you've got to carry on somehow and to not know whether that your children are still alive or dead and what's happening to them, if they're still alive or what did happen to them if they're dead. That stuff would really, really eat you up and really not.

1:29:57 Oh, that's awful. And they, you know, Nancy and Jim died, both died not knowing what happened to their children. I couldn't even. Horrible. Yeah, horrible, horrible. I think we'll end on that note. For sure. Next week is our final episode for 2024 yeah, thanks to those of you who've made it all this way. We put a little shout out on our socials a few weeks ago asking people to give us case suggestions for our last episode for the year. And we are going to be doing thanks to everybody who who contacted us and and submitted a request, but we are going to be doing Grace Mullane we've.

1:30:40 Gone across the pond over to New Zealand. But also also she was a British backpacker. So tapping into a little bit of, you know, British and New Zealand all at once, yeah. I'm actually looking forward to researching this one because it's one that I don't know a lot about. Yeah, right. Yeah. Cool. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Thank you everybody for joining us. Please, please go and like and subscribe to our podcast in your podcasting app. It's really, really helpful to get us out there to more and more people.

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1:31:37 Yeah. Thank you very much. And we'll see you all next week with our new case, so stay curious, Crime besties. Bye.