00:00The disappearance of missing four-year-old Gus has now been declared a major crime.
00:06That decision was announced yesterday during a police press conference where police say
00:11they have identified a suspect in this matter. Now that person is known to Gus and resided at
00:18the Oak Park station where he went missing from back in late September. Now this has arisen
00:24following a number of interviews with the family as well as other locals and neighbours where they
00:29say a number of discrepancies and inconsistencies arose. Now when police brought that information
00:35to the person that they now say is a suspect that person withdrew the cooperation that they have had
00:42with police up to this point in time and they've also retained legal representation. Now in that
00:49press conference Superintendent Darren Filkey has said that the parents of Gus are not suspects
00:56in this investigation. Also what they have said that due to operational matters and concerns
01:03they're unable to provide any more specifics as to who has been identified as this suspect. Now over
01:10the course of this investigation police had three main avenues of what could have possibly happened to
01:16little Gus. One in which he had wandered off from the property. Two that someone had come to the property
01:24and abducted Gus or three that someone at the property and known to Gus was ultimately responsible for
01:30his disappearance. Now police say that they have ruled out Gus wandering off due to the scope and scale of
01:37the searches that they have conducted. We know that they have done at least eight searches of the grounds
01:44around that property outside of Yunta as well. Hundreds of police, SES volunteers, military personnel have been used in
01:54those ground searches. We also know that mounted divisions and trackers were used as well as police
01:59divers to search a number of dams that were then later emptied. We also know that aerial units were
02:05deployed as well as the use of AI tracking systems and so police say given the scope and the breadth of
02:12those searches they've ruled out any possibility of Gus having wandered off. They also say that the remoteness of
02:19the station does not lend itself to the likeliness that someone has abducted Gus. They say that because
02:26of its remoteness it's very unlikely that someone would be able to build up a information of Gus's
02:32movements and know when he would be outside to abduct him and also because of how off the beaten track
02:39it is it's very unlikely that someone was able to opportunistically abduct Gus. Thus they are now on
02:45their current train of thought which is that someone known to Gus and who is residing at the property
02:51is responsible for his disappearance. Now they do believe that Gus is dead but they have not
03:00clarified whether they believe that that death is intentional or not. The person who is suspect of
03:07Gus's disappearance has not been formally charged with any crimes however police have not ruled that out
03:13as a possibility in the future.
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