The point of the enigmatic disappearance of three children that has shocked the entire country has not yet been set

Disappearance

The Beaumont family lived in Adelaide, a beautiful beach area in South Australia. Jim worked as a taxi driver, then married Nancy, with whom he had three children. On the day of his disappearance, Jane was 9 years old, Arnna was 7 years old and Grant was 4 years old.

They lived near Glenelg Beach, which was a fairly popular vacation destination during the summer months. 1966 January 26 the children decided to go for a walk on the beach alone. Mom let them go because they had already been there alone several times. She simply ordered her oldest daughter Jane to take care of the little ones, gave them money for a bus and snacks, and agreed that they would come home at noon.

But at noon, the mother had no children. When they weren’t home by two in the afternoon, Jim and Nancy were worried. Around 3 pm Jim returned from work and, seeing that there were no children yet, went to the beach to look for them. Unfortunately, he didn’t find them there, so he returned to pick up Nancy and together they toured the area, visiting the homes of all the friends. When these efforts proved futile, they approached the local police station and reported the children missing.

Investigation

The police immediately organized an advanced search operation and searched the entire beach and its surroundings. When nothing could be found, the police began checking airports, train stations and interurban roads on suspicion of kidnapping or human trafficking. The whole country learned very quickly of the disappearance of the three children.

One woman reported that she was talking to children on the beach, but even after an exhaustive search, she could not find either the children or their slightest item (in total, they had 17 of them that day). The fact that no trace was found augured the worst: someone kidnapped the children.

No suspect identified

The researchers interviewed many local people. Her attention was focused on the story of a woman. The woman said that around eleven in the morning she saw children playing in the meadow near the beach. She also saw a thirty-year-old man who initially watched the children from afar and then for some reason decided to join them. The woman turned out that the children knew the man. She described him as a tall, slim, tanned blonde wearing a bathing suit and a blue towel. The woman hinted that she was treating the boys like a close person, even helping the girl get dressed. When the man went to change, the children were waiting for him on the bench, and when he left, he went out with him.

Two more women confirmed that they had seen children at noon with a man who matched the description given by the first woman. They also said the children didn’t seem scared. Police have speculated that the man knew the Beaumont children long before.

Clairvoyant

Desperately seeking to get the children back, Beaumont, with the help of a wealthy friend, paid a famous clairvoyant from the Netherlands, Gerard Croiset, to come to Australia and join the search. The clairvoyant claimed that the children’s bodies lay flooded with cement in a nearby warehouse. The building’s owners eventually gave permission to excavate the specified location. But the children’s bodies were not there. All other versions of Mr. Croiset have also failed.

Suspects

Investigators rounded up several suspects, most of whom had already been charged or convicted in other cases of murder or kidnapping, based on witness testimony. However, no suspect was arrested on the basis of this case.

Local businessman Harry Phipps lived a few meters from the beach. He became a suspect in 2013 when his son (then 15 years old) claimed that he had seen three children in his yard the day they disappeared. H. Phipps even matched the description of a man who was observed with children. However, no evidence could be found.

Two workers admitted that they had been paid to dig a large well at H. Phipps’ factory a few days after the children disappeared. Investigators searched the factory twice, including using an excavator and powerful radars, but found nothing.

• Bevanas Spenceris by Eineas

Police suspected that Beva Spencer von Einem had kidnapped Beaumont’s children when he was already incarcerated for their 15-year murder. She boasted to other prisoners that she had kidnapped three children on the beach a few years ago and brought them home to do various experiments. One child died during the operation, for which he allegedly had to kill two others. He said he dumped the bodies somewhere near Adelaide. Despite the informal confession, there was insufficient evidence to arrest him. However, he is still considered a possible suspect to this day.

Arthur Stanley Brown was charged with the murder of two sisters in 1970. However, he was not convicted of murder because he was diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Although detectives were unable to gather enough evidence to link him to the Beaumont children’s disappearance case, it matched the description of the man who was seen with the children on the day of his disappearance.

Fake mail

The case of the disappearance of the Beaumont children quickly became nationally famous. Jim and Nancy were in regular contact with various people. Two years after the incident, the spouses received three strange letters, the first two supposedly written by the eldest daughter Jane. The letters said that they were sheltered by a man on the beach, and now they all live happily together because the man takes care of them. The third letter was allegedly written by the kidnapper himself, who stated that although he was taking care of the children, he wanted to return them to the parents if they found a suitable place to transfer the children. Jim and Nancy agreed, waiting for the time when they could see their children again. They were accompanied by a plainclothes detective. However, when they reached the agreed location, they found nothing there. The parents later received a letter in which the man wrote thoughtfully and decided to keep the children because he felt betrayed because a detective was involved in the transfer operation.

Police initially believed the letters to be true, but 25 years later, with the help of modern forensic technology, investigators discovered that all the letters were written by someone unrelated to the case, who was a teenager at the time, and only she wanted to tease him. No lawsuit was filed against that person because too much time had passed since the incident.

How did everything end

Nancy and Jim did not give up hope of finding the missing children. They helped investigate the case for many years.
The spouses decided to continue living in the same house in the hope that the children would return one day, but finally, after many years of suffering, they decided to separate and move out of the old house. The children’s mother, Nancy, died in 2019 at the age of 92. She died like this without knowing what happened to her children. This case remains open to this day.