BREAKING HOPE OR HEARTBREAK? A “significant” aerial search spanning over 36 square miles was launched this weekend for four-year-old Gus Lamont, missing for nine agonizing days — involving helicopters, drones, and 120 volunteers combing through dense forest and riversides.

👀 Officials say a tiny red shoe was found near an abandoned cabin — but whether it belongs to Gus remains the question that could change everything.

‘Significant’ aerial search for four-year-old Gus conducted over the weekend

Police released a photo of missing four-year-old boy Gus.  (Supplied: SAPOL)

In short:

Police have revealed drone searches were conducted on Friday and Saturday nights, after the full search was scaled back.

A dam was searched on Monday after a boot print was found, but the print was “subsequently found not to be related to Gus”.

What’s next?

The acting police commissioner says the results of the drone searches are still being analysed and could help inform potential further ground searches.

South Australian police investigating the disappearance of four-year-old Gus in the state’s mid-north are hoping the results of drone searches carried out at the weekend could reveal clues about his disappearance.

SA Police Acting Commissioner Linda Williams has revealed searches were conducted on Friday and Saturday nights with the same technology used to look for the remains of alleged murder victim Julian Story at Port Lincoln.

Gus, who is still missing, was last seen playing at his family’s vast and isolated homestead, 43 kilometres south of Yunta, about 5pm on Saturday, September 27.

Despite “hoping for a miracle”, SA Police last week scaled back the search, which they described as one of the “largest” and “most protracted” they had ever undertaken.

But Acting Commissioner Williams on Tuesday indicated activity at the site had continued over the past few days, and that the discovery of a boot print had prompted a “significant search” of a dam on Monday — but the “print was subsequently found not to be related to Gus”.

“On Friday and Saturday night, a contingent of police also conducted a significant aerial search of the property using a special drone with infrared capabilities,” she said.

“This is the same technology that was used in the search in Port Lincoln for the remains of Julian Story.”

Police had previously conducted overhead operations using a drone and a helicopter, and with infrared and thermal imaging, and said the weekend’s aerial searches were “conducted using a special drone with infrared capabilities”.

“It’s quite complex technology, so the results will take some time to work through, but police will investigate any findings through further searches,” Assistant Commissioner Williams said.

“The results … are still being analysed. We hope to have those results in coming weeks.”

The update about the ongoing efforts to find Gus comes after police officially scaled back the search on Friday afternoon.

“On Tuesday of last week, medical experts advised there was little hope then for us to find Gus alive but despite that we continued on for three more days with a significant search presence ’til Friday afternoon,” the acting commissioner said.

Mounted operations searching for the missing four-year-old boy. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)

The acting commissioner said that police activity in the area would continue “from time to time — for example, when the results of this search by the drone have been completed”.

“If any information comes that directs us to conduct further searches in specific areas we will be doing that in the coming weeks,” she said.

“We will never give up hope of finding Gus. There are further lines of enquiry being undertaken, and the family have continued to cooperate fully with police and have consented to every request that we have made of them thus far.

“This is just to emphasise to people in the community that we still have a public appeal for anyone who has any information about Gus.”

Last week, police revealed a footprint with a “very similar boot pattern to what Gus was wearing when he went missing” was found about 500 metres from the homestead on the property on Tuesday.

Police earlier released this image of a footprint they say was found on the property on Tuesday last week. (Supplied: SA Police)

A tracker was subsequently called in, but police said on Thursday — the day Australian Defence Force personnel joined the search — there had been no further traces “of any footprints in the area”.

Acting Commissioner Williams said the discovery of the separate boot print prompted a renewed search on Monday that “involved numerous resources including STAR, Polair [the police helicopter] and a tracker”.

“A significant search was conducted after a small footprint was located around a dam about 5.5 kilometres west of the homestead,” she said.

“The print was subsequently found not to be related to Gus.”

‘Most intensive and most protracted’ search

Assistant Commissioner Ian Parrott has described the search for Gus as “one of the largest, most intensive and most protracted searches ever undertaken by” SA Police, and said the determination of “every individual involved” had “never wavered”.

“Like every member of the community who has been following this sad event, they too have been very much affected by what has happened,” he said in a statement on Friday — the day after a photo of Gus was released.

A tracker was called in to help in the search for missing four-year-old Gus on the property near Yunta. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)

Police elaborated on the sequence of events surrounding his disappearance, saying the four-year-old was “seen outside at 5pm on Saturday playing on a mound of dirt by his grandmother”.

“At 5:30pm she has gone outside to call him in, only to find him missing,” Assistant Commissioner Parrott said in a statement.

“According to a family member, he is a shy but adventurous child. While a good walker, he has never left the family property previously.”

The assistant commissioner said police had done “all we can to locate Gus within the search area”.

“The investigation will now be managed by the Missing Persons Investigation Section. This is where all long-term cases such as this are managed and investigated and is standard practice,” he said.