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E106: The Beaumont Children
1.5k Plays4 years ago
When three small children went on an innocent trip to the beach a mere five minutes from their home, no one would have ever thought they would never come home. This safe and quiet town in Australia would never be the same again, and stranger danger became a common phrase for the people of that community.
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Transcript
Starting a Podcast with Buzzsprout
00:00:00
Speaker
Sleuth Hounds, have you ever considered creating your own podcast? Have you been inspired by listening to some of your favorites and thought, I'd love to try this out on my own, whether it's a true crime podcast like ours, a motivational podcast, or maybe one filled with tips and strategies for those interested in the same activities you are?
00:00:20
Speaker
When Maggie and I first decided to start our podcast, we knew absolutely nothing about what podcasting would entail. But when we found that the platform Buzzsprout was one for which we didn't need any special equipment, just a computer microphone, some quiet space, and each other, we knew that this was the way to go. It is intuitive to use, fun to play around with, and so helpful in getting analytical data about our number of downloads to track trends,
00:00:46
Speaker
and from where our listeners hail. Best yet, Buzzsprout is affordable, even by our teacher salary standards. Buzzsprout will get your podcasts listed on every major podcasting platform. So, what are you waiting for? Fulfill that dream of yours and start today.
00:01:03
Speaker
If you use our Coffee and Cases referral code, 709-643, linked on Facebook and in our show notes, not only will you help support our show, but you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card after your second month on a paid plan. It's that easy. Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners. Join over 100,000 podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. Now, it's time for the world to hear what you have to say.
The Beaumont Children Disappearance: A Community Changed
00:01:35
Speaker
Here in America, during the summer months, you can find most of us on some beach at one point or another. Families flock to the beach when the weather gets warm. Vacation and time with family should always be a safe time and a happy time. We take vacations or day trips to make memories and relax with the people we love. But as this podcast has taught us, nothing and nowhere is safe.
00:01:58
Speaker
Even in the sanctuary of vacation for relaxation and family time, hatred and meanness can be found. When three small children went on an innocent trip to the beach a mere five minutes from their home, no one would have ever thought they would never come home. The safe and quiet town in Australia would never be the same again. And stranger danger became a common phrase for the people of that community. This is the story of the Beaumont children.
00:03:00
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Alison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
00:03:09
Speaker
We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the case will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families. With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook
Hosts' Personal Challenges and Podcast Mission
00:03:25
Speaker
page.
00:03:25
Speaker
Coffee and cases podcast and to follow us on instagram at coffee cases podcast and on tiktok at coffee and cases podcast Because as these families know conversation helps to keep their missing family member in the public consciousness Helping to keep their memories alive. So sit back sip your coffee and listen to what's brewing this week
00:03:49
Speaker
Okay, so Allison before I get into the details of today's case. Yeah, I do just want to let our listeners and you know that in true Maggie fashion. I procrastinated the research was done on this case but I procrastinated rotting it until the day before we're recording.
00:04:08
Speaker
And then, well, okay, I lied. I tried to write it the day before, and then I got a migraine and literally had to just go lay down. And then yesterday, as I was writing it, got the stomach virus. So yes. You've had a bad week. I have. You know what, Slesshounds? Maybe if you write us a five-star review, Meg, you might feel better.
00:04:29
Speaker
Like literally
Detailing the Disappearance: Australia Day Events
00:04:30
Speaker
all last night so sick. So I wrote this in between all that and then this morning I was like, you know what? I'm gonna get up. I'm gonna go to work. It's gonna be a good day. It's fun I pull out and like I'm driving through our subdivision and Realize I have a flat tire Oh around
00:04:49
Speaker
and swap cars with Anthony and he needed gas so I went to get gas and as I'm pulling out of the gas station had to pull over I'll save you the details and I just called my principal and I was like I can't come in I have to go home and like I just came back home and slept until like 12 30 Maggie it's been a horrible day oh my goodness
00:05:15
Speaker
But I'm feeling better now, so that's good. And in true Maggie fashion, you are taking us around the world in your case. That's true. And we have never, I don't think, have we ever been to Australia? I don't think so. Okay. So today that is where we're going. And, um, you know, I can't pronounce names and so I try to listen to YouTube videos of all these places, but you know me, there probably will be some mistakes in there.
00:05:45
Speaker
You know what, we won't know because we're not from Australia, so I'll just go with it. Okay, good. But today's degree took place on Australia Day back in 1966, January 26th to be exact. Is Australia Day like Independence Day? Yeah, that's what I was going to say. From what I can tell, I think Australia Day is like our 4th of July. Okay.
00:06:11
Speaker
So on this particular Australia Day, nine-year-old Jane was chaperoning her seven-year-old sister, Arna, and her four-year-old brother, Grant, to Glenelg Beach because they were going there to spend the day. And while, like, this kind of may seem a little weird, right, because, like,
00:06:34
Speaker
You're only not in your chaperone. This wasn't their first trip to this particular beach that Jane had chaperoned. She like I think it was pretty common. Okay. So they probably lived fairly close. Yeah. Like I think the bus ride there only took about five minutes.
00:06:54
Speaker
Oh, okay. I'm not bad. But what ends up being different about this particular trip is that Jane, Arna, and Grant are never seen again, like literally fall off the face of the world.
00:07:08
Speaker
Wow. So like I said, I read that this was common among a lot of Australian parents just to kind of let their kids go short distances on their own, just like the Beaumont children. But I mean, if you think about that, like even here in America, I know my mom has told me stories. She would have been six at the time the Beaumont children disappeared. Like she tells me stories all the time that her and her siblings would walk several miles home if they missed the school bus.
00:07:38
Speaker
or like, you know, walk to the store or whatever. So even here, that really isn't uncommon for the time period. Well, and even now I feel like there's there are books that are I think it's called like free range parenting. And it's like this concept of like basically teaching your your kids to be independent and like it
00:08:04
Speaker
versus like helicopter parent. Right. I feel like I would be like want to be a happy medium. Yeah. Like a car parent. Like you got a little bit of a freedom. I'll be the behind the binoculars behind the tree parent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But soon enough, the saying stranger danger was common in Australia because of this case.
00:08:33
Speaker
So the Beaumont children, as I'm going to refer to them mainly throughout this episode, had been to the beach alone before, as I previously stated. Jane was very familiar with the bus routes. The beach was only like a five minute bus ride away from the family home. There had never been any issues about them coming home late or not getting home. Like when they told their mom, they had never came home and said, you know,
00:08:58
Speaker
something crazy or unsafe happened at the beach so their parents were really at ease letting them out on their own. And I don't know like if how big this town is where they're from but I feel like there's also that sense of safety too if they're in like a small town or village you know what I mean that like there's likely to be somebody there who would look after them
00:09:23
Speaker
And I don't think they were from like a super small town. I didn't look at the population of their area, but like, I don't think it was actually small, but it was very safe.
1960s Parenting Styles vs. Modern Perceptions
00:09:37
Speaker
And I'm sure their parents were like, it's Australia day. It's the middle of summer. The beach is going to be crowded. Like if something weird happens, surely somebody would like step in and help. Mm-hmm.
00:09:50
Speaker
And I actually listened to a portion of a podcast called Crime Over Coffee. And in it, the host said that the children were even known to ride their bikes to the beach. But this particular day was so hot that they opted for the bus. Makes sense.
00:10:08
Speaker
remember for the North American listeners that while we experience summer from like, you know, June to September, our friends in the southern hemisphere experience summer from like November ish to February. Oh, I didn't even think about that. We're January 26. Yeah. So while we're shoveling snow, Australians are swimming at the beach. Oh, sounds like I know my winter plans now. Yeah.
00:10:34
Speaker
We'll live in the northern hemisphere in our summer months and then fly south for their summer months. Sounds like paradise. And I've always wondered too like even as a kid like that's always fascinated me. Do you put up a normal Christmas? Like do how do you celebrate Christmas when it's summer? Maybe that's why some of those pictures show Santa on the beach with like a little you know
00:11:01
Speaker
mixed drink in his hand with a little umbrella? Yeah, I guess so.
Search Efforts and Community Involvement
00:11:07
Speaker
What's your old Santa look like? We need to know. Yeah, what's he wearing? Because it's surely not a fur suit. Right. He's wearing fur swim trunks. You know, I'm gonna look this up because now I'm intrigued.
00:11:22
Speaker
In an article on Strange Outdoors, it stated that Jane and like this is just so cute and like just such different like I guess dialogue and words but that Jane was dressed in a pink one-piece bather which would be like a bathing suit with pale green shorts and canvas sand shoes. She took a paperback copy of Little Women. Oh that is awesome. And I love that book.
00:11:53
Speaker
She carried three towels inside just like a generic like, you know, beach bag. Arnaud wore a one piece red and white striped bathing suit. She had on tan shorts with these little sandals and she had a bright orange hairpin and Grant wore green and white vertical stripes trunks under like or with his like little red sandals and I can just picture them getting on the bus. So cute little Grant. Oh,
00:12:22
Speaker
In an article on all things interesting, it said, quote, that fateful day was a particularly swelting one. Glenelg Beach was bursting with locals searching for relief in an ocean breeze and dip in the water. Jane, Arna, and Grant were no different and took the 845 a.m. bus to get to the shore early. They were expected to return on either the noon or the 2 p.m. bus, but never did. Oh, so they were only going to be there, too, for just a few hours.
00:12:50
Speaker
Y'all, Alison just texted me. I was waiting for you to get it. You guys, Sleuth Hounds. I found, while Maggie was talking, a picture of Santa in Australia. And I'm feeling like we need to post it on our Facebook page. She's got on flip flops. So funny. This is a legit figurine in Australia of Santa.
00:13:20
Speaker
Well, I feel like I need to move now. I'm posting it. Be on the lookout, Sluthounds. You'll see it. We can do a side by side comparison. Yeah. American Santa versus Australian Santa. That's right. One source I read stated that the children's father, Jim, was away on a business trip. Another that I read said that he was just like at his everyday work either way.
00:13:44
Speaker
Jim got back home around 3 p.m. He walks in to find a panicked wife. Nancy, who was the Beaumont children's mother, quickly explains to Jim that none of the kids are home and that they were expected to be there sometime before 2. And they'd never been late before, so...
00:14:05
Speaker
They had never been late. And so Allison Jim
Early Theories and Timeline Inconsistencies
00:14:08
Speaker
wasted no time. He actually ran back to his car and drove to the beach to find his kids. And I'm sure that he was positive. They were just like, you know, having so much fun building sandcastles or playing in the water that they just lost track of time. Like he was sure he would find them there. He'd wave, they'd run to him, you know, but that wasn't what he found.
00:14:30
Speaker
The Beaumont children were nowhere on the beach. So again, trying to just, you know, keep calm, be rational. He checked the bus stop, you know, thinking maybe the kids had realized they'd missed the bus and were waiting for the next one home. But he didn't find them there either.
00:14:53
Speaker
But they didn't stop searching. Jim and Nancy then knocked on some doors in their neighborhood searching desperately for their kids. But again, they found nothing. Oh my gosh. And it was then that the couple reported their children missing to the police around 5 30 p.m. So they're like.
00:15:13
Speaker
That's still pretty early, but, well, I guess the problem is they get there around 845, but we don't know if they're missing at what time they went missing. Right. Cause if they go missing like on their walk home to the bus, like, you know, to get to the bus. Then this is waste. Yeah. Yeah. We haven't wasted that much time, but if it was at 9 AM. Then like the whole day is pretty much right.
00:15:39
Speaker
By the next day, a reward of $250 was offered to the public for any information leading to the kids discovery. Police didn't waste time looking for the Beaumont children either. So this was a really safe town. I mentioned the concept of stranger danger wasn't even a thing.
00:15:58
Speaker
which should show you how safe it was because if that I mean because if people don't even know that that concept of like fearing a stranger then that shows just how safe it was.
00:16:11
Speaker
Like I grew up, my mom, I think I've said this before. Like we had a book that was like all of these kids, like these two kids, like I don't even remember what they were doing, but like the big thing of it was like, and never talk to strangers. Like that was a book I had as a kid. Like we grew up with that and they did not.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah. Police and the whole community were really quick to start searching for the kids. Police organized a search of the area on and around the beach based on the assumption that the children were nearby and just like had lost track of time.
00:16:49
Speaker
yeah ran into a friend or whatever yeah or like you know maybe they caught lost walking home or you know something like that um neighbors jumped in to help this was really a community effort they expanded to nearby buildings the airport rail lines interstate roads were being monitored
00:17:10
Speaker
the police quickly established that between them, the children were carrying 17 individual items, right? Because we're going to the beach, so you're going to have to... Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you would have, gosh, towels, maybe toys to play with, like to build sand castles or sunscreen or sunglasses or clothes to change into.
00:17:37
Speaker
Yeah, and none of those items were ever found. So not even one of the 17? No, not one of the 17. Hmm. And this initial search, Alison, for the Beaumont children was and still is one of Australia's biggest search efforts. Wow. Yeah. They went as far to
00:18:02
Speaker
like open up storm drains and flush them out to check to see if the kids were there. They drained a like boat dock on the 29th of January after a woman told police she'd spoken with three children who were similar in description to the Belmont children
00:18:19
Speaker
near there around like 7 p.m. on January 26 so they're like well we're gonna drain this just you know to be sure and dozens of people are like walking through the mud of this drained area like searching for them they find nothing
00:18:37
Speaker
So in crime over coffee, she stated that police had three initial theories as to what they thought might have happened to the kids. Okay. So she said theory one was that they missed the bus and fearing that they would get in trouble, they were hiding.
The Abduction Theory and Suspect Sketches
00:18:56
Speaker
No.
00:18:58
Speaker
And I don't know why people, why is that a thing? We've had another case where they were like, that was an assumption made by investigators that the kids thought they were gonna get in trouble, so they were hiding. Yeah, I don't. It was the two boys in England.
00:19:14
Speaker
Oh, yeah. With their bikes. Yeah. Yeah. And I just don't buy that theory because I feel like, especially at that age, you might be afraid that you're going to get in trouble. But if you are hiding, eventually you're going to get so scared that you're more scared of being alone than you are of the trouble you're going to get into. Yeah, that would have been me as a kid. I would have been too scared to be by myself to hide. And you have a four-year-old. Yeah. I don't know. That theory is no.
00:19:44
Speaker
no theory number two is that they drown in the ocean which i mean yes it obviously could happen but like all three of them that seems statistically
00:19:57
Speaker
Like really? Yeah. Especially without anybody hearing anyone like scream for help. Right. And the beach was crowded that day. So like that theory says that perhaps Grant got, because remember he's four, got washed out and the two girls try to save him and they get caught up in the same like riptide. Again, possible.
00:20:21
Speaker
right possible but i just feel like again i feel like they would have yelled or screamed people would have seen them like flailing their arms something
00:20:34
Speaker
Yeah, because when we went on vacation one year, Anthony and his brother got caught by like a riptide. Yep. You've told that story. Yeah. And like eventually it was. Yeah. And it was traumatizing, but eventually like people around started to realize what was happening and like attention turned toward them. So I think if that happened with the kids, then people would have eventually noticed like there's kids that are in distress.
00:20:59
Speaker
And I feel like if these kids weren't aware of potential dangers of the ocean, I don't think their parents would have let them go alone.
00:21:10
Speaker
Right. And I did read that Jane was like really cautious and wouldn't let Grant go any further than like the water couldn't be above his belly button. So she was really like good with the younger kids and really careful. So I don't know that one is possible, but it's a no for me. Yeah, same.
00:21:32
Speaker
The third one, which is terrifying, so terrifying, is that they fell into a collapsed sand dune. Like they're walking and a sand dune collapses and basically sucks them down.
00:21:49
Speaker
I mean, I did not know this was a thing. I didn't either. But it is. And I feel like it is now on my list of irrational fears with falling into sinkholes, ball lightning. Oh, yeah. Now collapsing sand dunes. Great. So I mean, if that's a thing around there, I mean, it could explain why none of their items were found.
00:22:18
Speaker
Right. They have love it with them and they fall into that. That's true. And it could explain why they basically fell off the side of the world. But again, nobody saw it. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And eventually all of these theories are like thrown out by police and they're left with the only theory that makes any true sense to me. And that is that the Beaumont children were abducted. Agreed. Like it's sad, but that's the only one that makes sense.
00:22:49
Speaker
When Nancy and Jim were presented with this theory, I can only imagine the looks on their faces as an offhand comment made by one of their children, like in the safety of their own home, like clicked into place. What did they say? According to crimes that shocked Australia, Arna had told her mother that Jane had quote, got a boyfriend down at the beach.
00:23:17
Speaker
So I'm sure at the time, Nancy and Jim were like, oh, that's cute, some little boy, but it could be an older person.
00:23:30
Speaker
Yeah, and they knew at that moment that their kids had been abducted. Oh my gosh. There's further support to this theory of abduction when several eyewitnesses report similar things to police. So on the day of the disappearance, several witnesses had seen the children like on and around the area of the beach with a tall, blonde, thin-faced man.
00:24:00
Speaker
So not a boy, not a boy, a man. And this man was described as like super tan. He had an athletic build. He was suspected to be like mid thirties to mid forties. He was like six foot. So a tall dude that to me would stick out in public. He had a long face and described as having a high forehead.
00:24:26
Speaker
like brown hair it was parted to the side he had on navy swim trunks with like a white stripe down so people are able to give detailed description of this man yeah
00:24:40
Speaker
People reported to police that they were playing with this man. Like in the sand, in the water, they appeared relaxed around him, like they were enjoying themselves. So I'm sure like to the normal person, they were like, oh, look at this daddy with his, or his uncle with his three nieces and nephews or his kids or whatever. Yeah, this is not something that these kids would be doing with a stranger.
00:25:04
Speaker
Right, especially when you use the word relaxed. Uh-huh. So to me, that means these kids had met this guy before. So did their parents, like when they heard this description, were they like, oh, I know who that is? No. No. In one interview, Jan's parents described her as shy. So like, I don't see her laughing with a total stranger.
00:25:31
Speaker
So in my mind, this is somebody that the family doesn't know. So it's not like, you know, a family friend that they've ran into at the beach. This to me is like a sicko slowly conditioning the Beaumont children to trust him. So like, they've been to the beach several times before on their own. So had they met this man there maybe multiple times and like over time have formed this relationship with him. Right.
00:26:01
Speaker
And that's kind of what investigators thought too. They theorized that the children had perhaps met this man during a previous visit or visits and had grown to trust him and that he took advantage of that trust. I mean, that's what it sounds like to me because if they were going to ride the bus home, he could have been like, hey, why don't you let me drive you guys home?
00:26:24
Speaker
So I think I talk about this like later on, but one, so Nancy had given the kids like money to get snacks and like enough money to get back home, not an exuberant amount, like basically enough for each of them to get some type of snack and then to pay the bus fare back home. It was reported that the children lost their money or someone stole it.
00:26:51
Speaker
And we know that because this man several people report he came up to them and asked if they'd seen anybody around the kids belongings because they were missing money. I mean he was around their belongings so could he have moved it out of the way so then they don't have enough money to ride the bus back home so he has to drive them home. That's what a lot of people think is that he took the money.
00:27:17
Speaker
And that's the same and that's further supported when a bakery that's nearby reports that Jane came into the shop to purchase some goodies. So it's reported she bought some pastries and a meat pie, which I had no idea what that was. What is that? I don't know what that is.
00:27:35
Speaker
Um, like at first I was like, that's disgusting sounding. Why would you eat that? But then I Googled it and I think I would probably try it because it's apparently this hand sized pie containing diced meat, gravy, sometimes
Conflicting Accounts and Investigation Challenges
00:27:50
Speaker
onions and mushrooms or cheese. And it's like consumed as like a takeaway food. Like how we would eat like a Lunchable. They would eat like a meat pie. Oh, okay. I mean, I would. So it's like a savory.
00:28:05
Speaker
pastry. Yeah. Why would you pick that over all the delectable sweet pastries that you probably had the choice of? Yeah. But that's what she bought was so three like sweet pastries and this meat pie.
00:28:21
Speaker
And like I said, they'd been given the money for snacks, but kind of were expected to be home for lunch. But Jane buying the meat pie only made police even more certain that the Beaumont children had been abducted because the shopkeeper said that she knew these children well, like they came in on all of their visits. So she knew their faces and she reported that they had never purchased a meat pie before.
00:28:49
Speaker
Yeah, because meat pie would be obviously more filling. So I guess in my head I need to get it more like, you know, if you went into say a gas station and you bought some Skittles versus you went into the gas station and you still bought the Skittles, but you also bought like some fried chicken and some potato wedges and like.
00:29:12
Speaker
And like if you're and if you're a kid and your mom gives you money to get a snack, I don't see most kids being like, I'm going to choose the meat pie over these, you know, cherry pie or these I wouldn't and I'm an adult. Yeah, right. So, you know, Nancy had only given the kids like I read it was like six shillings and six pence, which I have no idea.
00:29:38
Speaker
what that converts to in American money. But again, it was enough for the bus fare and a snack, but it's reported that Nancy paid with like a one pound. Yeah. I think it was pounds. I guess. I don't know.
00:29:52
Speaker
I think that's the symbol for a pound. Right. Because well, shillings and pence, right? And then pounds. Yeah. So she paid with like one pound, which was not what police or what her mom had given her. So police believed that she'd been given the money from someone else. And
00:30:14
Speaker
In the podcast that I listened to that I mentioned before, the host said in her research, she found that Jane even stated to the worker at the bakery, she was buying the meat pie for the man they were with. Oh, makes sense that the pastries would be for the kids and the meat pie for him.
00:30:30
Speaker
Yeah, and they supposedly lost their money or it was stolen. So could this man have taken it only then to turn around and buy them sweets like to gain their trust? Yeah, which gets them liking him even more. Yeah.
00:30:48
Speaker
And as we talked about in a previous case, sometimes too much information or too many sightings can like sometimes have the opposite effect of what it's intended to. Oh, like lead police down like weird paths that take resources away from like the real investigation.
00:31:09
Speaker
Yeah, so we talked about that with one particular case. I think it was like the House of Terror case, the DuPont Day, Lajonon or whatever family.
00:31:22
Speaker
Um, where the dad had, you know, murdered his, well, we believe the dad was who murdered the whole family, if I'm remembering correctly. And he had really common features. So because of that, there's like dozens of soddings or supposed soddings of him. And this kind of happened with the Beaumont children.
00:31:43
Speaker
So there's like some sightings that sort of cause like conflicting times Tom like timelines don't kind of add up in some cases So it delayed investigators for a bit until they figured out like the true timeline Which now they're pretty positive like they know like the timeline of events but for a while it did kind of cause a
00:32:07
Speaker
some confusion. Right. And at least we know, you know, I was talking about the timing earlier. If they went into this bakery and they bought the equivalent of like a lunchtime pie, right, the meat pie, then they had to have disappeared closer to the time when they were supposed to have gone home. Yeah, I hadn't even thought about that. But that, yeah, you wouldn't be buying like a lunchtime. Right. At like 10 o'clock in the morning. Right.
00:32:36
Speaker
According to one source I read, the children were seen walking alone at about 3pm away from the beach, like along like this side road, like toward the general direction of home. Okay. And the witness was like the family's postman. Oh. So he knew the children well. Yeah.
00:32:56
Speaker
He would, he like would be considered reliable because he's going to know who these kids are. I mean, he delivers milk to their house. Probably daily. So he saw them often. Yeah. So this isn't just like, Oh, there were three kids. They were kind of seven and four. Yeah. And like, I'm sure if they saw him, they may be like exchanged waves or, you know, something like that.
00:33:18
Speaker
He said the children were holding hands and laughing in the street. Police could not determine why the reliable children, already one hour late though, were just like casually strolling alone, like unconcerned about anything.
00:33:35
Speaker
Yeah, you'd think they'd be rushing home. Right. And this is like the last confirmed sighting that we have of the children. But the postman would later, like I think two days later, call police and say that he saw them that morning, not in the afternoon, and that he just had the times mixed up.
Psychics and Hoaxes: A Case Complicated
00:33:55
Speaker
Oh, then it makes sense why they would be like, laughing. Yeah.
00:34:02
Speaker
That to me makes a lot more sense. We have that siding with the postman, but we're going to say that it happened earlier in the day. The Beaumont children were reportedly siding again at 3 p.m. on the day they disappeared by a local resident. She said that there was a man that was carrying airline bags that were later identified as one similar to what Jane had owned.
00:34:33
Speaker
Which I find strange. But there's a man carrying them. Yes. So could it be the man from the beach? Yeah, the meat pie man. Mm hmm. Meat pie man. Several months later, a woman reported that on the night of the disappearance, a man accompanied by two girls and a boy entered a neighboring house that she believed was empty.
00:34:57
Speaker
creepy. Later she said the boy was seen walking alone along a lane where he was pursued and roughly caught by this same man. Uh, yeah, this is super sketchy. The next morning the house appeared to be deserted again and she neither saw the man nor the children again.
00:35:21
Speaker
My question is, let's go back to this last week. Call the police if you see something that looks like this and if you get a gut reaction, call.
00:35:33
Speaker
And if you use the word roughly caught to describe, like it's probably not a very good situation. So like the several months later thing really bothers me. And it bothered police too. Like they could not understand why she had failed to provide like this information earlier. It could have been critical for height. We have other reported sightings of these children like up to a year after the Beaumont children disappeared.
00:36:05
Speaker
So obviously police really have no definitive evidence. We just have these like witness sightings and potential or witness reports and potential sightings of the kids. So like they're desperate for clues. So desperate in fact that they fly in like a psychic.
00:36:27
Speaker
Oh. In November of 1966. Which happens quite often. Yeah, I did not know that until we started doing this podcast. I didn't know we relied on psychics. Oh, I mean, even when you do research for nearly every case, there's psychics who are giving their feelings about, and listen, again, we've said before, if it were my child, I'm not saying I wouldn't resort to a psychic, just to see if there's any information.
00:36:55
Speaker
Same. His search for the children though were like the details he provided would prove to be unsuccessful because like his story kind of changed from day to day and he offered no real significant clues. So this person claimed to have seen the Beaumont children like in his mind buried in a warehouse like near their school.
00:37:21
Speaker
That's the vision he keeps getting. According to a skeptics guide to paranormal, the property owners of this area were extremely reluctant to excavate on the basis of this psychic's claim. I can't blame them. If somebody said, I have a vision that somebody is buried underneath your house, you're telling me you're going to be like, okay, bulldoze it down.
00:37:49
Speaker
got to go. Yeah, yeah, I can't blame them.
Community Efforts Amidst False Leads
00:37:56
Speaker
They would soon, though, give in to public pressure after the public raised $40,000 to have the building demolished. But my idea, my thought, who's paying to rebuild it? Yeah, okay, yeah, you're right. Okay, they're raising money to take it down.
00:38:16
Speaker
Then what? Right. Because if, say again, that's your home. Yeah. Who's building my house back? Yeah. So did they find anything? No. They found no remains, no evidence, linking any of the Beaumont family to that area. Nothing was found. Sadly, Allison, next we have hoax letters.
00:38:43
Speaker
Oh no. And I hate these like nothing. I don't understand. I mean it's so such a common thing like we read about it all the time. I had never like experienced obviously anything like this because you know I have a pretty normal
00:39:05
Speaker
non-eventful life, I stay inside and watch making shows. But recently, a friend of my mom's, like a coworker, former coworker of my mom's, like her granddaughter died in her sleep and she was like a young toddler, like baby.
00:39:26
Speaker
And her family set up like this fundraiser page for her that you can currently do on Facebook. I didn't know that that was a thing. So like Anthony and I donated money because you obviously do not have life insurance for your child. And literally the next day I had a message from the mom of the baby and it was like, thank you so much for your donation. Like you're a real hero. We really appreciate you.
00:39:54
Speaker
And I was like, you know, no problem. We love your family. We're praying for you. And then she was like, um, I would like to run something by you if you have time. And I was like, okay, this is someone's hacked her account. And they literally were like, um,
00:40:10
Speaker
If you don't mind we need other things could you go to Amazon and buy us some gift cards and send them to this Gmail address and it was like donation 1234 at gmail.com
00:40:27
Speaker
And I was like, well, if you need other things, just tell me what you need on Amazon and I'll just ship it to your, I'll buy it and ship it to your house. And they were like, no, it would just be easier if we had the gift cards. And so I know this girl's the sister of this family. And so I messaged her and I was like, I know this is the last thing you want to deal with, but is this legit? And she said no. And I went off on this person in my messenger. It's disgusting.
00:40:56
Speaker
Wow. So people did that to the Beaumonts too, to their three kids.
00:41:02
Speaker
Yep. Yep. It took about two years before these letters started to show up. According to Strange Outdoors, like about two years after the disappearance, the Beaumonts received two different letters. One was supposedly written by Jane and another by the Meat Pie Man, or the man who said he was keeping the children.
00:41:28
Speaker
The envelopes were postmarked from like Victoria and that was like one place police believed they could have been. Oh. The brief notes. So they're not thinking it's a hoax at first.
00:41:44
Speaker
No, at first they think these are like legit. The notes briefly describe like, you know, that the kids are fun. They refer to the quote unquote man who's keeping them. And police believed at the time the letters were authentic. They compared them with other things written by Jane. And the letter from this quote unquote man said that he had appointed himself guardian of the children.
00:42:14
Speaker
Which I didn't know randomly do but okay and was willing to hand them back to their parents and even named like Okay, two years later. It's nothing back. Just let me know. I'm gonna know that Donald's Yeah.
00:42:30
Speaker
I'm tired of looking at them. You can have them back now. I'll meet you at the McDonald's. Yeah. The Beaumont parents, followed by detective, drove to this designated place, but nobody appeared. And then later, a third letter, also claiming to be from Jane, arrived. And it said that the man had been willing to return them. But when he realized that a disguised detective was also there,
00:42:57
Speaker
He decided that the Beaumonts had betrayed his trust and that he would just keep the kids. And then there were no further letters. If I'm the parent though, then I'm freaking out because I'm like, what have I just done? I've ruined my chances of getting my kids back. Right, exactly.
00:43:15
Speaker
In 1992 though, their mind was said a little bit more at ease because forensic examinations of the letters showed that they were a hoax.
Unsolved Case and Public Interest: Why?
00:43:24
Speaker
So then like they're like, okay, I didn't miss an opportunity. Fingerprint technology had improved by that time and the author was actually identified as a 40 year old man who'd been a teenager at the time he'd written the letters and he had written them as a joke. Again,
00:43:42
Speaker
I don't I don't care if you're a teenager and like your brain isn't fully though What is the age when your brains fully developed? It's Not until way later. Yeah, like 20 major still knows that that is not a joke Yeah, you still know right from wrong and that's wrong and because of the time-lapse He wasn't charged with anything which I totally think is outrageous and completely disagree with but yep I'm not a law enforcement person. So I
00:44:12
Speaker
Whatever. And really, Alison, we have nothing else. This lack of evidence and like any concrete timeline is why this case is still talked about today. This case is infamous in Australia and all these years later, citizens are still trying to get it solved. Wow.
00:44:31
Speaker
Like we do have like some suspects that we're gonna talk about. There are surprisingly, because I feel like there's not a whole lot of case details.
Prime Suspects: Von Einem, Brown, and O'Neill
00:44:43
Speaker
There are surprisingly a lot of suspects, like several. We're only gonna talk about three. So the suspects were meat pie man. Yeah. We're gonna talk about three, but there are literally like nine.
00:44:59
Speaker
Oh, wow. But I didn't think everybody wanted to be here all day. So you've kind of ruled out six of them. Yeah. Okay. So first up is how would you say his name?
00:45:17
Speaker
Bevan? Bevan? Bevan? So that's our first one. And he was actually sentenced to a life imprisonment in 1984 for murdering the son of like a newspaper person, Rob Kelvin, and like that his 15 year old son, Richard. So he's already like life imprisonment because he's killed a 15 year old. Yes. Okay.
00:45:44
Speaker
Investigators believed that he had accomplices and was possibly involved in additional murders and disappearances, including the Beaumont children. But like none of these possible accomplices were ever charged and he has refused to cooperate at all with his possible connection to any of the other murders or the missing Beaumont kids.
00:46:08
Speaker
According to Strange Outdoors, which I know I've quoted a lot, but it had a lot of good information, police heard from an informant identified only as Mr. B, who spoke of an alleged conversation between him
00:46:23
Speaker
Yes. And he says that Bevin boasted of having taken three kids from the beach several years earlier. And he said he took them to a home to conduct experiments. Yes. Yes. Oh, I can't I like stopped breathing for a second. That is horrifying. Yeah, I'm talking like
00:46:54
Speaker
Like concentration camp top experiments on these kids He said he performed quote-unquote brilliant surgery on each of them and had them quote Connected them up. Oh Yeah, like showing them together like I'm thinking like human centipede. Oh my god
00:47:15
Speaker
Yeah, one of the children had supposedly died during the procedure. And so he said like, I killed the other two and dumped all their bodies and like the like bushland and nobody's ever going to find them. Wow. Yeah. And he has reported to someone have resembled the descriptions and police sketches from 1966. So this seems like a pretty good suspect right here.
00:47:41
Speaker
Yeah, and according to like a book called Young Blood, A Story of Family Murders, police detective Bob O'Brien gave Mr. B important information during the investigation into the Kelvin murder and was regarded as like a generally reliable source. So this guy who's stepping forward saying, here's what Bevin told me, like he is a good source for information.
00:48:09
Speaker
Right. Because he helped convict him of the murder of that 15 year old boy. But there were not enough concrete details to warrant further police investigation. Okay. What's even more crazy though, is we know that this Bevin dude visited this beach a lot because he was a pervert and liked to watch children undress in the changing rooms. Yeah.
00:48:37
Speaker
He did. OK, well, yeah, he's my number one suspect right now. But he was younger supposedly at the time, like in his early 20s. Like, and that was his age in like 1966. But to be fair, like a lot of men look much older than what they are. Like if Anthony has a full beard, he looks like 10 years older than what he actually is. In August of 2007, it was reported that police were examining footage of the original search.
00:49:06
Speaker
That kind of shows this man resembling him among onlookers and the replete and the police report said That police were calling for information to establish this man's identity So the next two that we're going to talk about like I still well
00:49:26
Speaker
I still think it's the first guy, but you may think different. No, I think it's going to take a lot to convince me otherwise. Yeah, I'm kind of like, we don't even need to talk about these other two because I think I know who it is. Right. Next is author, Stanley Brown. He was charged in 1998 with the murders of his sisters, Judith and Susan. Yeah. Wait, his sisters or the people he murdered were sisters? No, just the people that he murdered were sisters.
00:49:56
Speaker
Okay, but still I may have misspoke but no just the people that he murdered were okay sisters. They disappeared while on their way to school in 1970. Their bodies were found several days later in a dried up creek bed. Both girls have been strangled.
00:50:15
Speaker
And the frustrating part was that when he was tried and like later on, his trial was actually delayed because his lawyer said that he was unfit to be tried. And he was never retried and was found to have dementia. And so they just said that he couldn't go through retrial and he died in 2002.
00:50:37
Speaker
So, along with Bevin, Brown is considered to be the most likely suspect for the Beaumont children's abduction because he bore a striking similarity to the sketch of the Meepah Man. But a lot of people could look similar, so I don't know about this one.
00:51:00
Speaker
A search for a connection to the Beaumonts was unsuccessful as no employment records existed that could shed light on his movements at the time. Apparently, a bunch of these records that could have helped police investigation were lost in a giant flood in 1974. Of course it was. It's also reported that Brown
00:51:21
Speaker
in whatever job capacity he had, had unrestricted access to government buildings and may have just like deleted his own files. Oh, well. Yeah. But I feel like there's, yeah, I feel like with the first one, there's a lot more things in his past or obviously the informant, Mr. B. There's nothing like that with Arthur Brown, Arthur Stanley Brown.
00:51:50
Speaker
He even only has three names. Yeah, I know. I just noticed that when I said his name.
00:51:56
Speaker
Um, there is no proof that he ever visited the area. The family lived in like a witness recalled having a conversation with Brown, which he mentioned, like seeing a building that was near completion in the Beaumont families town, like in 1973, but nothing in 1966. Okay. So we don't even know if he's there. Right. Another witness would report seeing a man.
00:52:26
Speaker
in town carrying a young girl like I picture like you know surfboard carrying while another girl like followed in distress and they identified him as Brown because like she was able to identify him after seeing his picture on television in 1998.
00:52:46
Speaker
in relations to those like sister murders. Yeah. The woman who identified the abductor as Brown first saw him for just a single minute when she was 14 and then identified him as Brown 25 years later when he was 86 on a television show because his appearance had barely changed. He like he was that. Must be nice. Yeah. Must be nice. Yeah.
00:53:10
Speaker
Wow. Additionally, she reported that the man was wearing a pair of horn rim glasses, a pair of which Brown is known to have worn something considered by police to be another noteworthy point in identification. Oh, so there's Brown. So that's why they think him. Yeah.
00:53:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, again, the glasses, okay. The lady identifying him, okay. But like, do we know for sure it was the two Beaumont girls? Where's the grant? Like where's the third kid? Right, yeah, we don't know. Last up is James O'Neill, and according to ABC News, in the early 1970s, James O'Neill, who was jailed for life in 1975 because he murdered a nine-year-old boy in Tasmania,
00:54:01
Speaker
I know this case has got a lot of murder in it. But anyway, so he was convicted of life in 1975 for the murder of a nine-year-old boy and he had stolen, had told a station owner in like several acquaintances that he was responsible for the disappearance of the Beaumont children.
00:54:27
Speaker
But we've heard people claim before that they were responsible, but that's one of those other things, just like the hoax letters. I don't understand claiming to be responsible for something you didn't do. Right, and there's been a lot of people that have tried to link him to the Beaumont children's disappearance, but obviously so far that hasn't been very successful.
00:54:51
Speaker
Another article I read by Nori Rose states that the former Victorian police detective Gordon Davey spent three years speaking to O'Neill to win his confidence before filming him in a documentary. Davey said that although there was no evidence to link O'Neill to the disappearance, he was persuaded that O'Neill was to blame. He said, quote, I asked him about the Beaumonts and he said,
00:55:15
Speaker
I couldn't have done it. I was in Melbourne at the time. That is not denial. Later again, he would be asked if he murdered the children and he replied, quote, look, on legal advice, I'm not going to say where I was or when I was there, end quote.
00:55:34
Speaker
So although O'Neal claims to never have visited the area that the kids lived, his work in the opal industry at the time required him to make frequent passes through their town. Davey also suspected O'Neal was involved in the disappearance of more people.
00:55:54
Speaker
Radcliffe and Gorman Gordon in 1973. Southern Australian police have interviewed O'Neill and discounted him as a suspect in the Beaumont case but is he really? And like I said there's like literally probably five to six more people that are listed as potential suspects.
A Call for Public Assistance
00:56:19
Speaker
I'm gonna say of the three that you told me about
00:56:24
Speaker
The one I probably think is least likely is the Arthur Stanley Brown. That seems to be the most to what people consider the most likely agreed. And then maybe right above him as this James O'Neill, because I feel like a detective. I mean, they're pretty skilled in terms of like breaking down people's like psyche and behavior and all of that. Um,
00:56:53
Speaker
and knowing that he would have had to have traveled through that area quite often. Because then it makes me think, if the kid saw this man at the beach, then this man, if he were there all the time, then I feel like other people
00:57:14
Speaker
would have interacted with him or recognize him more. So maybe his visits were more sporadic, like when he traveled through or something like that. So that's why I have some sort of inkling. It could be him. But my gut keeps going back to the first one, to the Bevan. Yeah, same.
00:57:41
Speaker
Every week we present you with such sad cases, cases of abuse, cases of death, cases of the missing. Each one touches my heart in a different way, but when we cover child cases, the hurt hits a little different. Nancy would go on to die not knowing what happened to her children. It was a crowded day when these kids seemed to fall from the face of the earth. We have eyewitnesses, but someone has to know more.
00:58:10
Speaker
By this point, someone has talked. Maybe you yourself have suspected that it could have been your neighbor at the time or your classmate. We beg you to come forward so we can end one of Australia's longest-running cold cases. Again, please like and join us on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and to see images related to this episode.
00:58:33
Speaker
as always follow us on instagram at coffee cases podcast and on tick tock at coffee and cases podcast or you can always email us suggestions to coffee and cases podcast at gmail.com please tell your friends about our podcast so that more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well we hope to hear from you soon stay together stay safe we'll see you next week