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The Enduring Mystery of the Beaumont Children: A 1966 Disappearance and Recent Developments
Nearly 50 years ago, the three Beaumont children went missing from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, Australia. The day, intended to be filled with fun, turned into a waking nightmare. The children’s disappearance caused an outpouring of sympathy for parents Jim and Nancy Beaumont, who hoped for years that their children would return home.
Nearly five decades later, the case remains open, but new leads may prove essential to solving the cold case of the Beaumont Children’s disappearance. A fresh excavation of a defunct factory will hopefully provide new information, unlocking the mystery of this decades old cold case.
The Beaumont Family
The three Beaumont children, Jane Nartare (9), Arnna Kathleen (7), and Grant Ellis (4), lived with their parents, Grant “Jim” and Nancy Beaumont. Jim was a retired serviceman and cab driver. Nancy was a homemaker. The couple married in 1955. Together, the family lived in Somerton Park, a suburb of Adelaide in South Australia, roughly two miles from where the children disappeared.
The Disappearance and Timeline
On January 26, 1966, Jane, Arnna, and Grant made the three kilometer trip to Glenelg Beach by bus from their home. South Australia was experiencing a heatwave, and the day prior, before heading to Snowtown for a three-day sales trip, the children’s father, Jim, had dropped them at the same beach. The following day, the children asked their mom if they could go to the beach again. The children caught the 8:45 a.m. bus, which would have arrived at the beach roughly five minutes later. Their mother expected them home at noon for lunch.
When the noon and two o’clock busses arrived without the children, Nancy became worried. Jim arrived home early from his work trip at three that afternoon and, upon finding his panicked wife, immediately drove to the beach to find the children.
The Search Begins
Jim arrived at Glenelg Beach, which was packed with people celebrating Australia Day and trying to escape the heat. Unable to locate the children, he returned home, hoping they had missed each other. From there, he and Nancy scoured…
