The quest that lifted Australia to its feet!

It is a case after which Australia "lost its virginity forever". Prior to that event, the doors on the houses were not locked, hitchhikers were fearlessly let into cars, and every stranger was just a benevolent passerby with whom it was nice to talk. That is why it was not unusual for Nancy Beaumont to allow her children - Jane, Arnie and Grant - to go to the beach alone not far from the house where they lived in Adelaide, South Australia in January 1966. The oldest Jane was 9 years old and her mother estimated that she was old enough to take care of Arna who was 7 and Grant who was 4 years old. It was not uncommon for children during the 60s. What could go wrong? It was the morning of January 25, 1966, and it was a public holiday. As it was too hot to walk, the children got on a bus that took them to the beach in about 5 minutes. The trio jumped out of the bus and - disappeared forever without a trace!

Missing children!

Nancy expected the children to return around noon. When they didn't even arrive by the bus that passed at 2 o'clock, she was worried and when her husband Jim, who worked as a taxi driver, came home from work, she immediately told him to drive to the beach to look for them. After Jim returned without news of the children, he and Nancy set out to tour the houses of friends and search for the little ones on the streets on the stretch between their house and the beach, but nothing worked. Around 5.30pm they informed the police. Inspectors quickly organized the search, but it looked as if Jane, Arna and Grant had disappeared from the face of the earth. It was found that the children were carrying a total of 17 items to the beach that day, including clothes, towels, bags, but none of them were ever found!

On the day of the disappearance, several witnesses on the beach saw three children with a tall man with blond hair and a drunken face, aged between 30 and 40 years. The children seemed to be talking casually to the man, they seemed to be enjoying themselves on the beach, so everyone assumed they had known each other before. There were no signs that they were there against their will. One woman told police that, around noon, while sitting on a bench on the beach, she saw three children running out of the ocean, taking a shower in nearby showers to wash off the salt water and then going to get their towels. Right next to them lay a middle-aged man and the children soon began to play with him. When she got up and left the bench, she claimed, the group was still on the beach. The guy and the girl, who were lying on towels nearby, confirmed the story of the woman from the bench, but added that they also saw when the man dressed the children and when they went in the direction of the bus. They blurred that detail because they thought the oldest girl looked old enough to be able to dress herself and that it was unusual for someone else to do it. In any case, there was nothing to indicate that the children did not know the man or did not go with him voluntarily. The problem with these testimonies is that none of the witnesses could claim with certainty that the children they saw were actually Bomon children. It could have been any two girls and a boy of similar age who were on the beach that day.

Nancy and Jim described their children as shy. It seemed unthinkable for them to talk to a stranger, let alone play! Police speculated that the children may have met the man during previous trips to the beach and thus gained trust in him. This began to seem especially likely after Nancy remembered that, shortly before the unfortunate event, Arna had jokingly told her that Jane “had a boyfriend on the beach”. At that moment, the mother thought it was someone else they were playing with and did not pay attention to it until after the disappearance. However, the parents claimed that they taught the children not to talk to strangers and that, even if they did, there was no chance that she would allow that stranger to dress them.

A quest that lifted Australia to its feet!

As they did not find any clues that would reveal what happened to the children, the police called the public, offering a reward to anyone who reported information that would lead to the discovery of the toddler. And, soon their phone lines were glowing. Bomans were seen buying a pie in a bakery… Three children were seen standing and talking to three adults on the corner not far from the local market… Others swore that the children were eating ice cream not far from the beach… Others saw them walking along the road in direction of the house… The case soon went beyond the borders of Australia. In November of the same year, Dutch parapsychologist Gerard Croisette claimed he could help and traveled to Australia to be closer to the event. Turns out it wasn’t helpful because he changed the story from day to day. Because of him, the police investigated the sewer pipes because, according to Croasset's claims, the bodies of the dead children were there. Nothing found. After that, Crosett claimed to "see" the remains of children hidden under a newly built building not far from the Boman family house.At the time of the disappearance, there was a construction site and he believed that the bodies of the girls and boys were hidden under a concrete slab. The owners of the building, of course, did not allow the building to be demolished in order to check the allegations of parapsychologists, but they gave in under the pressure of the public, which collected 40 thousand dollars just to demolish the building. No bodies or traces were found that the children had ever been there, and the Dutchman went back to the Netherlands ashamed.

Letters and scams!

Complete strangers sent letters to the Beaumont in which they wrote to know where their children were. About two years after his disappearance, they received a letter from a man who introduced himself as a "guardian" who claimed that the children were with him, that he was looking after them and that he was now ready to return them. Nancy, Jim and the police went to the scheduled place, but no one showed up. After this, another letter arrived, allegedly written by Jane, in which she said that the "guardian" wanted to return them, but that when he saw the "disgusting detectives", he concluded that the Bomans had betrayed his trust and gave up. Letters from him no longer arrived. In 1992, when technology was advanced enough, the identity of the man who wrote them was revealed. It was about a 41-year-old man who was a teenager at the time of his disappearance and thought of everything as a joke. Due to the passage of time, he was not subsequently convicted for this offense. Yet, in the end, none of the letters yielded any concrete clues or information.

Australian police have never stopped looking for Boman's children. Several serial killers from that state were suspected of their abduction, but they never managed to link them to the case. A case that changed Australia, the disappearance of three children brought big changes. Parents drive their children to school, they do not allow them to leave the house unattended. This and similar cases have caused nervousness among parents because of strangers. Despite decades, Adelaide police say they receive a call about every four days with some information about the three missing children.

In the years that followed, Jim and Nancy divorced under the pressure of grief. None of them had children anymore. Although experts believe that Jane, Arna and Grant are long dead, they both stayed to live in the same city, hoping that their children will one day return. Nancy died in September 2019, when she was 92 years old. Jim is still alive.