Beaumont children: police dig for siblings missing since 1966

Australian police have started excavation work at a factory in the hope of discovering the fate of three children who disappeared more than 50 years ago.

The Beaumont children, Jane, 9, Anna, 7, and Grant, 4, vanished on 25 January 1966 after going for a swim at Glenelg Beach in Adelaide.

South Australian police ordered the excavation at the factory site after a “recently discovered ‘anomaly’ in the soil” was detected during a search of the property, the BBC reports.

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The factory, which was searched by police in 2013, was formerly owned by Harry Phipps, who remains a person of interest in the case despite his death in 2014.

Phipps first came to the attention of police in 2007, after a book suggested he was a credible suspect in the children’s disappearance. However, police did not take the accusation seriously until two men came forward “claiming to have been paid by Phipps to dig a trench at his factory site as teenagers”, CNN reports.

A reward of more than £560,000 is on offer for information to help close the case.