In a shocking new twist in the disappearance of 9-year-old Gus Lamont, investigators have confirmed the discovery of surveillance footage showing an unknown man carrying a child closely resembling Gus at a remote gas station nearly 50 kilometers from where the boy was last seen.
The footage, captured just two days after Gus vanished, has been described by police as “disturbing and potentially game-changing”, reigniting hopes that the missing boy may still be alive — while also raising chilling questions about who the man in the video really is.
“This footage changes everything,” said Detective Inspector Claire Matthews. “If that’s Gus, then someone has been moving him — and possibly hiding him — all this time.”
The footage that stunned detectives
The black-and-white video, obtained from a security camera mounted above the station’s side entrance, shows a tall man wearing a dark hoodie and jeans emerging from a white pickup truck at approximately 11:42 p.m.
In his arms, he is carrying a small child — barefoot, wearing what appears to be a light-colored t-shirt and pajama pants. The child’s head rests against the man’s shoulder, appearing motionless.
“The resemblance to Gus is striking,” a police source said. “The hair, the build, even the way he’s being held — everything fits.”
But it’s not just the image that has investigators unsettled — it’s what the man does next.
A chilling gesture caught on camera
Seconds before entering the convenience store, the man glances directly toward the camera — and then, in a move that detectives describe as “eerily deliberate,” he tilts his head down, shielding the child’s face.
Moments later, he places a dark baseball cap over the child’s head, partially obscuring his features.
“It was intentional,” said one investigator. “He knew there was a camera watching.”
Adding to the mystery, the man purchased only a single bottle of water and a small toy car from the store’s vending rack — the exact same model as one Gus was known to carry everywhere he went.
“It’s that toy that made us stop the footage immediately,” a police source admitted. “We couldn’t ignore it. That detail was too specific to be coincidence.”
Tracing the mysterious white truck
Police have since identified the vehicle seen in the footage as a white Ford Ranger, manufactured between 2016 and 2019. However, the license plate is partially obscured, making identification difficult.
Detectives have reached out to local residents and nearby CCTV owners for any additional footage showing the truck entering or leaving the area.
“If this man traveled 50 kilometers with a child at that hour, he must have passed other cameras,” said Inspector Matthews. “We just need to find one that caught his plate.”
Investigators are now cross-referencing the footage with traffic and toll data, hoping to reconstruct the man’s route — and possibly pinpoint where he took the child afterward.
Was Gus alive in that moment?
Forensic video analysts are currently enhancing the footage to determine whether the child in the man’s arms shows any movement or breathing. So far, experts say there are “flickers of motion” in several frames — a slight arm twitch, a change in head angle — but nothing conclusive.
“We’re cautiously hopeful,” Matthews said. “There’s no visible sign of harm. That could mean he was alive at that point.”
Still, the footage raises deeply troubling possibilities: Was Gus being moved by his abductor? Was he unconscious? Or — as one criminal profiler suggested — was the man trying to make it appear as though Gus was still alive?
Public reaction: shock, fear, and renewed hope
News of the footage has sent shockwaves through social media, reigniting the #FindGusLamont movement with millions of posts in just hours.
“I can’t stop thinking about that little toy car,” one commenter wrote. “If that’s really him, someone out there knows exactly where Gus is.”
Others expressed outrage that the gas station employee reportedly didn’t recognize or report the scene at the time. The attendant, who has since been questioned by police, claims he thought the pair were “just a father and a sleepy kid.”
“They were quiet, calm. Nothing seemed wrong,” he told reporters. “I wish I’d looked closer.”
A race against time
Police have expanded the search radius to include abandoned farmhouses and cabins along the highway leading away from the gas station. Specialized canine units are now involved, trained to detect human scent even days after disappearance.
Authorities are also reviewing recent missing-persons reports and child abduction databases in other states, in case the suspect has struck before.
“The man in that footage is key,” said Matthews. “Find him, and we find Gus — one way or another.”
A mother’s desperate hope
Gus’s mother, Emma Lamont, broke her silence after seeing the footage. In a trembling voice, she told reporters:
“If that’s my boy… if that’s really Gus… please, whoever you are — don’t hurt him. Just bring him back to us.”
The family’s plea has since gone viral, with thousands of people across Australia organizing candlelight vigils and online campaigns demanding answers.
The unanswered question
While police work tirelessly to verify the footage, the discovery has reignited both hope and dread. If the boy in the video truly is Gus Lamont, it means he was alive — at least for a while — after vanishing from his suburban neighborhood.
But it also means someone has been hiding him in plain sight, traveling, stopping for fuel, and walking past cameras without fear.
And one chilling question remains:
If that man carried Gus Lamont into the gas station… where did he take him next?