Excavation at a factory site in Adelaide has been called off after failing to find the remains of the missing Beaumont children, ensuring the 50-year mystery of their disappearance will continue.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The dig on Friday uncovered some animal bones but nothing related to the Beaumont children, Chief Superintendent Des Bray said.
"I can confirm that we have searched the areas of interest and reached the bottom of those areas and gone well below so that we can be 100 per cent certain," Supt Bray told reporters.
"I can confirm we have found bones of various animals, but there has been nothing human located on the site.
"Sadly this means for the Beaumont family that we still have no answers.
"But we will always do anything humanly possible to locate the Beaumont children and take them home to their family."
The dig was sparked by recent scientific studies which revealed signs of a large hole dug on the Plympton North site at around the time the children went missing.
Jane, 9, Arnna, 7, and Grant, 4, never returned after leaving their parents' Glenelg home for an afternoon at the beach on Australia Day, 1966.
Their disappearance sparked an intensive search but they were never found, making it Australia's most enduring cold case.
In 2013, new information focused the investigation on a factory west of Adelaide, after two brothers told police they spent the 1966 Australia Day weekend digging a large hole there at the request of owner Harry Phipps.
Phipps died in 2004, but his son, who accused his father of years of sexual abuse, believed he had a part in the crime.
Other family members discredited the son's story in the years since.
Phipps - who lived close to Glenelg Beach - also bore a resemblance to an identikit picture of a potential suspect, which had been prepared at the time.
An initial excavation at his factory site proved fruitless.
Supt Bray said the childrens' parents Nancy and Jim Beaumont had been told of the outcome of the latest investigations but declined to comment on their response.
The couple are now aged in their 90s.
"I don't think there's anybody in the country who doesn't want to find the Beaumont children," he said.
"I'm not going to make out that I can speak for Mr Beaumont. I think everybody in the community can use their imagination and they will know the impact this would have had on the Beaumont family."
Despite wrapping up work at the Adelaide factory site, police say they still have some investigations to complete in relation to the wider allegations against Phipps.
But Supt Bray said there would be no comment on those further inquiries at this time.
