Unmasking the Killer of the Missing Beaumont Children

An unsolved crime so heartbreaking, it shook Australia to its core and changed the country forever

Stuart Mullins, Bill Hayes

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
• eBook ISBN:
  9781761635861
• Year: 2025

Now with three new chapters, author Stuart Mullins and former South Australian police detective Bill Hayes expose Harry Phipps as the prime suspect in the abduction, disappearance, and likely murder of the Beaumont children, one of Australia’s most notorious cold cases since 1966.

On Australia Day 1966, Jane, Arnna, and Grant Beaumont were abducted from Colley Reserve, Glenelg, South Australia and never seen again, leading to one of Australia's most extensive police investigations and manhunts. Five decades later, no trace of the children has ever been found.

Over the years, several individuals have been put forward and investigated, resulting in false leads and dead ends, and with no real suspect until now: Harry Phipps. On the surface, he was a gentleman: generous, charismatic, and intelligent – a person of wealth and influence in the community. However, a dramatically different person resided behind the walls of his Glenelg mansion.

In Unmasking the Killer of the Missing Beaumont Children, author Stuart Mullins and former South Australian police detective Bill Hayes expose Harry Phipps as the prime suspect in the abduction, disappearance, and likely murder of the Beaumont children.

Over ten pieces of circumstantial evidence linking Phipps to the Beaumont abduction are explored in detail, supported by geographic and predator profiling chapters, which detail how these monsters operate. The authors explore a potential link to the 1973 Adelaide Oval abduction of Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe and reveal conversations with Haydn Phipps, the eldest son of Harry and a possible eyewitness to events on that fateful day.

Stuart and Bill answer the question: where to next? Along with other experts, they firmly believe the answer to this baffling mystery lies buried at Castalloy, a factory once owned by Harry Phipps.
 
This edition features three new chapters of material covering the 2025 forensic dig at the Castalloy site and further chilling, deeply disturbing and unsettling allegations against Phipps and possible accomplices. 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Beaumont Generation
• Chapter 2: What Happened That Day
• Chapter 3: The Sorrowful Years
• Chapter 4: Three Journalists
• Chapter 5: Jane’s Best Friend
• Chapter 6: All Roads Lead to Harry Phipps
• Chapter 7: The Making of a Predator
• Chapter 8: Circumstantial Evidence
• Chapter 9: The Pound Note
• Chapter 10: Geographic Profiling
• Chapter 11: Characteristics of a Paedophile
• Chapter 12: Follow the Money
• Chapter 13: The Eyewitness
• Chapter 14: Angela’s Letter
• Chapter 15: The Polygraph Expert
• Chapter 16: Another Victim
• Chapter 17: Victims of Sexual Abuse
• Chapter 18: The Factory Dig
• Chapter 19: Haydn’s Cousin
• Chapter 20: The Younger Brother
• Chapter 21: The Adelaide Oval Abduction
• Chapter 22: Child Abduction and Murder
• Chapter 23: The Evil Choir
• Chapter 24: The Mullighan Inquiry
• Chapter 25: The Purse
• Chapter 26: The Police Investigation
• Chapter 27: Previous Suspects
• Chapter 28: Where to Next
• Chapter 29: The Drop
• Chapter 30: The Shit Pit
• Chapter 31: The Revelation
• Postscript by Bill Hayes
• Thanks To
• Photographs
• References
• Image Descriptions
• Copyright