CASE PROFILE

Type: Abduction

Date: January 26, 1966

Location: Glenelg Beach, South Australia

Victims: Jane 9, Grant 4, Arna Beaumont, 7



LAST KNOWN MOVEMENTS

10.00am: The children left their residence at 109 Harding Street, Somerton Park to walk less than 100 metres to the Diagonal Road- Harding Street bus stop.  

10:10am: The children boarded the Seacombe Gardens to Glenelg bus. It is believed the children got off the bus at the Jetty Road - Moseley Street stop, in front of Wenzel's Cake Shop and continued the short walk to glenelg beach.

11.00am: A 74 year old woman witnessed the children 'frolicking' with a tall, thin 30-40 year old suntanned surfie at Colley Reserve. A Broken Hill man had also witnessed seeing the same man lying on a towel in the grassed area in Colley Reserve watching the children wash themselves off under the sprinklers. He was wearing dark blue bathers (with a white stripe) and his clothes were placed on a seat near the sailing club. The elderly woman stated that she watched as the man started talking with the children, and then playing and laughing with them as Grant and Arna jumped over him laying on his towel. The woman also said the eldest child, Jane joined in the fun by jokingly flicking the man with her towel. The children were still playing with this man when the woman left around noon.

12.00pm: An elderly couple recalled seeing the children and the man standing on the grass behind where they were seated. The man approached them and asked if they had seen anyone messing with their clothes and that money had been taken from them. The man then helped to dress the children by pulling their shorts on over their bathers, including the eldest Jane. The man then left the children alone and went to the changing sheds. The children were still standing near where the elderly couple had been seated when they left the beach with their granddaughter at 12.15pm.

12:30pm: (approx.) An assistant working in Wenzel's Cake Shop on Moseley Street said the children came in and purchased pies and pasties using a one pound note. They also asked for another lunch in a separate bag.