Family friend falsely portrayed in posts of Australian boy's disappearance
- Published on October 15, 2025 at 03:48
- 3 min read
- By Dene-Hern CHEN, AFP Australia
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As authorities in South Australia scaled back their search for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont, whose disappearance in late September captivated the public, a photo circulated in posts falsely claiming it showed the child's grandmother criticising the police. The woman in the picture is a family friend who told AFP her image was taken from an interview she gave to local media.
"SH0CKING RAGE FROM GUS LAMONT'S GRANDMOTHER: In a desperate outburst, she blames the police's 'incompetence' in the outback search for her 'Little Lamb'," reads a post shared on October 7, 2025 in a Facebook page that publishes celebrity content.
The post was reshared more than 110 times by Australia-based users, including one questioning: "Why wasn't he watched a bit more closely out there? Why wasn't a photo put up as soon as the police were notified? How do we REALLY know he wasn't abducted?"
Accompanying the post is a composite image of several pictures, including one of a woman in a khaki-coloured hat who is implied to be the grandmother.
The same photo of the woman was used in an October 6 post from another celebrity content website, with the text reading that the grandmother had said, "It's all my fault".
Variations of these posts circulated online after South Australian police announced they had scaled back an intense search for Gus following advice from medical experts that there was little hope of finding the boy alive (archived link).
He had disappeared from his family's homestead on September 27. According to the police, his grandmother last saw him at 5 pm playing on a mound of dirt at the homestead (archived link).
When she went outside to call him in at 5:30 pm, he had vanished.
Many commenters on the false posts appeared to blame the grandmother, with one saying, "I think you've got some explaining to do".
The woman pictured in the false posts, however, is not Gus's grandmother.
Family friend
A reverse image search found the woman is Fleur Tiver, a family friend who was interviewed on October 4 by South Australia-based news outlet The Advertiser (archived link).
The Advertiser also posted a video of the interview to their official X page on October 7 (archived link).
According to the article, Tiver is a family friend of the Lamonts who travelled from her home to Yunta -- where Gus had disappeared -- to help with the search.
When reached by email, Tiver told AFP that although she has not been following the matter online, she was "aware that I have been portrayed as the 'grandmother'."
"I am NOT the child's grandmother -- though our families are so close that I think I am a sort of honorary aunt," she said in an email on October 12.
Tiver explained that she had intended to just give a statement to The Advertiser, but TV journalists nearby "begged" her to go in front of the camera.
"As I now realise, people can 'clip' images from video and use them any way they like," she said.
Tiver added: "I am far too busy helping this poor family find their beloved son and grandson, so I am operating out in the real 3D world. And as soon as you are more than 10 km out of Yunta, I am out of cell-phone range and therefore blissfully protected from whatever vile trash is circulating on what I call the 'antisocial media'."
An update from the police on October 7 said that while search efforts had been scaled back, the investigation is now being managed by the Missing Persons Section for long-term cases (archived link).
AFP has fact-checked other false posts related to Gus's disappearance.
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