CANBERRA, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- New information about a possible burial site of three children who went missing in South Australia 52 years ago has been described as "the best lead" in the case's history.
Police in South Australia (SA) on Monday night announced that an industrial site in Adelaide would be excavated in the search for the Beaumont children who went missing in 1966.
Jane, Arnna and Grant Beaumont, aged nine, seven and four years old respectively, went missing on January 26, 1966 when they went to a nearby beach together to celebrate Australia Day.
They were last seen at 3pm on that day, walking in the general direction of their home.
The new lead comes after SA Police's Major Crime Investigation Branch undertook a 12-month review of the cold case, one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in Australia's history.
The property, a factory site, was excavated in 2013 but nothing was found.
Harry Phipps, the former owner of the site, was investigated by police in 1966 after his son reportedly told authorities that he had seen the Beaumont children in the backyard of their family home on the day they disappeared.
Bill Hayes, a former SA Police detective, on Tuesday said that the identification of a new investigation site was "without a shadow of a doubt" the most significant evidence to emerge in the case.
"It is the best lead that there ever has been in the case of these children -- the best information that we've ever had," Hayes told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio on Tuesday.
"You do get information through from time to time, but unfortunately like most of these things, some of the information you can discount immediately.
"Just now and again though, one piece starts to make things gel a little bit."
Witnesses who were at the beach on the day of the disappearance reported seeing the children with a tall man in his mid-30s with a suntan and short, blond hair.
Hayes said that the parents of the children, now aged in their 90s, deserved answers on what happened to their children.
"It's never been over for the Beaumont (family) -- it's never been over for the state or for the country," he said.
"The taking of these children was and is an abhorrent act.
"They (the family) deserve us to continue probing and looking to give an answer."
An 800,000 U.S. dollar reward remains on offer from the SA government for any information that leads to an arrest.
