The Parents
The Beaumonts received a lot of sympathy from the Australian public. It was never suggested that the children should not have been allowed to travel unsupervised, or that Mr. Beaumont and Mrs. Beaumont were in any way negligent as parents, simply because at that time in Australian society it was taken for granted that this was safe and acceptable.
They remained at their Somerton Park home for many years. Mrs Beaumont in particular held hope that the children would return and stated in interviews that it would be "dreadful" if the children returned home and did not find their parents waiting for them. Over many years, as new leads and new theories emerged, the Beaumonts co-operated fully in exploring every possibility, whether it was claims that the children had been abducted by a religious cult and were living variously in New Zealand, Melbourne, or Tasmania, or some clue that suggested a possible burial site for the children. Every search for their bodies failed to provide any further information. In recent years, the couple has sold the home and moved away, and while the case remains open, the South Australian Police Force remains informed of the couple's address. The Beaumonts divorced and are living separately. They are reported to have accepted that the truth may never be discovered, and have resolved to live their final years away from the public attention that followed them for decades. They were devastated in 1990 when newspapers published computer-generated photographs of how Jane, Arnna and Grant would have looked as adults. The pictures, published against their wishes (Nancy Beaumont refused to look at them), caused a huge backlash of public sympathy from a community which is still sensitive to their pain.
Read more about this topic: Beaumont Children Disappearance
Famous quotes containing the word parents:
“Affection, indulgence, and humor alike are powerless against the instinct of children to rebel. It is essential to their minds and their wills as exercise is to their bodies. If they have no reasons, they will invent them, like nations bound on war. It is hard to imagine families limp enough always to be at peace. Wherever there is character there will be conflict. The best that children and parents can hope for is that the wounds of their conflict may not be too deep or too lasting.”
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