Speaker 1: Now pull up close, friend, let me tell you a
Speaker 1: truth that most folks don't like to think about. We've
Speaker 1: all been talked from time war in short pants that
Speaker 1: the Boogeyman lives in the dark. We're told he hides
Speaker 1: under the bed, or waits in the deep ink black
Speaker 1: woods where the moonlight can't reach. But now that's a
Speaker 1: comforting line, ain't it. The truly terrifying truth is that
Speaker 1: sometimes the Boogieyman don't need the dark to do his work.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he walks right out into the blistering midday sun,
Speaker 1: wearing a bright smile and a golden tan. You don't
Speaker 1: believe me, just ask the folks of Adelaide, Australia. They'll
Speaker 1: tell you about the summer of nineteen sixty six, and
Speaker 1: they'll tell you about today. The innocence of a whole
Speaker 1: nation was swallowed up by the sand. It was January
Speaker 1: twenty six, Australia day. Now down in that part of
Speaker 1: the world, January is a dead middle of summer. In
Speaker 1: this particular day, it was a scorcher. We're talking one
Speaker 1: hundred degrees in the shade, the kind of heat that
Speaker 1: makes the air shimmer of the asphalt and makes the
Speaker 1: chicken ate his scream in the gum trees. Over in
Speaker 1: a quiet, safe little suburb, Jim and Nancy Beaumont were
Speaker 1: letting their three kids head down to the water to
Speaker 1: cool off. There was Jane, the oldest at nine, responsible,
Speaker 1: careful little mother. Hen then there was Arna, seven years old,
Speaker 1: and little Grant, who was just four. They were good kids,
Speaker 1: cautious kids, the kind of children who wouldn't take candy
Speaker 1: from a neighbor they had known for five years without
Speaker 1: looking back at their mama for permission. Jane, especially, folks
Speaker 1: said she was as shy as a field mouse. The
Speaker 1: plan was simple enough. The beach lin Elk Beach was
Speaker 1: just a short five minute bus right away. The children
Speaker 1: had made the trip one hundred times. Nancy gave them
Speaker 1: a few coins for busfair and told them to buy
Speaker 1: some meat pies for lunch. She kissed their heads and
Speaker 1: told them to catch the noon bus back and off
Speaker 1: they went, three little blonde heads bobbing down the street,
Speaker 1: their towels slung over their shoulders, walking right into the
Speaker 1: mystery that still won't let them go. Now. The beach
Speaker 1: was packed that day. Imagine the sea of humanity, Thousands
Speaker 1: of people crammed onto the white sand. Colorful came with
Speaker 1: umbrellas blooming like wild mushrooms, children splashing in the surf,
Speaker 1: radios blaring cricket matches, and the heavy sweet smell of zinc,
Speaker 1: kareem and salt water hanging in the thick air. It
Speaker 1: was a crowded, noisy, vibrant place. But out there, amiss
Speaker 1: the thousands of regular folks, there was a predator hiding
Speaker 1: in plain sight. When the noon bus rolled back into
Speaker 1: the Beaumont's neighborhood, Nancy was waiting at the bus stop.
Speaker 1: The doors hissed open, a few folks stepped off, and
Speaker 1: the doors closed back. No Jane, no Arna, no grant.
Speaker 1: Now Nancy felt a little floater of worry. You know
Speaker 1: how it is kids lose track of time. They missed
Speaker 1: the bus. She went back home, figured to be on
Speaker 1: the two o'clock bus. But when the two o'clock bus
Speaker 1: came and went, that little flood of worry turned into
Speaker 1: a cold stone in their stomach. By the time the
Speaker 1: three o'clock bus pulled away empty, the panic had fully
Speaker 1: set in. Jim came home from work and the two
Speaker 1: of them rushed down to the beach. Their eyes darting
Speaker 1: over the nouth, ding crowds culling out those three names
Speaker 1: until their voices went hoarse against the crashing waves. By nightfall,
Speaker 1: the police were involved, and when they started asking the
Speaker 1: beach course what they had seen that afternoon, the blood
Speaker 1: in the detective's veins ran ic cold. Multiple witnesses, good
Speaker 1: honest folks, came forward with the same exact story. They
Speaker 1: had seen Jane, Arno and Grant planting in the sand
Speaker 1: under the sprinklers. But they weren't alone. They were with
Speaker 1: a man. He was described as tall, thin, but athletic,
Speaker 1: with sun bleached blonde hair and a deep leathery tan.
Speaker 1: He was wearing nothing but a pair of swim trunks.
Speaker 1: And here is the detail that'll keep you awake, good
Speaker 1: night friend. The children were not afraid of him, Oh no,
Speaker 1: those three shy, timid children who had been lectured a
Speaker 1: hundred times about a stranger doing were seen laughing and
Speaker 1: splashing with this man as if he were a beloved uncle.
Speaker 1: He even went over to the local bakery and bought
Speaker 1: them some meat pies with a one pound note. The
Speaker 1: witnesses just smiled bigger, and he was a family friend
Speaker 1: or maybe an older cousin keeping an eye on them.
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't they It was a beautiful afternoon. This monster
Speaker 1: didn't have horns or fangs, hit, a charming smile, and
Speaker 1: a pocket full of money. Now the police realized with
Speaker 1: a sickening jolt that this man hadn't just snatched them,
Speaker 1: He had groomed them. Arna had recently told her mother
Speaker 1: Jane got a boyfriend down at the beach. Nancy had
Speaker 1: initially laughed it off, thinking it was just child's play,
Speaker 1: a harmless crush on some boy building sandcastles. She didn't
Speaker 1: know that the boy was a grown man, occasionally laying
Speaker 1: his trap in the sun. Now, the last credible sighting
Speaker 1: of the Beaumont children was by the local postman, a
Speaker 1: man who knew the kids well. He saw them walking
Speaker 1: away from the beach around three o'clock in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: headed toward the main road, holding hands, walking in a lane,
Speaker 1: and they seemed completely happy, And then nothing. It was
Speaker 1: as if the Australian Earth simply opened up his fiery
Speaker 1: mall and swallowed them whole. Then what followed was the largest,
Speaker 1: most desperate man hunt in the history of the country.
Speaker 1: They brought in tracker dogs, They dredged the ocean, They
Speaker 1: dug up sinkholes and scoured the bush limb. They searched
Speaker 1: every shed, every bandoned well, every cellar for hundreds of miles.
Speaker 1: The desperation got so thick you could cut it with
Speaker 1: a knife. The parents even flew in a famous psychic
Speaker 1: from the Netherlands, the guy named Gerard Crosat. He walked
Speaker 1: around town in a trance, pointing at a newly excavated
Speaker 1: warehouse site, claiming the children were buried under the fresh concrete.
Speaker 1: The public outcry was so loud that the city actually
Speaker 1: forced the owners to tear up the foundation. The jackhammers
Speaker 1: bit into the stone, tear it apart, chunk by chunk,
Speaker 1: while a heart broken nation held its breath sadly, they
Speaker 1: found nothing but dirt and broken rock. No clothes, no bones,
Speaker 1: no answers. Now, over the decades, the police chased down
Speaker 1: thousands of leads. They received cruel hoax letters from folks
Speaker 1: claiming to be the kidnapper. They investigated every drifter, every
Speaker 1: local creep, every dying man who wanted to declare his conscious.
Speaker 1: Then every few years a new suspect would make the headlines.
Speaker 1: Men with cold eyes and dark histories, but the evidence
Speaker 1: always slipped through the detective's fingers like fine dry sand.
Speaker 1: Jim and Nancy Beaumont stayed in that same house for decades,
Speaker 1: keeping the same phone number, bringing that one day the
Speaker 1: phone would ring and Jane's voice would be on the
Speaker 1: other end, explaining that it had all been a terrible misunderstanding. Sadly,
Speaker 1: the Beaumonts passed away during that jagged, open wound, with
Speaker 1: him right to their graves. The vanishing of those three
Speaker 1: little ones did something terrible to the soul of Australia.
Speaker 1: Before that day, kids ran free. They rode their bikes
Speaker 1: until the street lights came on. They hitchhiked, they took
Speaker 1: the bus to the beach alone. But after January twenty sixth,
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six, the locks click shut on the front doors.
Speaker 1: Parents held their children's hands a little tighter, their eyes
Speaker 1: scanning the crowds for a tall, blonde man with a
Speaker 1: charming smile. The innocence of an entire era was snuffed
Speaker 1: out in a single afternoon. So you see, the Boogeyman
Speaker 1: don't need the dark friend. Oh No, sometimes he just
Speaker 1: needs a crowded beach, a sunny day and a smile
Speaker 1: that makes you trust him right up until the moment
Speaker 1: he leads you off the edge of the world. Next
Speaker 1: time you're in a crowd standing in the right sunlight,
Speaker 1: take a good look at the folks smiled at you,
Speaker 1: because you never really know what kind of shadow they're casting.