As 2025 draws to a close and we look back at the stories that made headlines, for South Australians the year could be summarised as one where we searched for answers, with little results.
"This is a case of us making sure that we leave no stone unturned."
But sadly, as 2025 draws to a close, so too does the hope of finding answers this year for little Gus Lamont and his family.
His disappearance sparked an extensive ground and air operation, described by police as "one of the largest, most intensive searches for a missing person conducted in South Australia in recent times".
But despite three more searches at the isolated property — 40 kilometres south of Yunta — there has been no trace of Gus.
One thing police have repeatedly said is that they have not uncovered any evidence of foul play.
Police previously said they suspected that Gus had "wandered away from the property", and said his family had described the boy as a "quiet" but "pretty adventurous" child.
It's the SA story from 2025 that has captivated the state, and the nation: What happened to little Gus?
Police have returned to Yunta in the search for Gus three times. (ABC News: Guido Salazar)
Sadly, it's a theme that could summarise a year of news for South Australians. A year of searching for answers, with little to no results.
From a renewed, but fruitless dig for the missing Beaumont children, to the end of a chapter in SA's notorious and heinous "Family murders", 2025 has held an air of mystery.
The Beaumont children went missing in 1966. (News Video)
The search for Gus drew harrowing comparisons to the Beaumonts, who were last seen in the Adelaide beachside suburb of Glenelg almost 60 years ago.
"We've had those other cases in the past, like the Beaumonts, that remain unsolved, and I think the memories of that live with South Australians," SA Police Minister Blair Boyer said last month when speaking about Gus's disappearance.
The private seven-day dig, led by MP Frank Pangallo, was the third at the site with searches also conducted in 2013 and 2018.
A new search for the Beaumont children was conducted earlier this year. (ABC News)
While it failed to unearth any signs of remains, Mr Pangallo said he received "significant information" from "extremely credible people".
It's often said that life in Adelaide quickly changed when the Beaumont children went missing, with many parents feeling more fearful for their children's safety.
But just over a decade later, it was a series of murders, known as "The Family" murders, that were said to have stolen Adelaide's innocence.
Von Einem spent more than half his life in prison for the sexually motivated abduction and murder of 15-year-old boy Richard Kelvin — the son of former Adelaide Nine News presenter Rob Kelvin — in 1983.
Bevan Spencer von Einem died in December, taking his secrets with him. (ABC News)
He was also linked to "The Family" murders that remained unsolved, which included Alan Barnes, 17, Neil Muir, 25, Peter Stogneff, 14, and Mark Langley, 18, who were brutally killed between 1979 and 1982.
But von Einem has taken any knowledge he had of what happened to those victims with him to the grave.
When announcing von Einem's death earlier this month, Premier Peter Malinauskas said "most unforgivably" von Einem refused to cooperate with police despite having had every opportunity to do so.
"His death does nothing to erase the murder and torture he inflicted on innocent lives, nor does it ease the anger and grief carried by the families of his victims whose lives were shattered by his actions," he said.
"The greatest tragedy is that they may never know the full truth because of his deliberate and selfish silence.
"South Australian police had been working exceptionally hard to get information out of von Einem right up until his death, and I think it's a great shame on him that he never sought to provide any peace to other victims' families in a way that we know that he potentially could have."
It seems all hope of finding those answers have ended in 2025, but there was another "mystery" in South Australia that dominated news coverage this year.
A sea foam began washing up on SA's coastline in March. (ABC News: Che Chorley)
Little did we know at the time, that an ecological disaster would unfold on our coast for months, with countless sea life killed, beaches closed and multitudes of people falling sick from the algal bloom.
"We can't hide our head in the sand and pretend that this is somehow a phenomenon that might have somehow happened without climate change," then SA environment minister Susan Close said in July.
That cautious optimism is not the only shining light of SA's year.
While the stories mentioned above ranked as some of the ABC's most read SA stories this year, there were also plenty of uplifting and hopeful tales too.
There was one mystery that was solved this year, and that was the case of Valerie the missing sausage dog, who survived in the wild of Kangaroo Island for 529 days.
What followed was an epic tale of a community's bid to reunite the beloved pooch with her owners.
Government's bold Whyalla move
In other positive news, the Whyalla community was granted a reprieve when the state government stepped in and forced the ailing steelworks into administration — after it was revealed the former owners, GFG Alliance, had racked up hundreds of millions in debt and had not been paying workers.
"Given the state of the steelworks were going from bad to worse … it was approaching a point where it would be irredeemable. That is unsatisfactory. That invites government intervention," the premier said in February.
But the move came at the cost of the government's dream of a hydrogen future with plans to build a hydrogen power plant in Whyalla having to be scrapped.
The SA government forced the Whyalla steelworks into administration in February. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)
Police have also left the door open on further searches for Gus Lamont, whose image will remain ingrained in the minds of many South Australians for years to come.
As revellers prepare to bring in the new year, with resolutions in mind, one can only hope there are more answers than questions in 2026.