A new photo has emerged that appears to reveal more about the secretive past of missing South Australian child Gus Lamont’s embattled grandparent, Josie Murray.

A man wearing a pale blue shirt, white shorts and a cowboy hat and clutching a red can at an Australia Day picnic on an outback property has been identified as Josie before she transitioned into a woman.

Three independent sources in the Yunta community confirmed the person in the image, dated January 26, 1994, is Josie Murray when she was known as Robert ‘Snow’ Murray.

When asked to identify the tall, tanned outdoorsman in the group photo, one local immediately responded: ‘That’s Snow/Josie Murray.’

Josie, 75, would have been in her early 40s in the picture, and already father to daughter Jessica Murray, who would grow up to become mother of Gus.

Daily Mail understands Josie, who worked as a builder and sheep-station worker in her earlier years, began her formal gender transition in the early 2000s.

One local said Josie bravely went around friends living the remote Mid North – full of traditionally macho farmers, shearers and stockmen – and explained her decision.

‘I’m sure no-one would have said anything to her face back in the day – she would have knocked a few old truckies out at the front bar!’ they added.

A sourced confirmed that Josie Murray is pictured at a community event in 1994

Josie, who began her formal gender transition in the early 2000s, is seen running errands in Peterborough in November

Gus Lamont disappeared from his grandparents’ home on September 27

Since then, Josie lived a quiet life on remote Oak Park station 400km north of Adelaide, running about 10,000 head of sheep across 60,000ha of arid, pastoral land together with Shannon, 73, and later daughter, Jessica, who is thought to be 39.

The hunt for Gus has attracted global attention, which Josie, a local builder and labourer, would never have expected when she married into one of Yunta’s most prominent pastoral families.

Shannon inherited Oak Park from her mother, Clair Pfeiffer, who together with her husband Vincent – a WWII hero and Japanese prisoner of war – took over the property after the death of her father Harry Jones.

Josie grew up in Mt Crawford, a small town in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia, and attended Birdwood Primary School alongside her sister.

Their family was related to merino sheep producers in Mt Bryan, 140km from Yunta, and it is understood Josie and Shannon first met through those connections.

The couple welcomed Jessica around 1987 and lived in Jamestown while their daughter attended the local community school.

The family then moved to Oak Park when Josie’s father-in-law, Mr Pfeiffer, died in the mid-2000s.

Josie is now the central figure in the disappearance of her four-year-old grandson, who vanished from Oak Park Station, 45km south of Yunta, on September 27.

Shannon Murray seen with baby Jessica in the 1980s

Shannon Murray also retained separate legal counsel, which is not unusual in these cases

Gus’s parents Jessica Murray and Joshua Lamont are not considered suspects

He was reportedly last seen by grandmother Shannon as he played on a sandpile in front of the family homestead around 5pm on the day he vanished

Police now believe Gus has died, and have said they suspect at least one member of his family may have been involved.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens this week revealed that two family members have now stopped co-operating with the police investigation.

Detective Superintendent Darren Fielke had earlier revealed one family member was no longer cooperating, as he declared the boy’s disappearance a ‘major crime’.

Both police chiefs stressed, however, that Gus’s parents, Jessica Murray and Joshua Lamont, were not suspects in the investigation and were assisting detectives.

Josie and Shannon Murray have now retained separate legal counsel, which is not unusual, and said they were ‘devastated’ by SAPOL’s announcement.

After Gus vanished, sparking South Australia’s largest ever missing person search, Josie waved a shotgun when a Daily Mail reporter approached her for comment on October 31.

In video footage of the incident, the journalist could be heard telling Josie that she was leaving the property, as Josie shouted: ‘Are you deaf? Shut your face.’

Josie brandished a shotgun when a Daily Mail reporter visited Oak Park on October 31

Gus was last known to be playing in this sand pile around 5pm the day he vanished

Earlier that month, Josie had also reacted angrily to another Daily Mail reporter, saying she would be ‘forcibly removed’ from the property.

On February 5, just over four months after Gus disappeared, at a press conference in Adelaide, police revealed they had escalated the investigation to ‘major crime’ status.

Detectives revealed they now believed Gus was deliberately or accidentally killed by someone known to him, and they had seized a vehicle, a motorbike and electronics from the homestead.

After intensive and extensive searches of the area, police have now ruled out that Gus wandered off, or was kidnapped. 

This week, detectives returned to Oak Park Station and some neighbouring properties with a cadaver dog to inspect an area of freshly-laid cement and conducted further ground and air searches.

No new evidence was found, but Major Crime detectives are expected to return to the region frequently in coming weeks.

On Monday, however, Josie was charged with weapons offences which are unrelated to Gus or the gun incident with the Daily Mail journalist.

She will face Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on May 6 charged with possessing a prohibited ‘silencer’ or firearm sound moderator, also known as a suppressor.

Josie reacted angrily when a Daily Mail reporter approached her for comment early October

The Oak Park Station has been sealed off to uninvited visitors for several months now

After police declared Gus’s disappearance a major crime, Josie and Shannon retained separate lawyers

A suppressor is screwed to the end of the barrel of a firearm and used to muffle the sound of a shot being fired. They have been illegal since the 1996 gun laws.

If convicted, the offence carries up to maximum sentence of 15 years in jail or a fine of up to $75,000.

Josie’s gun charge took the Yunta community by surprise, with some station owners insisting farmers should be allowed to own suppressors for their weapons.

‘We have to shoot the feral goats, pigs and foxes around here,’ said one local grazier.

‘We often do it from inside the cabin of a vehicle because you don’t have a lot of time and it helps to have something to lean on.

‘It makes a loud sound much louder, and that’s why some of the old blokes around here are deaf.’