Case 322: William Tyrrell (Part 2/2)

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your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential
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support and for a more detailed list of content warnings,
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please see the show notes for this episode on your
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app or on our website. Today's episode involves crimes against
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children and won't be suitable for all listeners. Please note
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that the names of several individuals have been changed due
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to court suppression orders preventing them from being identified, while
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others have been changed to protect their privacy. By the
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time William Tyrrell had been missing for three years, police
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had almost 700 persons of interest remaining on their list.
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But among the legitimate leads they received, they were also
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inundated with bogus sightings, prank phone calls and clairvoyant prophecies.
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On the third anniversary of William's disappearance, lead detective Gary
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Jubiland spoke publicly about the case for the first time
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in 12 months. With William's status as a foster child
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now able to be reported on, Detective Jubilant attempted to
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quash the ongoing rumours by making it clear that both
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the foster parents and biological parents had been ruled out
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of the investigation. He insisted that William's foster parents had
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been bringing him up in a warm and loving home
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and that they had nothing to do with his disappearance.
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Detective Jubelin appealed for anyone with information to come forward,
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clarifying that he didn't want to get bogged down with
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irrelevant details. It's three years down the track, let's be realistic,
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he said. We're not interested in sightings of a child
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running around in a Spider-Man suit playing in the McDonald's
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car park. What we are interested in is people that
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have genuine information. That information might be in the form
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of someone that has concerns about someone they know, someone
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within their family, in the way they react when William
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Tyrrell's name is mentioned. We're interested in speaking to those people.
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We can do it in the strictest of confidence, and
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I would encourage those people to come forward. It sounds
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counterintuitive to say we're making progress, but each day we're
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learning more about what happened at the time and we're
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eliminating people. We're making progress each day. We don't think
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this has been a success by any stretch of the imagination,
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but we're not going to give up. Once again, police
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canvassed homes around Kendall, hoping that the passing of time
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might propel someone to talk. If anyone knew anything, they
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were remaining as tight-lipped as ever. However, what Detective Jubelin
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hadn't publicly revealed was that he'd set his sights on someone.
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Paul Savage was a retiree aged in his late 70s
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who lived on Beneroon Drive, directly across from William's foster grandmother,
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Mary Saunders. His front veranda looked towards the back of
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Mary's house, where William was last seen playing. Police had
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interviewed Savage in the early stages of the investigation and
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discovered that he was the only person outside of William's
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foster family who had heard the children playing outside on
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the morning that William disappeared. According to Savage, the morning
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of Friday September 12 2014 had started out like any other.
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At around 8.30 he'd gone for his daily walk in
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the bush behind his property. Afterwards, he ate breakfast on
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his back deck before pottering around the house in preparation
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for an upcoming trip to pick his brother up from
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the hospital. At around 10.35, Paul Savage's wife Heather left
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for her weekly bingo game in Loreton. Savage had walked
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Heather to her car but said he hadn't heard any
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of the commotion going on down the street. He only
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discovered that William had gone missing at around 11am when
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a neighbour knocked on his door to inform him. Savage
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told the police that he immediately went looking for William
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down the fire tracks in the bush behind his property.
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He looked for two hours before finding himself a bit lost. Eventually,
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he found his way home and sat down to have
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a cup of tea. Shortly after, at around 1.30pm, some
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of Heather's relatives arrived for a pre-arranged visit and they
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all joined in on a line search. Savage said he
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continued searching until around 7pm and then all weekend, only
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stopping on Monday for his road trip to pick up
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his brother from the hospital in Lismore, which was a
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four-hour drive away. Heather Savage's statement to police supported her
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husband's version of events. She had left for bingo at
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around the same time that William was thought to have
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gone missing, with CCTV footage from the Kendall Tennis Club
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confirming that Heather's car had left town at 10.42am. She
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said she hadn't seen or heard anyone or anything out
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of the ordinary at the time. Although there was nothing
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outwardly suspicious about Paul Savage or his movements, Detective Gary
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Jubelin couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right.
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With Heather at bingo, there was no one who could
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vouch for his movements between 10.35am and 1.30pm on the
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day of William's disappearance. It also struck Detective Jubelin as
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odd that Paul Savage said he'd gotten lost in the
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bush during his search, given that he walked in the
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area every day. Savage also had a reputation with the
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locals for being a bit of a sticky beak. Detective
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Jubelin therefore found it strange that he claimed to have
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returned home to have a cup of tea without checking
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in with anyone to see if William had been found.
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If he could be nosy when not much of anything
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was going on, then why keep to himself when genuine
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drama was unfolding around him? These factors alone weren't incriminating,
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but they became of interest to the strike force after
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covert cameras were placed in the bushland surrounding the home
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of the man who police had dubbed Gorillas in the Mist.
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One of the cameras went missing. and it turned out
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that Paul Savage had it. He held onto the camera
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for six weeks before reporting it to the police station.
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At that point, Detective Jubelin's suspicions were intensifying. He looked
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into Savage and discovered that his home hadn't been searched
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until three days after William went missing. He hadn't been
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asked to provide a witness statement until two weeks later.
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When Paul Savage had driven to Lismore on the Monday
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after William went missing, his car hadn't been stopped or
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searched either. Theoretically speaking, if Savage had been involved in
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William's disappearance in any way, this would have given him
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a sizeable window of time to dispose of any evidence.
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It turned out that Savage had also exhibited some odd
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behaviours in the past. The local postwoman had a restraining
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order against him for harassment, and William's foster grandmother Mary
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told the police that Savage often showed up at her
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house uninvited. She claimed he had once stood outside her
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glass doors, just watching her inside. These interactions had made
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Mary feel so uncomfortable that she'd approached Heather Savage and
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asked her to have a word with her husband about it.
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Strikeforce investigators posited several theories centering around the Savages. They
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even considered the possibility that Heather could have accidentally hit
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William with her car when leaving for Bingo, and Paul
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Savage had then gone to great lengths to protect her
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by covering it up. Or maybe it was Savage himself
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who had accidentally hit William. He drove a Pajero four-wheel drive,
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which in the eyes of the three-year-old might have looked
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like a Land Rover. Investigators theorised that William could have
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seen Savage's car, mistaken it for his foster father's, and
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ran towards it, only to be accidentally run over. They
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also considered the possibility that William could have entered the
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Savage's property and some other kind of accident had occurred.
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By the time the savages came onto the strike force's radar,
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Heather Savage was no longer able to provide a statement.
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She had passed away six months into the William Tyrrell investigation.
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Her death left her husband devastated. For a month afterward,
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he wore a photo of Heather around his neck. Detective
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Gary Jubelin didn't necessarily think that Paul Savage was involved
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in William's disappearance, but he did think he might be
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the closest thing the police had to an eyewitness. He
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also wanted to be confident that he'd covered all bases
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before eliminating him as a person of interest. Despite some
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pushback from other members of the strike force who didn't
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think Savage had anything to do with it, Detective Jubelin
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organised warrants authorising listening devices to be installed in his home,
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car and telephone. Officers were tasked with listening to the
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hundreds of hours of audio files taken from the covert
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surveillance of Savage and discovered he had a habit of
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talking to himself. While he went about his daily life
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at home, he often chatted out loud, sometimes to his
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deceased wife. Most of his mutterings were irrelevant, but some
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further sparked Detective Jubelin's suspicions. Wanting to either pursue or
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eliminate Savage from his investigation once and for all, Jubelin
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hatched a plan. Officers would hide a dirty Spider-Man suit
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along the bush tracks behind his property and covertly film
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his reaction. If he had an extreme response or attempted
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to conceal the suit, they'd have further reason to suspect
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he was hiding something. More importantly, if Savage did have
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knowledge of where William's remains were, seeing the suit might
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compel him to visit that site, inadvertently leading police to
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William's body. The plan went ahead on the morning of
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Wednesday July 26 2017, less than two months before the
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third anniversary of William's disappearance. As expected, Paul Savage got
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up and went for his usual morning walk along the
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bush tracks behind his home. When he approached the area
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where the Spider-Man suit had been planted, he walked a
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few steps past it, then bent over and paused for
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approximately 12 seconds. Savage then returned home without reporting anything
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to the police. That evening, listening devices in Savage's home
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recorded him saying to himself, You know I love you, Angel.
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I bloody screwed up, eh? Investigators were torn. Some were
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convinced that Savage had seen the suit and had stopped
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to get a closer look at it. while others believed
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he hadn't noticed the suit at all and had coincidentally
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paused to look at something else. The Spider-Man suit was
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left alongside the bush track again the following morning. This time,
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Savage stopped and prodded the costume with his foot. He
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then turned around, walked home, and called the police to
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report the sighting. Two days later, the listening devices captured
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Savage talking to himself once again. He said something along
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the lines of, Well, I'm gonna run into your property too.
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This is my place. You're in my place. You do
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what I want. Hey, I'm not interested in your bullshit, mate.
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You're a little boy. You're nobody. You don't tell me.
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I'll tell you. I did tell you. Detective Jubelin still
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wasn't sure what to make of Paul Savage. Many others
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on the task force thought he was chasing a dead end,
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but Jubelin wasn't prepared to rule him out entirely. In
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August 2017, Detective Jubelin brought Savage in for questioning. He
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thought that if he interrogated him with enough pressure, he
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might be compelled to say something incriminating when he returned home.
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But Savage steadfastly maintained that he had nothing to hide.
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He vehemently denied the police theories that he or Heather
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could have accidentally killed William, saying there was no way
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in the world that either of them would ever hurt
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a child. He also denied having seen the Spider-Man suit
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in the bush the first time he walked past it.
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But as Savage drove home from the interrogation, The listening
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device in his car recorded him saying, Make sure you
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don't tell anyone, love. They are right after me. Don't
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tell anyone, love, please. They are right after me. Sorry.
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The following month, Savage was recorded at home saying to himself,
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They're gonna find something, mum. Don't dob on me, okay?
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Oh mum, what do I do? Although these recordings were
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equal parts bizarre and compelling, they proved nothing. By this point,
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the surveillance team had amassed thousands of hours of audio
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of Paul Savage, and there wasn't enough time to listen
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to it all. Many of the officers wanted to move on,
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but in early October 2017, Savage said something that Detective
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Jubelin couldn't ignore. In a recorded conversation with his daughter
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about whether or not he had seen the Spider-Man suit
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that first day, he remarked, I didn't see the suit.
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From memory, I'd just seen this white thing on the
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ground that was covered in dirt. Detective Jubelin was stunned.
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The Spider-Man suit that William Tyrrell was wearing on the
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day he disappeared had a white spider motif on the back.
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but this detail had never been released to the public.
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It was something that only the person who took him
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could have known. The suit planted in the bush didn't
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have a white spider on it either. In fact, there
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was no white on it at all, just red, blue
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and black. So why, Detective Jubilum wondered, did Paul Savage
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recall seeing a white item of clothing? Jubilant wanted to
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press him about this detail on a phone call, but
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by this point the warrants on his telephone intercepts had expired.
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The devices in Savage's home were still present, but it
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meant Jubilant's end of the conversation wouldn't be on the record.
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This could present an issue if Savage ever accused the
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detective of saying anything problematic further down the track. He'd
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already complained about being treated poorly during police interviews, saying
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the air conditioning was too high and that he hadn't
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been offered any water. To cover himself, Detective Jubilant decided
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to put the call on speakerphone and then use his
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own mobile to record the conversation. Jubilant called Savage and
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asked him about the Spider-Man suit he'd spotted in the bush.
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Savage repeated his claims that he'd just seen a white
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bit of cloth but made no mention of the red
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00:18:55.990 --> 00:19:00.049
or blue of the suit. There still wasn't any solid
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00:19:00.130 --> 00:19:04.069
reason to suspect he had any involvement in William's disappearance,
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00:19:04.509 --> 00:19:08.170
but Detective Jubilant believed there were enough red flags to
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keep pursuing him. Over the following months, he visited Paul
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Savage at home several more times to question him further.
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Knowing that the covert listening devices in Savage's home produced
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poor quality audio and their batteries sometimes went flat, Detective
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Jubilance secretly recorded their conversations on his mobile phone to
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ensure he had a clear record of what was said.
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Despite his efforts, the constant pressure he applied led nowhere,
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and the strike force was no closer to making any arrests. Meanwhile,
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there was another name that had come up multiple times
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during the investigation into William Tyrrell's disappearance that couldn't be ignored.
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Frank Abbott was an elderly man aged in his 70s
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who made a living doing odd jobs and collecting scrap metals.
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At the time of William's disappearance, he'd been living rough
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in a caravan 10 kilometres north of Kendal. Referred to
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by some townspeople as a, quote, dirty old man, Abbott
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apparently had a habit of making people feel uncomfortable. He
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wasn't trusted around children, with many parents warning their kids
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to stay away from him. He wasn't trusted around animals either.
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At least one of his neighbours had accused him of
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bestiality after walking into a disturbing scene involving Abbott and
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their family dog. Frank Abbott was already known to police
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as he had a long rap sheet that included various
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charges involving breaking and entering, theft, firearms offences and escaping
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from custody. At the time William Tyrrell went missing, he
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was out on bail after being charged with sexually abusing
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an eight-year-old girl. Strike force interest in Abbott grew after
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a woman who lived across the paddock from him claimed
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to have heard the pained scream of a young boy
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coming from the direction of where Abbott lived on the
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day after William went missing. Since then, Abbott had apparently
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made some odd comments. When police were searching the house
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of white goods repairer Bill Spedding, Abbott allegedly told two
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people that the police were looking in the wrong spot.
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To another, he claimed that he'd smelt a dead body
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in the bush near Logan's Crossing, an area 4.7 kilometres
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north of Kendal. Abbott allegedly said it wasn't an animal
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because he, quote, knew the difference between a dead kangaroo
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and a dead human smell. That comment alone was incriminating.
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In 1968, 17-year-old Helen Harrison went missing while riding her
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bike towards her home in the Sydney suburb of Moralia.
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One week later, her semi-naked body was found buried in
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a shallow grave southwest of Sydney. She had been robbed
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of her watch and $ 20 cash. Frank Abbott was spotlighted
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as a person of interest, but his parents supported his
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alibi that he'd been home at the time Helen went
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missing and there was no other evidence to link him
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00:22:30.710 --> 00:22:36.490
to the crime. Helen's murder remained unsolved for decades until
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the early 1990s when Frank Abbott was serving time for
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unrelated offences. While in prison, Abbott allegedly confessed to a
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fellow inmate that he was responsible for killing Helen Harrison.
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he ultimately faced trial for Helen's murder not once, but twice.
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The passing of time and death of critical witnesses meant
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the first jury couldn't reach a verdict and the second
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found him not guilty. Abbott often bragged about beating the
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murder charge, with one local saying he saw it as
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a badge of honour. Frank Abbott also had a connection
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to another person of interest in the Tyrrell investigation. Word
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00:23:22.569 --> 00:23:26.220
around town was that Abbott had been telling various people,
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I know where William Tyrrell is. Why don't you check
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00:23:30.500 --> 00:23:38.500
Jeff Owen's place? Jeff Owen was a qualified electrician and
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00:23:38.660 --> 00:23:41.750
general tradesman aged in his 60s who lived in a
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00:23:41.789 --> 00:23:45.980
caravan on the property next door to Frank Abbott. The
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00:23:46.019 --> 00:23:48.539
two men were known to be friends and had been
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seen driving around together in the past. Locals were somewhat
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wary of Owen, who reportedly had schizophrenia and had once
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killed a neighbour's dog after failing to take his medication.
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He came on the police radar after it was revealed
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that he had a direct connection to William Tyrrell's foster grandmother,
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Mary Saunders. Owen was Mary's handyman and he had been
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00:24:14.200 --> 00:24:19.799
booked in to repair her deck in mid-September 2014. At 9.10
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00:24:19.799 --> 00:24:24.329
on the morning of William's disappearance, Owen had called Mary
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to let her know the work would be delayed due
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to an unexpected stay in the hospital. Mary had missed
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the call as she'd been outside watching the children ride
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their bikes at the time. Police made some inquiries and
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discovered that Jeff Owen and Frank Abbott had worked on
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00:24:43.150 --> 00:24:47.539
some repair jobs together in the past. They considered the
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possibility that Owen could have offered Mary's deck repair job
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to Abbott, who then drove past the property and came
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upon William, grabbing him in a moment of opportunity. But
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00:24:59.160 --> 00:25:03.210
when questioned, Jeff Owen denied being friends with Frank Abbott.
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He said they were merely acquaintances and that he'd sometimes
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given Abbott a ride. Frank Abbott didn't have a driver's
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00:25:13.470 --> 00:25:17.349
license or own a car, but further inquiries revealed that
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he had access to one. His friend Ray Porter drove
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00:25:21.890 --> 00:25:25.289
an old white Commodore station wagon similar to the one
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William's foster mother claimed to have seen on Beneroon Drive
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on the morning of William's disappearance. According to some witnesses,
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Ray often let Abbott borrow it. By 2018, Frank Abbott
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was being held in prison pending an upcoming trial for
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unrelated child sex offences when police questioned him about William Tyrrell.
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He claimed that on the day the toddler went missing,
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he'd been in the nearby town of Warhope. He said
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he'd done some repair work at a takeaway shop before
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having lunch at the Uniting Church and then making a
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deposit at the bank. Abbott denied having anything to do
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with William's abduction, but implied that he knew who did.
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Abbott told police they should look into Tony Jones, the
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convicted child sex offender who had momentarily shared a cell
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with white goods repairman Bill Spedding. Jones had since been
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released from jail after serving just two of his three-year
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sentence for child sexual assault. Abbott claimed that in early 2015,
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a few months after William went missing, Ray Porter drove
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him out to a property in Logan's Crossing near an
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00:26:43.750 --> 00:26:48.470
old radio tower and log dump site. There, they met
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two men who were driving a white station wagon. One
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of the men allegedly introduced himself as Tony Jones. With
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them was a little boy. Case File will be back shortly.
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If the investigation into William's disappearance had exposed anything... It
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00:29:59.339 --> 00:30:02.460
was just how many sex offenders had chosen the quiet
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00:30:02.519 --> 00:30:07.930
life of the Mid-North Coast to call home. But Whitewood
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00:30:08.029 --> 00:30:13.390
repairman Bill Spedding was not a convicted sex offender. Although
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00:30:13.430 --> 00:30:16.049
he remained a person of interest in the William Tyrrell
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investigation by 2018, nothing further had been uncovered to link
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him to the crime. In March that year, Spedding faced
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trial for the 1987 child sexual assault charges against him.
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The woman at the centre of the allegations was Spedding's ex-wife.
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She was unable to provide any compelling evidence for the claims,
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saying she had lost crucial files. On the stand, Spedding's
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two alleged victims were reluctant. As grown adults, they admitted
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they had no memory of the abuse ever taking place.
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Had it occurred, Spedding's legal team suggested it was possible
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that the real abuser could have been their uncle. He
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00:31:02.859 --> 00:31:05.880
was a convicted pedophile and murderer who had been living
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with them around the time the alleged abuse was said
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to have taken place. The judge ultimately threw the case
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against Bill Spedding out. declaring it was based on claims
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that had already been disproven decades earlier, and she ordered
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that legal fees be paid in his favour. In turn,
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Spedding settled a defamation claim out of court with the
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00:31:29.910 --> 00:31:34.809
Daily Telegraph newspaper after they incorrectly referred to him as a, quote,
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00:31:35.150 --> 00:31:40.589
convicted pedophile. Although police had gathered no further evidence to
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00:31:40.650 --> 00:31:44.569
link Spedding to William Tyrrell's disappearance, he remained on their
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00:31:44.609 --> 00:31:51.690
list of persons of interest regardless. By mid-2018, the case
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was approaching its four-year anniversary with no major breakthroughs and
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the New South Wales Police were starting to come under fire.
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The decision was made to refer the case to the
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coroner for a formal inquest. Police told reporters that an
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inquest would give them an opportunity to test information and
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evidence gathered by Strike Force Roseanne and allow them to
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00:32:15.410 --> 00:32:21.089
further the investigation. If nothing else, it would formally solidify
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that William's disappearance was the result of human intervention and
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provide another step in getting answers for his loved ones. However,
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it also came with a downside. Unless the coroner recommended
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that charges be laid against a particular individual and referred
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the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions, William's case
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00:32:43.930 --> 00:32:47.849
would inevitably go to the Unsolved Homicide Unit, where police
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00:32:47.930 --> 00:32:54.009
resources were already stretched thin. In conjunction with the inquest,
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police announced that a new major search would be conducted
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00:32:57.519 --> 00:33:02.859
of the bushland behind Benaroon Drive. Unlike the initial search
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which was focused on finding a lost child, this would
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be a forensic search of a three kilometre radius focused
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00:33:09.740 --> 00:33:14.420
on finding evidence such as human remains or clothing. The
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aim was to rule out with forensic certainty that William
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hadn't gotten lost in the bush and died. The search
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00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:28.099
went ahead on Tuesday June 19 2018, led by officers
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from the Public Order and Riot Squad. For four weeks,
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they scoured the rugged bushland, digging through leaf litter as
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00:33:36.470 --> 00:33:42.680
GPS trackers recorded their every movement. Various items were uncovered,
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but nothing that could be linked to William Tyrrell. As
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police began the monumental task of putting a brief of
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evidence together for the coroner, it was revealed that someone
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on the strike force had spoken out about Detective Gary
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Jubelin's decision to record his conversations with Mary's neighbour Paul
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Savage without a warrant. In doing so, Jubelin had breached
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the Surveillance Devices Act, a criminal offence that carried a
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maximum sentence of five years in jail. Jubelin was given
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four charges and handed a legal document advising he was
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no longer allowed to speak to members of the strike
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force or to William Tyrrell's family. With the inquest about
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to begin, this was a major blow. Detective Jubelin had
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been leading William's homicide investigation for almost four years and
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he knew the case better than anyone. He'd also formed
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a close relationship with William's foster parents, and they relied
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00:34:47.480 --> 00:34:53.659
on him for support. Detective Jubelin fought to continue working
474
00:34:53.719 --> 00:34:55.989
on the case, even if it was only in an
475
00:34:56.070 --> 00:35:01.010
advisory capacity. To the great disappointment of Peter and Angela,
476
00:35:01.329 --> 00:35:06.550
his request was denied. Feeling as though he had little choice,
477
00:35:06.889 --> 00:35:10.030
Jubelin resigned from the police force as he awaited trial
478
00:35:10.070 --> 00:35:14.059
for the charges against him. which he intended to strongly defend.
479
00:35:16.420 --> 00:35:20.340
At Gary Jubelin's two-week hearing, his defence barrister claimed he
480
00:35:20.360 --> 00:35:23.840
had both a lawful right and an operational need to
481
00:35:23.900 --> 00:35:27.909
record his conversations with Savage to protect himself against any
482
00:35:27.989 --> 00:35:32.590
future complaints that the man might make. She argued that
483
00:35:32.670 --> 00:35:35.630
Jubelin was entitled to a degree of leniency due to
484
00:35:35.690 --> 00:35:39.869
his exemplary public service and calling this an exceptional case
485
00:35:40.130 --> 00:35:46.989
about an exceptional man. Several high-profile and well-respected figures within
486
00:35:47.030 --> 00:35:51.099
law enforcement testified on behalf of Jubal's strong character and
487
00:35:51.219 --> 00:35:55.500
professional work ethic, with some labelling him the best cop
488
00:35:55.579 --> 00:36:01.139
in New South Wales. William's foster parents were among his supporters.
489
00:36:02.679 --> 00:36:05.539
Angela teared up as she spoke of the connection her
490
00:36:05.599 --> 00:36:08.909
family had made with Gary Jubelin and how the investigation
491
00:36:08.969 --> 00:36:14.889
into William's disappearance had suffered since his absence. The prosecution
492
00:36:15.010 --> 00:36:18.750
argued that a potential future complaint could not be considered
493
00:36:18.789 --> 00:36:24.110
a lawful interest to justify recording without a warrant. Jubelin
494
00:36:24.130 --> 00:36:27.610
was ultimately found guilty of four counts of breaching the
495
00:36:27.650 --> 00:36:33.489
Surveillance Devices Act and given a $ 10, 000 fine. The sentencing
496
00:36:33.570 --> 00:36:38.690
magistrate criticised Jubilant's constant pursuit of Paul Savage, accusing him
497
00:36:38.750 --> 00:36:42.590
of belittling and humiliating the elderly man with no evidence,
498
00:36:42.829 --> 00:36:46.329
leads or witnesses to suggest he had anything to do
499
00:36:46.489 --> 00:36:52.849
with William's disappearance. Jubilant appealed against the conviction, saying he'd
500
00:36:52.889 --> 00:36:55.690
rather go to jail than pay to do police work,
501
00:36:56.170 --> 00:37:01.159
but he lost the appeal. Speaking to reporters outside court,
502
00:37:01.590 --> 00:37:06.969
Jubilant said, I'm obviously disappointed by the decision of the court.
503
00:37:07.929 --> 00:37:10.349
The court says that I went too hard to find
504
00:37:10.469 --> 00:37:14.179
out what happened to William Tyrrell. I couldn't live with
505
00:37:14.260 --> 00:37:17.960
myself if I did anything less, so I stand by
506
00:37:18.039 --> 00:37:24.860
what I did. While all this was going on, Kendall
507
00:37:24.900 --> 00:37:29.769
man Ray Porter's health was failing. Ray was the friend
508
00:37:29.809 --> 00:37:32.829
of Frank Abbott's who drove an old white station wagon
509
00:37:33.030 --> 00:37:35.710
similar to the one Angela claimed to have seen on
510
00:37:35.780 --> 00:37:42.559
Benaroon Drive on the morning of William's disappearance. In early 2019,
511
00:37:42.559 --> 00:37:45.719
Ray was living in an aged care facility and didn't
512
00:37:45.800 --> 00:37:50.889
have long to live. Wanting to get something off his chest,
513
00:37:51.090 --> 00:37:54.469
he struck up a conversation with a nurse named Kirsten O'Connor.
514
00:37:55.719 --> 00:37:59.380
Ray trusted Kirsten because he thought she had an honest face.
515
00:38:00.679 --> 00:38:05.659
He allegedly told her that on Friday September 12 2014,
516
00:38:05.659 --> 00:38:08.230
he drove to pick up his best mate from a
517
00:38:08.309 --> 00:38:13.449
shed behind Kendall School. When he got there, his mate
518
00:38:13.530 --> 00:38:19.579
had a, quote, cute little boy with him. Ray claimed
519
00:38:19.659 --> 00:38:22.079
he had driven his friend and the boy 300 kilometres north.
520
00:38:25.139 --> 00:38:32.230
Kirsten asked if the boy was William Tyrrell. Ray allegedly responded, yes.
521
00:38:34.849 --> 00:38:38.389
Ray never told Kirsten his friend's name, but he had
522
00:38:38.590 --> 00:38:41.989
only ever spoken of having two friends, one of whom
523
00:38:42.210 --> 00:38:46.769
was named Frank. By this point, Frank Abbott had been
524
00:38:46.829 --> 00:38:50.519
sentenced to 16 years in prison for 10 counts of
525
00:38:50.599 --> 00:38:54.179
child sex offences committed against two young boys and a
526
00:38:54.219 --> 00:38:59.760
girl When Ray passed away shortly after this supposed confession,
527
00:39:00.139 --> 00:39:03.579
his sister-in-law was going through his possessions when she found
528
00:39:03.639 --> 00:39:07.789
a letter that had been sent from prison. It provided
529
00:39:07.849 --> 00:39:11.030
instructions for Ray to pick up a boat and move
530
00:39:11.090 --> 00:39:15.829
it to the house of a female friend. Ray's sister-in-law
531
00:39:15.889 --> 00:39:19.289
disposed of the letter, but remembered with clarity that it
532
00:39:19.329 --> 00:39:26.900
was signed, From your good friend, Frank. From prison, Frank
533
00:39:26.980 --> 00:39:32.940
Abbott's phone calls were being recorded. During one conversation, Abbott
534
00:39:33.079 --> 00:39:36.800
told a friend that two people were involved in taking William.
535
00:39:37.860 --> 00:39:40.260
He didn't want to say the names over the phone,
536
00:39:40.559 --> 00:39:43.190
so he asked his friend to come and visit so
537
00:39:43.230 --> 00:39:48.219
he could give him the information in writing. The friend obliged,
538
00:39:48.619 --> 00:39:52.199
and as promised, Abbott handed over a note with two
539
00:39:52.300 --> 00:39:57.179
names written on it. After the visit, Abbott's friend took
540
00:39:57.260 --> 00:40:02.730
the note directly to the police. For reasons unknown, they
541
00:40:02.769 --> 00:40:06.730
did not publicly reveal the names of the individuals Abbott implicated,
542
00:40:07.230 --> 00:40:11.329
nor did they disclose the extent of their investigations into them.
543
00:40:17.659 --> 00:40:21.920
As the inquest into William Tyrrell's disappearance grew closer, there
544
00:40:21.960 --> 00:40:25.300
still hadn't been any arrests in relation to his case.
545
00:40:27.030 --> 00:40:31.650
Every possible theory about William's fate had been discussed by investigators,
546
00:40:31.909 --> 00:40:36.610
web sleuths and curious members of the public. They ranged
547
00:40:36.730 --> 00:40:40.619
from the optimistic that William had been abducted and raised
548
00:40:40.699 --> 00:40:43.960
by a loving couple who were desperate for children to
549
00:40:44.039 --> 00:40:48.070
the outlandish. that William had been abducted by aliens or
550
00:40:48.110 --> 00:40:52.369
fell victim to a Yowie, the Australian equivalent of Bigfoot.
551
00:40:54.590 --> 00:40:58.280
The inquest aimed to clear things up once and for all.
552
00:40:59.739 --> 00:41:02.300
By the time the strike force put together their brief
553
00:41:02.320 --> 00:41:06.119
of evidence for the coroner, investigators had interviewed 263 local residents,
554
00:41:06.139 --> 00:41:10.239
retrieved CCTV footage from 181 locations around Kendall and beyond,
555
00:41:14.960 --> 00:41:19.030
and received over 2,000 reports of sightings of William from
556
00:41:19.090 --> 00:41:26.429
Australia and overseas. When the inquest commenced in March 2019,
557
00:41:26.429 --> 00:41:30.050
the courts clarified that Paul Savage was no longer being
558
00:41:30.090 --> 00:41:34.659
considered a person of interest. The inquest, which was scheduled
559
00:41:34.679 --> 00:41:38.659
to be held in several installments, began by establishing William's
560
00:41:38.719 --> 00:41:45.130
family's situations. William's biological father, Tyler Martin, made no attempt
561
00:41:45.289 --> 00:41:48.170
to hide his disdain for the Department of Family and
562
00:41:48.250 --> 00:41:52.840
Community Services. He told the court that the authorities had
563
00:41:52.940 --> 00:41:58.300
failed by placing William in foster care, remarking, quote, The
564
00:41:58.340 --> 00:42:01.380
minister had a duty of care to keep William safe
565
00:42:01.480 --> 00:42:05.610
until he was 18. That was not the case at all.
566
00:42:07.880 --> 00:42:11.300
He expressed disappointment about the way William had been treated
567
00:42:11.360 --> 00:42:15.539
by Peter and Angela, telling the court, I don't think
568
00:42:15.619 --> 00:42:18.900
the foster mother and father really care about the kids
569
00:42:19.239 --> 00:42:22.619
as they aren't their kids. They don't love them like
570
00:42:22.699 --> 00:42:28.039
we do. One of the most compelling pieces of evidence
571
00:42:28.119 --> 00:42:31.679
in William's case was the now infamous photograph his foster
572
00:42:31.699 --> 00:42:35.659
mother Angela had taken less than an hour before his disappearance.
573
00:42:37.110 --> 00:42:40.849
The seemingly innocuous image of William in his Spider-Man costume
574
00:42:41.010 --> 00:42:43.949
looking up at the camera with his mouth agape mimicking
575
00:42:44.010 --> 00:42:47.489
a lion's roar served as proof of life and helped
576
00:42:47.570 --> 00:42:52.159
establish the timeline of the morning he went missing. It
577
00:42:52.199 --> 00:42:55.380
had also provided an exact description of what the young
578
00:42:55.420 --> 00:43:00.179
boy was wearing at the time. However, during the inquest,
579
00:43:00.480 --> 00:43:07.489
a shocking allegation surfaced regarding the photos. Metadata in Angela's
580
00:43:07.530 --> 00:43:12.130
digital camera showed that the photo had been taken at 9.37am
581
00:43:12.250 --> 00:43:18.000
on Friday, September 12, 2014. However, the brief of evidence
582
00:43:18.099 --> 00:43:22.019
revealed that the timestamp had been altered, with the original
583
00:43:22.099 --> 00:43:24.039
photo having been taken at.
584
00:43:25.320 --> 00:43:25.699
7.39am.
585
00:43:27.519 --> 00:43:32.150
When presented with this evidence, William's foster parents vehemently denied
586
00:43:32.210 --> 00:43:37.769
having altered the timestamps in any way. but those critical
587
00:43:37.789 --> 00:43:42.300
of the Foster family weren't satisfied. If the photo had
588
00:43:42.360 --> 00:43:46.840
been taken at 7.39am, they wondered what happened in those
589
00:43:47.000 --> 00:43:51.179
unaccounted for 118 minutes between the time the photo was
590
00:43:51.239 --> 00:43:57.219
taken and when the timestamp was altered. Angela's explanation was
591
00:43:57.340 --> 00:44:00.550
that she didn't set the clock correctly when she originally
592
00:44:00.619 --> 00:44:05.320
purchased the camera. It was a simple enough reason. but
593
00:44:05.440 --> 00:44:10.199
the sceptics weren't buying it. Some wondered if the Foster
594
00:44:10.219 --> 00:44:14.090
family could have been involved in William's disappearance and had
595
00:44:14.280 --> 00:44:20.210
altered the timestamp to cover their tracks. The coroner ordered
596
00:44:20.230 --> 00:44:24.050
the police to conduct an urgent probe into those unexplained
597
00:44:24.190 --> 00:44:29.510
missing minutes. Sifting through the content on the camera, examiners
598
00:44:29.570 --> 00:44:33.280
discovered another photo that had been taken 11 days prior
599
00:44:33.320 --> 00:44:38.400
to William's disappearance. a television in the background had captured
600
00:44:38.420 --> 00:44:42.340
the live broadcast of a morning news program which featured
601
00:44:42.500 --> 00:44:49.150
an on-screen clock. The time displayed was 118 minutes earlier
602
00:44:49.269 --> 00:44:53.869
than that shown by the camera's timestamp, proving Angela's assertion
603
00:44:53.969 --> 00:44:57.349
that she simply hadn't ever set the camera's inbuilt clock
604
00:44:57.489 --> 00:45:04.480
to begin with. But some questions were also raised about
605
00:45:04.599 --> 00:45:09.230
other details Angela had provided, including the dark coloured sedan
606
00:45:09.250 --> 00:45:12.309
she claimed to have seen momentarily pull into a neighbour's
607
00:45:12.369 --> 00:45:17.170
driveway on the morning William went missing. When first questioned
608
00:45:17.250 --> 00:45:20.360
by police, Angela said she didn't get a look at
609
00:45:20.389 --> 00:45:25.260
the occupant. In an interview with Detective Jubelin years later,
610
00:45:25.739 --> 00:45:29.679
Angela described the driver as an older gentleman with grey hair.
611
00:45:31.250 --> 00:45:34.070
When asked if there was anything in particular that drew
612
00:45:34.139 --> 00:45:41.780
her attention to the car or its driver, Angela had responded,
613
00:45:43.079 --> 00:45:52.030
At the inquest, her story changed significantly. Angela said she
614
00:45:52.309 --> 00:45:55.429
got a very clear view of the driver, describing him
615
00:45:55.510 --> 00:45:57.809
as a large man who appeared to be aged in
616
00:45:57.869 --> 00:46:01.789
his 50s, with a thick neck, beer belly, weathered skin
617
00:46:02.170 --> 00:46:07.119
and thinning red hair. Angela testified that the two had
618
00:46:07.260 --> 00:46:10.699
locked eyes and the man gave her a challenging stare
619
00:46:10.940 --> 00:46:16.639
as if to say, I'm watching you. Despite police efforts,
620
00:46:16.900 --> 00:46:20.230
they'd never been able to verify this sighting or track
621
00:46:20.250 --> 00:46:24.150
down the vehicle. The same went for the white station
622
00:46:24.190 --> 00:46:28.150
wagon and grey sedan Angela claimed had been parked oddly
623
00:46:28.269 --> 00:46:32.610
on Beneroon Drive that morning. Some found it hard to
624
00:46:32.659 --> 00:46:36.630
believe that Angela hadn't remembered this detail straight away and
625
00:46:36.690 --> 00:46:39.730
had only come forward with the information two days later.
626
00:46:41.269 --> 00:46:44.789
The only other person who recalled seeing any cars matching
627
00:46:44.849 --> 00:46:50.389
this description in Kendall was Mary's neighbour, Paul Savage. He'd
628
00:46:50.469 --> 00:46:53.630
told police he'd seen the cars too, but not on
629
00:46:53.670 --> 00:46:58.309
the day of William's disappearance, but two days prior, before
630
00:46:58.409 --> 00:47:04.489
William's family were in Kendall. A forensic psychologist who specialised
631
00:47:04.550 --> 00:47:08.269
in memory, Dr Helen Patterson, was called to give evidence.
632
00:47:09.570 --> 00:47:12.650
She told the court it was possible that Angela had
633
00:47:12.829 --> 00:47:19.409
unintentionally created a false memory. Dr Patterson explained that information
634
00:47:19.510 --> 00:47:23.670
learned after an event has the potential to distort future
635
00:47:23.730 --> 00:47:28.280
versions of the event. So it was possible that Angela
636
00:47:28.300 --> 00:47:31.110
had seen the vehicles at a different time, but then
637
00:47:31.170 --> 00:47:35.369
mistakenly attributed the memory to the morning that William went missing.
638
00:47:37.449 --> 00:47:40.719
The same went for Ronald Chapman, the man who claimed
639
00:47:40.840 --> 00:47:43.940
to have seen a four-wheel drive speeding off through Kendall
640
00:47:44.019 --> 00:47:47.460
with an unrestrained buoy matching William's description in the back
641
00:47:47.500 --> 00:47:52.639
seat and a woman behind the wheel. Over time, Ronald
642
00:47:52.679 --> 00:47:58.820
had added extra details boy he saw was wearing a cape.
643
00:48:00.280 --> 00:48:04.099
Dr Patterson said it was possible that Ronald was incorporating
644
00:48:04.219 --> 00:48:07.460
information that came to light after the event, such as
645
00:48:07.599 --> 00:48:12.780
news reports, into reconstruction of his own memory. If this
646
00:48:12.840 --> 00:48:17.000
was the case, Dr Patterson clarified that both witnesses were
647
00:48:17.079 --> 00:48:21.960
still acting in good faith, explaining, There are ways that
648
00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:26.219
people can report information that is not true, but they
649
00:48:26.280 --> 00:48:33.480
are not lying. One of the first aspects that the
650
00:48:33.539 --> 00:48:38.159
inquest focused on was Whitewoods repairman Bill Spedding's possible involvement
651
00:48:38.219 --> 00:48:43.269
in William's abduction. It quickly became apparent that all wasn't
652
00:48:43.369 --> 00:48:47.550
as it had appeared in the trial by media. Spedding
653
00:48:47.610 --> 00:48:50.869
had always maintained that on the morning William went missing,
654
00:48:51.050 --> 00:48:53.489
he and his wife had dined at a cafe before
655
00:48:53.550 --> 00:48:58.429
attending their grandson's school assembly Police had a bank statement
656
00:48:58.469 --> 00:49:01.960
that confirmed the cafe visit, and it turned out that
657
00:49:02.000 --> 00:49:05.119
there were some witnesses who could attest to his alibi,
658
00:49:05.400 --> 00:49:09.019
with at least one parent testifying to seeing Spedding at
659
00:49:09.079 --> 00:49:14.800
the assembly. Spedding's work records also confirmed that the replacement
660
00:49:14.840 --> 00:49:18.719
part for Mary's washing machine still hadn't arrived by Friday
661
00:49:18.800 --> 00:49:23.059
September 12. giving him no reason to visit Beneroon Drive
662
00:49:23.139 --> 00:49:28.800
that morning. Police had previously accused Bill Spedding of deleting
663
00:49:28.860 --> 00:49:33.659
a voicemail from Angela off his phones. Spedding's legal team
664
00:49:33.719 --> 00:49:37.199
had his phone records examined by an expert, who found
665
00:49:37.340 --> 00:49:40.280
that Spedding had been on another call when the call
666
00:49:40.320 --> 00:49:45.110
from Angela came in. Because of this, the voicemail was
667
00:49:45.210 --> 00:49:49.949
never recorded on his handset. The legal team accused the
668
00:49:49.989 --> 00:49:54.050
police of using this erroneous detail against Spedding during their
669
00:49:54.090 --> 00:49:58.130
interrogation of him, rather than having his phone records thoroughly
670
00:49:58.190 --> 00:50:02.869
checked themselves. Had they done so, it would have eliminated
671
00:50:03.030 --> 00:50:06.170
one of the major pieces of information they were holding
672
00:50:06.269 --> 00:50:11.579
over him. As for Dean Pollard, the witness who claimed
673
00:50:11.699 --> 00:50:15.039
to have seen Bill Spedding's work van speeding down Ghost
674
00:50:15.139 --> 00:50:18.639
Road on the day after William vanished, it was suggested
675
00:50:18.679 --> 00:50:23.389
that he made the sighting up with malicious intent. It
676
00:50:23.469 --> 00:50:28.360
was known that Dean didn't like Spedding. At the inquest,
677
00:50:28.659 --> 00:50:32.079
Dean denied saying he saw Spedding's car near Ghost Road
678
00:50:32.139 --> 00:50:44.590
on the day after William went missing. He stated, Furthermore,
679
00:50:44.929 --> 00:50:48.989
video footage proved that Spedding was exactly where he'd always
680
00:50:49.070 --> 00:50:52.539
claimed to be that day, at the local footy club
681
00:50:52.699 --> 00:50:57.329
celebrating the end of season with a beer. With all
682
00:50:57.369 --> 00:51:00.079
this evidence brought to light at the inquest, it was
683
00:51:00.159 --> 00:51:04.380
clear that police had targeted the wrong man. Bill Spedding
684
00:51:04.440 --> 00:51:08.550
was ruled out as a person of interest. Outside court,
685
00:51:08.840 --> 00:51:12.889
he told reporters, I know what I've been through is
686
00:51:13.030 --> 00:51:16.289
nothing compared to what William's family are going through now.
687
00:51:17.489 --> 00:51:20.280
I wish the coroner all wisdom in getting to the
688
00:51:20.340 --> 00:51:26.920
bottom of this mystery. Former case detective Gary Jubelin maintained
689
00:51:27.059 --> 00:51:30.719
that police made the right decision to investigate Bill Spedding.
690
00:51:31.760 --> 00:51:36.030
He told ABC's Four Corners program that while he regretted
691
00:51:36.090 --> 00:51:40.750
that things had played out so publicly, quote, The decisions
692
00:51:40.809 --> 00:51:43.489
that were made at the time were the decisions that
693
00:51:43.570 --> 00:51:49.170
had to be made, and I'm comfortable with that. Spedding's
694
00:51:49.230 --> 00:51:53.280
life was turned upside down from the negative publicity against him,
695
00:51:54.469 --> 00:51:57.570
His business failed and he and his wife were subject
696
00:51:57.710 --> 00:52:02.309
to ongoing scrutiny from the community and greater public. The
697
00:52:02.349 --> 00:52:06.500
public accusations had even led to violence. A stranger had
698
00:52:06.599 --> 00:52:10.239
once recognised Spedding outside of a restaurant and grabbed him
699
00:52:10.320 --> 00:52:14.519
by the throat. The Speddings had been forced to move,
700
00:52:14.880 --> 00:52:20.070
but their new neighbours were anything but welcoming. One parent
701
00:52:20.199 --> 00:52:23.369
sternly warned Spedding not to use his phone in his
702
00:52:23.449 --> 00:52:27.530
front yard in case he was filming her children. She
703
00:52:27.610 --> 00:52:31.670
also advised him against stepping outside his house or opening
704
00:52:31.730 --> 00:52:35.070
his blinds if her children were playing out in the street.
705
00:52:37.190 --> 00:52:41.010
Spedding eventually went on to sue the NSW Police for
706
00:52:41.070 --> 00:52:45.880
malicious prosecution in relation to the historical child sex abuse allegations.
707
00:52:46.460 --> 00:52:49.619
arguing that the charges had only been placed to pressure
708
00:52:49.679 --> 00:52:54.599
him into giving evidence about William Tyrrell's whereabouts. He also
709
00:52:54.719 --> 00:52:59.320
sought damages for false imprisonment, loss of reputation, and four
710
00:52:59.400 --> 00:53:03.409
years of psychological counselling that he'd undergone in relation to
711
00:53:03.469 --> 00:53:12.429
the ordeal. Spedding ultimately won the lawsuit and was awarded $ 1. 5
712
00:53:10.309 --> 00:53:14.489
million in damages, with his lawyer labelling it the worst
713
00:53:14.590 --> 00:53:20.590
police prosecution Australia had ever seen. His wife told Four Corners,
714
00:53:22.010 --> 00:53:24.789
I'd like to hear the police apologise to him for
715
00:53:24.849 --> 00:53:27.909
what they put him through, but I don't know whether
716
00:53:27.989 --> 00:53:31.119
he'll get that, because they told him they were going
717
00:53:31.159 --> 00:53:39.699
to ruin him, and they did. By March 2020, the
718
00:53:39.760 --> 00:53:44.030
inquest into William Tyrrell's disappearance reached its second year, when
719
00:53:44.150 --> 00:53:49.090
shocking testimony was delivered by two witnesses. One was a
720
00:53:49.150 --> 00:53:52.670
woman who operated as an emergency foster carer by taking
721
00:53:52.809 --> 00:53:57.059
at-risk children into her home. She told the court that
722
00:53:57.119 --> 00:54:01.860
in 2017, she was hosting two young brothers aged 7
723
00:54:01.860 --> 00:54:05.559
and 10, who were given the pseudonyms of Geoffrey and Matthew.
724
00:54:07.030 --> 00:54:10.630
One afternoon, the woman's teenage daughter was babysitting for the
725
00:54:10.670 --> 00:54:15.659
boys when Jeffrey allegedly turned to her and said, I
726
00:54:15.760 --> 00:54:21.199
know who took William Tyrrell. The comment shocked the teenager
727
00:54:21.420 --> 00:54:25.989
as it seemingly came out of nowhere. As Jeffrey spoke,
728
00:54:26.389 --> 00:54:30.989
Matthew looked at him in wide-eyed fear. He warned his
729
00:54:31.030 --> 00:54:36.469
brother to stop talking, but Jeffrey continued, He claimed that
730
00:54:36.550 --> 00:54:39.670
William was dead and had been stuffed into a suitcase.
731
00:54:41.050 --> 00:54:45.349
As for the person who killed him, it was Frank Abbott.
732
00:54:47.909 --> 00:54:52.110
Jeffrey and Matthew were survivors of Abbott's sexual abuse, the
733
00:54:52.150 --> 00:54:56.300
same crimes he was serving time in prison for. The
734
00:54:56.340 --> 00:55:00.119
teenager told her mother about the boy's revelation and she
735
00:55:00.199 --> 00:55:05.019
questioned the brothers further. She asked why Matthew was so
736
00:55:05.099 --> 00:55:10.019
adamant that Jeffrey keep this secret. Matthew said that Abbott
737
00:55:10.059 --> 00:55:13.219
had threatened that he would snap their mother's neck if
738
00:55:13.300 --> 00:55:20.780
they told anyone. Both boys were utterly petrified. When these
739
00:55:20.860 --> 00:55:24.860
testimonies were delivered to the court, William's foster mother Angela
740
00:55:24.960 --> 00:55:30.070
became visibly upset. Since the beginning of the inquest, she
741
00:55:30.110 --> 00:55:33.909
and Peter had openly criticised the police handling of the case.
742
00:55:35.150 --> 00:55:38.650
They claimed there hadn't been a proper handover after Gary
743
00:55:38.690 --> 00:55:42.090
Jubelin was removed from the strike force, and that the
744
00:55:42.130 --> 00:55:48.429
police had seemed indifferent about the investigation ever since. According
745
00:55:48.469 --> 00:55:52.219
to author Ali Chumley, after hearing the allegation that Frank
746
00:55:52.300 --> 00:55:56.340
Abbott had killed William, Angela appeared to be somewhat relieved.
747
00:55:57.639 --> 00:56:02.989
In her book, Searching for Spider-Man, Ali wrote, I sensed
748
00:56:03.170 --> 00:56:06.230
she had accepted that this was indeed what had happened
749
00:56:06.409 --> 00:56:10.309
to her little boy. It seemed we now had two
750
00:56:10.409 --> 00:56:14.340
separate confessions that implicated Abbott, one from an old mate
751
00:56:14.400 --> 00:56:18.159
on his deathbed and the other from a terrified child.
752
00:56:19.320 --> 00:56:22.719
On the face of it, neither had any reason to lie.
753
00:56:25.559 --> 00:56:29.239
After this harrowing testimony, the coroner announced that they would
754
00:56:29.280 --> 00:56:32.690
be hearing from a final witness in a closed court session.
755
00:56:34.150 --> 00:56:37.110
The final pieces of evidence were due to be presented
756
00:56:37.269 --> 00:56:42.309
in mid-March 2020, but just days before the scheduled date,
757
00:56:42.750 --> 00:56:47.659
the inquest was adjourned indefinitely due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
758
00:56:48.880 --> 00:56:53.440
The coroner said, I'm so sorry the world has done this.
759
00:56:54.610 --> 00:56:58.869
There's still work to be done. There's nothing in relation
760
00:56:58.949 --> 00:57:05.110
to this matter which I consider to be a cold case. Likewise,
761
00:57:05.389 --> 00:57:11.739
police assured that the investigation would be ongoing. In June 2020,
762
00:57:11.739 --> 00:57:14.780
they conducted a second search of the log dump site
763
00:57:14.840 --> 00:57:18.860
in Logan's Crossing that had previously been pinpointed by Frank Abbott.
764
00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.840
As officers scoured the site, they noticed something odd. Black
765
00:57:24.900 --> 00:57:27.519
electrical tape had been wrapped around the trunk of a
766
00:57:27.599 --> 00:57:33.389
tree and the ground underneath looked particularly lumpy. The area
767
00:57:33.449 --> 00:57:37.349
was examined and several items of interest were found, but
768
00:57:37.489 --> 00:57:44.789
nothing that related to William Tyrrell. By the time the
769
00:57:44.849 --> 00:57:50.090
inquest resumed in early October 2020, William's foster grandmother Mary
770
00:57:50.150 --> 00:57:55.889
Saunders had passed away. William's biological father, Tyler Martin, was
771
00:57:55.929 --> 00:57:58.869
being treated in a mental health facility and was unable
772
00:57:58.909 --> 00:58:04.400
to attend the hearing. Speaking on his behalf, Tyler's lawyer said,
773
00:58:05.699 --> 00:58:09.400
Imagine having your son taken away and doing everything to
774
00:58:09.440 --> 00:58:12.920
try and get him back, only for him to go missing.
775
00:58:14.119 --> 00:58:18.599
William's father hasn't been the same since he disappeared. In
776
00:58:18.659 --> 00:58:25.400
a way, two sons have been lost. William's biological parents
777
00:58:25.460 --> 00:58:29.250
had suffered immeasurably in the years since William went missing.
778
00:58:30.730 --> 00:58:34.210
In addition to losing their son twice, first to the
779
00:58:34.250 --> 00:58:37.929
foster system and then to the unknown, they had been
780
00:58:37.969 --> 00:58:42.820
subjected to intense media scrutiny and public abuse, with some
781
00:58:42.920 --> 00:58:47.059
going as far as throwing eggs at their home. A
782
00:58:47.139 --> 00:58:51.989
statement read in court on their behalf said … Because
783
00:58:52.050 --> 00:58:55.400
of some of the media, the world is blaming us.
784
00:58:56.599 --> 00:59:00.000
We have had six years of pain and broken promises.
785
00:59:01.059 --> 00:59:04.719
We are grieving, and we have been grieving for six years.
786
00:59:05.949 --> 00:59:10.570
We are angry and frustrated, and we want answers. Life
787
00:59:10.650 --> 00:59:14.929
will never be the same again. Living without answers makes
788
00:59:15.010 --> 00:59:21.139
things so much harder. William's foster family also spoke of
789
00:59:21.179 --> 00:59:24.530
how difficult their lives had been since William went missing.
790
00:59:25.719 --> 00:59:28.119
Not only had they lost the little boy that they
791
00:59:28.199 --> 00:59:32.130
loved so dearly But they'd been the victims of online
792
00:59:32.190 --> 00:59:37.929
trolls and ongoing harassment. Complete strangers convinced of their guilt
793
00:59:38.090 --> 00:59:42.210
had degraded their privacy, stalking their home and encouraging others
794
00:59:42.329 --> 00:59:46.070
to do the same. Photographs had been taken of them
795
00:59:46.150 --> 00:59:49.949
without their permission and serious threats had been made against
796
00:59:50.090 --> 00:59:55.250
their lives. Peter spoke of their ongoing anguish, saying their
797
00:59:55.289 --> 01:00:00.099
hearts had been split into a million pieces. Angela said
798
01:00:00.300 --> 01:00:06.070
her arms still ached to hold William, stating, Our world
799
01:00:06.280 --> 01:00:10.849
and the contented life we knew collapsed around us. It's
800
01:00:10.889 --> 01:00:14.769
hard to understand how the sun could continue to shine.
801
01:00:16.820 --> 01:00:20.599
Peter and Angela also voiced their discontentment about the way
802
01:00:20.639 --> 01:00:24.679
the investigation was going since Detective Jubelin had been removed
803
01:00:24.800 --> 01:00:28.469
from it. Not only did they feel they'd been treated
804
01:00:28.590 --> 01:00:32.389
coldly ever since, they were deeply disappointed when it was
805
01:00:32.469 --> 01:00:36.170
revealed in court that there were only five investigators currently
806
01:00:36.250 --> 01:00:40.519
working on the strike force. Today we are at the
807
01:00:40.559 --> 01:00:44.380
same point we were when the investigation began six years ago,
808
01:00:44.400 --> 01:00:48.590
they told the court. How can the investigation into a
809
01:00:48.630 --> 01:00:53.570
missing three-year-old boy have its resources so significantly reduced when
810
01:00:53.590 --> 01:00:57.059
there is so much more information that needs to be examined?
811
01:00:58.420 --> 01:01:03.880
Every day, this heinous crime remains unsolved. The perpetrators remain
812
01:01:03.920 --> 01:01:07.420
at large and are capable of committing other monstrous crimes
813
01:01:07.500 --> 01:01:12.099
against children. No other family should ever feel the need
814
01:01:12.159 --> 01:01:14.739
they have to fight tooth and nail for those people
815
01:01:14.800 --> 01:01:20.829
in leadership positions to take notice. By this point, the
816
01:01:20.909 --> 01:01:25.110
inquest had been running for 18 months. The coroner was
817
01:01:25.190 --> 01:01:28.730
left to review all the evidence presented before handing down
818
01:01:28.789 --> 01:01:34.659
her findings nine months later in June 2021. Many were
819
01:01:34.739 --> 01:01:39.010
critical about the inquest. Despite being one of the longest
820
01:01:39.090 --> 01:01:42.389
running in New South Wales history and costing a significant
821
01:01:42.449 --> 01:01:45.860
amount to the taxpayers, it didn't seem to have brought
822
01:01:46.030 --> 01:01:51.519
any answers. The allegations against Frank Abbott were compelling, but
823
01:01:51.579 --> 01:01:54.780
no physical evidence had been uncovered to implicate him or
824
01:01:54.900 --> 01:01:59.570
any other person of interest in William's disappearance. Abbott had
825
01:01:59.610 --> 01:02:02.989
appeared at the inquest via video link from jail and
826
01:02:03.050 --> 01:02:07.230
was allowed to question witnesses about any allegations made against him,
827
01:02:07.869 --> 01:02:13.789
but he was never questioned himself. The reason why is unknown,
828
01:02:14.210 --> 01:02:17.210
as the coroner ordered that her decision not to do
829
01:02:17.289 --> 01:02:23.550
so be withheld from the public. The general consensus was
830
01:02:23.670 --> 01:02:27.139
that the coroner would deliver an open finding, meaning that
831
01:02:27.199 --> 01:02:31.019
she'd confirmed that William was dead, but with no clarity
832
01:02:31.099 --> 01:02:35.309
about how he had died. This led some to question
833
01:02:35.389 --> 01:02:38.010
whether it was worth it to put William's loved ones
834
01:02:38.130 --> 01:02:41.190
through all the pain and discomfort of the inquest at all.
835
01:02:42.949 --> 01:02:46.940
Then came the breaking news that no one saw coming.
836
01:02:56.559 --> 01:03:00.320
Casefile will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us
837
01:03:00.440 --> 01:03:06.309
by listening to this episode's sponsors. Thank you for listening
838
01:03:06.369 --> 01:03:10.650
to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support
839
01:03:10.690 --> 01:03:22.889
Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. In mid-2021, it
840
01:03:22.929 --> 01:03:27.000
was announced that the coroner's findings would be delayed indefinitely,
841
01:03:27.380 --> 01:03:32.760
with no further explanation given. Then in November that same year,
842
01:03:33.019 --> 01:03:35.739
police held a press conference to announce that they would
843
01:03:35.780 --> 01:03:39.550
be returning to Kendall to conduct several new searches based
844
01:03:39.690 --> 01:03:43.949
on further information that had come to light. They said
845
01:03:43.969 --> 01:03:48.070
the searches were not speculative, but were being conducted at
846
01:03:48.170 --> 01:03:52.380
three different locations in conjunction with evidence obtained during the
847
01:03:52.409 --> 01:03:56.679
course of the strike force investigation, as well as coronial orders.
848
01:03:58.079 --> 01:04:01.059
According to the police minister, a number of people had
849
01:04:01.079 --> 01:04:04.510
been providing intelligence and working with the police, which had
850
01:04:04.590 --> 01:04:11.429
led to new developments. Various news outlets subsequently reported that
851
01:04:11.469 --> 01:04:14.230
the police were focusing on a new suspect who had
852
01:04:14.309 --> 01:04:18.019
previously been ruled out, a claim the police would not
853
01:04:18.059 --> 01:04:24.199
officially confirm or deny. William's foster parents called this fake news.
854
01:04:25.219 --> 01:04:29.760
They released a statement saying, Once again we are forced
855
01:04:29.920 --> 01:04:34.889
to watch others objectify William for personal gain. Time and
856
01:04:35.030 --> 01:04:38.309
time again, we've watched people lose sight of the tragic
857
01:04:38.369 --> 01:04:42.110
reality that William was a precious, innocent little boy who
858
01:04:42.150 --> 01:04:45.639
was taken from those he loved and who love him deeply,
859
01:04:46.199 --> 01:04:49.380
forgetting that there is a heartbroken family waiting in hope
860
01:04:49.539 --> 01:04:55.039
that William will be found. To publish unverified claims without
861
01:04:55.119 --> 01:04:58.800
consideration to the hurt that articles of this nature cause
862
01:04:59.159 --> 01:05:03.710
is disrespectful and devastating to everyone who knows and loves William.
863
01:05:06.019 --> 01:05:10.119
But those reports turned out to be true. The strike
864
01:05:10.179 --> 01:05:16.329
force had been focusing on one particular individual, William's foster mother, Angela.
865
01:05:18.090 --> 01:05:21.989
Bolstered by inconsistencies in her story, the police had been
866
01:05:22.030 --> 01:05:27.420
conducting surveillance of William's foster parents for some time. During
867
01:05:27.659 --> 01:05:32.139
one covertly recorded phone conversation, Angela had made an interesting
868
01:05:32.199 --> 01:05:36.690
comment to a friend. She'd remarked that William's skeleton would
869
01:05:36.710 --> 01:05:41.750
be found in, quote, 30, 40, 50 years time, or
870
01:05:41.750 --> 01:05:47.340
200 years when they are done clearing. Police were particularly
871
01:05:47.420 --> 01:05:50.639
interested in this comment because of something Angela had told
872
01:05:50.679 --> 01:05:55.800
them three days into William's disappearance. She said that before
873
01:05:55.860 --> 01:06:00.059
calling emergency services to report William missing, she had driven
874
01:06:00.119 --> 01:06:03.539
her mother's car, a grey Mazda, about a kilometre down
875
01:06:03.579 --> 01:06:07.940
the road in case William had wandered off. The coroner
876
01:06:07.980 --> 01:06:13.050
had pressed Angela about this detail at the inquest. Angela
877
01:06:13.090 --> 01:06:16.989
said that she'd driven down Benaroon Drive before turning right
878
01:06:17.090 --> 01:06:21.489
onto Batar Creek Road. She drove along slowly with her
879
01:06:21.550 --> 01:06:24.920
windows down before pulling up on the verge outside the
880
01:06:25.019 --> 01:06:27.639
old horse riding school on the corner of Cobb and
881
01:06:27.739 --> 01:06:32.260
Co Road to let a truck pass. Angela said she
882
01:06:32.300 --> 01:06:35.780
looked out for any sign of William's Spider-Man suit among
883
01:06:35.840 --> 01:06:42.449
the surrounding greenery, but all she saw was bushland. Police
884
01:06:42.489 --> 01:06:46.449
were curious as to why Angela only disclosed this detail
885
01:06:46.690 --> 01:06:50.889
a few days after William went missing. Then there was
886
01:06:50.949 --> 01:06:54.070
the ongoing question about whether or not Angela had really
887
01:06:54.150 --> 01:06:58.900
seen two cars parked oddly on Benaroon Drive. It had
888
01:06:58.960 --> 01:07:02.900
taken her days to report this sighting too, and given
889
01:07:02.980 --> 01:07:05.559
that no one else had seen the cars that morning,
890
01:07:05.920 --> 01:07:09.119
there was increasing suspicion that Angela could have created this
891
01:07:09.179 --> 01:07:12.760
detail to cover up something that she herself had done.
892
01:07:17.380 --> 01:07:21.320
Despite being cleared by former case detective Gary Jubelin and
893
01:07:21.389 --> 01:07:25.170
his predecessor, the current strike force had been working on
894
01:07:25.210 --> 01:07:28.969
the theory that William had died after accidentally falling from
895
01:07:29.030 --> 01:07:34.190
Mary Saunders' front balcony. They suspected that Angela could have
896
01:07:34.250 --> 01:07:37.730
panicked upon finding his body, fearing that his death would
897
01:07:37.789 --> 01:07:41.739
mean she'd lose custody of Lindsay. She could have quickly
898
01:07:41.800 --> 01:07:45.039
bundled William into her mother's car and drove him to
899
01:07:45.079 --> 01:07:48.119
Batar Creek Road where she disposed of his body in
900
01:07:48.139 --> 01:07:53.039
the thick undergrowth. Mary's Mazda was the only other car
901
01:07:53.099 --> 01:07:55.949
at the property at the time and it had not
902
01:07:56.030 --> 01:08:01.550
been searched by police. If the strike force had any
903
01:08:01.650 --> 01:08:07.050
evidence to support this theory, they kept it to themselves. Publicly,
904
01:08:07.559 --> 01:08:10.900
Angela had never swayed from her story about William wandering
905
01:08:11.039 --> 01:08:15.739
off and seemingly disappearing into thin air. Over the years,
906
01:08:15.980 --> 01:08:18.760
she'd worked hard to draw attention to the case and
907
01:08:18.800 --> 01:08:22.079
had publicly criticised the police when she felt they weren't
908
01:08:22.119 --> 01:08:26.890
doing enough to find her foster son. She had made emotional,
909
01:08:26.970 --> 01:08:30.909
heartfelt pleas for anyone with information to come forward and
910
01:08:30.949 --> 01:08:34.310
had spoken openly about how difficult life had been for
911
01:08:34.369 --> 01:08:38.640
her and her family since William vanished. If there was
912
01:08:38.699 --> 01:08:42.399
any truth to the new police theory, many agreed that
913
01:08:42.520 --> 01:08:47.850
Angela had done an incredible job of hiding it. An
914
01:08:47.909 --> 01:08:51.550
investigation was opened by the New South Wales Crime Commission,
915
01:08:51.890 --> 01:08:57.949
a highly secretive criminal intelligence organisation. The government-run body holds
916
01:08:58.050 --> 01:09:02.500
extensive powers and can hold hearings and supply evidence obtained
917
01:09:02.600 --> 01:09:08.390
during its investigations to various other courts and agencies. Such
918
01:09:08.430 --> 01:09:12.430
hearings are often a last-ditch attempt to get reluctant witnesses
919
01:09:12.569 --> 01:09:17.699
or persons of interest to provide information. Although these hearings
920
01:09:17.800 --> 01:09:23.039
are only inquisitorial in nature, individuals are compelled to provide testimony.
921
01:09:24.260 --> 01:09:28.000
If they refuse, they can be charged with contempt of court.
922
01:09:29.300 --> 01:09:33.350
If they lie while giving testimony, they face a perjury charge.
923
01:09:35.430 --> 01:09:38.850
Police visited Angela at her home in Sydney and summoned
924
01:09:38.890 --> 01:09:42.609
her to appear at a crime commission hearing. One of
925
01:09:42.670 --> 01:09:45.689
the officers urged her to come forward with the truth.
926
01:09:47.090 --> 01:09:48.289
You will have to live with.
927
01:09:48.229 --> 01:09:49.050
It, he said.
928
01:09:50.149 --> 01:09:52.789
Today is the day you make a decision for William.
929
01:09:53.989 --> 01:09:57.920
We understand decisions have been made for different people for
930
01:09:58.000 --> 01:10:04.489
different reasons. We aren't guessing. We aren't bluffing. We know how.
931
01:10:04.930 --> 01:10:12.310
We know why. We know where he is. In November 2021,
932
01:10:12.310 --> 01:10:15.770
Angela was subject to two days of intense questioning at
933
01:10:15.789 --> 01:10:19.890
the Crime Commission hearing. As she sat before the panel,
934
01:10:20.109 --> 01:10:22.909
the police theory was put directly to her for the
935
01:10:22.970 --> 01:10:31.640
first time. Angela repeatedly denied the allegations, crying and yelling out, no, no, no.
936
01:10:33.760 --> 01:10:36.420
Asked why she had gone for the drive down Bataar
937
01:10:36.460 --> 01:10:41.109
Creek Road before calling emergency services, Angela said she couldn't
938
01:10:41.180 --> 01:10:45.220
explain why. She said she thought William might have walked
939
01:10:45.359 --> 01:10:48.939
off and her husband might have picked him up. It's
940
01:10:49.000 --> 01:10:52.319
a panic. All I could think was, I don't know.
941
01:10:52.340 --> 01:10:53.500
I panicked.
942
01:10:54.199 --> 01:10:54.720
Where is he?
943
01:10:55.420 --> 01:10:58.380
I don't know where he is, Angela told the commission.
944
01:10:59.880 --> 01:11:02.500
I don't know what I was thinking. All I could
945
01:11:02.539 --> 01:11:06.399
think about was, I have to find him. I can't
946
01:11:06.520 --> 01:11:10.659
give you an answer to that. I remember driving, I
947
01:11:10.699 --> 01:11:15.199
remember stopping, I remember thinking I can't see him. This
948
01:11:15.260 --> 01:11:21.180
is silly, so I went back. Angela was then told
949
01:11:21.359 --> 01:11:24.340
that the purpose of the upcoming searches in Kendall was
950
01:11:24.380 --> 01:11:28.670
to look for evidence to support the police theory. Asked
951
01:11:28.750 --> 01:11:32.130
if the police could expect to find William's body during
952
01:11:32.210 --> 01:11:37.970
these searches, Angela replied, No, I didn't take him anywhere.
953
01:11:38.609 --> 01:11:41.670
I didn't touch him. If you want to dig up
954
01:11:41.789 --> 01:11:50.140
that entire house at Mum's, dig it up. On Monday
955
01:11:50.239 --> 01:11:56.020
November 15 2021, hundreds of police officers and specialists descended
956
01:11:56.119 --> 01:12:01.029
on Kendall. Mary Saunders' old Mazda was also seized from
957
01:12:01.090 --> 01:12:04.189
its new owners at a Sydney property and taken for
958
01:12:04.229 --> 01:12:09.859
forensic examination. The police cut no corners as they searched
959
01:12:09.960 --> 01:12:13.479
Mary's former home on Beneroon Drive, which had been sold
960
01:12:13.640 --> 01:12:18.039
to new owners years prior. The front garden under the
961
01:12:18.079 --> 01:12:22.470
balcony was extensively dug up, with officers putting every shovel
962
01:12:22.510 --> 01:12:25.710
of soil through a sifter and sorting through the rubble
963
01:12:25.829 --> 01:12:30.539
by hand. Luminol tests were conducted for any evidence of
964
01:12:30.640 --> 01:12:34.430
blood while cadaver dogs searched the yard and underneath the
965
01:12:34.449 --> 01:12:39.130
house and cameras were put into the septic tank. Ground
966
01:12:39.210 --> 01:12:42.489
penetrating radar was also brought in to test a concrete
967
01:12:42.550 --> 01:12:45.340
slab under the home that had been installed in the
968
01:12:45.380 --> 01:12:50.500
years since William went missing. News crews captured footage as
969
01:12:50.579 --> 01:12:54.300
officers bagged numerous items and took them off site for
970
01:12:54.359 --> 01:13:00.130
further testing. The bushland on Batar Creek Road, where police
971
01:13:00.170 --> 01:13:04.670
suspected Angela could have dumped William's body, was densely vegetated
972
01:13:04.750 --> 01:13:08.909
and overgrown. Machinery was brought in to clear an area
973
01:13:08.989 --> 01:13:12.479
the size of three football fields, while water was drained
974
01:13:12.619 --> 01:13:17.439
from the nearby creek. For weeks, the team searched through
975
01:13:17.520 --> 01:13:21.560
over 15 tonnes of soil, sediment and leaf litter by hand,
976
01:13:21.939 --> 01:13:27.060
looking for anything not naturally occurring in the bushland. Police
977
01:13:27.100 --> 01:13:31.159
divers searched nearby dams, using their hands to claw through
978
01:13:31.180 --> 01:13:35.479
the mud along the bottom. The search efforts were hampered
979
01:13:35.579 --> 01:13:39.229
by wild wind and rain, but one detective said they
980
01:13:39.250 --> 01:13:44.869
were leaving no stone unturned. It's painstaking, it's difficult, he
981
01:13:44.930 --> 01:13:49.329
told reporters. We're very happy with the progress so far,
982
01:13:49.770 --> 01:13:55.500
but we've got no great milestone to report. If anything
983
01:13:55.539 --> 01:14:00.020
of interest was found during these three searches, police didn't say,
984
01:14:00.460 --> 01:14:05.390
and no charges were laid as a result. However, something
985
01:14:05.529 --> 01:14:10.130
else had been going on behind the scenes. It turned
986
01:14:10.270 --> 01:14:13.890
out that listening devices installed in Peter and Angela's home
987
01:14:13.970 --> 01:14:18.600
as part of Strikeforce Roseanne had allegedly captured something startling.
988
01:14:20.109 --> 01:14:24.720
Angela was apparently overheard assaulting another foster child in her care,
989
01:14:25.069 --> 01:14:30.140
the identity of whom is unable to be revealed. According
990
01:14:30.199 --> 01:14:34.479
to the police, in October 2021, Angela had been attempting
991
01:14:34.539 --> 01:14:38.010
to intervene in the child's problematic behaviour, which had been
992
01:14:38.050 --> 01:14:41.329
the source of several arguments between herself and her husband
993
01:14:41.689 --> 01:14:46.689
as they discussed how to handle the situation. Audio revealed
994
01:14:46.869 --> 01:14:50.210
that on separate occasions, Angela had kicked the child in
995
01:14:50.250 --> 01:14:54.229
the thigh and hit her with a wooden spoon. She
996
01:14:54.289 --> 01:14:59.970
also allegedly threatened the child numerous times, once warning, I'm
997
01:15:00.029 --> 01:15:03.029
going to slap you across the face. Do you want
998
01:15:03.090 --> 01:15:08.350
to do that? Another time, Angela said, If I see
999
01:15:08.449 --> 01:15:11.329
or hear you throw something around again, that won't be
1000
01:15:11.390 --> 01:15:14.930
the only thing that gets thrown around. You only seem
1001
01:15:14.970 --> 01:15:19.289
to listen when I threaten to get violent. She also
1002
01:15:19.449 --> 01:15:22.810
ordered the child to wash their own clothes, saying they
1003
01:15:22.869 --> 01:15:27.130
smelt putrid and told them, quote, not to act like
1004
01:15:27.170 --> 01:15:33.380
a homeless person. Phone taps captured Angela telling Peter that
1005
01:15:33.439 --> 01:15:37.159
she had kicked the child. Did you kick her hard,
1006
01:15:37.340 --> 01:15:42.720
he asked. Yeah, Angela responded. I can't believe I did that.
1007
01:15:44.569 --> 01:15:47.439
Later on, Angela told Peter that she had hit the
1008
01:15:47.460 --> 01:15:52.479
child really hard with that wooden spoon. She remarked that
1009
01:15:52.520 --> 01:15:55.899
the child would have a massive welt on her leg, stating,
1010
01:15:56.720 --> 01:16:02.619
she didn't even cry. One morning, Peter was recorded yelling
1011
01:16:02.680 --> 01:16:06.359
at the crying child to get ready for school. As
1012
01:16:06.479 --> 01:16:09.289
they got into the car, he admonished them for not
1013
01:16:09.350 --> 01:16:16.239
closing the front door, yelling, every fucking day. Peter continued
1014
01:16:16.319 --> 01:16:19.560
yelling and swearing at the sobbing child throughout the drive,
1015
01:16:19.920 --> 01:16:26.819
at one point reportedly calling them a, quote, His voice
1016
01:16:26.899 --> 01:16:30.630
was so loud that it caused the recording device to distort.
1017
01:16:32.710 --> 01:16:36.149
As a result of these recordings, the child was subsequently
1018
01:16:36.229 --> 01:16:39.590
removed from their care and interviewed by the police in
1019
01:16:39.630 --> 01:16:44.399
the presence of a support worker. She allegedly confessed that
1020
01:16:44.460 --> 01:16:47.720
Peter had once put his hands around her neck, saying
1021
01:16:47.800 --> 01:16:53.510
he had mental health and anger management issues. Peter and
1022
01:16:53.609 --> 01:16:56.989
Angela had both been questioned about these incidents during the
1023
01:16:57.050 --> 01:17:02.409
secret crime commission hearings. Under oath, Angela admitted to having
1024
01:17:02.470 --> 01:17:05.529
hit and kicked the child, but she denied having ever
1025
01:17:05.569 --> 01:17:10.899
hit her with a wooden spoon. Despite having recorded conversations
1026
01:17:10.979 --> 01:17:14.460
in which they discussed these events, Peter denied that his
1027
01:17:14.539 --> 01:17:17.439
wife had ever hit or kicked another child in their care.
1028
01:17:18.819 --> 01:17:22.149
As a result of the audio recordings, Angela and Peter
1029
01:17:22.199 --> 01:17:25.229
were both charged with assault of a child as well
1030
01:17:25.289 --> 01:17:29.689
as stalking and intimidation of a child. For their crime
1031
01:17:29.729 --> 01:17:33.930
commission testimony, they were both also charged with knowingly giving
1032
01:17:34.050 --> 01:17:42.369
false or misleading information. When the suppression order was lifted
1033
01:17:42.489 --> 01:17:46.409
on these allegations, the police clarified that they didn't believe
1034
01:17:46.649 --> 01:17:49.949
Angela or Peter had mistreated William Tyrrell while he was
1035
01:17:50.010 --> 01:17:53.850
in their care, and that these charges had no connection
1036
01:17:53.909 --> 01:18:02.409
to his disappearance. Nonetheless, public speculation began to circulate. According
1037
01:18:02.449 --> 01:18:06.710
to author Ali Chumley, Records kept by social workers said
1038
01:18:06.750 --> 01:18:11.100
that Angela had expressed some concerns about William's challenging behaviours.
1039
01:18:12.460 --> 01:18:17.020
At times, he could be oppositional, unsettled, boisterous and defiant.
1040
01:18:18.039 --> 01:18:20.539
He was a troubled sleeper who often fought with his
1041
01:18:20.619 --> 01:18:25.729
older sister, sometimes biting and hitting her. While William had
1042
01:18:25.810 --> 01:18:29.289
formed an immediate connection with his foster father, he'd been
1043
01:18:29.369 --> 01:18:34.590
slower to warm to Angela. As their relationship improved, he
1044
01:18:34.630 --> 01:18:40.500
became clingy and required constant reassurance and attention. Such behaviour
1045
01:18:40.560 --> 01:18:43.840
was not unusual for kids in foster care, but Angela
1046
01:18:43.880 --> 01:18:48.250
admitted to social workers that she was struggling. She had
1047
01:18:48.289 --> 01:18:52.100
sought professional help for some of William's more challenging behaviours,
1048
01:18:52.520 --> 01:18:58.810
but continued to second-guess her parenting strategies. About a month
1049
01:18:58.909 --> 01:19:02.289
before William went missing, his foster parents took him to
1050
01:19:02.310 --> 01:19:05.289
the hospital with a black eye, saying he had fallen
1051
01:19:05.329 --> 01:19:09.840
against a table. William's biological parents had seen the black
1052
01:19:09.979 --> 01:19:14.220
eye at a subsequent supervised visit, their last, before William
1053
01:19:14.279 --> 01:19:19.220
went missing. Amy Tyrrell spoke about it at the inquest,
1054
01:19:19.500 --> 01:19:22.520
saying she'd also noticed that William had appeared to be
1055
01:19:22.560 --> 01:19:26.279
a bit too skinny. It's hard because I don't know
1056
01:19:26.340 --> 01:19:30.579
the carers, Amy had testified. I don't know where they
1057
01:19:30.640 --> 01:19:33.630
live and I never get to see them. I don't
1058
01:19:33.670 --> 01:19:36.010
want to come across as though I am blaming them
1059
01:19:36.149 --> 01:19:41.970
or being mean, but it's just been really hard. However,
1060
01:19:42.369 --> 01:19:44.850
Amy had been wary of the care William had been
1061
01:19:44.909 --> 01:19:50.229
receiving since the beginning. In her 2017 interview with the
1062
01:19:50.289 --> 01:19:54.770
Channel 7's Sunday Night program, Amy had told presenter Melissa
1063
01:19:54.810 --> 01:19:58.920
Doyle in previously unaired footage that William showed up for
1064
01:19:58.960 --> 01:20:03.840
their supervised visits with bruises, a snotty nose, and inappropriately
1065
01:20:03.920 --> 01:20:09.250
dressed for the weather. She claimed his motor skills deteriorated
1066
01:20:09.430 --> 01:20:12.090
once he was placed into care and that she'd written
1067
01:20:12.170 --> 01:20:15.100
letters to the authorities saying William would be better off
1068
01:20:15.180 --> 01:20:20.520
with her. Nothing in any of the caseworker's notes supported
1069
01:20:20.680 --> 01:20:25.800
any allegations of wrongdoing on the foster parent's behalf. Department
1070
01:20:25.819 --> 01:20:30.020
of Family and Community Services staff, childcare workers and family
1071
01:20:30.119 --> 01:20:33.260
friends had nothing but good things to say about Peter
1072
01:20:33.300 --> 01:20:38.470
and Angela and their treatment of William. One childcare educator
1073
01:20:38.550 --> 01:20:42.449
had even described Angela to the police as the perfect parent.
1074
01:20:45.180 --> 01:20:49.319
In September 2023, Peter and Angela appeared in the Parramatta
1075
01:20:49.359 --> 01:20:52.739
local court to face the child abuse charges against them.
1076
01:20:53.899 --> 01:20:56.399
For kicking and hitting the child in their care with
1077
01:20:56.479 --> 01:21:00.810
a wooden spoon, 58-year-old Angela pleaded guilty to two counts
1078
01:21:00.869 --> 01:21:05.489
of assault. However, she pleaded not guilty to two counts
1079
01:21:05.529 --> 01:21:09.409
of intimidation against the same child for threatening to slap them.
1080
01:21:10.649 --> 01:21:14.779
For allegedly placing his hands around the child's neck, Peter
1081
01:21:14.859 --> 01:21:19.520
pleaded not guilty to one count of common assault. He
1082
01:21:19.600 --> 01:21:22.159
claimed he'd only ever put his hands on the child's
1083
01:21:22.220 --> 01:21:26.550
shoulders while giving them a time out. For berating the
1084
01:21:26.590 --> 01:21:29.850
crying child on the drive to school, he pleaded not
1085
01:21:29.890 --> 01:21:36.250
guilty to one count of intimidation Over the five-day hearing,
1086
01:21:36.470 --> 01:21:39.930
the defence teams argued that the incidents had occurred during
1087
01:21:40.010 --> 01:21:44.590
a time of significant stress, both emotionally and financially, which
1088
01:21:44.670 --> 01:21:50.680
was exacerbated by the ongoing trauma of William's disappearance. Various
1089
01:21:50.819 --> 01:21:53.560
audio recordings were played to the court in which the
1090
01:21:53.600 --> 01:21:57.659
couple discussed the pressure Angela was under, both in managing
1091
01:21:57.699 --> 01:22:01.100
the child's behaviour and becoming the focus of the strike
1092
01:22:01.140 --> 01:22:07.180
force investigations. In the recordings, Angela admitted she wasn't coping,
1093
01:22:07.579 --> 01:22:15.989
and Peter expressed his concern, saying, The defence said the
1094
01:22:16.170 --> 01:22:19.350
couple had shown great remorse for their actions and were
1095
01:22:19.430 --> 01:22:24.810
unlikely to re-offend, factors they believed should result in non-convictions.
1096
01:22:27.239 --> 01:22:30.899
Peter's assault charge was ultimately thrown out as the judge
1097
01:22:30.979 --> 01:22:33.779
found that the level of physical force he'd used on
1098
01:22:33.800 --> 01:22:39.109
the child constituted lawful correction. The child had also told
1099
01:22:39.149 --> 01:22:43.529
the police that Peter had never hurt them. For berating
1100
01:22:43.590 --> 01:22:46.909
the sobbing child in the car, she found Peter guilty
1101
01:22:47.010 --> 01:22:52.359
of one count of intimidation, calling his conduct unacceptable and unlawful.
1102
01:22:53.989 --> 01:22:57.380
For threatening to slap the child on two occasions, the
1103
01:22:57.420 --> 01:23:02.420
judge found Angela guilty of two counts of intimidation. She
1104
01:23:02.500 --> 01:23:06.260
accepted that the couple had been under significant stress and
1105
01:23:06.399 --> 01:23:11.340
that they had shown genuine remorse. Describing Angela as an
1106
01:23:11.420 --> 01:23:16.399
admired foster parent, the judge stated, It has been a
1107
01:23:16.520 --> 01:23:21.319
difficult sentencing process because there are so many competing factors
1108
01:23:21.470 --> 01:23:26.649
to weigh up here. She ultimately convicted both Peter and
1109
01:23:26.770 --> 01:23:34.199
Angela and gave them both 12-month good behaviour bonds. The
1110
01:23:34.239 --> 01:23:38.319
charges for knowingly giving false or misleading information during the
1111
01:23:38.359 --> 01:23:42.180
crime commission were dealt with separately by Sydney's Downing Centre
1112
01:23:42.239 --> 01:23:48.369
local court. The presiding magistrate dismissed all five charges against Peter,
1113
01:23:48.609 --> 01:23:52.130
citing the substantial ambiguity of the questions that he had
1114
01:23:52.149 --> 01:23:56.829
been presented with during the crime commission hearing. The counsel
1115
01:23:56.890 --> 01:23:59.829
assisting had asked Peter if his wife had harmed the
1116
01:23:59.869 --> 01:24:04.729
child in recent times. They had also asked if he
1117
01:24:04.829 --> 01:24:09.180
recalled if she had kicked the child. Peter had answered
1118
01:24:09.189 --> 01:24:14.649
no each time. The magistrate reasoned that Peter wasn't given
1119
01:24:14.689 --> 01:24:18.350
a clear definition of the word harm or recent times
1120
01:24:18.869 --> 01:24:22.430
and therefore it couldn't be proven that he'd been deliberately lying.
1121
01:24:23.789 --> 01:24:29.020
It was also possible that he'd forgotten the incident. The
1122
01:24:29.060 --> 01:24:34.420
charges against Angela were also dropped. Although the covert recordings
1123
01:24:34.460 --> 01:24:37.220
had captured her hitting the child with a wooden spoon
1124
01:24:37.340 --> 01:24:41.189
and telling Peter about it later, the magistrate said she
1125
01:24:41.270 --> 01:24:45.229
couldn't discount the possibility that Angela had simply been mistaken
1126
01:24:45.300 --> 01:24:48.020
when telling the Crime Commission that she'd never done such
1127
01:24:48.060 --> 01:24:52.420
a thing. During that hearing, Angela had admitted to hitting
1128
01:24:52.460 --> 01:24:55.659
and kicking the child in her care, but denied the
1129
01:24:55.680 --> 01:25:00.340
wooden spoon incident. The magistrate said she might have taken
1130
01:25:00.380 --> 01:25:04.289
a different view if Angela had denied those allegations and
1131
01:25:04.369 --> 01:25:08.210
acknowledged the intense pressure Angela had been under at the time.
1132
01:25:10.270 --> 01:25:13.350
Angela became emotional as she was cleared of the charges.
1133
01:25:14.369 --> 01:25:18.409
Former Tyrell case detective Gary Jubelin was present and gave
1134
01:25:18.430 --> 01:25:22.739
her a hug. He continued to stand by his belief
1135
01:25:22.899 --> 01:25:26.000
that the foster parents had nothing to do with William's
1136
01:25:26.039 --> 01:25:29.500
disappearance and that he'd been right to clear them from
1137
01:25:29.539 --> 01:25:36.800
the investigation. Outside court, a teary Angela told reporters... With
1138
01:25:36.859 --> 01:25:40.439
this behind me, I hope that police focus on finding
1139
01:25:40.520 --> 01:25:48.329
William and what happened to him. By the time Peter
1140
01:25:48.369 --> 01:25:51.800
and Angela had dealt with all the unrelated charges against them,
1141
01:25:52.239 --> 01:25:55.619
the public were well aware of the prevailing police theory
1142
01:25:55.699 --> 01:25:59.220
that Angela had buried William's body after a fatal fall
1143
01:25:59.359 --> 01:26:04.630
from her mother's balcony. In June 2023, New South Wales
1144
01:26:04.670 --> 01:26:07.250
Police handed a brief of evidence to the Director of
1145
01:26:07.329 --> 01:26:11.720
Public Prosecutions recommending that Angela be charged with interference with
1146
01:26:11.779 --> 01:26:16.399
a corpse and perverting the course of justice. They cleared
1147
01:26:16.479 --> 01:26:20.859
Peter of any involvement, clarifying they did not believe Angela
1148
01:26:20.890 --> 01:26:24.609
had caused the toddler's death but only concealed his body
1149
01:26:24.710 --> 01:26:29.470
out of fear of losing custody of Lindsay. Angela was
1150
01:26:29.569 --> 01:26:34.460
not informed of the recommendation before it went public. To
1151
01:26:34.500 --> 01:26:37.420
the best of her knowledge, police had no evidence to
1152
01:26:37.460 --> 01:26:42.840
support their theory. Angela's lawyer demanded that any evidence relating
1153
01:26:42.880 --> 01:26:46.699
to the claims be disclosed, releasing a statement that said,
1154
01:26:47.920 --> 01:26:51.939
To date, William's body has never been found. The foster
1155
01:26:51.979 --> 01:26:55.729
mother has always, and maintains, she has nothing to do
1156
01:26:55.810 --> 01:27:01.239
with William's disappearance. she desperately urges the police to resume
1157
01:27:01.300 --> 01:27:07.920
the investigation into finding out what happened to William. Whether
1158
01:27:08.000 --> 01:27:10.479
or not the police theory could be true has been
1159
01:27:10.500 --> 01:27:14.039
discussed at length by journalists and members of the public.
1160
01:27:15.140 --> 01:27:18.989
Without any evidence to support it, many questions were raised
1161
01:27:19.069 --> 01:27:25.479
about the police's proposed timeline. As pointed out by journalist
1162
01:27:25.539 --> 01:27:30.640
Dan Box in an exclusive article for news.com.au, the last
1163
01:27:30.720 --> 01:27:34.140
ever photo of William in his Spider-Man suit was confirmed
1164
01:27:34.260 --> 01:27:41.479
to have been taken at 9.37am on Friday September 12, 2014.
1165
01:27:41.479 --> 01:27:44.779
Angela first alerted a neighbour that William was missing at
1166
01:27:44.819 --> 01:27:50.850
around 10.40am. If the police theory was true, This gave
1167
01:27:50.949 --> 01:27:54.210
Angela a window of just over an hour to realise
1168
01:27:54.310 --> 01:27:58.640
William was missing and discover his body. She would have
1169
01:27:58.680 --> 01:28:01.619
had only a few moments to make the decision not
1170
01:28:01.680 --> 01:28:04.520
to call for help or alert anyone of his death.
1171
01:28:05.819 --> 01:28:08.000
She then had to get the keys to her mother's
1172
01:28:08.060 --> 01:28:12.470
Mazda and carry William's body to the car. While all
1173
01:28:12.550 --> 01:28:15.250
this was going on, she either had to keep what
1174
01:28:15.289 --> 01:28:17.770
she was doing a secret from her mother and Lindsay,
1175
01:28:18.319 --> 01:28:21.159
or tell them what had happened and convince them to
1176
01:28:21.199 --> 01:28:26.100
agree to her plan. With William's body in the car,
1177
01:28:26.520 --> 01:28:29.289
Angela would have then had to drive the two minutes
1178
01:28:29.369 --> 01:28:32.289
to the corners of Batar Creek Road and Cobb and
1179
01:28:32.369 --> 01:28:35.210
Co Road and dispose of his body in the thick,
1180
01:28:35.430 --> 01:28:39.569
almost impenetrable scrub before racing back home again for her
1181
01:28:39.630 --> 01:28:45.359
husband's return at 10.33am. Either she quickly brought him in
1182
01:28:45.479 --> 01:28:50.409
on her conspiracy or flat out lied to him. By
1183
01:28:50.449 --> 01:28:54.810
the time Angela alerted a neighbour at around 10.40am, she
1184
01:28:54.850 --> 01:28:57.630
was in the company of someone outside of her family
1185
01:28:57.710 --> 01:29:01.010
for the rest of the day This meant she had
1186
01:29:01.029 --> 01:29:04.970
no other chances to tamper with any evidence or conspire
1187
01:29:05.090 --> 01:29:10.920
with her family members. While it was technically possible for
1188
01:29:11.020 --> 01:29:13.500
Angela to have done all of these things within this
1189
01:29:13.579 --> 01:29:18.500
short timeframe, sceptics to the police theory have raised several questions.
1190
01:29:19.979 --> 01:29:23.449
For one, the area on Batar Creek Road where police
1191
01:29:23.489 --> 01:29:27.130
suspected Angela could have dumped William's body was in view
1192
01:29:27.250 --> 01:29:30.689
of the old writing school as well as two other properties.
1193
01:29:32.050 --> 01:29:34.699
Angela would have had no way of knowing if someone
1194
01:29:34.720 --> 01:29:38.439
was watching what she was doing. However, just a bit
1195
01:29:38.520 --> 01:29:41.720
further up the road, the bushland was just as thick
1196
01:29:42.000 --> 01:29:46.199
but with no properties in sight. Why not dump his
1197
01:29:46.270 --> 01:29:49.510
body there where she could be sure there were no witnesses?
1198
01:29:51.970 --> 01:29:56.229
William's sister and foster grandmother had always maintained that William
1199
01:29:56.289 --> 01:30:00.949
disappeared after wandering around the side of the house. So,
1200
01:30:01.229 --> 01:30:04.289
if the police theory was true, how did Angela do
1201
01:30:04.310 --> 01:30:08.649
all of this without Mary or Lindsay seeing? And why
1202
01:30:08.670 --> 01:30:12.180
would Angela continue to keep calling for more public attention
1203
01:30:12.270 --> 01:30:16.840
and police resources towards William's disappearance if she had something
1204
01:30:16.899 --> 01:30:22.270
to hide? Before being publicly named as a suspect, a
1205
01:30:22.329 --> 01:30:25.310
reporter had asked Peter and Angela if they would ever
1206
01:30:25.369 --> 01:30:33.479
stop fighting for William. Angela had resolutely responded, Never. If
1207
01:30:33.579 --> 01:30:37.079
police think they've seen the last of us, big mistake.
1208
01:30:38.199 --> 01:30:40.739
We will not give up on William and we will
1209
01:30:40.779 --> 01:30:44.050
not let other people give up on him. He is
1210
01:30:44.130 --> 01:30:52.409
too important to give up on. In May 2024, the
1211
01:30:52.449 --> 01:30:56.390
police asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to suspend its
1212
01:30:56.489 --> 01:31:00.630
consideration of the proposed charges against Angela until after the
1213
01:31:00.670 --> 01:31:05.689
coronial inquest resumed. The possibility that Angela could have covered
1214
01:31:05.789 --> 01:31:09.350
up William's accidental death then became the focus of the
1215
01:31:09.430 --> 01:31:15.449
inquest when it recommenced in early November 2024. By this point,
1216
01:31:15.710 --> 01:31:18.989
over five years had passed since the inquest was first
1217
01:31:19.130 --> 01:31:21.729
opened and and it had been three years since the
1218
01:31:21.770 --> 01:31:26.720
police first went public with their theory. Anticipation was high
1219
01:31:26.800 --> 01:31:30.000
in the courts as those gathered waited anxiously to hear
1220
01:31:30.100 --> 01:31:34.420
what evidence had been gathered to support their suspicions. The
1221
01:31:34.479 --> 01:31:38.140
general consensus was that the police must have some fresh
1222
01:31:38.220 --> 01:31:44.050
and compelling evidence to justify their allegations. As Angela arrived
1223
01:31:44.109 --> 01:31:47.130
at the court, a member of the public hurled abuse
1224
01:31:47.189 --> 01:31:52.729
at her, using her real name. The counsel assisting the
1225
01:31:52.770 --> 01:31:56.510
coroner kicked things off by clarifying there was still no
1226
01:31:56.590 --> 01:32:00.729
forensic evidence or eyewitnesses to confirm what had happened to
1227
01:32:00.789 --> 01:32:06.270
William Tyrrell. He reiterated that the police theory was just
1228
01:32:06.329 --> 01:32:09.729
a theory and the coroner couldn't act on the express
1229
01:32:09.810 --> 01:32:15.810
belief of a police investigator. Over four days, testimony was
1230
01:32:15.850 --> 01:32:19.140
heard from numerous experts who had been involved in the
1231
01:32:19.140 --> 01:32:23.520
2021 search of Mary Saunders' former property and the bushland
1232
01:32:23.640 --> 01:32:28.460
on Batar Creek Road. It was confirmed that officers had
1233
01:32:28.520 --> 01:32:32.600
found several pieces of fabric and some animal bones, but
1234
01:32:32.689 --> 01:32:37.069
no human remains and nothing directly connected to William Tyrrell.
1235
01:32:39.210 --> 01:32:44.270
According to a professor in geomorphology, this didn't necessarily mean
1236
01:32:44.329 --> 01:32:48.239
that William hadn't been buried there. He said it was
1237
01:32:48.340 --> 01:32:51.520
possible that a child's remains could have been carried away
1238
01:32:51.619 --> 01:32:54.680
by wild animals such as a pig or a fox.
1239
01:32:56.159 --> 01:32:58.909
While one expert told the court she couldn't say for
1240
01:32:59.010 --> 01:33:03.069
certain whether William's remains would still be present after this long,
1241
01:33:03.640 --> 01:33:07.310
Examples were also given of juvenile bones that had lasted
1242
01:33:07.399 --> 01:33:13.050
over 100 years in the Australian elements. The video of
1243
01:33:13.149 --> 01:33:16.569
Angela's crime commission hearing was also played to the court.
1244
01:33:17.670 --> 01:33:20.470
In it, she was grilled about what she meant when
1245
01:33:20.510 --> 01:33:23.090
she told her friend on a taped phone call that
1246
01:33:23.170 --> 01:33:26.489
William's skeleton would be found years down the track when
1247
01:33:26.609 --> 01:33:32.010
clearing was being done. Angela strongly denied that she meant
1248
01:33:32.189 --> 01:33:35.680
she knew William had been hidden in the bush. She
1249
01:33:35.779 --> 01:33:38.760
said she had simply meant that he could be anywhere.
1250
01:33:40.539 --> 01:33:43.420
On that same call, she had also told her friend
1251
01:33:43.619 --> 01:33:47.600
she couldn't believe the police were focusing on her, stating
1252
01:33:48.819 --> 01:33:51.479
If I had done anything to William, I wouldn't have
1253
01:33:51.520 --> 01:33:54.810
tried to cover it up. I would have owned up
1254
01:33:54.930 --> 01:34:00.609
to it. As the hearings started to wrap up, it
1255
01:34:00.649 --> 01:34:04.470
became clear that the police didn't have any incriminating evidence
1256
01:34:04.529 --> 01:34:10.310
to present. The coroner rejected their request to re-examine Angela
1257
01:34:10.430 --> 01:34:14.560
on the stand. Before the final block of hearings could
1258
01:34:14.600 --> 01:34:18.359
take place, the coroner announced that she was vacating the
1259
01:34:18.439 --> 01:34:22.899
evidence completely, which meant the upcoming hearings would be cancelled.
1260
01:34:24.159 --> 01:34:27.359
She called for all parties to provide their written closing
1261
01:34:27.420 --> 01:34:30.810
submissions and said she would hand down her findings at
1262
01:34:30.869 --> 01:34:37.869
a later date. Many have criticised the way the inquest
1263
01:34:37.930 --> 01:34:42.229
was handled, including the fact that over its five-year duration,
1264
01:34:42.569 --> 01:34:47.380
not one of the three senior investigators overseeing Strikeforce Rosanne
1265
01:34:47.539 --> 01:34:52.979
were called to give evidence. Criminologist Dr Xanthe Mallet had
1266
01:34:53.039 --> 01:34:56.239
sat through the inquest and she told the ABC it
1267
01:34:56.279 --> 01:34:59.640
was time for the police to charge Angela or, quote,
1268
01:35:00.220 --> 01:35:04.539
leave her alone. People have the right to the presumption
1269
01:35:04.579 --> 01:35:07.560
of innocence and that has been denied in this case
1270
01:35:07.699 --> 01:35:12.979
via gossip and innuendo for years, Dr Mallet said. If
1271
01:35:13.039 --> 01:35:16.649
there is evidence she was involved, then she should be charged.
1272
01:35:17.149 --> 01:35:21.390
or police should acknowledge there is insufficient evidence to charge her.
1273
01:35:23.649 --> 01:35:28.449
It was a sentiment shared by many others. Journalist Dan
1274
01:35:28.529 --> 01:35:31.449
Box had been following the William Tyrrell case since the
1275
01:35:31.489 --> 01:35:34.789
beginning and had many questions about the way police were
1276
01:35:34.829 --> 01:35:40.539
handling things. Appearing on Channel 7's Spotlight program to discuss
1277
01:35:40.579 --> 01:35:45.800
the allegations against Angela, Dan said, If the police want
1278
01:35:45.819 --> 01:35:49.439
to say that someone is involved in William's disappearance, and
1279
01:35:49.500 --> 01:35:52.899
if that person is William's foster mother, they have to
1280
01:35:52.920 --> 01:35:55.420
be certain that all the other people who might have
1281
01:35:55.460 --> 01:36:00.489
been involved definitely weren't. They have to actually be able
1282
01:36:00.550 --> 01:36:04.550
to prove that. And I haven't seen the evidence that
1283
01:36:04.590 --> 01:36:12.180
they can. Former case detective Gary Jubelin agreed. Since the
1284
01:36:12.220 --> 01:36:16.819
allegations came out against Angela, many have criticised Jubilant's handling
1285
01:36:16.859 --> 01:36:19.520
of the case, saying he'd been too close to the
1286
01:36:19.560 --> 01:36:23.470
foster family during his time in charge and hadn't investigated
1287
01:36:23.520 --> 01:36:28.770
them properly. Jubilant told Spotlight that he stood by everything
1288
01:36:28.810 --> 01:36:32.029
he did during the four years he ran the investigation.
1289
01:36:33.369 --> 01:36:37.409
We ran a covert and overt operation, a fairly intense
1290
01:36:37.489 --> 01:36:42.159
operation on the foster mother, Jubilant said. there was no
1291
01:36:42.260 --> 01:36:45.819
evidence of the foster mother having knowledge of or involvement
1292
01:36:45.960 --> 01:36:54.239
with William's disappearance. In February 2025, Peter's conviction for intimidating
1293
01:36:54.279 --> 01:36:57.859
a child was quashed on appeal, with the judge reasoning
1294
01:36:58.000 --> 01:37:01.380
that during the court hearing, the child had never actually
1295
01:37:01.420 --> 01:37:05.460
been asked about the incident or whether they had felt intimidated.
1296
01:37:05.479 --> 01:37:10.850
He said Peter's actions were similar to any parent who was, quote,
1297
01:37:11.630 --> 01:37:15.170
stressed and using a loud and frustrated tone of voice.
1298
01:37:16.930 --> 01:37:20.970
Angela also appealed her intimidation convictions and is scheduled to
1299
01:37:21.010 --> 01:37:29.039
face an appeal hearing later in 2025. As of the
1300
01:37:29.100 --> 01:37:33.180
release of this episode, the inquest findings into William Tyrrell's
1301
01:37:33.239 --> 01:37:37.979
disappearance still haven't been released. No one has ever been
1302
01:37:38.039 --> 01:37:42.000
arrested or charged in relation to William's disappearance and a
1303
01:37:42.079 --> 01:37:45.960
case file does not suggest the involvement of anyone mentioned
1304
01:37:46.000 --> 01:37:51.600
in this episode and acknowledges their presumption of innocence. Anyone
1305
01:37:51.640 --> 01:37:56.020
with information about William Tyrrell is encouraged to contact Crimestoppers
1306
01:37:56.260 --> 01:38:04.270
on 1800 333 000. William's foster mother continues to staunchly
1307
01:38:04.329 --> 01:38:08.399
maintain her innocence. At the advice of her lawyer, she
1308
01:38:08.439 --> 01:38:11.560
has not spoken publicly about the case since being named
1309
01:38:11.659 --> 01:38:15.720
by the police as a suspect. The only statement she
1310
01:38:15.760 --> 01:38:19.229
has given was to Dan Box for his podcast series
1311
01:38:19.310 --> 01:38:26.149
on the case titled, Witness William Tyrrell. It read, Just
1312
01:38:26.250 --> 01:38:29.970
over ten years ago, my little boy, William Tyrrell, disappeared.
1313
01:38:30.329 --> 01:38:34.310
from my mother's yard at her house at Kendall. I
1314
01:38:34.369 --> 01:38:38.970
believe that William was taken. I have no idea who
1315
01:38:39.069 --> 01:38:43.100
took William or what happened to him. If he is
1316
01:38:43.149 --> 01:38:46.479
in fact dead, I have no idea where his little
1317
01:38:46.539 --> 01:38:51.439
body is. I have no knowledge of or involvement in
1318
01:38:51.510 --> 01:38:57.350
his disappearance. Even though William was not my child by birth,
1319
01:38:57.850 --> 01:39:00.630
I loved William as much as any mother could love
1320
01:39:00.689 --> 01:39:04.529
her child. I loved him as if he was my
1321
01:39:04.569 --> 01:39:09.239
child by birth, if not more. It did not matter
1322
01:39:09.439 --> 01:39:12.699
one bit that he was not connected to us biologically.
1323
01:39:13.920 --> 01:39:19.220
William made my life complete. I loved him fiercely. I
1324
01:39:19.260 --> 01:39:24.659
just loved being his mummy. My life with William was happy,
1325
01:39:24.970 --> 01:39:30.750
fun and an adventure. Every day was different. Never ever
1326
01:39:30.829 --> 01:39:33.949
for a moment did I regret becoming a foster mother.
1327
01:39:35.010 --> 01:39:38.699
We were a family, not the traditional version of a family.
1328
01:39:39.539 --> 01:39:43.260
It didn't matter. We were and still are a family
1329
01:39:43.739 --> 01:39:48.520
and we connected as one. For the past five years,
1330
01:39:48.770 --> 01:39:51.520
the police have done nothing to try to discover who
1331
01:39:51.579 --> 01:39:56.159
took William and what has happened to him. Instead, they
1332
01:39:56.199 --> 01:39:59.039
have concentrated all their efforts on trying to build a
1333
01:39:59.079 --> 01:40:01.539
case that I was in some way to blame for
1334
01:40:01.600 --> 01:40:05.140
his death and the disposal of his precious little body.
1335
01:40:06.199 --> 01:40:09.100
They have gone to great lengths to blacken my character
1336
01:40:09.159 --> 01:40:13.090
in the media. I believe that if the police had
1337
01:40:13.229 --> 01:40:17.750
properly investigated this case instead of persecuting me, they may
1338
01:40:17.810 --> 01:40:22.970
well have found the person responsible for William's disappearance. It's
1339
01:40:23.050 --> 01:40:26.149
challenging to have hope and build plans for the future
1340
01:40:26.390 --> 01:40:30.829
when our hearts remain shattered and in pieces. All I
1341
01:40:30.869 --> 01:40:34.229
can hope for is that some person who knows something
1342
01:40:34.670 --> 01:40:41.289
comes forward. Speaking about the allegations against Angela to Spotlight,
1343
01:40:41.729 --> 01:40:46.359
Dan Bach said, Part of me actually hopes that the
1344
01:40:46.399 --> 01:40:51.579
police have got this right. Then that justifies everything they've done.
1345
01:40:52.380 --> 01:40:56.260
That justifies all the attention, all the whispers, the leaks.
1346
01:40:56.859 --> 01:41:01.180
All of that is justified. But if the police are
1347
01:41:01.260 --> 01:41:05.100
wrong and she's not guilty, and we haven't seen any
1348
01:41:05.180 --> 01:41:09.020
evidence that she is … then what damage has been
1349
01:41:09.060 --> 01:41:15.380
done to that family? Whatever the truth, the reality is
1350
01:41:15.460 --> 01:41:19.010
that when Angela snapped the photographs of William playing on
1351
01:41:19.050 --> 01:41:23.970
her mother's deck on the morning of Friday, September 12, 2014,
1352
01:41:23.970 --> 01:41:27.329
she could never have known how significant they would become.
1353
01:41:28.670 --> 01:41:32.600
The last photograph ever taken of three-year-old William Tyrrell in
1354
01:41:32.640 --> 01:41:35.960
his blue and red Spider-Man suit roaring at the camera
1355
01:41:35.979 --> 01:41:41.659
was has become etched into Australia's public psyche. Even those
1356
01:41:41.760 --> 01:41:45.399
unfamiliar with the case are likely to recognise the photo.
1357
01:41:46.739 --> 01:41:50.890
It's a confronting image as it represents two sides of humanity,
1358
01:41:51.520 --> 01:41:56.069
the pure innocence of childhood and the potential evil that
1359
01:41:56.130 --> 01:42:01.390
lurks amongst us. But William is more than just a
1360
01:42:01.430 --> 01:42:06.609
missing boy in a superhero costume. During the coronial inquest
1361
01:42:06.689 --> 01:42:10.659
into William's disappearance, an impassioned statement was played to the
1362
01:42:10.699 --> 01:42:16.680
court from his then 10-year-old sister, Lindsay. In it, she said,
1363
01:42:18.060 --> 01:42:22.319
This is my brother we are talking about. In my mind,
1364
01:42:22.739 --> 01:42:26.229
no one is trying. So I've made the decision to
1365
01:42:26.289 --> 01:42:30.590
do something about that. I hope this speech today makes
1366
01:42:30.630 --> 01:42:35.100
you solve the case. If it doesn't, When I'm officially
1367
01:42:35.159 --> 01:42:38.800
an adult, I will be in the police force, specifically
1368
01:42:39.000 --> 01:42:42.640
a detective, and I will find my brother and won't
1369
01:42:42.739 --> 01:42:47.420
give up until he's found. Not a day goes past
1370
01:42:47.439 --> 01:42:51.479
that we don't think about him. He's a loving, kind,
1371
01:42:51.739 --> 01:42:56.609
sweet boy who was annoying at times. But the day
1372
01:42:56.670 --> 01:43:02.510
he disappeared, we lost everything. We lost my innocent brother.
1373
01:43:03.710 --> 01:43:07.609
He needs to be found. So please help our family,
1374
01:43:07.970 --> 01:43:11.909
but most of all, me, find our precious William.
1375
01:43:48.220 --> 01:43:51.319
We all love to communicate, but with more ways to
1376
01:43:51.359 --> 01:43:53.180
do it than ever, it can be confusing.
1377
01:43:53.819 --> 01:43:55.600
Sometimes it's like a different language.
1378
01:43:56.239 --> 01:44:01.430
We're Comreg, Ireland's independent communications regulator for mobile and broadband services.
1379
01:44:01.970 --> 01:44:04.210
We have online support and we can help you resolve
1380
01:44:04.250 --> 01:44:05.770
issues with your provider.
1381
01:44:05.350 --> 01:44:06.210
If things go wrong.
1382
01:44:06.930 --> 01:44:10.210
When communication needs navigation, we'll help you find the way.
1383
01:44:11.390 --> 01:44:12.890
Hi, this is Comreg. How can I help?