Case 322: William Tyrrell (Part 1)

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You're Listening To Right Now.
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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. It was
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ten fifty on the morning of Friday, September twelve, twenty fourteen,
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when a call came through to the New South Wales
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Police emergency helpline. On the other line was a woman
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named Angela, calling from the small hinterland town of Kendall,
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located on the state's mid north coast.
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Least imagin yeh, Hi, my son didn't think he's through
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in a half.
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So your address Senner Room Drive, Kendle. Okay, Benny Room
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Drive in Kendle. Yeah, all right, I'm just gonna bring
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that up on my map. I won't in a moment.
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How long has he been missing?
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Well, I think well we've been looking for a now,
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it's about fifteen or twenty minutes. Okay. I thought it
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could be side, it could be longer to just just
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playing around.
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You.
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We heard him and then we heard nothing.
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Okay.
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So I've got the nearest class street than our president.
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Is that right? So what is it?
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Ellen Dale Cresident?
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I don't know, mom, this is my mom's house.
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Okay, you've been missing since about ten thirty where I'd say, so, okay,
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can you.
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Just dribe him? To me how tall obviously not Rachel.
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Well you do about turn a half. He's wearing a
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Spider Man outfit. Yeah, our hair and he's got that
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brandy colored hair.
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It's short.
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He's got the brownie own colored eyes.
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Okay, what do you get an eat shoes on?
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Do you know any other distinguishing.
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He has always got a freckle on the top of
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his head when you cut the hair on the left
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hand side to see a freckle on the top of
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his head.
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All right, do you know where he might have gone?
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We're actually moved will Mum's properly here a state borrow okay,
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and the one huge block would have walked up and
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down ben Ruin dry and we can't find him. Okay.
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What's his name?
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William's William's surname two or two Y, double R and
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double L. HM.
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Senior Constable Christopher Rowley was already in the area when
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he received a word of the missing three year old
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boy in Candle. He arrived at Bannaroon Drive at eleven
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o six am, by which time William Tyrell had reportedly
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been missing for just over half an hour. The single
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story brick homeb of William's grandmother Mary Saunders, sat on
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a sharp slope high upon a corner block, elevated above
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a large garage and workshop space. Hers was one of
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the last houses on the dead end street, with three
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sides of the property backing onto dance bushland framed by
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lawns and native trees. A veranda wrapped around the length
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of the house with a five meter high balcony, providing
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the perfect spot to take in the scenic easterly views.
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Senior Constable Rowley found William Tyrrel's mother, Angela, in a
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clear state of distress, walking down the middle of the
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street in tears. Her husband Peter was frantically dashing around,
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calling William's name and to checking the surrounding properties. The
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family of four had only arrived in Kendall at around
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nine the previous evening after driving the roughly four hour
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journey from their home in Sydney's Northern Beaches. Angela's father
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had recently passed away, and the purpose of the visit
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was to help her mother Mary organize her house for sale.
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The substantial, three bedroom, two bathroom house on a one
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point two acre block was simply too big for the
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elderly woman to look after on her own. According to Angela,
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that morning of Friday, September twelve, twenty fourteen, the two
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Tyrrell children had woken up in good spirits. William and
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his four year old sister Lindsey were excited to at
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their grandmother's house, a place they had visited several times before.
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Their father, Peter, had to make a video call for work,
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but the internet reception in Kendle was notoriously lousy, so
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he left the house at around eight thirty am to
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make the call from the nearby town of Lakewood instead.
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While Peter was gone, William and Lindsay rode their bikes
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around Mary's driveway and explored the yard. Afterwards, William played
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a game with his mother called Mummy Monster, which involved
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Angela chasing her son around the garden. When they were done,
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they climbed the steep slope back up to the house.
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The grass was covered in loose twigs and leaves, and
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they kept slipping over. One of the slips resulted in
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Angela injuring her hand, so they went inside to tent
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to the wound. Lindsay had heard them playing Mummy Monster
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and to join in the game, so they went back
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outside for a while. After the kids grew bored of that,
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William and Lindsey decided to make some cards to bring
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to their grandfather's grave when they visited.
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Later that day.
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Angela set them up with some art supplies on the
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back deck that.
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Overlooked the rear lawn.
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Shortly after nine thirty am, she grabbed her digital camera
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and snapped some photos of them. William was thrilled that
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he'd been allowed to wear his new favorite outfit, a
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two piece blue and red Spider Man costume that his
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parents had bought him on a recent family holiday to Bali.
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He put a Spider Man T shirt underneath the polyester
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suit so he could be head to toe in his
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favorite superhero get up. At nine thirty seven am, Angela
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stood above William and pointed the lens towards him as
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he crouched on the deck pretending to be a tiger.
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The lit looked up at her, his eyes cast to
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the sky and mouth agape as he let out a
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loud raw. It wasn't long before William lost interest in
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the craft session and began a new game he called
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Daddy Tiger. This involved him crawling around and launching himself
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off the deck as he roared and clawed his hands
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in the air. He asked Lindsey to join in, but
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she was too engrossed in the card making process. William
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continued the game alone, ducking around the site of the
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house out of sight for a moment before reappearing with
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a loud raw. Just before ten am, Angela said that
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she and her mother were sitting and watching the kids
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over a cup of tea. Mary remarked how loud William
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was being, and Angela explained that's just how he was
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always full of energy. The two women looked on as
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William darted around the guard jumping and roaring enthusiastically. He
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then ran around the northwest corner of the house and
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out of sight, the sound of his roar still clearly audible.
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After a few minutes, Angela noticed that had gone unusually quiet.
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She got up and walked around the side of the house,
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but she couldn't see William anywhere. Angela called out William's name,
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saying where are you? I can't see you. There was
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no reply. She looked for splashes of his red spider
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man costume against the vibrant green foliage, noting it was
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suddenly so quiet that even the bird seemed to have
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stopped chirping. Angela told Mary that she couldn't see William anywhere,
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thinking he was hiding and playing a trick on them.
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Mary remarked, oh, the little devil. Angela was starting to
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get worried. She went around the eastern side of the
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house and looked in the ferns that sat underneath the balcony,
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all the while calling William's name. When he didn't appear,
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she became frantic. Mary's property had no fance or other
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barrier to prevent William from wandering beyond its boundary. Angela
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ran to the street, checking each side of the yard,
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but she still couldn't see or hear William. She ran
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into her mother's house with Mary following, checking each room
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and opening cupboards to see if he was hiding inside.
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Angela tried to remain calm so that William wouldn't panic,
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thinking he was in trouble. Keeping her composure, she called William,
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you have to come out. You have to talk to me.
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No more hiding, William, I can't see you. There was
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no reply. While all this was happening, Angela's husband, Peter,
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had been at the Lakewood shopping precinct, making his work
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calls from inside his brand new land Rover Discovery. After
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stopping to grab a newspaper, he headed straight back to Candle.
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Peter told the police that at around ten thirty am,
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as he neared Benarun Drive, he'd sent Angela a voice
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to text message suggesting it was a good time to
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send the kids outside.
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William had a.
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Deep fascination with cars, trucks, and planes, which was an
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interest Peter encouraged. The Tyrrell children always got a thrill
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out of watching their father arrive home and running out
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to greet him. It was a moment Peter looked forward
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to every day. But as he pulled up to his
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mother in law's house, it wasn't his children who came
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out to greet him. His wife, Angela looked panic stricken.
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She gestured urgently for Peter to roll down his window.
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Have you got William, she asked. Peter frowned, confused, of
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course not, he said, why would you think that? Frantically,
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Angela replied, because he's missing. Peter didn't ask for any
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more information. He lapped out of his car and took off, running,
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shouting out William's name. Neighbors heard the commotion going on
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outside and came out to see what was going on.
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I am looking for a little boy in a spider
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Man suit. Angela told them, have you seen him? His
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name is William. The neighbors searched their yards, checked their
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swimming pools, and any other places that might be of
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interest to a young boy, such as cubbyhouses and play equipment.
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When Paula Senior Constable Christopher Rowley arrived at Benarun Drive,
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he conducted a thorough search of Mary's house. He was
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soon joined by additional officers who arrived at the scene.
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They checked cupboards and under furniture, going so far as
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to remove cushions from the couch and pitches from the walls.
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Benarun Drive is a secluded, quiet street that backs onto scrubland.
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It consists of twenty one houses, each of which is
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situated on a large block and set back from the road.
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At the end of.
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The no through road is a rugged dirt track surrounded
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by dense bush that eventually leads to the Kendall Cemetery.
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There is no foot traffic and no reason to be
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in the area unless you live there or are visiting
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one of the residents. Angela told the police she had
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only seen one unfamiliar car in the area, and that
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had earlier on when the two Tyrrell children had been
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riding their bikes outside. It was a dark green or
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gray sedan that had briefly pulled into a neighbor's driveway
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before immediately reversing out and driving away. A couple who
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lived nearby heard the car too, but just assumed it
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was the local postal worker. It therefore seemed highly unlikely
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to the police that William had been abducted, especially given
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the very short amount of time between when his mother
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last heard him and when he went missing. They thought
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the most likely explanation was that he had wandered off
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and gotten lost in the bush. The rugged area was
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thick with weeds, reedy grass, and spiky lantana bushes. There
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were also numerous waterways, cliffs, abandoned mine shafts, and wild animals,
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creating plenty of hazards to explain why the young hadn't
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yet been found, But Peter and Angela were dubious. Although
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William was adventurous and had a mischievous sight, they said
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he was also clingy and reserved. While he might hide
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and jump out for fun. He was the kind of
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kid who wouldn't try to cross the street by himself,
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and it would be very out of character for him
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to just wander off on his own. They said he
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had a clear understanding of boundaries and would deem rocky
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slopes and rugged terrain too dangerous to scale alone. They
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also said he would never blindly go off with the stranger.
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He didn't warm to people immediately, but rather sat back
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and assessed them first. A benaruin Drive resident created a
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Facebook post online calling for volunteers to assist in the search.
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Within minutes, locals of all ages and demographics swarmed to
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the area, traversing through the surrounding scrub and driving the
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neighboring streets shouting William's name. A three year old girl
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sat in her pram calling out, you're not in trouble, William,
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you can come out now. The operation was overseen by
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experienced land search and rescue coordinators. Line searchers were conducted
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in the surrounding bush land, while horses and motorbikes traversed
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the dance scrub, and police helicopters searched overhead. Mary's house
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was thoroughly checked multiple times, as were other houses along
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Benaroon Drive. Different personnel were brought in to search the
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homes in case a fresh set of eyes noticed something
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that others had missed. Shads, roof spaces, wall cavities, and
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00:16:55.080 --> 00:17:00.960
cupboards were meticulously checked. Sniffer dogs also battled the rugged terrain,
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but were unable to detect any cent of William Tyrrel
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beyond Mary's garden. The primary concern for the search party
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was that the young boy might be injured or unconscious,
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preventing him from coming forward to rescuers. There was also
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a serious fear he had drowned, prompting police divers and
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the Rural Fire Service to search and to drain numerous dams,
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storm drains and water tanks in the area. The day
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was mild at eighteen degrees celsius, but as nightfall approached,
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dark clouds gathered and the temperature dropped significantly. With no
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sign of William, concerns mounted that if he was still alive,
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he might succumb to the elements overnight. Untreated dehydration or
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hypothermia posed serious risks. William also suffered from asthma, which
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worsened in the cold conditions and could be triggered by
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stress or by the powdery pollen released by the surrounding
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Lantana bushes. The search continued overnight, with police calling for
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volunteers to register at the Candle showgrounds at seven the
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following morning, rain was expected and volunteers were asked to
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wear high visibility clothing suitable for wet weather and to
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bring plenty of water. The search was expanded beyond the
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scrub near Benarun Drive and into the nearby Kendle and
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Middle Brother State forests. No stone was left unturned, yet
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there was still no sign of William. By Sunday, September fourteenth,
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the two day search for William remained fruitless. However, Angela
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told the police that she might have seen something significant
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on Benarun Drive the day her son vanished. After all,
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She said she'd completely forgotten about it at first, but
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the memory had come back to her while driving to
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pick up a relative from the airport. According to Angela,
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on the morning William went missing, she had looked out
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the window at around six forty and noticed two cars
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parked strangely on the street. They stuck out to her
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because both of their driver's side windows had been left open,
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which was something you wouldn't see in the city. Both
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of the cars were dirty, older models with tinted windows
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and no hub caps. One was a gun metal gray
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ser Dan possibly a Falcon or a Commodore, and the
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other an off white station wagon with a boxy back end,
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possibly a Camery. They were parked close to one another
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on the road between two properties, which Angela noted as
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odd given that any visitors to the area typically parked
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in the driveway of whichever home they were visiting. Angela
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hadn't mentioned any of these cars to her mother or husband.
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When she'd called emergency services to report William's disappearance, the
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operator had asked if she'd seen any suspicious vehicles in
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the area, and Angela had firmly answered no. No other
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residents of Benarun Drive recalled seeing the parked cars either,
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but it was a helpful bit of information for the police.
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While William's disappearance continued to make the news, Peter and
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Angela stayed away from the spotlight and didn't make any
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public appearances. As the days passed with no sign of
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the three year old, public conjecture started to grow about
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why the parents weren't talking. The speculation only escalated when
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a family friend made a national appeal for information on
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Peter and Angela's behalf. If they were genuinely concerned about William.
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The public wondered why they weren't doing everything in their
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power to keep their son's disappearance in the media. Some
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00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:16.960
speculated that their lack of exposure meant they had something
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to hide. Case file will be back shortly. Thank you
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00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:38.319
for supporting us by listening to this episode. Sponsors A
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00:21:38.519 --> 00:21:40.079
Cast recommends.
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Hey, Nicky Burrn here from Nicky burn HQ. Join me
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every Thursday for exclusive chats with some of the biggest
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old Made from Westlife Brian McFadden. You won't want to
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miss the form, the stories and the behind the scenes scoops.
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So sir, It's Nicki Borne. HQ now drops every Thursday
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on all podcast platforms.
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A cast is home to the world's best podcasts, including
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Red Rooms, Catch Up with Louise McSharry, and the one
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You're listening to right now.
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00:22:22.039 --> 00:22:25.839
Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting
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00:22:25.880 --> 00:22:29.359
our sponsors, you support case File to continue to deliver
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00:22:29.400 --> 00:22:40.759
our quality content. Peter and Angela had always wanted children
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00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:44.680
unable to have any of their own, they decided to
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00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:49.880
help those in need. In twenty eleven, the married couple
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applied to become foster parents. They were put on the
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books of what was then called the Department of Family
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and Community Services or FACTS. After successfully completing the mandatory
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foster care training classes and two short term assignments. As
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a successful couple from Sydney's affluent North Shore, Peter and
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Angela made attractive candidates when Lindsay Tyrrell was placed into
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the foster care system in twenty twelve. Lindsay was sent
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to live with Peter and Angela, followed shortly after by
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her eight month old brother William. According to those who
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knew Peter and Angela, the two were doting foster parents
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to the Tyrrell children. They gave them everything a kid
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could possibly want. A play room full of toys, regular
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trips to playgrounds and parks, family holidays, birthday parties, and
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most importantly, a stable and comfortable home life. Peter and
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William had a particularly strong bond with Angela describing the
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two as absolutely adoring each other. As the children settled
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into their new home life, Peter and Angela transitioned from
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00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:09.279
short term careers to long term careers, making them the
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legal guardians of the two Tyrrell siblings until they turned eighteen.
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00:24:16.440 --> 00:24:20.039
The reality was when it came to William's disappearance, his
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status as a foster child made it difficult for Peter
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00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:27.799
and Agela to front the media. For starters, they weren't
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illegally allowed to identify themselves as his careers. Police needed
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permission from the relevant government departments before they were allowed
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to divulge any details regarding William's family situation. Secondly, they
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wanted to protect Lindsay Tyrrell's identity. If news got out
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that William was a foster child, it outed Lindsey too.
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Based on advice from facts, Peter and Angela made the
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decision to remain anonymous. This would also protect the reputation
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of the department who had assigned to the children to
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their care. The true identities of William's foster parents, foster grandmother,
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and sister were banned from publication under court suppression orders.
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Any journalist or reporter who broke this rule was warned
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that they could face potential prosecution. Peter, Angela and Mary
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a pseudonym's case file has created for clarity, while Lindsay
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is the pseudonym created for her by the courts. The
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decision to withhold Peter and Angela's identities from the public
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ultimately muddied public opinion. With no face of parental grief
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and desperation for the Australian public to cling onto, the
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case sparked suspicion against the parents instead of compassion. But
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Peter and Angela weren't the only ones feeling the wars
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of this decision. William's biological mother, twenty six year old
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Amy Tyrill not her real name, was heavily pregnant with
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her fourth child when the police knocked on her door
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in Western Sydney on the evening of Friday, September twelve,
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twenty fourteen. Officers entered the house and were shocked to
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find a young boy matching William's description playing in the backyard.
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One of the officers looked at Amy and said accusingly,
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what have you done? But the boy wasn't William. It
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was his eighteen month old brother. Amy and her partner,
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Tyler Martin not his real name, who was William's biological father,
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00:26:48.039 --> 00:26:52.519
were confused by the police presence. They knew they were
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on the authority's radar for a string of domestic violence, assault,
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and a drug related offenses, and Amy's initial thought was
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00:27:00.039 --> 00:27:02.319
that there might have been a warrant out for her arrest.
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When she was told that William went missing that morning,
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she was in disbelief. Amy had never wanted to put
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William and Lindsey into foster care, and she'd been taking
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steps to get them back. She wondered how her son
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could be missing when he'd been put into the care
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of guardians who were supposed to keep him safe. At first,
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Tyler thought it was a joke, but as the police
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began searching their house, the reality of the situation started
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to sink in. The police asked Amy and Tyler about
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00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:45.680
their movements that day. Tyler said he'd woken up before
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00:27:45.720 --> 00:27:48.839
sunrise to go to the local McDonald's restaurant to grab
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breakfast and use the establishment's free WiFi. He was scheduled
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00:27:54.119 --> 00:27:56.480
to work that day, but he sent his boss a
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text to let him know he couldn't make it due
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to a shoulder injury. When Tyler got home, Amy took
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their eighteen month old son out shopping for the soon
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to be born baby.
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She said.
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00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:12.799
The two caught the train to the suburb of Blacktown,
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visiting various shops and making several purchases along the way
401
00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:22.079
before returning home at around four pm.
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The police were dubious.
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00:28:24.440 --> 00:28:28.000
After all, if Amy or Tyler had anything to do
404
00:28:28.119 --> 00:28:31.480
with the William's disappearance, it wouldn't.
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Be the first time.
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Amy Tyrrell and Tyler Martin were both raised in low
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socioeconomic conditions and each struggled with their own set of
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personal issues and run ins with the law. In two
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thousand and eight, they were introduced by one of Amy's brothers,
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and they later began dating. It wasn't long before Amy
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00:28:56.400 --> 00:29:01.519
became pregnant with Lindsay, but the young couple struggled. They
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00:29:01.599 --> 00:29:05.599
had limited support and finances, and the demands of parenthood
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took a toll on their already volatile relationship. One night,
414
00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:14.519
after the couple had a fight, Amy began drinking heavily.
415
00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:18.119
She was pushing Lindsay in a pram on the street
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when police spotted her and thought she was acting erratically.
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00:29:22.680 --> 00:29:26.240
Concerned for the baby's safety, they approached Amy and one
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00:29:26.279 --> 00:29:31.119
of the officers tried to take Lindsay away. Amy subsequently
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00:29:31.200 --> 00:29:36.240
punched the officer in the face. The incident was reported
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00:29:36.279 --> 00:29:39.240
to FACTS and Lindsay was handed over to the state
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00:29:39.480 --> 00:29:44.039
and eventually put into Peter and Angela's care. By the
422
00:29:44.119 --> 00:29:47.440
time Amy gave birth to William, he was already on
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the department's radar for potential foster care. FACTS believed that
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00:29:53.640 --> 00:29:57.759
Amy and Tyler's toxic and often violent relationship created an
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00:29:57.880 --> 00:30:03.079
unsafe home environment for children. The department therefore ruled that
426
00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:06.119
Amy wouldn't be able to keep William if she continued
427
00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:11.039
living with Tyler. The couple stayed together, but told the
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00:30:11.079 --> 00:30:16.279
authorities their relationship had ended. Eventually, they were caught out
429
00:30:16.480 --> 00:30:19.880
and the New South Wales Family Court ordered that William
430
00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:26.000
be handed over to FACTS. Determined to keep William, Amy
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00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:30.000
and Tyler took him and went on the run. A
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00:30:30.039 --> 00:30:33.759
police task force was assembled and several weeks later the
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00:30:33.839 --> 00:30:36.720
family was found hiding out in a small flat in
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00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:41.880
Sydney's Upper North Shore. William was taken from his biological
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00:30:41.960 --> 00:30:45.519
parents and reunited with Lindsay in the custody of Peter
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00:30:45.720 --> 00:30:52.200
and Angela. As per standard procedure, Amy and Tyler were
437
00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:56.000
forbidden from having any contact with the foster carers, and
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00:30:56.240 --> 00:31:00.000
they were only granted the occasional supervised visits with William
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00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:04.480
and to Lindsay. Each of these visits was overseen by
440
00:31:04.519 --> 00:31:10.480
a social worker. At first, the visits were weekly, then monthly,
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00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:14.359
and then eventually by the time William went missing for
442
00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:20.079
one hour every two months, Amy and Tyler reluctantly adhered
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00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:23.640
to these rules with every intention of regaining custody of
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00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:29.200
their children. They undertook anger management courses, counseling, and joint
445
00:31:29.279 --> 00:31:33.640
parenting groups, unaware that the foster parents were already thinking
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00:31:33.720 --> 00:31:39.000
about formal adoption. As soon as the police looking into
447
00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:43.359
William Tyrell's disappearance became aware of his family situation, the
448
00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:47.160
possibility was raised that Amy and Tyler could have taken him,
449
00:31:48.359 --> 00:31:51.559
Yet the pair were adamant that they had nothing to
450
00:31:51.640 --> 00:31:55.720
do with it. They both insisted they wouldn't do anything
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00:31:55.799 --> 00:31:59.160
that could hinder their chances of legally regaining custody of
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00:31:59.240 --> 00:32:04.119
their kids. They also knew how close William and Lindsay
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00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:09.559
were and wouldn't dare take one without the other. Police
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00:32:09.640 --> 00:32:14.359
checked CCTV footage, bank statements, and receipts, all of which
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00:32:14.519 --> 00:32:18.000
backed up the couple's claims that they were nowhere near
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00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:26.119
Candle on the day William went missing. The futile search
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00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:30.680
for William Tyrrel continued for five days until police concluded
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00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:33.279
that if he had simply gotten lost in the bush,
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00:32:33.559 --> 00:32:38.519
it was no longer possible that he could still be alive. Instead,
460
00:32:38.839 --> 00:32:43.119
Strike Force Rozanne was created as investigators began to operate
461
00:32:43.240 --> 00:32:45.640
under the assumption that the three year old had been
462
00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:52.079
abducted and possibly killed. The fact that William's disappearance had
463
00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:54.559
been treated as a missing person case from the get
464
00:32:54.599 --> 00:32:58.319
go instead of a major crime presented some problems for
465
00:32:58.359 --> 00:33:04.240
the investigation. For starters, Mary Saunder's house on Benaroon Drive
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00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:07.680
had never been considered a crime scene, and therefore it
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00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:14.279
wasn't courtined off or properly secured. With hundreds of volunteers, visitors,
468
00:33:14.279 --> 00:33:18.039
and official personnel having already trampled through the yard and
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00:33:18.119 --> 00:33:22.680
its surrounds, any forensic evidence such as footprints, tire tracks,
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00:33:22.759 --> 00:33:28.319
or DNA were long gone or contaminated. Cars had also
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00:33:28.480 --> 00:33:31.079
been free to come and go from the area without
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00:33:31.160 --> 00:33:36.559
being checked in addition, the police had searched some of
473
00:33:36.599 --> 00:33:39.160
the twenty one houses on the street, but not all
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00:33:39.240 --> 00:33:42.160
of them, with some of their residents having been relied
475
00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:47.519
upon to conduct their own searchers. If William had been taken,
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00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:50.960
each of these factors meant that vital evidence or a
477
00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:55.240
person of interest could have been overlooked. Police had no
478
00:33:55.359 --> 00:34:00.720
way of knowing what they might have missed. In Australia,
479
00:34:00.920 --> 00:34:03.920
it is extremely rare for a child to be abducted
480
00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:08.840
by a stranger. The person responsible is typically a relative
481
00:34:09.039 --> 00:34:13.920
or someone close to the family. Therefore, Peter and Angela
482
00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:20.800
were obvious suspects. Accepting this uncomfortable fact, the couple willingly
483
00:34:20.840 --> 00:34:25.400
handed over their phones, vehicles, and computers for forensic analysis.
484
00:34:25.719 --> 00:34:30.719
Eager to be ruled out, police looked into Peter's claims
485
00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:32.840
that he'd been in the next town over at the
486
00:34:32.920 --> 00:34:39.039
time William disappeared. Phone records and CCTV footage confirmed that
487
00:34:39.159 --> 00:34:43.280
he'd been in Lakewood at the time in question. Peter
488
00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:46.320
had made a conference call that lasted for thirty nine
489
00:34:46.360 --> 00:34:49.800
minutes before making another call and then ducking into a
490
00:34:49.840 --> 00:34:55.719
grocery store to buy a newspaper. Police considered the possibility
491
00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:59.000
that William could have died by accident and his foster
492
00:34:59.119 --> 00:35:02.840
family had of his body and then faked his disappearance
493
00:35:02.880 --> 00:35:07.159
out of sheer panic, But they found absolutely no evidence
494
00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:10.679
to support such a theory, and by all accounts, Peter
495
00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:16.880
and Angela's desperation to find William seemed completely genuine. Lindsay
496
00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:20.360
had also been present when William went missing, and she
497
00:35:20.599 --> 00:35:23.639
hadn't said anything to the police to raise suspicion on
498
00:35:23.719 --> 00:35:28.360
her foster parents. When questioned about what William had been
499
00:35:28.440 --> 00:35:32.119
doing before he went missing, Lindsay told police that he
500
00:35:32.239 --> 00:35:37.880
was running out to see Daddy's car. Police also considered
501
00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:42.039
the possibility that William's biological parents could have organized to
502
00:35:42.079 --> 00:35:46.840
have someone snatch William on their behalf. The problem with
503
00:35:46.920 --> 00:35:49.920
this theory was that Amy and Tyler didn't even know
504
00:35:50.039 --> 00:35:55.519
William and Lindsay's foster care's names or their address. Furthermore,
505
00:35:55.880 --> 00:35:58.480
no one had told Amy and Tyler that the trip
506
00:35:58.519 --> 00:36:03.320
to Kendall was going ahead. While the foster care agency
507
00:36:03.360 --> 00:36:07.360
had approved the trip, the biological parents weren't made aware
508
00:36:07.400 --> 00:36:12.519
of it. The trip to Kendall had also gone ahead
509
00:36:12.559 --> 00:36:17.440
a day earlier than was originally planned. Peter and Angela
510
00:36:17.559 --> 00:36:20.159
told the police they had been scheduled to drive up
511
00:36:20.199 --> 00:36:24.320
on Friday night, but Peter had finished work early on Thursday,
512
00:36:24.599 --> 00:36:27.199
so they'd decided to get a head start on the
513
00:36:27.239 --> 00:36:31.199
bumper to bumper traffic that typically jammed the Pacific Highway
514
00:36:31.239 --> 00:36:35.599
on Fridays. They had picked William and Lindsay up from
515
00:36:35.679 --> 00:36:39.519
daycare early on Thursday afternoon and headed straight to Kendall
516
00:36:39.639 --> 00:36:43.239
from there, stopping only to have dinner at McDonald's and
517
00:36:43.320 --> 00:36:48.519
to change the kids into their pajamas. The unplanned nature
518
00:36:48.519 --> 00:36:51.239
of the trip ruled out the possibility that it was
519
00:36:51.280 --> 00:36:55.639
a targeted attack. As far as Peter and Angela were aware,
520
00:36:55.960 --> 00:36:58.639
no one had followed them on their drive from Sydney
521
00:36:58.639 --> 00:37:04.440
to Kendle either. Police checked CCTV footage of their journey
522
00:37:04.599 --> 00:37:07.840
and the stops they'd made along the way, but found
523
00:37:07.920 --> 00:37:12.639
nothing to indicate the family was being trailed. The footage
524
00:37:12.679 --> 00:37:17.000
from their stopover at McDonald's showed William joyfully riding into
525
00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:21.000
the restaurant on Peter's shoulders, the very image of a
526
00:37:21.039 --> 00:37:30.280
happy family. Both William's foster parents and his biological parents
527
00:37:30.440 --> 00:37:35.840
were ruled out as suspects, regardless the possibility that William
528
00:37:35.920 --> 00:37:39.400
could have been snatched in an opportunistic attack was difficult
529
00:37:39.480 --> 00:37:44.800
for investigators to comprehend. Benneron Drive was a safe place
530
00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:48.079
where none of the other residents had ever encountered anything
531
00:37:48.159 --> 00:37:51.760
unto ward, and children played on the street without fear.
532
00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:56.360
The isolated location of Mary Saunders house at the end
533
00:37:56.440 --> 00:37:59.280
of the street, coupled with the lack of street traffic
534
00:37:59.360 --> 00:38:02.239
in the area, meant that a kidnapper would have had
535
00:38:02.280 --> 00:38:05.639
to coincidentally walk or drive past in the mere minutes
536
00:38:05.719 --> 00:38:09.280
that William jumped around the side of the house unsupervised.
537
00:38:10.599 --> 00:38:13.679
Had such a rare moment occurred, it would have taken
538
00:38:13.719 --> 00:38:17.360
an incredibly brazen offender to snatch a child in broad
539
00:38:17.519 --> 00:38:21.239
daylight with his family just meters away, on a quiet
540
00:38:21.280 --> 00:38:24.840
street where any of the neighbors could have easily noticed
541
00:38:24.840 --> 00:38:30.320
an outsider. Several residents were home at the time, and
542
00:38:30.519 --> 00:38:33.639
all of them said they hadn't noticed anyone or anything
543
00:38:33.800 --> 00:38:37.679
out of the ordinary. None of them had been expecting
544
00:38:37.719 --> 00:38:42.440
any visitors on the morning that William went missing either. Still,
545
00:38:42.679 --> 00:38:46.320
police couldn't discount the possibility that someone could have dropped
546
00:38:46.400 --> 00:38:50.800
by without warning, seen William and made the split second
547
00:38:50.920 --> 00:38:55.599
decision to take him. It was also possible that William
548
00:38:55.639 --> 00:38:58.280
had heard a car coming and ran onto the street
549
00:38:58.440 --> 00:39:05.079
thinking it was his father, a ring home before being snatched, However, unlikely.
550
00:39:05.400 --> 00:39:09.239
Investigators also theorized that someone could have heard the children
551
00:39:09.280 --> 00:39:12.679
playing earlier that morning and to lay in wait, ready
552
00:39:12.719 --> 00:39:17.360
to strike if an opportunity arose. If so, they would
553
00:39:17.360 --> 00:39:21.920
have had to move incredibly fast. The fact that William
554
00:39:22.079 --> 00:39:25.000
was wearing the distinct Spider Man outfit would have made
555
00:39:25.039 --> 00:39:28.239
it easy for someone to initiate a conversation with him,
556
00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:30.719
as it was an immediate talking point that.
557
00:39:30.719 --> 00:39:34.960
Would have appealed to William. A perpetrator could have used
558
00:39:35.039 --> 00:39:38.960
that to lure the young boy away voluntarily, or simply
559
00:39:39.039 --> 00:39:44.800
grabbed him and forced his silence. According to Angela, when
560
00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:48.280
she first realized that William went missing, she was struck
561
00:39:48.320 --> 00:39:53.000
by how silent everything had gone. Then she thought she
562
00:39:53.079 --> 00:39:56.280
heard a short, high pitched scream coming from the bush land,
563
00:39:56.719 --> 00:39:59.360
the type of scream a child would make if they'd
564
00:39:59.440 --> 00:40:04.400
hurt themselves. Angela said she had ventured into the reeds
565
00:40:04.559 --> 00:40:07.960
towards the direction of the sound, but couldn't see any
566
00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:12.719
splashes of red from William's Spider Man suit. She had
567
00:40:12.719 --> 00:40:15.960
brushed it off as her imagination, thinking it must have
568
00:40:16.039 --> 00:40:20.559
been a bird. Kendall was home to a species of
569
00:40:20.639 --> 00:40:24.039
bird known as a catbird, which makes a sound very
570
00:40:24.079 --> 00:40:29.280
similar to that of a crying child. At the end
571
00:40:29.320 --> 00:40:32.760
of Benaroon Drive, a dirt fire truck leads into the
572
00:40:32.840 --> 00:40:37.639
dense scrub. If the perpetrator had been on foot, this
573
00:40:37.760 --> 00:40:40.559
could have provided an escape route for them to grab
574
00:40:40.599 --> 00:40:45.320
William and run off undetected, but the terrain in the
575
00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:48.559
surrounding bush was rough and running off with a three
576
00:40:48.599 --> 00:40:52.840
year old boy would have been no easy feet. If
577
00:40:52.880 --> 00:40:57.639
this was indeed a random, opportunistic attack, everyone agreed it
578
00:40:57.639 --> 00:41:00.440
would be one of the rarest and most unform fortunate
579
00:41:00.519 --> 00:41:03.960
cases of William Tyrrell being in the wrong place at
580
00:41:03.960 --> 00:41:11.000
the wrong time. When asked if anyone unusual lived in
581
00:41:11.039 --> 00:41:15.880
the area, Mary Saunders pinpointed one person, a former taxi
582
00:41:15.920 --> 00:41:19.559
driver aged in his fifties who mostly kept to himself.
583
00:41:20.800 --> 00:41:24.679
While there wasn't anything overtly suspicious about him, he lived
584
00:41:24.679 --> 00:41:27.719
alone in a small house surrounded by bush land, where
585
00:41:27.719 --> 00:41:31.719
he kept odd hours, typically sleeping during the day and
586
00:41:31.800 --> 00:41:36.119
hanging around his house at night. In the days following
587
00:41:36.159 --> 00:41:40.440
William Tyrell's disappearance, Some neighbors noticed that the taxi driver
588
00:41:40.519 --> 00:41:45.000
had uncharacteristically left his house. When he returned home a
589
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:48.079
couple of days later, he was carrying a backpack and
590
00:41:48.199 --> 00:41:50.960
walked around his property as though checking each of his
591
00:41:51.079 --> 00:41:56.719
windows before going inside. An officer went to visit the
592
00:41:56.719 --> 00:42:01.519
former taxi driver and to notice something odd. A box
593
00:42:01.559 --> 00:42:04.480
had been installed over one of his windows, making it
594
00:42:04.519 --> 00:42:09.679
impossible to see inside. When questioned about his whereabouts on
595
00:42:09.719 --> 00:42:13.360
the day of William's disappearance, the taxi driver claimed he'd
596
00:42:13.400 --> 00:42:17.679
been sleeping at home alone, an alibia that couldn't be verified.
597
00:42:19.760 --> 00:42:22.320
The officer noted that the man had a small red
598
00:42:22.400 --> 00:42:26.280
mark on his wrist. A cursory search of the property
599
00:42:26.360 --> 00:42:28.880
revealed a step ladder in the laundry that led up
600
00:42:28.880 --> 00:42:33.239
to a manhole. The officer climbed to the ladder, wondering
601
00:42:33.239 --> 00:42:35.800
if the manhole could be used as a hiding place,
602
00:42:36.960 --> 00:42:40.320
but it was obvious the manhole hadn't been accessed in
603
00:42:40.480 --> 00:42:45.599
some time. When the police returned to visit the taxi
604
00:42:45.679 --> 00:42:48.960
driver again, his television had been paused on a news
605
00:42:49.039 --> 00:42:55.000
channel providing updates about William's disappearance, although this indicated he
606
00:42:55.119 --> 00:42:58.239
was keeping an eye on the story, police found nothing
607
00:42:58.320 --> 00:43:01.119
to suggest he was involved in the crime in any way.
608
00:43:02.599 --> 00:43:05.719
The taxi driver soon sold his house and moved out
609
00:43:05.719 --> 00:43:10.559
of Kendall, saying there was too much activity in the area.
610
00:43:11.599 --> 00:43:15.239
By day fourteen of the hunt for William, Line searchers
611
00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:21.000
had painstakingly covered an area of eighteen square kilometers. Various
612
00:43:21.039 --> 00:43:25.840
items were found, including an abandoned children's cubbyhouse, number plates
613
00:43:25.840 --> 00:43:30.239
from a stolen vehicle, animal bones, a shovel, a spear gun,
614
00:43:30.559 --> 00:43:34.159
and other miscellaneous items, but all of them were ruled
615
00:43:34.199 --> 00:43:38.079
out of having anything to do with William's disappearance, and
616
00:43:38.280 --> 00:43:43.880
still there was no sign of him. Investigators had no
617
00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:48.800
choice but to scale the search back. Instead, they turned
618
00:43:48.840 --> 00:43:51.599
their focus to known sex offenders.
619
00:43:51.079 --> 00:43:52.800
In the area.
620
00:43:53.159 --> 00:43:58.119
This was no easy task. Within the thirty kilometer radius
621
00:43:58.159 --> 00:44:02.800
of Beniruon Drive alone, eighteen known sex offenders lived among
622
00:44:02.920 --> 00:44:08.639
the rural properties. Just further beyond that lived another sixty
623
00:44:10.840 --> 00:44:14.440
detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubilin, who would later come to
624
00:44:14.519 --> 00:44:19.440
Front Strike Force. Rozanne remarked, it's as if they've settled
625
00:44:19.480 --> 00:44:26.920
on this quiet, overlooked backwater like mosquitoes. Detective jubilan told
626
00:44:27.039 --> 00:44:30.719
reporters that police intended to track the movements of everyone
627
00:44:30.800 --> 00:44:33.880
who was within a one kilometer radius of Benarun Drive
628
00:44:34.000 --> 00:44:37.599
on the day William went missing. If anyone who had
629
00:44:37.639 --> 00:44:41.119
been in the area failed to come forward and identify themselves,
630
00:44:41.400 --> 00:44:45.159
Jubilan warned, it would give the police grave concerns and
631
00:44:45.360 --> 00:44:51.519
be an immediate cause for suspicion. CCTV footage was collected
632
00:44:51.559 --> 00:44:57.039
from twelve businesses around Kendall. Police were particularly interested in
633
00:44:57.079 --> 00:45:00.480
the footage captured by the Kendall Tennis Club between five
634
00:45:00.519 --> 00:45:04.559
and eleven on the morning of Friday, September twelve, twenty fourteen.
635
00:45:06.360 --> 00:45:09.320
This camera faced one of the main roads leading in
636
00:45:09.400 --> 00:45:11.760
and out of the village and there was a chance
637
00:45:11.840 --> 00:45:16.559
that had captured the abductor's car. However, the footage was
638
00:45:16.639 --> 00:45:19.800
grainy and only captured the sides of the vehicles, not
639
00:45:19.920 --> 00:45:23.440
their number plates, making it difficult to identify the cars
640
00:45:23.519 --> 00:45:28.079
that came and went. However, there were numerous roads leading
641
00:45:28.119 --> 00:45:31.400
to Benarun Drive, and it was possible the kidnapper hadn't
642
00:45:31.440 --> 00:45:37.280
been captured on any cameras at all. Although William Tyrell's
643
00:45:37.320 --> 00:45:42.519
disappearance had made national headlines, investigative resources were limited, and
644
00:45:42.719 --> 00:45:46.880
questioning witnesses and persons of interest was a time consuming task.
645
00:45:48.039 --> 00:45:52.400
Police were also inundated with reported sightings of William coming
646
00:45:52.480 --> 00:45:57.079
from all over the country. It didn't help that Spider
647
00:45:57.119 --> 00:46:03.719
Man costumes were incredibly popular amongst yeah boys. Every potential lead,
648
00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:08.199
citing and piece of information was diligently recorded, but the
649
00:46:08.280 --> 00:46:13.360
hard part for police was figuring out which to prioritize.
650
00:46:13.639 --> 00:46:17.639
They worked tirelessly for several months, checking one hundred and
651
00:46:17.679 --> 00:46:21.719
sixty nine CCTV cameras from outside Candle as well as
652
00:46:21.719 --> 00:46:26.559
analyzing data from traffic cameras and mobile phone towers. But
653
00:46:26.920 --> 00:46:30.280
things moved slowly, and as the year drew to an end,
654
00:46:30.679 --> 00:46:34.559
they didn't seem to be any closer to finding William.
655
00:46:35.960 --> 00:46:39.039
Then a call came in from someone who wanted to
656
00:46:39.079 --> 00:46:42.320
report a member of the community as a potential person
657
00:46:42.360 --> 00:46:50.280
of interest. Four days before William Tyrell went missing, his
658
00:46:50.400 --> 00:46:55.519
grandmother Mary called a local Whitewoods repair company called Spaedow's Repairs,
659
00:46:55.920 --> 00:47:01.119
after her washing machine stopped working. The business owner, sixty
660
00:47:01.159 --> 00:47:03.760
three year old Bill Spedding, came to the house to
661
00:47:03.840 --> 00:47:06.880
provide a quote, only to discover that he needed to
662
00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:10.639
order a new part. He told Mary he would come
663
00:47:10.679 --> 00:47:13.920
back to conduct the repairs whenever the part came in.
664
00:47:16.239 --> 00:47:20.920
On Friday September twelve, just ninety minutes before William vanished,
665
00:47:21.199 --> 00:47:24.559
Angela had called Bill Spedding on her mother's behalf to
666
00:47:24.639 --> 00:47:27.760
follow up on the replacement part, as the washing machine
667
00:47:27.800 --> 00:47:32.679
still wasn't working. The call had gone straight to voicemail,
668
00:47:32.880 --> 00:47:36.039
so she left a message asking Spedding to call her back.
669
00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:40.360
Mary said that he would likely show up at any
670
00:47:40.400 --> 00:47:44.519
time without prior notice. That's just how things were done
671
00:47:44.639 --> 00:47:49.519
in Candle. Given that Bill Spedding was one of the
672
00:47:49.559 --> 00:47:52.639
few visitors to Benirun Drive in the days leading up
673
00:47:52.760 --> 00:47:56.880
to William's disappearance, police had already taken him in for questioning.
674
00:47:56.920 --> 00:48:01.760
In the early stages of the investigation, Spedding had confirmed
675
00:48:01.760 --> 00:48:05.159
to details about the initial repair call out, but he
676
00:48:05.239 --> 00:48:08.239
denied having received a follow up phone call from Angela.
677
00:48:08.320 --> 00:48:14.079
On September twelve, police confiscated Spedding's phone and found no
678
00:48:14.280 --> 00:48:21.559
record of Angela's voicemail. This was immediately suspicious. Police already
679
00:48:21.559 --> 00:48:24.960
had Angela's phone data confirming she had made the call
680
00:48:25.039 --> 00:48:28.519
to Bill Spedding, leaving officers to wonder if he had
681
00:48:28.559 --> 00:48:33.360
deleted it if he had nothing to do with William's disappearance.
682
00:48:33.679 --> 00:48:38.280
They wondered why he would do such a thing, but
683
00:48:38.559 --> 00:48:42.920
Bill Spedding steadfastly denied having ever received the message at all.
684
00:48:44.280 --> 00:48:46.960
He also claimed to have an alibia. For the day
685
00:48:47.000 --> 00:48:52.079
of William's disappearance. According to Spedding, he and his wife
686
00:48:52.119 --> 00:48:55.719
Margaret had coffee at a local cafe, leaving around nine
687
00:48:55.840 --> 00:48:59.000
forty five am to attend a school assembly where their
688
00:48:59.039 --> 00:49:04.199
grandson had rest an award. Afterwards, Spedding said he went
689
00:49:04.280 --> 00:49:07.199
back to his office and worked a normal day before
690
00:49:07.239 --> 00:49:12.400
picking his grandchildren up from school. While Spedding said his
691
00:49:12.519 --> 00:49:15.559
wife was the only one who could verify his alibi,
692
00:49:15.920 --> 00:49:20.599
police weren't overly concerned until the tip off came through
693
00:49:20.679 --> 00:49:23.320
from a member of the public to report that Bill
694
00:49:23.400 --> 00:49:26.960
Spedding had been accused of sexually assaulting two young girls
695
00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:31.920
in the past. It was alleged that in nineteen eighty seven,
696
00:49:32.239 --> 00:49:35.639
Spedding had sexually assaulted a three and five year old
697
00:49:35.800 --> 00:49:40.400
during an overnight stay in a caravan park. Another tipster
698
00:49:40.599 --> 00:49:44.199
also came forward to report having seen Spedding access some
699
00:49:44.280 --> 00:49:47.960
storage sheds he owned six hours inland from Kendall. On
700
00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:54.440
the day after William disappeared. Suddenly, Bill Spedding was looking
701
00:49:54.519 --> 00:49:59.199
much more interesting to the police. They obtained bank statements
702
00:49:59.239 --> 00:50:01.960
from the cafe Spedding claimed to have dined at on
703
00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:05.519
the morning William Tyrell went missing, and confirmed that he
704
00:50:05.639 --> 00:50:10.800
and Margaret had indeed been there at nine forty two. However,
705
00:50:11.159 --> 00:50:14.480
the cafe was only an eighteen minute car trip from
706
00:50:14.599 --> 00:50:20.079
Benaroon Drive. If Spedding was lying about attending his grandson's
707
00:50:20.079 --> 00:50:23.599
school assembly, police theorized that he could have driven to
708
00:50:23.679 --> 00:50:26.679
Mary's house to work on her washing machine when he'd
709
00:50:26.679 --> 00:50:30.280
come across William and made the split second decision to
710
00:50:30.320 --> 00:50:35.960
snatch him. They questioned school faculty members and some other
711
00:50:36.079 --> 00:50:38.880
parents who attended the assembly on the day in question,
712
00:50:39.480 --> 00:50:43.119
but given the passing of time, no one could specifically
713
00:50:43.159 --> 00:50:48.039
recall seeing Bill Spedding there, although they said that the
714
00:50:48.079 --> 00:50:52.000
assemblies occurred frequently and each one tended to blur into
715
00:50:52.079 --> 00:50:56.559
the other. One woman had taken photos of the event
716
00:50:56.719 --> 00:50:59.840
on September twelve, but she had since dropped her phone
717
00:51:00.119 --> 00:51:07.039
the toilet and lost its contents. Strikeforce investigators were conflicted
718
00:51:07.119 --> 00:51:11.159
about how to act if they decided to pursue a
719
00:51:11.239 --> 00:51:15.079
raid on Spedding's home and business. The news would surely
720
00:51:15.239 --> 00:51:19.760
leak if Spedding found out he was a suspect. This
721
00:51:19.880 --> 00:51:23.159
would give him a chance to destroy any potential evidence.
722
00:51:24.440 --> 00:51:28.079
But if they got it right, they just might find
723
00:51:28.320 --> 00:51:38.599
William Tyrrell. Case File will be back shortly. Thank you
724
00:51:38.679 --> 00:51:44.800
for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors. Thank
725
00:51:44.840 --> 00:51:49.199
you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors,
726
00:51:49.360 --> 00:51:53.079
you support case File to continue to deliver quality content.
727
00:52:00.039 --> 00:52:04.360
On Tuesday, January twenty, twenty fifteen, just over four months
728
00:52:04.400 --> 00:52:09.239
after William Tyrell disappeared, detectives from Strike Force Rozanne descended
729
00:52:09.280 --> 00:52:12.519
on Bill Spedding's home in Bonnie Hills, a small town
730
00:52:12.639 --> 00:52:17.079
twenty kilometers northeast of Kendall. He lived there with his
731
00:52:17.159 --> 00:52:20.280
wife and three grandchildren, for whom they were the current
732
00:52:20.480 --> 00:52:21.480
legal guardians.
733
00:52:23.119 --> 00:52:24.519
It was a dramatic scene.
734
00:52:24.599 --> 00:52:29.559
With an excavator, cadaver dog and forensic experts on standby.
735
00:52:30.119 --> 00:52:32.920
The search team scoured each room of the house and
736
00:52:33.079 --> 00:52:36.679
the dark, dank recesses of the basement before turning their
737
00:52:36.719 --> 00:52:41.639
attention to the yard and a woodpile outside. A plumber
738
00:52:41.800 --> 00:52:44.599
was even brought in to drain the property's septic tank,
739
00:52:46.760 --> 00:52:50.360
eleven kilometers from Kendall in the coastal town of Loreton.
740
00:52:50.599 --> 00:52:55.639
A search was also conducted at Spedding's office, as feared
741
00:52:55.880 --> 00:52:58.960
news of the raids had leaked, and throngs of media
742
00:52:59.039 --> 00:53:02.400
gathered outside both properties, ready to capture any brakes in
743
00:53:02.440 --> 00:53:07.719
the story. Police seized phones, computers, and a mattress, but
744
00:53:07.800 --> 00:53:08.400
found no.
745
00:53:08.480 --> 00:53:10.119
Sign of William.
746
00:53:10.960 --> 00:53:14.800
There was one item of particular interest found in his van, though,
747
00:53:15.320 --> 00:53:21.199
a Spider Man toy. Bill Spedding was taken into custody
748
00:53:21.239 --> 00:53:26.960
and subject to six hours of grueling interrogation. Investigators put
749
00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:30.800
it to him that on Friday September twelve, twenty fourteen,
750
00:53:31.039 --> 00:53:34.000
he showed up at a Benaroon Drive to fix Mary
751
00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:38.320
Saunders's washing machine, but saw William playing outside and made
752
00:53:38.360 --> 00:53:43.320
the snap decision to abduct him. They suggested that Spedding
753
00:53:43.400 --> 00:53:45.719
had taken the three year old in his work van
754
00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:52.000
and quickly fled the scene. Spedding strongly rejected these allegations.
755
00:53:52.880 --> 00:53:56.199
He stuck by his alibi and denied having deleted a
756
00:53:56.280 --> 00:53:59.159
voice mail from Angela on the day William went missing.
757
00:54:00.960 --> 00:54:03.480
As for the Spider Man toy found in his van.
758
00:54:03.840 --> 00:54:07.599
He claimed it belonged to one of his grandchildren. His
759
00:54:07.679 --> 00:54:10.840
wife supported this, saying one of the kids had given
760
00:54:10.880 --> 00:54:13.639
it to Spedding to keep him company while he worked,
761
00:54:15.159 --> 00:54:19.800
but detectives weren't convinced. They thought there was something off
762
00:54:19.840 --> 00:54:22.320
about Spedding and that he had a sly way of
763
00:54:22.400 --> 00:54:28.239
answering questions. Regardless, with nothing eventuating from the raids, he
764
00:54:28.360 --> 00:54:33.960
was free to go. By this point, Bill Spedding's potential
765
00:54:34.000 --> 00:54:37.679
involvement in William's disappearance was a hot topic around town.
766
00:54:38.960 --> 00:54:41.920
A month before the raids, he had shared a Facebook
767
00:54:41.960 --> 00:54:45.159
post from another user that contained a picture of William
768
00:54:45.199 --> 00:54:51.199
Tyrell and rad today somebody is keeping a secret. They
769
00:54:51.199 --> 00:54:54.960
got up this morning, had breakfast, realized that they need
770
00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:58.880
to pick up some more milk, made some calls, all
771
00:54:58.920 --> 00:55:05.000
the while maintaining a poker face. Some viewed this as
772
00:55:05.039 --> 00:55:08.519
Spedding's way of taunting the police, as though to say
773
00:55:09.039 --> 00:55:15.880
catch me if you can. A week after the raids
774
00:55:15.880 --> 00:55:19.800
on Bill Spedding's properties, the investigation was officially handed over
775
00:55:19.960 --> 00:55:24.159
to Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubilin after the case's initial
776
00:55:24.239 --> 00:55:29.559
lead detective retired Detective jubilan was a veteran of the
777
00:55:29.599 --> 00:55:34.760
New South Wales Police Force, known for his tenacity and resoluteness.
778
00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.440
Jubilin applied disciplined thinking and creative policing to help solve
779
00:55:39.559 --> 00:55:43.719
some of the country's most high profile murder cases. He
780
00:55:43.800 --> 00:55:47.400
also worked on the Bauerville murders, as covered in episode
781
00:55:47.480 --> 00:55:50.159
one eight six of Case File, and on the Matt
782
00:55:50.239 --> 00:55:56.119
Levison case covered in the Case File presant series Maddie.
783
00:55:56.239 --> 00:55:59.639
Although he had a hard edge, Jubilin was admired by
784
00:55:59.679 --> 00:56:03.679
victim UM's families for his genuinely kind and compassionate nature.
785
00:56:04.800 --> 00:56:07.960
He was the kind of detective who took each case personally,
786
00:56:08.280 --> 00:56:12.480
giving the investigation his all and refusing to accept mediocrity.
787
00:56:13.960 --> 00:56:17.519
He promised William's foster family he would do everything he
788
00:56:17.599 --> 00:56:22.880
could to find William. By the time William had been
789
00:56:22.920 --> 00:56:27.039
missing for six months, police interviewed an elderly Candle resident
790
00:56:27.199 --> 00:56:30.360
after hearing he had some information that could be useful
791
00:56:30.440 --> 00:56:36.039
to the investigation. Ronald Chapman lived on Laurel Street, about
792
00:56:36.119 --> 00:56:40.920
half a kilometer from Benaroon Drive. At around ten forty
793
00:56:40.920 --> 00:56:44.480
five on the morning that William went missing, Ronald claimed
794
00:56:44.559 --> 00:56:48.760
that he had stepped outside to check the mail. A
795
00:56:48.840 --> 00:56:52.880
fawn colored four wheel drive sped past, rounding the corner
796
00:56:53.000 --> 00:56:57.760
so fast that loose gravel flew onto Ronald's lawn. In
797
00:56:57.840 --> 00:57:01.199
the back seat, Ronald saw a young boy matching William
798
00:57:01.239 --> 00:57:06.320
Tyrell's description, standing up without a seatbold on. He had
799
00:57:06.320 --> 00:57:09.079
a bewildered look on his face and was wearing a
800
00:57:09.119 --> 00:57:12.639
blue and red outfit with black patterns on it, resembling
801
00:57:12.679 --> 00:57:16.920
a spider Man costume. The car was being driven by
802
00:57:16.960 --> 00:57:20.280
a woman, who Ronald described as a plump blonde in
803
00:57:20.360 --> 00:57:25.320
her thirties. A blue sedan with a mail driver sped
804
00:57:25.360 --> 00:57:29.159
behind in close proximity, as though the two vehicles were
805
00:57:29.199 --> 00:57:34.119
traveling together. Ronald said he swore at the woman under
806
00:57:34.119 --> 00:57:37.719
his breath for driving so fast with an unrestrained child
807
00:57:37.840 --> 00:57:43.639
on board. Police weren't sure what to make of this information.
808
00:57:44.679 --> 00:57:48.199
Ronald was adamant that the incident had happened, but it
809
00:57:48.320 --> 00:57:51.280
begged the question of why he hadn't reported it sooner.
810
00:57:52.719 --> 00:57:56.400
Ronald claimed that when he heard about William's disappearance, he
811
00:57:56.559 --> 00:58:01.119
did tell some acquaintances about what he'd seen. He assumed
812
00:58:01.280 --> 00:58:04.000
they would pass the information on to a local officer.
813
00:58:04.119 --> 00:58:07.159
They were friendly with and expected police to come and
814
00:58:07.280 --> 00:58:11.639
question him about it. When they didn't, he just assumed
815
00:58:11.679 --> 00:58:17.519
they had more significant leeds worth following. Ronald was known
816
00:58:17.559 --> 00:58:20.079
to be an honest man with a knife at detail,
817
00:58:20.880 --> 00:58:23.519
but some relatives who were staying with him at the
818
00:58:23.559 --> 00:58:26.800
time of this supposed incident said he'd never mentioned it.
819
00:58:28.119 --> 00:58:31.960
When pressed by detectives, Ronald admitted he could have dreamt
820
00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:35.400
the whole thing, but when shown a photo of William,
821
00:58:35.719 --> 00:58:38.639
he was certain it was the same boy that he'd seen.
822
00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:47.480
For William's foster parents, the decision to return to Sydney
823
00:58:47.519 --> 00:58:52.639
after William's disappearance had not been easy, but they felt
824
00:58:52.679 --> 00:58:55.000
there was little they could do to help in Kendall
825
00:58:55.280 --> 00:58:57.840
and they needed life to return to as normal as
826
00:58:57.880 --> 00:59:03.440
possible for Lindsey. While the case continued making national headlines,
827
00:59:03.760 --> 00:59:09.079
things were tainted by the mysterious nature surrounding William's family status.
828
00:59:10.320 --> 00:59:13.400
The public still hadn't been made aware that William was
829
00:59:13.440 --> 00:59:17.199
a foster child, and suspicion continued to be cast upon
830
00:59:17.280 --> 00:59:21.960
his parents. The fact that they weren't talking led many
831
00:59:22.000 --> 00:59:26.760
to believe the family had something to hide, with their
832
00:59:26.880 --> 00:59:31.320
enigmatic status, hindering public sympathy, the strike force bargained with
833
00:59:31.360 --> 00:59:34.639
the Department of Family and Community Services to let them
834
00:59:34.679 --> 00:59:39.639
release an interview with Angela and Peter online. While it
835
00:59:39.719 --> 00:59:43.000
still couldn't be revealed that William was a foster child.
836
00:59:43.280 --> 00:59:45.719
The aim of the video was to let people know
837
00:59:45.920 --> 00:59:49.639
he was dearly loved and sorely missed, and to give
838
00:59:49.719 --> 00:59:52.719
the foster parents the chance to plead for his return.
839
00:59:55.280 --> 00:59:58.519
The twenty one minute video interview went ahead in April
840
00:59:58.559 --> 01:00:04.400
two thousand fifteen, over six months after William vanished. While
841
01:00:04.440 --> 01:00:07.679
Peter and Angela's faces were blanked out, they could be
842
01:00:07.719 --> 01:00:10.280
heard crying as they talked about their love for the
843
01:00:10.360 --> 01:00:14.519
cheeky and vibrant little boy, describing their ordeal as a
844
01:00:14.559 --> 01:00:19.920
living nightmare. I just can't believe it's happened, Angela said.
845
01:00:20.840 --> 01:00:24.440
We just don't have our boy. We we have no
846
01:00:24.559 --> 01:00:27.639
idea where he is. We don't know who's got him.
847
01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:30.920
We don't know what's happening to him. We know nothing
848
01:00:30.960 --> 01:00:36.079
about it. We just want it to be over. The
849
01:00:36.159 --> 01:00:39.639
couple said. They continued to hold hopes that William would
850
01:00:39.639 --> 01:00:45.360
be found alive. Angela pleaded, if somebody has him, and
851
01:00:45.400 --> 01:00:47.880
if he is alive, I want him to be safe.
852
01:00:48.440 --> 01:00:50.760
I want him to be feeling loved, and I want
853
01:00:50.840 --> 01:00:54.320
someone to be looking after him, because to imagine something
854
01:00:54.320 --> 01:00:57.679
else is going on. We can't live a life like that.
855
01:00:58.960 --> 01:01:02.199
We need to know where he is. His sister can't
856
01:01:02.239 --> 01:01:04.760
grow up and never knowing what happened to her brother.
857
01:01:05.920 --> 01:01:09.079
Just to give him back. Take him to a church,
858
01:01:09.519 --> 01:01:12.639
take him to a police station, take him to a school,
859
01:01:14.039 --> 01:01:16.559
give him back, Give him back.
860
01:01:19.199 --> 01:01:20.880
The video provoked.
861
01:01:20.400 --> 01:01:24.360
To mixed responses. While some people felt deeply for the
862
01:01:24.400 --> 01:01:28.960
grieving family, others questioned why their identities continued to be
863
01:01:29.079 --> 01:01:34.400
withheld online. Sleuths wondered whether the parents were involved in
864
01:01:34.440 --> 01:01:37.840
the crime, were in witness protection, or were part of
865
01:01:37.960 --> 01:01:43.000
something dangerous like a criminal gang. The police did their
866
01:01:43.039 --> 01:01:47.320
best to dispel these suspicions, but the questions loomed over
867
01:01:47.400 --> 01:01:53.119
public opinion like a dark cloud. Peter and Angela began
868
01:01:53.239 --> 01:01:56.280
working with a not for profit public relations firm as
869
01:01:56.320 --> 01:01:59.159
a means to communicate with the public without having to
870
01:01:59.199 --> 01:02:05.320
reveal their faith. Together, they created a campaign titled Where's William,
871
01:02:05.559 --> 01:02:09.639
which included the launch of a website, billboards, and social media.
872
01:02:11.159 --> 01:02:14.000
The aim of the campaign was to provide the community
873
01:02:14.039 --> 01:02:18.840
with more information about William's disappearance, while hopefully generating information
874
01:02:18.960 --> 01:02:22.800
that could assist with the investigation and ultimately bring the
875
01:02:22.840 --> 01:02:27.599
little boy home. They created missing person posters that the
876
01:02:27.639 --> 01:02:31.719
public and businesses could share, with coasters placed in pubs
877
01:02:31.760 --> 01:02:34.800
in the hopes someone might become loose lipped after one
878
01:02:34.840 --> 01:02:40.039
too many drinks. To coincide with the launch, Peter and
879
01:02:40.119 --> 01:02:45.039
Angela released a statement that rad in part, this has
880
01:02:45.119 --> 01:02:48.199
torn away the fabric and foundation of our life as
881
01:02:48.239 --> 01:02:48.880
we know it.
882
01:02:49.920 --> 01:02:50.400
There is a.
883
01:02:50.440 --> 01:02:53.840
Huge gap of space emptiness in our lives that we
884
01:02:53.880 --> 01:02:58.039
feel without William being here with us. We have been
885
01:02:58.239 --> 01:03:04.559
entirely shattered, a motion, exhausted, physically and mentally beaten. This
886
01:03:04.719 --> 01:03:10.000
is a pure living nightmare. William's sister continues to ask
887
01:03:10.119 --> 01:03:14.159
where her brother is and when he'll be home. We've
888
01:03:14.199 --> 01:03:16.960
tried so hard to keep life as normal as possible
889
01:03:17.000 --> 01:03:20.199
for her, reminding her how loved and safe she is
890
01:03:20.599 --> 01:03:24.760
even though William is not here. They were like two
891
01:03:24.840 --> 01:03:28.840
peas in a pot. For those who have families and
892
01:03:29.079 --> 01:03:34.239
children of their own, this is so unbelievably confronting. If
893
01:03:34.239 --> 01:03:43.599
it could happen to us, it could happen to them. Meanwhile,
894
01:03:43.800 --> 01:03:49.760
the implications against Whitewoods repairman Bill Spedding kept coming. One
895
01:03:49.800 --> 01:03:53.480
of his neighbors, a man named Dean Pollard, came forward
896
01:03:53.559 --> 01:03:57.679
to claim that on Saturday, September thirteenth, twenty fourteen, the
897
01:03:57.760 --> 01:04:01.800
day after William Tyrrell went missing, he saw Spedding's work
898
01:04:01.920 --> 01:04:06.119
van driving down a dirt track. It was near an
899
01:04:06.199 --> 01:04:11.840
area of dense forest colloquially known as Ghost Road. Dean
900
01:04:11.960 --> 01:04:15.400
claimed that when Spedding saw him, he ducked down to
901
01:04:15.480 --> 01:04:21.960
avoid being spotted. Dean told police it was definitely Bill's van.
902
01:04:22.960 --> 01:04:28.400
I would know it anywhere. With this new information coming
903
01:04:28.440 --> 01:04:31.679
to light, a major search was organized of the bushlands
904
01:04:31.719 --> 01:04:36.320
surrounding the area in question. If William's body had been
905
01:04:36.400 --> 01:04:39.239
left out in the elements, police were aware that there
906
01:04:39.280 --> 01:04:41.920
would be nothing left at this point but his small
907
01:04:41.960 --> 01:04:47.079
skeletal remains, which would be easy to miss. However, if
908
01:04:47.119 --> 01:04:50.199
he was buried with his clothes on, the polyester spider
909
01:04:50.239 --> 01:04:53.519
Man suit would take hundreds of years to disintegrate, and
910
01:04:53.679 --> 01:04:58.599
the rubber soles of his shoes would take decades. Dozens
911
01:04:58.599 --> 01:05:02.639
of uniformed police officers searched with the help of cadaver dogs,
912
01:05:02.920 --> 01:05:08.280
but found nothing relevant to the William Tyrel investigation. Yet
913
01:05:08.519 --> 01:05:14.119
something of interest did come out of it. While the
914
01:05:14.199 --> 01:05:17.760
search was under way, camera crews were on standby, ready
915
01:05:17.760 --> 01:05:22.920
to capture any discoveries. As the cameras rolled, they captured
916
01:05:22.960 --> 01:05:26.679
Bill Spedding's van as it drove right past the search site,
917
01:05:27.000 --> 01:05:32.639
with Spedding looking out the window. When questioned, Spedding denied
918
01:05:32.719 --> 01:05:37.679
having been anywhere near Ghost Road on September thirteen. He
919
01:05:37.760 --> 01:05:40.360
claimed he had been celebrating the end of the football
920
01:05:40.400 --> 01:05:44.440
season at the local footy club, approximately twenty kilometers away.
921
01:05:45.840 --> 01:05:49.599
Although police still had no evidence against Spedding in relation
922
01:05:49.719 --> 01:05:55.440
to William Tyrrel, suspicion against him was growing. The allegations
923
01:05:55.440 --> 01:05:58.519
that he'd sexually assaulted two young girls in the past
924
01:05:58.719 --> 01:06:03.119
were enough to warrant an other If police brought Spedding
925
01:06:03.159 --> 01:06:06.760
in for that crime. Their hopes were that with enough pressure,
926
01:06:07.039 --> 01:06:11.079
he might cave and admit to being involved with William's disappearance.
927
01:06:13.360 --> 01:06:17.880
On Wednesday April twenty two, twenty fifteen, almost seven and
928
01:06:17.920 --> 01:06:21.159
a half months after William went missing, a team of
929
01:06:21.239 --> 01:06:26.519
detectives arrived at Bill Spedding's house in Bonnie Hills. They
930
01:06:26.559 --> 01:06:30.039
placed him under arrest for the historic sexual assault crimes
931
01:06:30.079 --> 01:06:31.159
he had been accused of.
932
01:06:32.719 --> 01:06:33.840
He was charged with.
933
01:06:33.960 --> 01:06:37.119
Five counts of sexual intercourse with a child under ten,
934
01:06:37.519 --> 01:06:42.159
as well as two counts of common assault. Spedding vehemently
935
01:06:42.280 --> 01:06:47.519
denied the allegations. He claimed the crimes were fabricated by
936
01:06:47.559 --> 01:06:50.079
his ex wife during a time when the two were
937
01:06:50.079 --> 01:06:54.800
going through a bitter divorce and custody battle. At the time,
938
01:06:55.079 --> 01:06:57.920
his ex wife had been advised not to pursue the
939
01:06:58.039 --> 01:07:00.960
charges due to lack of evidence, and a judge had
940
01:07:01.039 --> 01:07:05.880
thrown the entire case out. This time, Spedding was held
941
01:07:05.920 --> 01:07:13.480
in jail pending the outcome of a trial. Bill Spedding's
942
01:07:13.559 --> 01:07:16.960
cellmate was a sex offender in his late fifties named
943
01:07:17.079 --> 01:07:21.840
Tony Jones, who was serving a three year sentence. Although
944
01:07:21.960 --> 01:07:25.079
Jones had a master long criminal rap sheet that included
945
01:07:25.199 --> 01:07:29.440
charges for assault, breaking and entering, and various drug offenses,
946
01:07:29.880 --> 01:07:35.079
his latest charge was one of the more vile. Jones
947
01:07:35.119 --> 01:07:39.360
had joined a local community group called Grandparents as Parents Again,
948
01:07:39.599 --> 01:07:42.599
which supported older people who had been given custody of
949
01:07:42.639 --> 01:07:48.719
their grandchildren for various reasons. Jones used his position to
950
01:07:48.760 --> 01:07:52.840
take advantage of a young intellectually disabled girl by overdosing
951
01:07:52.880 --> 01:07:56.880
her with autism medication and sexually assaulting her while she
952
01:07:57.000 --> 01:08:02.199
was semi conscious. He was subsequent convicted of aggravated child
953
01:08:02.320 --> 01:08:08.079
sexual assault. The fact that Tony Jones and Bill Spedding
954
01:08:08.159 --> 01:08:13.679
were cellmates was no accident. Jones, who lived twenty three
955
01:08:13.760 --> 01:08:17.119
kilometers from Kendall in the town of Warhope, had also
956
01:08:17.319 --> 01:08:21.199
been established as a person of interest in William Tyrell's disappearance.
957
01:08:22.640 --> 01:08:26.039
On the day William went missing, the unemployed former truck
958
01:08:26.119 --> 01:08:29.600
driver left home early, telling his partner Debbie, he was
959
01:08:29.640 --> 01:08:32.399
going out into the bush with their son to collect
960
01:08:32.520 --> 01:08:37.319
scripe metal, but Debbie soon found their son at home
961
01:08:37.439 --> 01:08:42.319
with no knowledge of this supposed outing. Enraged, she waited
962
01:08:42.359 --> 01:08:47.439
at home to confront Jones about the lie. When Jones
963
01:08:47.479 --> 01:08:51.640
returned home at around two pm on September twelve, Debbie
964
01:08:51.640 --> 01:08:56.439
claimed he was so intoxicated he could barely speak. This
965
01:08:56.720 --> 01:09:02.119
wasn't out of the ordinary. Was an alcoholic, often scrounging
966
01:09:02.199 --> 01:09:04.840
up scrap metal that he could trade for beer money.
967
01:09:06.079 --> 01:09:09.720
He allegedly told Debbie he'd been out drinking with his mate,
968
01:09:09.880 --> 01:09:15.279
Paul Bickford. Bickford was the former president of Grandparents as
969
01:09:15.359 --> 01:09:18.840
parents again, who had once been named Senior Volunteer of
970
01:09:18.920 --> 01:09:24.319
the Year, but far from heroic. Bickford removed himself from
971
01:09:24.399 --> 01:09:27.680
the group after he was accused of sexually assaulting an
972
01:09:27.680 --> 01:09:31.239
intellectually disabled eleven year old girl while on a drive
973
01:09:31.439 --> 01:09:37.239
to buy her lollies. The separate sex offenses committed by
974
01:09:37.279 --> 01:09:41.079
Tony Jones and Paul Bickford ultimately came to light during
975
01:09:41.119 --> 01:09:47.079
the investigation into William Tyrell's disappearance, and both men faced charges.
976
01:09:46.600 --> 01:09:47.479
For their crimes.
977
01:09:48.600 --> 01:09:51.920
Police explored the possibility that the two men could have
978
01:09:51.960 --> 01:09:54.880
been part of a pedophile ring, but given they were
979
01:09:54.880 --> 01:10:01.239
both more solitary predators, this was deemed unlikely. However, there
980
01:10:01.359 --> 01:10:04.840
was something about Tony Jones that the police couldn't ignore.
981
01:10:06.399 --> 01:10:10.079
His partner, Debby, drove a white station wagon similar to
982
01:10:10.119 --> 01:10:13.159
the one William's foster mother claimed to have spotted on
983
01:10:13.319 --> 01:10:18.840
Benaroon Drive on the morning of William's disappearance. Additionally, his
984
01:10:19.000 --> 01:10:22.760
habit of collecting scrap metal meant he had intimate knowledge
985
01:10:22.760 --> 01:10:28.720
of the bush land around Kendle and surrounds. Jones, who
986
01:10:28.760 --> 01:10:32.000
no longer had a driver's license, told police he didn't
987
01:10:32.039 --> 01:10:36.920
have access to the white station wagon. This was disputed
988
01:10:36.960 --> 01:10:40.319
by several witnesses, who said he often took it without
989
01:10:40.399 --> 01:10:45.840
Debby's knowledge. Jones also gave various alibis for the morning
990
01:10:45.840 --> 01:10:50.920
of Friday, September twelve, two thousand fourteen. First, he claimed
991
01:10:50.960 --> 01:10:54.319
he was out in Bago State Forest collecting scrap metal
992
01:10:54.359 --> 01:10:57.800
on his own. Then he changed his mind and said
993
01:10:57.800 --> 01:11:02.159
he was out chopping wood. Later, he changed his story
994
01:11:02.319 --> 01:11:04.960
entirely and said he was off sourcing a hot water
995
01:11:05.039 --> 01:11:10.159
heater from a neighbor. He denied ever being with Paul Bickford,
996
01:11:10.239 --> 01:11:13.239
despite telling his partner that the two had been drinking
997
01:11:13.279 --> 01:11:18.199
together at a round lunch time. On the day William
998
01:11:18.239 --> 01:11:21.279
went missing, a man was walking his dog around the
999
01:11:21.359 --> 01:11:25.920
bush tracks near Queen's Lake in Loreton. He looked over
1000
01:11:26.119 --> 01:11:29.199
and noticed a tanned man with a mustache sitting in
1001
01:11:29.239 --> 01:11:33.920
a parked car with fogged up windows. Something about the
1002
01:11:33.960 --> 01:11:39.119
way the man was acting seemed suspicious. The dog walker
1003
01:11:39.199 --> 01:11:42.039
waved at the man, who quickly wound up his window
1004
01:11:42.119 --> 01:11:46.399
in response. When the dog walker returned from his stroll,
1005
01:11:46.880 --> 01:11:50.960
the car and the man were gone. He didn't think
1006
01:11:51.039 --> 01:11:54.039
much of it until he saw Tony Jones in the
1007
01:11:54.079 --> 01:11:58.319
newspaper eight months later and immediately recognized him as the
1008
01:11:58.399 --> 01:12:03.159
occupant of the vehicle. What's more, the car in question
1009
01:12:03.520 --> 01:12:09.760
was an old white Toyota Camry station wagon. Jones denied
1010
01:12:09.960 --> 01:12:14.000
being near Queen's Lake that day. He said it couldn't
1011
01:12:14.000 --> 01:12:17.119
have been him as he had amphysema and couldn't sit
1012
01:12:17.159 --> 01:12:21.800
in a car with the windows rolled up. Debby's white
1013
01:12:21.840 --> 01:12:25.560
station Wagon was towed and taken in for forensic testing,
1014
01:12:26.079 --> 01:12:31.600
but nothing of interest to the William Tyrell investigation was found. However,
1015
01:12:32.079 --> 01:12:35.279
it wasn't the only vehicle that could be linked to Jones.
1016
01:12:36.720 --> 01:12:39.560
Police later received a tip off from someone who had
1017
01:12:39.600 --> 01:12:43.119
come across a silver car abandoned in the Candle bushland.
1018
01:12:44.560 --> 01:12:47.640
They recognized it as the same make and model as
1019
01:12:47.680 --> 01:12:52.920
a vehicle belonging to Jones. The informant led police to
1020
01:12:53.000 --> 01:12:56.399
the area, but when they got to the location, they
1021
01:12:56.439 --> 01:12:59.960
found that the car had been overturned and set on fire.
1022
01:13:02.359 --> 01:13:07.800
Jones's companion, Paul Bickford, also denied any involvement in William's disappearance.
1023
01:13:09.199 --> 01:13:12.399
He claimed he wasn't with Tony Jones on September twelve
1024
01:13:12.439 --> 01:13:16.039
at all, but forty one kilometers away in Port Macquarie,
1025
01:13:16.159 --> 01:13:21.239
Having lunch with Franz, although he couldn't recall which friends
1026
01:13:21.800 --> 01:13:27.720
or where they ate. In a bizarre coincidence, Bill Spedding
1027
01:13:27.760 --> 01:13:30.800
and Tony Jones had once lived across the street from
1028
01:13:30.840 --> 01:13:34.880
one another. Police hoped that by pairing them in a
1029
01:13:34.920 --> 01:13:37.800
cell together, one of them might be compelled to say
1030
01:13:37.840 --> 01:13:42.720
something incriminating to the other about William Tyrrell. But the
1031
01:13:42.800 --> 01:13:46.760
plan didn't work, and three months after Bill Spedding's arrest
1032
01:13:46.920 --> 01:13:50.960
for the unrelated child sex crimes, he was granted conditional
1033
01:13:51.039 --> 01:13:56.359
bail and allowed to return home pending trial. News of
1034
01:13:56.439 --> 01:14:00.159
his arrest had made national headlines with the inference that
1035
01:14:00.199 --> 01:14:04.680
he was the prime suspect in William's abduction. This had
1036
01:14:04.720 --> 01:14:08.960
a hugely detrimental impact on Spedding's family and business, and
1037
01:14:09.039 --> 01:14:11.399
he took it upon himself to try to change the
1038
01:14:11.399 --> 01:14:16.479
public's perception. Within days of his release from jail, a
1039
01:14:16.640 --> 01:14:23.279
video appeared online. Reading from a pre prepared script. Spedding
1040
01:14:23.359 --> 01:14:27.159
offered his condolences to William's family and stated that he
1041
01:14:27.239 --> 01:14:32.439
had no involvement whatsoever in the young boy's disappearance, but
1042
01:14:32.680 --> 01:14:36.319
the damage to his reputation was already done, with many
1043
01:14:36.479 --> 01:14:40.640
thinking the bizarre video did nothing but further solidify his guilt.
1044
01:14:45.560 --> 01:14:49.279
In September twenty fifteen, as the one year anniversary of
1045
01:14:49.319 --> 01:14:54.079
William's disappearance approached, police released details about the two cars
1046
01:14:54.159 --> 01:14:57.439
Angela had seen on Benaruon Drive on the morning William
1047
01:14:57.479 --> 01:15:01.760
went missing. For the first time. Many questioned why they
1048
01:15:01.800 --> 01:15:05.039
had waited so long to do this, as vital witness
1049
01:15:05.079 --> 01:15:09.720
accounts could be forgotten due to the time lapsed. The
1050
01:15:09.800 --> 01:15:13.880
recording of Angela's call to emergency services was also released
1051
01:15:14.000 --> 01:15:17.119
in the hopes it might elicit an emotional response and
1052
01:15:17.279 --> 01:15:22.439
prompt a new witness to come forward. To mark the
1053
01:15:22.479 --> 01:15:26.600
anniversary and to support the ongoing search, thousands of people
1054
01:15:26.720 --> 01:15:32.239
participated in community walks held across the country. Organizers of
1055
01:15:32.279 --> 01:15:35.399
the Walk for William Evance hoped the show of support
1056
01:15:35.399 --> 01:15:39.399
would encourage somebody to come forward with information, with one
1057
01:15:39.479 --> 01:15:45.039
walk held as far away as Canada. Detective Inspector Gary
1058
01:15:45.119 --> 01:15:48.159
Jubilin had been working tirelessly on the case and to
1059
01:15:48.199 --> 01:15:52.840
the anniversary was a rude awakening. By this point, the
1060
01:15:52.880 --> 01:15:56.840
strike force had been presented with every possible theory, from
1061
01:15:56.840 --> 01:16:01.479
the credible to the ludicrous, with thousands of lines of
1062
01:16:01.520 --> 01:16:04.760
inquiry still to be followed. There weren't enough hands on
1063
01:16:04.880 --> 01:16:08.399
deck or hours in the day, and the work continued
1064
01:16:08.479 --> 01:16:14.520
to pile up. Detective Jubilan remarked to the press, the
1065
01:16:14.560 --> 01:16:17.840
anniversary is a milestone that no one in the community
1066
01:16:17.960 --> 01:16:22.119
or family wanted to reach. Twelve months without finding out
1067
01:16:22.119 --> 01:16:26.000
what happened to William. From a police point of view,
1068
01:16:26.279 --> 01:16:30.079
that plays very heavily on us, we feel like we've
1069
01:16:30.159 --> 01:16:36.239
let them down. By December that year, the strike force
1070
01:16:36.399 --> 01:16:41.479
was no closer to finding answers. William's foster parents released
1071
01:16:41.479 --> 01:16:45.039
a Christmas poem to keep the case in the public consciousness.
1072
01:16:45.840 --> 01:16:50.640
It read, in part, Christmas is a time for happiness.
1073
01:16:50.920 --> 01:16:54.079
It's a time when families come together and hold each
1074
01:16:54.079 --> 01:16:58.239
other tight. But not our family, and not this Christmas night,
1075
01:16:58.880 --> 01:17:03.279
while our beautiful boy William is still missing, absent from
1076
01:17:03.359 --> 01:17:08.239
our sight. We love you, our darling boy. You were
1077
01:17:08.279 --> 01:17:13.319
never far from our thoughts. We remember everything about you,
1078
01:17:13.319 --> 01:17:16.880
your amazing laugh, your kindness and the love you share
1079
01:17:16.960 --> 01:17:21.239
with your sister, Your complete adoration of your Daddy, your
1080
01:17:21.279 --> 01:17:26.239
funny faces for Mummy, your kisses, your hugs and your tears.
1081
01:17:27.199 --> 01:17:32.000
We remember your first words, your first steps, your first fears.
1082
01:17:33.560 --> 01:17:40.439
We miss everything about you, our beautiful little boy. Although
1083
01:17:40.520 --> 01:17:43.640
Peter and Angela had been cleared from the investigation in
1084
01:17:43.680 --> 01:17:47.439
its very early stages, some among the strike force thought
1085
01:17:47.479 --> 01:17:49.840
it was worth looking into them again to be one
1086
01:17:49.960 --> 01:17:55.039
hundred percent sure. Some questions had arisen about a possible
1087
01:17:55.079 --> 01:18:01.039
inconsistency in Angela's story. In police interviews, she had claimed
1088
01:18:01.159 --> 01:18:05.560
that William was wearing shoes at the time he went missing. However,
1089
01:18:05.840 --> 01:18:08.600
in the photos she'd taken of William at nine thirty
1090
01:18:08.600 --> 01:18:13.199
seven am, just minutes before he disappeared, he'd been barefoot.
1091
01:18:14.520 --> 01:18:18.119
His shoes a pair of sandals with vulcro straps, sat
1092
01:18:18.239 --> 01:18:22.479
near the back door. Members of the public had also
1093
01:18:22.640 --> 01:18:27.199
responded negatively to the recording of her call to police.
1094
01:18:27.359 --> 01:18:30.399
Many thought she sounded much too calm for a mother
1095
01:18:30.479 --> 01:18:36.039
whose child had just gone missing. The couple were summoned
1096
01:18:36.079 --> 01:18:38.640
to the police station under the guise of it being
1097
01:18:38.680 --> 01:18:43.840
a routine appointment. Once they arrived, they were separated and
1098
01:18:44.000 --> 01:18:49.399
interrogated at length about the day of William's disappearance. Detective
1099
01:18:49.479 --> 01:18:55.600
Jubilant went hard on them. Asked about the shoes, Angela
1100
01:18:55.680 --> 01:18:59.039
said William had been barefoot when she took the photos,
1101
01:18:59.399 --> 01:19:01.920
but she had told him to put shoes on, which
1102
01:19:01.960 --> 01:19:04.960
he was capable of doing on his own because there
1103
01:19:04.960 --> 01:19:10.720
were prickly weeds and dog feces in the grass. Unbeknownst
1104
01:19:10.840 --> 01:19:14.279
to the couple, while all this was going down, covert
1105
01:19:14.359 --> 01:19:18.560
listening devices were placed in their car. If Peter and
1106
01:19:18.640 --> 01:19:22.199
Angela had anything to hide, police hoped that they might
1107
01:19:22.279 --> 01:19:26.680
divulge something important as they discussed what they'd just experienced
1108
01:19:26.800 --> 01:19:31.439
on their drive home, but both of their stories remained
1109
01:19:31.520 --> 01:19:35.800
unchanged and nothing of interest was captured in the covert recordings.
1110
01:19:37.439 --> 01:19:41.239
Detective Jubilan was confident that there was absolutely no evidence
1111
01:19:41.279 --> 01:19:45.079
that raised any suspicion in regards to their involvement, and
1112
01:19:45.159 --> 01:19:54.359
again they were eliminated from the investigation. By September twenty sixteen,
1113
01:19:54.720 --> 01:19:57.239
the search for William Tyrrell had become one of the
1114
01:19:57.359 --> 01:20:01.800
largest eva in Australian history. A second arm of the
1115
01:20:01.840 --> 01:20:05.039
Strike Force was established purely to work through the one
1116
01:20:05.119 --> 01:20:09.079
thousand plus names that police had identified as potential persons
1117
01:20:09.079 --> 01:20:13.359
of interest. Detectives were required to travel all over the
1118
01:20:13.399 --> 01:20:16.880
country to locate each individual and cross them off the list.
1119
01:20:17.640 --> 01:20:20.640
But despite the epic scale of work being put in,
1120
01:20:21.079 --> 01:20:27.840
the investigation continued with no significant breakthroughs. Strike Force detectives
1121
01:20:27.920 --> 01:20:31.239
wanted to offer a reward for information, but they knew
1122
01:20:31.239 --> 01:20:33.600
what would need to be a sizeable amount of money
1123
01:20:33.640 --> 01:20:37.800
if it was going to encourage anyone to speak. As
1124
01:20:37.920 --> 01:20:41.600
Detective Jubilan explained, it would need to be enough money
1125
01:20:41.640 --> 01:20:44.840
to make a wife turn against her husband or for
1126
01:20:44.960 --> 01:20:50.239
one pedophile to betray another. With support from the New
1127
01:20:50.239 --> 01:20:54.159
South Wales Police Commissioner and the state Premier, they got
1128
01:20:54.199 --> 01:20:59.520
their wish. On the second anniversary of William Tyrell's disappearance,
1129
01:21:00.079 --> 01:21:04.920
one million dollar reward was announced. At the time, it
1130
01:21:05.039 --> 01:21:08.359
was the largest reward ever offered in New South Wales,
1131
01:21:08.640 --> 01:21:12.520
and the announcement was broadcast heavily on television and shared
1132
01:21:12.560 --> 01:21:18.159
across social media. When nobody tried to claim it, investigators
1133
01:21:18.239 --> 01:21:23.479
drew two conclusions. Either William's abductor had acted alone and
1134
01:21:23.720 --> 01:21:26.880
not told a soul, or if more than one person
1135
01:21:26.960 --> 01:21:30.239
had been involved, none of the offenders were prepared to
1136
01:21:30.359 --> 01:21:36.079
rap the others out. The Strike Force continued questioning known
1137
01:21:36.159 --> 01:21:40.920
sex offenders and pedophiles. Some officers were given the grim
1138
01:21:41.000 --> 01:21:45.119
task of viewing child exploitation material in case William could
1139
01:21:45.119 --> 01:21:47.439
be identified in footage or photographs.
1140
01:21:48.680 --> 01:21:50.279
It was a brutal job.
1141
01:21:50.159 --> 01:21:53.680
That took a severe emotional toll, but members of the
1142
01:21:53.720 --> 01:21:58.720
strike Force persevered with one ultimate goal to bring William
1143
01:21:58.800 --> 01:22:09.079
Tyrrell home. In mid twenty sixteen, the Department of Housing
1144
01:22:09.239 --> 01:22:12.600
received an application that made them stop in their tracks.
1145
01:22:13.960 --> 01:22:17.000
A woman named Kim Loki had applied for a home
1146
01:22:17.079 --> 01:22:22.319
in Sydney, citing William Tyrrell's biological grandmother, Tracy Martin, not
1147
01:22:22.479 --> 01:22:27.359
her real name, as her intended roommate. The two women
1148
01:22:27.439 --> 01:22:31.079
had worked together in the past and had recently rekindled
1149
01:22:31.119 --> 01:22:34.720
their friendship, with Kim posting photos of herself and to
1150
01:22:34.800 --> 01:22:40.479
Tracy together online to acknowledge their bond. But there was
1151
01:22:40.520 --> 01:22:43.840
something that rang alarm bells for the Department of Housing.
1152
01:22:45.399 --> 01:22:48.680
Kim had applied for a three bedroom house, even though
1153
01:22:48.720 --> 01:22:52.159
she stated that she and Tracy would be the only occupants.
1154
01:22:53.359 --> 01:22:56.800
When William had been a baby and his biological parents
1155
01:22:56.800 --> 01:23:00.680
had hidden him from the authorities, Tracy Martin had apparently
1156
01:23:00.800 --> 01:23:05.680
helped them. This led the department to question whether that
1157
01:23:05.760 --> 01:23:10.600
third bedroom was intended for William. Perhaps Kim had been
1158
01:23:10.640 --> 01:23:16.560
helping hide him all along. The department notified the police,
1159
01:23:16.680 --> 01:23:22.279
who placed Kim under covert surveillance. What they discovered was shocking.
1160
01:23:23.720 --> 01:23:27.640
Kim drove a gray Holden Commodore Sedan similar in color
1161
01:23:27.680 --> 01:23:30.720
and shape to one of the vehicles Angela claimed to
1162
01:23:30.800 --> 01:23:34.960
have spotted on Benarum Drive on the day of William's disappearance.
1163
01:23:36.439 --> 01:23:40.880
Kim was also a former customer of Bill Spedding, having
1164
01:23:40.960 --> 01:23:44.439
hired him to fix her washing machine several years prior.
1165
01:23:45.960 --> 01:23:49.960
But perhaps most alarming, one of Kim's flatmates had a
1166
01:23:50.000 --> 01:23:53.560
notable brother in law person of interest in the William
1167
01:23:53.600 --> 01:24:00.640
Tyrell case, convicted sex offender Tony Jones. She also friends
1168
01:24:00.680 --> 01:24:06.920
with the Joneses now ex partner Debbie. When questioned about
1169
01:24:06.960 --> 01:24:11.880
her whereabouts on Friday September twelve, twenty fourteen, Kim Loki
1170
01:24:11.960 --> 01:24:15.359
claimed she was at home in Sydney, some three hundred
1171
01:24:15.399 --> 01:24:19.399
and sixty kilometers from Kendall, but she had nothing to
1172
01:24:19.560 --> 01:24:25.119
verify her alibi. Her explanation for wanting a third bedroom
1173
01:24:25.359 --> 01:24:29.560
was that she needed a studio for her art. Kim
1174
01:24:29.680 --> 01:24:33.000
appeared on Channel nine's A Current Affair program to deny
1175
01:24:33.159 --> 01:24:38.800
having anything to do with William's disappearance. She rejected allegations
1176
01:24:38.840 --> 01:24:42.399
that it was her car seen on benirun Drive, stating
1177
01:24:43.600 --> 01:24:46.880
I wouldn't be gained to do stuff like that, kidnapping
1178
01:24:46.920 --> 01:24:53.159
a little kid. The heat was placed on William's biological grandmother,
1179
01:24:53.319 --> 01:24:59.720
Tracy Martin, until another twist emerged. Tracy wasn't close friends
1180
01:24:59.760 --> 01:25:03.359
with Hi Kim Loki at all. The two women were
1181
01:25:03.399 --> 01:25:08.399
nothing more than former work colleagues. Kim had used photos
1182
01:25:08.439 --> 01:25:11.479
of them taken at a work function years prior as
1183
01:25:11.640 --> 01:25:15.680
testimony to their friendship and had simply wanted to ingratiate
1184
01:25:15.760 --> 01:25:21.039
herself into the William Tyrell investigation. She tried to sue
1185
01:25:21.079 --> 01:25:24.119
a current affair for money they promised her for the interview,
1186
01:25:24.640 --> 01:25:32.159
but the case was thrown out of court. The fact
1187
01:25:32.239 --> 01:25:35.680
that William was a foster child had been publicly discussed
1188
01:25:35.680 --> 01:25:39.399
online by those invested in the case, but by mid
1189
01:25:39.479 --> 01:25:45.560
twenty seventeen, this fact still hadn't been officially clarified. It
1190
01:25:45.640 --> 01:25:49.920
continued to muddy public perception, with sympathy for the anonymous
1191
01:25:49.960 --> 01:25:53.439
family slowly dissipating in the eyes of those who viewed
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01:25:53.479 --> 01:25:58.359
them as detached. A woman who wasn't connected to either
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01:25:58.439 --> 01:26:01.439
of the families in any way took it upon herself
1194
01:26:01.560 --> 01:26:06.439
to fight to make this detail public. Having been sexually
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01:26:06.439 --> 01:26:09.960
assaulted in a foster home during her own adolescence, the
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01:26:10.000 --> 01:26:13.760
woman became an advocate for other foster children and believed
1197
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the public had a right to know the truth about
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William's family situation. The case went to court, where lawyers
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01:26:22.039 --> 01:26:25.479
for the Department of Family and Community Services argued that
1200
01:26:25.520 --> 01:26:28.880
there was a stigma attached to being a foster child.
1201
01:26:29.560 --> 01:26:33.000
If William was ever found alive, this stigma would follow
1202
01:26:33.079 --> 01:26:37.720
him for life. Likewise, his sister Lindsey would suffer from
1203
01:26:37.720 --> 01:26:42.720
the same stigma. William's foster parents agreed that they wanted
1204
01:26:42.720 --> 01:26:48.840
to keep this information secret, along with their identities. Up
1205
01:26:48.920 --> 01:26:53.279
until this point, William's biological parents, Amy Tyrrell and Tyler
1206
01:26:53.359 --> 01:26:57.000
Martin had mostly been kept on the sidelines of the investigation.
1207
01:26:58.479 --> 01:27:02.439
They didn't receive the same regular updates as his foster parents,
1208
01:27:02.680 --> 01:27:06.159
weren't acknowledged in the media, and had been excluded from
1209
01:27:06.199 --> 01:27:10.039
the national public relations campaign aimed at bringing awareness to
1210
01:27:10.119 --> 01:27:14.520
the case. However, they had always wanted it to be
1211
01:27:14.560 --> 01:27:17.920
publicly known that William was in fostercare at the time
1212
01:27:18.000 --> 01:27:23.239
he went missing. The judge agreed that the public had
1213
01:27:23.319 --> 01:27:26.880
been misled to believe that Peter and Angela were William
1214
01:27:26.920 --> 01:27:32.600
Tyrrell's biological parents. In a landmark decision, he lifted the
1215
01:27:32.640 --> 01:27:36.920
restrictions that prevented this fact from being reported, ruling that
1216
01:27:36.960 --> 01:27:40.960
William being in fostercare was a legitimate matter of public interest.
1217
01:27:42.439 --> 01:27:45.520
For the first time since William went missing, the names
1218
01:27:45.560 --> 01:27:48.960
of his biological parents were allowed to be shared, while
1219
01:27:49.000 --> 01:27:52.520
the names of his foster parents and sister continued to
1220
01:27:52.560 --> 01:27:58.399
be suppressed by a court order. Afterwards, Amy Tyrrell appeared
1221
01:27:58.399 --> 01:28:02.600
on national television for the fore time in a heartfelt
1222
01:28:02.600 --> 01:28:06.359
interview with the television presenter Melissa Doyle for Channel seven's
1223
01:28:06.439 --> 01:28:10.560
Sunday Night program. She admitted to having made poor choices
1224
01:28:10.600 --> 01:28:13.279
in the past, but said she was trying to be
1225
01:28:13.359 --> 01:28:16.800
the best mum she could be. No longer in a
1226
01:28:16.840 --> 01:28:21.079
relationship with Tyler Martin, Amy said William and Lindsey shouldn't
1227
01:28:21.079 --> 01:28:23.399
have been taken away from her in the first place.
1228
01:28:24.800 --> 01:28:28.119
She believed the whole situation could have been improved if
1229
01:28:28.159 --> 01:28:30.920
there had just been better support for mothers who were
1230
01:28:30.960 --> 01:28:38.039
experiencing domestic violence. Amy cried as she fondly recounted memories
1231
01:28:38.039 --> 01:28:42.039
of William as a baby. She spoke of how difficult
1232
01:28:42.159 --> 01:28:45.479
the experience of losing him twice had been, and how
1233
01:28:45.600 --> 01:28:48.159
much it hurt her to know that William and Lindsey
1234
01:28:48.319 --> 01:28:53.359
were no longer together. Sobbing, she begged whoever had her
1235
01:28:53.439 --> 01:28:57.880
son to bring him home unharmed, saying whoever was responsible
1236
01:28:58.079 --> 01:29:04.640
quote needs a bullet. Whatever had happened to William. Amy
1237
01:29:04.720 --> 01:29:09.560
believed that his foster parents should feel guilty. I don't
1238
01:29:09.600 --> 01:29:12.920
want to blame the Carrors, she said, but they were
1239
01:29:12.960 --> 01:29:21.039
responsible for looking after William and they failed. As police
1240
01:29:21.079 --> 01:29:23.960
continued to make their way through the long list of
1241
01:29:24.039 --> 01:29:28.199
persons of interest, when speaking with Kendall locals, one name
1242
01:29:28.279 --> 01:29:33.479
in particular kept coming up. The individual lived a reclusive
1243
01:29:33.560 --> 01:29:37.640
lifestyle in an overgrown property near Benaruon Drive, and some
1244
01:29:37.800 --> 01:29:43.159
people thought he was worth looking into. Police arrived at
1245
01:29:43.159 --> 01:29:48.439
the man's house and what they found was disturbing. Outside,
1246
01:29:48.840 --> 01:29:54.479
animal carcasses hung from pieces of string. Inside was even creepier.
1247
01:29:56.000 --> 01:29:58.680
At the end of the man's bad a shrine of
1248
01:29:58.760 --> 01:30:03.560
sorts had been made to William Tyrrell. It featured photos
1249
01:30:03.560 --> 01:30:06.880
of William along with quotes about the investigation that had
1250
01:30:06.880 --> 01:30:10.319
been cut from the newspaper, as well as handwritten poetry
1251
01:30:10.399 --> 01:30:16.600
about the case. Due to the man's unconventional lifestyle, police
1252
01:30:16.680 --> 01:30:20.119
nicknamed him Gorillas in the Mist, after the book and
1253
01:30:20.279 --> 01:30:23.640
film of the same name, about an American scientist who
1254
01:30:23.760 --> 01:30:27.560
moved to the remote forests of Rwanda to study primates.
1255
01:30:29.039 --> 01:30:33.439
Police questioned Gorillas in the Myst extensively, but found nothing
1256
01:30:33.479 --> 01:30:38.439
to suggest he was involved in William's abduction. If anything,
1257
01:30:38.840 --> 01:30:45.359
they thought he seemed lonely and appreciated the police company. However,
1258
01:30:45.720 --> 01:30:49.560
there were certain things about his behavior that they deemed concerning.
1259
01:30:51.039 --> 01:30:54.439
Not wanting to take any chances, the police decided to
1260
01:30:54.479 --> 01:30:58.159
put Gorillas in the Mist under surveillance by installing hidden
1261
01:30:58.159 --> 01:31:03.560
cameras in the bush surrounding his property. Before long, one
1262
01:31:03.600 --> 01:31:08.560
of the cameras went missing. Police had no idea what
1263
01:31:08.720 --> 01:31:12.199
had happened to it until six weeks later, when it
1264
01:31:12.319 --> 01:31:50.119
suddenly reappeared under strange circumstances. To be continued, check out
1265
01:31:50.119 --> 01:31:54.840
the newest case file present series Julie's Gone. Julie's Gone
1266
01:31:54.960 --> 01:31:59.439
investigates the disappearance of nineteen year old Julianne Garcia Salay
1267
01:32:00.079 --> 01:32:04.159
went missing from her Melbourne apartment in July nineteen seventy five.
1268
01:32:04.920 --> 01:32:08.560
Julie had only recently arrived in Australia from the US.
1269
01:32:09.359 --> 01:32:13.840
Now five decades later, Helen Thomas has uncovered new evidence,
1270
01:32:14.039 --> 01:32:18.079
witnesses and fresh leads in one of Australia's most haunting
1271
01:32:18.159 --> 01:32:23.199
cold cases. Julie's Gone is available now wherever you get
1272
01:32:23.239 --> 01:32:24.159
your podcasts.