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[Music] Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at
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any time you need support, please contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers, for
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confidential support, and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this
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episode on your app or on our website. Today's episode involves crimes against children and won't be suitable for all
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listeners. Please note that the names of several individuals have been changed due to
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court suppression orders preventing them from being identified, while others have
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been changed to protect their privacy. By the time William Tier had been missing for 3 years, police had almost
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700 persons of interest remaining on their list. But among the legitimate leads they received, they were also
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inundated with bogus sightings, prank phone calls, and clairvoyant prophecies. On the third anniversary of Williams
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disappearance, lead detective Gary Jubilant spoke publicly about the case for the first time in 12 months.
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With William's status as a foster child now able to be reported on, Detective Jubilant attempted to quash the ongoing
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rumors by making it clear that both the foster parents and biological parents had been ruled out of the investigation.
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He insisted that William's foster parents had been bringing him up in a warm and loving home and that they had
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nothing to do with his disappearance. Detective Jubilant appealed for anyone with information to come forward,
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clarifying that he didn't want to get bogged down with irrelevant details. It's 3 years down the track. Let's be
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realistic. He said, "We're not interested in sightings of a child running around in a Spider-Man suit
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playing in the McDonald's car park. What we are interested in is people that have
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genuine information. That information might be in the form of someone that has concerns about someone
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they know, someone within their family, in the way they react when William Tier's name is mentioned.
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We're interested in speaking to those people. We can do it in the strictest of confidence and I would encourage those
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people to come forward. It sounds counterintuitive to say we're making progress, but each day we're
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learning more about what happened at the time and we're eliminating people. We're
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making progress each day. We don't think this has been a success by any stretch of the imagination, but
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we're not going to give up. Once again, police canvased homes around Kendall, hoping that the passing of time
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might propel someone to talk. If anyone knew anything, they were remaining as tight-lipped as ever.
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However, what Detective Jubilant hadn't publicly revealed was that he'd set his sights on someone.
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[Music] Paul Savage was a retiree aged in his late 70s who lived on Benaroon Drive
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directly across from William's foster grandmother, Mary Saunders his front verander looked towards the
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back of Mary's house where William was last seen playing. Police had interviewed Savage in the
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early stages of the investigation and discovered that he was the only person outside of William's foster family who
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had heard the children playing outside on the morning that William disappeared. According to Savage, the morning of
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Friday, September 12th, 2014, had started out like any other. At around 8:30, he'd gone for his daily walk in
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the bush behind his property. Afterwards, he ate breakfast on his back deck before pottering around the house
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in preparation for an upcoming trip to pick his brother up from the hospital. At around 10:35, Paul Savage's wife,
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Heather, left for her weekly bingo game in Lauron. Savage had walked Heather to her car,
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but said he hadn't heard any of the commotion going on down the street. He only discovered that William had gone
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missing at around 11:00 a.m. when a neighbor knocked on his door to inform him. Savage told the police that he
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immediately went looking for William down the fire tracks in the bush behind his property. He looked for 2 hours
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before finding himself a bit lost. Eventually, he found his way home and sat down to have a cup of tea.
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Shortly after, at around 1:30 p.m., some of Heather's relatives arrived for a pre-arranged visit, and they all joined
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in on a line search. Savage said he continued searching until around 700 p.m. and then all weekend,
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only stopping on Monday for his road trip to pick up his brother from the hospital in Lismore, which was a 4-hour
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drive away. Heather Savage's statement to police supported her husband's version of
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events. She had left for bingo at around the same time that William was thought to
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have gone missing with CCTV footage from the Kendall Tennis Club confirming that
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Heather's car had left town at 10:42 a.m. She said she hadn't seen or heard anyone
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or anything out of the ordinary at the time. Although there was nothing outwardly
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suspicious about Paul Savage or his movements, detective Gary Jubilan couldn't shake the feeling that
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something wasn't quite right. With Heather at bingo, there was no one who could vouch for his movements
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between 10:35 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on the day of William's disappearance. It also struck Detective Jubilant as odd
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that Paul Savage said he'd gotten lost in the bush during his search, given that he walked in the area every day.
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Savage also had a reputation with the locals for being a bit of a sticky beak. Detective Jubilant therefore found it
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strange that he claimed to have returned home to have a cup of tea without checking in with anyone to see if
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William had been found. If he could be nosy when not much of anything was going on, then why keep to
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himself when genuine drama was unfolding around him? These factors alone weren't
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incriminating, but they became of interest to the strike force after covert cameras were placed in the
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bushland surrounding the home of the man who police had dubbed Gorillas in the mist.
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One of the cameras went missing and it turned out that Paul Savage had it. He held on to the camera for 6 weeks before
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reporting it to the police station. At that point, Detective Jubilan's suspicions were intensifying.
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He looked into Savage and discovered that his home hadn't been searched until 3 days after William went missing. He
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hadn't been asked to provide a witness statement until 2 weeks later. When Paul Savage had driven to Lismore
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on the Monday after William went missing, his car hadn't been stopped or searched either.
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Theoretically speaking, if Savage had been involved in William's disappearance in any way, this would have given him a
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sizable window of time to dispose of any evidence. It turned out that Savage had also
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exhibited some odd behaviors in the past. The local postwoman had a restraining order against him for
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harassment, and Williams foster grandmother, Mary, told the police that Savage often showed up at her house
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uninvited. She claimed he had once stood outside her glass doors just watching her
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inside. These interactions had made Mary feel so uncomfortable that she'd approached
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Heather Savage and asked her to have a word with her husband about it. Strike Force investigators posited
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several theories centering around the savages. They even considered the possibility
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that Heather could have accidentally hit William with her car when leaving for bingo, and Paul Savage had then gone to
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great lengths to protect her by covering it up. Or maybe it was Savage himself who had
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accidentally hit William. He drove a Nissen Pajgerro four-wheel drive, which in the eyes of the
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three-year-old might have looked like a Land Rover. Investigators theorized that William
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could have seen Savage's car mistaken it for his foster father's and ran towards
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it only to be accidentally run over. They also considered the possibility that William could have entered the
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savages property and some other kind of accident had occurred. By the time the savages came onto the
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strike forc's radar, Heather Savage was no longer able to provide a statement. She had passed away 6 months into the
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William Tur investigation. Her death left her husband devastated. For a month afterward, he wore a photo
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of Heather around his neck. Detective Gary Jubilant didn't necessarily think that Paul Savage was
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involved in Williams disappearance, but he did think he might be the closest thing the police had to an eyewitness.
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He also wanted to be confident that he'd covered all bases before eliminating him
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as a person of interest. Despite some push back from other members of the strike force who didn't
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think Savage had anything to do with it, Detective Jubilant organized warrants authorizing listening devices to be
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installed in his home, car, and telephone. [Music] Officers were tasked with listening to
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the hundreds of hours of audio files taken from the covert surveillance of Savage and discovered he had a habit of
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talking to himself. While he went about his daily life at home, he often chatted out loud,
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sometimes to his deceased wife. Most of his mutterings were irrelevant, but some further sparked Detective
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Jubilan's suspicions. Wanting to either pursue or eliminate Savage from his investigation once and
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for all, Jubilan hatched a plan. Officers would hide a dirty Spider-Man suit along the bush tracks behind his
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property and covertly film his reaction. If he had an extreme response or attempted to conceal the suit, they'd
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have further reason to suspect he was hiding something. More importantly, if Savage did have
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knowledge of where Williams remains were, seeing the suit might compel him to visit that site, inadvertently
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leading police to William's body. The plan went ahead on the morning of Wednesday, July 26th, 2017, less than 2
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months before the 3rd anniversary of William's disappearance. As expected, Paul Savage got up and went
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for his usual morning walk along the bush tracks behind his home. When he approached the area where the
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Spider-Man suit had been planted, he walked a few steps past it, then bent over and paused for approximately 12
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seconds. Savage then returned home without reporting anything to the police. That evening, listening devices in
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Savage's home recorded him saying to himself, "You know I love you, Angel. I bloody screwed up. A
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[Music] Investigators were torn. Some were convinced that Savage had seen the suit and had stopped to get a closer
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look at it, while others believed he hadn't noticed the suit at all and had coincidentally paused to look at
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something else. The Spider-Man suit was left alongside the bush track again the following
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morning. This time, Savage stopped and prodded the costume with his foot. He then
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turned around, walked home, and called the police to report the sighting. 2 days later, the listening devices
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captured Savage talking to himself once again. He said something along the lines
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of, "Well, I'm going to run into your property, too. This is my place. You're in my place. You do what I want. Hey,
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I'm not interested in your [ __ ] mate. You're a little boy. You're nobody. You don't tell me. I'll tell
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you. I did tell you. Detective Jubilant still wasn't sure what to make of Paul Savage.
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Many others on the task force thought he was chasing a dead end, but Jubilant wasn't prepared to rule him out
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entirely. In August 2017, Detective Jubilant brought Savage in for questioning. He thought that if he interrogated him
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with enough pressure, he might be compelled to say something incriminating when he returned home.
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But Savage steadfastly maintained that he had nothing to hide. He vehemently denied the police theories that he or
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Heather could have accidentally killed William, saying there was no way in the world that either of them would ever
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hurt a child. He also denied having seen the Spider-Man suit in the bush the first
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time he walked past it. But as Savage drove home from the interrogation, the listening device in
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his car recorded him saying, "Make sure you don't tell anyone, love. They are right after me. Don't tell anyone, love,
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please. They are right after me. Sorry." The following month, Savage was recorded
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at home saying to himself, "They're going to find something. Mom, don't do on me. Okay. Oh, mom, what do I
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do?" Although these recordings were equal parts bizarre and compelling, they proved nothing.
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By this point, the surveillance team had amassed thousands of hours of audio of Paul Savage, and there wasn't enough
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time to listen to it all. Many of the officers wanted to move on, but in early October 2017, Savage said something that
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Detective Jubilant couldn't ignore. In a recorded conversation with his daughter about whether or not he had
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seen the Spider-Man suit that first day, he remarked, "I didn't see the suit. From memory, I just seen this white
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thing on the ground that was covered in dirt." Detective Jubilan was stunned. The
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Spider-Man suit that William Tier was wearing on the day he disappeared had a white spider motif on the back, but this
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detail had never been released to the public. It was something that only the person who took him could have known.
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The suit planted in the bush didn't have a white spider on it either. In fact, there was no white on it at all, just
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red, blue, and black. So why, Detective Jubilant wondered, did Paul Savage recall seeing a white item
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of clothing? Jubilant wanted to press him about this detail on a phone call, but by this
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point, the warrants on his telephone intercepts had expired. The devices in Savage's home were still
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present, but it meant Jubilant's end of the conversation wouldn't be on the record.
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This could present an issue if Savage ever accused the detective of saying anything problematic further down the
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track. He'd already complained about being treated poorly during police interviews, saying the air conditioning
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was too high and that he hadn't been offered any water. To cover himself, Detective Jubilant
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decided to put the call on speaker phone and then use his own mobile to record the conversation.
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Jubilant called Savage and asked him about the Spider-Man suit he'd spotted in the bush.
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Savage repeated his claims that he'd just seen a white bit of cloth, but made no mention of the red or blue of the
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suit. There still wasn't any solid reason to suspect he had any involvement in William's disappearance, but Detective
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Jubilant believed there were enough red flags to keep pursuing him. Over the following months, he visited Paul Savage
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at home several more times to question him further. Knowing that the covert listening
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devices in Savage's home produced poor quality audio and their batteries sometimes went flat, Detective Jubilant
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secretly recorded their conversations on his mobile phone to ensure he had a clear record of what was said.
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Despite his efforts, the constant pressure he applied led nowhere, and the strike force was no closer to making any
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arrests. Meanwhile, there was another name that had come up multiple times during the
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investigation into William Tier's disappearance that couldn't be ignored. Frank Abbott was an elderly man aged in
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his 70s who made a living doing odd jobs and collecting scrap metal. At the time
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of Williams disappearance, he'd been living rough in a caravan 10 km north of Kendall.
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Referred to by some towns people as a quote dirty old man, Abbott apparently had a habit of making people feel
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uncomfortable. He wasn't trusted around children with many parents warning their kids to stay
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away from him. He wasn't trusted around animals either. At least one of his neighbors had accused him of beastiality
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after walking into a disturbing scene involving Abbott and their family dog. Frank Abbott was already known to police
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as he had a long wrap sheet that included various charges involving breaking and entering, theft, firearms
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offenses, and escaping from custody. At the time William Tier went missing, he was out on bail after being charged
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with sexually abusing an 8-year-old girl. Strikeforce interest in Abbott grew after a woman who lived across the
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paddic from him claimed to have heard the pained scream of a young boy coming from the direction of where Abbott lived
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on the day after William went missing. Since then, Abbott had apparently made some odd comments.
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When police were searching the house of white goods repairer Bill Speding, Abbott allegedly told two people that
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the police were looking in the wrong spot. To another, he claimed that he'd smelt a
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dead body in the bush near Logan's Crossing, an area 4.7 km north of Kendall. Abbott allegedly said it wasn't an
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animal because he knew the difference between a dead kangaroo and a dead human smell.
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That comment alone was incriminating. In 1968, 17-year-old Helen Harrison went missing while riding her bike towards
00:20:44
her home in the Sydney suburb of Morelia. One week later, her semi- naked body was
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found buried in a shallow grave southwest of Sydney. She had been robbed of her watch and $20
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cash. Frank Abbott was spotlighted as a person of interest, but his parents supported
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his alibi that he'd been home at the time Helen went missing, and there was no other evidence to link him to the
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crime. Helen's murder remained unsolved for decades until the early 1990s when Frank
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Abbott was serving time for unrelated offenses. While in prison, Abbott allegedly
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confessed to a fellow inmate that he was responsible for killing Helen Harrison.
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He ultimately faced trial for Helen's murder, not once, but twice. The passing of time and death of
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critical witnesses meant the first jury couldn't reach a verdict, and the second
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found him not guilty. Abbott often bragged about beating the murder charge with one local saying he
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saw it as a badge of honor. Frank Abbott also had a connection to another person of interest in the Tyr
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investigation. Word around town was that Abbott had been telling various people, "I know
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where William Tier is. Why don't you check Jeff Owen's place?" Jeff Owen was a qualified electrician
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and a general tradesman aged in his 60s who lived in a caravan on the property next door to Frank Abbott.
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The two men were known to be friends and had been seen driving around together in
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the past. Locals were somewhat wary of Owen, who reportedly had schizophrenia and had
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once killed a neighbor's dog after failing to take his medication. He came on the police radar after it was
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revealed that he had a direct connection to William Tier's foster grandmother, Mary Saunders.
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Owen was Mary's handyman, and he had been booked in to repair her deck in midepptember 2014.
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At 9:10 on the morning of William's disappearance, Owen had called Mary to let her know the work would be delayed
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due to an unexpected stay in the hospital. Mary had missed the call as she'd been
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outside watching the children ride their bikes at the time. Police made some inquiries and
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discovered that Jeff Owen and Frank Abbott had worked on some repair jobs together in the past.
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They considered the possibility that Owen could have offered Mary's deck repair job to Abbott, who then drove
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past the property and came upon William, grabbing him in a moment of opportunity.
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But when questioned, Jeff Owen denied being friends with Frank Abbott. He said they were merely acquaintances and that
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he'd sometimes given Abbott a ride. Frank Abbott didn't have a driver's license or own a car, but further
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inquiries revealed that he had access to one. His friend Ray Porter drove an old
00:24:02
white Commodore station wagon similar to the one Williams foster mother claimed to have seen on Beneroon Drive on the
00:24:09
morning of Williams disappearance. According to some witnesses, Ry often let Abbott borrow it.
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By 2018, Frank Abbott was being held in prison pending an upcoming trial for unrelated child sex offenses when police
00:24:27
questioned him about William Tier. He claimed that on the day the toddler went missing, he'd been in the nearby
00:24:35
town of Warho. He said he'd done some repair work at a takeaway shop before having lunch at the Uniting Church and
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then making a deposit at the bank. Abbott denied having anything to do with Williams abduction, but implied that he
00:24:51
knew who did. Abbott told police they should look into Tony Jones, the convicted child sex
00:24:59
offender who had momentarily shared a cell with white goods repairman Bill Sping.
00:25:05
Jones had since been released from jail after serving just two of his three-year
00:25:10
sentence for child sexual assault. Abbott claimed that in early 2015, a few months after William went missing, Ray
00:25:20
Porter drove him out to a property in Logan's Crossing near an old radio tower and log dump site.
00:25:27
There they met two men who were driving a white station wagon. One of the men allegedly introduced
00:25:35
himself as Tony Jones. With them was a little boy If the investigation into William's
00:25:50
disappearance had exposed anything, it was just how many sex offenders had chosen the quiet life of the midn north
00:25:57
coast to call home. But Whitewood repairman Bill Sping was not a convicted sex offender.
00:26:06
Although he remained a person of interest in the William Tier investigation by 2018, nothing further
00:26:13
had been uncovered to link him to the crime. In March that year, Sping faced trial
00:26:19
for the 1987 child sexual assault charges against him. The woman at the center of the
00:26:26
allegations was Speding's ex-wife. She was unable to provide any compelling evidence for the claims, saying she had
00:26:34
lost crucial files. On the stand, Spetting's two alleged victims were reluctant.
00:26:42
As grown adults, they admitted they had no memory of the abuse ever taking place.
00:26:48
Had it occurred, Spetting's legal team suggested it was possible that the real abuser could have been their uncle. He
00:26:56
was a convicted pedophile and murderer who had been living with them around the time the alleged abuse was said to have
00:27:02
taken place. The judge ultimately threw the case against a bill spetting out, declaring
00:27:10
it was based on claims that had already been disproven decades earlier, and she ordered that legal fees be paid in his
00:27:17
favor. In turn, Sping settled a defamation claim out of court with the Daily Telegraph newspaper after they
00:27:25
incorrectly referred to him as a quote convicted pedophile. Although police had gathered no further
00:27:33
evidence to link Spetting to William Tier's disappearance, he remained on their list of persons of interest
00:27:39
regardless. By mid 2018, the case was approaching its 4-year anniversary with no major
00:27:48
breakthroughs, and the New South Wales police were starting to come under fire. The decision was made to refer the case
00:27:56
to the coroner for a formal inquest. Police told reporters that an inquest would give them an opportunity to test
00:28:04
information and evidence gathered by Strike Force Rosanne and allow them to further the investigation.
00:28:11
If nothing else, it would formally solidify that William's disappearance was the result of human intervention and
00:28:18
provide another step in getting answers for his loved ones. However, it also came with a downside.
00:28:28
Unless the coroner recommended that charges be laid against a particular individual and referred the case to the
00:28:34
director of public prosecutions, Williams case would inevitably go to the unsolved homicide unit, where police
00:28:41
resources were already stretched thin. In conjunction with the inquest, police announced that a new major search would
00:28:50
be conducted of the bushland behind Beneroon Drive. Unlike the initial search which was
00:28:56
focused on finding a lost child, this would be a forensic search of a 3 km radius focused on finding evidence such
00:29:04
as human remains or clothing. The aim was to rule out with forensic certainty that William hadn't gotten
00:29:12
lost in the bush and died. The search went ahead on Tuesday, June 19, 2018, led by officers from the
00:29:22
Public Order and Riot Squad. For 4 weeks, they scoured the rugged bushland, digging through leaf litter as
00:29:29
GPS trackers recorded their every movement. Various items were uncovered, but nothing that could be linked to William
00:29:38
Tier. [Music] As police began the monumental task of putting a brief of evidence together for
00:29:47
the coroner, it was revealed that someone on the strike force had spoken out about detective Gary Jubilan's
00:29:53
decision to record his conversations with Mary's neighbor, Paul Savage, without a warrant.
00:30:00
In doing so, Jubilin had breached the Surveillance Devices Act, a criminal offense that carried a maximum sentence
00:30:07
of 5 years in jail. Jubelin was given four charges and handed a legal document advising he was
00:30:16
no longer allowed to speak to members of the strike force or to William Tier's family.
00:30:22
With the inquest about to begin, this was a major blow. Detective Jubilant had been leading
00:30:29
William's homicide investigation for almost 4 years, and he knew the case better than anyone.
00:30:35
He'd also formed a close relationship with William's foster parents, and they relied on him for support.
00:30:44
Detective Jubilant fought to continue working on the case, even if it was only in an advisory capacity.
00:30:51
To the great disappointment of Peter and Angela, his request was denied. Feeling as though he had little choice,
00:31:00
Jubilan resigned from the police force as he awaited trial for the charges against him, which he intended to
00:31:06
strongly defend. At Gary Jubilant's twoe hearing, his defense barrista claimed he had both a
00:31:14
lawful right and an operational need to record his conversations with Savage to protect himself against any future
00:31:21
complaints that the man might make. She argued that Jubilant was entitled to a degree of leniency due to his
00:31:29
exemplary public service, calling this an exceptional case about an exceptional man.
00:31:37
Several high-profile and wellrespected figures within law enforcement testified on behalf of Jubilant's strong character
00:31:44
and professional work ethic, with some labeling him the best cop in New South Wales.
00:31:51
Williams foster parents were among his supporters. Angela teiered up as she spoke of the
00:31:58
connection her family had made with Gary Jubilin and how the investigation into Williams disappearance had suffered
00:32:04
since his absence. The prosecution argued that a potential future complaint could not be considered
00:32:12
a lawful interest to justify recording without a warrant. Jubilan was ultimately found guilty of
00:32:19
four counts of breaching the Surveillance Devices Act and given a $10,000 fine. The sentencing magistrate criticized the
00:32:28
Jubilant's constant pursuit of Paul Savage, accusing him of belittling and humiliating the elderly man with no
00:32:35
evidence, leads, or witnesses to suggest he had anything to do with Williams disappearance.
00:32:43
Jubilin appealed against the conviction, saying he'd rather go to jail than pay to do police work, but he lost the
00:32:50
appeal. Speaking to reporters outside court, Jubilant said, "I'm obviously disappointed by the decision of the
00:33:00
court, the court says that I went too hard to find out what happened to William Tier. I couldn't live with
00:33:07
myself if I did anything less. So, I stand by what I did. [Music] While all this was going on, Kendall man
00:33:18
Ray Porter's health was failing. Ry was the friend of Frank Abbotts, who drove an old white station wagon similar
00:33:26
to the one Angela claimed to have seen on Beneroon Drive on the morning of William's disappearance.
00:33:33
In early 2019, Rey was living in an aged care facility and didn't have long to live.
00:33:42
Wanting to get something off his chest, he struck up a conversation with a nurse
00:33:46
named Kirsten. Ry trusted Kirsten because he thought she had an honest face. He allegedly told her that on Friday,
00:33:56
September 12th, 2014, he drove to pick up his best mate from a shed behind Kendall school.
00:34:05
When he got there, his mate had a quote cute little boy with him. Ry claimed he had driven his friend and
00:34:14
the boy 300 km north. Kirsten asked if the boy was William Tier. Rey allegedly responded, "Yes."
00:34:28
Ry never told Kirsten his friend's name, but he had only ever spoken of having two friends, one of whom was named
00:34:36
Frank. By this point, Frank Abbott had been sentenced to 16 years in prison for 10
00:34:43
counts of child sex offenses committed against two young boys and a girl. When Rey passed away shortly after this
00:34:52
supposed confession, his sister-in-law was going through his possessions when she found a letter that had been sent
00:34:58
from prison. It provided instructions for Rey to pick up a boat and move it to the house of a
00:35:05
female friend. Ray's sister-in-law disposed of the letter, but remembered with clarity that
00:35:12
it was signed from your good friend, Frank. [Music] from prison. Frank Abbott's phone calls
00:35:21
were being recorded. During one conversation, Abbott told a friend that two people were involved in
00:35:29
taking William. He didn't want to say the names over the phone, so he asked his friend to come and visit so he could
00:35:37
give him the information in writing. The friend obliged, and as promised, Abbott handed over a note with two names
00:35:46
written on it. After the visit, Abbott's friend took the note directly to the police.
00:35:54
For reasons unknown, they did not publicly reveal the names of the individuals Abbott implicated, nor did
00:36:01
they disclose the extent of their investigations into them. As the inquest into William Tier's
00:36:13
disappearance grew closer, there still hadn't been any arrests in relation to his case.
00:36:20
Every possible theory about William's fate had been discussed by investigators, web sleuths, and curious
00:36:27
members of the public. They ranged from the optimistic that William had been abducted and raised by
00:36:34
a loving couple who were desperate for children to the outlandish that William had been abducted by aliens or fell
00:36:41
victim to a Yahi, the Australian equivalent of Bigfoot. The inquest aimed to clear things up
00:36:50
once and for all. By the time the strike force put together their brief of evidence for the
00:36:56
coroner, investigators had interviewed 263 local residents, retrieved CCTV footage from 181 locations around
00:37:06
Kendall and beyond, and received over 2,000 reports of sightings of William from Australia and overseas.
00:37:16
When the inquest commenced in March 2019, the courts clarified that Paul Savage was no longer being considered a
00:37:24
person of interest. The inquest, which was scheduled to be held in several installments, began by
00:37:30
establishing Williams family situation. Williams biological father, Tyler Martin, made no attempt to hide his
00:37:39
disdain for the Department of Family and Community Services. He told the court that the authorities
00:37:46
had failed by placing William in foster care, remarking, quote, "The minister had a duty of care to keep William safe
00:37:54
until he was 18. That was not the case at all." He expressed a disappointment about the
00:38:03
way William had been treated by Peter and Angela, telling the court, "I don't think the foster mother and father
00:38:10
really care about the kids, as they aren't their kids. They don't love them like we do."
00:38:19
One of the most compelling pieces of evidence in William's case was the now infamous photograph his foster mother,
00:38:25
Angela, had taken less than an hour before his disappearance. The seemingly innocuous image of William
00:38:32
in his Spider-Man costume looking up at the camera with his mouth a gape mimicking a lion's roar served as proof
00:38:39
of life and helped establish the timeline of the morning he went missing. It had also provided an exact
00:38:47
description of what the young boy was wearing at the time. However, during the inquest, a shocking
00:38:54
allegation surfaced regarding the photo. Meta data in Angela's digital camera showed that the photo had been taken at
00:39:04
9:37 a.m. on Friday, September 12th, 2014. However, the brief of evidence revealed
00:39:12
that the timestamp had been altered with the original photo having been taken at
00:39:17
7:39 a.m. When presented with this evidence, Williams foster parents vehemently denied having altered the timestamps in
00:39:27
any way. But those critical of the foster family weren't satisfied. if the photo had been taken at 7:39
00:39:37
a.m., they wondered what happened in those unaccounted for 118 minutes between the time the photo was taken and
00:39:45
when the time stamp was altered. Angela's explanation was that she didn't set the clock correctly when she
00:39:53
originally purchased the camera. It was a simple enough reason, but the skeptics weren't buying it.
00:40:02
Some wondered if the Foster family could have been involved in Williams disappearance and had altered the
00:40:08
timestamp to cover their tracks. The coroner ordered the police to conduct an urgent probe into those
00:40:16
unexplained missing minutes. Sifting through the content on the camera, examiners discovered another
00:40:24
photo that had been taken 11 days prior to William's disappearance. A television in the background had
00:40:31
captured the live broadcast of a morning news program, which featured an on-screen clock.
00:40:38
The time displayed was 118 minutes earlier than that shown by the camera's timestamp, proving Angela's assertion
00:40:47
that she simply hadn't ever set the camera's in-built clock to begin with. But some questions were also raised
00:40:57
about other details Angela had provided, including the dark colored sedan she claimed to have seen momentarily pull
00:41:04
into a neighbor's driveway on the morning William went missing. When first questioned by police, Angela
00:41:12
said she didn't get a look at the occupant. In an interview with Detective Jubilant
00:41:18
years later, Angela described the driver as an older gentleman with gray hair. When asked if there was anything in
00:41:26
particular that drew her attention to the car or its driver, Angela had responded.
00:41:32
If I think about it, he didn't look over. He just kept driving straight ahead. At the inquest, her story changed
00:41:42
significantly. Angela said she got a very clear view of the driver, describing him as a large
00:41:49
man who appeared to be aged in his 50s with a thick neck, beer belly, weathered skin, and thinning red hair.
00:41:58
Angela testified that the two had locked eyes, and the man gave her a challenging
00:42:03
stare as if to say, "I'm watching you." Despite police efforts, they'd never been able to verify this sighting or
00:42:13
track down the vehicle. The same went for the white station wagon and gray sedan Angela claimed had
00:42:20
been parked oddly on Benoon Drive that morning. Some found it hard to believe that
00:42:26
Angela hadn't remembered this detail straight away and had only come forward with the information 2 days later.
00:42:34
The only other person who recalled seeing any cars matching this description in Kendall was Mary's
00:42:40
neighbor, Paul Savage. He'd told police he'd seen the cars, too, but not on the day of William's
00:42:48
disappearance, but 2 days prior before William's family were in Kendall. A forensic psychologist who specialized
00:42:57
in memory, Dr. Helen Patterson, was called to give evidence. She told the court it was possible that
00:43:05
Angela had unintentionally created a false memory. Dr. Patterson explained that information
00:43:12
learned after an event has the potential to distort future versions of the event.
00:43:19
So, it was possible that Angela had seen the vehicles at a different time, but then mistakenly attributed the memory to
00:43:26
the morning that William went missing. The same went for Ronald Chapman, the man who claimed to have seen a
00:43:35
four-wheel drive speeding off through Kendall with an unrestrained boy matching William's description in the
00:43:40
back seat and a woman behind the wheel. Over time, Ronald had added extra details to his original story, including
00:43:49
that the boy he saw was wearing a cape. Dr. Patterson said it was possible that Ronald was incorporating information
00:43:58
that came to light after the event, such as news reports, into reconstruction of
00:44:03
his own memory. If this was the case, Dr. Patterson clarified that both witnesses were still
00:44:10
acting in good faith, explaining, "There are ways that people can report information that is not true, but they
00:44:19
are not lying. [Music] One of the first aspects that the inquest focused on was Whitewoods
00:44:29
repairman Bill Spedding's possible involvement in Williams abduction. It quickly became apparent that all
00:44:36
wasn't as it had appeared in the trial by media. Sping had always maintained that on the
00:44:43
morning William went missing, he and his wife had dined at a cafe before attending their grandson's school
00:44:48
assembly. Police had a bank statement that confirmed the cafe visit, and it turned
00:44:54
out that there were some witnesses who could attest to his alibi, with at least one parent testifying to seeing Sping at
00:45:02
the assembly. Sping's work records also confirmed that the replacement part for Mary's washing
00:45:09
machine still hadn't arrived by Friday, September 12th, giving him no reason to visit Beneroon Drive that morning.
00:45:19
Police had previously accused Bill Speding of deleting a voicemail from Angela off his phone.
00:45:25
Spetting's legal team had his phone records examined by an expert who found that Sping had been on another call when
00:45:33
the call from Angela came in. Because of this, the voicemail was never recorded on his handset.
00:45:41
The legal team accused the police of using this erroneous detail against Spetting during their interrogation of
00:45:48
him rather than having his phone records thoroughly checked themselves. Had they done so, it would have
00:45:55
eliminated one of the major pieces of information they were holding over him. As for Dean Pollard, the witness who
00:46:04
claimed to have seen Bill Speding's work van speeding down Ghost Road on the day
00:46:09
after William vanished, it was suggested that he made the sighting up with malicious intent.
00:46:16
It was known that Dean didn't like Spetting. At the inquest, Dean denied saying he
00:46:23
saw Spetting's car near Ghost Road on the day after William went missing. He stated,
00:46:30
"I didn't say it was Bill's van. I said it was the same color as Bill's van." Furthermore, video footage proved that
00:46:40
Sping was exactly where he'd always claimed to be that day at the local footie club celebrating the end of
00:46:47
season with a beer. With all this evidence brought to light at the inquest, it was clear that police
00:46:54
had targeted the wrong man. Bill Spetting was ruled out as a person of interest.
00:47:01
Outside court, he told reporters, "I know what I've been through is nothing compared to what William's
00:47:08
family are going through now. I wished the coroner all wisdom in getting to the bottom of this mystery."
00:47:17
Former case detective Gary Jubilan maintained that police made the right decision to investigate Bill Sping. He
00:47:25
told ABC's Four Corners program that while he regretted that things had played out so publicly, quote, "The
00:47:33
decisions that were made at the time were the decisions that had to be made, and I'm comfortable with that."
00:47:42
Sping's life was turned upside down from the negative publicity against him. His
00:47:48
business failed and he and his wife were subject to ongoing scrutiny from the community and greater public. The public
00:47:56
accusations had even led to violence. A stranger had once recognized Sping outside of a restaurant and grabbed him
00:48:03
by the throat. The Speddings had been forced to move, but their new neighbors were anything
00:48:10
but welcoming. One parent sternly warned Sping not to use his phone in his front yard in case
00:48:18
he was filming her children. She also advised him against stepping outside his house or opening his blinds if her
00:48:26
children were playing out in the street. Spetted eventually went on to sue the New South Wales police for malicious
00:48:35
prosecution in relation to the historical child sex abuse allegations, arguing that the charges had only been
00:48:42
placed to pressure him into giving evidence about William Tier's whereabouts. He also sought damages for false
00:48:49
imprisonment, loss of reputation, and 4 years of psychological counseling that he'd undergone in relation to the
00:48:57
ordeal. Spetting ultimately won the lawsuit and was awarded $1.5 million in damages with
00:49:05
his lawyer labeling it the worst police prosecution Australia had ever seen. His wife told Four Corners,
00:49:15
"I'd like to hear the police apologize to him for what they put him through, but I don't know whether he'll get that
00:49:22
because they told him they were going to ruin him and they did. By March 2020, the inquest into William
00:49:34
Tier's disappearance reached its second year when shocking testimony was delivered by two witnesses.
00:49:42
One was a woman who operated as an emergency foster career by taking at risk children into her home.
00:49:49
She told the court that in 2017 she was hosting two young brothers aged 7 and 10
00:49:56
who were given the pseudonyms of Jeffrey and Matthew. One afternoon the woman's teenage
00:50:02
daughter was babysitting for the boys when Jeffrey allegedly turned to her and said, "I know who took William Tur."
00:50:12
The comment shocked the teenager as it seemingly came out of nowhere. As Jeffrey spoke, Matthew looked at him
00:50:21
in wideeyed fear. He warned his brother to stop talking, but Jeffrey continued. He claimed that William was dead and had
00:50:31
been stuffed into a suitcase. As for the person who killed him, it was Frank Abbott.
00:50:41
Jeffrey and Matthew were survivors of Abbott's sexual abuse, the same crimes he was serving time in prison for.
00:50:49
The teenager told her mother about the boy's revelation, and she questioned the brothers further.
00:50:56
She asked why Matthew was so adamant that Jeffree keep this secret. Matthew said that Abbott had threatened
00:51:04
that he would snap their mother's neck if they told anyone. Both boys were utterly petrified.
00:51:13
When these testimonies were delivered to the court, Williams foster mother, Angela, became visibly upset.
00:51:21
Since the beginning of the inquest, she and Peter had openly criticized the police handling of the case. They
00:51:28
claimed there hadn't been a proper handover after Gary Jubilan was removed from the strike force and that the
00:51:35
police had seemed indifferent about the investigation ever since. According to author Alli Chumley, after
00:51:44
hearing the allegation that Frank Abbott had killed William, Angela appeared to be somewhat relieved.
00:51:51
In her book, Searching for Spider-Man, Ally wrote, "I sensed she had accepted that this was indeed what had happened
00:51:59
to her little boy. It seemed we now had two separate confessions that implicated
00:52:05
Abbott. One from an old mate on his deathbed and the other from a terrified child. On the face of it, neither had
00:52:14
any reason to lie." After this harrowing testimony, the coroner announced they would be hearing
00:52:23
from a final witness in a closed court session. The final pieces of evidence were due to
00:52:29
be presented in mid-March 2020, but just days before the scheduled date, the inquest was adjourned indefinitely due
00:52:38
to the CO 19 global pandemic. The coroner said, "I'm so sorry the world has done this. There's still work
00:52:49
to be done. There's nothing in relation to this matter which I consider to be a cold case.
00:52:57
Likewise, police assured that the investigation would be ongoing. In June 2020, they conducted a second
00:53:06
search of the log dump site in Logan's Crossing that had previously been pinpointed by Frank Abbott. As officers
00:53:14
scoured the site, they noticed something odd. Black electrical tape had been wrapped
00:53:19
around the trunk of a tree and the ground underneath looked particularly lumpy. The area was examined and several items
00:53:28
of interest were found, but nothing that related to William Tier. By the time the inquest resumed in early
00:53:40
October 2020, William's foster grandmother, Mary Saunders, had passed away. William's biological father, Tyler
00:53:48
Martin, was being treated in a mental health facility and was unable to attend the hearing.
00:53:54
Speaking on his behalf, Tyler's lawyer said, "Imagine having your son taken away and doing everything to try and get
00:54:03
him back, only for him to go missing." William's father hasn't been the same since he disappeared. In a way, two sons
00:54:13
have been lost. William's biological parents had suffered immeasurably in the years since
00:54:21
William went missing. In addition to losing their son twice, first to the foster system and then to
00:54:29
the unknown, they had been subjected to intense media scrutiny and public abuse,
00:54:35
with some going as far as throwing eggs at their home. A statement read in court on their
00:54:42
behalf said, "Because of some of the media, the world is blaming us. We have had 6 years of
00:54:51
pain and broken promises. We are grieving and we have been grieving for 6 years. We are angry and frustrated and
00:55:01
we want answers. Life will never be the same again. Living without answers makes things so
00:55:09
much harder. William's foster family also spoke of how difficult their lives had been since
00:55:16
William went missing. Not only had they lost the little boy that they loved so dearly, but they'd been the victims of
00:55:25
online trolls and ongoing harassment. Complete strangers convinced of their guilt had degraded their privacy,
00:55:33
stalking their home and encouraging others to do the same. Photographs had been taken of them
00:55:39
without their permission, and serious threats had been made against their lives.
00:55:45
Peter spoke of their ongoing anguish, saying their hearts had been split into a million pieces.
00:55:52
Angela said her arms still achd to hold William, stating, "Our world and the contented life we
00:56:01
knew collapsed around us. It's hard to understand how the sun could continue to shine."
00:56:10
Peter and Angela also voiced their discontentment about the way the investigation was going since Detective
00:56:16
Jubilant had been removed from it. Not only did they feel they'd been treated coldly ever since, they were
00:56:24
deeply disappointed when it was revealed in court that there were only five investigators currently working on the
00:56:30
strike force. Today, we are at the same point we were when the investigation began 6 years
00:56:37
ago, they told the court. How can the investigation into a missing three-year-old boy have its resources so
00:56:45
significantly reduced when there is so much more information that needs to be examined?
00:56:51
Every day, this heinous crime remains unsolved. The perpetrators remain at large and are capable of committing
00:56:59
other monstrous crimes against children. No other family should ever feel the need they have to fight tooth and nail
00:57:07
for those people in leadership positions to take notice. By this point, the inquest had been
00:57:15
running for 18 months. The coroner was left to review all the evidence presented before handing down her
00:57:22
findings 9 months later in June 2021. Many were critical about the inquest. Despite being one of the longest running
00:57:32
in New South Wales history and costing a significant amount to the taxpayers, it
00:57:38
didn't seem to have brought any answers. The allegations against Frank Abbott were compelling, but no physical
00:57:45
evidence had been uncovered to implicate him or any other person of interest in Williams disappearance.
00:57:52
Abbott had appeared at the inquest via video link from jail and was allowed to question witnesses about any allegations
00:57:59
made against him, but he was never questioned himself. The reason why is unknown, as the
00:58:08
coroner ordered that her decision not to do so be withheld from the public. The general consensus was that the
00:58:17
coroner would deliver an open finding, meaning that she'd confirmed that William was dead, but with no clarity
00:58:24
about how he had died. This led some to question whether it was worth it to put William's loved ones
00:58:31
through all the pain and discomfort of the inquest at all. Then came the breaking news that no one
00:58:39
saw coming. In mid 2021, it was announced that the coroner's findings would be delayed
00:58:53
indefinitely with no further explanation given. Then in November that same year, police
00:59:00
held a press conference to announce that they would be returning to Kendall to conduct several new searches based on
00:59:06
further information that had come to light. They said the searches were not speculative, but were being conducted at
00:59:15
three different locations in conjunction with evidence obtained during the course
00:59:19
of the strike force investigation as well as coronial orders. According to the police minister, a
00:59:27
number of people had been providing intelligence and working with the police, which had led to new
00:59:32
developments. Various news outlets subsequently reported that the police were focusing
00:59:39
on a new suspect who had previously been ruled out, a claim the police would not
00:59:44
officially confirm or deny. Williams foster parents called this fake news. They released a statement saying,
00:59:55
"Once again, we are forced to watch others objectify William for personal gain. Time and time again, we've watched
01:00:03
people lose sight of the tragic reality that William was a precious, innocent little boy who was taken from those he
01:00:10
loved and who love him deeply, forgetting that there is a heartbroken family waiting in hope that William will
01:00:17
be found. To publish unverified claims without consideration to the hurt that articles
01:00:24
of this nature cause is disrespectful and devastating to everyone who knows and loves William.
01:00:32
But those reports turned out to be true. The strike force had been focusing on one particular individual, William's
01:00:41
foster mother, Angela. Bolstered by inconsistencies in her story, the police had been conducting
01:00:49
surveillance of William's foster parents for some time. During one covertly recorded phone
01:00:56
conversation, Angela had made an interesting comment to a friend. She'd remarked that William's skeleton would
01:01:03
be found in quote 30, 40, 50 years time or 200 years when they are done clearing.
01:01:12
Police were particularly interested in this comment because of something Angela had told them 3 days into William's
01:01:19
disappearance. She said that before calling emergency services to report William missing, she
01:01:26
had driven her mother's car, a gray Mazda, about a kilometer down the road in case William had wandered off. The
01:01:34
coroner had pressed Angela about this detail at the inquest. Angela said that she'd had driven down
01:01:41
Beneroon Drive before turning right onto Betaar Creek Road. She drove along slowly with her windows down before
01:01:49
pulling up on the verge outside the old horse riding school on the corner of Cobb and Co. Road to let a truck pass.
01:01:58
Angela said she looked out for any sign of William's Spider-Man suit among the surrounding greenery, but all she saw
01:02:05
was bushland. Police were curious as to why Angela only disclosed this detail a few days
01:02:14
after William went missing. Then there was the ongoing question about whether or not Angela had really
01:02:21
seen two cars parked oddly on Beneroon Drive. It had taken her days to report this
01:02:28
sighting, too. And given that no one else had seen the cars that morning, there was increasing suspicion that
01:02:34
Angela could have created this detail to cover up something that she herself had
01:02:39
done. Despite being cleared by former case detective Gary Jubilan and his predecessor, the current strike force
01:02:51
had been working on the theory that William had died after accidentally falling from Mary Saers's front balcony.
01:02:59
They suspected that Angela could have panicked upon finding his body, fearing that his death would mean she'd lose
01:03:05
custody of Lindsay. She could have quickly bundled William into her mother's car and drove him to
01:03:12
Betar Creek Road, where she disposed of his body in the thick undergrowth. Mary's Mazda was the only other car at
01:03:20
the property at the time, and it had not been searched by police. If the strike force had any evidence to
01:03:29
support this theory, they kept it to themselves. Publicly, Angela had never swayed from
01:03:36
her story about William wandering off and seemingly disappearing into thin air. Over the years, she'd worked hard
01:03:43
to draw attention to the case and had publicly criticized the police when she felt they weren't doing enough to find
01:03:50
her foster son. She had made emotional, heartfelt pleas for anyone with information to come
01:03:56
forward and had spoken openly about how difficult life had been for her and her family since William vanished.
01:04:04
If there was any truth to the new police theory, many agreed that Angela had done
01:04:10
an incredible job of hiding it. An investigation was opened by the New South Wales Crime Commission, a highly
01:04:19
secretive criminal intelligence organization. The government-run body holds extensive
01:04:25
powers and can hold hearings and supply evidence obtained during its investigations to various other courts
01:04:32
and agencies. Such hearings are often a lastditch attempt to get reluctant witnesses or
01:04:39
persons of interest to provide information. Although these hearings are only inquisitorial in nature, individuals are
01:04:48
compelled to provide testimony. If they refuse, they can be charged with contempt of court.
01:04:56
If they lie while giving testimony, they face a perjury charge. Police visited Angela at her home in
01:05:04
Sydney and summoned her to appear at a crime commission hearing. One of the officers urged her to come
01:05:11
forward with the truth. You will have to live with it, he said. Today is the day you make a decision for
01:05:19
William. We understand decisions have been made for different people for different
01:05:25
reasons. We aren't guessing. We aren't bluffing. We know how. We know why. We know where
01:05:34
he is. [Music] In November 2021, Angela was subject to two days of intense questioning at the
01:05:42
crime commission hearing. As she sat before the panel, the police theory was put directly to her for the
01:05:50
first time. Angela repeatedly denied the allegations, crying and yelling out, "No, no, no."
01:06:00
Asked why she had gone for the drive down Betar Creek Road before calling emergency services, Angela said she
01:06:07
couldn't explain why. She said she thought William might have walked off and her husband might have picked him
01:06:14
up. It's a panic. All I could think was I don't know. I panicked. Where is he? I
01:06:22
don't know where he is. Angela told the commission. I don't know what I was thinking. All I
01:06:29
could think about was I have to find him. I can't give you an answer to that. I remember driving. I remember stopping.
01:06:39
I remember thinking I can't see him. This is silly. So, I went back. Angela was then told that the purpose of
01:06:49
the upcoming searches in Kendall was to look for evidence to support the police theory.
01:06:55
asked if the police could expect to find William's body during these searches, Angela replied.
01:07:02
"No, I didn't take him anywhere. I didn't touch him. If you want to dig up that entire house at mom's, dig it up."
01:07:16
On Monday, November 15, 2021, hundreds of police officers and specialists descended on Kendall.
01:07:24
Mary Sa's old Mazda was also seized from its new owners at a Sydney property and
01:07:30
taken for forensic examination. The police cut no corners as they searched Mary's former home on Benoon
01:07:38
Drive, which had been sold to new owners years prior. The front garden under the balcony was
01:07:45
extensively dug up with officers putting every shovel of soil through a sifter and sorting through the rubble by hand.
01:07:54
Luminal tests were conducted for any evidence of blood while cadaavver dogs searched the yard and underneath the
01:08:01
house and cameras were put into the septic tank. Ground penetrating radar was also
01:08:07
brought in to test a concrete slab under the home that had been installed in the
01:08:12
years since William went missing. News crews captured footage as officers bagged numerous items and took them off
01:08:20
site for further testing. The bushland on Betar Creek Road, where police suspected Angela could have
01:08:28
dumped William's body, was densely vegetated and overgrown. Machinery was brought in to clear an
01:08:35
area the size of three football fields while water was drained from the nearby creek.
01:08:42
For weeks, the team searched through over 15 tons of soil, sediment, and leaf litter by hand, looking for anything not
01:08:50
naturally occurring in the bushland. Police divers searched nearby dams, using their hands to claw through the
01:08:58
mud along the bottom. The search efforts were hampered by wild wind and rain, but one detective said
01:09:05
they were leaving no stone unturned. It's painstaking. It's difficult, he told reporters.
01:09:13
We're very happy with the progress so far, but we've got no great milestone to report.
01:09:20
[Music] If anything of interest was found during these three searches, police didn't say
01:09:27
and no charges were laid as a result. However, something else had been going on behind the scenes.
01:09:36
It turned out that listening devices installed in Peter and Angela's home as part of Strikeforce Rosanne had
01:09:42
allegedly captured something startling. Angela was apparently overheard assaulting another foster child in her
01:09:51
care, the identity of whom is unable to be revealed. According to the police, in October
01:09:58
2021, Angela had been attempting to intervene in the child's problematic behavior, which had been the source of
01:10:05
several arguments between herself and her husband as they discussed how to handle the situation.
01:10:12
Audio revealed that on separate occasions, Angela had kicked the child in the thigh and hit her with a wooden
01:10:19
spoon. She also allegedly threatened the child numerous times, once warning, "I'm going
01:10:27
to slap you across the face. Do you want to do that?" Another time, Angela said, "If I see or
01:10:35
hear you throw something around again, that won't be the only thing that gets thrown around. You only seem to listen
01:10:42
when I threatened to get violent. She also ordered the child to wash their own clothes, saying they smelt putrid
01:10:50
and told them, quote, "Not to act like a homeless person." [Music] Phone taps captured Angela telling Peter
01:11:00
that she had kicked the child. "Did you kick her hard?" he asked. "Yeah," Angela
01:11:06
responded. "I can't believe I did that. Later on, Angela told Peter that she had
01:11:14
hit the child really hard with that wooden spoon. She remarked that the child would have a
01:11:20
massive welt on her leg, stating she didn't even cry. One morning, Peter was recorded yelling
01:11:29
at the crying child to get ready for school. As they got into the car, he admonished them for not closing the
01:11:36
front door, yelling, "Every [ __ ] day." Peter continued yelling and swearing at
01:11:44
the sobbing child throughout the drive. At one point, reportedly calling them a quote, "Stupid little shit."
01:11:53
His voice was so loud that it caused the recording device to distort. As a result of these recordings, the
01:12:01
child was subsequently removed from their care and interviewed by the police in the presence of a support worker.
01:12:09
She allegedly confessed that Peter had once put his hands around her neck, saying he had mental health and anger
01:12:16
management issues. Peter and Angela had both been questioned about these incidents during
01:12:23
the Secret Crime Commission hearings. Under oath, Angela admitted to having hit and kicked the child, but she denied
01:12:31
having ever hit her with a wooden spoon. Despite having recorded conversations in
01:12:38
which they discussed these events, Peter denied that his wife had ever hit or kicked another child in their care.
01:12:45
As a result of the audio recordings, Angela and Peter were both charged with assault of a child as well as stalking
01:12:52
and intimidation of a child. For their crime commission testimony, they were both also charged with
01:13:00
knowingly giving false or misleading information. When the suppression order was lifted on
01:13:09
these allegations, the police clarified that they didn't believe Angela or Peter
01:13:14
had mistreated William Tier while he was in their care and that these charges had
01:13:20
no connection to his disappearance. Nonetheless, public speculation began to circulate.
01:13:28
According to author Alli Chumley, records kept by social workers said that Angela had expressed some concerns about
01:13:36
William's challenging behaviors. At times, he could be oppositional, unsettled, boisterous, and defiant.
01:13:44
He was a troubled sleeper who often fought with his older sister, sometimes biting and hitting her.
01:13:51
While William had formed an immediate connection with his foster father, he'd been slower to warm to Angela.
01:13:59
As their relationship improved, he became clingy and required constant reassurance and attention.
01:14:06
Such behavior was not unusual for kids in foster care, but Angela admitted to social workers that she was struggling.
01:14:14
She had sought professional help for some of William's more challenging behaviors, but continued to second
01:14:21
guessess her parenting strategies. About a month before William went missing, his foster parents took him to
01:14:29
the hospital with a black eye, saying he had fallen against a table. William's biological parents had seen
01:14:36
the black eye at a subsequent supervised visit, their last, before William went missing.
01:14:43
Amy Tier spoke about it at the inquest, saying she'd also noticed that William had appeared to be a bit too skinny.
01:14:51
It's hard because I don't know the carers. Amy had testified. I don't know where they live and I never
01:14:58
get to see them. I don't want to come across as though I am blaming them or being mean, but it's just been really
01:15:05
hard. However, Amy had been wary of the care William had been receiving since the
01:15:13
beginning. In her 2017 interview with the Channel 7's Sunday Night program, Amy had told
01:15:20
presenter Melissa Doyle in previously unaired footage that William showed up for their supervised visits with
01:15:27
bruises, a snotty nose, and inappropriately dressed for the weather. She claimed his motor skills
01:15:35
deteriorated once he was placed into care, and that she'd written letters to the authorities saying William would be
01:15:41
better off with her. Nothing in any of the case workers notes supported any allegations of wrongdoing
01:15:49
on the foster parents behalf. Department of Family and Community Services staff, child care workers, and
01:15:56
family friends had nothing but good things to say about Peter and Angela and their treatment of William.
01:16:03
One child care educator had even described Angela to the police as the perfect parent.
01:16:12
In September 2023, Peter and Angela appeared in the Paramea local court to face the child abuse charges against
01:16:19
them for kicking and hitting the child in their care with a wooden spoon. 58-year-old Angela pleaded guilty to two
01:16:27
counts of assault. However, she pleaded not guilty to two counts of intimidation against the same
01:16:34
child for threatening to slap them. for allegedly placing his hands around the child's neck. Peter pleaded not guilty
01:16:43
to one count of common assault. He claimed he'd only ever put his hands on the child's shoulders while giving
01:16:50
them a timeout. For berating the crying child on the drive to school, he pleaded not guilty
01:16:57
to one count of intimidation. Over the 5-day hearing, the defense teams argued that the incidents had
01:17:06
occurred during a time of significant stress, both emotionally and financially, which was exacerbated by
01:17:12
the ongoing trauma of William's disappearance. Various audio recordings were played to
01:17:19
the court in which the couple discussed the pressure Angela was under, both in managing the child's behavior and
01:17:26
becoming the focus of the Strikeforce investigation. In the recordings, Angela admitted she
01:17:33
wasn't coping, and Peter expressed his concern, saying, "I've never seen you like this."
01:17:41
The defense said the couple had shown great remorse for their actions and were unlikely to reaffend, factors they
01:17:49
believed should result in non-convictions. Peter's assault charge was ultimately
01:17:56
thrown out as the judge found that the level of physical force he'd used on the child constituted lawful correction.
01:18:04
The child had also told the police that Peter had never hurt them for berating the sobbing child in the
01:18:11
car. She found Peter guilty of one count of intimidation, calling his conduct unacceptable and unlawful
01:18:20
for threatening to slap the child on two occasions. The judge found Angela guilty
01:18:25
of two counts of intimidation. She accepted that the couple had been under significant stress and that they
01:18:33
had shown genuine remorse. describing Angela as an admired foster parent. The judge stated,
01:18:42
"It has been a difficult sentencing process because there are so many competing factors to weigh up here."
01:18:51
She ultimately convicted both Peter and Angela and gave them both 12-month good behavior bonds.
01:18:58
[Music] The charges for knowingly giving false or misleading information during the
01:19:05
crime commission were dealt with separately by Sydney's Downing Center local court.
01:19:11
The presiding magistrate dismissed all five charges against Peter, citing the substantial ambiguity of the questions
01:19:18
that he had been presented with during the crime commission hearing. The council assisting had asked Peter if
01:19:25
his wife had harmed the child in recent times. They had also asked if he recalled if
01:19:32
she had kicked the child. Peter had answered no each time. The magistrate reasoned that Peter
01:19:40
wasn't given a clear definition of the word harm or recent times, and therefore it couldn't be proven that he'd been
01:19:48
deliberately lying. It was also possible that he'd forgotten the incident. The charges against Angela were also
01:19:58
dropped. Although the covert recordings had captured her hitting the child with a
01:20:03
wooden spoon and telling Peter about it later, the magistrate said she couldn't discount the possibility that Angela had
01:20:10
simply been mistaken when telling the crime commission that she'd never done such a thing.
01:20:16
During that hearing, Angela had admitted to hitting and kicking the child in her
01:20:20
care, but denied the wooden spoon incident. The magistrate said she might have taken
01:20:27
a different view if Angela had denied those allegations and acknowledged the intense pressure Angela had been under
01:20:34
at the time. Angela became emotional as she was cleared of the charges. Former Tier Case detective Gary Jubilan
01:20:44
was present and gave her a hug. He continued to stand by his belief that the foster parents had nothing to do
01:20:52
with Williams disappearance and that he'd been right to clear them from the investigation.
01:20:59
Outside court, a teary Angela told reporters, "With this behind me, I hope that police
01:21:06
focus on finding William and what happened to him. By the time Peter and Angela had dealt
01:21:16
with all the unrelated charges against them, the public were well aware of the prevailing police theory that Angela had
01:21:23
buried William's body after a fatal fall from her mother's balcony. In June 2023, New South Wales police
01:21:32
handed a brief of evidence to the director of public prosecutions, recommending that Angela be charged with
01:21:37
interference with a corpse and perverting the course of justice. They cleared Peter of any involvement,
01:21:45
clarifying they did not believe Angela had caused the toddler's death, but only concealed his body out of fear of losing
01:21:52
custody of Lindsay. Angela was not informed of the recommendation before it went public.
01:22:01
To the best of her knowledge, police had no evidence to support their theory. Angela's lawyer demanded that any
01:22:08
evidence relating to the claims be disclosed, releasing a statement that said, "To date, William's body has never
01:22:16
been found. The foster mother has always and maintains she has nothing to do with
01:22:22
William's disappearance. She desperately urges the police to resume the investigation into finding
01:22:30
out what happened to William. [Music] Whether or not the police theory could be true has been discussed at length by
01:22:38
journalists and members of the public. without any evidence to support it. Many questions were raised about the police's
01:22:47
proposed timeline. As pointed out by journalist Dan Box in an exclusive article for news.com.au,
01:22:57
the last ever photo of William in his Spider-Man suit was confirmed to have been taken at 9:37 a.m. on Friday,
01:23:04
September 12th, 2014. Angela first alerted a neighbor that William was missing at around 10:40 a.m.
01:23:14
If the police theory was true, this gave Angela a window of just over an hour to
01:23:20
realize William was missing and discover his body. She would have had only a few moments to
01:23:27
make the decision not to call for help or alert anyone of his death. She then had to get the keys to her
01:23:34
mother's Mazda and carry William's body to the car. While all this was going on,
01:23:40
she either had to keep what she was doing a secret from her mother and Lindsay or tell them what had happened
01:23:46
and convince them to agree to her plan. With William's body in the car, Angela would have then had to drive the 2
01:23:55
minutes to the corners of Betar Creek Road and Cobb and Co. road and dispose of his body in the thick, almost
01:24:02
impenetrable scrub before racing back home again for her husband's return at 10:33 a.m.
01:24:10
Either she quickly brought him in on her conspiracy or flat out lied to him. By the time Angela alerted a neighbor at
01:24:19
around 10:40 a.m., she was in the company of someone outside of her family for the rest of the day.
01:24:26
This meant she had no other chances to tamper with any evidence or conspire with her family members.
01:24:35
While it was technically possible for Angela to have done all of these things within this short time frame, skeptics
01:24:42
to the police theory have raised several questions. For one, the area on Betar Creek Road
01:24:49
where police suspected Angela could have dumped Williams's body was in view of the old riding school as well as two
01:24:56
other properties. Angela would have had no way of knowing if someone was watching what she was
01:25:02
doing. However, just a bit further up the road, the bush land was just as thick, but with no properties in sight.
01:25:12
Why not dump his body there where she could be sure there were no witnesses? William's sister and foster grandmother
01:25:21
had always maintained that William disappeared after wandering around the side of the house.
01:25:27
So, if the police theory was true, how did Angela do all of this without Mary or Lindsay seeing?
01:25:34
And why would Angela continue to keep calling for more public attention and police resources towards William's
01:25:41
disappearance if she had something to hide before being publicly named as a suspect. A reporter had asked Peter and
01:25:50
Angela if they would ever stop fighting for William. Angela had resolutely responded,
01:25:58
"Never. If police think they've seen the last of us, big mistake. We will not give up on William and we
01:26:07
will not let other people give up on him. He is too important to give up on. [Music]
01:26:17
In May 2024, the police asked the director of public prosecutions to suspend its consideration of the
01:26:24
proposed charges against Angela until after the coronial inquest resumed. The possibility that Angela could have
01:26:32
covered up William's accidental death then became the focus of the inquest when it recommenced in early November
01:26:39
2024. By this point, over 5 years had passed since the inquest was first opened, and
01:26:46
it had been 3 years since the police first went public with their theory. Anticipation
01:26:53
was high in the courts as those gathered waited anxiously to hear what evidence had been gathered to support their
01:26:59
suspicions. The general consensus was that the police must have some fresh and compelling evidence to justify their
01:27:07
allegations. As Angela arrived at the court, a member of the public hurled abuse at her using
01:27:15
her real name. The council assisting the coroner kicked things off by clarifying there was still
01:27:23
no forensic evidence or eyewitnesses to confirm what had happened to William Tur. He reiterated that the police
01:27:31
theory was just a theory and the coroner couldn't act on the express belief of a
01:27:37
police investigator. Over 4 days, testimony was heard from numerous experts who had been involved
01:27:45
in the 2021 search of Mary Saers former property and the bushland on Betar Creek
01:27:51
Road. It was confirmed that officers had found several pieces of fabric and some animal
01:27:58
bones, but no human remains and nothing directly connected to William Tier. According to a professor in
01:28:07
geomorphology, this didn't necessarily mean that William hadn't been buried there. He
01:28:14
said it was possible that a child's remains could have been carried away by wild animals, such as a pig or a fox.
01:28:23
While one expert told the court she couldn't say for certain whether Williams remains would still be present
01:28:28
after this long, examples were also given of juvenile bones that had lasted over 100 years in the Australian
01:28:36
elements. The video of Angela's crime commission hearing was also played to the court. in
01:28:44
it. She was grilled about what she meant when she told her friend on a taped phone call that William's skeleton would
01:28:51
be found years down the track when clearing was being done. Angela strongly denied that she meant
01:28:59
she knew William had been hidden in the bush. She said she had simply meant that
01:29:04
he could be anywhere. On that same call, she had also told her friend she couldn't believe the police
01:29:12
were focusing on her, stating, "If I had done anything to William, I wouldn't have tried to cover it up. I would have
01:29:21
owned up to it." As the hearing started to wrap up, it became clear that the police didn't have
01:29:29
any incriminating evidence to present. The coroner rejected their request to re-examine Angela on the stand.
01:29:39
Before the final block of hearings could take place, the coroner announced that she was vacating the evidence
01:29:45
completely, which meant the upcoming hearings would be cancelled. She called for all parties to provide
01:29:53
their written closing submissions and said she would hand down her findings at a later date.
01:30:02
Many have criticized the way the inquest was handled, including the fact that over its 5-year duration, not one of the
01:30:10
three senior investigators overseeing Strike Force Rosanne were called to give evidence.
01:30:17
Criminologist Dr. Zanthy Mallet had sat through the inquest and she told the ABC
01:30:23
it was time for the police to charge Angela or quote, "Leave her alone." People have the right to the presumption
01:30:31
of innocence and that has been denied in this case via gossip and innuendo for years. Dr. Mallet said if there is
01:30:40
evidence she was involved then she should be charged or police should acknowledge there is insufficient
01:30:46
evidence to charge her. It was a sentiment shared by many others. Journalist Dan Box had been following
01:30:56
the William Tier case since the beginning and had many questions about the way police were handling things.
01:31:04
appearing on Channel 7's Spotlight program to discuss the allegations against Angela. Dan said,
01:31:11
"If the police want to say that someone is involved in William's disappearance, and if that person is William's foster
01:31:18
mother, they have to be certain that all the other people who might have been involved definitely weren't.
01:31:25
They have to actually be able to prove that. and I haven't seen the evidence that
01:31:31
they can. Former case detective Gary Jubilan agreed. Since the allegations came out against
01:31:40
Angela, many have criticized Jubilant's handling of the case, saying he'd been too close to the Foster family during
01:31:47
his time in charge and hadn't investigated them properly. Jubilant told Spotlight that he stood by
01:31:55
everything he did during the four years he ran the investigation. We ran a covert and overt operation, a
01:32:03
fairly intense operation on the foster mother. Jubilant said there was no evidence of the foster mother having
01:32:11
knowledge of or involvement with William's disappearance. In February 2025, Peter's conviction for
01:32:20
intimidating a child was quashed on appeal with the judge reasoning that during the court hearing, the child had
01:32:27
never actually been asked about the incident or whether they had felt intimidated.
01:32:33
He said Peter's actions were similar to any parent who was quote stressed and using a loud and frustrated tone of
01:32:41
voice. Angela also appealed her intimidation convictions and is scheduled to face an
01:32:48
appeal hearing later in 2025. [Music] As of the release of this episode, the inquest findings into William Tier's
01:33:00
disappearance still haven't been released. No one has ever been arrested or charged
01:33:06
in relation to Williams disappearance and case file does not suggest the involvement of anyone mentioned in this
01:33:13
episode and acknowledges their presumption of innocence. Anyone with information about William
01:33:20
Tier is encouraged to contact Crimestoppers on 1800LE300. Williams foster mother continues to
01:33:30
staunchly maintain her innocence. At the advice of her lawyer, she has not spoken publicly about the case since
01:33:37
being named by the police as a suspect. The only statement she has given was to Dan Box for his podcast series on the
01:33:46
case titled Witness William Tur. It read, "Just over 10 years ago, my little boy,
01:33:55
William Tier, disappeared from my mother's yard at her house at Kendall. I believe that William was taken.
01:34:04
I have no idea who took William or what happened to him. If he is in fact dead, I have no idea where his little body is.
01:34:15
I have no knowledge of or involvement in his disappearance. Even though William was not my child by
01:34:23
birth, I loved William as much as any mother could love her child. I loved him as if he was my child by
01:34:32
birth, if not more. It did not matter one bit that he was not connected to us biologically.
01:34:40
William made my life complete. I loved him fiercely. I just loved being his mommy.
01:34:49
My life with William was happy, fun, and an adventure. Every day was different. Never ever for a moment did I regret
01:34:59
becoming a foster mother. We were a family, not the traditional version of a family. It didn't matter. We were and
01:35:08
still are a family, and we connected as one. For the past 5 years, the police have
01:35:16
done nothing to try to discover who took William and what has happened to him. Instead, they have concentrated all
01:35:24
their efforts on trying to build a case that I was in some way to blame for his death and the disposal of his precious
01:35:31
little body. They have gone to great lengths to blacken my character in the media.
01:35:38
I believe that if the police had properly investigated this case instead of persecuting me, they may well have
01:35:45
found the person responsible for William's disappearance. It's challenging to have hope and build
01:35:51
plans for the future when our hearts remain shattered and in pieces. All I can hope for is that some person
01:36:00
who knows something comes forward. Speaking about the allegations against Angela to Spotlight, Dan Boach said,
01:36:10
"Part of me actually hopes that the police have got this right. Then that justifies everything they've done. That
01:36:19
justifies all the attention, all the whispers, the leaks, all of that is justified.
01:36:26
But if the police are wrong and she's not guilty and we haven't seen any evidence that she is,
01:36:34
then what damage has been done to that family? Whatever the truth, the reality is that
01:36:42
when Angela snapped the photographs of William playing on her mother's deck on the morning of Friday, September 12th,
01:36:49
2014, she could never have known how significant they would become. The last photograph ever taken of
01:36:57
3-year-old William Tier in his blue and red Spider-Man suit roaring at the camera has become etched into
01:37:04
Australia's public psyche. Even those unfamiliar with the case are likely to recognize the photo.
01:37:13
It's a confronting image as it represents two sides of humanity. The pure innocence of childhood and the
01:37:21
potential evil that lurks amongst us. [Music] But William is more than just a missing
01:37:28
boy in a superhero costume. During the coronial inquest into William's disappearance, an impassioned
01:37:36
statement was played to the court from his then 10-year-old sister, Lindsay. In it, she said,
01:37:44
"This is my brother we are talking about. In my mind, no one is trying. So, I've made the decision to do something
01:37:53
about that. I hope this speech today makes you solve the case. If it doesn't, when I'm officially an adult, I will be
01:38:03
in the police force, specifically a detective, and I will find my brother and won't give up until he's found.
01:38:12
Not a day goes past that we don't think about him. He's a loving, kind, sweet boy who was annoying at times.
01:38:22
But the day he disappeared, we lost everything. We lost my innocent brother. He needs to
01:38:31
be found. So, please help our family, but most of all me, find our precious William.
01:38:51
[Music] [Music]