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Disappearance of William Tyrrell /// Part 1 /// 202

November 26, 2022 / 01:00:04

This episode covers the disappearance of three-year-old William Tyrrell in Kendall, Australia, on September 12, 2014. Key discussions include the circumstances surrounding his foster care, the timeline of events on the day he went missing, and the extensive search efforts that followed.

William was reported missing after he was last seen playing in his foster grandmother's backyard. The foster family had taken him and his sister out of daycare for an impromptu visit. The episode details the timeline leading up to his disappearance, including the actions of his foster parents and the neighbors who joined the search.

Listeners learn about the investigation, which included searches by police, canine units, and volunteers, but yielded no leads. The episode highlights the lack of evidence found in the area, raising questions about potential abduction by a stranger or involvement of a pedophile ring.

Discussion also touches on the biological parents' criminal history and their arrest on the same day William went missing, as well as the ongoing investigation and the reward offered for information regarding his whereabouts.

The episode concludes with reflections on the impact of William's case and the continued search for answers.

TLDR

William Tyrrell, a three-year-old, vanished in Kendall, Australia, in 2014, prompting extensive search efforts and ongoing investigations into his disappearance.

Episode

1:00:04
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foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign [Music]
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[Music] foreign [Music] Drive Kendall okay in a room Drive in Kendall yes all right I'm just going to
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bring that up on my map it won't be a moment thank you how long has he been missing well I
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think well we've been looking in for him now for about 15 or 20 minutes but hey I
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thought it could be five it could be longer because he was just playing around here we heard him and then we
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heard nothing okay I've got the nearest cross street thing everdale prison is that right so what is it Ellendale
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Crescent I don't know my this is my mum's house um there's another lady out helping us look
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see him I'll see if I can find her but it's been a room b-e-n-j-r- double o yeah I can see I can
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see where you are I'm just a minute yeah so it's been around Drive in Kendall and
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I just thought I've got your nearest cross street as being Ellendale Crescent it could be I don't know okay
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they've been missing since about 10 30. yeah I'd say so okay can you describe him to me how tall obviously not very
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tall he'd be about two and a half feet he's wearing a Spider-Man outfit yeah we've got um dark Sandy colored hair
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it's short he's got really big brownie green colored eyes okay so you get any shoes on do you know any
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any other distinguishing thank you um he has oh he's got a freckle on the top of his head when you part the hair on
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the left hand side yeah you'll see a freckle on the top of his head do you know where he might have gone
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um where we actually live we'll run properties near a state forest okay and they're on skewed blocks we've walked up
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and down been a roon drive and we can't find him okay what's his name William we were civilian surname uh Tyrrell
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t-y-w-r-e-l-l okay has he been known to sort of go anywhere no this is the first
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time there wasn't anyone um suspicious in the area any Vehicles no no no no no well
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not no not that I'm aware of we'll just I was out there talking with mum and my other daughter so okay and we heard him
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roaring around the garden and then I thought oh I haven't heard him I better go check on him okay all right we'll
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send police to see you in a room driving Kendall or forget that um a message broadcasted to all the cars that people
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look out for him as well okay thank you all right bye-bye foreign [Music] [Music]
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garage ship to a foreign land in unfamiliar territory and we will do our very best to try to fit in while we are
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here this is a horrific story of a little boy who was reported missing in a very very odd story at that I actually
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thought of that documentary out there called missing 4-1-1 when first reading about this case that's a documentary
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about a couple of different stories of children who have gone missing and seemingly just Vanishing Into Thin Air
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so this is one of those types of cases this week's case takes place in Australia and at the center of this case
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is William Tyrrell born June 26 2011. now William disappeared when he was just three years old William tarot
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was still a baby when he arrived at the home of his new foster parents reports out there suggest that this was to be a
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permanent Arrangement the baby boy had been removed from his biological parents both of whom had encountered problems
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with police his biological father had spent most of William's short life incarcerated
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William did have supervised visits with his biological parents after being placed in foster care however these
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visits were infrequent and William identified his foster family as his parents and was known to publicly
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use their surname so one tricky thing here in this case Captain is that the the name of the
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foster parents has not been disclosed to the public so just to be clear William's last name
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as reported on TV and in the papers is Tyrrell this is the surname of his biological mother and not that of his
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foster parents also before we move on too far we should mention that while William's biological
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parents had run-ins with the law there is no indication that they were ever violent to the little boy Carly Tyrrell
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is William's biological mother and the father is her estranged partner Brandon Collins who is also known as bonesy he
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has been described as a career Criminal by the media but a relative said I wouldn't say he's made much of a career
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out of it now don't quote me on this well the thing is so he's not only is he a criminal but he's a loser criminal I I
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think you know I to be completely honest I don't know 100 of the details of this
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man's run-ins with the police and and you know being behind bars he has been in jail multiple times when the media
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States career criminal I think of somebody that's that's a criminal to to survive to kind of make money and to
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um you know get things and and get by in life it appears to me from what I've been able to dig up that most of his
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run-ins with the law stem from alcohol and drug problems that he has which right you know that nobody makes a
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career out of being an alcoholic and a drug addict well some people do well they don't make any money at it right it
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was what I'm getting at and unless maybe he was a dealer but I couldn't find anything to suggest that it appears to
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me that he's quite the drug addict and he's got some that he's a pretty violent individual at
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times um and it appears that there had been several uh domestic violence charges on
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this guy as well so for some reason they take this boy away from his parents and
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give him to a foster family boy goes missing but we're not allowed to know anything about the foster
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parents is there a reason why we're not allowed to know anything well I don't fully understand this and I
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think it has something to do with Australian law or um law of that area so these these foster parents have when
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William went missing they have more than one foster kid in their care and I I believe that the reason why they cannot
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disclose their name is has something to do with that foster care situation that either they're protected by certain laws
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or that because they're trying to gain full custody of this other child that they have in their care right
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um that their name cannot be disclosed for that purpose and this is the way that the way that I view this it
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seems a little weird because at the early get-go of this case a lot of people were very suspicious of the
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foster parents because their name wasn't revealed right the way that I understand
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it is the courts will not them will not allow them to reveal their name I could have that wrong but there are several
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things to suggest that judges have prevented that from happening in the media basically what you're
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assuming I guess is that that the foster parents they would be fine with using their names and their
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identity but the courts are stopping them from doing so that is my best guess um and to further convolute this whole
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situation I believe that the other child that is still in their care right is very likely William's older sister
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hmm so there are several reports out there that state that William was about eight
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to nine months old when he went out of the home and into foster care there is one report out there that states that
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William was 11 months old uh this might be the most accurate I don't know I only
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say that because this article is comprised of several things but the primary factor of that article is an
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interview with Williams biological grandmother so that would be William's biological fathers it would be his
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mother in that article now I had to do some reading between the lines here because all articles on this are very
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vague so keep in mind I am stating what I believe to be the case I could be wrong but it sounds like the parents had
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some kind of not only drug issues but domestic violence charges against each other
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possibly against one another and maybe they had been forbidden to be in each other's company all right so they get
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hopped up on drugs and they like to hit each other or yes or yeah there's some kind of squabble or fight that that has
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occurred on more than one occasion now the other thing though the reason why I think that there's a bit of a gap
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between the time that William goes into foster care is that we have the grandmother the
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biological grandmother that states that they were told they were going to lose William and it sounds to me like they
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had already lost their daughter at this time I'm unclear if the daughter belongs
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to both of of these parents right but what has happened here is the grandmother has stated that the the kids
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and when I say kids I mean these two young uh people that have had these children they kind of went on the run
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with their son William they they took off and tried to avoid the law and try to avoid losing their son when they were
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spotted somewhere they were they were arrested and the child was then taken from them so that's why I think that
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there is a bit of a discrepancy of when they lost their child my guess is that they were supposed to lose William at
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the eight or nine month Mark they went on the Run they were on the run for six weeks or so and the law caught up to
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them yeah so so whenever they took custody of William William is going to go to a wealthy family from Sydney's
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North Shore yeah and he was being raised by this family at the time of his disappearance
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the Foster family they were even in the process of renovating their house to create their forever family home to
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include William in a new room for William the foster parents have regularly spoken out in media interviews
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but I guess I should I'm going to kind of Backtrack on something I said already there are
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reports out there that state that they cannot that their identity cannot be disclosed there are also reports out
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there that state that they have requested that they not be identified so just to be clear that there are
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arguments on both sides of that fence so now that we have a little bit of background Captain let's get into the
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details of William's disappearance and some of the events leading up to and some of the events of that day now real
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quick a description of William this Source says quote the nsw that's the New South Wales police they believe that
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William was abducted and they strongly believe that he may still be alive so I want everybody to pay close attention to
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this so the source is a website that maybe could use an update uh but regardless
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there is a website out there called where'swilliam.org and on that website you can donate there you can get
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involved um or maybe you could donate some of your computer skills and update some of
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their information update the website for me um but to include a description of William we pulled this straight from the
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where'swilliam.org website so describing what William looks like William is of Caucasian appearance William was above
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average height for his age not overly tall but taller than most boys his age when he disappeared
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the site also says that William walks with a Swagger he has hazel eyes brown straight hair which grows very quickly
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his hair is thicker on the top of his head and finer towards the base of his head near his neck William has one
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rather large dark Freckle on the left-hand side that is near the top of his head about five centimeters back
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from his hairline he also has asthma which is worse in the cold months so let's get to The Disappearance on
00:17:13
Thursday September 11 2014 William Tyro is just three years old he has picked up along with his
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sister from daycare I've read a few accounts of this day that state it was a surprise that the children were taken
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out of school as part of a very impromptu at a town trip most sources do not say that
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that or at least do not go into detail of him being picked up so from my understanding Captain the
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plan was to go out of town that weekend for a weekend trip to Nana's house to the the Foster grandmother's home right
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the plan was to travel on Friday for some reason the foster parents they got done with work early and they decided to
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surprise not only the children who loved going to Nana's house but also surprised
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nana I guess she had been I don't know if it was a chronic illness or she had been sick or there's been something
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going on in her life where the foster parents wanted to cheer her up by bringing the children to her sooner so
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it was a bit of a surprise take the kids out of daycare on Thursday let's go ahead and make the four hour trip to
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Nana's house on that Thursday instead of Friday right this is the Foster mom's mom so they traveled about four hours
00:18:30
from Sydney to visit Williams foster grandmother in a place called Kendall now this sounds like maybe a long
00:18:37
weekend trip like I had said so they're going to go out to Kendall this is in New South Wales which I've never heard
00:18:44
of Kendall but checking it out this this looks like a very cool place um the grandmother's house is on
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benaroon drive so there are a couple of streets there with some houses it's a little neighborhood kind of tucked away
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this is a wooded area right by the Kendall Forest which is a large uh when you Google Map
00:19:07
the street there you you will see that the forest practically surrounds the grandmother's neighborhood is it like a
00:19:13
park or is it just natural it could be some kind of natural National Forest but it is a heavily wooded area and like I
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said this is a small neighborhood that is surrounded by Forest now according to the 2011 census the population of
00:19:31
Kendall is just 833 people and at the time of The Disappearance or abduction uh it was reported that this town had
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less than 1500 people in it so Kendall is a small Country Town yeah so the street on which she lives at the time of
00:19:48
The Disappearance has been a room drive now to get to been a room Drive regardless of what direction you are
00:19:54
traveling from you have to take Batar Creek Road and Batar Creek Road is sort of a long sprawling country road so
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there is only one way in and out of this little neighborhood benarun drive has a
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few more than a dozen houses located on benarun and there's a short street that comes off of benarun the name of that
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street is Ellendale Crescent which only has probably less than 10 houses on it okay but this this could be important to
00:20:26
this case so that's why I point out all these things and we will see why but the
00:20:31
important thing to picture here is both better Rune drive and the attached Street of Ellen Dale are both dead-end
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streets and you can only get into this little neighborhood when traveling the roads
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when traveling the roads from that Country Road Batar Creek right so the family of four they stay the night at
00:20:50
Grandmom's house yeah so we have five people in the house correct the next morning
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this is the day that the little boy goes missing so we want to go through a detailed timeline right it's gonna be
00:21:02
Friday yes so the day starts off like this sometime before 9 A.M just before breakfast uh the Foster mother opens a
00:21:12
sliding glass door to the balcony to bird watch she will later say that it is at this
00:21:19
time when she notices two cars parked down the road at 9 00 a.m William and his sister are
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riding their bikes a car drives past the children this vehicle according to police is described
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as a dark green or grayish color sedan this car drove past 48 benaroon Drive that's where they were staying as
00:21:42
William was riding his bike on the driveway the car drove into the quiet cul-de-sac did a u-turn in a neighbor's
00:21:50
driveway and then drove out of the street around this same time there is a woman
00:21:57
named Mrs Wilson she tells police that she heard two children playing in a neighboring yard
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before she left to run errands in the township she is leaving to go shopping she hears two kids playing next door she
00:22:11
does not see any kids or any parked cars at 9 15 a.m the Foster father takes off
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to make what is reported as either a phone call or a Skype conference call and he has to do this due to poor
00:22:29
internet remember we said these are kind of a country area he's going to have to
00:22:33
drive into town to make this phone call or this Skype call the town that he he says he went to is about 11 minutes away
00:22:42
by car later police confirmed that he was where he said he was right right at 9 45 a.m the Foster mother takes a photo
00:22:52
of William sitting on the deck the time and date are confirmed later by police now this has become a famous photo he's
00:23:01
uh wearing a Spider-Man outfit yeah and this is incredibly like a very weird coincidence I think here because you
00:23:10
know often with these children when they go missing one of the first things that
00:23:15
police and detectives are going to try to to get from the parents is going to be give us your most recent photograph
00:23:23
of your child give us your most updated photograph of this little boy or little girl yeah and here we have a situation
00:23:30
where maybe just minutes before the kid goes missing the mother the stepmother I'm sorry I'm gonna Foster mother right
00:23:39
she takes three pictures of William at that time at 9 45 a.m and one like you said Captain is the now famous photo of
00:23:49
William Tyrrell where he you can see him playing on the deck he's wearing a Spider-Man outfit you know shirt and
00:23:57
pants yeah it's probably like Spider-Man PJs yeah and you can it's it's it's just
00:24:04
very strange it's a very weird coincidence I don't think it's that strange now I mean I think you're going
00:24:09
to see that more and more I mean there's there's always people that go missing and now with technology you're going to
00:24:15
have snap you know we've seen it with other cases where somebody snapchatted themselves or somebody else snapchatted
00:24:22
somebody or posted something on Instagram or Facebook and then they go missing you know just a little bit later
00:24:28
I think you're spot on because I I gotta believe we are because of phones and technology we are all taking more
00:24:34
pictures now more than ever so William and his sister are playing outside they are running around hiding and laughing
00:24:41
you know they are just little kids so probably screaming and yelling as they are having fun they're playing games
00:24:48
from about 10 a.m to about 10 25 A.M so the home has a large deck on the back of
00:24:57
the house it's like a like a balcony deck now it sounds like maybe the last game or activity that the kids were
00:25:05
playing would be kind of like hide and seek little William was running around to the
00:25:10
back of the house and hiding under the deck area from his sister at approximately 10 15 A.M
00:25:19
this is the last time that the Foster mother says that she physically saw William
00:25:26
one of the investigators words are quote our starting point is approximately a five minute window when young William
00:25:33
walked around the side of the house into the backyard and disappeared from sight
00:25:38
while his mother and grandmother went inside for a cup of tea now moving on at 10 30 a.m the Foster
00:25:46
mother notices that she does not see William nor does she hear him anymore remember we said that they were
00:25:53
screaming yelling roaring laughing yeah I I think she made claims that he was he
00:25:58
constantly was doing this like Roar like it was a lion or a tiger this is when she decides to go looking
00:26:04
for him the grandmother at this time does not know where William is either then the neighbor this is Anne-Marie sharply
00:26:15
she spots the mother and the grandmother searching for the boy so she decides to
00:26:20
join the search at around 10 36 ish let's say another neighbor reported that his wife had left the house around this
00:26:30
time and he stated that his wife didn't see anything unusual at this time at 10 50 a.m the foster dad arrives home and
00:26:41
in all honesty this is a bit of a guess here but I'll show you how I got to this
00:26:46
1050 Mark so nothing complicated here but there are two things that point that this is a pretty accurate time one the
00:26:54
foster mom says that the boy was missing for about 15 to 20 minutes before her husband had returned to the home and two
00:27:02
the husband says that he had returned approximately five minutes before they called emergency services and we know
00:27:10
that that call came in at 10 56 a.m so at 10 56 a.m the Foster mother phones triple zero emergency services with the
00:27:21
neighbor Anne-Marie Shipley when the Foster mother is asked how long had he been missing she answers we have been
00:27:29
looking for him for about 15 to 20 minutes foreign [Music] [Music] we're back cheers mates cheers Captain
00:27:53
so where we left off we had the Emergency Services called the triple zero Emergency Services called we have a
00:28:01
little boy William Tyrrell who is three years old and he is missing yeah which is their triple zero is the same as our
00:28:08
9-1-1 the call goes in at 10 56 a.m the police arrive on scene at at 11 06 a.m and that's
00:28:18
I actually find that to be a rather quick response given the area given the the the size of the area
00:28:27
um and we've heard the 9-1-1 call it's not a short call so the call comes in at 10 56 10 minutes later police are on the
00:28:35
scene um several officers state that when they arrived the Father the Foster father was
00:28:41
inside the home and was visibly upset to the officers now at 11 12 a.m the canine
00:28:49
unit or the dog unit is dispatched to the home to help in the search at 11 44 a.m State emergency services are
00:28:59
informed of the situation so what are State Emergency Services this is more like we're going to bring
00:29:07
in firefighters other people that are trained in search and rescue we're going to start bringing in a large group of
00:29:16
people to look for this little boy at 12 52 PM the police helicopter takes to the
00:29:24
sky and I'm guessing that this helicopter was not part of Kendall's you know I don't know that Kendall would
00:29:31
have a helicopter maybe they did maybe they borrowed it from a neighboring jurisdiction right at 1 pm just a little
00:29:38
more than two and a half hours after three-year-old William Tyrrell was last seen by his foster mother 100 people had
00:29:46
joined in and were desperately searching for the little boy so as far as the early investigation in the search for
00:29:54
the little boy goes hundreds of police members of the state Emergency Services rural fire service and members of the
00:30:05
community searched day and night for William specialist police including the sex
00:30:11
crime Squad they formed a task force uh it was practically immediately formed as the
00:30:19
day went on they formed this task force motorcycles and helicopters were brought
00:30:24
in to join in the search 200 volunteers searched overnight hundreds of people combed rugged terrain around the home
00:30:33
and police divers searched waterways and dams the police searched every house in the
00:30:40
in the area that had surrounds benarun Drive several times the police detection dogs were brought in and they managed to
00:30:49
detect Williams scent but only within the boundaries of the backyard so let's go into that in a little more detail
00:30:58
shall we so let's start with the houses being searched yeah so police searched each of the 21 houses that surrounds
00:31:07
benarun Drive the street where William's grandmother lives they searched the houses not once
00:31:13
not twice but three and four times the rights yes each time using different Personnel to make sure that fresh a
00:31:23
fresh set of eyes looked at every possible angle every possible clue it seems like all the neighbors were
00:31:30
willing to help and hey you want to search my house come on in yeah there was no Kickback multiple searches roof
00:31:36
spaces subfloor spaces wall cavities cupboards sheds all were searched and searched again with methodical
00:31:43
determination just in case someone was keeping the little boy hidden even the grandmother's house was searched top to
00:31:51
bottom but there was nothing so if he was abducted if William was abducted he was not being held in the
00:31:58
neighborhood from which he was taken so they didn't find a scrap of clothing they didn't find a footprint in the dirt
00:32:05
they didn't find tire marks now on to the police dogs as we said they were brought in and they managed to find
00:32:12
William scent but only within the boundaries of the backyard okay well this is not good right
00:32:20
um and I'll tell you why we we talked about this when we covered Mara Murray uh with the with the dogs tracking the
00:32:27
scent scent dogs yeah so it appears that Williams Foster grandmother's home is kind of on a corner this make this
00:32:37
making portions of both the front and back of the house visible from the streets now the yard has quite a few
00:32:46
trees these are the whole neighborhood is is well manicured Lawns and Landscapes but it's very possible that
00:32:54
someone could have pulled up right to the yard call the boy over and either snatch him up there or trick him into
00:33:03
their vehicle the troubling thing here is this would leave the evidence that they found at
00:33:09
the scene where they find they're able to track the boy on his grandmother's property but nowhere else
00:33:17
so do they have like a scent that you know because he was playing on the porch or the or the deck whatever you want to
00:33:23
call it it sounds to me like he was playing up close to the hole right because if you look at the way that the
00:33:30
home the layout of it there appears to be like a deck or a sitting area that is kind of the best way to describe it is
00:33:37
on the side of the home that does not face the street so the front of the house the other side of the house in the
00:33:45
back of the house are all pretty visible from these two streets which has all been a rune drive but it kind of like
00:33:52
dead ends and then veers off to the right into another dead end yeah and he's running around this backyard so
00:33:57
you're gonna have some scent of them there but do we have like a path from that deck or from the house to a road
00:34:05
inconclusive okay all reports state that the uh they were able to track his scent
00:34:11
but only found the scent in the within the boundaries of the grandmother's property right so we don't know where it
00:34:18
stopped or right right and that's what I mean my I'm curious could somebody have
00:34:23
pulled up right to the property line and coax the little boy into their vehicle or just jumped out and grabbed
00:34:30
him real quick right yeah and if if you pick him up in the air that you would assume that the scent
00:34:36
would they would lose the set yeah and and from our experience Captain you know this unfortunately most of the time when
00:34:44
we see a situation like that if that is in fact the case we don't know that because they've not been very detailed
00:34:50
in their their report of this but if in fact that we have a trail and then all of a sudden there is no more scent
00:34:57
anymore we've found that most of the time that means that they were picked up or they
00:35:02
got into a vehicle yeah so one minute we have William running in the yard based off the scent dogs and then one minute
00:35:10
he's gone and another Curious Thing here is that he's supposedly playing with his
00:35:16
older sister yeah but so is she just on the opposite side of the house because I I couldn't
00:35:24
find a statement from her anywhere yeah this is very troubling to me now when we
00:35:28
say older sister I we don't have a whole lot of detail of how old she is but when
00:35:33
when I hear that they're taken out of daycare to go I think she's like 32. I'm assuming she's probably you know like
00:35:42
five maybe four or five right so slightly older than William but yeah like you said we don't have any witness
00:35:49
statement from her saying hey I saw this happen or this person this weird person
00:35:55
entered the yard um now I do want to point out here this area this Kendall area having never been
00:36:03
there I'm going to make some guesses some inferences here it does not look like a cheap place to
00:36:09
live okay these are very nice homes this this neighborhood from the houses that I
00:36:14
could see all appear to be very nice homes well maintained and the lots are very big the yards are very big now
00:36:23
there are like I said in in the grandmother's yard as well as other yards surrounding it there are a lot of
00:36:30
trees and Landscaping and things like that going on so could he have been grabbed and there was an obstacle
00:36:38
between his sister and him of pine trees or something of that nature where she couldn't see what was going on or maybe
00:36:45
maybe whatever game they were playing just kind of fizzled out and she was doing her own thing and not really
00:36:51
paying attention to her little brother the other thing though too captain at no point do either the mother the
00:36:57
grandmother or any of the neighbors say that they heard a vehicle speeding off or Tire squealing in a rush to get out
00:37:06
of the air area you know grabbing the kid and then boom you know hitting the road how did that
00:37:12
go again that was not a very good I've been had it has a bit of a head cold here yeah so you're bad at sound effects
00:37:18
now um but well but why look if you're going to commit a crime or you're going to abduct somebody
00:37:28
that wouldn't the best way to do that always to be even Keel and just like you know like
00:37:37
you grab the kid you get in your car you drive at normal speed right you know you
00:37:43
you try not to be you have your seat belt on you're not breaking any other laws that would get you pulled over or
00:37:48
draw attention right because hypothetically somebody grabs a kid they put put them in the car and they start
00:37:54
driving 70 miles down a road where there's only one way in and one way out and everybody that sees the car goes oh
00:38:01
I remember that car it was going 80 miles an hour so I I'm but I am curious why do we not have
00:38:08
a statement from her even if the statement is and I'm not saying that has come from her but what are the foster
00:38:14
parents saying that hey did she go inside for a minute was was he was William out playing by
00:38:20
himself for five ten minutes right well the the the very troubling thing about this when you look at this
00:38:28
spot on the map you could take a kid from this spot and you could be on that country road that
00:38:36
we talked about in two minutes and this would be without speeding away from the scene of of the abduction right and I'm
00:38:44
guessing once you hit that Country Road you could be gone and out of the area fairly quickly even with police arriving
00:38:50
on the scene within 10 minutes of the emergency call going out and you're right Captain the general story that has
00:38:59
always been told To Us by the foster parents is that the the two little kids were outside playing in the yard it was
00:39:07
a it was a nice day and the mother and grandmother went inside for to get a cup of tea that they
00:39:16
estimate that they were only gone 10 maybe 15 minutes but remember we said that the mother had opened up the
00:39:23
balcony door I'm also assuming that that might mean that other windows are probably open to the home at this time
00:39:29
right because she does state that she could hear the children outside playing while her and her mother were inside the
00:39:37
home so yeah anybody that's watched kids before knows I mean normally if you can
00:39:42
hear them everything's fine yeah it's when you know it's once you stop hearing them that normally something bad
00:39:49
happened yeah yeah and so those are the only accounts that we have to go off of um
00:39:56
the crazy thing though you know this happens on a Friday morning so you would think that there might not be a lot of
00:40:03
potential eyewitnesses however I I don't think that's the case here from my understanding that this Kendall area is
00:40:11
a lot of retire correct retired people and it also sounds like there were quite a bit of people home in this
00:40:19
neighborhood during that time there were even other kids that were outside reporting to have been playing at the
00:40:24
time of this disappearance and remember this they're not even supposed to be there on that Friday right they they
00:40:32
probably would have still been traveling to Kendall at that time okay so back to
00:40:37
the early investigation we mentioned a strike force was uh formed very quickly this is called strike force Roseanne was
00:40:45
established with specially trained investigators from the State Crime command who were experienced in The
00:40:51
Unexplained disappearance of young children they supported the police other Emergency Services Workers and members
00:40:59
of the public involved in the search now after five days police said that they were unable to come up with any leads in
00:41:07
The Disappearance of the little boy one very important thing to note here though
00:41:11
we talked about the Foster grandmother's house being searched yeah I would guess
00:41:17
that at this time that the authorities were going to be taking a very good look at the foster parents as well but I want
00:41:26
to point out here that at 4 30 pm on the day that William vanished according to Williams biological grandmother Williams
00:41:35
biological parents were arrested on that day as well they were arrested for what
00:41:40
just drugs um I I have no statement other than the grandmother stating that at 4 30 pm on
00:41:47
the day that William went missing the biological parents were arrested were they arrested or were they just
00:41:53
brought him for questions well well I tell you let's continue on our investigation timeline because I think
00:41:59
that that might hijack the conversation a little bit so they bring in cadaver dogs at all to the search area yeah so
00:42:09
there are multiple dog units that were brought in I'm assuming that that what would be the case
00:42:16
um however you got to keep in mind that especially in the early stages of the search they believe they're searching
00:42:22
for a for a living breathing human human being [Music] um not a cadaver keep in mind so much of
00:42:30
the of the he went missing on September 12th that as you pointed out a Friday so
00:42:35
much of the next few days were spent searching the forest and these searches were being conducted by hundreds of
00:42:42
Searchers including the eight of dogs motorcycles helicopters and so on the search areas included waterways and dams
00:42:49
as we had mentioned also during this time the sex crime Squad was interviewing people and speaking with
00:42:55
locals the search expanded to three kilometers around the spot from where he had disappeared from so a very expansive
00:43:03
search and most of it is very rugged terrain if you check out the map there police on the on the fifth day said that
00:43:11
these searches of the forest and the waterways have provided zero zero leads or Clues as to the
00:43:20
whereabouts of William and we don't have any scent trail of him going from the backyard into the forest anyways yeah
00:43:27
right they did say that if by some chance the boy was in the bush land we might that he might still be alive at
00:43:37
this time now this is five days after he's gone missing a source on that same day tells reporters that the police in
00:43:44
the task force had also been talking to all sex offenders in that region now nine days into the search how many
00:43:53
offenders do we have in that that region I mean we don't have that many people in
00:43:57
the population well I I would imagine when they say region that that expands beyond the
00:44:04
boundaries of the town of Kendall right now nine days into the search the um the
00:44:10
search was largely scaled back nine days into it um the thought here is the emergency
00:44:16
service workers believe that if he were in the bush land that he would be presumed to have been dead by this time
00:44:24
yeah um and again there was still no evidence to suggest that that scenario was even
00:44:30
possible at that point so when we say that the search was largely scaled back that means that at this point we are
00:44:37
just going to have law enforcement working on the search for William what does that mean what we can what we can
00:44:42
infer from that is that that means we are now working off of tips received by the sent in by the public and we're also
00:44:50
working on leads of possible offenders uh talking to the sex offenders in the region would also point to that
00:44:58
on January 6 2015 the commander denied reports that investigators were treating the case as a targeted abduction
00:45:09
now that same month on the 20th January 20th forensic teams searched the home of
00:45:15
a Tradesman this is William spedding he goes by Bill spedding so we'll call him that Bill spedding had gave Williams
00:45:22
foster grandmother a quote to fix a washing machine at her home this was just four days before the child went
00:45:30
missing and it's not clear what they took from his home but they did take some items from his home I'm guessing
00:45:36
they tested them and Bill also offered up his DNA as well and Bill spedding was questioned at that time and as you
00:45:43
mentioned up he offered up his DNA so he was he was cooperative yeah at that time
00:45:48
but uh there's been a lot of Publications people on social media still throwing him under the bus well we will learn
00:45:56
that bill has a questionable background involving allegations with him and children and so that's going to
00:46:06
keep him in the the spotlight yeah keep him in the spotlight and in the target of the public on March 2nd 2015 police
00:46:16
and homicide Squad units began a new search this was for the body of William and the dense Bush land of Bonnie Hills
00:46:26
off of the Pacific Highway after receiving a tip from a member of the public this was an extensive search this
00:46:34
was not an easy area to search but they did it anyway nothing was found as a result of this tip on April 17th the
00:46:44
same year New South Wales police revealed that they were investigating reports of a possible pedophile ring
00:46:52
operating in the area that William had disappeared okay this this could be a strong Theory and there
00:47:00
is some evidence to suggest that this suspected pedophile ring could could be a possibility could be
00:47:08
the solution to to what happened to William right so what we would later learn is
00:47:15
that police clear Williams family and any involvement in The Disappearance and it sounds like they cleared them fairly
00:47:23
early and then quickly they believed that the boy was abducted by a possible opportunity opportunistic stranger
00:47:32
later which makes the most sense because he doesn't live in that area I'm sure now he's three at the time they get they
00:47:42
get William as [ __ ] you know being his foster parents at let's say roughly age
00:47:48
one so how many times did they visit there right you know so it it it's just not
00:47:54
likely that somebody would know that that William was going to be at his grandma's house right and even though
00:48:00
this was a you know because a lot what a lot of people will point to is this was
00:48:04
an unplanned trip and actually straight from the foster mother's mouth are the words that this was a planned trip the
00:48:13
UN what where people get confused is the unplanned portion was we went early so like you had pointed out earlier that
00:48:21
very likely they would not have been there that at that time on that Friday no they would have waited till the
00:48:27
school was out or the daycare was out and then they would have left and the reason why I will not shoot down the
00:48:33
possibility of an opportunistic stranger abduction here is for one thing that we
00:48:40
already pointed out we have other Witnesses other people that lived in the neighborhood stating that they were not
00:48:46
only were they home that day but they had children I don't know if they were their children or their grandkids but
00:48:52
there were other children that were out playing in this neighborhood on that very day and what I mean by
00:48:58
opportunistic stranger it's forgive me for saying so but to put it bluntly it's like going to the grocery
00:49:07
store and picking out some produce right you if you know that there's going to be
00:49:11
a decent amount of children if that's what you are looking for you go to that area you Scout it out and you you take
00:49:20
what seems to be a an easy target but this doesn't seem like the most likely area because there's one way in
00:49:32
and one way out you'd think that the perpetrator would know that oh yeah I I absolutely believe that
00:49:39
either either the perpetrator knew this if if he was in fact abducted that they knew that there was one way in and one
00:49:47
way out because they I believe if it was an opportunistic stranger that abducted
00:49:52
little William that the person pulled into the neighborhood probably cruised the the small area and and looked at the
00:50:02
children that were outside playing at that time that that doesn't you know rule out the possibility that it's sex
00:50:08
ring either you know no not at all you know not at all now and it was later um you know like we said early in the
00:50:16
investigation it appears we're later told that they they very quickly believe that the the child was not abducted by
00:50:24
his foster parents or his biological parents or that they had anything to do with his disappearance or demise right
00:50:30
and we're told that very early on the police were quickly working on the thought the in theory that he was
00:50:38
abducted by an opportunistic stranger now later is when they start examining the possibility that this quote
00:50:47
opportunistic stranger may have had a connection with a pedophile ring or you know so maybe he was abducted by more
00:50:55
than one person but you also have the the thought there too is procuring an individual or victim for this
00:51:05
pedophile ring you know somebody that maybe not be maybe is not fully involved in the
00:51:12
pedophile ring but but taking the child and giving them to a member of that pedophile ring is a
00:51:20
possibility well they they sell them most of the time well no that's what I mean procuring them for this so so
00:51:28
there's Le if you have a stranger on Stranger abduction not only is it hard to make the link between the abductor
00:51:34
and the victim but then if you add a middleman in there too that's going to make it even harder to trace this back
00:51:42
to where William could be or where he's being held now some some evidence to point to the possibility of this this
00:51:51
pedophile ring is remember the old show maybe it's maybe it's a current show I don't know but you know the show current
00:51:58
affair which I've not seen in a bazillion years so yeah yeah well it's kind of like Entertainment Tonight kind
00:52:04
of okay so it could be still around I'm just unaware but the show current affair
00:52:09
reported that about 20 registered sex offenders were living in the surrounding area of Kendall 20 registered correct
00:52:19
and and then we know that there's at least if there's 20 registered there's going to be at least a few that aren't
00:52:25
registered yeah yeah these are typically um crimes that go heavily unreported or
00:52:32
when they are reported there's little evidence to convict somebody of these because it it a lot of times it turns
00:52:41
into what he said she said situation where you only have the victim's word to go off of
00:52:48
um and I know that in situations here I I don't I'm not familiar with Australian
00:52:53
law but in situations here that doesn't usually work well to get a conviction now on June 11 2015 newspaper Reports
00:53:03
say that a Spider-Man toy was found in the work van of what ABC News referred to as a person of interest in the
00:53:13
William Tyrrell disappearance case this was the man that we previously discussed
00:53:18
Mr Bill spedding however this is this is the guy that gave him a quote on the washing machine yes
00:53:28
um that his house was searched he offered up his DNA however the New South Wales police would not confirm the
00:53:35
discovery of this Spider-Man toy or comment on this story at all so where we have this reported we don't have police
00:53:45
confirmation then police later began investigating into the finding into finding the drivers of two cars
00:53:55
that were seen parked on the Dead End Road on the morning that William disappeared the cars were described as a
00:54:02
white station wagon and an older style gray sedan which were parked between two driveways of the acre lot of land they
00:54:12
were seen with their driver side windows down and they were unknown to the neighborhood where the locals are all
00:54:19
considered to be friends these cars were noticed by William's mother and they have not been seen in the area again
00:54:27
since The Disappearance the police regard these particular vehicles with much suspicion as there seemed to be no
00:54:35
logical reason why they would be parked on the street before William's disappearance reportedly at 9 00 a.m a
00:54:44
green or gray sedan car drove past the Terrell home while William and his sister were riding bikes in the driveway
00:54:51
the car drove into the no through Road did a u-turn in the neighbor's driveway and drove out of the street second day
00:55:01
secondly this is something completely different another and I don't have much of a description on this vehicle here
00:55:07
Captain but another quote four-wheel drive was cited driving out of benarun Drive about 10 30 a.m
00:55:17
this is approximately the time that William disappeared the same vehicle was later seen speeding down another Kendall
00:55:24
Street the police said that they have not known that they have known about these cars since the investigation
00:55:32
started since the day of his disappearance however as part of an investigative strategy the information
00:55:39
about these vehicles was not released to the public until September 7th 2015 when
00:55:46
they announced a public appeal for information about these two cars detective Gary jubilin said during the
00:55:53
The Plea for information quote we're looking at a semi-royal area and it was a dead end Street to attend out there
00:56:02
there would have to be a reason yeah and on the same day which is roughly about a
00:56:08
year after William went missing law enforcement is going to release the tape of the triple zero call that Williams
00:56:15
Foster mother made of you know reporting William going missing the Triple zero again is what we refer to and the state
00:56:24
says a 9-1-1 call on September 13th 2015 criminal profiler Dr Sarah Ewell from the police task force working with
00:56:34
detectives to find William revealed details about the person police suspect suspect may have abducted the toddler so
00:56:43
not a full profile was released but definitely some thoughts on the profile of the person responsible or thoughts
00:56:49
about this person uh and here they are captain now the good doctor states that if no one but the child's foster parents
00:56:57
and grandmother knew about the visit then the kidnapper would have to have had another reason to be there either
00:57:05
visiting living or working in the area there was only a narrow window of opportunity to take the child from
00:57:13
outside the property quote it does seem that this was an opportunistic crime and when somebody
00:57:21
makes that kind of impulsive decision mistakes are made and it's those kind of mistakes that the investigation is
00:57:29
focusing on detective Gary jubilin added the kidnapping occurred on a Friday around
00:57:36
10 30 a.m it was broad daylight and whoever abducted him risked being seen from the balcony of William's
00:57:43
grandmother's home as well as neighboring properties on September 26 2015 police confirmed that they had
00:57:52
seized a white station wagon for forensic examination from a property north of Kendall the following year on
00:58:01
September 12 2016 on the second anniversary of Williams disappearance the New South Wales government announces
00:58:09
a one million dollar reward for information on Williams whereabouts the police say that the reward will usually
00:58:16
be paid out as conditional on the arrest and conviction of the offender but the recovery of William had been added as a
00:58:25
condition on this reward it is the largest ever reward offered to find a missing person in New South Wales
00:58:33
history [Music] and started in may all of our old episodes will be available exclusively
00:58:55
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00:59:17
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00:59:36
let it thank you [Music]

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Episode Highlights

  • The Disappearance of William Tyrrell
    William Tyrrell, a three-year-old boy, vanished under mysterious circumstances in Australia.
    “This is a horrific story of a little boy who was reported missing.”
    @ 07m 05s
    November 26, 2022
  • A Surprising Trip
    William's foster parents surprised him and his sister with an impromptu trip to visit their grandmother.
    “The plan was to travel on Friday, but they decided to go early.”
    @ 17m 46s
    November 26, 2022
  • A Famous Photo
    Just minutes before his disappearance, a photo of William in a Spider-Man outfit was taken.
    “This has become a famous photo of William Tyrrell.”
    @ 23m 01s
    November 26, 2022
  • The Disappearance of William Tyrrell
    Three-year-old William Tyrrell goes missing while playing in his grandmother's backyard.
    “William was last seen playing outside at approximately 10:15 A.M.”
    @ 25m 26s
    November 26, 2022
  • Emergency Services Response
    Police arrive on the scene within 10 minutes after the emergency call.
    “The call comes in at 10:56 A.M., and police are on scene by 11:06 A.M.”
    @ 28m 16s
    November 26, 2022
  • Search Efforts Intensify
    Hundreds of volunteers and police search for William, but no leads are found.
    “200 volunteers searched overnight for the little boy.”
    @ 30m 28s
    November 26, 2022
  • Opportunistic Crime Theory
    Detective Gary Jubilin suggests that the abduction was an impulsive decision, indicating it was an opportunistic crime.
    “It does seem that this was an opportunistic crime.”
    @ 57m 18s
    November 26, 2022
  • A Million Dollar Reward
    On the second anniversary of William's disappearance, a one million dollar reward is announced for information on his whereabouts.
    “It is the largest ever reward offered to find a missing person in New South Wales history.”
    @ 58m 30s
    November 26, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • This is a horrific story of a little boy who was reported missing.
    Disappearance of William Tyrrell /// Part 1 /// 202
  • The police believe that William was abducted and may still be alive.
    Disappearance of William Tyrrell /// Part 1 /// 202
  • We have been looking for him for about 15 to 20 minutes.
    Disappearance of William Tyrrell /// Part 1 /// 202
  • One minute we have William running in the yard, and then he's gone.
    Disappearance of William Tyrrell /// Part 1 /// 202
  • It's when you stop hearing them that normally something bad happened.
    Disappearance of William Tyrrell /// Part 1 /// 202
  • It does seem that this was an opportunistic crime.
    Disappearance of William Tyrrell /// Part 1 /// 202

Key Moments

  • Impromptu Trip17:46
  • Famous Photo23:01
  • Playing Outside24:37
  • Last Seen25:26
  • Emergency Call27:17
  • Search Scaled Back44:12
  • Opportunistic Crime57:18
  • Million Dollar Reward58:30

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown