Case 322: William Tyrrell (Part 2)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A Cast recommends Hello, this is blind By.

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(00:25):
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(01:24):
children and won't be suitable for all listeners. Please note
that the names of several individuals have been changed due
to court suppression orders preventing them from being identified, while
others have been changed to protect their privacy. By the

(01:45):
time William Tyrell had been missing for three years, police
had almost seven hundred persons of interest remaining on their list,
but among the legitimate leads they received, they were also
inundated with bogus sightings, frank phone calls, and clairvoyant prophecies.
On the third anniversary of William's disappearance, Lead Detective Gary

(02:08):
Jubilan spoke publicly about the case for the first time
in twelve months. With William's status as a foster child
now able to be reported on, Detective Jubilan attempted to
quash the ongoing rumors by making it clear that both
the foster parents and biological parents had been ruled out
of the investigation. He insisted that William's foster parents had

(02:32):
been bringing him up in a warm and loving home
and that they had nothing to do with his disappearance.
Detective Jubilan appealed for anyone with information to come forward,
clarifying that he didn't want to get bogged down with
irrelevant details. It's three years down the track. Let's be realistic,

(02:52):
he said. We're not interested in sightings of a child
running around in a Spider Man suit, playing in the
MacDonald's car part. What we are interested in is people
that have genuine information. That information might be in the
form of someone that has concerns about someone they know,
someone within their family in the way they react when

(03:14):
William Tyrell's name is mentioned. We're interested in speaking to
those people. We can do it in the strictest of confidence,
and I would encourage those people to come forward. It
sounds counterintuitive to say we're making progress, but each day
we're learning more about what happened at the time, and

(03:35):
we're eliminating people. We're making progress each day. We don't
think this has been a success by any stretch of
the imagination, but we're not going to give up Once again.
Police canvassed homes around Kendall, hoping that the passing of
time might propel someone to talk. If anyone knew anything,

(03:59):
they were remaining as tight lipped as ever. However, what
Detective Jubilant hadn't publicly revealed was that he'd set his
sights on someone. Paul Savage was a retiree aged in

(04:38):
his late seventies who lived on Benarun Drive, directly across
from William's foster grandmother, Mary Saunders. His front Veranda looked
towards the back of Mary's house, where William was last
seen playing. Police had interviewed Savage in the early stages
of the investigation and discovered that he was the only

(04:59):
person outside of William's foster family who had heard the
children playing outside on the morning that William disappeared. According
to Savage, the morning of Friday, September twelve, twenty fourteen
had started out like any other. At around date thirty,
he'd gone for his daily walk in the bush behind

(05:19):
his property. Afterwards, he ate breakfast on his back deck
before pottering around the house in preparation for an upcoming
trip to pick his brother up from the hospital. At
around ten thirty five, Paul Savage's wife, Heather, left for
her weekly bingo game in Loreton. Savage had walked Heather

(05:40):
to her car, but said he hadn't heard any of
the commotion going on down the street. He only discovered
that William had gone missing at around eleven a m.
When a neighbor knocked on his door to inform him.
Savage told the police that he immediately went looking for
William down the fire tracks in bush behind his property.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
He looked for two.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
Hours before finding himself a bit lost. Eventually he found
his way home and sat down to have a cup
of tea. Shortly after, at around one thirty pm, some
of Heather's relatives arrived for a pre arranged visit and
they all joined in on a line search. Savage said

(06:24):
he continued searching until around seven pm and then all weekend,
only stopping on Monday for his road trip to pick
up his brother from the hospital in Lismore, which was
a four hour drive away. Heather Savage's statement to police
supported her husband's version of events. She had left for

(06:45):
Bingo at around the same time that William was thought
to have gone missing, with CCTV footage from the Candle
Tennis Club confirming that Heather's car had left town at
ten forty two am. She said she hadn't seen or
heard any one or anything out of the ordinary at
the time. Although there was nothing outwardly suspicious about Paul

(07:08):
Savage or his movements, Detective Gary Jubilin couldn't shake the
feeling that something wasn't quite right with Heather at Bingo.
There was no one who could vouch for his movements
between ten thirty five am and one thirty pm on
the day of William's disappearance. It also struck Detective Jubilan
as odd that Paul Savage said he'd gotten lost in

(07:31):
the bush during his search, given that he walked in the.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Area every day.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
Savage also had a reputation with the locals for being
a bit of a sticky beak. Detective Jubilan therefore found
it strange that he claimed to have returned home to
have a cup of tea without checking in with anyone
to see if William had been found. If he could
be nosy when not much of anything was going on,

(07:58):
then why keep to himself when anuine drama was unfolding
around him. These factors alone weren't incriminating, but they became
of interest to the strikeforce after covert cameras were placed
in the bushland surrounding the home of the man who
police had dubbed guerrillas in the mist. One of the

(08:20):
cameras went missing, and it turned out that Paul Savage
had it. He held onto the camera for six weeks before
reporting it to the police station. At that point, Detective
Jubilan's suspicions were intensifying. He looked into Savage and discovered
that his home hadn't been searched until three days after

(08:42):
William went missing. He hadn't been asked to provide a
witness statement until two weeks later. When Paul Savage had
driven to Lismore on the Monday after William went missing.
His car hadn't been stopped or searched either. Theoretically speaking,
if Savage had been involved in William's disappearance in any way,

(09:04):
this would have given him a sizeable window of time
to dispose of any evidence. It turned out that Savage
had also exhibited some odd behaviors in the past. The
local postwoman had a restraining order against him for harassment,
and William's foster grandmother, Mary told the police that Savage

(09:24):
often showed up at her house uninvited. She claimed he
had once stood outside her glass doors just watching her inside.
These interactions had made Mary feel so uncomfortable that she'd
approached Heather Savage and asked her to have a word
with her husband about it. Strike Force investigators posited several

(09:48):
theories centering around the Savages. They even considered the possibility
that Heather could have accidentally hit William with her car
when leaving for Bingo and Paul Savage had then gone
to great lengths to protect her by covering it up.
Or maybe it was Savage himself who would accidentally hit William.

(10:09):
He drove a Peggero four wheel drive, which in the
eyes of the three year old, might have looked like
a land rover. Investigators theorized that William could have seen
Savage's car, mistaken at for his foster fathers, and ran
towards it, only to be accidentally run over. They also

(10:30):
considered the possibility that William could have entered the Savage's
property and some other kind of accident had occurred. By
the time the Savages came onto the strike force, as
Radar had, the Savage was no longer able to provide
a statement. She had passed away six months into the
William syrial investigation. Her death left her husband devastated. For

(10:54):
a month afterward, he wore a photo of Heather around
his neck. Detective Gary Jubilin didn't necessarily think that Paul
Savage was involved in William's disappearance, but he did think
he might be the closest thing the police had to
any witness. He also wanted to be confident that he'd

(11:14):
covered all bases before eliminating him as a person of interest.
Despite some pushback from other members of the strike force
who didn't think Savage had anything to do with it,
Detective Jubilan organized warrants authorizing listening devices to be installed
in his home, car, and telephone. Officers were tasked with

(11:39):
listening to the hundreds of hours of audio files taken
from the covert surveillance of Savage and discovered he had
a habit of talking to himself while he went about
his daily life. At home, he often chattered out loud,
sometimes to his deceased wife. Most of his mutterings were irrelevant,
but some further sparked Detective Jubilan's suspicions. Wanting to either

(12:05):
pursue or eliminate Savage from his investigation once and for all,
Jubilan hatched a plan. Officers would hide a dirty Spider
Man suit along the bush tracks behind his property and
covertly film his reaction. If he had an extreme response
or attempted to conceal the suit, they'd have further reason

(12:26):
to suspect he was hiding something. More importantly, if Savage
did have knowledge of where William's remains were seeing the
suit might compel him to visit that site, inadvertently leading
police to William's body. The plan went ahead on the
morning of Wednesday, July twenty six, twenty seventeen, less than

(12:49):
two months before the third anniversary of William's disappearance. As expected,
Paul Savage got up and went for his usual morning
walk along the bush tracks behind his home. When he
approached the area where the Spider Man suit had been planted,
he walked a few steps past it, then bent over

(13:09):
and paused for approximately twelve seconds. Savage then returned home
without reporting anything to the police. That evening, listening devices
in Savage's home recorded him saying to himself, you know
I love you, angel, My bloody screwed up a. Investigators

(13:33):
were torn. Some were convinced that Savage had seen the
suit and had stopped to get a closer look at it,
while others believed he hadn't noticed the suit at all
and had coincidentally paused to look at something else. The
Spider Man suit was left alongside the bush track again
the following morning. This time, Savage stopped and prodded the

(13:57):
costume with his foot, then turned around, walked home and
called the police to report the sighting. Two days later,
the listening devices captured Savage talking to himself once again.
He said something along the lines of well, I'm going

(14:17):
to run into your property too. This is my place.
You're in my place. You do what I want. Hey,
I'm not interested in your bullshit. Mate, you're a little boy,
You're nobody. You don't tell me, I'll tell you. I
did tell you. Detective Jubilan still wasn't sure what to

(14:39):
make of Paul Savage. Many others on the task force
thought he was chasing a dead end, but Jubilan wasn't
prepared to rule him out entirely. In August twenty seventeen,
Detective Jubilan brought Savage in for questioning. He thought that
if he interrogated him with enough pressure, he might be

(15:00):
compelled to say something incriminating when he returned home, but
Savage steadfastly maintained that he had nothing to hide. He
vehemently denied the police theories that he or Heather could
have accidentally killed William, saying there was no way in
the world that either of them would ever hurt a child.

(15:21):
He also denied having seen the Spider Man suit in
the bush the first time he walked past it. But
as Savage drove home from the interrogation, the listening device
in his car recorded him saying, make sure you don't
tell anyone love. They are right after me. Don't tell

(15:41):
anyone love, please, they are right after me.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Sorry.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
The following month, Savage was recorded at home saying to himself,
They're gonna find something. Mum, don't dB on me. Okay,
oh mum, what do I do? Although these recordings were
equal parts bizarre and compelling, they proved nothing. By this point,

(16:11):
the surveillance team had amassed thousands of hours of audio
of Paul Savage, and there wasn't enough time to listen
to it all. Many of the officers wanted to move on,
but in early October twenty seventeen, Savage said something that
Detective Jubilan couldn't ignore. In a recorded conversation with his

(16:32):
daughter about whether or not he had seen the Spider
Man suit that first day, he remarked, I didn't see
the suit from memory. I just seen this white thing
on the ground that was covered in dirt. Detective Jubilan
was stunned. The Spider Man suit that William Tyrell was

(16:53):
wearing on the day he disappeared had a white spider
motif on the back, but this detail had never been
released to the public. It was something that only the
person who took him could have known. 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,

(17:14):
just red, blue, and black. So why, Detective Jubilan wondered,
did Paul Savage recall seeing a white item of clothing.
Jubilan wanted to press him about this detail on a
phone call, but by this point the warrants on his
telephone interceps had expired. The devices in Savage's home were

(17:37):
still present, but it meant to Jubilan's and of the
conversation wouldn't be on the record. This could present an
issue if Savage ever accused the detective of saying anything problematic.
Further down the track, He'd already complained about being treated
poorly during police interviews, saying the air conditioning was too
high and that he hadn't been off at any water.

(18:01):
To cover himself, Detective Jubilan decided to put the call
on speakerphone and then use his own mobile to record
the conversation, Jubilant called Savage and asked him about the
Spider Man suit he'd spotted in the bush. Savage repeated
his claims that he'd just seen a white bit of cloth,

(18:21):
but made no mention of the red or blue of
the suit. There still wasn't any solid reason to suspect
he had any involvement in William's disappearance, but Detective Jubilan
believed there were enough red flags to keep pursuing him.
Over the following months, he visited Paul Savage at home

(18:41):
several more times to question him further. Knowing that the
covert listening devices in Savage's home produced poor quality audio
and their batteries sometimes went flat, Detective Jubilants secretly recorded
their conversations on his mobile phone to ensure he had
a clear record of what was said. Despite his efforts,

(19:03):
the constant pressure he applied led nowhere, and the strike
Force was no closer to making any arrests. Meanwhile, there
was another name that had come up multiple times during
the investigation into William Tyrell's disappearance that couldn't be ignored.

(19:24):
Frank Abbott was an elderly man aged in his seventies
who made a living doing odd jobs and collecting scrap metal.
At the time of William's disappearance, he'd been living rough
in a caravan ten kilometers north of Kendall. Referred to
by some townspeople as a quote dirty old man, Abbot

(19:45):
apparently had a habit of making people feel uncomfortable. He
wasn't trusted around children, with many parents warning their kids
to stay away from him. He wasn't trusted around animals either.
At least one of his neighbors had accused him of
beast reality after walking into a disturbing scene involving Abbot

(20:06):
and their family dog, Frank. Abbot was already known to
police as he had a long rap sheet that included
various charges involving breaking and entering, theft, firearms offences, and
escaping from custody. At the time William Tyrrel went missing,
he was out on bail after being charged with sexually

(20:28):
abusing an eight year old girl. Strike Force interest in
Abbot grew after a woman who lived across the paddock
from him claimed to have heard the pained scream of
a young boy coming from the direction of where Abbot
lived On the day after William went missing. Since then,
Abbot had apparently made some odd comments. When police were

(20:51):
searching the house of Whitewood's repairer Bill Spedding, Abbot allegedly
told two people that the police were looking in the
wrong spot. To another, he claimed that he'd smelt a
dead body in the bush near Logan's Crossing, an area
four point seven kilometers north of Kandor. Abbot allegedly said

(21:12):
it wasn't an animal because he knew the difference between
a dead kangaroo and a dead human smell. That comment
alone was incriminating. In nineteen sixty eight, seventeen year old
Helen Harrison went missing while riding her bike towards her
home in the Sydney suburb of Morelia. One week later,

(21:36):
her semi naked body was found buried in a shallow
grave southwest of Sydney. She had been robbed of her
watch and twenty dollars cash. Frank Abbot was spotlighted as
a person of interest, but his parents supported his alibi
that he'd been home at the time Helen went missing,
and there was no other evidence to link him to

(21:58):
the crime. Helen's murder remained unsolved for decades until the
early nineteen nineties, when Frank Abbott was serving time for
unrelated offenses. While in prison, Abbert allegedly confessed to a
fellow inmate that he was responsible for killing Helen Harrison.

(22:18):
He ultimately faced trial for Helen's murder not once, but twice.
The passing of time and death of critical witnesses meant
the first a jury couldn't reach a verdict, and the
second found him not guilty. Abbot often bragged about beating
the murder charge, with one local saying he saw it

(22:40):
as a badge of honor. Frank Abbott also had a
connection to another person of interest in the Tyrrell investigation.
Word around town was that Abbot had been telling various people,
I know where William Tyrrel is. Why don't you check
Jeff Ollen's place. Jeff Owen was a qualified electrician and

(23:05):
general tradesman aged in his sixties who lived in a
caravan on the property next door to Frank Abbott. The
two men were known to be friends and had been
seen driving around together in the past. Locals were somewhat
wary of Owen, who reportedly had schizophrenia and had once
killed a neighbour's dog After failing to take his medication.

(23:29):
He came on the police radar after it was revealed
that he had a direct connection to William Tyrrell's foster grandmother,
Mary Saunders. Owen was Mary's handyman, and he had been
booked in to repair her deck in mid September twenty fourteen.
At nine ten on the morning of William's disappearance, Owen

(23:50):
had called Mary to let her know the work would
be delayed due to an unexpected stay in the hospital.
Mary had missed the call as she'd been outside watching
the children ride their bikes at the time. Police made
some inquiries and discovered that Jeff Owen and Frank Abbott
had worked on some repair jobs to gather in the past.

(24:13):
They considered the possibility that Owen could have offered Mary's
deck repair job to Abbot, who then drove past the
property and came upon William, grabbing him in a moment
of opportunity. But when questioned, Jeff Owen denied being friends
with Frank Abbott. He said they were merely acquaintances and

(24:34):
that he'd sometimes given Abbot a ride. Frank Abbott didn't
have a driver's license or own a car, but Further
inquiries revealed that he had access to one. His friend,
Ray Porter, drove an old white Commodore station wagon similar
to the one William's foster mother claimed to have seen

(24:54):
on Benirun Drive on the morning of William's disappearance. According
to witnesses, Ray often let Abbot borrow it. By twenty eighteen,
Frank Abbot was being held in prison pending an upcoming
trial for unrelated child sex offenses. When police questioned him

(25:15):
about William Tyrrel. He claimed that on the day the
toddler went missing, he'd been in the nearby town of Warhope.
He said he'd done some repair work at a takeaway
shop before having lunch at the Uniting Church and then
making a deposit at the bank. Abbot denied having anything
to do with William's abduction, but implied that he knew

(25:38):
who did. Abbot told police that they should look into
Tony Jones, the convicted child sex offender who had momentarily
shared a cell with Whitewood's repairman Bill Spedding. Jones had
since been released from jail after serving just two of
his three year sentence for child sexual assault. Abbott claimed

(26:02):
that in early twenty fifteen, a few months after William
went missing, ray Porter drove him out to a property
in Logan's Crossing, near an old radio tower and a
log dump site. There they met two men who were
driving a white station wagon. One of the men allegedly
introduced himself as Tony Jones. With them was a little boy.

(26:36):
Case File will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting
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Hello, this is blind Boy around every two years or so.
I'm contractually obligated to record an advertisement for my own podcast,
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my mouth for you to read what your ears. I
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(27:10):
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Thank you for listening to this episode's ad. By supporting
our sponsors, you support case File to continue to deliver
our quality content. If the investigation into William's disappearance had
exposed anything, it was just how many sex offenders had

(27:56):
chosen the quiet life of the mid North Coast to
call home. But Whitewood repairman Bill Spedding was not a
convicted sex offender. Although he remained a person of interest
in the William Tyrell investigation, by twenty eighteen, nothing further
had been uncovered to link him to the crime. In

(28:18):
March that year, Spedding faced trial for the nineteen eighty
seven child sexual assault charges against him. The woman at
the center of the allegations was Spedding's ex's wife. She
was unable to provide any compelling evidence for the claims,
saying she had lost crucial files.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
On the stand.

Speaker 4 (28:39):
Spedding's two alleged victims were reluctant. As grown adults, they
admitted they had no memory of the abuse ever taking place.
Had it occurred, Spedding's legal team suggested it was possible
that the real abuser could have been their uncle. He
was a convicted pedophile and murderer who had been living

(29:00):
with them around the time the alleged abuse was said
to have taken place. The judge ultimately threw the case
against A Bill Spedding out declaring it was based on
claims that had already been disproven decades earlier, and she
ordered that legal fees be paid in his favor. In turn,

(29:21):
Spedding settled a defamation claim out of court with The
Daily Telegraph newspaper after they incorrectly referred to him as
a convicted pedophile. Although police had gathered no further evidence
to link Spreading to William Tyrell's disappearance, he remained on
their list of persons of interest regardless. By mid twenty eighteen,

(29:46):
the case was approaching its four year anniversary with no
major breakthroughs, and the New South Wales Police were starting
to come under fire. The decision was made to refer
the case to the coroner for a formal inquast. Police
told reporters that an inquest would give them an opportunity
to test information and evidence gathered by Strike Force Rozanne

(30:09):
and allow them to further the investigation. If nothing else,
it would formally solidify that William's disappearance was the result
of human intervention and provide another step in getting answers
for his loved ones. However, it also came with a downside.

(30:29):
Unless the coroner recommended that charges be laid against a
particular individual and referred the case to the Director of
Public Prosecutions, William's case would inevitably go to the Unsolved
Homicide Unit, where police resources were already stretched thin. In
conjunction with the inquest, police announced that a new major

(30:51):
search would be conducted of the bush land behind Benarun Drive.
Unlike the initial search, which was focused on finding a
lost tree, this would be a forensic search of a
three kilometer radius focused on finding evidence such as human
remains or clothing. The aim was to rule out with
forensic certainty that William hadn't gotten lost in the bush

(31:15):
and died. The search went ahead on Tuesday June nineteenth,
twenty eighteen, led by officers from the Public Order and
Riot Squad. For four weeks, they scoured the rugged bushland,
digging through leaf litter as GPS trackers recorded their every movement.

(31:35):
Various items were uncovered, but nothing that could be linked
to William Tyrrel. As police began the monumental task of
putting a brief of evidence together for the coroner, it
was revealed that someone on the Strike Force had spoken
out about Detective Gary Jubilin's decision to record his conversations

(31:57):
with Mary's neighbor Paul Savage without a word warrant. In
doing so, Jubilin had breached the Surveillance Devices Act, a
criminal offense that carried a maximum sentence of five years
in jail. Jubilin was given four charges and handed a
legal document advising he was no longer allowed to speak

(32:18):
to members of the Strike Force or to William Tyrell's
family with the inquest about to begin. This was a
major blow. Detective Jubilin had been leading William's homicide investigation
for almost four years, and he knew the case better
than anyone. He'd also formed a close relationship with William's

(32:40):
foster parents, and they relied on him for support. Detective
jubilant fought to continue working on the case, even if
it was only in an advisory capacity, to the great
disappointment of Peter and Angela, his request was denied. As
though he had a little choice, Jubilan resigned from the

(33:03):
police force as he awaited trial for the charges against him,
which he intended to strongly defend. At Gary Jubilin's two
week hearing his defense, barrister claimed he had both a
lawful right and an operational need to record his conversations
with Savage to protect himself against any future complaints that

(33:24):
the man might make. She argued that Jubilan was entitled
to a degree of leniency due to his exemplary public service,
calling this an exceptional case about an exceptional man. Several
high profile and well respected figures within law enforcement testified
on behalf of Jubilan's strong character and professional work ethic,

(33:47):
with some labeling him the best cop in New South Wales.
William's foster parents were among his supporters. Angela teared up
as she spoke of the can action her family had
made with Gary Jubilin and how the investigation into William's
disappearance had suffered since his absence. The prosecution argued that

(34:10):
a potential future complaint could not be considered a lawful
interest to justify recording without a warrant. Jubilin was ultimately
found a guilty of four counts of breaching the Surveillance
Devices Act and given a ten thousand dollar fine. The
sentencing magistrate criticized to Jubilin's constant pursuit of Paul Savage,

(34:32):
accusing him of belittling and humiliating the elderly man, with
no evidence, leads or witnesses to suggest he had anything
to do with William's disappearance. Jubilin appealed against the conviction,
saying he'd rather go to jail than pay to do
police work, but he lost the appeal. Speaking to reporters

(34:55):
outside court, jubilan said, I'm obviously pointed by the decision
of the court. The court says that I went too
hard to find out what happened to William Tyrrell. I
couldn't live with myself if I did anything less, so
I stand by what I did. While all this was

(35:18):
going on, Kendallman Ray Porter's health was failing. Ray was
the friend of Frank Abbot's, who drove an old white
station wagon similar to the one Angela claimed to have
seen on Benirun Drive on the morning of William's disappearance.
In early twenty nineteen, Ray was living in an aged

(35:39):
care facility and didn't have long to live. Wanting to
get something off his chest, he struck up a conversation
with a nurse named Kirsten. Ray trusted Kirston because he
thought she had an honest face. He allegedly told her
that on Friday September twelve, twenty fourteen, he drove to

(36:01):
pick up his best mate from a shed behind Kendall School.
When he got there, his mate had a quote cute
little boy with him. Ray claimed he had driven his
friend and the boy three hundred kilometers north. Kirsten asked
if the boy was William Tyrrell. Ray allegedly responded yes.

(36:29):
Ray never told Kirston his friend's name, but he had
only ever spoken of having two friends, one of whom
was named Frank. By this point, Frank Abbott had been
sentenced to sixteen years in prison for ten counts of
child sex offenses committed against two young boys and a girl.

(36:50):
When Ray passed away shortly after this supposed confession, his
sister in law was going through his possessions when she
found a letter that had been sent for and prison.
It provided instructions for Ray to pick up a boat
and move it to the house of a female friend.
Ray's sister in law disposed of the latter, but remembered

(37:13):
with clarity that it was signed from your good friend
Frank from prison. Frank Abbot's phone calls were being recorded.
During one conversation, Abbott told a friend that two people
were involved in taking William. He didn't want to say

(37:33):
the names over the phone, so he asked his friend
to come and visit so he could give him the
information in writing. The friend obliged, and, as promised, Abbot
handed over a note with two names written on it.
After the visit, Abbot's friend took the note directly to
the police. For reasons unknown, they did not publicly reveal

(37:59):
the names of the end vigils Abbot implicated, nor did
they disclose the extent of their investigations into them. As
the inquest into William Tyrell's disappearance grew closer, there still
hadn't been any arrests in relation to his case. Every

(38:22):
possible theory about William's fate had been discussed by investigators, websleuths,
and curious members of the public. They ranged from the
optimistic that William had been abducted and raised by a
loving couple who were desperate for children, to the outlandish
that William had been abducted by aliens or fell victim

(38:43):
to a yowie. The Australian equivalent of Bigfoot. The inquest
aimed to clear things up once and for all. By
the time the Strike Force put together their brief of
evidence for the Coroner, investigators had interviewed two hundred and
sixty three local residents, retrieved CCTV footage from one hundred

(39:06):
eighty one locations around Kendall and beyond, and received over
two thousand reports of sightings of William from Australia and overseas.
When the inquest commenced in March twenty nineteen, the courts
clarified that Paul Savage was no longer being considered a
person of interest. The inquest, which was scheduled to be

(39:29):
held in several installments, began by establishing William's family situation.
William's biological father, Tyler Martin, made no attempt to hide
his disdain for the Department of Family and Community Services.
He told the court that the authorities had failed by
placing William in foster care, remarking the Minister had a

(39:54):
duty of care to keep William safe until he was eighteen.
That was not the case at all. He expressed disappointment
about the way William had been treated by Peter and
Angela telling the court, I don't think the foster mother
and father really care about the kids, as they aren't

(40:14):
their kids. They don't love them like we do. One
of the most compelling pieces of evidence in William's case
was the now infamous photograph his foster mother, Angela, had
taken less than an hour before his disappearance. The seemingly
innocuous image of William in his Spider Man costume, looking

(40:36):
up at the camera with his mouth agape mimicking a
lion's roar, served as proof of life unt helped establish
the timeline of the morning he went missing. It had
also provided an exact description of what the young boy
was wearing at the time. However, during the inquest, a
shocking allegation surfaced regarding the photo. Metadata in Angela's digital

(41:03):
camera showed that the photo had been taken at nine
thirty seven am on Friday, September twelve, twenty fourteen. However,
the brief of evidence revealed that the timestamp had been altered,
with the original photo having been taken at seven thirty
nine am. When presented with this evidence, William's foster parents

(41:25):
vehemently denied having altered the timestamps in any way, but
those critical of the Foster family weren't satisfied. If the
photo had been taken at seven thirty nine am, they
wondered what happened in those unaccounted for one hundred and
eighteen minutes between the time the photo was taken and

(41:47):
when the timestamp was altered. Angela's explanation was that she
didn't set the clock correctly when she originally purchased the camera.
It was a simple enough reason, but the skeptics weren't
buying it. Some wondered if the Foster family could have
been involved in William's disappearance and had altered the timestamp

(42:10):
to cover their tracks. The coroner ordered the police to
conduct an urgent probe into those unexplained missing minutes. Sifting
through the content on the camera, examiners discovered another photo
that had been taken eleven days prior to William's disappearance.

(42:31):
A television in the background had captured the live broadcast
of a morning news program, which featured an on screen clock.
The time displayed was one hundred and eighteen minutes earlier
than that shown by the camera's timestamp, proving Angela's assertion
that she simply hadn't ever set the cameras in built

(42:51):
clock to begin with, but some questions were also raised
about other details Angela had provided, including the dark colored
sedan she claimed to have seen momentarily pull into a
neighbor's driveway on the morning William went missing. When first
questioned by police, Angela said she didn't get a look

(43:15):
at the occupant. In an interview with Detective Jubilan years later,
Angela described the driver as an older gentleman with gray hair.
When asked if there was anything in particular that drew
her attention to the car or its driver, Angela had responded,
if I think about it, he didn't look over. He

(43:37):
just kept it driving straight ahead. At the inquest, her
story changed significantly. Angela said she got a very clear
view of the driver, describing him as a large man
who appeared to be aged in his fifties, with a
thick neck, beer belly, weathered skin, and thinning red hair.

(44:00):
Angela testified that the two had locked eyes, and the
man gave her a challenging stare as if to say,
I'm watching you. Despite police efforts, they had never been
able to verify this sighting or track down the vehicle.
The same went for the white station wagon and gray

(44:20):
sa Dan Angela claimed had been parked oddly on Benaruon
Drive that morning. Some found it hard to believe that
Angela hadn't remembered this detail straight away and had only
come forward with the information two days later. The only
other person who recalled seeing any cars matching this description

(44:40):
in Kendall was Mary's neighbor Paul Savage. He'd told police
he'd seen the cars too, but not on the day
of William's disappearance, but two days prior before William's family
were in Candle. A forensic psychologist who specialized in memory,
doctor Helen Patterson, was called to give evidence. She told

(45:05):
the court it was possible that Angela had unintentionally created
a false memory. Doctor Patterson explained that information learned after
an event has the potential to distort future versions of
the event, so it was possible that Angela had seen
the vehicles at a different time, but then mistakingly attributed

(45:27):
the memory to the morning that William went missing. The
same went for Ronald Chapman, the man who claimed to
have seen a four wheel drive speeding off through Kendle
with an unrestrained boy matching William's description in the back seat,
and a woman behind the wheel. Over time, Ronald had

(45:47):
added extra details to his original story, including that the
boy he saw was wearing a cape. Doctor Patterson said
it was possible that Ronald was incorporating information that came
to light after the event, such as news reports, into
reconstruction of his own memory. If this was the case,

(46:08):
doctor Patterson clarified that both witnesses were still acting in
good faith, explaining there are ways that people can report
information that is not true, but they are not lying.
One of the first aspects that the inquest focused on

(46:29):
was Whitewood's repairman, Bill Spedding's possible involvement in William's abduction.
It quickly became apparent that all wasn't as it had
appeared in the trial by media. Spedding had always maintained
that on the morning William went missing, he and his
wife had dined at a cafe before attending their grandson's
school assembly. Police had a bank statement that confirmed the

(46:54):
cafe visit, and it turned out that there were some
witnesses who could attest to his alibi, with at least
one parent testifying to seeing Spedding at the assembly. Spedding's
work records also confirmed that the replacement part for Mary's
washing machine still hadn't arrived by Friday, September twelve, giving

(47:15):
him no reason to visit Benerun Drive that morning. Police
had previously accused Bill Spedding of deleting a voicemail from
Angela off his phone. Spedding's legal team had his phone
records examined by an expert, who found that Spedding had
been on another call when the call from Angela came in.

(47:37):
Because of this, the voicemail was never recorded on his handset.
The legal team accused the police of using this erroneous
detail against Spedding during their interrogation of him, rather than
having his phone records thoroughly checked themselves. Had they done so,
it would have eliminated one of the major pieces of

(47:59):
information they were holding over him. As for Dean Pollard,
the witness who claimed to have seen Bill Spedding's work
van speeding down Ghost Road on the day after William vanished,
it was suggested that he made the sighting up with
malicious intent. It was known that Dean didn't like Spedding.

(48:22):
At the inquest Dean denied, saying he saw Spedding's car
near Ghost Road on the day after William went missing.
He stated, 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 Spedding was exactly where he'd always

(48:44):
claimed to be that day, at the local footy club,
celebrating the end of season with a beer. With all
this evidence brought to light at the inquest, it was
clear that police had targeted the wrong man. Bill Spedding
was ruled out as a person of interest. Outside court,
he told reporters, I know what I've been through is

(49:07):
nothing compared to what William's family are going through now.
I wished the coroner all wisdom in getting to the
bottom of this mystery. Former case detective Gary Jubilin maintained
that police made the right decision to investigate Bill Spedding.
He told ABC's Four Corners program that while he regretted

(49:31):
that things had played out so publicly, quote, the decisions
that were made at the time were the decisions that
had to be made, and I'm comfortable with that. Spedding's
life was turned upside down from the negative publicity against him.
His business failed, and he and his wife were subject

(49:52):
to ongoing scrutiny from the community and greater public. The
public accusations had even led to violence. A stranger had
once recognized Spedding outside of a restaurant and grabbed him
by the throat. The Speddings had been forced to move,
but their new neighbors were anything but welcoming. One parent

(50:15):
sternly warned Spedding not to use his phone in his
front yard in case he was filming her children. She
also advised him against stepping outside his house or opening
his blinds if her children were playing out in the street.
Spedding eventually went on to sue the New South Wales

(50:35):
Police for malicious prosecution in relation to the historical child
sex abuse allegations, arguing that the charges had only been
placed to pressure him into giving evidence about William Tyrrel's whereabouts.
He also sought damages for false imprisonment, loss of reputation,
and four years of psychological counseling that he'd undergone in

(50:57):
relation to the ordeal. Spedding ultimately won the lawsuit and
was awarded one point five million dollars in damages, with
his lawyer labeling it the worst police prosecution Australia had
ever seen. His wife told four Corners, I'd like to
hear the police apologize to him for what they put

(51:20):
him through, but I don't know whether he'll get that
because they told him they were going to ruin him
and they did. By March twenty twenty, the inquest into
William Tyrell's disappearance reached its second year when shocking testimony
was delivered by two witnesses. One was a woman who

(51:44):
operated as an emergency foster carer by taking at risk
children into her home. She told the court that in
twenty seventeen, she was hosting two young brothers, aged seven
and ten, who were given the pseudonyms of Jeoffrey and
d Matthew. One afternoon, the woman's teenage daughter was babysitting

(52:05):
for the boys when Jeffrey allegedly turned to her and said,
I know who took William Tyrrell. The comment shocked the
teenager as it seemingly came out of nowhere. As Jeffrey spoke,
Matthew looked at him in wide eyed fear. He warned

(52:25):
his brother to stop talking, but Jeffrey continued. He claimed
that William was dead and had been stuffed into a suitcase.
As for the person who killed him, it was Frank Abbot.
Jeffrey and Matthew were survivors of Abbot's sexual abuse, the

(52:47):
same crimes he was serving time in prison for. The
teenager told her mother about the boy's revelation, and she
questioned the brother's further. She asked why Matthew was so
adamant that Jeffrey keep this secret. Matthew said that Abbot
had threatened that he would snap their mother's neck if

(53:08):
they told anyone. Both boys were utterly petrified. When these
testimonies were delivered to the court, William's foster mother, Angela,
became visibly upset. Since the beginning of the inquest, she
and Peter had openly criticized the police handling of the case.

(53:30):
They claimed there hadn't been a proper handover after Gary
Jubelin was removed from the strike force, and that the
police had seemed indifferent about the investigation ever since. According
to author Ali Chumley, after hearing the allegation that Frank
Abbot had killed William, Angela appeared to be somewhat relieved.

(53:52):
In her book, searching for spider Man. Ali wrote, I
sensed she had accepted that this was indeed what had
happened to her little boy. It seemed we now had
two separate confessions that implicated abbot, one from an old
mate on his deathbed and the other from a terrified child.

(54:14):
On the face of it, neither had any reason to lie.
After this harrowing testimony, the coroner announced that they would
be hearing from a final witness in a closed court session.
The final pieces of evidence were due to be presented
in mid March twenty twenty, but just days before the

(54:36):
scheduled date, the inquest was adjourned indefinitely due to the
COVID nineteen global pandemic. The coroner said, I'm so sorry
the world has done this. There's still work to be done.
There's nothing in relation to this matter, which I consider
to be a cold case. Likewise, police assured that the

(55:01):
investigation would be ongoing. In June twenty twenty, they conducted
a second search of the log dump site in Logan's
Crossing that had previously been pinpointed by Frank Abbott. As
officers scoured the site, they noticed something odd. Black electrical
tape had been wrapped around the trunk of a tree,

(55:23):
and the ground underneath looked particularly lumpy. The area was
examined and several items of interest were found, but nothing
that related to William Tyrell. By the time the inquest
resumed in early October twenty twenty, William's foster grandmother, Mary Saunders,

(55:45):
had passed away. William's biological father, Tyler Martin, was being
treated in a mental health facility and was unable to
attend the hearing. Speaking on his behalf, Tyler's lawyer said,
imagine having your son taken away and doing everything to
try and get him back, only for him to go missing.

(56:09):
William's father hasn't been the same since he disappeared. In
a way, two sons have been lost. William's biological parents
had suffered immeasurably in the years since William went missing.
In addition to losing their son twice, first to the

(56:29):
foster system and then to the unknown, they had been
subjected to intense media scrutiny and public abuse, with some
going as far as throwing eggs at their home. A
statement read in court on their behalf said, because of
some of the media, the world is blaming us We

(56:51):
have had six years of pain and broken promises. We
are grieving, and we have been grieving for six years.
We are angry and frustrated, and we want answers. Life
will never be the same again. Living without answers makes
things so much harder. William's foster family also spoke of

(57:16):
how difficult their lives had been since William went missing.
Not only had they lost the little boy that they
loved so dearly, but they'd been the victims of online
trolls and ongoing harassment. Complete strangers convinced of their guilt,
had degraded their privacy, stalking their home and encouraging others

(57:37):
to do the same. Photographs had been taken of them
without their permission, and serious threats had been made against
their lives. Peter spoke of their ongoing anguish, saying their
hearts had been split into a million pieces. Angela said
her arms still ached to hold William, stating, our world

(58:01):
and the contented life we knew collapsed around us. It's
hard to understand how the sun could continue to shine.
Peter and Angela also voiced their discontentment about the way
the investigation was going. Since Detective Jubilan had been removed
from it. Not only did they feel they'd been treated

(58:23):
coldly ever since, they were deeply disappointed when it was
revealed in court that there were only five investigators currently
working on the strike force.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Today.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
We are at the same point we were when the
investigation began six years ago. They told the court, How
can the investigation into a missing three year old boy
have its resources so significantly reduced when there is so
much more information that needs to be examined every day.
This heinous crime remains unsolved. The perpetrators remain at large,

(58:59):
capable of committing other monstrous crimes against children. No other
family should ever feel the need they have to fight
tooth and nail for those people in leadership positions to
take notice. By this point, the inquest had been running
for eighteen months. The coroner was left to review all

(59:21):
the evidence presented before handing down her findings nine months
later in June twenty twenty one. Many were critical about
the inquest. Despite being one of the longest running in
New South Wales' history and costing a significant amount to
the taxpayers, it didn't seem to have brought any answers

(59:43):
The allegations against Frank Abbot were compelling, but no physical
evidence had been uncovered to implicate him or any other
person of interest in William's disappearance. Abbot had appeared at
the inquest via video link from jail and was allowed
to question witnesses about any allegations made against him, but

(01:00:03):
he was never questioned himself. The reason why is unknown,
as the coroner ordered that her decision not to do
so be withheld from the public. The general consensus was
that the coroner would deliver an open finding, meaning that
she'd confirmed that William was dead, but with no clarity

(01:00:26):
about how he had died. This led some to question
whether it was worth it to put William's loved ones
through all the pain and discomfort of the inquest at all.
Then came the breaking news that no one saw coming.

(01:00:51):
Case file will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting
us by listening to this episode's sponsors.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
A cast recommends Hello, this is blind By.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
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Thank you for listening to this episode's ad. By supporting
our sponsors, you support case File to continue to deliver
our quality content. In mid twenty twenty one, it was
announced that the coroner's findings would be delayed indefinitely, with

(01:02:11):
no further explanation given than In November that same year,
police held a press conference to announce that they would
be returning to Kendall to conduct several new searches based
on further information that had come to light. They said
the searches were not speculative, but were being conducted at

(01:02:32):
three different locations in conjunction with evidence obtained during the
course of the strike force investigation, as well as coronial orders.
According to the Police Minister, a number of people had
been providing intelligence and working with the police, which had
led to new development. Various news outlets subsequently reported that

(01:02:55):
the police were focusing on a new suspect who had
previously been ruled out, a claim the police would not
officially confirm or deny. William's foster parents called this fake news.
They released a statement saying, once again, we are forced
to watch others objectify William for personal gain. Time and

(01:03:19):
time again, we've watched people lose sight of the tragic
reality that William was a precious, innocent little boy who
was taken from those he loved and to love him deeply.
Forgetting that there is a heartbroken family waiting in hope
that William will be found. To publish unverified claims without

(01:03:39):
consideration to the hurt that articles of this nature cause
is disrespectful and devastating to everyone who knows and loves William.
But those reports turned out to be true. The strike
force had been focusing on one particular individual, William's foster mother, Angela,

(01:04:02):
Bolstered by inconsistencies in her story, The police had been
conducting surveillance of William's foster parents for some time. During
one covertly recorded phone conversation, Angela had made an interesting
comment to a friend. She'd remarked that William's skeleton would
be found in quote thirty forty fifty years time or

(01:04:25):
two hundred years when they had done clearing. Police were
particularly interested in this comment because of something Angela had
told them three days in to William's disappearance. She said
that before calling emergency services to report William missing, she
had driven her mother's car, a Gray Master, about a

(01:04:46):
kilometer down the road in case William had wandered off.
The coroner had pressed Angela about this detail at the inquest.
Angela said that she'd driven down Benaroon Drive before turning
right onto Batar Creek Road. She drove along slowly with
her windows down, before pulling up on the verge outside

(01:05:08):
the old horse Riding School on the corner of Cobb
and Co Road to let a truck pass. Angela said
she looked out for any sign of William's Spider Man
suit among the surrounding greenery, but all she saw was bushland.
Police were curious as to why Angela only disclosed this

(01:05:30):
detail a few days after William went missing. Then there
was the ongoing question about whether or not Angela had
really seen two cars parked oddly on Benaroon Drive. It
had taken her days to report this sighting too, and
given that no one else had seen the cars that morning,
there was increasing suspicion that Angela could have created this

(01:05:53):
detail to cover up something that she herself had done.
Despite being cleared by former case detective Gary Jubilin and
his predecessor, The current strike force had been working on
the theory that William had died after accidentally falling from
mary saunders front balcony. They suspected that Angela could have

(01:06:18):
panicked upon finding his body, fearing that his death would
mean she'd lose custody of Lindsey. She could have quickly
bundled William into her mother's car and drove him to
Bitaquar Road, where she disposed of his body in the
thick undergrowth. Mary's Mazda was the only other car at
the property at the time, and it had not been.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Searched by police.

Speaker 4 (01:06:44):
If the strike force had any evidence to support this theory,
they kept it to themselves publicly. Angela had never swayed
from her story about William wandering off and seemingly disappearing
into thin air. Over the years, she'd worked hard to
draw attention to the case and had publicly criticized the

(01:07:04):
police when she felt they weren't doing enough to find
her foster son. She had made emotional, heartfelt please for
anyone with information to come forward, and had spoken openly
about how difficult life had been for her and her
family since William vanished. If there was any truth to
the new police theory, many agreed that Angela had done

(01:07:27):
an incredible job of hiding it. An investigation was opened
by the new South Wales Crime Commission, a highly secretive
criminal intelligence organization. The government run body holds extensive powers
and can hold hearings and supply evidence obtained during its
investigations to various other courts and agencies. Such hearings are

(01:07:53):
often a last ditch attempt to get reluctant witnesses or
persons of interest to provide information. Although these hearings are
only inquisitorial in nature, individuals are compelled to provide testimony.
If they refuse, they can be charged with contempt of court.

(01:08:13):
If they lie while giving testimony, they face a perjury charge.
Police visited Angela at her home in Sydney and summoned
her to appear at a Crime Commission hearing. One of
the officers urged her to come forward with the truth.
You will have to live with it, he said, Today's

(01:08:34):
the day you make a decision for William. We understand
decisions have been made for different people for different reasons.
We aren't guessing, we aren't bluffing. We know how, we
know why, we know where he is. In November twenty

(01:08:55):
twenty one, Angela was subject to two days of intense
questioning at the Crime Commission hearing. As she sat before
the panel, the police theory was put directly to.

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
Her for the first time.

Speaker 4 (01:09:09):
Angela repeatedly denied the allegations, crying and yelling out no, no, no.
Asked why she had gone for the drive down Batar
Creek Road before calling emergency services, Angela said she couldn't
explain why. She said she thought William might have walked

(01:09:29):
off and her husband might have picked him up. It's
a panic. All I could think was I don't know.
I panicked.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
Where is he?

Speaker 4 (01:09:39):
I don't know where he is, Angela told the Commission,
I don't know what I was thinking. All I could
think about was I have to find him. I can't
give you an answer to that. I remember driving, I
remember stopping, I remember thinking I can't see him. This
is silly, so I went back. Angela was then told

(01:10:05):
that the purpose of the upcoming searches in Kendal was
to look for evidence to support the police theory.

Speaker 1 (01:10:12):
Asked if the.

Speaker 4 (01:10:13):
Police could expect to find William's body during these searches,
Angela replied, no, I didn't take him anywhere. I didn't
touch him. If you want to dig up that entire
house at Mum's dig it up. On Monday November fifteenth,

(01:10:35):
twenty twenty one, hundreds of police officers and specialists descended
on Candle Mary Saunda's old Mazda was also seized from
its new owners at a Sydney property and taken for
forensic examination. The police cut no corners as they searched
Mary's former home on Benaron Drive, which had been sold

(01:10:57):
to new owners years prior. The front garden under the
balcony was extensively dug up, with officers putting every shovel
of soil through a sifter and sorting through the rubble
by hand. Luminol tests were conducted for any evidence of blood,
while cadaver dog searched the yard and underneath the house,

(01:11:19):
and cameras were put into the septic tank. Ground penetrating
radar was also brought in to test the concrete slab
under the home that had been installed in the years
since William went missing. News crews captured footage as officers
bagged numerous items and took them off site for further testing.

(01:11:41):
The bush land on Btar Creek Road, where police suspected
Angela could have done to William's body, was densely vegetated
and overgrown. Machinery was brought in to clear an area
the size of three football fields while water was drained
from the nearby creek. For weeks, the team searched through

(01:12:01):
over fifteen tons of soil, sediment, and leaf litter by hand,
looking for anything not naturally occurring in the bush land.
Police divers searched nearby dams, using their hands to claw
through the mud along the bottom. The search efforts were
hampered by wild wind and rain, but one detective said

(01:12:23):
they were leaving no stone unturned. It's painstaking, it's difficult,
he told reporters. We're very happy with the progress so far,
but we've got no great milestone to report. If anything
of interest was found to during these three searches, police

(01:12:43):
didn't say, and no charges were laid as a result. However,
something else had been going on behind the scenes. It
turned out that listening devices installed in Peter and Angela's
home as part of Strikeforce Rozanne, had allegedly captured something startling.

(01:13:04):
Angela was apparently overheard assaulting another foster child in her care,
the identity of whom is unable to be revealed. According
to the police, in October twenty twenty one, Angela had
been attempting to intervene in the child's problematic behavior, which
had been the source of several arguments between herself and

(01:13:24):
her husband as they discussed how to handle the situation.
Audio revealed that on separate occasions, Angela had kicked the
child in the thigh and hit her with a wooden spoon.
She also allegedly threatened the child numerous times, once warning
I'm going to slap you across the face. Do you

(01:13:46):
want to do that? Another time, Angela said, if I
see or hear you throw something around again, that won't
be the only thing that gets thrown around. You only
seem to listen when I threatened to get violent. She
also warded the child to wash their own clothes, saying
they smelt putrid, and told them quote not to act

(01:14:11):
like a homeless person. Phone taps captured Angela telling Peter
that she had kicked the child. Did you kick her hard?
He asked, yeah, Angela responded, I can't believe I did that.
Later on, Angela told Peter that she had hit the

(01:14:31):
child really hard with that wooden spoon. She remarked that
the child would have a massive welt on her leg,
stating she didn't even cry. One morning, Peter was recorded
yelling at the crying child to get ready for school.
As they got into the car, he admonished them for

(01:14:53):
not closing the front door, yelling every fucking day. Peter
can ditinued yelling and swearing at the sobbing child throughout
the drive, at one point reportedly calling them a.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Stupid little shit.

Speaker 4 (01:15:10):
His voice was so loud that it caused the recording
device to distort. As a result of these recordings, the
child was subsequently removed from their care and interviewed by
the police. In the presence of a support worker. She
allegedly confessed that Peter had once put his hands around

(01:15:30):
her neck, saying he had mental health and anger management issues.
Peter and Angela had both been questioned about these incidents
during the secret Crime Commission hearings under oath. Angela admitted
to having hit and kicked the child, but she denied
having ever hit her with a wooden spoon. Despite having

(01:15:53):
recorded conversations in which they discussed these events, Peter denied
that his wife had ever hear or kicked another child
in their care. As a result of the audio recordings,
Angela and Peter were both charged with assault of a child,
as well as stalking and intimidation of a child for
their crime Commission testimony. They were both also charged with

(01:16:17):
knowingly giving false or misleading information. When the suppression order
was lifted on these allegations, the police clarified that they
didn't believe Angela or Peter had mistreated William Tyrrel while
he was in their care, and that these charges had
no connection to his disappearance. Nonetheless, public speculation began to circulate.

(01:16:46):
According to author Ali Chalmley, records kept by social workers
said that Angela had expressed some concerns about William's challenging behaviors.
At times, he could be oppositional, unsettled, boisterous and defiant.
He was a troubled sleeper who often fought with his
older sister, sometimes biting and hitting her. While William had

(01:17:09):
formed an immediate connection with his foster father, he'd been
slower to warm to Angela. As their relationship improved, he
became clingy and required constant reassurance and attention. Such behavior
was not unusual for kids in foster care, but Angela
admitted to social workers that she was struggling. She had

(01:17:32):
sought professional help for some of William's more challenging behaviors,
but continued to second guess her parenting strategies. About a
month before William went missing, his foster parents took him
to the hospital with a black eye, saying he had
fallen against the table. William's biological parents had seen the

(01:17:53):
black eye at a subsequent supervised visit there. Last before
William went missing, Amy Tyrrel spoke about it at the inquest,
saying she'd also noticed that William had appeared to be
a bit too skinny. It's hard because I don't know
the carers, Amy had testified. I don't know where they live,

(01:18:15):
and I never 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 hard. However, Amy
had been wary of the care William had been receiving
since the beginning. In her twenty seventeen interview with the
Channel seven Sunday Night program, Amy had told presenter Melissa

(01:18:38):
Doyle in previously unaired footage that William showed up for
their supervised visits with bruises, a snotty nose, and inappropriately
dressed for the weather. She claimed his motor skills deteriorated
once he was placed into care, and that she'd written
letters to the authorities saying William would be better off

(01:18:59):
with her. Nothing in any of the caseworker's notes supported
any allegations of wrongdoing on the foster parents behalf, Department
of Family and Community Services staff, childcare workers, and family
friends had nothing but good things to say about Peter
and Angela and their treatment of William. One childcare educator

(01:19:22):
had even described Angela to the police as the perfect parent.
In September twenty twenty three, Peter and Angela appeared in
the Paramatta Local Court to face the child abuse charges
against them for kicking and hitting the child in their
care with a Wooden Spoon. Fifty eight year old Angela

(01:19:43):
pleaded guilty to two counts of assault. However, she pleaded
not guilty to two counts of intimidation against the same
child for threatening to slap them for allegedly placing his
hands around the child's neck. Peter pleaded not guilty guilty
to one count of common assault. He claimed he'd only

(01:20:04):
ever put his hands on the child's shoulders while giving
them a time out for berating the crying child on
the drive to school. He pleaded not guilty to one
count of intimidation. Over the five day hearing, the defense
teams argued that the incidents had occurred during a time
of significant stress, both emotionally and financially, which was exacerbated

(01:20:29):
by the ongoing trauma of William's disappearance. Various audio recordings
were played to the court in which the couple discussed
the pressure Angela was under both in managing the child's
behavior and becoming the focus of the strike force investigation.
In the recordings, Angela admitted she wasn't coping, and Peter

(01:20:52):
expressed his concern saying I've never seen you like this.
The defense said the couple had shown great remorse for
their actions and were unlikely to reoffend, factors they believed
should result in non convictions. Peter's assault charge was ultimately

(01:21:13):
thrown out as the judge found that the level of
physical force he'd used on the child constituted lawful correction.
The child had also told the police that Peter had
never hurt them. For berating the sobbing child in the car,
She found Peter guilty of one count of intimidation, calling

(01:21:33):
his conduct unacceptable and unlawful for threatening to slap the
child on two occasions. The judge found Angela guilty of
two counts of intimidation. She accepted that the couple had
been under significant stress and that they had shown genuine remorse.

(01:21:54):
Describing Angela as an admired foster parent, The judge stated
it has been a difficult sentencing process because there are
so many competing factors to weigh up here. She ultimately
convicted both Peter and Angela and gave them both twelvemonth
good behavior bonds. The charges for knowingly giving false or

(01:22:20):
misleading information during the crime commission were dealt with separately
by Sydney's Downing Center Local Court. The presiding magistrate dismissed
all five charges against Peter, citing the substantial ambiguity of
the questions that he had been presented with during the
Crime Commission hearing. The council assisting had asked Peter if

(01:22:42):
his wife had harmed the child in recent times. They
had also asked, if he recalled if she had kicked
the child. Peter had answered no each time. The magistrate
reasoned that Peter wasn't given a clear definition of the
word harm or recent times, and therefore it couldn't be

(01:23:04):
proven that he'd been deliberately lying. It was also possible
that he'd forgotten the incident. The charges against Angela were
also dropped. Although the covert recordings had captured her hitting
the child with a wooden spoon and telling Peter about
it later, the magistrate said she couldn't discount the possibility

(01:23:27):
that Angela had simply been mistaken when telling the Crime
Commission that she'd never done such a thing. During that hearing,
Angela had admitted to hitting and kicking the child in
her care, but denied the wooden spoon incident. The magistrate
said she might have taken a different view if Angela
had denied those allegations and acknowledged the intense pressure Angela

(01:23:50):
had been under at the time. Angela became emotional as
she was cleared of the charges form Material Case Detection IV.
Gary Jubalin was present and gave her a hug. He
continued to stand by his belief that the foster parents
had nothing to do with William's disappearance and that he'd

(01:24:12):
been right to clear them from the investigation. Outside court
a Tieri, Angela told reporters, with this behind me, I
hope that police focus on finding William and what happened
to him. By the time Peter and Angela had dealt

(01:24:33):
with all the unrelated charges against them, the public were
well aware of the prevailing police theory that Angela had
buried William's body after a fatal fall from her mother's balcony.
In June twenty twenty three, New South Wales Police handed
a brief of evidence to the Director of Public Prosecutions
recommending that Angela be charged with interference with a corpse

(01:24:56):
and perverting the course of justice. They cleared Peter of
any involvement, clarifying they did not believe Angela had caused
the toddler's death, but only concealed his body out of
fear of losing custody of Lindsey. Angela was not informed
of the recommendation before it when public. To the best

(01:25:19):
of her knowledge, police had no evidence to support their theory.
Angela's lawyer demanded that any evidence relating to the claims
be disclosed, releasing a statement that said, to date, William's
body has never been found. The foster mother has always
and maintains she has nothing to do with William's disappearance.

(01:25:42):
She desperately urges the police to resume the investigation into
finding out what happened to William. Whether or not the
police theory could be true, has been discussed at length
by journalists and members of the public. Without any evidence
to support it, many questions were raised about the police's

(01:26:04):
proposed timeline, as pointed out by journalists to Dan Box
in an exclusive article for news dot com dot Au.
The last ever photo of William in his Spider Man
suit was confirmed to have been taken at nine thirty
seven am on Friday, September twelve, twenty fourteen. Angela first

(01:26:26):
alerted a neighbor that William was missing at around ten
forty am.

Speaker 1 (01:26:32):
If the police theory was true.

Speaker 4 (01:26:34):
This gave Angela a window of just over an hour
to realize William was missing and discover his body. She
would have had only a few moments to make the
decision not to call for help or alert anyone of
his death. She then had to get the keys to
her mother's Mazda and carry William's body to the car.

(01:26:56):
While all this was going on, she either had to
keep what she was doing secret from her mother and Lindsay,
or tell them what had happened and convince them to
agree to her plan. With William's body in the car,
Angela would have then had to drive the two minutes
to the corners of Batacre Road and to Cobb and

(01:27:16):
Co Road and dispose of his body in the thick,
almost impenetrable scrub before racing back home again for her
husband's return at ten thirty three am. Either she quickly
brought him in on her conspiracy or flat out.

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
Lied to him.

Speaker 4 (01:27:34):
By the time Angela alerted a neighbor at around ten
forty am, she was in the company of someone outside
of her family for the rest of the day. This
meant she had no other chances to tamper with any
evidence or conspire with her family members.

Speaker 1 (01:27:52):
While it was.

Speaker 4 (01:27:53):
Technically possible for Angela to have done all of these
things within this short time frame, skeptics to the police
theory have raised several questions. For one, the area on
Batar Creek Road where police suspected Angela could have dumped
William's body was in view of the old riding school,
as well as two other properties. Angela would have had

(01:28:17):
no way of knowing if someone was watching what she
was doing. However, just a bit further up the road,
the bushland was just as thick, but with no properties
in sight, why not dump his body there where she
could be sure there were no witnesses. William's sister and

(01:28:37):
foster grandmother had always maintained that William disappeared after wandering
around the side of the house. So if the police
theory was true, how did Angela do all of this
without Mary or Lindsey seeing And why would Angela continue
to keep calling for more public attention and police resources

(01:28:57):
towards William's disappearance if she had something to hide. Before
being publicly named as a suspect, a reporter had asked
Peter and Angela if they would ever stop fighting for William.
Angela had resolutely responded, never if police think they've seen

(01:29:19):
the last of us, big mistake. We will not give
up on William and we will not let other people
give up on him. He is too important to give
up on. In May twenty twenty four, the police asked
the Director of Public Prosecutions to suspend its consideration of

(01:29:41):
the proposed charges against Angela until after the coronial inquest resumed.
The possibility that Angela could have covered up William's accidental
death then became the focus of the inquest when it
recommenced in early November twenty twenty four. By this point,
over five years had passed since the inquest was first opened,

(01:30:03):
and it had been three years since the police first
went public with their theory. Anticipation was high in the
courts as those gathered waited anxiously to hear what evidence
had been gathered to support their suspicions. The general consensus
was that the police must have some fresh and compelling
evidence to justify their allegations. As Angela arrived at the court,

(01:30:29):
a member of the public held abuse at her using
her real name. The council assisting the coroner kicked things
off by clarifying there was still no forensic evidence or
rye witnesses to confirm what had happened to William Tyrrel.
He reiterated that the police theory was just a theory

(01:30:51):
and the coroner could enact on the express belief of
a police investigator. Over four days, testimony was heard from
numerous experts who had been involved in the twenty twenty
one search of Mary Saunders's former property and the bush
land on Btar Creek Road. It was confirmed that officers

(01:31:12):
had found several pieces of fabric and some animal bones,
but no human remains and nothing directly connected to William Tyrrel.
According to a professor in geomorphology, this didn't necessarily mean
that William hadn't been buried there. He said it was
possible that a child's remains could have been carried away

(01:31:35):
by wild animals such as a pig or a fox,
while one expert told the court she couldn't say for
certain whether William's remains would still be present after this
long Examples were also given of juvenile bones that had
lasted over one hundred years in the Australian elements. The

(01:31:56):
video of Angela's crime commission hearing was also played to
the court. In it, she was grilled about what she
meant when she told her friend on a taped phone
call that William's skeleton would be found years down the track.
When clearing was being done, Angela strongly denied that she
meant she knew William had been hidden in the bush.

(01:32:19):
She said she had simply meant that he could be anywhere.
On that same call, she had also told her friend
she couldn't believe the police were focusing on her, stating
if I had done anything to William, I wouldn't have
tried to cover it up. I would have owned up
to it. As the hearings started to wrap up, it

(01:32:44):
became clear that the police didn't have any incriminating evidence
to present. The coroner rejected their request to re examine
Angela on the stand. Before the final block of hearings
could take place, the coroner announced that she was vacating
the evidence completely, which meant the upcoming hearings would be canceled.

(01:33:08):
She called for all parties to provide their written closing
submissions and said she would hand down her findings at
a later date. Many have criticized the way the inquest
was handled, including the fact that over its five year duration,
not one of the three senior investigators overseeing Strikeforce Rozanne

(01:33:31):
were called to give evidence. Criminologist to doctor Xanthe Mallett
had sat through the inquest and she told the ABC
it was time for the police to charge Angela or
quote leave her alone. People have the right to the
presumption of innocence and that has been denied in this
case via gossip and innuendo for years. Doctor Mallett said,

(01:33:56):
if there is evidence she was involved, then she should
be charged or police should acknowledge there is insufficient evidence
to charge her. It was a sentiment shared by many others.
Journalist to Dan Box had been following the William Tyrell
case since the beginning and had many questions about the

(01:34:18):
way police were handling things. Appearing on Channel seven's Spotlight
program to discuss the allegations against Angela, Dan said, if
the police want to say that someone is involved in
William's disappearance, and if that person is William's foster mother,
they have to be certain that all the other people

(01:34:39):
who might have been involved definitely weren't. They have to
actually be able to prove that, and I haven't seen
the evidence that they can. Former case detective Gary Jublen agreed.
Since the allegations came out against Angela, many have criticized

(01:34:59):
the Jubilant's handling of the case, saying he'd been too
close to the foster family during his time in charge
and hadn't investigated them properly. Jubilan told Spotlight that he
stood by everything he did during the four years he
ran the investigation. We ran a covert and overt operation,

(01:35:20):
a fairly intense operation on the foster mother. Jubil Un
said there was no evidence of the foster mother having
knowledge of or involvement with William's disappearance. In February twenty
twenty five, Peter's conviction for intimidating a child was quashed
on appeal, with the judge reasoning that during the court

(01:35:43):
hearing the child had never actually been asked about the
incident or whether they had felt intimidated. He said Peter's
actions were similar to any parent who was quote stressed
and using a loud and frustrated tone of voice. Angela
also appealed her intimidation convictions and is scheduled to face

(01:36:05):
an appeal hearing later in twenty twenty five. As of
the release of this episode, the inquest findings into William
Tyrrell's disappearance still haven't been released. No one has ever
been arrested or charged in relation to William's disappearance, and

(01:36:26):
case file does not suggest the involvement of anyone mentioned
in this episode and acknowledges their presumption of innocence. Anyone
with information about William Tyrrel is encouraged to contact crime
Stoppers on eighteen hundred Triple three, Triple Zero. William's foster

(01:36:46):
mother continues to staunchly maintain her innocence at the advice
of her lawyer. She has not spoken publicly about the
case since being named by the police as a suspect.
The only statement she is given was to dant Box
for his podcast series on the case, titled Witness William Tyrell.

(01:37:08):
It read, just over ten years ago, my little boy,
William Tyrrell, disappeared from my mother's yard at her house
at Kendall. I believe that William was taken. I have
no idea who took William or what happened to him.

Speaker 1 (01:37:26):
If he is in.

Speaker 4 (01:37:27):
Fact dad, I have no idea where his little body
is I have no knowledge of or involvement in his disappearance.
Even though William was not my child by birth, I
loved William as much as any mother could love her child.
I loved him as if he was my child by birth,

(01:37:50):
if not more. It did not matter one bit that
he was not connected to us biologically. William made my
life complete. I loved him fiercely. I just loved being
his mummy. My life with William was happy, fun and
an adventure. Every day was different. Never, ever, for a moment,

(01:38:15):
did I regret becoming a foster mother. We were a family,
not the traditional version of a family. It didn't matter.
We were and still are a family, and we connected
as one. For the past five years, the police have
done nothing to try to discover who took William and

(01:38:36):
what has happened to him. Instead, they have concentrated all
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 little body. They have gone
to great lengths to blacken my character in the media.
I believe that if the police had properly investigated this

(01:38:59):
case instead of persecuting me, they may well have found
the person responsible for William's disappearance. It's challenging to have
hope and build plans for the future when our hearts
remain shattered and in pieces. All I can hope for
is that some person who knows something comes forward. Speaking

(01:39:22):
about the allegations against Angela to Spotlight, Dan Boch said,
part of me actually hopes that the police have got
this right. Then that justifies everything they've done. That justifies
all the attention, all the whispers, the leaks, all of
that is justified. But if the police are wrong and

(01:39:46):
she's not guilty, and we haven't seen any evidence that
she is, then what damage has been done to that family?
Whatever the truth, the reality is that when Angela snapped
the photographs of William playing on her mother's deck on
the morning of Friday, September twelve, twenty fourteen, she could

(01:40:08):
never have known how significant they would become. The last
photograph ever taken of three year old William Tyrrel in
his blue and red Spider Man suit, roaring at the
camera has become etched into Australia's public psyche. Even those
unfamiliar with the case are likely to recognize the photo.

(01:40:30):
It's a confronting image, as it represents two sides of humanity,
the pure innocence of childhood and the potential evil that
lurks amongst us. But William is more than just a
missing boy in a superhero costume. During the coronial inquest
into William's disappearance, an impassioned statement was played to the

(01:40:54):
court from his then ten year old sister Lindsey. In it,
she said, this is my brother we are talking about.
In my mind, no one is trying, so I've made
the decision to do something about that. I hope this
speech today makes you solve the case. If it doesn't,

(01:41:18):
when I'm officially an adult, I will be in the
police force, specifically a detective, and I will find my
brother and won't give up until he's found. Not a
day goes past that we don't think about him. He's
a loving, kind, sweet boy who was annoying at times,

(01:41:39):
but the day he disappeared, we lost everything. We lost
my innocent brother. He needs to be found, so please
help our family, but most of all me find our
precious William.

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Case 322: William Tyrrell (Part 2)

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