How Did We Get Here? | 6

Summary

Podcast Summary: Witness: William Tyrrell

Title: Witness: William Tyrrell
Host/Author: news.com.au
Episode: How Did We Get Here? | 6
Release Date: November 9, 2024

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Introduction

"Witness: William Tyrrell" is a landmark investigative podcast from news.com.au that delves into the mysterious disappearance of three-year-old William Tyrrell from Kendall, New South Wales, on September 12, 2014. Despite a decade-long investigation, William remains missing, with suspicions falling unjustly on his foster mother despite a lack of concrete evidence.

Initial Disappearance and Triple Zero Call

The podcast opens with the reenactment of the morning William disappeared. At [00:01], Simone portrays the foster mother making an emergency call, displaying unusual calmness:

Simone: “I'm listening to this triple zero call, and I've had something similar happen to me.” [01:52]

This calm demeanor contrasts sharply with the frantic nature typically expected in such crises, raising early suspicions.

Police Investigation and Lack of Evidence

At [00:22], host Dan Box critiques the police investigation:

Dan Box: “The police have no forensic evidence, no witness evidence, no direct evidence at all about what happened to him.” [00:22]

Despite initially suggesting a new suspect, the police lack tangible proof, leading to unnecessary speculation and wrongful accusations, particularly against William’s foster mother.

Witness Accounts and Missed Leads

The testimony of Ron Chapman becomes pivotal. At [11:23], Ron describes seeing two suspicious vehicles:

Ron Chapman: "The car was screaming round the corner driven by a woman in her late 20s or 30s... a boy in the back seat matching William's description." [12:23]

However, Ron's delayed and fragmented cooperation with the police results in critical evidence being overlooked for years:

Dan Box: “Ron’s evidence, it kind of goes missing for a few years.” [12:59]

Chaotic Search Efforts

The podcast details the disorganized mass search operations that ensued. Simone recounts the confusion and lack of control during the initial search:

Simone: “This is a debacle. This is just wrong.” [23:38]

The overwhelming number of volunteers led to the inadvertent destruction of potential forensic evidence, severely hampering the investigation’s progress.

Police Procedures and Persons of Interest

Dan Box explains the exhaustive and often ineffective process the police undertook to identify persons of interest:

Dan Box: “Once someone's identified as a person of interest, the police look for any information about them...” [36:06]

Despite processing thousands of leads, the investigation remains mired in inefficiency, with over a thousand persons of interest yielding no significant breakthroughs.

Public Communication and Media Restrictions

A significant issue highlighted is the state laws restricting media from disclosing William’s foster status:

Dan Box: “William wasn’t with his grandmother and mother. He was with his foster grandmother and foster mother...” [36:20]

This lack of transparency fueled rampant speculation and misinformation on social media, complicating the investigation and tarnishing reputations without basis.

Failed Leads and Mismanagement

Personal accounts from witnesses like Richard Brindle and Lois Barry illustrate the police’s failure to act on crucial information:

Richard Brindle: “I ran Crime Stoppers to tell them all about it... I didn't hear back.” [42:58]
Lois Barry: “I tried to report it at the local police station... they told me to go home and have a good night's sleep.” [44:31]

These instances demonstrate systemic failures in handling credible leads, allowing key evidence to be dismissed or ignored.

Wrongful Accusations and Legal Fallout

The podcast culminates in the wrongful persecution of the washing machine repairman, Tony Jones, who was later exonerated. The relentless pursuit of an unfounded suspect led to:

• Assault and harassment
• Loss of business and reputation
• Separation from his family

As Dan Box reflects:

Dan Box: “The police pursuit of this one suspect will ultimately lead to what a court will describe as the worst case of malicious prosecution in the state's history.” [48:47]

Concluding Insights

"Witness: William Tyrrell" underscores the profound missteps in the initial investigation, including:

• Failure to establish a crime scene
• Overreliance on unverified witness statements
• Ineffective communication strategies
• Mismanagement of evidence and leads

These flaws not only impeded the search for William but also resulted in significant collateral damage for innocent individuals, highlighting the dire consequences of investigative negligence.

Reflections and Call to Action

Dan Box poignantly questions the integrity and thoroughness of the investigation:

Dan Box: “If we know now the police have got no evidence about what happened to William, all that makes you wonder what they might have missed right from the beginning.” [46:09]

The podcast serves as a critical examination of law enforcement practices in missing persons cases, advocating for greater accountability and procedural reforms to prevent such tragedies from recurring.

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Note: For those seeking more information or wishing to contribute to ongoing investigations, the podcast encourages contacting Crime Stoppers at 1800 333 000 or emailing [e-mail].

Transcript

[Simone]

Police emergency. This is Simone. Yeah, hi. My son is missing. He's three and a half.

[Dan Box]

So how did we get here?

[Simone]

How long has he been missing? Well, we've been looking for him now for about 15 or 20 minutes, but I thought it could be five, it could be longer because he was just playing around here. We heard him and then we heard nothing. Okay, but what the nearest cross street.

[Dan Box]

Last week, an inquest into William Tyrrell's disappearance heard the police have no forensic evidence, no witness evidence, no direct ev evidence at all about what happened to him. Despite the police previously saying on the front page of a newspaper they had a new suspect they believed was responsible for William's death and disappearance. Despite detectives going to this suspect's house and telling her, you'll have to live with it. We aren't guessing. We know why, we know how, we know where William is. And despite police saying in court on oath, their theory is that William's foster mother disposed of his body, we now know they have no evidence she did this. And the coroner overseeing the inquest has refused to even call the lead detective, David Laidlaw, as a witness. So you have to wonder, where did all these accusations start?

[Simone]

Yeah, I can see. I can see where you are. It's Veneroon drive in Kendall. And I just got. I've got you nearest cross street as being Ellendale Crescent. It could be. I don't know. Okay, so he's been missing since about 10:30? Yeah, I'd say so. I listened to the foster mother's phone call and something. Something clicked for me.

[Dan Box]

This woman doesn't want to be identified.

[Simone]

Okay, can you describe him to me? How tall he'd be? About two and a half feet. He's wearing a spider man outfit. I'm listening to this triple zero call, and I've had something similar happen to me.

[Dan Box]

She's one of the many thousands, if not millions, who've listened to the triple zero recording of William's foster mother reporting him missing since it was made public.

[Simone]

My first child had a horrible accident at home when she was about nine or ten months of age. And she sort of pushed on a screen window, and it mustn't have been secured properly or it wasn't safe enough. She went all the way out, and I couldn't catch her.

[Dan Box]

Like thousands of other people, this woman has gone online, written about the case, sharing her opinions, but I remember running.

[Simone]

Down the stairs and just screaming. And I was hysterical, finding her, you know, on the grass, crying, and I just remember grabbing her and coming back Upstairs to where my phone was and calling emergency services and I was absolutely hysterical, screaming and begging for someone to help me, for the ambulance to please come. And screaming for help the whole time. Yep. What colour hair has he got? He's got dark sandy coloured hair, it's short. And he's got really big browny green coloured eyes. Thinking back to the foster mother's triple zero call, she was calm, she just wasn't phased. She was able to answer questions and she was just cool as a cucumber.

[Dan Box]

And just like the police, she's become suspicious despite having no real evidence.

[Simone]

Okay, I see you get any shoes on? Do you know any other distinguishing features he has? Oh, he's got a freckle on the top of his head. When you part the hair on the left hand side. Yep. You'll see a freckle on the top of his head, you know. Did he have any identifying features? Oh, well, he had a freckle and you know. Was he wearing shoes? Yeah. You don't do that when you're in a crisis because you don't have that presence of mind.

[Dan Box]

So is it fair to say that you started to suspect the foster mum because in that triple zero call, her grief wasn't the same as your grief?

[Simone]

Yeah.

[Dan Box]

Today, 10 years on from that phone call reporting William missing, that's really all we do have, suspicion. People pointing fingers but no evidence. And you have to ask, why is that? Why after 10 years of the most high profile police investigation in the country, is there still no direct evidence of what happened to William? How was that allowed to happen? And is the person who's really responsible for William's disappearance still walking around today to find those answers? We're going back to the moment of this triple zero call and the police investigation that followed. We're going to look at what was done, what was not done, what was missed and how that planted suspicions which grew, forcing their way into every part of the investigation, leading it in crazy, twisted, damaging directions, threatening to strangle it completely.

[Simone]

Then I thought, oh, I haven't heard him, I better go check on him and. Okay. All right, we'll send police to see you at Vinaroo driving Kendall. And also get that a message broadcasted to all the cards. People look out for him as well. Okay, thank you. Bye. Bye, bye.

[Dan Box]

I'm Dan Box and this is witness William Tyrrell. Episode 6 Missing evidence the morning of William's disappearance, 12 September 2014 starts off quiet. He's the first to wake up. Then his foster father, his sister and his foster mother, who would later remember seeing two cars parked on the road outside the house, one white, one grey. Despite saying in that Triple Zero call she didn't see anything suspicious at the.

[Simone]

Time, there wasn't anyone suspicious in the area. Any vehicles? No.

[Dan Box]

Later in the morning, when the kids have got up, had breakfast and are playing with their bikes outside the house, William's foster mother remembers seeing a third car, a grey or green sedan, turn into the driveway of the next door house, reverse out and drive back down the road. She says the driver's in his 50s, maybe 60s. And it's odd, she thinks Benaroon Drive, where the family are staying for the weekend, is a dead end road outside a small town called Kendall, surrounded by forest and empty farmland. You just don't get that many cars, particularly ones where you don't recognise the driver. Later, another witness will also describe seeing a white car that morning, a Holden, being driven by a man on nearby roads. But that only comes to light years later during the police investigation. That will follow after William disappears. At some point that morning, 12 September, a man called Tony Jones leaves his house in Wauchope, which is about a 20 minute drive from where William would go missing. Tony tells his wife Debbie he's going scrapping, looking for scrap metal in the state forest and that their son is going with him. Only Tony's son will later say that he wasn't with his father. When Tony's asked about this at the inquest into William's disappearance, he says, quote, I have no recollections, none whatsoever. And I'll be honest, if I wasn't scrapping, I was probably sleeping with Debbie's friend next door. Another witness will also come forward saying that they see Tony sitting in a white Toyota, although he denies this when the police ask questions. Because weeks after William is reported missing, Tony Jones will be jailed of unrelated child sex offences, although there's no evidence today he was involved in William's disappearance.

[Simone]

Why run away from the cameras, Mr. Jones? Go away, mate. Why did you run away from the camera? Why did you like to go on camera? Hmm? Why did you have to go on camera? Were you in Kendall that day, William? Terrence? No, I was not. Now go away. Mr. Jones, can you explain your car? Look, I answered your questions. My dad. Why?

[Dan Box]

Around 9am on the morning William is reported missing, his foster mother wants to do some washing and realizes the machine is broken. They're staying at her mum's house for the weekend. A local repairman's been asked to fix it by chance, Tony Jones and that local white goods repairman used to be neighbours. Years ago in another town, a long way from where William goes missing. His foster mum calls the repairman but he doesn't answer. She leaves a message asking him to come and fix the washing machine. Another local tradesman, Geoff Owen, calls the home soon after to talk about some work that needs doing on the deck. Jeff is good mates with a man named Frank Abbott. Frank has previously been found not guilty of murder. A year after William's disappearance, Frank moves into a caravan on Jeff's property. And at that time he's on bail for child sex abuse charges. And by chance, Frank Abbott is also connected to Tony Jones. Frank's son in law is Tony's neighbour. And I promise you we'll get into all of that later in this series, but for now we're getting closer to the moment on 12th September 2014 when William is reported missing. After which different people will look again at those phone calls with different tradesmen and the cars seen that morning and start asking if they might be important. Particularly after another local, a man called Ron Chapman, will tell police he saw a car driving fast through Kendall just a few minutes before William's foster mom makes her triple zero call.

[Simone]

At the time I didn't know what make it was, but I believe it to be now throughout. A Land Cruiser, an old model, a boxed type vehicle of Asian colour.

[Dan Box]

All right then, you and I might.

[Simone]

Just take a walk.

[Dan Box]

Ron says the car was screaming round the corner driven by a woman in her late 20s or 30s. And he says she's plump, not very tall, with blonde hair tied in a bun on top of her head. Ron says he sees a boy in the back seat of the car standing up with his hands on the window. The boy's about three or maybe four, with light blondie browny hair, wearing a red and blue outfit like the Spider man suit William is wearing this morning. Ron tells police he sees another car coming after.

[Simone]

Okay, Ron, now you talked about a second vehicle. Yes, you did.

[Dan Box]

This time a blue Ford sedan, really, really accelerating.

[Simone]

How long was it between the first vehicle and the second vehicle? It would have only been a couple of seconds, I should imagine, because I could see it was a man. Yep, in the vehicle. I didn't get a clear enough look to the either dog telling what colored hair he had or whatever evening looked like. Okay.

[Dan Box]

You'd think the police would want to follow up Ron Ron's sighting. Two cars driving fast away from Benaroon Drive. One driven by a man. The other by a woman with a boy standing up on the back seat matching William's description even down to the red and blue suit William is wearing. But Ron's evidence, it kind of goes missing for a few years. Partly because Ron himself doesn't go to the police. At least at first. Instead, when Ron sees the news reports about William going missing, he waits for the police to knock on his door. But they don't do that. Ron's sister tells him he should contact the cops. But Ron doesn't do it directly. Instead he gets in touch with another local woman saying he wants to speak to her sister in law who is the local cop. So a detective doesn't speak to Ron until March 2015, six months after William goes missing. And the police don't interview Ron until the August. Another five months later. They don't record this until April 2017.

[Simone]

The time is now 4.27pm and the reenactment at the premises of Mr. Ron Chapman is now complete.

[Dan Box]

At one point in his conversations with police, Ron says he got such a shock when he saw the news reports about William going missing that he wondered for a moment if he dreamt seeing the cars. When asked directly about this he says, I didn't dream it. No. And when I speak to him for this podcast, he says the same thing. Ron's in his mid-80s now, but sounded clear and confident. When I speak to him, he doesn't want to do an interview, he tells me. But he does tell me, I know what I saw. That's the thing with police investigations. You don't know what you don't know until you realize that the thing you're missing turns out to be important. And all this evidence about cars and people whose movements can't be accounted for or had reason to contact the house where William was staying. It might have meant something if police had known about it at the time, but they didn't. Some of it isn't found out until years later, which is a problem if you're trying to find out what's happened to a missing child. Back at the house where William goes missing, his foster mother calls 000 at 1056 that morning and the first police officer arrives in about 10 minutes, which is impressively fast. He goes through the house opening cupboards, looking under beds, though he doesn't go into the roof space or open the door to the garage. Soon after, another uniformed cop arrives and stays in the house while the first starts searching outside it, looking in yards, the nearby forest, talking to neighbours. He thinks they need to check the drains as a priority in case William has somehow fallen into one. And William's foster mom asks at least three times if she should call the government department overseeing his foster care to let them know what's happened. The police say, no, not yet. Let's see if we can find him. More cops arrive within minutes, including an inspector who establishes a command post, starts keeping written logs of what's happening. He requests the state emergency service search all the water drains and that the police send a specially qualified search coordinator and a helicopter. And the rescue squad, the trail bike unit, the mounted unit and the police media unit send out an alert. After which everything changes.

[Simone]

I thought we'd find him. I honestly thought we'd find him. I thought he would have been found really quickly.

[Dan Box]

News of William's disappearance spreads fast.

[Simone]

I just heard from someone at school bringing in people. There was, you know, massive social media.

[Dan Box]

Posts about everyone volunteers in their hundreds.

[Simone]

So then I went home and got my torch and dressed up and left my kids at home and went looking for him.

[Dan Box]

The police bring in divers.

[Simone]

My daughter, who was at 12 at the time, she said to me, mom, I want to come.

[Dan Box]

All these people descend on the dead end road where William was reported missing.

[Simone]

And I was like, okay, well, let's go.

[Dan Box]

People start searching backyards, dams, the waterways.

[Simone]

There were hundreds of cars there. There were hundreds of people. There seemed to be people going in different directions in different places with different groups, and to be honest, it was bedlam. People had come with motorbikes, people had come with all their own equipment, People camped down there. I recognised quite a few locals, but there's lots of people there that I didn't recognise. Everyone got told to just go, go for a walk, go look for him. People had come from a lot of different places. There was just people wandering around, walking through scrub. This is one of many line searches underway.

[Dan Box]

Afternoon turned into evening. That first night, the searchers keep on looking by torchlight.

[Simone]

Volunteers are exhausted after putting in such long days.

[Dan Box]

Day after day, the search continues.

[Simone]

The ses, the surf clubs, the fire brigade, the lifeguards, the fireys, all resources and means available are being used on the ground and in the air.

[Dan Box]

William's foster father is among them. Up at dawn the next morning and out walking through the bush.

[Simone]

We did have the foster father come down and he kind of just sort of started sobbing and I said, oh, it's all right, it's all right. And he goes, no, it's. No, I just want to thank you. And I said, don't thank us. We're just here looking for the little boy.

[Dan Box]

Until the days start to fall into a pattern.

[Simone]

Sometimes it was hopeful and then some afternoons you could see the exhaustion.

[Dan Box]

But no one stops after 50.

[Simone]

People are working shoulder to shoulder to check every square meter close to the home, like it was just total chaos.

[Dan Box]

Over the next fortnight, police records say the search will cover about 18 square kilometres, which I think is about two and a half thousand football pitches. A police press release says it's 50 square kilometres, so around 7,000 football pitches, which is incredibly impressive, except they missed things.

[Simone]

I witness a great deal of confusion from both the police and the ses.

[Dan Box]

This man is visiting a relative in Benaroon Drive the same morning William is reported missing. He says the police and SES are doing a great job, no doubt, but there are no cordons put in place on the road to stop cars, no.

[Simone]

According off of the street at all. Cars were driving up and down the.

[Dan Box]

Street, meaning anyone can come or go in a vehicle without being checked.

[Simone]

There should have been police at the intersection and any vehicle to go up there should have been stopped and questioned. That would be a priority as far as I'm concerned.

[Dan Box]

And that wasn't happening from what you saw?

[Simone]

No, not at all. Not for some time. And I don't even think until the following day it took place that way because there were still vehicles driving up and down for a bit of a show.

[Dan Box]

He also says some things just don't get searched.

[Simone]

The SES would go walk into a home or driveway and both them and the police on various occasions through that day did the same thing. However, I will mention the fact that there was a caravan and that caravan was bypassed by both the police and the SES each time they came into the premises.

[Dan Box]

So it was never searched, it was.

[Simone]

Never searched, never asked to be looked at and never searched.

[Dan Box]

The police do a forensic search of the house where William was reported missing, but not until the next day, by which time his foster family have stayed in it overnight. A neighbor's house directly across the road is not searched until three days later. The man living there, Paul Savage, is one of only three adults known to hear William and his sister playing at the house that morning. Paul is home alone just before William is reported missing, but the police find no evidence he was involved. In fact, far from finding anything, some of the neighbours living on this road say they have things stolen from their cars and their properties during the search and some of them are still angry. Ten years later.

[Simone]

The street was full of cars from one end to the other and we've got hundreds, if not thousands of people crawling around their homes.

[Dan Box]

And did it look like it was organized?

[Simone]

Far from organized. A bunch of pissed idiots rambling around the street.

[Dan Box]

And what were they doing?

[Simone]

Walking around yelling out, william, William. And just having a general check out of everyone's homes and property.

[Dan Box]

And was there any attempt that you could see by the police to stop them going to certain areas?

[Simone]

Not in the least.

[Dan Box]

And what did you think when you saw that?

[Simone]

I thought, this is a debacle. This is just wrong.

[Dan Box]

One thing everyone can agree on is the forest on either side of Benaroon Drive is too thick for a little boy to wander off in. What's it like trying to search through that bush at the time?

[Simone]

Horrendous, because you got lantana. Have you ever seen lantana? No.

[Dan Box]

Would you show me?

[Simone]

Yeah, it's lantana.

[Dan Box]

Well, this sort of the thin. Yeah, like a thin tree.

[Simone]

Yeah, that's lantana.

[Dan Box]

So what's the problem with lantana?

[Simone]

When you're trying to research, you can get shredded. Oh really? Yeah, it's the stem itself. It got fine points on it. Yeah. Pins on it.

[Dan Box]

Yeah.

[Simone]

If you get entangled in it, you can end up with cuts and. Yeah, okay, you can get shredded. I don't know who invented it, but it's lousy.

[Dan Box]

And you're saying that we couldn't get through it with I've got boots and you've got.

[Simone]

No, I'll have to get me work boots on or me RFS boots to walk in there. I'm still not geared up for it.

[Dan Box]

Don't think a three year old boy would have got through the bush then.

[Simone]

No, no, he would have panicked, I'd say. He'd be crying, of course. Screaming. Yeah. But it is thick everywhere around here.

[Dan Box]

The vast weeks long police search finds nothing worse than that. The search itself potentially destroys forensic evidence.

[Simone]

Driving up, it was, I guess you kind of went, wow, look at all these people that are out looking. Isn't that fantastic? But then upon reflection, you go, well, that's a. Destroying any, you know, possibly destroying any, any evidence that might be around if something nefarious has happened.

[Dan Box]

This woman also visits Benaroon Drive during the early days of the police search.

[Simone]

So there were people all up and down Benaroon Drive. Like I was amazed at how many people. And then when I got up to the house, just the amount of people, I couldn't believe it. The people all over the front lawn. There were people on horseback riding around on the bottom of the front lawn. So, you know, even in that area where they say William might have run down to the lawn and met someone on the road or ended up on the road like they would, there were. I don't know how they'd be able to find anything.

[Dan Box]

When you say I don't think they would be able to find anything, you're.

[Simone]

Talking about, how can you find something when you've got horses trampling over a front lawn and people walking all up and down the front lawn and on the curbside and out the front of the house? And there was, and it's not to criticise the police because I guess at that time they felt they were looking for a missing boy, but there was zero control over the site that he went missing.

[Dan Box]

This, then is the first tragic mistake in the police investigation. Police records say at the time of this initial search, there is no crime scene established. The search was not conducted with the view that there may have been deliberate human intervention. Nor was it done with the view of recovering forensic evidence. The focus was on finding William. But once the search had failed to find William without forensic evidence, the police are playing catch up, not knowing what it is that they are missing, which is tragic because the opportunity was there to collect that evidence. Less than four hours after William's foster mother makes that triple zero call, detectives arrive whose job it is to investigate what happened. And like the searchers, they try their hearts out. The sheer scale of the investigation that will follow is stunning. William's birth and foster families are spoken to. Who knew what? Where were they? Those accounts are tested, evidence gathered, and at the same time, the police are spreading out. In the coming days and weeks and years, the police will speak to everyone who lives on Benaroon Drive, some more than once in nearby Kendal. They will knock on doors, post appeals for information through letterboxes and ultimately interview over 260 different people. The police will also canvass hotels, motels and caravan parks within a 10 kilometer radius. A week after William is reported missing, they will stop every vehicle traveling along the road that leads to Benaroon Drive, recording details of the driver and passengers. The police will obtain CCTV from 12 local businesses as well as 169 CCTV cameras from outside Kendall. They'll examine data from people's phones, from traffic cameras and mobile cell towers. They will receive thousands, literally thousands of reports from people who will say they have seen William from right across the country. At one point, William's foster parents will be shown a photo of a man and a boy seen on a train, and oh my gosh, it looks like William. The police will track that man down only to find the boy is his son. The police will also be inundated with information from people claiming to be clairvoyants who can speak to the dead or saying information has come to them through dreams or visions. And it's easy to imagine even the most organized police force drowning in paperwork. And even with this huge flood of information, there are still things that are missing. There's no CCTV camera that records the cars going in or out of Benaroon Drive. And it's not until the day after William disappears that police check the CCTV from the Kendall Tennis Club, which films cars going in and out of Kendall. But that camera only shows vehicles from the side, not their registration plates, making it difficult to identify them. And while it covers the main road in and out of Kendall, there are several other roads where the cars aren't recorded.

[Simone]

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[Dan Box]

Very early on in the investigation, the local detectives start speaking to their counterparts in the specialized Sex Crime Squad and Homicide squad, both based in Sydney. Sex crimes detectives visit Kendall within days of William's disappearance. If their involvement so early on surprises you, that's a reflection of the fact that it is a really dark world sometimes, and the police have often seen firsthand what lives in those darker shadows. During their investigation, the police will identify people listed on the child protection register on the mid north coast of New South Wales, meaning those people who have been sentenced for child sex offences or the kidnap, manslaughter or murder of a child. The cops will concentrate their inquiries on those living within a 30 kilometer radius of where William was reported missing, identifying dozens and speaking to them all. Police records show there was nothing to suggest any of those people on the Child Protection register had any knowledge or involvement in William's disappearance. But detectives keep a record of their names on what becomes known as the persons of interest list. It's basically a list of people who require investigation to rule them in or out. Almost everyone, or maybe everyone on the list, will turn out to have nothing to do with William's disappearance. But the police still have to work through the names to be certain. Once someone's identified as a person of interest, the police look for any information about them on the cops central computer system, like details of criminal history, intelligence reports, whether they're on the Child Protection Register and any known personal details. That's all written up in an information report and put on another police database called Eagle Eye. It's also put into the investigation's intelligence collection plan and background checks on all of these people are carried out. For some, detectives will seek out law enforcement records from other states across Australia, telecommunication records, financial records, which are all analyzed to see if the person of interest has any links to William Tyrrell, his family or the place where William was reported missing. In time, a forensic psychologist will be brought in to consult with the detectives, the police looking at whether each of their persons of interest has the motive, opportunity and capability to do something to William. They then divide the list of people up into low, medium and high risk, with all the high risk persons of interest targeted for further investigation and individual briefs of evidence about them compiled explaining why they came under suspicion, what investigations have been carried out and any evidence both for and against them. All of which will later be sent to a coroner overseeing an inquest into what happened to William. What I'm saying is it's a lot of work, a lot to manage. In time, the police will have over a thousand persons of interest. Four days after Williams reported missing, the police announce a dedicated strike force will investigate what happened to him. It's made up of three officers from the homicide squad, one from the unsolved homicide team, two from Sex crimes, one from the robbery squad and two from the local police command. But there is some confusion, at least for me, looking in from the outside as a reporter covering William's disappearance at the time, over who's in charge. I'm sorry, Inspector I didn't get your full name before.

[Simone]

Superintendent Fion. How do I spell Phon? F, E, H, O, N. Thank you.

[Dan Box]

This is the local area command commander, Superintendent Paul Fion, speaking at a press conference a year after Williams reported missing.

[Simone]

Look, the investigation has continued, and as has been said many times, there is a wealth of information and intelligence that has come through, and it has to be followed up. And at this point in time, we are no closer to saying where William.

[Dan Box]

Is, which is not the message the homicide squad want people to be given. They're put in charge of the investigation six days after Williams reported missing, according to police records. And they don't want people going around saying they're no closer to solving the case. But Paul Fion, the local police commander, he keeps appearing in the media.

[Simone]

You would always like to have an early result of any matter. We just have to be committed to it. And the strike force is very committed. Committed to following up every single piece of information.

[Dan Box]

The strike force is committed. They set up a dedicated room in a local police station. But as a reporter covering the investigation, I hear odd things, like how they get told to move out of the room when the local cops want to have a meeting.

[Simone]

It's about trying to locate what's happened to a young child who was playing with his sister, grandmother, and mother in what you would think is the most safe environment.

[Dan Box]

That confusion is compounded by the fact police are actually misleading the public. Listen again to what Paul Fion says about William's family.

[Simone]

A young child who was playing with his sister, grandmother, and mother.

[Dan Box]

William wasn't with his grandmother and mother. He was with his foster grandmother and foster mother. In those first few days and weeks following his disappearance, we reporters aren't allowed to say William is a foster child. The state government department responsible for William's care tell us that the law actually prevents us from doing so. It puts out written warnings to the media talking about legal action and penalties of up to two years in prison. Years later, this official silence will be challenged in court, and a judge will say the department's use of the law is misconceived. But at the time, no one talks in public about William being a foster child, and instead everyone calls William's foster parents simply his parents, meaning William's biological family do not get a mention in anything that's said in public. And even then, the state government insists that the same laws mean William's foster parents cannot be pictured or named or speak in public, meaning they do not get to make a public appeal for information you know, the kind of thing you see in news reports and TV shows about tragic cases where the grieving families say, please, if you know anything, come forward. But the thing about those public appeals is they work. People do come forward sometimes, but that is not allowed to happen in William's case. So we will never know if it might have made a difference. And just like with the failure to establish a crime scene right at the beginning to protect any possible forensic evidence, with police work, you don't know what you don't know until you realize it might have been important. But I do know detectives who look at this case say this is a wasted chance that might have made a difference. And of course, the secrecy also doesn't work. William's name, the fact he was in care, and the identities of both his birth and foster parents start spreading over social media as if the official attempts to shut down this information only spark a wildfire of speculation. And some of that is cruel. Late the same night William is reported missing, his birth mum gets a call from someone saying there's something written online that her son's body has been discovered. And of course, that isn't true. As a reporter covering the investigation into William's disappearance in the weeks and months and years that follow, one thing that strikes me is the sheer scale of the police operation and how hard it must be to keep track over all that information. The uncertainty about different cars continues. The foster mother remembers seeing two cars parked outside the house on the morning William went missing. A grey sedan and a white station wagon. A year later, the police will be unable to find those cars. Then there's the information that for the.

[Simone]

First time tonight is being made public by police.

[Dan Box]

And we'll use the Nine Network 60 Minutes program to appeal for information.

[Simone]

We've got the general description of the vehicles. One's a white station wagon. Another is a older style grayish colored sedan, that white Toyota Camry station wagon. It was published in the news.

[Dan Box]

This is Richard Brindle. He's a truck driver who says he was driving his B double up in Queensland.

[Simone]

That car, well, that bloke was parked on the side of the road halfway between Marianvale and Ginger in central Queensland.

[Dan Box]

Richard says the car driver was a bit weird and he got out and.

[Simone]

He started waving to me and I waved and he followed me and he followed me and he followed me and I stopped and I said, who are you? What's your problem? Anyway, he went around me, plopped his penis out, having a pee on the side of the road, waving at me. And I thought, this guy's a nutter.

[Dan Box]

Richard says the station wagon has New South Wales plates. He drove away and at home that night he saw a sketch that looked exactly like the car on 60 Minutes. He also recognized the man he saw from news reports.

[Simone]

There was on the news a description of the bloke and then sketch of the bloke and all. I said, that's a guy in that white station wagon that's up there in central Queensland.

[Dan Box]

That's that car Richard says he called Crime Stoppers, which allows you to report information to police.

[Simone]

So I ran Crime Stoppers to tell them all about it. Like I said, you know, you want to. What they could have done. There's cameras, we know, all the surveillance cameras. I said, you know, go through the cameras. I got my log books, they got records of my run, you know, and you can get this car's Reggio and there's a start for you.

[Dan Box]

Only Richard didn't hear back.

[Simone]

Yeah, twice now I've rang them and.

[Dan Box]

He was talking about a car. The police had been on TV appealing for information about just my frustration.

[Simone]

I thought, you know, there's a bullish life's gone missing here. I've got kids of my own. I thought, I'm not after reward money, anything like that. Very serious stuff. It's a boy's life.

[Dan Box]

And maybe all that shows you is how much information the police were receiving. And the car Richard saw, maybe it wasn't the white car in the police appeal and maybe memory can be unreliable. Except there's Lois Barry, because I had.

[Simone]

Got in touch with the Crime Stoppers.

[Dan Box]

Who says she saw a boy she swears was William with a group of other kids and two adults in central Australia shortly after he went missing.

[Simone]

As I was walking across, one little boy said, what's the matter, Will? And I looked across and here's William Tyrrell.

[Dan Box]

Lois says she tried to report it at the local police station.

[Simone]

The policeman came out and he didn't let me get to finish. And he said, look, I'm in a meeting. Don't wor. There's all sorts of funny things going on up here. Just go home and have a good night's sleep and don't worry about it anymore.

[Dan Box]

And Lois says she called Crime Stoppers more than once, but never heard from a detective.

[Simone]

Then all of a sudden I noticed this little boy.

[Dan Box]

And then there's Matilda Polonets, who was on a bus journey two days after William was reported missing.

[Simone]

And I think I just noticed him more so because he had that Spider man outfit. You know, that's why what I really.

[Dan Box]

Do remember and saw a boy she later recognized from news reports as William.

[Simone]

And of course, the brown hair.

[Dan Box]

And this was before you'd heard about William going missing?

[Simone]

Yeah. I didn't even know.

[Dan Box]

Matilda tried to report this to Crime Stoppers, but says the person on the line says she must have got it wrong.

[Simone]

She asked me if he had blonde hair, and of course I said no. And then she just said, no, that's not the boy. It wasn't Terrell.

[Dan Box]

So she asked you if the boy you saw had blonde hair and you said no.

[Simone]

That's a hundred percent yes. She specifically said that? Yes.

[Dan Box]

Only William wasn't blonde. He had brown hair like the boy on the bus. So if this conversation happened like Matilda remembers, Crime Stoppers got that wrong. And maybe something important wasn't passed to the detectives, Richard, Lois and Matilda, all saying they called Crime Stoppers. And nothing. We asked Crime Stoppers about this. Their chief exec, Peter Price, said they can't respond to, quote, comments made by members of the public, which can't be substantiated or proven in any shape or form. And these comments may end up being a matter of opinion, which is fine, except we gave Crime Stoppers the names of the people making what he calls these comments. And I would have thought Crime Stoppers keeps records. So these comments could be substantiated or proven. Either way, we do know there were gaps in the police investigation and no crime scene was established, so there was no forensic evidence and some places never got searched amid confusion over who was really running the investigation, which was also dealing with an avalanche of tips, leads and sightings. So some got missed or only followed up on years later. And if we know now the police have got no evidence about what happened to William, all that makes you wonder what they might have missed right from the beginning.

[Simone]

So this was in within, I'm guessing, two weeks of William going missing.

[Dan Box]

This woman was close enough to what was going on to know about the local white goods repairman we mentioned at the start of the episode who was due to come and fix the washing machine in the house where William was reported missing.

[Simone]

So I just thought I'd call Crime Stoppers.

[Dan Box]

She says that she read something about how if William was abducted, it was likely to be someone who had a reason to be at the property.

[Simone]

And so that just made me immediately think about the washing machine guy, because we knew that he'd been there.

[Dan Box]

And what did you hear back? I didn't hear back ever.

[Simone]

No.

[Dan Box]

And what did you think about that?

[Simone]

I've never called Crime Stoppers before, so I wasn't sure whether they would ring me back or whether they would just take the information and pass it on to the police.

[Dan Box]

And maybe that happened because somehow, out of all the noise and chaos of the search and the investigation, the clairvoyance, the media reporting, the thousands of sightings and all the other persons of interest, the police will zero in on this one suspect who will come to dominate all their attention, blotting out other leads, meaning, again, you'll never know what you missed if you had been looking. And the police pursuit of this one suspect will ultimately lead to what a court will describe as the worst case of malicious prosecution in the state's history. But right now, one week after William was reported missing, as his foster parents load up their car, including the empty car seat for the long drive home to Sydney, this washing machine machine repairman has no idea what is about to hit him. How he will become front page news. He'll be assaulted, forced to move, have a new neighbor tell him she doesn't want him to be outside while her children are playing. How he will be arrested, accused of child sex offenses, have details of those charges shared with journalists outside the court by police. And only years later, when he has lost his business and his reputation, been separated from the children who were living with him. Only then, when it's too late for all those things, will this man be found not guilty. And even today, 10 years into the police investigation into William's disappearance, there is no evidence that he or Tony Jones or Jeff Owen were on Benaroon Drive that morning. But there are people who wrongly remember only the bad headlines and ask, who was that guy? The one from the TV reports. What happened to him? Maybe. Let's start at the beginning. Could you introduce yourselves.

[Simone]

On Bill Spedy? Yes.

[Dan Box]

That's next time on Witness. William Tyrrell. If you know anything about William's disappearance, please contact Crimestoppers. There's a number in the show notes for this series, but if there's anything you want to tell us, you can email witness.com au or. I'm on social media and it can be completely co confidential. A lot of different people have been involved in making this series. Among them, the executive producer is Nina Young. The sound design was by Tiffany dimack. The producers have been Emily Pidgeon, Nicholas Adams Jasbar, Phoebe Zukowski Wallace and Tabby Wilson. Research by Aidan Patrick. Original Music by Rory O'Connor. Our lawyer is Stephen Coombs. The editor at news.com au is Kerry Warren voice acting in this episode by Beck Day and Bridgette Bush. I'm Dan Box.

[Simone]

Cocaine is a global industry where the.

[Dan Box]

Profits are counted up in millions and.

[Simone]

The losses measured out in murders because it's only business and right now business is good and I'm like torture seller.

[Dan Box]

What are you talking about?

[Simone]

I don't think we can arrest our way out of this.

[Dan Box]

Listen to Cocaine Inc.

[Simone]

Wherever you get your podcasts or visit cocaineinc.com au the podcast Faith on Trial looks into Hillsong both in Australia and the US and takes both the listener and hosts on unexpected twists and turns. In the story of Brian Houston and the singing preachers. There are two incidents involving Pastor Brian the Australian journalists uncovered a litany of alleged criminal behavior in the megachurch. Financial gifts were being given to the leaders of the church. Listen to Faith on Trial Hill Song ad free on Crimex on Apple podcasts today or wherever you get your podcasts.