How desperate search for missing William Tyrrell split strike force
As the search for three-year-old William Tyrrell intensified — so did tensions among senior officers tasked with heading the investigation. This is the inside story on that fractured relationship. INTERACTIVE: 10 THINGS WE LEARNT FROM THE INQUEST
True Crime
Don't miss out on the headlines from True Crime. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It is the investigation that united a community but has split a homicide strike force.
The team of police tasked with solving the disappearance of three-year-old William Tyrrell has been fractured with the lead detectives almost coming to blows over the direction of the probe and disagreements over who should be a main target.
The investigator overseeing the high-profile case — Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubelin — was noticeably absent from this week’s inquest.
Celebrated homicide detective Jubelin was sidelined from the case after another officer made allegations about bullying, falsifying affidavits on the strike force and recording a conversation with a witness without a warrant.
Jubelin has previously denied the claims.
While an internal investigation has been underway, he has been behind a desk in the State Crime Command’s executive offices on level nine, away from his homicide squad colleagues.
He has been forced to watch the inquest unfold from afar despite devoting the last four years of his career into the case.
Veteran homicide Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw has taken the lead role on Strike Force Rosann.
Jubelin’s professional relationship with the officer in charge of the case — Detective Sergeant Craig Lambert — broke down when the pair almost came to blows last year over the direction of the investigation.
Police sources say there was a split between Det Jubelin and officers on the strike force over which person of interest warranted further investigation.
The sources said Det Jubelin was focused on one suspect while other members of the squad, including Det Sgt Lambert, believed another target should be looked at further.
No official complaint was made about the Det Lambert v Det Jubelin incident, which was witnessed by several other officers who helped break up the heated confrontation in the homicide squad offices.
After a short time on leave, Det Sgt Lambert returned to the SCC earlier this year but was rostered to a position on the Unsolved Homicide Review Team.
Insp Jubelin declined to comment.
THE INQUEST
Someone out there has a sinister secret they have been hiding for 1661 days.
That’s how long it has been since the suspected abduction and killing of William Tyrrell. three, on September 12, 2014.
So far, they have got away with it. But their identity may soon be revealed.
The first section of the inquest into the disappearance of William from the yard of his foster grandmother’s home on the mid north coast wrapped up this week with a promise of more to come.
This week’s evidence centred on the day little William, in his Spider-Man suit, vanished from Benaroon Dr in Kendall, the immediate search and the troubled background of his biological family.
However, it’s the next round of hearings, which will take place in August, that might finally bring some closure to one of Australia’s most talked about mysteries.
Wrapping up his first round of witnesses on Friday, counsel assisting the inquest Gerard Craddock SC told the court this week’s evidence was “Just the tip of the iceberg, really.”
MORE NEWS
‘BONG BAN’ AS INMATES SMOKE NICOTINE LOZENGES
BITTER FAMILY FIGHT OVER ORPHANED TIGER LILY
In his opening statement, Mr Craddock said: “I expect it is likely that (William) was taken. If the evidence establishes that William was abducted, that conclusion is chilling.’’ This means that “a person snatched a three-year-old from the safety of a quiet backyard. And that person … remains in our community.”
Resuming on August 5, the inquest will hear from several more witnesses whose identity is closely guarded by police and legal authorities. Several of the names are likely already in the public domain.
Washing machine repairman Bill Spedding and neighbour Paul Savage, neither current persons of interest, were represented by lawyers at this week’s hearings.
THE DAY HE VANISHED
In an instant, it had become too quiet. William was gone.
On the first day of the inquest, William’s foster mother, who can’t legally be identified, spoke through tears as she recounted September 12.
The scene was the foster grandmother’s house on Benaroon Dr in the tiny 1100-person town of Kendall.
The foster mother and her husband had made a spontaneous decision at 9 o’clock the previous evening to take William and his sister to visit “nanna”. The following morning, the foster father drove from the house to get better internet and phone reception for a work conference. The foster mother and grandmother sat on the patio drinking tea while William played, pretending to be a “daddy tiger”.
At 9.37am the foster mother took the now famous photo of William in his Spider-Man suit, appearing to roar at the camera. “William was ducking to the northeast corner of the house and then rushing out and roaring at the ladies,” Mr Craddock said in his opening address.
“They were drinking tea.”
William went around the corner from the patio and out of sight of the women, into the yard, which runs down a steep grass hill to Benaroon Dr.
Then their lives changed forever. Through tears at the inquest, the foster mother said: “I heard a roar and then I heard nothing.”
“Mum and I are talking and still hear nothing and I think that’s weird and I looked across at mum and say: ‘It’s just too quiet’ and I get up and walk around and I can’t see him,” she told the court.
“I race back around to the house again and say to mum: ‘He’s not here’,” she said. “I go inside and I open up every single cupboard, I open up every single wardrobe.
“All I can think is where’s the red? Why can’t I see the red?,” she told the court.
The panicked foster mother called out: “William, it’s mummy. I can’t see you, I can’t hear you.”
Nothing. At 10.56am, she called triple-0.
In the call that was played to the court, she said “My son, he’s missing. He’s three-and-a-half” before saying “we have been looking for him for about 15 or 20 minutes.”
After William disappeared, the foster mother began to go over everything in her head, looking for clues as to what happened.
She told police that on 7am on the day of the disappearance she saw two dirty old cars — one gunmetal grey and the other white — parked on the street and thought “that’s odd”.
The foster mother told police she later saw a third “old” car — this one green.
She told the inquest the driver was a “big man” with “weathered skin” and that their eyes locked for a moment where he gave her a “challenging look. My heart just sank because I thought those two cars were there for both of them,” she said.
One of the cars was deemed not to be a threat and police inquiries about the other two yielded nothing.
She also told the court of another moment during her frantic search when she thought she heard a child scream.
“It was quick,” she told the court.
“It was like when a child hurts themselves unexpectedly, there’s a scream. And it felt like a scream. And it was quick, and it was high-pitched, and it was sharp.”
She later told the inquest she couldn’t be sure if she was imagining it.
DADDY’S HOME
IT was a simple ritual but one that filled his heart with love.
William’s foster father would send a text message to his wife announcing he would be home in two to three minutes. He would beep the horn before William and his sister would run out screaming and laughing, the inquest heard.
Only on September 12, 2014, as he drove back to Benaroon Dr house after making a business call, the first person he saw in the driveway was his wife and something was very wrong. “Is William with you?” she asked, frantic.
“Why would he be with me?,” her husband replied.
“He’s missing, he’s gone,” she said.
The foster father told the inquest he was a keen trail bike rider and knew the bush tracks extensively because he also had family who lived in the area. He immediately got out of the car and took off to search. “I assumed (my wife) had already done the immediate area so I knew it would be best for me to branch out and … and start searching (outside the house),” he told the inquest.
THE SEARCH
People came from everywhere. Neighbours. Off duty cops. State Emergency Service workers. Even the ladies having a hit at the Kendall Tennis club dropped their racquets.
The first policeman arrived on the scene at 11.06am.
It wasn’t long before there was a mass of people, including many strangers to the family, conducting line searches through the bush, negotiating dams, steep slopes and unforgiving lantana. Neighbour Nadine Heslop told the inquest: “I didn’t know them. They didn’t know me. (People) just did it.”
Off-duty police officer and tennis club president Wendy Hudson came with her two teenage sons to join the search.
“I went because I wanted to help,” she said. “I’ve been a Kendall person all my life.”
WAS IT A RELATIVE?
In his opening statement, Mr Craddock told the inquest William’s foster and biological parents were not suspects. But he also added: “Police have not drawn the positive conclusion that a known relative or associate was not involved in William’s disappearance.”
His biological parents were initially suspects because they previously absconded with William in 2012 after a court made him a ward of the state. In her police statement, read to the inquest, his biological mother said: “”If I took him, I would be gone and I would have (his sister) as well. I want a normal life. I don’t want to be hiding away with them somewhere.”
The biological father also denied taking him, saying of the Department of Family and Community Services: “They f … ed up.”
As the hearing wrapped up, Mr Craddock used his platform to tell the court “the police investigation into the disappearance is ongoing (and) we certainly haven’t given up.”
Originally published as How desperate search for missing William Tyrrell split strike force
Island paradise a coke, meth superhighway to Australia
These idyllic islands have become a haven for drug cartels and triads to push cocaine and meth through to keep the global drug trade alive as it also moves to Australia.
Ex-Melbourne private schoolboy sentenced for bashing wife
Damien Carew, a graduate of the elite St Kevin’s College in Toorak, has learned his fate over charges for repeated domestic violence against his Russian wife.