Police divers search dam, creek for William Tyrrell on 11th day of search

New images have emerged of police divers searching a dam on a property near where William Tyrrell disappeared.

Police divers are scouring a dam downstream from the creek detectives have been examining in their search for William Tyrrell’s remains.

The renewed search for the missing boy, who vanished from his then foster grandmother’s house in Kendall in 2014, entered its 11th day on Thursday.

Detectives, emergency services personnel and forensic experts last week returned to the NSW mid-north coast town, where they are combing for evidence based on what NSW Police have said is new information in the case.

Divers arrived on the scene on Wednesday afternoon and used specialist cameras to search two water tanks on the property where William was last seen.

The divers on Thursday morning moved the search to a site near a creek about a kilometre away from the Benaroon Drive house.

Here, police officers and NSW Rural Fire Service volunteers have been digging up the ground above the creek bed with an excavator and combing through the soil by hand under the guidance of a hydrologist.

The divers have been searching a dam roughly the size of a tennis court on a private property about 500m from the dig site.

Police divers are assisting Strike Force Rosann detectives in the search for William Tyrrell’s remains near Kendall. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Peter Lorimer.

They are expected to work their way back up the creek to the main search site later in the day, returning to the strip of water near Batar Creek Rd.

NSW’s new police commissioner Karen Webb has doubled down on comments from other senior members of the force that “no stone will go unturned” in the search.

Ms Webb, who was appointed to the top job on Wednesday, said the next morning that “we must” find out what happened to William.

“It’s been seven years now and that’s a long time, but we’re not going to give up. I’m confident this team will just keep pursuing this until we get a result,” she told Sydney’s 2GB radio.

Police divers have been searching a dam less than 500m from the dig site. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Peter Lorimer

William’s case was the kind that stayed with even a seasoned police officer, she said.

“Those things don’t leave you. That’s a child unaccounted for. We need to find him. We need to find William and get this resolved,” she said.

Ms Webb said she didn’t believe William’s DNA had so far been found on any of the evidence bagged in Kendall in the past two weeks.

“(There have been) many exhibits taken that will be examined but that takes time,” she said.

“It’s a long laborious search. And obviously the weather conditions up there are unfavourable, but police will pursue this no matter what.”

William, then 3, was playing “tigers” with his sister before he disappeared and went on to become one of Australia’s most baffling missing person cases.

He has never been found despite years of detective work, the identification of hundreds of people of interest, a $1m reward for information and a coronial inquiry that remains open.

Originally published as Police divers search dam, creek for William Tyrrell on 11th day of search