AFP uses ground penetrative radar to look for disturbances as focus shifts to garage

Police have returned to the home where William Tyrrell was last seen, using a hi-tech device to scan underneath a concrete slab in their search.

The high-tech radar used by AFP officers to scan inside the garage of William Tyrrell’s foster grandmother’s former home has not picked up any abnormalities hidden under the concrete.

A police spokesperson said the ground penetrative radar returned “clean data” and there was “nothing that would indicate any abnormalities of interest to the investigation”.

This morming, the AFP’s Forensics Imagery and Geomatics team used the device to look for disturbances and anomalies in the soil beneath the concrete.

It is understood the concrete slab in the garage was installed some time after William’s disappearance in September of 2014.

The device was also used to search a nearby area of bushland on Wednesday.

Police are still combing through the area on Batar Creek Road, with the cadaver dog being brought out to inspect the site again shortly after 2pm today.

A heavy duty electronic sifter was also brought to the site, with officers seen pouring buckets of debris into the machine.

Crews have been working todya to clear more thick bushland further along Batar Creek Rd.

The AFP’s Forensics Imagery and Geomatics team are this morning using a ground penetrative radar to look for disturbances and anomalies in the soil beneath the concrete. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Peter Lorimer

Police are now focusing on the garage. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Peter Lorimer

The ground penetrative radar uses radar pulses to image survey the sub-surface of an area to investigate underground.

The device was also used to search a nearby area of bushland on Wednesday.

It comes as police searching the bushland confirmed to news.com.au investigators have a sample of a replica Spider-Man suit with them.

William was famously wearing a Spider-Man outfit the day of his disappearance.

It is understood officers compared the fabric sample to deteriorated pieces of material found at the search site on Wednesday afternoon.

Two pieces of degraded material were found at the search site yesterday, with officers seen comparing the pieces to samples of a red and blue Spider-Man suit.

The scene at the William Tyrrell search site less than 1km from where he was last seen. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Peter Lorimer

The search continued early this morning, with carloads of officers arriving at the site just before 8.30am on Thursday.

A truck carrying wheelbarrows was unloaded and officers began removing branches and debris from the site.

Police descended on a home in Benaroon Drive, Kendall, on the NSW mid north coast earlier this week where William’s now-deceased foster grandmother lived when he went missing.

Multiple reports suggested police were working on a new theory that William may have fatally fallen from the balcony of the home.

Officers were seen searching the area directly below the balcony, removing plants from the garden and sifting through the dirt.

Luminol, a substance that shows traces of blood, was sprayed in the area and a cadaver dog was also seen combing through the garden bed.

William Tyrrell in his costume.

In a new development, police are also reportedly focusing on a key detail in the famous image of the child in a Spider-Man suit, which was taken shortly before he vanished.

According to The Daily Telegraph, police are looking into detail surrounding witness statements from William’s foster mother, who claimed he was wearing shoes on the day he disappeared to protect his feet from bindis and dog poo.

But in the image, taken less than an hour before he went missing, William is barefoot.

It is one of a number of inconsistencies in the statements from that day that has seen detectives return to the home in Kendall where William was last seen.

Originally published as AFP uses ground penetrative radar to look for disturbances as focus shifts to garage