Deputy state coroner joins search for William Tyrrell
RETRACING his tiny footsteps on the lawn where he vanished, the deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame joined the search for William Tyrrell.
NSW
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RETRACING his tiny footsteps on the lawn where he vanished, the deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame joined the search for William Tyrrell.
Lead investigator Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubelin today spent 30 minutes leading Ms Grahame around the mid-north coast property where William played, then disappeared, on the morning of September 12, 2014.
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Ms Grahame was also driven into dense bushland near the property — the former home of William’s foster grandmother — on a fact-finding mission to bring her up to speed on the country’s most high-profile suspected abduction.
No criminal charges have been laid over William’s disappearance after almost four years, leaving the prospect of a coronial inquest to loom larger by the day.
A public inquest before Ms Grahame would likely see police table evidence they have kept close to their chest for years and persons of interest could be put on the stand.
Ms Grahame has returned forthright opinions in past rulings and been unafraid to point the finger at stage agencies which fail children.
Last month she ruled on the deaths of two Sydney infant half-sisters born to an ice-addicted mother, saying the Family and Community Services Minister, who is Pru Gward, “must be made to grapple openly with these issues”.
Earlier this month, Insp Jubelin hinted at an inquest as a new forensic search began in bushland around the Kendall home, aimed at ruling out any chance William simply got lost and was still in there.
“We’ve always considered the possibility of it going to an inquest and we’re keeping our minds open to that,” he said.
“But I want to also stress that we’ve got numerous lines of inquiry including persons of interest that we’re going to fully exhaust before the matter goes to the coroner.”
For three days last week police also searched a rural intersection 4km from the home, which police had linked to a “high risk” person of interest in the case.
New information arose during that search but nothing proving William had been there was reported by police.
Police and emergency crews searched 18sq km around Kendall in the days after William went missing, on the belief he was lost rather than he had been abducted.
William was taken from his biological parents at just 18 months old and placed with his foster family, which the media has only been allowed to report since a Supreme Court judge last year ruled it was in the public interest.
Police do not consider William’s complex family history relevant to his disappearance.