Search for William Tyrrell: ‘We’re confident we’ll get closure for the family’

Investigators believe they’re close to putting an end to the seven-year mystery of William Tyrrell’s disappearance, with a grave archaeologist saying they’re confident on getting closure for his family.

Investigators working on the case of missing toddler William Tyrrell believe they’re on the cusp of finding his remains and finally putting an end to the seven-year mystery.

“We’re confident we’ll get closure for the family,” grave archaeologist Dr Tony Lowe told The Sunday Telegraph.

Police are working on the theory the three-year-old’s body was “placed” rather than buried in bush close to the Kendall home he vanished from, and that his remains should be near the surface of their dig.

“Some backfill soil has been dropped in this area in recent years,” a separate police source said.

“What we’re doing is lifting that to return the surface to the natural ground.

“Fire hasn’t come through this particular spot in the last seven years but there would have been some change in the vegetation dying off and coming back.”

Police have renewed the search for missing toddler William Tyrrell. Picture: Police Media

Hydrologist Professor Jon Olley (left) and grave archaeologist Dr Tony Lowe (right) in Kendall. Picture NCA NewsWire/Trevor Veale

A green hessian bag was found on Saturday. Picture NCA NewsWire/Trevor Veale

Specialist investigators, under the supervision of Dr Lowe, hydrologist Professor Jon Olley and forensic archaeologist and anthropologist Dr Penny McCardle, have been painstakingly sifting through soil for one week.

Strike Force Rosann was set up in the wake of William’s disappearance on September 12, 2014 and returned to the Mid-North Coast on Monday with new information positioning the boy’s foster mother as a person of interest.

No charges have been laid.

The police source said very specific intelligence led them to a one-square-kilometre area of bush less than 900m from the Benaroon Dr home where the Tyrrell family was staying with the foster grandmother.

The police dog squad has been taking part in the search at Kendall. Picture NCA NewsWire/Trevor Veale

On Saturday morning a green hessian bag was recovered from the dirt and examined by Dr Lowe and homicide Detective Sean Ogilvy.

It was photographed as potential evidence but its significance to the investigation has yet to be established.

The bag was located in the same search area where a red shred of fabric was pulled from dirt on Wednesday and a blue piece of fabric was found in a muddy creekbed on Friday.

Although the relevance of those items has not been determined, they are of interest because William was wearing a red and blue Spider-Man suit at the time he was reported missing.

All items have been sent for forensic analysis. Police yesterday also confirmed the operation at Kendall will take longer than expected with a full search of the area expected to take six weeks.

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