Spider-man suit boy spotted the day William Tyrrell was taken, inquest told
A Kendall local says he saw William Tyrrell peering out of a speeding car moments after he disappeared, an inquest heard.
NSW
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A Kendall local says he saw William Tyrrell peering out of a speeding car moments after he disappeared, an inquest heard.
And the delay-plagued coronial inquiry into the child’s suspected abduction nearly five years ago now won’t sit for another six months.
The three-year-old was wearing a Spider-man suit when he disappeared while playing in his foster grandmother’s garden on September 12, 2014.
A nearby resident is convinced he saw the boy in one of two cars driving erratically away from the direction of her Benaroon Drive home together that morning.
“I’m 100 per cent sure it was William in the back of the car,” Ronald Chapman told the NSW Coroners Court.
The 80-year-old said he was walking to the mailbox outside his Laurel Street house at 10.45am when he spotted a woman driving past in a fawn-coloured 4WD.
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“In the back seat (was) a young boy, with his hands up on the window,” Mr Chapman said on Wednesday.
“He wasn’t crying … he was wearing a Spider-man suit.”
Mr Chapman told the Sydney hearing the youngster, who looked about three or four, was standing and not wearing a seatbelt.
“I did utter a profanity under my breath about the woman being stupid for not having the kid restrained,” he said.
“She was driving with speed … and almost lost control as she came around the corner.”
The retiree said the “plumpish” blonde was aged in her late 20s to late 30s with a very fair complexion — and the inquest has now appealed for the mystery woman to come forward.
Mr Chapman added that the child also had fair hair and fair skin — the same as William.
“It wasn’t until that night that I knew that the little fella, William, was missing,” Mr Chapman said.
“While the (television) news report was on, I recognised the boy’s face.”
Homicide detectives believe William was snatched between 10.05am and 10.20am, and can’t rule out whether the unidentified child in the car was William or not.
About 50 yards behind, a blue sedan with tinted windows being driven by a man hurtled towards Mr Chapman and mounted the curb, the court heard.
“He was on the wrong side of the road as he came around the corner, and really accelerating,” Mr Chapman said.
“It was virtually two wheels on the grass as he came around the corner … had there been another car travelling west down Laurel Street they would have had a head on.”
William’s foster mother has previously testified it took her four days to remember seeing two suspicious cars — one white and one grey — with dark-tinted windows in the street the morning he vanished.
Mr Chapman said the first time he spoke to police about the sighting was in 2015, and he wasn’t formally interviewed until 2016.
When NSW deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame asked Mr Chapman why he didn’t tell the foster grandmother, he admitted he should have acted sooner.
“I didn’t get on very well with her,” he said.
Mr Chapman said that night police had announced detectives would be knocking on the door of everyone living within a kilometre radius, and although Mr Chapman waited to be interviewed, nobody came.
The inquest will resume in March 2020 in Taree, with Ms Grahame telling the families who are still desperately searching for answers: “I understand that is frustrating for some, there are reasons for it.”
