William Tyrrell’s foster grandmother says neighbour snatched William
William Tyrrell’s foster grandmother, one of the last two people to see the three-year-old alive, told police he could have been snatched by an “odd” neighbour who lives alone and keeps unsociable hours.
NSW
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- Tyrrell inquest: ‘State authorities f**cked up’
- Foster mother heard a ‘high-pitched and sharp’ scream
William Tyrrell’s foster grandmother, one of the last two people to see the three-year-old alive, told police he could have been snatched by an “odd” neighbour who lives alone and keeps unsociable hours.
In a witness statement released by the inquest investigating the boy’s disappearance, the foster gran suggests the neighbour as a line of enquiry, telling Laurieton officers: “I can’t think of anyone who would want to harm William.
“I was asked this question initially by Wendy Hudson (a police officer who lives in Kendall) and I suggested Peter across the road, (as he keeps odd hours and lives alone),” she told police in the statement dated two days after the little boy in the Spiderman suit vanished.
“Wendy assures me she has checked him out thoroughly.”
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In the statement handed to the inquest on March 25, the foster grandmother, 81 at the time, goes on to say William ate a cooked breakfast of scrambled egg and toast and orange and played on the patio the morning he vanished five years ago.
“We had devised some activities for them, which included drawing picture and rolling dice,” she continued.
“William was dressed in a Spiderman costume and he was full of beans; he was jumping out of his skin with energy.
“ While he was playing on the back patio he started roaring like a tiger and he told us that he was the “daddy tiger’’.
“William lost interest in drawing pictures and rolling dice and he ran down the two small stairs of the back patio, onto the grass, and he ran around the right hand side of the house (to the front).
“That is the last time I saw William.”
She also says she believes William may have wandered into bushland.
She said she and the foster carer, her daughter, stood at the front of the house calling out William’s name before they raised the alarm and called police.
“The first officer to arrive started searching around my house and another officer joined him a short time later,” the foster grandmother added.
“I think they realised that they needed more resources and it wasn’t long at all until it was pandemonium. “
William vanished from her Kendall home on September 12, 2014 sparking one of NSW’s biggest manhunts for a missing child.
Investigators have ruled out William’s biological and foster parents’ involvement in his disappearance.
The inquest previously heard William’s biological parents “absconded” with the boy and went on the run from authorities for six weeks in 2012, following a children’s court order.
William’s mother said in her initial police statement: ‘I didn’t take him. I have nothing to do with it.”
William’s biological father told the inquest “authorities f***ed up … The minister had a duty of care to keep William safe until he was 18. That was not the case at all.”
The inquest will host public hearings in August, which are due to focus on persons of interest in the boy’s disappearance.