Green hessian bag latest piece of evidence collected in search for William Tyrrell
Police have tagged a green hessian bag as evidence on day six of the search for William Tyrrell as it is revealed the search for his remains will blow out beyond the predicted two to three weeks.
Police & Courts
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A green hessian bag buried in scrub at Kendall has been seized by detectives investigating the suspected death of toddler William Tyrrell.
The bag was uncovered by investigators on Saturday morning and inspected by grave archaeologist Dr Tony Lowe and homicide detective Sean Ogilvy.
It was photographed and marked as evidence but its significance to the investigation has yet to be determined.
The find came as police revealed the search for the missing boy - who was last seen at his foster grandmother’s home on September 12, 2014 - will take much longer than expected.
Strike Force Rosann returned to the Mid-North Coast on Monday on new information placing the boy’s foster mother as a person of interest.
Detectives conceded they were looking for William’s remains and indicated the search would take two to three weeks.
But on day six of the search police confirmed they had only covered about 15 per cent of the area of interest and would likely be on the ground for at least six weeks.
Police with a cadaver dog and ground-penetrating searched the former family home on Benaroon Dr - which was sold in 2016 - before moving to bushland about 900m away.
The green bag was recovered in Search Area 1, not far from 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, William was wearing a red and blue Spider-Man suit at the time he was reported missing.
The items were sent for forensic analysis.
New witness steps up as cops find blue cloth in creek bed
A tiny piece of fabric found in a muddy creekbed has been collected as potential evidence as forensic investigators scour Kendall bushland in the renewed search for William Tyrrell.
The blue cloth measuring about 22 square centimetres was recovered around 11.30am on Friday as officers drained the waterway less than 1km from Benaroon Dr where the youngster was last seen.
The find was located about 50m from the main search taking place in scrub off Batar Creek Rd, where a red shred of cloth was uncovered in dirt on Wednesday and compared to a Spider-Man suit police had with them.
The latest item was examined by hydrologist Prof Jon Olley, one of three experts overseeing the search, before being sealed in an evidence bag.
It will be sent to the state’s forensic headquarters at Lidcombe where analysis will determine its significance to the investigation.
At the same time officers were handling the piece of fabric, a Kendall local stopped by the search scene to deliver his own theory to police.
The elderly man, who did not provide his name but offered his details to police, stopped his vehicle alongside the dig and got out to speak to a detective.
He told investigators he saw something dumped from a vehicle on the morning the then-three-year-old disappeared.
Shown a picture of a vehicle of interest the man said: “I’m pretty sure that’s the car I saw.”
“Who was driving, I don’t know,” he added. “It’s only a theory.”
The man’s details were taken by a detective but how much weight his version of events will be given is unclear.
Asked about the relevance of the theory a spokeswoman said NSW Police could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
The tip-off is one of thousands police have had to sift through as people eager to help officers close the seven-year case come forward.
It’s not known what vehicle the man was shown but police this week confirmed they seized a Mazda 3 previously owned by William’s late foster grandmother for forensic testing.
Her home, which was sold in 2016 and before the woman died in March, has been another area of focus for forensic investigators who launched the fresh search on Monday.
A concrete slab poured in the garage after the toddler disappeared was scanned with a ground-penetrating radar, but no abnormalities were detected.
Screws turn on a final suspect
It is playing out like a riveting crime thriller, police drip-feeding a hungry public as the tension builds for what everyone hopes will be an ending to the mystery of William Tyrrell.
This week saw a new, unexpected chapter unfold and investigators appear to be using old fashioned techniques to solve the case, literally “putting the screws” on their subject.
Front and centre in the latest instalment is William Tyrrell’s foster mother. She was ruled out as a suspect by investigators soon after William’s disappearance seven years ago, however today she finds herself in the spotlight as the only person of interest.
Here’s how the pressure on the Sydney woman, who has vehemently denied any involvement in William’s disappearance, has mounted this week.
The Saturday Telegraph does not suggest she has any involvement, only that police are investigating.
Monday: Day One
Two months after information was leaked to The Daily Telegraph that police had zeroed in on a new person of interest in connection with the death and disappearance of William Tyrrell, police announced hundreds of officers would descend on the mid north coast town of Kendall after “new evidence” had come to light.
Detective Chief Superintendent Darren Bennett said the renewed search would take two to three weeks but remained tight-lipped on what the new evidence was.
Superintendent Bennett added it was ‘highly likely’ that if something was found during searches of three new sites it would be a body.
Tuesday: Day Two
Police sifted through a garden bed for clues at the Benaroon Drive address where William was last seen, news broke that NSW Homicide Squad officers had identified William’s foster mother as a person of interest in the case.
Professor Jon Olley, a human remains expert, was also brought to help in the search for William.
Tensions erupted on Tuesday after NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said a previous “investigator” on the case may have “wasted” time looking into people who were “clearly” not linked to the boy’s disappearance seven years ago.
Gary Jubelin, a former lead investigator on the case, was quick to hit back, revealing he had “interrogated” William’s foster parents, including planting a listening device in their car, and had eliminated them as suspects.
A fresh timeline of the little boy’s disappearance also revealed that the last time he was seen by anyone outside his family was the day before his disappearance at Heatherbrae McDonald’s.
The family had stopped there on September 11 around 6.30pm on their way from Sydney to the foster grandmother’s home.
He disappeared from the Kendall home the following morning.
Wednesday: Day Three
In another shock twist, the missing boy’s foster parents were charged over the alleged assault of a child — not William — on Sydney’s upper north shore.
NSW Police charged the couple with common assault.
It was also revealed a child had been removed from the care of William’s foster parents and was placed in an alternative care arrangement last Thursday, November 11.
Meanwhile, police gathered around a senior detective in bushland on Batar Creek Road, just 1km from William’s foster grandmother’s house.
The detective was carrying a Spider-Man suit and something was held up against it in comparison.
Two strands of red thread had been found, which were bagged up as possible evidence and taken for forensic examination.
Police also revealed they had seized a silver Mazda hatchback that had belonged to William’s foster grandmother at the time of his disappearance.
It was recovered from a home at Gymea in Sydney’s south and was being held in a secure facility where forensic examinations and analysis were under way.
Thursday: Day Four
While the search continued in Kendall, William’s foster parents in Sydney said they would defend the allegations of assault.
New reports were leaked that police were focusing on alleged inconsistencies in William’s foster mum’s witness statements.
Meanwhile, cadaver dogs and a hi-tech radar were brought in to scan a concrete slab laid in the garage of the Benaroon Drive home several years after William’s disappearance.
The ground penetrating scanner returned “clean data”.
Friday: Day Five
A small shred of fabric found in a muddy creek bed was collected as a second piece of “potential” evidence as investigators drained a creek less than 1km from the Benaroon Dr property.
The fabric will be sent for forensic analysis but its significance to the case has not yet been determined.
Investigators continued the tedious process of sifting dirt in the initial search area where cloth was found on Wednesday – racing against heavy rain forecast for the weekend.
Sleepy town turned upside down once more
A five-day search involving dozens of specialist investigators and a raft of hi-tech crime-fighting gadgets has so far done little to solve the mystery that has haunted a sleepy Mid North Coast town for more than seven years.
For locals in Kendall, the return of a small army to search for William Tyrrell served as a painful reminder of the town’s darkest moments.
One mum said the mystery — and subsequent revelations of a local paedophile network — changed the way she raised her children.
“It’s never not in the back of your mind,” she said. “You want to have an eye on your kids at all times.”
Strike Force Rosann targeted two key areas when it went back to Kendall — the home from which William disappeared and thick bushland a mere 900m away.
Investigators acting on new information making William’s foster mother the main person of interest first visited the Benaroon Drive property the family was staying at when the youngster was last seen on September 12, 2014.
The home was owned by the boy’s foster grandmother at the time but was sold in 2016. She died in March this year.
Police painstakingly sifted through the garden bed located under a 5m-high balcony, looking for evidence William may have fallen from it, and spraying Luminol across the yard.
By the third day of the operation specialists from the Australian Federal Police Forensic Imagery and Geomatics team arrived with a splash of resources.
A drone mapped both search sites and a 3D scanner was used to recreate the scenes.
But it was the ground-penetrating radar that was most significant.
The device was used on a concrete slab in the garage as investigators scanned for anything buried below.
Police confirmed the radar revealed no abnormalities were found underneath the cement that was re-poured after the little boy disappeared.
Meanwhile, around the corner, a small parcel of land located on the corner of Cobb and Co Rd became Search Area 1, with police insisting very specific intelligence had led them to the site.
Once cleared, excavators were used to remove top soil that was sifted by dozens of police looking for the tiniest of fibres that might provide some clue.
Hydrologist Jon Olley, grave archaeologist Tony Lowe and forensic anthropologist Penny McCardle were the three experts brought in to direct police.
Using their many years of experience, including Professor Olley’s work on the Daniel Morcombe case, the trio scraped and brushed for evidence.
The work was slow and incredibly tedious but on Wednesday uncovered the first real item of interest.
Officers rejoiced as they pulled a heavily worn shred of red fabric from the soil.
The item was compared to another piece of cloth, a sample Spider-Man suit police had brought with them.
The fabric was carefully sealed in an evidence bag and sent for forensic testing in a moment that revitalised searchers and onlookers.
On Friday morning when a second piece of potential evidence was located, a scrap of blue fabric, investigators were far more subdued, perhaps worn down by their days of digging.
Police are yet to experience the major breakthrough they need to finally close the years-long hunt for the little boy in the Spider-Man suit.
But they will return to Kendall for the next two weeks, hoping – alongside the weary townsfolk – each day will be the one.
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