William Tyrrell: Foster grandmother’s garage floor scanned

Ground-penetrating technology has been used to scan the cement slab poured in the garage of William Tyrrell’s foster grandmother’s house after the youngster disappeared.

William Tyrrell’s foster grandmother’s car, which has been seized by police for forensic testing, had already been examined days after the toddler went missing seven years ago, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Crime scene officers also examined his foster parents’ then-new four-wheel-drive, and the two vehicles were returned when nothing incriminating was found.

Police use a ground-penetrating radar on the cement floor of the garage of William Tyrrell's foster grandmother’s home in Kendall. Picture: NSW Police

As fresh information has led to police taking the foster grandmother’s grey Mazda from its new owners, it cannot be determined how thorough the initial testing was, but the police ­expert Forensic Services Group was involved from the start of the ­investigation.

While detectives are now working on the theory that William, 3, may have fatally fallen from a second-storey balcony at his foster grandmother’s Kendall home and his death covered up, sources said that if he had been in an accident, he may not have bled.

The new examination of the Mazda will include testing for DNA, and police said they expected to keep the car for several weeks at a secure facility.

Forensic officers also searched the foster grandmother’s house in Benaroon Dr, Kendall, when William went missing in September 2014, but when they returned on Thursday, they concentrated on the cement slab poured in the garage after his disappearance. They used ground-penetrating technology to determine whether anything was buried underneath.

Police search for evidence at a site less than 1km from where William was last seen. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Peter Lorimer

Less than 1km away, detectives assisted by archaeological experts zeroed in on a small parcel of bushland where two potential pieces of evidence were collected the day before.

An excavator removed top soil before investigators sifted the dirt where two shreds of red fabric were recovered on Wednesday.

Detectives compared the fabric pieces to a sample Spider-Man suit before sealing them in evidence bags for forensic testing.

The foster grandmother, who died in March this year aged 88, sold her Kendall home in February 2015, five months after William went missing, property documents show.

As police have now turned their focus to William’s foster mother, a professional woman aged in her 50s from Sydney’s upper north shore, the former boss of Strike Force Rosann, ex-detective Gary Jubelin, came out with all guns blazing saying he had cleared the foster parents.

William Tyrrell’s foster mother outside her home …

… on Thursday and his foster father. Pictures John Grainger

The former detective chief inspector said the foster parents had been both interviewed and “interrogated”, and had a listening device placed in their car as part of a covert operation before they were ruled out as suspects.

Jubelin, who was removed as lead investigator in 2019, also criticised the recent publicity.

“The way it’s played out very publicly is a bit strange, I’d have to say,” he told Ben Fordham on 2GB breakfast radio in an interview that left his former superiors furious.

“I’ve been watching and I give respect to the police. I know they’re in there. They’re trying hard.

“The timing of information that’s been released is a big coincidence, certain things and the way it’s playing out very, very publicly.”

Jubelin, who was convicted last year of making four illegal recordings of interviews with a person of interest in the case and fined $10,000, said the strike force had already investigated whether William had died in an ­accident.

Gary Jubelin in 2014 appealing for information about William’s disappearance. Picture: Nathan Edwards

“We investigated every theory, (did he die) of an accident, whether William was run over on the driveway or fell over and hit his head on the rock or fell off the balcony,” he said.

“That’s the most obvious place when you look at the house that a child could injure themselves.”

He said his impression of William’s foster mother was that she “is a very decent human being”.

On Thursday, the foster parents – who cannot be identified – left their Sydney home together on Thursday as a major media presence waited outside.

The foster mother has always denied any wrongdoing over William’s disappearance and has never been charged in relation to it.

Originally published as William Tyrrell: Foster grandmother’s garage floor scanned