The last time birth parents saw William Tyrrell

Three weeks before he vanished, William Tyrrell had stopped calling his birth parents Mum and Dad.

No trace of William has been found since he disappeared on the morning of September 12, 2014. Picture: Supplied

William Tyrrell’s biological parents were considered suspects in his disappearance in part because they had attended a tense “contact” visit with him just three weeks before he went missing.

William, who was then three, who turned up with a bruise on his face, from where he’d fallen down, had stopped calling them Mum and Dad.

Police ultimately ruled them out, confirming they were in Sydney at the time of William’s disappearance.

At the contact visit, William’s mum, who was pregnant with her fourth child at the time, was upset when William referred to her as “Birth Mum” while he played on the equipment at the Chipmunks Play Centre in Sydney.

William’s disappearance is the subject of a new podcast series, Nowhere Child, by The Australian. The third episode has been released today.

It describes the last contact visit between William and his parents, which was supervised by three staff, including two Salvation Army social workers.

Police investigating William’s disappearance from the village of Kendall three weeks later wondered if the parents had snatched him back from foster care.

In fact, they were working to get him back through the court system, a process that ended when he went missing.

No trace of William has been found since he disappeared from outside a house at 48 Benaroon Drive in Kendall on the morning of September 12, 2014.

Only one person has ever faced charged related to his disappearance, and that’s the police officer who once led the investigation, Gary Jubelin, who faced court this week, charged with making illegal recordings.

He denies wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty, while also saying he had an “operational” reason for recording conversations with a neighbour who lives on Benaroon Drive.

A coronial inquest into William’s disappearance has been delayed but will resume on 7 August, with some sitting days now set down for the coastal hamlet of Taree.

The next tranche of the inquest, where persons of interest will be quizzed, is expected to take a month.

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Read more from Caroline Overington about the William Tyrrell investigation here.

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