Detectives’ shocking question after William Tyrrell vanished as new pictures emerge

A key witness in the William Tyrrell case has revealed the stunning question police asked her as never-before-seen photos emerge of the home where the boy disappeared.

EXCLUSIVE

Detectives investigating William Tyrrell’s disappearance wrongly suspected the parents of missing four-year-old Cleo Smith were involved in her disappearance, causing one witness to question their judgement in his case.

Michelle White, who oversaw William’s foster care, said detectives questioned her about Cleo, who disappeared from her family’s tent on a camping trip in Western Australia in 2021.

“They said words to the effect of, ‘Surely, you’d hear somebody undoing a zipper if your child was sleeping next to you?’” said Ms White, who has not previously spoken publicly.

“They said to me, ‘Surely … you don’t think that somebody else is coming into the tent?’”

Ms White told the news.com.au podcast investigation Witness: William Tyrrell that detectives turned up at her house unannounced in October 2021, days after Cleo was reported missing.

“They asked me what I thought had happened to Cleo,” Ms White said.

Michelle White oversaw William Tyrrell’s foster care. Three-year-old William disappeared on September 12, 2014. Picture: NSW Police

Ms White said detectives investigating William’s case questioned her about WA girl Cleo Smith, who was abducted on a camping trip in 2021. Picture: WA Police Force

“I took it to mean that … if there’s no other answers that are apparent, then it’s the parent.

“The implication being similar in the situation of William missing – when there’s no other clear answer, it must be (his foster mother).”

This time, however, the NSW detectives were wrong.

Cleo was missing for 18 days before being found by WA Police, with a doll-obsessed loner called Terence Kelly later convicted of kidnapping her from inside the tent while her parents slept.

News.com.au can also reveal previously-unseen photographs of the house where three-year-old William was reported missing on September 12, 2014, taken by Ms White in the days that followed.

Michelle White took several photos of the Kendall, NSW property where William was last seen.

These previously unseen photos were taken in the days after William vanished.

These photos show the property’s veranda, which is several metres above the garden. William’s foster mother has been questioned over whether he had fallen to his death from the veranda.

The foster mother has repeatedly denied this, or that she concealed it. She has not been charged in relation to William’s disappearance.

As the official with overall responsibility for William’s care, Ms White travelled to the property in Kendall on the Mid North Coast of NSW, arriving a little over 24 hours after he was reported missing.

Over the next week, she took photographs, as well as lengthy notes of her interactions with his foster parents, but was not questioned by police about what she saw.

Police only took possession of the photographs years later, after Ms White volunteered them.

At the time, detectives were asking her questions about a tree on the property, in which William was thought to have been playing on the morning he went missing.

The yard and trees surrounding the Kendall home.

William was last seen at this property on September 12, 2024.

Five days after seizing the photographs – showing heavy furniture in place on the veranda – William’s foster mother was questioned over whether he had fallen from there.

Ms White said she was recovering from surgery and still wearing her pyjamas when the detectives arrived to question her in October 2021.

Despite saying she was on heavy painkillers following the operation, they interviewed her on camera for hours.

As their questions focused on William’s foster mother, Ms White said: “I became upset with them, and I said, ‘Are you telling me that after this many years, this is the best you’ve got?’

“And the interviewing officer became angry with me and began to raise his voice and said he’s been working on this for a year … and he was implying to me that he was the only person who cared about finding William.

“I became quite upset and began to cry, and I said quite abruptly to him, ‘Don’t you dare sit in my home and accuse me of not caring about William.’”

Michelle White’s photos of the property where William disappeared.

Ms White took the photos when she visited the Kendall property after William was reported missing.

Ms White said she told the detective, “You may have been working on this for a year, but I’ve lived with this since William’s disappeared.”

Police contacted Ms White again two years later, in December 2023, after they submitted a brief of evidence to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions to consider possible charges.

Detectives alleged in court they believe William’s foster mother disposed of his body a short drive from the property on Benaroon Drive. Police also seized her mother’s grey Mazda 3 for forensic analysis.

When contacted in December 2023, Ms White said a detective asked her if William’s foster mother had access to any other cars around the time he was reported missing.

NSW Police subsequently asked the DPP to “suspend its consideration” of the brief of evidence until after an ongoing inquest into William’s disappearance, which is due to resume next month.

NSW Police said they were unable to comment due to the ongoing inquest.

Originally published as Detectives’ shocking question after William Tyrrell vanished as new pictures emerge