Tapes detailing a secret interrogation of William Tyrrell’s adoptive mother over the boy’s disappearance and her possible cover-up and abandonment of his body will be played in public for the first time.
The adoptive mother was asked direct questions about “what she did with William’s body” during questioning by the New South Wales Crime Commission, a secret government body, in 2021.
Although an account of some of the questions he was asked during the four-hour hearing was previously revealed at a court hearing, video of the session will be played today at the coroner’s inquest into William’s alleged death.
The adoptive parents of the missing boy previously faced charges of lying to the criminal commission and were both acquitted in court.
During the adoptive mother’s court hearing on the charge, a series of questions that were asked of William’s adoptive mother at the hearing were read aloud, including: ‘Did you find his body among the ferns and foliage below from the terrace that day?
The adoptive mother, who for legal reasons cannot be identified except by the initials ‘SD’, was also asked: “Did you find his body and realize that he had died and that there was no point in calling the emergency services ?
Another question asked of SD was: “I want to suggest to you what happened that day: William rolled around on that terrace and fell and it was no one’s fault.”
Each of the questions was accompanied by the adoptive mother’s firm denials that she had any knowledge of William Tyrrell’s disappearance in September 2014, or of his injuries, disappearance and death.
William Tyrrell disappeared when he was three years old and has not been seen since September 12, 2014, making it Australia’s most high-profile missing persons case.
At the Crime Commission hearing it was suggested to the foster mother that she “may have dumped William’s body near a riding school”.
Crime Commission lawyer Sophie Callan asked the adoptive mother: ‘Did you take his body (to the riding school in Kendall, on the New South Wales mid-north coast)?’
SD replied: ‘No.’
William Tyrrell’s adoptive mother was questioned at the New South Wales Crime Commission about whether the three-year-old boy fell off the porch of his grandmother’s house and his body was dumped in bushland.
William was playing on the terrace of the Kendall house (above) before he disappeared, according to his adoptive mother.
SD was then asked: ‘Did you decide to deal with the situation that was already hopeless?’ and “did you decide to take charge of the situation and hide his body instead of letting your (SD) mother take…responsibility?”
SD denied both proposals. They were related to William Tyrrell’s adoptive grandmother, who owned the house from which he disappeared and who has since died.
Mrs Callan then told the foster mother that SD found William’s body “and you put his body in your mother’s car, and that’s why you drove (to nearby Kendall Riding School) that day.”
Ms Callan then said: “To be clear, there is no suggestion that you hurt him or caused his death, just that you moved his body.”
The adoptive mother denied Mrs. Callen’s accusations: “No, I didn’t.”
The Crime Commission’s questioning of the adoptive mother came after two detectives stopped her at her door with a summons to appear before her three years ago.
The 2021 questioning of both adoptive parents about William’s case came just before police renewed their efforts to find the missing boy’s remains.
Tyrrell’s adoptive mother was found not guilty of lying to the New South Wales Crime Commission following a hearing in which police alleged she had falsely stated during her testimony that she did not hit a child, who is not William, with a wooden spoon.
Both adoptive parents (above left and second right) were questioned by the secretive New South Wales Crime Commission and accused of lying, but later acquitted.
William Tyrrell was playing at his adoptive grandmother’s house in Kendall (above) when he disappeared in 2014 and no trace of him has ever been found.
When Detective Sergeant Andrew Lonergan served SD with the summons at his home to appear before the Crime Commission, another detective, Scott Jamieson, told him: “We’re not here to brag, let me tell you that.”
‘We’re not guessing. We are not lying. We know how, we know why, we know where it is.
Detective Lonergan told SD: ‘I can tell you something… it’s not personal, it’s about finding what happened to William,’ to which Det. Jamieson added: “Make a decision for William today and no one else.” We know you are a good person.
Lonergan told SD that “we know William was loved, very loved” and SD responded, “I’m trying to breathe.” So now you are effectively saying that you believe I hurt William.”
The inquest is currently investigating the police theory that William Tyrell’s adoptive mother buried his body in bushland after he fell from a balcony to his death on the morning he disappeared.
Counsel assisting the investigation, Gerard Craddock SC, He told the inquest when it reopened on Monday that the police theory was that ‘William must have died at (his adoptive grandmother’s home at) 48 Benaroon Drive (in Kendall).
“The theory… police say, is that she must have quickly resolved that if William’s accidental death was discovered, she might lose ‘Lindsay.'”
Lindsay (not her real name, which cannot be revealed for legal reasons) was another foster child in the care of the foster mother at the time, who also cannot be identified.
“Police claim that in that state of mind, (the foster mother) placed William in his mother’s car,” Craddock said.
“After alerting (a neighbor) about William’s disappearance, (she) drove her mother’s car to Batar Creek Road and placed William’s body somewhere in the brush.”
The investigation into the disappearance of the child enters its final phase and will conclude before Christmas
Craddock has said police had extensively searched the area around Batar Creek Road and did not believe there was any trace of William there.
He also said the search for William after he went missing – with police, firefighters, cadaver dogs, chainsaws and hydraulic equipment – meant the boy had not simply gotten lost in the search area.
“William was unable to travel beyond the intensive search area under his own power,” he said.
‘The conclusion must have been human intervention.
“It is indisputable that no eyewitness can provide an account of how he left the confines of 48 Benaroon Drive.”
The inquiry, which began in 2019 but has been hit by lengthy delays, has now entered its final block of hearings and will take place this week and in the week before Christmas.
William’s disappearance has become one of Australia’s most notorious missing persons cases.
The inquest before Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame, examining William’s disappearance and presumed death, was delayed last year as prosecutors weighed charges against the boy’s adoptive mother.
The police handed a brief of evidence to the Director of Public Prosecutions recommending that William’s adoptive mother be charged with perverting the course of justice and interfering with a dead body.
William’s adoptive father was also cleared of five charges of lying to the New South Wales Crime Commission.
The couple has denied any wrongdoing or disposal of his body.
