The inquest into the disappearance of William Tyrrell will investigate the police theory that his adoptive mother buried his body in bushland after he fell from a balcony to his death on the morning he disappeared.
“That is the reason we are here,” counsel assisting Gerard Craddock SC said at the hearing resumed on Monday into the death of the three-year-old boy, who was last seen in Kendall on the Mid North Coast. of New South Wales, in 2014.
“The theory (is that) William must have died at (his adoptive grandmother’s home at) 48 Benaroon Drive (in Kendall),” Craddock said.
‘The theory… put forward by the police is that she must have quickly resolved that if William’s accidental death was discovered she could 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.”
Craddock said at Monday’s hearing that the adoptive mother did not remember the exact time she drove her mother’s car out of the house after the boy disappeared on the morning of Sept. 12, 2014.
The inquest into the disappearance of William Tyrrell will investigate the police theory that his adoptive mother buried his body in bushland after he fell from a balcony.
William’s adoptive parents will attend the hearings, as will Strike Force detectives Rosann and her boss, Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw.
In 2021, police search the Kendall home from which William disappeared in 2014, theorizing that he may have fallen from the balcony in an accidental death.
The investigation’s lead lawyer also said at Monday’s hearing that he cannot confirm the adoptive mother’s claims of seeing “strange cars” on the street.
Both William’s biological father and adoptive parents will attend the hearings, as will Strike Force detectives Rosann and her boss, Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw.
The long investigation into the 10-year mystery will also feature Professor Jon Olley, a water sciences expert who was present at the renewed search for the boy’s body in a new excavation in 2021.
Craddock 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, which will take place this week and more than two weeks just 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 investigation into the disappearance of three-year-old William Tyrrell (above) resumed for its final set of hearings in November and December.
One police theory is that William fell off the verandah of his adoptive grandmother’s home in Kendal and then his adoptive mother allegedly disposed of his body (above, with adoptive father).
William’s adoptive mother and father have continually denied the allegation that they played a role in his disappearance or any crime.
The inquiry originally began in 2019 and lasted 18 months before it was adjourned in October 2020 and Ms Grahame’s findings were due to be delivered in June 2021.
The investigation was postponed for police to begin further investigations in late 2021 which involved searching for new locations around Kendall.
In the new dig, teams searched the garden of his adoptive grandmother’s house and nearby bushland, but did not report finding anything of importance.
The investigation was then postponed again while prosecutors weighed evidence relating to the missing child’s adoptive mother.
Last year, 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.
Around that time, the adoptive parents’ attorney, Rylie Hahn, asked police to release any evidence.
“William’s adoptive mother and adoptive father are in a position to request the disclosure of evidence that the police say forms the basis of a criminal prosecution,” Ms. Hahn said last year.
‘We are halfway through the investigation and William is still missing and his case unsolved.
“William’s adoptive mother maintains that she had nothing to do with his disappearance… and is calling on police to continue searching for William and what happened to him.”
Then, in August this year, Ms Grahame received a letter from the Crown Prosecution Service outlining the status of that request for advice.
Water sciences expert Professor Jon Olley, at the 2021 William Tyrrell excavation, has been called as a witness in the latest round of inquiry hearings.
William Tyrrell, dressed as his favorite character, pictured shortly before he disappeared while playing on the terrace in Kendall, on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, with his grandmother and sister.
In the letter, Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling SC said that in April NSW Police had asked her office to “suspend” its application for advice until the conclusion of the final block of investigative hearings.
In 2022, William’s adoptive mother was found not guilty of lying to the New South Wales Crime Commission.
In November last year, William’s adoptive father was also cleared of five charges of lying to the NSW Crime Commission.
The court was told at the time that during the Crime Commission hearing, assisting counsel Sophie Callan SC questioned the foster mother about whether William had fallen from the balcony and whether she had disposed of the body.
The couple denied any wrongdoing or disposal of his body.
