Disappearance of William Tyrrell

William Tyrrell was born on 26 June 2011. In 2014, aged just 3 years old, he would vanish from his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall, New South Wales, and become one of Australia’s most tragic missing person cases. 

Family Background:

 

 

William was born to Karlie Tyrrell and Brendan Collins, a couple with a history of violence, theft, and material abuse. Their anxious relationship would lead to a court order from the Department of Family and Community Services to place William in foster care ‒ something which would not happen for six weeks as Karlie and Brendan would hide him at his paternal grandfather’s house in Western Sydney until finally being found out. 

 

At 9 months old and in early 2012, William was removed and placed in foster care. The names of his foster parents and foster grandmother have not been made public and they have chosen to stay secret. By all reports, his foster parents were very loving and hoped to foster him always. 

 

Now, this is where things get a bit problematic and also tragic. Although we now know the identities of Karlie and Brendan, this didn’t happen until 2017 ‒ 3 years after William’s missing. Nobody even knew that William was a foster child until 2017 when an NSW Supreme Court judge ordered it was in the public interest. Previous to this, news articles would often call William’s foster parents just his parents.

 

William's foster parents did seem on a 60 Minutes interview in 2015, but their identities were enigmatic. At the time of the disappearance, the foster parents were often represented by friends instead, so the public had trouble understanding why they were clearly “unwilling” to come forward publicly.

 

This confusion, coupled with the fact there was no formal “face” to advocate for William, meant it was hard to connect with the public. It also created conspiracy assumptions about family members and the disappearance itself. In later years, after the reveal of Karlie and Brendan's names, the media would use their records to stir up tabloid drama whilst social media would spread rumors they kidnapped their son ‒ an impossibility, but one that continues to persist.

 

Despite these problems though, the one photo released of the little boy in the Spiderman outfit would stay prevalent in the minds of the public.

 

The Disappearance and First Search:

 

On 11 September 2014, William’s foster parents, along with his 4-year-old sister would take William to Kendall to visit his foster grandmother. The next morning at around 10 am on 12 September, William’s foster mother and grandmother would watch William and his sister play outside. William, dressed in his Spiderman outfit, roared as he ran around the side of the house. His foster mother and grandmother then stepped inside to make a cup of tea. Five minutes later, William’s foster mother became worried when she realized it had gone quiet outside and stepped out to search for him. However, William had disappeared. 

 

At 11 am, the police were called. They arrived within minutes and a joint search effort along with the local society commenced. The house, neighborhood, and bushland were methodically searched. The 21 houses surrounding the residence were searched up to 4 times over with new faculty to make sure fresh eyes would catch anything out of place. A revolt team from Sydney flew up and searched the adjoining bushland, their overalls being minced by the dense vegetation. Police dogs caught William’s scent but only within the confines of the yard itself. 

Hundreds of people, professional police and task forces, tracking dogs, emergency services, helicopters, and divers searched continuously for five days until finally the effort was scaled back before being wholly called off. There was not a single scrap of evidence, no torn clothing, no footprints, nothing. 

 

The Town of Kendall: 

 

Kendall is a small town on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales. With a community of under 900 people, it is somewhat unremarkable. Tourists scarcely visit, especially since the Pacific Highway was upgraded to bypass the neighboring town of Kew, located on the opposite side of the river. 

 

To the north is Port Macquarie, one of the largest towns on the Mid-North Coast. To the east, there is Laurieton and Camden Haven, which are smaller tourist objectives for those looking for a quiet holiday along the river or at the beach. Along with Kendall, they have slowly morphed into retirement towns for older people looking for either a tree or sea change as there are a lot of beaches and national parks to enjoy.

 

There is a dark side to the Mid-North Coast which many (even those living there) are oblivious of though. For many pedophiles, the area is a good place to relax ate to after being released from jail or outed in public. 

 

The Kendall House:

 

With the search underway, police also began their inquiry. The home of William’s foster grandmother hasn’t been detailed yet, so I’ll do it here.

 

William’s foster grandmother’s house sits in a small estate along with many other houses. There is one formal entry to the estate ‒ a single street that abruptly turns to the right before hitting an unpaved dirt road that leads up into a tangle of fire trails in the bordering national forest. Before this is a side street that goes toward the local graveyard. There are also some dirt walking trails, but they are unmarked and difficult to see from satellite images. 

 

Overall, the region feels quite isolated. There’s not much to connect the estate to the rest of the town as they’re surrounded by dense bushland on all sides except the east which leads to the main road. The houses all have large lawns, few of which are fenced in but most have trees and bushes in front obscuring them from view. 

 

The foster grandmother’s house sits on the inner side of the crooked part of the road. It also sits on a cliff, with a portion of the bottom half full of trees and the other half very open to the road. Like many of the other houses in the neighborhood, there are no barriers. It’s easy to get from the backyard to the front yard and go out of sight due to the slope and the shape of the double-story house. There is a balcony running along one side of the house, blurring anything where the garage sits underneath (there is a carport on the upper level so I think the garage was mostly used for storage since it doesn’t have a paved driveway leading to it whilst the carport does).

 

 

 

You can find photos of the house online, containing the backyard and interior since the house has since been sold. However, I won’t link them here directly to respect the privacy of the new owners. 

 

The Cars:

 

Firstly, I just want to excuse if any of this is confusing. It hasn’t been easy creating a timeline for what was known or being done at the time before the inquest and there is quite a bit of information out there. I’ll try and piece together everything best I can also using what was revealed later. 

 

Strike Force Rosann was created on 15 September 2014, consisting of a team of investigators and analysts which would shift through the hundreds of tipoffs sent in by the public.

 

The police soon moved into interrogating the foster family, quickly clearing them of any interest. William’s foster mother and grandmother had been in the house as they told, whilst the foster father had been visiting a nearby town and arrived soon after William’s foster mother had started her search.

When questioning William's foster mother, she recalled seeing a pair of different cars earlier that morning at 7.30 am ‒ a white station wagon and an older grey-ish sedan with their driver-side windows down. Both were parked between driveways, an odd thing to do when it was easier to drive into the large acre lots each house sat on and park closer there. 

 

She also recalled another car at 9 am, a green or grey one, which drove past whilst William and his sister were riding their bikes in the carport. It reached the end of the road and turned around using a neighbor’s driveway before heading back out of the estate. 

 

Later that morning, just moments after William's missing and a little over a kilometer away, Ronald Chapman heard a sound outside his house and went to investigate. A fawn-colored 4WD sped by hurriedly, a blonde-haired woman in the wheel. In the back seat was a little boy, standing without a seatbelt, and wearing a Spiderman outfit. 

 

A second car soon followed, a blue sedan driven by a man. It too was driven hurriedly to the point it went onto the other side of the road.

 

Chapman would later see the report on TV about William and be alerted to police canvassing the area. He waited for a knock at his door but it never came. He wouldn't touch the police himself for many weeks, and even then only gave what he witnessed to the sister of a police officer. The police themselves would not formally interview him until 6 months later. 

 

Despite their seeming significance, these sightings were not disclosed to the public until around the first anniversary of William's disappearance. A dull red Nissan wagon was sighted entering the fire trail at the end of the street by fellow neighbor Paul Savage at 11 is, but this was never made public.

 

At the 2020 inquest, it was uncovered that William's foster mother had initially stated to police she hadn't seen any uncertain cars that morning, but then recalled them two days later. No other neighbors were able to verify the sightings and a memory expert theorized that it was possibly a false memory. The same would be said of Chapman's sighting and despite the chance of false memory, the expert was sure the both of them were being honest in their accounts.

 

The Suspects:

 

Reports indicating William had been taken as part of a targeted kidnapping were quashed, but the theory he had been abducted was still the biggest concern for police. They began creating a list for persons of interest, one which rapidly grew to hundreds of people. Amongst the names though, a special few stood out.

 

Bill Spedding: The first person of interest named was William 'Bill' Spedding, a man from a nearby suburb. A few days before William and his foster parents coming, Spedding had visited William’s foster grandmother’s house to mend a washing machine. Spedding made for an interesting suspect to the police. Not just the timing of his visit to the house, but he was seemingly friends with another suspect and had ancient allegations of child sexual assault against him. 

 

Spedding was called into the Port Macquarie police station in the days after William’s missing and questioned. He gave his explanation, stating he had been at a cafe with his wife before going to watch one of his grandkids get an award at a school assembly. This alibi was not interrogated and verified by the police for several months ‒ something which could have saved them a lot of effort and trouble down the line. 

 

On 16 January 2015, Spedding's home and shop were raided by forensic teams. Various items were taken for testing and a septic tank on the property was soaked. No concrete proof was found. However, a Spiderman toy was discovered in Spedding's van ‒ a gift, his wife said, given by one of the children they cared for so Spedding would have some company while driving.

 

After a 6 hour interview, Spedding was released along with a warning by the police that they were on to him. Soon after that, child welfare authorities took his grandchildren away. 

 

The next month, in February, Inspector Gary Jubelin would take over. Jubelin, one of Australia’s most famous homicide detectives at the time, took to interrogating the case with fervor, though it would eventually get him in trouble. 

 

In April 2015, a few months after the first raid, Spedding would be arrested and taken to court over the old child sexual assault allegations. These would be rapidly thrown out as the information, which had already been rejected and discredited by police at the time, was flimsy at best. 

 

Many years later, Spedding would take the NSW Police to court and talk about how Jubelin had endangered to ruin him. 

 

Tony Jones: The next suspect was Tony Jones, a man despised by even his own family. As spoken of recently, Jones was allegedly friends with Spedding as the two once lived over the road from each other in another town. Jones himself was informed with even more suspects. 

 

That Jones became a suspect is of no surprise. With over 90 convictions to his name, including charges of assault against women and children, it's more amazing he was allowed to roam free. 

 

Jones has been incapable to properly account for his whereabouts on the day of William’s disappearance. His activities have mostly been recounted through other witnesses. As far as we know, Jones told his (now ex) wife that morning he was going out to the jungle to obtain scrap metal with his son. His son denies this. Meanwhile, in nearby Laurieton another man says he noticed Jones parked at Henry Kendall Reserve ‒ a secluded parkland area full of trees next to a river. The car he was driving was a white Toyota Camry, related in description to one of the cars seen by William's foster mother that very same morning. 

 

The car, it turned out, was real but belonged to Jones' wife. Jones refutes he was there or he was driving the car, as his wife declined to let him use it without approval. At the inquest in 2020, both his ex-wife and estranged son say he was driving it. It was still taken by police for testing, though clearly, results were inconclusive. 

 

Jones returned home in the afternoon, drunk. He would storm out rapidly afterward when confronted by his wife over his lies. Weeks later, he would be imprisoned for three years for other child sex offenses. In 2018, police would follow a tipoff leading them to the forest near to where William disappeared. There they would find a burnt and flipped-over car similar to one belonging to Jones, though there has been no news since about it.

The story does not end there. Jones was allegedly part of a local social support group called Grandparents as Parents Again (GAPA), or at least he was neighbors with the then-president of the group, Paul Bickford. Bickford is said to have repeatedly visited Jones, although he would never be allowed inside the house by Jones' wife as, he too, was facing charges of child sexual assault. 

 

Police interrogated the group and questioned both Jones and Bickford, thinking them to have links to a pedophile ring operating in the area. These beliefs soon proved false though and Bickford was later sentenced for his charges.

 

Frank Abbott: In 2019, a man named Ray Porter lay dying in an aged care facility in Port Macquarie. He admitted to his caretaker ‒ he had picked up a friend of his from a shed behind Kendall school. Supporting the man was a small boy and Porter drove them 300km away north. Records verify that Porter was in the hospital for dialysis the day William vanished, but he was caught on several traffic cameras around the area in the days following, including one at Kew near Kendall. 

 

Meanwhile, 10km north of Kendall and the day after William went missing, a woman tending to strawberries in her garden said she heard the scream of a little boy in the nearby bushland. She thought nothing of it until 2018 when she learned that Frank Abbott lived in a caravan across the paddock from her.

 

Abbott is a very bizarre figure, and unsurprisingly, a sentenced pedophile. He also knew Tony Jones and Geoff Owens, another person of interest that owned the caravan Abbott lived in ‒ though the police have stated Owens is not a suspect. 

 

Witness statements about Abbott and his behavior after William’s disappearance are far from glowing. At 10 or 11 pm on the day that Owens was confirmed a person of interest, Abbott knocked on a neighbor's door to tell them about the news. The neighbor also said the 2020 inquest about how Abbott tried once to get into her car while her children were in there with her. He also attracted their dog away to his caravan, where it was found lying on Abbott's bed belly up (thankfully alive). 

 

When Jones' car was seized by police, a shopkeeper said Abbott came up to him unexpectedly, telling him the news and proclaiming, "I knew they'd get him". 

 

Owens, who gave Abbott lifts to the bus stop now and then, confirmed that on a few occasions Abbott referred to an area of the bush and said he'd experienced the smell of death there. 

 

A worker at a takeaway shop Abbott did repairs at also said he was told about the smell ‒ although when the worker implied it was a dead kangaroo, Abbott replied that he "knew the difference between a dead kangaroo smell and dead human smell". 

 

This was not the only person he told, as another neighbor of Abbott said he had been saying everyone in Kew that knew where William was and that the police should check Owens' place.

 

A search was made in 2020 in the region Abbott lived but nothing concrete was found. Abbott himself would wind up back in jail before this and end up sharing a cell with Jones where they had a falling out.

 

Paul Savage: Savage was neighbors with William’s foster grandmother at the time of the disappearance. He had met William on earlier occasions when his foster parents visited the region. 

 

Savage's whereabouts on 12 September aren't entirely clear, which is what led him to be targeted as a suspect. Although it should be noted, he can't confirm details due to his age and ailing mental health. 

 

 

After William’s disappearance, he joined the search. Later, detectives would say his activities were "odd", as he went into the bush and became lost in surroundings he should have been "expected to be common with". He then managed to return home but did not report his findings. He then received an unexpected visit from relatives at 11.45 am ‒ a time his relatives refute as they say they come at 1.15 pm, leaving some time unaccounted for which the police focused on.

 

Savage also had a previous AVO out against him from 2012 after allegations were made by a local post office worker that he had followed her on her postal route. 

 

According to an NSW Magistrate, Inspector Gary Jubelin began to pursue Savage "at all costs" despite the lack of proof. 

 

In 2016, Savage would find a police spy camera hidden in a tree near his house. Not understanding it was still on, he took it inside where it continued to take photos. He failed to report it until 5 weeks later when police visited his home. During interviews, he said he thought it had only taken him a week to surrender it.

 

In July 2017, police planted a small Spiderman suit in the bush where Savage was known to walk. Savage was covertly recorded for his reaction. On the first day, he stopped nearby for a few seconds, but it wasn't until the second day he said he saw it before reporting it to the police. 

 

Jubelin continued to make several visits to Savage's home where he illegally recorded their conversations, including his charges that Savage had accidentally run over William and used his unaccounted for time in the bush to hide the body. He also tapped Savage's phones, which originally had surveillance warrants, but continued to record conversations even after they expired. 

 

Some of the recordings did include interesting phrases, as Savage would often talk out loud to his deceased wife. Included things said were, "Don't tell anyone love, they're right after me. Sorry" and "you're just a little boy, you're nobody". However, these same words have never been confirmed as the recording quality was very poor. 

 

Jubelin was found guilty of illegal conduct in 2020, fined $10 000, and taken off the case, where he then quit the force. Savage was confirmed to no longer be a person of interest by police as well. 

 

Conclusion:

 

Unfortunately, William Tyrrell is still missing. Sightings and tip-offs have not been victorious despite repeated pleas and cash rewards over the years. Searches continue to happen but with no results. Did he disappear into the bush that day and become wedged somewhere the police can't find? Or was he snatched up by an opportunistic stranger? We may sadly never find out