News

William Tyrrell’s foster mum recalls frantic search for son in new footage

Mar 27, 2019

Footage shows William Tyrrell's foster mum recalling her search. Source: Twitter/Sunrise (left) and Facebook (right).

A new video has been released by the coroner’s court investigating three-year-old William Tyrrell’s disappearance, showing his foster mother recalling her frantic search for her son to police in the days after he first disappeared.

The chilling footage, which was released on Wednesday to the public, shows the mother describing how she desperately drove around looking for her son after he disappeared on September 12, 2014. Her face has been blurred in the video as she cannot be identified.

The video, which has been shared by several news outlets online following its release, was shown to the inquest this week. It was filmed just six days after William went missing and shows his mother recalling her extensive search of the area around her home, including stops at every property on the street.

At one point, she describes to police how she pulled over at a busy road in Kendall, on the New South Wales north coast.

“I’ve pulled over because I’ve just got my head out the window looking for William,” she is heard saying in the footage. “I drive really slow… I get to the riding school and I just think ‘he’s not here’. And then I bring the car back up and I run out and look for him again.”

New video shows William Tyrrell’s foster mother retracing her steps with police in the days after he disappeared. pic.twitter.com/bfKmm7lDen

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) March 26, 2019

According to the Mail Online, the carer later described how she stopped at the road and finally came to the realisation that “there is no way in the world William would have come this far”.

“I thought, ‘this is ridiculous. He’s not down here’, and I went back up, back to home,” she reportedly said.

Meanwhile, speaking elsewhere in the inquest, the foster mother described how she thought she heard a scream while searching for her son.

According to the ABC, she told the inquest that the noise encouraged her to frantically search around in bushland surrounding William’s foster grandmother’s home at Kendall.

“When a child hurts themselves unexpectedly, there’s a scream, and it felt like a scream – it was quick and it was high pitched and it was sharp, which is why I went into these reeds,” she reportedly said.

“I got into the bush and I thought I can’t see any red – I thought maybe I imagined it, maybe it was a bird and I just walked back.”

Heart-wrenching footage has emerged of William Tyrrell's foster mother just days after the toddler disappeared. #9Today pic.twitter.com/DQvWUgPkr9

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) March 26, 2019

That came after the foster mum recalled listening to the three-year-old playing outside in her chilling testimony this week.

According to The Australian, the woman told the court she and William had travelled to the small town to visit her mother when the unthinkable happened. She explained she had heard little William playing outside in the yard before everything went silent.

“He is roaring like a tiger. He runs around the corner, and I hear another roar. And then … nothing,” she reportedly said.

“And I think, that’s really weird. It’s just too quiet. I get up, and I walk around, and I go: William, where are you? You need to talk to me. I can’t see you. But he’s just gone.”

The mum also recounted details of a number of vehicles she had seen parked outside her mum’s home on the same day William went missing. According to The Australian she said she “locked eyes” with a “big man” in one of the cars and he gave her a “challenging look”.

The inquest, which is being run by Deputy State Coroner Harriet Graham, began by focusing on William’s family with further evidence containing at least 15,000 items reportedly handed over to Graham on Monday morning.

From this, investigators will reportedly claim that the three-year-old was kidnapped from his foster grandmother’s home and did not wander into nearby bushland as was initially suggested.

The inquest follows news earlier this month that the top detective leading the search for William was removed from the case. Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubelin was taken off the case for alleged misconduct. He was interviewed by Professional Standards over claims he used a mobile phone to record a person without a warrant, according to 7 News. Jubelin made no comment about the matter.

Jubelin had been assigned to William’s case shortly after the young boy went missing from his foster grandmother’s home and had played a significant role in the investigation.