In a stunning development in one of Australia’s most baffling missing persons cases, the inquest into the 2014 disappearance of three-year-old William Tyrrell has heard a shocking new theory from investigators: they believe the toddler accidentally fell to his death from a balcony, and his foster mother allegedly disposed of his body in the aftermath.
The startling allegations, aired publicly for the first time this week in a Sydney court, mark a significant turn in the decade-long investigation that has captivated the nation. Police now suspect that William died at his foster grandmother’s house on the NSW mid-north coast on September 12, 2014, and his foster mother, fearing the loss of another child in her care, allegedly concealed his death by removing his remains from the property.
A Mother’s Tearful Denial
Facing intense questioning from detectives in a 2021 interview played at the inquest, William’s foster mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, tearfully rejected the accusations leveled against her. “I didn’t take William, I haven’t dumped his body,” she sobbed. “I don’t know where he is. If you want to dig up that entire house of mum’s, dig it up. I didn’t touch him.“
The foster mother maintained that in the immediate aftermath of William’s disappearance, she searched frantically for the boy, driving around the area in her mother’s car in a state of panic. Police, however, have zeroed in on her actions during this critical window, questioning the 20-minute gap between her discovery that William was missing and her emergency call to authorities.
An Intensive Search Effort
In late 2021, armed with their new theory, police launched an exhaustive search of the bushland surrounding the Kendall property where William was last seen. According to investigators, William’s remains could be located off Batar Creek Road—the very route his foster mother drove on the day he vanished.
The 2021 search, which the counsel assisting the inquest Gerard Craddock SC described as leaving “nothing to chance,” saw police meticulously comb through the dense undergrowth. Vegetation was cleared, streams drained, and soil sifted in the hunt for any trace of William’s distinctive red-and-blue Spider-Man suit, which experts believe could have survived for hundreds of years if hidden in the right conditions.
“The [earlier] 2018 forensic search was an intensive, thorough search. By comparison, the 2021 search was at a further level of intensity.”
– Gerard Craddock SC, Counsel Assisting the Inquest
No Remains, No Closure
Despite the exhaustive efforts of investigators, no trace of William or his clothing was discovered. According to experts consulted during the search, the missing toddler’s remains could have been scattered and obscured by wild animals, or degraded by the acidic soil and harsh weather conditions of the Australian bush.
Without a body, the mystery of William Tyrrell’s fate remains painfully unsolved. For his biological parents, who have publicly spoken of their anguish, and for the wider Australian public who have followed every twist in this tragic case, the search for answers—and for closure—continues.
“We’re saying we know how it happened, we know why it happened and we know where he is.”
– Det Sgt Scott Jamieson to the foster mother, 2021
As the inquest prepares to hear closing arguments in December, the question on everyone’s mind is whether the truth about William’s disappearance will finally be uncovered, or if this baffling case will remain one of Australia’s most heart-wrenching mysteries—an eternal reminder of the little boy in the Spider-Man suit who vanished without a trace.
