William Tyrrell’s foster parents say they fear prime suspects will die before truth uncovered
William Tyrrell’s foster parents fear the prime suspects in his 2014 disappearance will die before the truth is uncovered and they say being harassed by suspicious members of the public left them “devastated”.
The final hearing in the longrunning inquest into William’s disappearance closed on Thursday with statements from the boy’s biological and foster families. The three-yearold was last seen at his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall on the New South Wales mid-north coast in September 2014.
“Our love for William has not dimmed with the passage of time,” his foster father told the NSW coroners court. His foster mother said: “My arms still ache to this day to hold him.”
With no forensic evidence and fewer police resources dedicated to the case now compared with years ago, the family wonder if any progress will be made in 10 years when “the primary persons of interest identified will have died and so too any chance we might have of ever finding William”.
“We’re at the same point we were when the investigation began six years ago,” the foster father said on Thursday. The foster mother said: “In the absence of justice for William, the perpetrator or perpetrators remain at large.”
The court also heard from a primary school-aged child who said she wanted to join the police as soon as she turned 18 so she could help find William. “It should not be her mantle to pick this up,” the foster father said.
Presenting two private family photo albums of William to the coroner, Harriet Grahame, both parents spoke of the grief of losing their precious, jovial and funny boy.
His “giggles were infectious”, he had “the cutest little walk” and he loved listening to stories about Fireman Sam and Hairy Maclary, they said. They had feared the worst when he went missing but held out hope.
Nine days later, the family were forced to make the four-hour trip home to Sydney – with the sight of William’s empty car seat “crushing” his foster mother. “We didn’t want to go,” she said.
On Thursday the foster parents also detailed the “devastating” effect of a long-running harassment campaign by sections of the public. They endured threats so serious one person was jailed, were accused of stealing from a registered charity and had their address repeatedly revealed.
“We were not prepared for the degree of prosecution we were subjected to by strangers,” the family said. Even at the inquest the harassment continued, with some of the antagonists illegally photographing the foster parents inside the court complex and posting the pictures online.
A statement on behalf of William’s biological father and paternal grandmother detailed how the egging of the father’s home, online abuse and unsupportive sections of the media had added to their overwhelming grief.
“We’ve had six years of pain, grief and broken promises,” the statement said. “We are still grieving, we are angry and frustrated and we want answers.”
William’s father said he had shared a special bond with his boy and since 2014 always found Father’s Day hard. “[He] hasn’t been the same since William disappeared and, in this way, two sons were lost,” the statement read.
The coroner thanked both families for speaking despite the ways their lives had been intruded upon and the painful, difficult and harrowing circumstances of the case.
Grahame will deliver her findings in June 2021 – more than two years after the inquest began.
Scores of witnesses, including detectives, Kendall locals and convicted criminals, were questioned during four rounds of hearings, while reams of documentary evidence was also put before the coroner.
“I take the task before me very seriously,” she said. “Many people – myself included – remain committed to finding the truth.”