What Happened to William Tyrrell?
On 11 September 2014, three-year-old William Tyrrell, his foster parents, and his five-year-old sister travelled four hours from Sydney to visit his foster mother's mother in Kendall. His foster grandmother's house on Benaroon Drive is directly across the bushland road from the Kendall State Forest, about 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Port Macquarie. Between 10:00 and 10:25 am on 12 September, Tyrrell and his sister were playing hide-and-seek in the front and back yard, while his foster mother and foster grandmother were sitting outside watching them. His foster mother went inside to make a cup of tea; she became worried after she had not heard him for five minutes and began searching the yard and house. Shortly after, Tyrrell's foster father returned after going to Lakewood on business and began searching the street and door-knocking neighbours.
At 10:56, his foster mother phoned 000 emergency services to report him missing and the police arrived at 11:06. His foster mother's last memory was that Tyrrell was imitating a tiger's roar while running towards the side of the home, and then there was silence and he had disappeared. His mother looked for him but with no success.
Later, the police began investigating two cars that were seen parked near the property the day of the disappearance. The cars were seen with the windows facing the house wound down and were unrecognized by neighbors. The cars were noticed by William’s mother but have not been seen since that day. On top of this, another car was sighted driving out of Benaroon Drive at about 10:30 AM, which was about the time he vanished. The same vehicle was later seen speeding down another Kendall street. Police did not release this to the public for another 12 months claiming it was an ‘investigation strategy’.
^An artist's sketch of the cars seen by witnesses
People were again left in shock as police suspected William could have been abducted by someone who had a strong connection to an active pedophile ring. To some this came as no surprise as at the place of his disappearance around 20 registered sex offenders lived around the area he went missing.
Two of the registered sex offenders living near William’s grandmother met up the day he went missing -- one of the men with over 90 charges against him including aggravated indecent assault of a minor. They denied meeting up but their alibi was proven fake. On top of this, it was reported that both men had been driving vehicles that matched the description of the grey sedan and white station wagon that had been seen near the Tyrrell house around the time William disappeared. Unfortunately this has not been able to have been proven as there is not enough evidence.
On 15 November 2021, NSW police announced that they had received new evidence and were renewing the search for Tyrrell in three regions surrounding the town of Kendall, this time with the assumption that they would be finding his remains
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