William Tyrrell

Case background and investigation

William Tyrrell, born June 26, 2011, was three years old when he went missing on September 12, 2014. He was visiting his foster grandmother's house on Benaroon Drive in Kendall, on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, with his foster family. According to 7NEWS and Wikipedia's summary of police statements, he had been playing outside with his sister in a Spider-Man suit and is believed to have disappeared between about 10:00 and 10:25 a.m. He was reported missing shortly before 11 a.m.

The initial search lasted nine days and involved police, the State Emergency Service, the Rural Fire Service and hundreds of volunteers, 7NEWS reported. Strike Force Rosann was set up on September 16, 2014. For roughly seven years investigators worked mainly on the theory that William had been abducted. On September 12, 2016, the second anniversary, the NSW government announced a $1 million reward, which Wikipedia describes as the largest offered in the state for a missing person and payable for William's recovery. 7NEWS reported that more than 700 persons of interest were identified over the years.

Some of those early lines of inquiry were later discredited. A tradesman who had been publicly scrutinised was confirmed to have been elsewhere that morning, and according to Wikipedia he was awarded A$1.48 million in December 2022 after suing NSW Police over his treatment.

In November 2021 police announced new searches around Kendall and said they were now looking for remains. It was reported at the time that the foster mother was being treated as a person of interest. In April 2022 she was charged with giving false or misleading information to the NSW Crime Commission; she was found not guilty in November 2022. On June 27, 2023, it was reported that police had sent a brief to the Director of Public Prosecutions recommending she be charged with perverting the course of justice and interfering with a corpse. No such charges have been laid. Through her lawyer, she has said she had nothing to do with William's disappearance, 7NEWS reported.

A coronial inquest that opened in 2019 resumed at Lidcombe in November 2024 before Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the court was told of the police theory that William died in an accidental fall from a balcony and that his body was then moved, a theory the foster mother has always firmly denied. Expert witnesses gave evidence about the 2021 searches, which found nothing connected to William.

As far as could be established for this entry, the coroner's findings had not been published by September 2026. William has never been found, his fate is unknown, and nobody has been charged in connection with his disappearance.