The Disappearance of William Tyrrell

William Tyrrell: The Disappearance of the Boy in the Spider-Man Suit

On Friday, September 12, 2014, three-year-old William Tyrrell was playing outside his foster grandmother’s home at 48 Benaroon Drive in Kendall, New South Wales. He was wearing the red and blue Spider-Man outfit that would soon become inseparable from his case. His foster mother and older sister were nearby, his foster father was expected home within minutes, and William was crawling through the grass pretending to be a tiger. His foster mother later said she could hear him roaring from around the side of the house. Then she noticed he had gone quiet.

She went looking for him and expected to find him only a few meters away. Instead, William was gone. His family and neighbors began searching almost immediately, and at approximately 10:56 or 10:57 that morning, his foster mother called Triple Zero to report him missing. Before the day was over, Benaroon Drive would become the center of an enormous search involving police, emergency services, volunteers and local residents. More than a decade later, William has still not been found.

For the past year, my reporter Brooke and I have been working through the reporting, witness accounts and police developments in this case for Voices for Justice. Episode One starts at the beginning. To understand the William Tyrrell case, I think you first have to understand who William was and what is known about the morning he disappeared.

Who Was William Tyrrell?

William Tyrrell was born on June 26, 2011, at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney to his mother, Karlie Tyrrell. Brendan Collins is identified throughout reporting and court records as his father. William had an older sister who had already been removed from their care, and William himself was removed at nine months old in March 2012. He and his sister were then placed together with the foster parents who were caring for them when he disappeared.

Court and foster-care records described that placement as stable, and after about 18 months William was calling his foster parents his parents. Because he was in foster care, however, the public did not initially know some of the most basic facts about his life. Australian privacy laws also continue to suppress the identities of his foster family, which is why I refer to them by their relationship to William rather than by name.

The records also preserve something more important than case procedure: details about William himself. His foster parents described him as charismatic, funny and full of energy. He loved swimming, soccer, dancing, music, puzzles, cars and fire engines, and he said he wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up. In the months before he disappeared, he had also become especially fond of dressing as Spider-Man.

His foster parents said William was cautious around strangers and did not usually wander far away from them. That description became important once investigators began asking how a three-year-old child could leave the property without anyone seeing where he went.

The Trip to Kendall

On Thursday, September 11, 2014, William and his older sister were picked up early from daycare. Their foster parents had planned to travel to Kendall on Friday for a weekend visit with William’s foster grandmother, but made a last-minute decision to leave a day early. After the roughly four-hour drive north from Sydney, the family arrived at the house at about 9 p.m. The children knew it well from previous visits.

Kendall is a small community on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, about half an hour from Port Macquarie. Benaroon Drive ended in a cul-de-sac beside dense Australian bushland, and there was little reason for traffic to use the street unless someone lived nearby or was visiting. By the following afternoon, it would be filled with police, emergency workers, volunteers and reporters.

The Morning William Disappeared

Both foster parents later said William was the first person awake on September 12 and that his laughter woke his foster father. Later that morning, his foster father left the house to join a work call because the mobile reception at Benaroon Drive was too weak for the conference. William’s foster mother got the children dressed, and although she had brought another outfit for him, he wanted to wear his Spider-Man suit.

After breakfast, William and his sister went outside to ride their bikes. During that ride, William’s foster mother later recalled seeing a dark green or gray sedan turn around near the end of the street. Back at the house, the children continued playing outside. At 9:37 a.m., William’s foster mother took the last known photograph of him sitting on the deck in his Spider-Man outfit, his mouth open as he pretended to roar.

Over the next hour, the children moved between drawing pictures and playing games. One of those games was “daddy tiger,” connected to their habit of watching for their foster father’s car when he returned. William began crawling around the grass, pretending to be a tiger, and went around the right side of the house. His foster mother said she told him to stay close. She could still hear him roaring even after he was out of sight, and later said that no more than about five minutes passed between the last roar she heard and the moment she realized he had become unusually quiet.

She went around the house expecting to find him nearby and immediately began calling for him. William’s foster father was due home at any moment, so she initially thought William might have gone toward the street to look for his car. She searched the property and the road but did not see him. A neighbor, Anne Maree, saw that she was distressed and joined the search. When William’s foster father returned, his foster mother ran to the car and asked whether William was with him. He was not.

The First Search for William

The family and neighbors searched the house, yards and surrounding area before William’s foster mother called Triple Zero at approximately 10:56 or 10:57 a.m. She said they had already been looking for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Senior Constable Chris Rowley, who was off duty but heard the call over police radio, was the first officer to arrive. Within hours, a police dog and handler were brought in, but the dog did not establish a scent trail beyond the foster grandmother’s property. The surrounding bush was dense enough that adult searchers later came out with scratches and damaged clothing, and William’s foster father told police that William had asthma and knew his own physical limits.

As the search grew, police checked homes, sheds, drains, waterways and the surrounding bush. Divers, aircraft, mounted police, emergency services and volunteers joined the effort, which continued after dark on the first night because conditions were considered mild enough that William might still survive outside if he had wandered away.

What Did People See That Morning?

Investigators also began trying to reconstruct who and what had been on or near Benaroon Drive before William was reported missing. Neighbors Peter and Sharelle Crabb said they heard a vehicle make a U-turn in the gravel outside their home at about 10:10 a.m., and Sharelle later described it as moving quickly. William’s foster mother also later remembered two unfamiliar vehicles parked across from her mother’s house earlier that morning: an older white Holden station wagon and a gunmetal gray sedan. She said the cars were gone by the time police arrived.

Her recollection of those vehicles became controversial because she did not tell investigators about them on the first day. She later said the memory returned as she replayed the morning in her mind. She also later disclosed that she had driven her mother’s Mazda 3 down Benaroon Drive and onto Batar Creek Road while looking for William before police arrived.

Other reports emerged over time. Local man Ron Chapman eventually told police that he had seen a vehicle traveling quickly through Kendall shortly before the Triple Zero call, with a young boy in the back seat wearing red and blue, followed by a second car. Police did not speak with him until months later. None of the vehicle accounts produced an immediate explanation for William’s disappearance.

The Search Expands

For the first two days, the ground search concentrated on roughly 1.5 square kilometers around the home. By the third day, police doubled the search area, with hundreds of trained searchers and volunteers involved over the course of the operation. As the days passed without finding William, teams began covering some areas again, looking for anything that might have been missed.

The case also became national news almost immediately, but the laws protecting William’s foster-care status created an unusual situation. His foster parents could not publicly identify themselves, so a family friend acted as their media spokesperson. The press knew William was in foster care but could not report it, leaving the public without important context about his family circumstances.

Four days after William disappeared, police established Strike Force Rosann, bringing together detectives from several specialist units. Investigators considered whether William had wandered into the bush, whether someone in his foster or biological family was involved, or whether a stranger had taken him. Police verified his foster father’s work call, while William’s biological parents were in Sydney and had not known the foster family would be in Kendall that weekend.

By the tenth day, the large-scale ground search was winding down. William’s foster parents had to return to Sydney with their daughter, without William. His foster mother later described the four-hour drive home with his car seat empty and his bicycle still in the vehicle.

Where the Investigation Went Next

When the intensive ground search failed to find William, Detective Inspector Hans Rupp of the New South Wales Police homicide division took charge. Police canvassed the Kendall area, reviewed available CCTV, followed possible sightings and examined people who had a reason to be near Benaroon Drive. The early investigation still had no clear answer for what happened in the short period between William’s last roar and his foster mother realizing he was gone.

One detail from the morning would eventually draw police attention in a new direction. William’s foster grandmother’s washing machine was broken, and a repairman had previously visited the house to assess it. William’s foster mother had called him that morning to ask about the repair. A tip later reminded police that the repairman had a legitimate reason to know the property and potentially return to it, and investigators began looking closely at him.

That is where Episode One of Voices for Justice leaves the investigation. The episode goes much deeper into William’s early life, the timeline of September 12, the witnesses and vehicles reported around Kendall, and the decisions made during the first days of the search. Brooke and I have spent the past year working through this case because the details matter, especially in a story where so many theories have developed over time.

Listen to Voices for Justice: William Tyrrell Part 1

If you want to hear the full chronology of William’s disappearance and the early search, listen to Episode One of Voices for Justice using the player embedded below. I walk through the evidence and reporting in much greater detail, including the witness accounts, the response on Benaroon Drive and the questions investigators were left with when the initial search ended.

William Tyrrell Is Still Missing

William Tyrrell was last seen on September 12, 2014, at 48 Benaroon Drive in Kendall, New South Wales. He was three years old when he disappeared and would be 15 years old today. William had straight brown hair and hazel eyes, and he had a large, dark-colored freckle on the top of his head, approximately five centimeters, or two inches, behind his hairline.

If you have information about William’s disappearance or his location, contact New South Wales Police or Crime Stoppers. Please continue sharing William’s story and keeping the focus on finding him.

Resources for Part 1

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