bearbear,
Just in relation to the smell FA talked about, the owners of the Wauchope shop must have been aware of its location. A tweet from the inquest says they went there:
"She [the shop owner] told the court he [FA] also didn't want to tell police about the smell and they said 'If you're not going to go to the police then shut up about it'.
They later took their daughter to show her where [FA] said the smell was."
-
@LiaJHarris 12 March 2020 (BBM and my notes in brackets)
But I think it's possible they're talking about something that happened months after William disappeared, maybe not before July 2015, which I think would make it less likely to be relevant to William's case. The shop owner said that FA noticed the smell "
on his regular walk home to Logan's Crossing". (
@LiaJHarris 12 March 2020)
I think FA only moved to Logans Crossing after GO offered his caravan, which GO did after the Herons Creek pastor "had sought accommodation for [FA] so he could be granted bail", bail which was then granted after the pastor "attended a hearing in Sydney". (
Sydney Morning Herald, 16 March 2020)
A list of FA's court dates (
drsleuth, thread 46, post 448) shows a Supreme Court Sydney bail hearing on 06 July 2015. If that's the right one then FA only moved to Logans Crossing after that, and the smell he was noticing would have been appearing ten months or more after William went missing.