First post on WS in 4 or 5 years, it's been quite the crazy time in the past few months in regards to missing children. The young fella from Putty, little Cleo and of course the recent developments surrounding William's disappearance.
I'd echo the sentiments of Cleaver Greene in that clearly something fresh and compelling has been brought to the attention of police. This is an unusually narrow scope of investigation and given the high profile nature of this case and the well publicised and as the Commissioner has publicly stated, ill focused investigation, police are obviously VERY confident that they have it right this time.
I don't necessarily agree that this new information cannot have come from William's sister however. You'll have to forgive me as I'm not up to speed on the pseudonyms used during the inquest but the sister is now of an age (if I understand correctly, I've not paid close enough attention to the particulars of this case) where any information she provides is generally going to be viewed as more credible than any statement(s) given when she was much younger.
Interviewing children, particularly in cases where they may have been a party to particularly traumatic events, is an extremely delicate exercise. It's very difficult, if not impossible in some cases to elicit pertinent information without questioning methods that are likely to withstand the various legal challenges that they would inevitably face when the matter is brought to court. Interviewing a 10-13 year old is infinitely easier than interviewing a 5 or 6 year old.
Total speculation on my part as a lay observer in this case but it's entirely possible that William's sister is (or was at the time that the new information came to light) is now capable of a level of communication and recall that she can effectively give an unprompted and credible version of events without being asked leading questions which are likely to be legally problematic.
Of course there are no doubt countless other possible sources but to exclude William's sister as the source would be premature in my opinion.
I find it interesting that numerous people are advancing the accidental death and panicked disposal of the body theory. I understand how this conclusion could be reached but having been involved in numerous highly publicised matters in a precessional capacity, I'm acutely aware that police are experts in saying a lot, without saying much at all. Not a criticism at all, in fact it would be negligent of them to offer anything more than this.
Reading between the lines with regards to the statements police have made in recent days (read: total speculation on my part), I'd be surprised if this was not still a homicide investigation. There are certainly crimes attached the conduct that would be required to conceal a fatal, but accidental incident, but the language being used and the pretty much unprecedented and transparent access media outlets are being granted in relation to the search, it leads me to believe this is far more serious than potential charges of interfering with a corpse, obstruct police, perjury and so on (insert equivalent NSW offences here, my purview is strictly QLD biased). These are all serious offences, make no mistake, but to my mind and in my experience, they do not match up to the information being provided by police. I suspect that they believe something more sinister may have occurred.
I may well be proven to be totally off base with the above but it's where my mind sits at the moment. I suspect we will know a great deal more in the coming week or two. Feel free to revisit this thread to ridicule my version of events!
Touching on the somewhat surprising transparency of the current status of the investigation, I can't help but wonder if this is a subtle but very deliberate 'we got this very wrong and are making every attempt to clear those previously, but wrongly suspected of involvement in William's disappearance'. Formally clearing previous suspects at this stage of an investigation would be improper, but at the same time, going to great lengths to ensure that basically everyone knows who they are closing in on, is a tactic you rarely, if ever see. There may well be an element of psychologically squeezing the suspected party involved as well but to me it seems a thinly veiled call out that 'the neighbour across the street and the convicted sex offender down the road had nothing to do with this'.
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Regardless, I can only hope for as speedy a resolution as possible, for both William and family and swift justice to anyone who may be criminally involved in his disappearance.