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How could toddler William Tyrrell simply vanish into thin air?
Greg Bearup
Dan Box
You drive over the *Camden Haven River and into the old logging village of *Kendall. Its a bright spring morning with mist lolling in the *valleys at the base of a looming, rugged hinterland.There are hardly any other cars on the roads; the kids are at school and the tradies have hooned-off in their utes hours before to building sites around Port Macquarie, 30km away. You cross the railway line and *follow the road between the empty swimming pool and the *tennis courts, past the statue of bush poet Henry Kendall, who gave this place its name. Driving past old, *pastel-coloured weatherboard houses fashioned from planks of eucalypts felled by hand and hauled by *bullocks through this *valley it feels as though youve travelled back in time. You dont take much notice of the odd *person *strolling along the street and they dont notice you why would they, after all?The road forks in the middle of town, at a monument to the 11 timber-getters and labourers from the village who died in the Great War, and the 34 others who also answered the call. You turn left, up over a steep hill, and then left again, down past the Kendall Showground. Here the bush closes in around the road, a *tunnel of gums. You turn right, up Benaroon Drive, an 80s subdivision huge blocks, each with a hectare of garden around a house nestled at the rear. There are just 13 homes in this long street, their gardens impeccably groomed, but behind the houses and up ahead on this dead-end road, the forest is dark and the understorey a thick tangle of lantana. No one sees you, and if they did, it wouldnt be remarkable; youre just going about your business. The only sound is the chirruping of birds. Ahead, on your right, a grass slope rises steeply, unfenced, from the road. You notice a child in a Spider-Man *costume. Theres no one else around. Its 10.30am on Friday, September 12, 2014.The night before, the parents of Spider-Man, three-year-old William Tyrrell, drove four hours up the coast from Sydneys North Shore to *Nannas house at Kendall, stopping at Maccas on the way, a rare treat for the kids. Theyd planned to travel up on the Friday but finished work early, and so theyd bundled William and his four-year-old sister into the car and headed off. No one knew they were going there.Its a relief to be out of the city; at Nannas the kids have a garden the size of a horse paddock to burn off energy. William, his parents say, is like a budding flower, slowly opening himself up to the world around him. About to blossom, is how they describe him. He loves the bike he got for his third birthday and is developing a wicked sense of humour. Hes fun to be around; cautious and tentative at times, with an inquiring mind. He loves it up here at Nannas house, where he can roam free.Williams grandfather the kids called him Opa died in February 2014. They are planning to visit his grave later that Friday morning. The mobile phone reception in Kendall is atrocious and *Williams dad, a consultant, has to deliver a Skype presentation, so at 9.15am he drives to nearby Lakewood to get a reliable signal.William changes from his pyjamas into his favourite Spider-Man suit. He looks adorable and at 9.45am his mum takes a photo of him, grinning into the camera, while his sister sits on the floor, drawing pictures to put on Opas grave. Nanna makes a cup of tea, and between 10am and 10.25am the two women sit outside as *William and his sister play chase in the *garden, which slopes down steeply, 70 metres or so, to the road. Theres no fence. At one point *William is seen hiding behind a celery wood tree, halfway down the garden. He has morphed from Spider-Man into Daddy Tiger and they smile as he makes growling noises, trying to frighten his sister.And then his mum notices theres been no growling, no giggling, for five minutes or so. She looks inside, does a lap of the house outside, then retraces her steps. I cant hear him, she says. Why cant I hear him? I just walked out and I can hear nothing. She is walking around shouting, William, where are you? You need to talk to Mummy. Tell me where you are. Shes becoming frantic, searching through cupboards in the house. How can a three-year-old just vanish into nothing? Williams father comes home and sees the panic on her face. He starts running, up and down the street.Soon they are knocking on neighbours doors, wild-eyed and desperate. The neighbours join the search and call others to help. At 10.56am, utterly distraught, Williams mother calls 000 and reports him missing, telling the operator theyve been searching for 15 or 20 minutes. She cant understand how a child can simply vanish. There is no way in the world, she thinks, that he would have gone into the bush. Even at this early stage she worries that someone may have taken him. But here? In Kendall? It is such a small community that everyone knows each other.At 11.06am the first police car arrives; word has spread throughout the townships 800 or so residents that a little boy is lost and dozens of locals are out looking. A command post is *established outside the house on Benaroon Drive. At 11.12am the Dog Unit is dispatched. The SES is informed at 11.44am. At 12.52pm a police helicopter takes to the sky. By mid-*afternoon hundreds of people are searching for a boy who has seemingly vanished into the bush.At 2.35pm detectives are dispatched from Port Macquarie and begin taking statements. One of them speaks to a colleague, Detective Senior Constable Vanessa Partridge, back at Port Macquarie late that afternoon; they are worried something more sinister may have taken place. Partridge arrives very early the next day, and already there are people out on *horseback, on bicycle, on foot, searching for *William. His dad is out there with them, and will be for days, thinking, Surely if he is out here in the bush hell be found?Arriving at the house on Benaroon Drive, *Partridge is thinking, Something just doesnt feel right about this whole thing.Six days after Williams disappearance,**Superintendent Paul Fehon, the boss of Port Macquarie Police, stands outside Williams grandmothers house, working through various scenarios. There is forest all around. Youd *initially assume William was lost in the bush, he says, but on close inspection the undergrowth is thick and there is only one track through it, *further up a steep hill. It is very difficult terrain for a three-year-old to navigate. Hundreds of people have joined in one of the largest searches ever conducted in the state. Every nearby dam has been pumped or searched by divers. Teams of cadaver dogs have been brought in. Search helicopters have buzzed overhead while volunteers and SES personnel have combed the ground. Theyve found nothing.So if William was abducted, how was this *possible, Fehon asks? Would an opportunistic predator risk it when he could be so easily caught? Its not the sort of street you just cruise past its out of town and stops dead at the forest. The same goes for a targeted abduction if it was planned, how did the abductor know William was here? Or that he would run out on to the street? The policeman says to a group of journalists at the scene, You guys have been*here 10 minutes; what do you*think has happened to young *William? We dont know, and neither does he.These same issues *trouble veteran homicide detective Gary Jubelin, who took over this case in early February after the retirement of a colleague. Jubelins first task was a comprehensive review of the search. Once I was assured that it was a thorough and professional search then, OK, if hes not lost, hes been snatched. After meticulously investigating Williams immediate and wider family the detectives have ruled them out. Theyve come to the conclusion he was snatched by a stranger; one terrifyingly likely motive is sexual gratification. They are hunting for a paedophile.Jubelin, 52, is an obsessive character who works 15-hour days and expects as much from his staff. Some cops like him, some dont but if one of their relatives was murdered Jubelin is one of the few cops most would want working the case. He never gives in. Hes a fit, menacing-*looking man, thick through the shoulders and slim at the waist, after years of boxing and martial arts. He wears sharp suits and dark wraparound *sunnies on his shaved head. He looks like a bad, big-city homicide detective, and that is what he is. Hes also an old-school cop who drinks green tea and travels to Asia for yoga retreats.The strike force he leads works out of a meeting room on the top floor of Port Macquarie Police Station. It would have a great view over the Hastings River if the blinds werent closed. On the day we visit, three detectives have their heads buried in computers theyve all been working long, long hours. One of them is Partridge, who travelled to Kendall the day after William *disappeared. The others are Detective Senior Constable Sam Brennan from the Homicide Squad, and Detective Senior Constable Lindsay Steele from Port Macquarie. In all, there are 12 detectives, comprising staff from homicide, the sex crimes unit, the local area command plus two specialist analysts from Sydney.The incident room has the look and feel of having been hastily assembled, even after seven months. A suit coat hangs on a wheelie bin in the corner and on the walls are aerial photographs. One is covered in pink highlighter and shows the area covered in the search, thousands of hectares, by the foot patrols. Another says cadaver dogs. There are timelines and graphs, showing how various people are linked.And there at the front of the room is a reminder of why they are all here several *photocopied pictures of William sticky-taped to a whiteboard, smiling out at the detectives. The team have interviewed more than 1000 *people. Theyve received more than 3000 pieces of information from the public. The analysts are now sifting through and cross-checking everything they have. They have established that around 200 people were within a 1km radius of *Williams grandmothers house when he went missing. They are checking and plotting the movements of every single one of those people. Progress, the detectives say, is being able to exclude people from the investigation. Each time they do so, the field narrows.Theyve followed up hundreds of leads. There have been numerous reported sightings. A few weeks ago they were told that two *passengers waiting for a flight to New Zealand had both independently called 000 to report that a boy waiting to board looked like William Tyrrell. CCTV images were hastily sent to the detectives it looked promising. Police were waiting when the plane landed in New *Zealand. It wasnt him.The pressure to solve this case is intense, Jubelin says, and all his investigators feel it. Theres the public pressure and the pressure they put on themselves. But, most of all, they want to solve this case for Williams *family. The boy has a complicated family history. Weve been told that they cant be *identified. It makes aspects of this story difficult to report. It also makes it difficult for his *parents to advocate in the media on their sons behalf. Some of it, frankly, appears a bit ridiculous; bureaucratic overkill from a government department that may be skirting the edge of hampering a homicide investigation. *Williams parents are lovely people, Jubelin says. The family still hold out hope William may be found alive, and until theres something conclusive I cant take that hope away from them. But hope is also unbearably cruel. What if he is alive being held prisoner? What is happening to him? What are they doing to our beautiful little boy? They are very awkward conversations, Jubelin says. Their minds can take them to some very dark places.We drive with Jubelin to the scene of the abduction it is his seventh or eighth trip there. Each time he stays for an hour or so, usually alone, *wandering up and down the street, trying to think like a paedophile, *trying to get into the perpetrators mind. You have to put yourself in that dark, murky world, he says. You have to swim in the swamp.Like Superintendent Paul Fehon, Jubelin was at first perplexed about how an offender could abduct a child from such a location. Ive got my paedophile hat on, he says as we turn right into Benaroon Drive and motor slowly up the street. I cant reconcile that I can jump out of the car, run up and grab the kid, run back down to the car, put him in the car, and speed off.And then, he says, on his third visit, he remembered something. Years ago, he was driving one night to the house where his kids were living like many homicide detectives, hes been through a divorce. The neighbour had twins, who were toddlers, and one of them was on the road, he says. I nearly ran over the child. I jumped out and picked up the kid and was *carrying him in when the neighbours ran out and said, Thank God.It got him thinking. What if Williams case was not a planned abduction? Youve got to have two worlds collide the situation where a three-year-old is momentarily unsupervised, and comes in contact with someone who is motivated to abduct that child
it doesnt *necessarily have to be this monster dressed in black who runs up, grabs the child and speeds off. What if the person who abducted William had a reason to be in the street that day and had no malicious intent when he turned up Benaroon Drive?We stop the car down the street a bit from Williams grandmothers house. You are here, he says as we look up through trees to the house, and you see a three-year-old kid in a Spider-Man suit on the road and theres no one else around. What do you do? Its pretty easy to establish a rapport with a little boy. Gday Spider-Man. How are you going? Wheres your mum?The way Jubelin sees it, you open the door and you put him in the car. Perhaps your first thought is to return him to his parents. Certainly, if anyone saw you now, you could say you were driving him to the police station in Laurieton, 15 minutes away. Instead of knocking on doors, you head back out past the showground. No one *follows you. You cross the Camden Haven River and nobody notices young William with the seatbelt over him. You bypass the police station in Laurieton and you just keep driving. By the time Williams mother calls 000 you are 30km away. There are tens of thousands of hectares of dense bushland between you and Kendall. *William is strapped in beside you, dressed in his Spider-Man suit.For months after William disappeared, the*case seemed to go nowhere, at least publicly. And then, in January, police raided the house and business of a local whitegoods repairman, Bill Spedding, provoking a media storm. Hours later, after he and his wife Margaret finished being interviewed by the police, they chose not to go home to face the waiting camera crews. Instead they spent the night at the home of a friend and relative, Colin Youngberry. Spedding has always declared his innocence.Vietnam veteran Youngberry invites us to sit in a couple of iron chairs on his porch; a tinnie on a trailer sits like an ornament in the front yard of his Laurieton house. His wife is a cousin of Margaret Spedding. Bill Spedding has now been publicly branded a person of interest in the search for Williams abductor. Hows he handling it, we ask? To tell you the truth I wouldnt know what it is bloody well like, Youngberry says. I mean everyone is comin out and tellin him hes basically murdered a kid. I mean, ****, not only kidnapped him but
He says the pressure on Spedding, who moved to the area a few years ago, is immense. The media have been hounding him and his business has suffered. And, worst of all, the three children that he and Margaret have loved and cared for for many years relatives of hers through her first marriage have now left their care. Its breaking her heart, Youngberry says.During the raids on Speddings pawnbroking business, police took away items including *computers and a mattress. For two days they also searched his house at Bonny Hills, a short drive from Kendall, where they pumped out a septic tank and ferreted beneath the house. Three vehicles belonging to Spedding were taken away for forensic examination. Then, in March, police spent two days searching bushland off Houston Mitchell Drive, which the locals call the Ghost Road. Its one of the few roads out of Bonny Hills, en route to Kendall. Spedding drove past in his van as the police search was taking place.Four days before William went missing,**Spedding had visited Williams grandmother in Benaroon Drive to repair her washing machine. He took away a part and was supposed to return the day that William disappeared, to fix the machine. But, he told his friend Colin *Youngberry, he never went to Kendall that day and was with his wife in Laurieton attending a school function instead. Youngberry says Bill and *Margaret Spedding had a coffee afterwards and that Bills bank records show he was in Laurieton at the time William disappeared.But Youngberry says there is another reason why police may be unfairly hounding his friend he says that a former partner of Speddings has made vexatious complaints against him for years. You should look into that, Youngberry says.Despite everything Spedding has endured he seems to be coping, somehow. He has an excellent attitude on life, Youngberry says. The only time I seen him real upset was when they nabbed him and took him and Margaret in for an interview. He was devastated, wondering why. Why him? Just outta the blue.A few months ago, Youngberry reveals, *Margaret Spedding went to a clairvoyant. He says hes heard the tape *recording of the conversation. Margaret asked the clairvoyant if her husband had been involved in any way in *Williams disappearance. The clairvoyant reassured her he hadnt. That made her feel good, Youngberry says. Anyway, he advises, you blokes should go and talk to Bill. And so we do.Speddings house is on a big bush block *outside the coastal village of Bonny Hills. *Spedding is polite but wary. I treat the media with the respect of a snake, he says. He wont comment on the vexatious complaints or *Margarets visit to the clairvoyant. He *confirms that he has engaged lawyers and is considering legal action against some media outlets for their coverage. But mostly, he politely bats away our questions with a no comment. When asked if there is anything hed like to add, he says: Well, I am not guilty, of course. I was never there on the day.A few days later we contact his son, Rodney Spedding, who runs a Sydney electrical business. He says despite his fathers calm exterior he is only just hanging in there. He would not comment about the vexatious complaints against his father, and says he fully supports him. Hed give you the shirt off his back, Rodney *Spedding says. Hes taken in kids and looked after them over the years. Ive watched him with my kids. Ive got no doubt that he would have nothing to do with the disappearance of William.He says his father was due to go to Williams grandmothers house on the day William disappeared, to fix her washing machine, but he went to an award ceremony at the school, where one of the boys was getting an award, so he ended up going there rather than going out on that day to Williams grandmothers. He says his father told him that he phoned the grandmother to say he would not be coming to fix the washing machine.Williams disappearance is a once in a *decade*crime, according to Dr Olav Nielssen, a psychiatrist from the University of NSW who has studied juvenile homicides. More than half the children who are murdered die from violent abuse. Around a quarter are killed by psychotic parents or guardians. Ten to fifteen per cent of deaths are the result of teenagers fighting. And then there are the drug-addled parents who give their children methadone to help them sleep.Once, every decade or so, a child is abducted by some sexual deviant, or thrill killer, or in some other bizarre circumstance, Nielssen says. These murders are extremely rare.If someone took William, it is unlikely to have been their first offence, says Dr Michael Diamond, a forensic psychiatrist and criminal profiler. You dont just do this sort of crime for the first time, he says. You would have to overcome other experiential things that confront you if you are going to do something of that magnitude. Is it somebody who has access to a child, and thought about it and not done it because their contact is too obvious, and so it has beena rehearsed and lived-in fantasy without the terrible outcome? Diamond asks.Someone who has walked the same path as Williams parents is Bruce Morcombe, whose son Daniel disappeared in 2003. It wasnt until 2011 that his killer, Brett Cowan, was charged. *Morcombe and his wife Denise spent years pressing their sons case. If there wasanything we could offer them, it would be, just keep plugging away, Bruce Morcombe says. The answer is there, dont give up. It took eight years in Daniels case.The months since William disappeared have been a never-ending nightmare, his mum says. We wake up, we just relive it. I just cant believe its happened, we just dont have our boy. She says when she sees that photograph of William in his Spider-Man outfit, I think minutes, minutes and our world has changed. His sister no longer has a brother. We no longer have our boy
We have to watch his sister learn to play on her own, learn to be an only child. Its heartbreaking.She adds: If somebody has him and if he is alive I want him to be safe. I want him to be feeling loved and I want someone to be looking after him
we need to know what happened because we cannot live like this.Jubelin tells us guilt is eating away at Williams parents. What should they do with their sons room? Should they pack it up? But would that mean theyve abandoned him? They need to get on with their lives, but does getting on with their lives mean theyve forgotten him?In terms of grieving, it would perhaps be *better if they had a body and they knew he was dead, the detective says. But they cant bear to say hes dead, because that would mean giving up hope. And at this point, hope is all they have.The worst case is not that a body is found, Jubelin says. The worst case is that a body is never found.And so now it comes down to a struggle between Gary Jubelin, his team, and the *person who most probably abducted William Tyrrell. The bad, big-city detective versus the paedophile. Ill never give up, warns the detective.