There is much to be potentially hidden when so much is hidden to begin with. Normally when a child disappears into thin air, it is pretty standard, rightly or wrongly, for the parents in charge of said child at the time of disappearance to be looked at. (See bottom paragraph for one link n regard to how rare stranger abduction is.) Not meaning to hurt anyone's feelings, but it is a fact.
It (whichever situation/story) is plastered all over the news. Including names. Then.. tips start rolling in to police, anonymously or otherwise. People who know information about perhaps the people involved, or the place, or the vehicle, or whatever the case may be, are able to come forward to police with any information they may have, that may or may not be relevant. How often have you heard police ask for anyone with ANY information to come forward, even if they think it isn't important, because it could potentially be a missing link that blows open the entire case. It can only take one seemingly small clue to get that ball rolling sometimes, and end up in effect, solving the case.
In WT's case, because everything is super-secret, the lack of information precludes the coming forth of information, which could in fact be important, could in fact be that one clue to get things moving. For example, say the people in charge of missing child were from a different area, not known at all in the area where the child actually went missing. What if there are people in the area where they actually DO live, that might have come forward with something, if only they'd known? But they may never associate this highly publicized news story of missing child, with the people they happen to know of in their own area, or something they may have seen,... because the names and photos are never released publicly. There is no way for them to make a potential connection.
As unfair as it is for the poor parents who experience a tragedy like this in their lives, the same for a husband who loses his wife to an unnatural occurrence, ... it is usually at least looked at, as to whether there could potentially be family involvement, and unfortunately, that only makes sense.
While police have said they have 'cleared' whomever, I would love to know 'how' they cleared anyone so quickly. I would think that anyone and everyone who was there that day would *also* be considered a POI, at least until such time as it is known for sure what happened exactly to this boy. How could the people present that day be considered anything else until it is known what happened? A POI is merely a person of interest, a person that may have information, a person worth talking to about the case, a person to keep in mind should a potential question arise that perhaps that person could answer. A POI is not a suspect.
In poor Noah's case, before he was found, police were *repeatedly* urging the gossip, rumors, etc., to stop (much like in this case on some venues), and letting people know that his parents were just absolutley devastated by his missing status. Police didn't want that kind of communicating going on, the family felt bad enough as it was. If police had still not pumped that septic tank, they would still be telling people to lay off.
In little William's case, there are many unanswered questions, all kinds of discrepancies, and it is only by virtue of a legal point that his family cannot be named, otherwise the family would be subject to the exact same things as every other family who suffers such misfortune, right or wrong. Personally, I would hate to think that something could potentially be being missed because of the secrecy due to a legal point.
In regard to the photograph on the phone, I'm not aware that police even confiscated the phone to perform forensic IT examination by duly qualified computer forensic professionals. It is a very specialized science. Wouldn't that need to be done in order to verify for sure? Did they do it? Or was the photo merely said to have been verified by an officer who perhaps looked at the phone and confirmed that the date and time on the photo/phone said the appropriate things? Somewhat similar to the septic tank being looked at, but yet not pumped out.
I should hope that people would be more concerned about William being found, one way or another, than about anything else. Sleuthing is what we do here, one person's thought may spark other thoughts, even perhaps clues, that could be that one important one. Child abduction by a stranger is very rare according to statistics everywhere. Not to say that it never happens, nor that it did or didn't happen in this case, but every possibility should be looked at, and not just the rare possibilities. Here is one link in regard to statistics involving child abductions, there are
many:
http://news.discovery.com/human/psychology/stranger-child-abductions-actually-very-rare-130514.htm