Senior Constable Christopher Rowley is a police officer attached to the station at Laurieton. He lives in Kendall, and he has three children.
He was by chance just nine minutes away from Benaroon Drive, behind the wheel of a fully marked Mitsubishi Pajero, call sign ‘Laurieton 18’, when the emergency call from William’s foster mum came up on his mobile data terminal.
A three-year-old was missing. He swung straight in that direction, arriving on the scene at 11.06 a.m.
A vehicle from a second station – ‘Wauchope 17’, with Senior Constable Tanya Smith behind the wheel – wasn’t far behind.
Senior Constable Rowley was near the intersection of Ellendale Crescent when he saw William’s foster mum walking down the middle of the road, distressed and crying.
He stopped the car, and asked her: ‘You’re the mum?’
‘I’m the mum, he calls me Mum, I’m the foster mum,’ she said.
Senior Constable Rowley asked how long William had been missing and where he’d last been seen, and he asked her: ‘Who’s at home?’ ‘I think my mother is,’ she replied, ‘with my daughter, Lindsay.’
‘I need somebody at the house. More police will be coming. Has the house been searched?’
‘Yes, yes.’
‘I’ll go there now,’ Senior Constable Rowley said, because police, they know that people panic, and they don’t always look properly. He pressed on, toward the house, taking careful note of its position. Benaroon Drive is a dogleg street, which is to say that it suddenly turns right, just before the bitumen runs out, into the forest.
The house at number 48 sits on the corner, near that right-hand turn.
‘No fences.’ That was one of the notes Senior Constable Rowley made.
He went to the front door, and William’s foster nana let him in so he could search the house room by room. He almost immediately ran into William’s foster dad coming out of the bathroom, crying.
‘You’re the father?’
from the book by caroline overington missing william tyrrell page 30 chapter 2
He was by chance just nine minutes away from Benaroon Drive, behind the wheel of a fully marked Mitsubishi Pajero, call sign ‘Laurieton 18’, when the emergency call from William’s foster mum came up on his mobile data terminal.
A three-year-old was missing. He swung straight in that direction, arriving on the scene at 11.06 a.m.
A vehicle from a second station – ‘Wauchope 17’, with Senior Constable Tanya Smith behind the wheel – wasn’t far behind.
Senior Constable Rowley was near the intersection of Ellendale Crescent when he saw William’s foster mum walking down the middle of the road, distressed and crying.
He stopped the car, and asked her: ‘You’re the mum?’
‘I’m the mum, he calls me Mum, I’m the foster mum,’ she said.
Senior Constable Rowley asked how long William had been missing and where he’d last been seen, and he asked her: ‘Who’s at home?’ ‘I think my mother is,’ she replied, ‘with my daughter, Lindsay.’
‘I need somebody at the house. More police will be coming. Has the house been searched?’
‘Yes, yes.’
‘I’ll go there now,’ Senior Constable Rowley said, because police, they know that people panic, and they don’t always look properly. He pressed on, toward the house, taking careful note of its position. Benaroon Drive is a dogleg street, which is to say that it suddenly turns right, just before the bitumen runs out, into the forest.
The house at number 48 sits on the corner, near that right-hand turn.
‘No fences.’ That was one of the notes Senior Constable Rowley made.
He went to the front door, and William’s foster nana let him in so he could search the house room by room. He almost immediately ran into William’s foster dad coming out of the bathroom, crying.
‘You’re the father?’
from the book by caroline overington missing william tyrrell page 30 chapter 2
