In episode 1 of the podcast, they make a strong point of saying that it's hard to imagine that the abduction could have been planned which I’m not sure I agree with.
11:45 BELLING: “… a critical piece of this puzzle is the fact that they actually went up to Kendall early. They decided at the last minute to leave on Thursday night rather than go on Friday as initially planned.”
And then they go on, because of this critical “snap decision” to leave earlier,
12:50 HARRIS: “It makes it very difficult to imagine that someone could have planned the abduction knowing that they would be there.”
I think William’s abduction could still have been planned but just enacted earlier, opportunistically. It’s not like they weren’t expected that Friday. They were expected that Friday, they just arrived earlier on Thursday evening. Someone could have seen their car arrive at the house on Thursday evening. Someone could have seen their car at the house very early on Friday morning before they got up. We know the children were heard playing by neighbours on Friday morning:
“Judy Wilson, whose property was just metres from William's grandmother's yard, heard the two children playing before she took off to run errands in town.” (ref:
The day William Tyrrell vanished)
We also know that they were probably seen by someone in a car when they were out riding their bicycles in the driveway on Friday morning:
“William and his sister were riding their bicycles in the property's driveway, when a car drove past, did a U-turn in a neighbour's driveway and drove off.” (ref:
The day William Tyrrell vanished)
What’s more, they are known in the area.
PS had certainly seen them before:
“(PS) had seen the little boy named William and his sister, who came to stay with their grandmother directly across the road, only occasionally” (ref:
The day William Tyrrell vanished)
They visited Kendall often enough for the kids to have their own toys at the house:
10:50 HARRIS: “…they had been to Kendall many times before with both of the kids. The kids had their own toys there, they knew the house so it was a pretty normal weekend.”
Specifically, they visited every few months, half a dozen times in total:
11:07 FF: “It might be once every three or four months especially Nanna’s birthday or an occasion or also, just a good time to catch up. So probably half a dozen times”
And they don't just stay indoors when they are there, they go outside to play. Plus, they have attended a Street Party:
11:21 FM: “We would go out, I mean they were young so quite limited in what you do with young children. And there was a street party so we went to the street party (inaudible), Christmas party. But it was more, family oriented rather than go out and engage with lots of people.”
So, a long post, basically just to say that I can imagine that the abduction was yes, enacted opportunistically (aren’t most?) but it could also have been planned. And I'm not sure arriving on Thursday is that "critical".
Podcast episode 1 ref:
The Little Boy in the Spiderman Suit. Rough transcriptions above are my own.
