Interesting about the disclosure of the campaign
Caroline Overington
4 hrs ·
Episode Five of Nowhere Child is live. You can listen here:
https://player.whooshkaa.com/shows/nowhere-child
Today we're looking at how William's foster parents engaged a public relations firm to lobby for more police resources, including a million dollar reward for his return.
The public relations company, Insight Communications, has now worked pro-bono for more than four years to keep William’s name in the news, and prevent the case from going “cold.”
Cost to the business have been off-set by raising donations through the Where’s William website, and by selling William-themed merchandise. More than $182,000 was spent distributing Where’s William stickers and posters, and keeping the Facebook page active.
The campaign has been highly effective in keeping William’s name in the news. It put pressure on police, some of whom took umbrage at the involvement of lobbyists, something that happens very rarely in Australia.
“We didn’t like it, but you can’t blame them. If it was your son, what would you do? You’d do everything,” said one detective who worked on the case.
They did it because most missing persons’ cases peter out after a year or so. They wanted to keep pressure on.
Detective Gary Jubelin, who was removed as head of the Tyrrell investigation at the beginning of the year, also wanted Insight’s help, because “he was very much aware of the public sentiment, and the fact that people weren't coming forward with information.
The Insight team worked with Detective Jubelin to get the State’s first million-dollar reward for a missing person.
“When we were talking, I remember, Gary discussed that certain amount had been offered for reward.
“And William’s (foster) dad just said, that is not enough. It's not enough for my boy."
The fact that William was in foster care when he went missing created problems for police, when they were trying to get the public behind the campaign to find him.
His biological parents were forbidden from campaigning for his return.
His foster parents could only be shown with their faces obscured, and all interviews with them are tightly controlled by the NSW Department of Family and Community Services, who approve the content, and the questions.
The NSW coroner is conducting a formal inquest into William’s disappearance. He has been missing for almost five years. The inquest will move next week to the mid-north coast town of Taree, close to Kendall, where William was staying when he went missing.