I'm struggling to understand the mom's decision to let her 8-year-old go fishing by himself at such a late hour. She last saw him at 4pm, and
sunset that day would be at 5:10pm, so it would be getting dark soon and he'd have just one hour to fish.
Then again the "spot where he usually fishes [is] about a block from his Chartiers Avenue home" so I guess this makes it okay? Had he done this before without incident?
Witnesses confirm they saw him alone, his gear was found at his usual spot, and the mom reported the disappearance that same night, so that part of the story checks out.
The proximity to the homeless camp, William's connection to convicted killer Joseph Cornelius via a "close friend," and the report of William being pulled it into a car all raise major red flags, and again call into question for me the mom's decision.
"One person saw him talking to a scruffy man in a store." Was this store on the way to the river? Did William have his fishing gear on him inside the store? If he did, then maybe he just wanted to take a drink or a snack with him to the river. Someone in the store could've noticed this boy alone and followed him to the river from there.
However, if William didn't have his gear inside the store, then this suggests he made it to the river, set his stuff down, decided for whatever reason to go to the store, and
that's where he could've been abducted from—especially if his fishing gear was found "undisturbed and there were no signs of a struggle at the scene."