William Tyrrell inquest: Biological father had a ‘feeling’ day he went missing

The father of William Tyrrell rang his own mother to say ‘something doesn’t feel right and he wasn’t going to work’ the day the boy disappeared, an inquest has been told. 

William’s mum and dad – who cannot be named – gave evidence into the boy’s disappearance at a Sydney Coroner’s Court on Thursday morning. 

The inquest heard the pair lost William to his foster carers when the boy was about nine months old. 

They went on the run after a court order, with the father saying he was ‘the culprit’ of the plan and the mother saying she did it because she  ‘couldn’t bear’ to lose him. 

William’s mum last saw him during a contact visit a month before he vanished from his foster grandma’s home on NSW north coast. 

The father told the inquest the day his son went missing, on September 12, 2014, he went to McDonalds for a ‘couple of hours’ in the morning.

The father of William Tyrrell – who cannot be identified – rang his mother to say ‘something doesn’t feel right’, the inquest heard. But he said he didn’t remember the call

William Tyrrell's biological mother said in a statement: ''I definitely don't know where William is. I didn't take him. I have nothing to do with it'

William Tyrrell’s biological mother said in a statement: ”I definitely don’t know where William is. I didn’t take him. I have nothing to do with it’

Junior counsel assisting the inquest, Tracey Stevens, read out a statement made by police by the father’s mum in the days after William vanished. 

‘The father rang me around 5am which was his usual time to leave for work,’ the statement said.

‘He rang me and told me something doesn’t feel right and he wasn’t giong to work. 

‘He kept saying something wasn’t right and he wasn’t going to work.’

But the father said he did not remember making a phone call ‘at all’ to his mother that morning, after Ms Stevens reported that was what phone records said. 

‘Not really, not that particular detail,’ he replied.

‘I do remember that being a possibility of me having that feeling and that way of sensing something wasn’t right or wrong around that period.’

The father said whether that ‘makes me sound crazy or not crazy is a different story’. 

He said he was standing in the backyard having a cigarette when he heard ‘a loud bang at the door’ later that afternoon.

‘I’m like, ‘who’s that’. 

‘(The mother)’s like ‘police’.

‘Der, it sounds like the police, it was a loud, bang, bang’. 

He said after police explained to William’s mother what was wrong, he was told ‘he’s missing’.

‘He’s f***ing WHAT? That was my thing,’ he said.

The mum, dressed in a striped dress shirt and a black blazer, cried on Thursday when she was told ‘it must’ve been pretty hard’ when she ran away with William.

The mother said she absconded ‘because I couldn’t bring myself to give them my son’.  

At one point she threatened to ‘lose it’ in court after she was pulled up for using a name covered by a non publication order. 

Recalling the day William disappeared, the mother recalled that she went to the shopping centre at Blacktown for ‘baby blankets and stuff to get ready for the birth of the newborn’.

William Tyrrell, three, has been missing since September 12, 2014

William Tyrrell, three, has been missing since September 12, 2014

She returned home when it was still daylight and the police knocked on the door, the inquest heard.

‘What did the police tell you?’ Ms Stevens asked.

‘They didn’t tell me anything. They asked me if William was there… they thought our son was William, he wasn’t.’  

The inquest heard she had briefly met William’s foster carer during a visit in the park in April 2014 but did not know where they specifically lived.

She said she still stood by her statement to police in the days following the boy’s disappearance. 

I definitely don’t know where William is. I didn’t take him.  I have nothing to do with it. 

 William Tyrrell’s biological mother

The statement, as read to the court by Ms Stevens, said: ‘I definitely don’t know where William is. 

‘I didn’t take him. I have nothing to do with it. 

‘I want a normal life.  

‘I don’t want to be hiding away with them somewhere.’ 

William’s mother was heavily pregnant at the time the boy went missing. 

She would give birth to another baby in the weeks or months that followed. 

William's foster father walks police through the yard in Kendall six days after he went missing

William’s foster father walks police through the yard in Kendall six days after he went missing

The appearances come as some of the first police on the scene at William’s foster grandmother’s home the day he went missing gave evidence to the inquest.  

William Tyrrell's female foster carer gave evidence earlier this week

William Tyrrell’s female foster carer gave evidence earlier this week

Senior Constable Christopher Rowley told the inquest he identified a person at a cafe who recalled someone asking for directions to Benaroon Drive that day.

The local cop also revealed to the inquest that police also did a ‘complete search’ of a bush camp’ in 2014.

A neighbour told police about a ‘humpy or a set up’ and scientific police investigated. 

Mr Rowley agreed with Mr Craddock that ‘statements were taken from every person associated with it.’  

Another officer, Wendy Hudson, told how footage from the Kendall Tennis Club from that day showed what cars came into Kendall via its main road.

But it may not have captured all traffic. 

‘This is the main road into Kendall … it (the camera) captures a small portion of that road,’ she said.

The oral evidence in the coronial inquest has ended, with Mr Craddock saying what was heard at the public hearings was ‘the tip of the iceberg’. 

He said the police investigation into William’s disappearance continues and detectives ‘certainly haven’t given up’. 

‘We certainly haven’t given up and if anybody … has any further information which they think might be of assistance, we want to hear from them.’ 

The inquest returns for a directions hearing on April 24.

 

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