William Tyrrell Part 2

24:10Gary Jubelin:Of course, no one besides the foster care agency, William's foster parents, and foster grandmother knew ahead of time that he'd be there that morning. And it was rare that children were at William's foster grandmother's house, so she believed it was likely an impulsive crime of opportunity committed by someone comfortable with taking risks. Chris Illingsworth, former NSW detective and FBI-trained criminal profiler, told Caroline Overington that she believes the perpetrator was probably a repeat offender, because moving with such confidence would require someone with years of practice in similar scenarios.

24:46Gary Jubelin:Illingsworth theorized that the kidnapper was a man who sat in one of the cars parked on the street. This is her theory. that when this man in the car saw William as this flash of red and blue running around the side of the house, he would have had to have acted quickly, slipping basically into predatory mode, quickly assessing the risk and deciding how to take action. Hillingsworth says that as someone who has done something similar before, he would have known that time was of the essence and that he had to move quickly. He would have had no way of knowing when or if an adult was coming around the corner to get him.

25:19Gary Jubelin:William's reaction to being approached by a stranger would also be an unknown factor the perpetrator would have to prepare for in a moment's notice to avoid getting caught. Illingsworth said that if she had to profile William's kidnapper, it would be a man, at the youngest in his 40s, but possibly as old as in his 70s or 80s. Based on the demographics of the area, he'd likely be white. She believes he's from the area, but not necessarily from Kendall, and she agrees that he would have had to have a reason to be on William's foster grandmother's that day because, quote, it's not just a place you drive through, end quote.

25:56Gary Jubelin:In 2016, Detective Louise Curie told Jubelin that she did not believe there was enough known information to exclude William's foster parents as suspects, so Jubelin agreed to interview them again. Danbox reports that Jubelin invited the foster carers to what they believed would be a regular meeting to hear updates on the investigation, but they were instead separated and interviewed individually by Jubelin and Curie. The detectives went through multiple scenarios that could have accidentally resulted in William's death to see how they would react. They asked William's foster dad if it was possible that William hurt himself and William's foster mother covered up his death to keep it from looking intentional, and he said that was quote, not likely.

26:39Gary Jubelin:They asked him if William's foster grandmother could have accidentally hurt him, and William's foster mother had covered it up to protect her mother, especially considering her father's recent death. And William's foster father called that theory laughable. They asked if a member of the family could have accidentally hit William with a car in the driveway and killed him, leading to a cover-up. And again, William's foster dad said no. William's foster mom was asked if William had fallen from a balcony or a tree, and she'd panicked and attempted to cover it up. She said no. When asked what she thought might have happened, she said she was suspicious of the two cars parked in the street and wondered about Paul Savage, the neighbor who lived across from William's foster grandmother.

27:24Gary Jubelin:Now, while all of this is happening while they're being interrogated, detectives installed a recording device in their car. On their way home, they did discuss the interviews, but didn't indicate that they'd been dishonest with police or really say anything that made police consider them as suspects. So they were ruled out again. Now around this same time, the foster parents started advocating for a reward to be offered for information leading to William. Crimestoppers initially suggested a$50 ,000 reward, but William's foster parents said that wasn't enough and pushed for more. They began lobbying for a$1 ,000 ,000 reward, which was unprecedented.

28:04Gary Jubelin:The largest reward ever offered by Crimestoppers Australia was$500 ,000. That was in the case of missing teenager Michelle Bright in 1999. But local politicians and community members got on board to help them advocate, and eventually, that$1 ,000 ,000 reward was approved. On the second anniversary of William's disappearance, police announced it. They said it was to be given to anyone who gave information leading to the location of William or his remains. Unlike many other rewards of its kind, it did not require the recipient to reveal the kidnapper. Around this same time, Detective Jubelin also announced that William's foster parents had been cleared as suspects under his investigation, which was and still is very controversial to people living in Australia.

28:51Gary Jubelin:In an interview with Leah Harris, the foster parents say that they were impressed that Jubelin often consulted other experts in his field to see what they thought he was doing wrong, and that he would consider their feedback as he planned his next steps in the investigation. They say Jubelin never let his ego get in the way of the investigation because he firmly believed that finding William mattered more. The Sydney Morning Herald reported on the second anniversary that police had 600 persons of interest, 200 of which had not been identified, and that of the 400 identified, their information had been sent to police across the state.

29:26Gary Jubelin:Now, among those persons of interest was a man named Anthony or Tony Jones. He was arrested on unrelated child sex offenses not long after William went missing. Jones lived about 20 minutes from William's foster grandmother's house, and it actually appears that he lived across the road from the Speddings. In April 2015, Gary Jublin and Homicide Squad Commander Mick Willing held a press conference to announce that they were investigating a tip that a pedophile ring was operating in the area. They said it wasn't exclusive to the Kendall area, but suspected to be operating across the wider, mid-north coast of New South Wales.

30:04Gary Jubelin:They said William was much younger than the typical age group that a pedophile ring would target. However, other experts in law enforcement disagreed. They say that the younger a child is, the less risky they seem to pedophiles, because there's a lower risk that they might be able to tell investigators or other adults all the details about what happened to them. Younger and smaller children are also less likely to be able to physically escape, which is obviously just heartbreaking to think about. Now, while investigating the alleged pedophile ring, the strike force looked into a local chapter of the organization, Grandparents as Parents Again.

30:42Gary Jubelin:This is because two of its members were charged with child sex crimes. The Port Macquarie chapter's former president, 73-year-old Paul Bickford, was charged with assaulting an 11-year-old and later convicted of assaulting an underage person. Bickford resigned as president in 2014, shortly before William's disappearance. The other was 59-year-old Tony Jones, who was charged with indecent assault for molesting an 11-year-old girl. This is a separate victim from the one Bickford abused. Jones was later convicted and sentenced to three years, two without the possibility of parole. At a hearing for William in 2019, a woman who was a former member of the Port Macquarie chapter of Grandparents as Parents Again testified that their chapter had about 30 members, and that the group's purpose was to connect and provide support to grandparents who now had custody of their grandchildren, after going years without being responsible for a child full-time.

31:38Gary Jubelin:She said the group got together about once a month. They discussed raising their grandkids and organized events and outings for the group. And she testified that at one point, everyone in the group had to get this informal background check. So it seems safe to assume that this was shocking to many members of this group. Of course, the main question here is, was there a link between this group and William's disappearance? Well, Jones' name pops up in unexpected places throughout the investigation into William's case. Like I mentioned, he lived across the road from Bill Spedding at the time of William's disappearance.

32:13Gary Jubelin:but police do not believe that Jones and Spedding knew each other until they were placed in the same cell. That's while Spedding was awaiting bail in his older offenses, and while Jones was awaiting trial in his indecent assault case. Although Spedding lived in the area and was a grandparent raising his grandchildren, he was not a member of the group. And if you guys recall, a listening device was placed in Bill Spedding's jail cell, which also recorded everything Jones said while they were cellmates. In August 2017, journalist Taylor Auerbach reported for News 9's program A Current Affair, saying that detectives on Williams' case had interviewed a woman named Kim.

32:51Gary Jubelin:She was the best friend of Natalie Collins, Williams' biological grandmother on his father's side. We discussed that in episode 1. Auerbach reports that Kim had applied for a unit within a housing commission shortly before Williams' disappearance. Kim was asked whether she planned to hide Natalie and William in that unit, which she denied. Auerbach also revealed that at the time, Kim was living with the older brother-in-law of none other than Tony Jones. So of course, this creates a potential connection between William's biological family and one of the persons of interest in this case. But as far as we found in our research, nothing ever came of it.

33:30Gary Jubelin:But it just serves as another example of how Jones is affiliated with different aspects of Williams' case. Leah Harris reported on her podcast that Tony Jones also crossed paths with another major person of interest in the case, convicted child sex offender Frank Abbott, who we'll discuss in detail later on. Although Jones and Abbott denied knowing each other prior to 2019, one of Abbott's former neighbors recalls seeing them together much earlier. But where was Tony Jones on September 12, 2014? Well, no one knows for sure. Jones' alibi is that he took his son to go scrapping, or searching for pieces of scrap metal to sell.

34:11Gary Jubelin:Jones testified at the inquest into William's disappearance that he didn't remember what he was doing that morning, but that he didn't have anything to do with William's disappearance. At an inquest hearing for William in 2020, Jones' ex-wife who was married to him in 2014 took the stand. She said that on September 12th, Tony left the house sometime between 7.30 and 8 a.m. and that he was going out scrapping with their adult son, Duane. She said that she saw their son later on and he said that he had not been with his father. She testified that Tony returned home drunk later that afternoon and when she confronted him about lying, he stormed out of the house.

34:52Gary Jubelin:This is also confirmed by Dwayne himself. He took the stand and said that he did not go scrapping with his father that day. And he also confirmed that his father was drunk that day. Apparently, when they were trying to have family dinner, he was still drunk, laying in bed. But Dwayne does confirm that they'd heard about William going missing that day. And he says that his father yelled for him to, quote, go out and get the motorbikes ready, end quote. He said he wanted to help search for William the next morning, so Dwayne says that he went home to get those bikes ready, but his father never showed up the next day.

35:28Gary Jubelin:When he called his dad to ask where he was, he said he'd spent the gas money on beer and was drinking with his friend, Paul Bickford, the former chapter president of Grandparents as Parents again. Dwayne says his mother kicked Jones out of the house a couple months after William's disappearance and that he no longer has anything to do with his father. Leah Harris reports that outside of the courtroom that day, additional family members who came to support Duane told reporters that they believed Tony Jones was, quote, capable of anything, end quote. At the same hearing, a man named Max Jones, who was not related to Tony or Duane, by the way, testified that he was walking his dog at Henry Kendall Reserve on a morning he believes was September 12th.

36:15Gary Jubelin:Now, this reserve is about 15 minutes from Benaroon Drive, and Max Jones testified that he saw another car parked up at the reserve. He said the window was down, the driver was looking at him, then rolled the window up. Max said he noticed that the windows were fogged up, and he couldn't see inside. When he returned from walking his dog, the car was gone. He said he saw Tony Jones on the news later that day, and realized that was the man he'd seen in the car. Tony Jones took the stand the following day, and when he was asked what he was doing on September 12th, he said he didn't remember. But if he wasn't scrapping, he was probably sleeping with his ex-wife's friend who lived next door.

36:58Gary Jubelin:He said he had no memory of what he was actually doing, but he knows he was not at the reserve. Now, early into the investigation into Williams' disappearance, police did seize Jones' car for forensic testing. It was a white station wagon, like one of the vehicles Williams' foster mother says that she saw parked in the street that morning. As far as the media and public know, no forensic evidence was found in the station wagon, and Jones still denies any involvement. So, take all of that for what you will. Alright, now that we've followed the Jones evidence ahead to 2020, we need to return to 2017, because this is when a court decision changed what the public could be told about William.

37:42Gary Jubelin:As the three-year anniversary of William's disappearance approached, one major fact about the case was still unknown to the public, although police and the media had known about it since day one. The media was still barred from revealing that William was in foster care and that his foster parents and grandmother were not his biological family. Remember, they were under the threat of two years in prison if they revealed this information, so they were keeping it quiet. But in 2017, one member of the Walking Warriors Australia Facebook group, Alana Smith, wanted to change that. She was aware that William was in foster care, and as someone who'd been in the system as a child, she thought the public should know William's status.

38:26Gary Jubelin:She wrote, quote, Children in the care of the minister are some of our most vulnerable and at-risk members of our community. These children often don't have a voice of their own. which leads the door open for decisions and outcomes happening to them, rather than for them. End quote. In a separate interview, she said, quote, Often these decisions are lined with bureaucratic red tape, and they're rarely in the best interest of the child. We have seen this with the copious amounts of parliamentary inquiries and commissions into child welfare across the board in Australia. End quote. Family and Community Services of New South Wales, also known as FACTS, did not want William's foster care status to be revealed in case he was found alive.

39:12Gary Jubelin:They say it would be a violation of his rights as a foster child for the public to know his status. Either way, Smith started a petition for William's foster care status to be made public. She says one day while she was collecting signatures, she received a call from FAC's legal division, asking her to remove some comments she made on social media. Smith tells Taylor Auerbach that the comments didn't directly identify William as a foster child, but alluded to the fact that he was in the care of the government. She says she refused to take her comments down, which led to FAC's filing an injunction with the New South Wales Supreme Court to have her silenced.

39:49Gary Jubelin:But Smith wasn't giving up. she challenged the State Department in the Supreme Court. And the police had something to say too. They argued against her request. They said it would be detrimental to the investigation. But to the shock of police and many following the case, the judge sided with Smith. They issued an order that allowed journalists to share William's foster care status and the details of his life prior to his placement in state care. Supreme Court Justice Paul Barrettin declared, quote, that William disappeared while he was in the parental responsibility of the minister and in the care of departmentally approved carers is a matter of public interest, end quote.

40:31Gary Jubelin:Fax filed an appeal to try to stop the information from being released, but three justices voted to uphold the decision. In a statement, a spokesperson for Fax said, quote, the department would not have forbidden revealing William's care status if it had been relevant to his disappearance or the police investigation, end quote. Either way, the news was out, and in August of 2017, just shy of the three-year anniversary, it was reported that William was in the care of the New South Wales government. Now, the Supreme Court order did protect the identities of William's foster parents and sister, but soon Brendan and Carly's identities, criminal histories, and more became public knowledge.

41:17Gary Jubelin:William's foster parents told Leah Harris that they had sympathy for William's biological family, who had their personal information and history shared in the press internationally. The foster parents said that they don't believe the information should have ever been made public, and although they wish they could be the public faces for William, being anonymous does allow them to protect William's sister, and really give her the closest thing to a normal life that's still possible for someone in her position. But after this, people became even more critical of William's foster parents, and despite the Supreme Court still protecting them, the foster parents' names, identities, phone numbers, and addresses were shared across the internet, and shortly after, they started receiving threats at their workplaces.

42:02Gary Jubelin:Leah Harris reports that someone in Victoria faced criminal charges for calling William's foster father's office and telling the receptionist that their employee was a murderer. But what the public didn't know yet was that while all eyes were on William's foster parents, Gary Jublin's attention was turning to the neighbor across the street, Paul Savage. And he also had a plan to test him. He was going to leave a Spider-Man suit along Savage's usual walking route, hide nearby, and watch how he reacted. But what happened next would divide investigators, not just over what Savage's reactions meant, but over what he'd actually seen.

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45:11Gary Jubelin:Another name often associated with William's case is Paul Savage. Paul and his wife Heather lived across the street from William's foster grandmother. They were retired and lived a relatively laid-back life. Paul was 70 years old at the time of William's disappearance. He'd take a walk each morning that went through the bike trail around his house, through the bush, and back down Benaroon Drive. He usually spent about two hours walking each morning, and sometimes his wife Heather would join him, but she was also involved in other community activities, like getting together with friends in Lauriton to play bingo each Friday.

45:47Gary Jubelin:Savage says that he and Heather had a friendly relationship with William's foster grandmother and his foster grandfather before he died earlier that year. He testified at William's inquest that he had met William and his sister a few times when they came to visit their foster grandmother. Leah Harris reports that he'd seen William at a neighborhood Christmas party in 2013, and noted that William had a close bond with his foster parents. Unfortunately, Heather Savage passed away about six months after William's disappearance. And really, it was this incident in March 2016 that led Savage to being named a person of interest in the case.

46:24Gary Jubelin:This caused Jublin to shift the focus of the investigation from Bill Spedding to Paul Savage. Basically, that March, Savage found a surveillance camera on a tree in the bush surrounding his property, but not directly on his property. The police say they put it there to keep an eye on someone else, but Savage took it down, took it inside of his house, and did not contact the police. Box reports that Savage kept the camera in his house for about five weeks, and this really alarmed Jublin. Savage testified at William's inquest that on the morning of September 12, 2014, he woke up and walked his normal route, then returned home around 9am, he made toast and tea which he ate on the patio, and he recalls hearing children playing outside, but he couldn't be certain that it was William or his sister because he never saw them.

47:13Gary Jubelin:However, he did say that the thought crossed his mind, because there weren't usually children in the area, and he noticed a different car in Williams' foster grandmother's driveway the day before. But he says that after this, he went back inside to help Heather clean up the kitchen. What we know next is that Savage called the Casino Hospital at 9.39am to check on his brother, who was being treated there. Now, I have to note here that Casino is a city in New South Wales. It's about four hours north of Kendall. I'll reference it again, and I just want to clarify that I'm not referring to a casino where you would gamble.

47:49Gary Jubelin:But he says he planned to leave around 11am to go to casino and pick up his brother from the hospital. He planned to stay in town and take care of him for the next week. And this was a Friday, which meant Heather had her bingo meeting in Lauritain that she went to every week at 11.30. Paul says that at around 10.30am, he looked at his watch and told Heather that she was running late. He walked her to her car and she left. Paul swears that she left at 10.38, and that when he walked outside, he didn't hear anyone calling out for William. But of course, this negates the other witnesses who remember hearing William's foster parents yelling for him at that time.

48:27Gary Jubelin:Either way, Savage says that he went back inside to make more tea and toast and continue packing to go to casino. And he mentions that he had the radio up quite loud. Phone records do show that at 10.41, he called a hospital in Port Macquarie to ask about an x-ray appointment, though he did testify that he didn't remember making that call. I mentioned in the last episode that a neighbor named Anne-Marie was smoking on her porch when she saw William's foster mother frantically searching for him and joined to help in the search. Around the same time as that phone call to the hospital, she knocked on the savage's door and asked if he'd heard that William was missing.

49:05Gary Jubelin:After this, the timeline as to what Savage was doing and where becomes a lot more uncertain. Savage says he then left his house and walked across the street, having a brief conversation with William's foster grandmother. Then he spoke to the neighbors, the crabs, in their driveway. But the crabs would later say that neither of them remember seeing Paul that morning, or having that conversation at all. Savage says he then walked off into the bush to look for William. He said everyone else was searching down Bedaroon Drive towards town, so he went in the opposite direction, where a dirt track or fire trail leads into the forest.

49:43Gary Jubelin:In a witness statement Savage gave to the police in 2016, he says he searched for about half an hour, then got lost for about two hours before finally making his way home. He testified that by the time he returned home, cops were all over the street, and he figured they didn't need his help, so he went inside to make more tea without telling them which areas he'd searched. Now, investigators have expressed confusion about how Savage could get lost for two hours, especially in an area that he included as part of his daily walking routine. Leah Harris reports that a video was shown at the inquest of police doing a walkthrough with Savage, and that he becomes disoriented and confused while trying to retrace the steps he took that morning for police, and that the route he allegedly took would only take about 45 minutes.

50:33Gary Jubelin:So take that for what you will. Savage says that after he went home and had tea, his brother-in-law Gregory and his wife Regina Newton arrived at the house around noon, which contradicts him saying that he was lost for two hours. And the Newtons also testified at the inquest. They said that they got there between 1 and 1.30 and found Paul standing in the street in front of his house. Gregory told the court that Savage was trying to search for William and seemed very worried about finding him. The discrepancies in how long Savage actually spent searching for William, how long he was lost, and what time the Newtons arrived leaves more than an hour that Savage's whereabouts were unaccounted for.

51:14Gary Jubelin:On top of that, Harris reports that Savage's statements and interviews with police and his testimony at the inquest are inconsistent as to whether or not he knew that the Newtons were coming to visit that day. Harris reports that he said that Heather was cooking that morning in preparation for their visit, and that when he went to search for William, he left the door open in case they arrived, but then later said that he didn't know they were coming. It's also unclear if Savage actually did end up going to Casino to take care of his brother. Either way, police say that Savage, though often confused, was cooperative in the early investigation, and agreed to interview without a lawyer.

51:54Gary Jubelin:Three days into the search for William, the Savage's house was formally searched, but nothing of interest was found. Like I mentioned, Savage wasn't considered a potential suspect until March of 2016 when he took that camera out of the tree. Up to this point, the investigation had focused on ruling out William's foster family, biological family, local sex offenders, and of course, Bill Spedding. But now, all eyes were on Paul Savage. The strike force obtained warrants to place Savage's home and phones under surveillance. A tracking and recording device was also placed in Savage's car. And this is really where things get sticky.

52:33Gary Jubelin:It seems Savage would often talk to himself, kind of mumbling under his breath. And in one recording, he said, quote, No one will know it was you. End quote. Now, I think we have to keep in mind that while he didn't know he was being recorded, these devices picked up a lot of what was said but often missed context. They didn't always pick up if he was listening to the radio or watching TV. So, investigators have theorized that maybe some of these seemingly random comments could be a response to something he was watching, reading, or listening to. At this point, he was a widower and was living by himself, so he didn't have a lot of people to talk to.

53:12Gary Jubelin:He was once heard saying, quote, murderers are sick and child abusers are a rotten bit of rubbish, end quote. Another time he has heard saying, quote, yeah, well, this is my place. You're in my place. You do what I want. You're a little boy. You're nobody. You're just a little boy. You're nobody. You don't tell me. I tell you. I did tell you. End quote. This happened while as far as investigators can tell, he was home alone. Leah Harris reports in another similar conversation with himself, the audio is transcribed as quote, I'm going to run into your property too in Gordon. This is my place. You do what I want.

53:54Gary Jubelin:I'm not interested in your bullshit, mate. You're a little boy. You're nobody. You're just a little boy. You're nobody. You do not tell me. I tell you. No way in the world. End quote. Now, Harris does also report that there's a debate among police as to whether or not he says Gordon. This could mean something in William's case, because Gordon is the name of the suburb where William's foster grandmother would get off the train when she visited William's family in Sydney. Some investigators believe that Savage may have been imagining himself speaking to William, assuming that William's house was in Gordon.

54:32Gary Jubelin:Now, Paul Savage did have a history with police in the years prior to William's disappearance. A local mail carrier, a woman in her late 40s at the time, reported Savage for stalking and harassment. Benaroon Drive was a part of her daily route, and court documents say that he approached her crying and shaking. He told her that he loved her and asked to spend more time with her. She says at one point he got in his car and followed her mail truck. When she finally confronted him, he said he couldn't live without seeing her. Now she did change her routine after this, arriving at Bedroom Drive at different times of the day to try to avoid him, but he continued, so she finally reported him and police granted an apprehended violence order in April 2013.

55:20Gary Jubelin:However, Savage violated that order in early 2014. He approached her again and said that he wanted to tell her happy birthday. He was charged with breaking an apprehended violence order and pleaded guilty. As a result, the postal service stopped delivering to the Savage's home, and Paul or Heather had to go to the local post office and pick up their mail in order to receive it. When Jumlin asked Savage about this, he said it was a conspiracy and denied stalking her. And he basically said the same thing to Leah Harris despite pleading guilty to breaching the order. So again, at this point, all eyes are on Paul Savage, and in July 2017, investigators placed a decoy Spider-Man suit near Savage's walking road to observe his reaction.

56:07Gary Jubelin:The first day the suit was placed on the trail, investigators hid in the bush to assess Savage's reaction. When Savage approached the suit, he looked towards it for about 12 seconds, then walked away. He went home and did not report seeing anything to the police. Interpretations vary, but the surveillance devices within his house captured him saying something afterwards like, quote, had to do it, or why did I have to do it, or why did they have to do it? Unfortunately, exactly what he said is unclear. Despite documenting his reaction on camera, none of the camera angles could confirm that when he paused for those 12 seconds, he was looking directly at the suit.

56:52Gary Jubelin:Jubelin was sure that Savage was looking at the suit, and some eyewitnesses who were there agree, but Caroline Overington reports that other surveillance experts who reviewed the photos and footage say the evidence gathered does not prove that Savage was looking directly at the suit, and it's possible he was distracted by something else in the area. The next day, investigators placed the suit on the trail again, and this time was different. Savage approached it, bent down and looked at it, then walked away. As he approached his driveway, he began running into the house where he called the police to report seeing it.

57:28Gary Jubelin:Later that morning, the recording devices picked up Savage saying, quote, The suit wasn't there yesterday, end quote. When police asked about the first day, Savage initially denied seeing the suit. but he later called Jubelin to say that he had seen, quote, the white part at the top of the suit, end quote, on the first day, but not the rest. Surveillance devices also picked up Savage telling his daughter he saw, quote, the white bit with the spider, end quote, on the first day. And Jubelin was stunned by this, because the decoy suit didn't have any white on it at all. But William's actual Spider-Man suit, the one he was wearing when he was last seen, did have a white spider at the upper back part of the top.

58:17Gary Jubelin:And this detail was completely unknown to everyone but the police and William's foster family. The white spider on William's suit is not visible in that last photo taken of him, and the police had not shared that information with anyone outside of the strike force. That detail was not revealed to the media or the public until years later at William's inquest. Jublin remained convinced that Savage did see the suit on the first day and was alarmed about the white spider detail. Now, when Dan Box visited Bedaroon Drive while researching the case for his podcast, he says he struck up a conversation with Savage.

58:53Gary Jubelin:He said that on the first day, he did see the top part of the suit and thought it might belong to another child, but on the second day he saw the full suit which made him think of William and that's why he called. Basically he said that he didn't think that just the top of the suit was important. So again take that for what you will. In 2018 while Bill Spedding was on trial for the sex crime charges and Paul Savage was the focus of Gary Jublin's investigation there was a lot more going on behind the scenes of the strike force. Jublin was preparing a brief of evidence to present at the New South Wales coroner to formally request an inquest into Williams' disappearance.

59:33Gary Jubelin:But before that could happen, the New South Wales police announced a new search. It would be a four-week search of Kendall's bushland. Although they didn't say why, many speculated that police had received a new tip or piece of information that gave them cause to search for Williams' remains, or maybe another piece of crucial evidence. This search covered Benaroon Drive, Patar Creek Road, and the surrounding bush. Leah Harris reports that the goal of the search was to once and for all disprove the theory that William wandered off into the bush. It seems that Jublin knew that this would be one of the coroner's first suggestions at an inquest hearing.

1:00:09Gary Jubelin:The search was intended to be so thorough that there was no logical way a court could assume that William's remains were still out there, or really that he could have reasonably traveled by himself to this location as a three-year-old boy. After the search, Jubelin was confident that William simply hadn't wandered into the bush and become lost. In his view, someone else was involved in William's disappearance. Of course, the challenge was proving who and what they'd done. So he's preparing all the evidence to put in front of a coroner. But before the inquest could begin, Jubelin was removed from the case.

1:00:48Gary Jubelin:After spending years investigating William's disappearance, he was about to face a police investigation into his own conduct.

1:01:03Gary Jubelin:As a reminder, William Tyrrell was last seen on September 12, 2014 at 48 Betteroon Drive in Kendall, New South Wales, Australia. He was three years old at the time of his disappearance, and if he is alive today, he is 15 years old as of recording this episode. He is white with straight brown hair and hazel eyes. He has a large, dark-colored freckle at the top of his head, about 5 centimeters or 2 inches back from his hairline. If you have any information regarding the disappearance or location of William Tyrrell, please contact the New South Wales Police Department. and also please share William's story and help keep the focus on finding him.

1:01:49Gary Jubelin:But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.

1:01:59Gary Jubelin:Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. This episode contains writing and research assistance by Brooke Haynes. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to follow, rate, and review the show on your podcast player. It's an easy and totally free way to help us and help more people find these cases in need of justice.

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