Where Is the Boy in the Spider-Man Suit? (Part 1/2) | Forensic Files

[Music] Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at
any time you need support, please contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers, for
confidential support, and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this
episode on your app or on our website. Today's episode involves crimes against children and won't be suitable for all
listeners. [Music] Please note that the names of several individuals have been changed due to
court suppression orders preventing them from being identified, while others have
been changed to protect their privacy. It was 10:50 on the morning of Friday, September 12th, 2014, when a call came
through to the New South Wales Police Emergency Helpline. On the other line was a woman named
Angela calling from the small hinterland town of Kendall located on the state's midn north coast.
>> Police emergency. This is Simone. >> Yeah. Hi. North distance is 3 and a half.
>> Um sorry. >> Your address? >> Benoon Drive. Kendall. >> Okay. Benner Room Drive in Kendall.
>> Yes. >> All right. I'm just going to bring that up on my map. It won't be moment.
>> Thank you. >> How long has he been missing? I well I think well we've been looking in for him
now for about 15 or 20 minutes but >> I thought it could be five it could be longer cuz just playing around here we
heard him and then we heard nothing. Okay. So, I've got the nearest cost street being Ellenale Cresant. Is that
right? So, what is it? >> Ellenale Cresant. >> I don't know. This is my mom's house.
>> Um, >> so he's been missing since about 10:30. >> Yeah, I'd say so. >> Okay. Can you describe him to me? How
tall? Obviously, not very tall. >> He'd be about 2 and 1/2 ft. He's wearing a Spider-Man outfit.
>> Yeah. What color hair is he got? >> He's got um dark sandy colored hair. short and he's got really big uh brownie
green colored eyes. >> Okay. >> What do you get in each shoes on? Do you know any any other distinguishing
faces? >> Um um he has Oh, he's got a freckle on the top of his head. When you cut the hair
on the left hand side, >> you'll see a freckle on the top of his head. >> Okay. All right.
>> You know where he might have gone? Um, we're we actually live we're on properties near a state forest.
>> Okay. >> And they're on skewed blocks. We've walked up and down Benoon Drive >> and we can't find him.
>> Okay. What's his name? >> William. >> What's William's surname? >> Uh, Tur T Y R E L.
[Music] Senior Constable Christopher Rowley was already in the area when he received
word of the missing 3-year-old boy in Kendall. He arrived at Beneroon Drive at 11:06
a.m. by which time William Tur had reportedly been missing for just over half an hour.
The singlestory brick home of William's grandmother, Mary Saunders, sat on a sharp slope high upon a corner block
elevated above a large garage and workshop space. Hers was one of the last houses on the dead end street with three
sides of the property backing onto dense bush land. Framed by lawns and native trees, a
veranda wrapped around the length of the house with a 5 m high balcony providing
the perfect spot to take in the scenic easterly views. Senior Constable Rowley found William
Tier's mother, Angela, in a clear state of distress, walking down the middle of the street in tears. Her husband Peter
was frantically dashing around, calling William's name and checking the surrounding properties.
The family of four had only arrived in Kendall at around 9 the previous evening after driving the roughly 4-hour journey
from their home in Sydney's northern beaches. Angela's father had recently passed
away, and the purpose of the visit was to help her mother Mary organize her house for sale.
The substantial 3-bedroom, two-b house on a 1.2 acre block was simply too big for the elderly woman to look after on
her own. According to Angela, that morning of Friday, September 12th, 2014, the two
Tier children had woken up in good spirits. William and his 4-year-old sister, Lindsay, were excited to be at their
grandmother's house, a place they had visited several times before. Their father, Peter, had to make a video call
for work. But the internet reception in Kendall was notoriously lousy, so he left the house at around 8:30 a.m. to
make the call from the nearby town of Lakewood instead. While Peter was gone, William and
Lindsay rode their bikes around Mary's driveway and explored the yard. Afterwards, William played a game with
his mother called Mummy Monster, which involved Angela chasing her son around the garden.
When they were done, they climbed the steep slope back up to the house. The grass was covered in loose twigs and
leaves, and they kept slipping over. One of the slips resulted in Angela injuring her hand, so they went inside
to tend to the wound. Lindsay had heard them playing Mummy Monster and wanted to join in the game.
So, they went back outside for a while. After the kids grew bored of that, William and Lindsay decided to make some
cards to bring to their grandfather's grave when they visited later that day. Angela set them up with some art
supplies on the back deck that overlooked the rear lawn. Shortly after 9:30 a.m., she grabbed her
digital camera and snapped some photos of them. William was thrilled that he'd been
allowed to wear his new favorite outfit, a two-piece blue and red Spider-Man costume that his parents had bought him
on a recent family holiday to Balley. He put a Spider-Man t-shirt underneath the polyester suit so he could be head
to toe in his favorite superhero get up. At 9:37 a.m., Angela stood above William
and pointed the lens towards him as he crouched on the deck, pretending to be a tiger.
The little boy looked up at her, his eyes cast to the sky and mouth a gape as he let out a loud roar.
It wasn't long before William lost interest in the craft session and began a new game he called Daddy Tiger.
This involved him crawling around and launching himself off the deck as he roared and clawed his hands in the air.
He asked Lindsay to join in, but she was too engrossed in the card making process.
William continued the game alone, ducking around the side of the house out of sight for a moment before reappearing
with a loud roar. Just before 10:00 a.m., Angela said that she and her mother were sitting and
watching the kids over a cup of tea. Mary remarked how loud William was being, and Angela explained that's just
how he was, always full of energy. The two women looked on as William darted around the garden, jumping and
roaring enthusiastically. He then ran around the northwest corner of the house and out of sight, the sound
of his roar still clearly audible. After a few minutes, Angela noticed it had gone unusually quiet.
She got up and walked around the side of the house, but she couldn't see William
anywhere. Angela called out William's name, saying, "Where are you? I can't see you."
There was no reply. She looked for splashes of his red Spider-Man costume against the vibrant
green foliage, noting it was suddenly so quiet that even the bird seemed to have
stopped chirping. Angela told Mary that she couldn't see William anywhere. Thinking he was hiding and playing a
trick on them, Mary remarked, "Oh, the little devil." But Angela was starting to get worried.
She went around the eastern side of the house and looked in the ferns that sat underneath the balcony, all the while
calling William's name. When he didn't appear, she became frantic. Mary's property had no fence or other
barrier to prevent William from wandering beyond its boundary. Angela ran to the street, checking each
side of the yard, but she still couldn't see or hear William. She ran into her mother's house with
Mary following, checking each room and opening cupboards to see if he was hiding inside.
Angela tried to remain calm so that William wouldn't panic thinking he was in trouble.
Keeping her composure, she called, "William, you have to come out. You have to talk to me. No more hiding, William.
I can't see you." There was no reply. While all this was happening, Angela's husband, Peter, had been at the Lakewood
shopping precinct making his work calls from inside his brand new Land Rover Discovery.
After stopping to grab a newspaper, he headed straight back to Kendall. Peter told the police that at around
10:30 a.m., as he neared Beneroon Drive, he'd sent Angela a voice to text message
suggesting it was a good time to send the kids outside. William had a deep fascination with
cars, trucks, and planes, which was an interest Peter encouraged. The Tur children always got a thrill out
of watching their father arrive home and running out to greet him. It was a moment Peter looked forward to every
day. But as he pulled up to his mother-in-law's house, it wasn't his children who came out to greet him. It
was his wife. Angela looked panicstricken. She gestured urgently for Peter to roll
down his window. "Have you got William?" she asked. Peter frowned confused. "Of course not," he said. "Why would you
think that?" Frantically, Angela replied. "Because he's missing." Peter didn't ask for any more
information. He leapted out of his car and took off running, shouting out William's name. Neighbors heard the
commotion going on outside and came out to see what was going on. I am looking for a little boy in a Spider-Man suit,
Angela told them. Have you seen him? His name is William. The neighbors searched their yards,
checked their swimming pools and any other places that might be of interest to a young boy, such as cubby houses and
play equipment. When police senior constable Christopher Rowley arrived at Beneroon Drive, he
conducted a thorough search of Mary's house. He was soon joined by additional officers who arrived at the scene.
They checked cupboards and under furniture, going so far as to remove cushions from the couch and pitches from
the walls. Benaroon Drive is a secluded, quiet street that backs onto Scrubland.
It consists of 21 houses, each of which is situated on a large block and set back from the road.
At the end of the no through road is a rugged dirt track surrounded by dense bush that eventually leads to the
Kendall cemetery. There is no foot traffic and no reason to be in the area unless you live there
or are visiting one of the residents. Angela told the police she had only seen one unfamiliar car in the area and that
had been earlier on when the two tier children had been riding their bikes outside.
It was a dark green or gray sedan that had briefly pulled into a neighbor's driveway before immediately reversing
out and driving away. A couple who lived nearby heard the car, too, but just assumed it was the local
postal worker. It therefore seemed highly unlikely to the police that William had been
abducted, especially given the very short amount of time between when his mother last heard him and when he went
missing. They thought the most likely explanation was that he had wandered off and gotten
lost in the bush. The rugged area was thick with weeds, reedy grass, and spiky Lantana bushes.
There were also numerous waterways, cliffs, abandoned mine shafts, and wild animals, creating plenty of hazards to
explain why the young boy hadn't yet been found. But Peter and Angela were dubious.
Although William was adventurous and had a mischievous side, they said he was also clingy and reserved.
While he might hide and jump out for fun, he was the kind of kid who wouldn't try to cross the street by himself, and
it would be very out of character for him to just wander off on his own. They said he had a clear understanding
of boundaries and would deem rocky slopes and rugged terrain too dangerous to scale alone.
They also said he would never blindly go off with a stranger. He didn't warm to people immediately,
but rather sat back and assessed them first. A Benoon Drive resident created a Facebook post online calling for
volunteers to assist in the search. Within minutes, locals of all ages and demographics swarmed to the area,
traversing through the surrounding scrub and driving the neighboring streets, shouting William's name.
A 3-year-old girl sat in her pram, calling out, "You're not in trouble, William. You can come out now."
The operation was overseen by experienced land search and rescue coordinators. Line searches were conducted in the
surrounding bushland while horses and motorbikes traversed the dense scrub and police helicopters searched overhead.
Mary's house was thoroughly checked multiple times, as were other houses along Beneroon Drive.
Different personnel were brought in to search the homes in case a fresh set of eyes noticed something that others had
missed. Sheds, roof spaces, wall cavities, and cupboards were meticulously checked.
Sniffer dogs also battled the rugged terrain, but were unable to detect any scent of William Tier beyond Mary's
garden. The primary concern for the search party was that the young boy might be injured
or unconscious, preventing him from coming forward to rescuers. There was also a serious fear he had
drowned, prompting police divers and the rural fire service to search and drain numerous dams, storm drains, and water
tanks in the area. The day was mild at 18° C, but as nightfall approached, dark clouds
gathered and the temperature dropped significantly. With no sign of William, concerns
mounted that if he was still alive, he might succumb to the elements overnight. Untreated dehydration or hypothermia
posed serious risks. William also suffered from asthma, which worsened in the cold conditions and
could be triggered by stress or by the powdery pollen released by the surrounding lantana bushes.
The search continued overnight with police calling for volunteers to register at the Kendall showgrounds at 7
the following morning. Rain was expected and volunteers were asked to wear high visibility clothing
suitable for wet weather and to bring plenty of water. The search was expanded beyond the scrub
near Beneroon Drive and into the nearby Kendall and Middle Brother state forests.
No stone was left unturned. Yet, there was still no sign of William. By Sunday, September 14, the 2-day
search for William remained fruitless. However, Angela told the police that she might have seen something significant on
Beneroon Drive the day her son vanished. After all, she said she'd completely forgotten
about it at first, but the memory had come back to her while driving to pick up a relative from the airport.
According to Angela, on the morning William went missing, she had looked out the window at around 6:40 and noticed
two cars parked strangely on the street. They stuck out to her because both of their driver's side windows had been
left open, which was something you wouldn't see in the city. Both of the cars were dirty older models
with tinted windows and no hub caps. One was a gunmetal gray sedan, possibly a Falcon or a Commodore, and the other
an off-white station wagon with a boxy back end, possibly a Camry. They were parked close to one another on
the road between two properties, which Angela noted as odd given that any visitors to the area typically parked in
the driveway of whichever home they were visiting. Angela hadn't mentioned any of these
cars to her mother or husband. When she'd called emergency services to report William's disappearance, the
operator had asked if she'd seen any suspicious vehicles in the area, and Angela had firmly answered no.
No other residents of Beneroon Drive recalled seeing the parked cars either, but it was a helpful bit of information
for the police. While William's disappearance continued to make the news, Peter and Angela
stayed away from the spotlight and didn't make any public appearances. As the days passed with no sign of the
three-year-old, public conjecture started to grow about why the parents weren't talking.
The speculation only escalated when a family friend made a national appeal for information on Peter and Angela's
behalf. if they were genuinely concerned about William. The public wondered why they
weren't doing everything in their power to keep their son's disappearance in the
media. Some speculated that their lack of exposure meant they had something to hide.
Peter and Angela had always wanted children. Unable to have any of their own, they decided to help those in need.
In 2011, the married couple applied to become foster parents. They were put on the books of what was
then called the Department of Family and Community Services, or FACK, after successfully completing the mandatory
foster career training classes and two short-term assignments. As a successful couple from Sydney's
affluent Northshore, Peter and Angela made attractive candidates when Lindsay Tier was placed into the foster care
system. In 2012, Lindsay was sent to live with Peter and Angela, followed shortly after
by her 8-month-old brother, William. According to those who knew Peter and Angela, the two were doting foster
parents to the Tier children. They gave them everything a kid could possibly want. A playroom full of toys, regular
trips to playgrounds and parks, family holidays, birthday parties, and most importantly, a stable and comfortable
home life. Peter and William had a particularly strong bond with Angela describing the
two as absolutely adoring each other. As the children settled into their new home life, Peter and Angela transitioned
from short-term carers to long-term carers, making them the legal guardians of the two tier siblings until they
turned 18. The reality was when it came to William's disappearance, his status as a
foster child made it difficult for Peter and Angela to front the media. For starters, they weren't legally
allowed to identify themselves as his carers. Police needed permission from the relevant government departments before
they were allowed to divulge any details regarding William's family situation. Secondly, they wanted to protect Lindsay
Tier's identity. If news got out that William was a foster child, it outed Lindsay, too.
Based on advice from facts, Peter and Angela made the decision to remain anonymous.
This would also protect the reputation of the department who had assigned the children to their care.
The true identities of Williams foster parents, foster grandmother, and sister were banned from publication under court
suppression orders. Any journalist or reporter who broke this rule was warned that they could face potential
prosecution. [Music] Peter, Angela, and Mary, a pseudonym's case file has created for clarity, while
Lindsay is the pseudonym created for her by the court. The decision to withhold Peter and
Angela's identities from the public ultimately muddied public opinion. With no face of parental grief and
desperation for the Australian public to cling on to, the case sparked suspicion
against the parents instead of compassion. But Peter and Angela weren't the only
ones feeling the weight of this decision. Williams biological mother, 26-year-old
Amy Tier, not her real name, was heavily pregnant with her fourth child when the
police knocked on her door in Western Sydney on the evening of Friday, September 12th, 2014.
Officers entered the house and were shocked to find a young boy matching William's description playing in the
backyard. One of the officers looked at Amy and said accusingly, "What have you done?"
But the boy wasn't William. It was his 18-month-old brother. Amy and her partner, Tyler Martin, not
his real name, who was William's biological father, were confused by the police presence.
They knew they were on the authorities radar for a string of domestic violence, assault, and drugrelated offenses. And
Amy's initial thought was that there might have been a warrant out for her arrest.
When she was told that William went missing that morning, she was in disbelief. Amy had never wanted to put William and
Lindsay into foster care, and she'd been taking steps to get them back. She wondered how her son could be
missing when he'd been put into the care of guardians who were supposed to keep him safe.
At first, Tyler thought it was a joke. But as the police began searching their house, the reality of the situation
started to sink in. The police asked Amy and Tyler about their movements that day.
Tyler said he'd woken up before sunrise to go to the local McDonald's restaurant
to grab breakfast and use the establishment's free Wi-Fi. He was scheduled to work that day, but
he sent his boss a text to let him know he couldn't make it due to a shoulder injury.
When Tyler got home, Amy took their 18-month-old son out shopping for the soon-to-be born baby.
She said the two caught the train to the suburb of Blacktown, visiting various shops and making several purchases along
the way before returning home at around 400 p.m. The police were dubious. After all, if
Amy or Tyler had anything to do with Williams disappearance, it wouldn't be the first time.
Amy Tier and Tyler Martin were both raised in low socioeconomic conditions and each struggled with their own set of
personal issues and run-ins with the law. In 2008, they were introduced by one of Amy's brothers and they later
began dating. It wasn't long before Amy became pregnant with Lindsay, but the young
couple struggled. They had limited support and finances and the demands of parenthood took a toll on their already
volatile relationship. One night after the couple had a fight, Amy began drinking heavily.
She was pushing Lindsay in a pram on the street when police spotted her and thought she was acting erratically.
Concerned for the baby's safety, they approached Amy and one of the officers tried to take Lindsay away.
Amy subsequently punched the officer in the face. The incident was reported to fax and
Lindsay was handed over to the state and eventually put into Peter and Angela's care. By the time Amy gave birth to
William, he was already on the department's radar for potential foster care. Fax believed that Amy and Tyler's toxic
and often violent relationship created an unsafe home environment for children. The department therefore ruled that Amy
wouldn't be able to keep William if she continued living with Tyler. The couple stayed together but told the
authorities their relationship had ended. Eventually, they were caught out and the
New South Wales family court ordered that William be handed over to Fax. Determined to keep William, Amy and
Tyler took him and went on the run. A police task force was assembled and several weeks later, the family was
found hiding out in a small flat in Sydney's Upper Northshore. William was taken from his biological
parents and reunited with Lindsay in the custody of Peter and Angela. As per standard procedure, Amy and Tyler
were forbidden from having any contact with the foster carers, and they were only granted the occasional supervised
visits with William and Dinday. Each of these visits was overseen by a social worker.
At first, the visits were weekly, then monthly, and then eventually by the time William went missing for 1 hour every 2
months. Amy and Tyler reluctantly adhered to these rules with every intention of
regaining custody of their children. They undertook anger management courses, counseling, and joined parenting groups,
unaware that the foster parents were already thinking about formal adoption. As soon as the police looking into
William Tier's disappearance became aware of his family situation, the possibility was raised that Amy and
Tyler could have taken him. Yet, the pair were adamant that they had nothing to do with it. They both insisted they
wouldn't do anything that could hinder their chances of legally regaining custody of their kids.
They also knew how close William and Lindsay were and wouldn't dare take one without the other.
Police checked CCTV footage, bank statements, and receipts, all of which backed up the couple's claims that they
were nowhere near Kendall on the day William went missing. The futile search for William Tier
continued for 5 days until police concluded that if he had simply gotten lost in the bush, it was no longer
possible that he could still be alive. Instead, Strike Force Rosanne was created as investigators began to
operate under the assumption that the 3-year-old had been abducted and possibly killed.
The fact that William's disappearance had been treated as a missing person case from the get-go instead of a major
crime presented some problems for the investigation. For starters, Mary Saers's house on
Benoon Drive had never been considered a crime scene, and therefore, it wasn't cordoned off or properly secured.
With hundreds of volunteers, visitors, and official personnel having already trampled through the yard and its
surrounds, any forensic evidence, such as footprints, tire tracks, or DNA, were long gone or contaminated.
Cars had also been free to come and go from the area without being checked. In addition, the police had searched
some of the 21 houses on the street, but not all of them, with some of the residents having been relied upon to
conduct their own searches. If William had been taken, each of these factors meant that vital evidence or a
person of interest could have been overlooked. Police had no way of knowing what they
might have missed. In Australia, it is extremely rare for a child to be abducted by a stranger.
The person responsible is typically a relative or someone close to the family. Therefore, Peter and Angela were obvious
suspects. Accepting this uncomfortable fact, the couple willingly handed over their
phones, vehicles, and computers for forensic analysis, eager to be ruled out. Police looked into Peter's claims that
he'd been in the next town over at the time William disappeared. Phone records and CCTV footage confirmed
that he'd been in Lakewood at the time in question. Peter had made a conference call that
lasted for 39 minutes before making another call and then ducking into a grocery store to buy a newspaper.
Police considered the possibility that William could have died by accident and his foster family had disposed of his
body and then faked his disappearance out of sheer panic. But they found absolutely no evidence to support such a
theory. And by all accounts, Peter and Angela's desperation to find William seemed completely genuine.
Lindsay had also been present when William went missing and she hadn't said anything to the police to raise
suspicion on her foster parents. When questioned about what William had been doing before he went missing,
Lindsay told police that he was running out to see Daddy's car. Police also considered the possibility
that William's biological parents could have organized to have someone snatch William on their behalf.
The problem with this theory was that Amy and Tyler didn't even know William and Lindsay's foster career's names or
their address. Furthermore, no one had told Amy and Tyler that the trip to Kendall was going
ahead. While the foster care agency had approved the trip, the biological parents weren't made aware of it.
The trip to Kendall had also gone ahead a day earlier than was originally planned.
Peter and Angela told the police they had been scheduled to drive up on Friday night, but Peter had finished work early
on Thursday, so they'd decided to get a head start on the bumper-to-bumper traffic that typically jammed the
Pacific Highway on Fridays. They had picked William and Lindsay up from daycare early on Thursday afternoon
and headed straight to Kendall from there, stopping only to have dinner at McDonald's and to change the kids into
their pajamas. The unplanned nature of the trip ruled out the possibility that it was a
targeted attack. As far as Peter and Angela were aware, no one had followed them on their drive from Sydney to
Kendall either. Police checked CCTV footage of their journey and the stops they'd made along
the way, but found nothing to indicate the family was being trailed. The footage from their stopover at
McDonald's showed William joyfully riding into the restaurant on Peter's shoulders, the very image of a happy
family. Both William's foster parents and his biological parents were ruled out as
suspects. Regardless, the possibility that William could have been snatched in an
opportunistic attack was difficult for investigators to comprehend. Beneroon Drive was a safe place where
none of the other residents had ever encountered anything untoward and children played on the street without
fear. The isolated location of Mary Saers's house at the end of the street, coupled
with the lack of street traffic in the area meant that a kidnapper would have had to coincidentally walk or drive past
in the mere minutes that William jumped around the side of the house unsupervised.
Had such a rare moment occurred, it would have taken an incredibly brazen offender to snatch a child in broad
daylight with his family just meters away on a quiet street where any of the neighbors could have easily noticed an
outsider. Several residents were home at the time, and all of them said they hadn't noticed
anyone or anything out of the ordinary. None of them had been expecting any visitors on the morning that William
went missing either. Still, police couldn't discount the possibility that someone could have
dropped by without warning, seen William, and made the split-second decision to take him.
It was also possible that William had heard a car coming, and ran onto the street, thinking it was his father
arriving home before being snatched. However unlikely, investigators also theorized that someone could have heard
the children playing earlier that morning and had lay in weight, ready to strike if an opportunity arose.
If so, they would have had to move incredibly fast. The fact that William was wearing the
distinct Spider-Man outfit would have made it easy for someone to initiate a conversation with him, as it was an
immediate talking point that would have appealed to William. A perpetrator could have used that to
lure the young boy away voluntarily or simply grabbed him and forced his silence.
According to Angela, when she first realized William went missing, she was struck by how silent everything had
gone. Then she thought she heard a short, high-pitched scream coming from the bushland. The type of scream a child
would make if they'd hurt themselves. Angela said she had ventured into the reads towards the direction of the
sound, but couldn't see any splashes of red from William's Spider-Man suit. She had brushed it off as her
imagination, thinking it must have been a bird. Kendall was home to a species of bird
known as a cat bird, which makes a sound very similar to that of a crying child.
At the end of Beneroon Drive, a dirt fire track leads into the dense scrub. If the perpetrator had been on foot,
this could have provided an escape route for them to grab William and run off undetected.
But the terrain in the surrounding bush was rough, and running off with the 3-year-old boy would have been no easy
feat. If this was indeed a random opportunistic attack, everyone agreed it would be one of the rarest and most
unfortunate cases of William Tier being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When asked if anyone unusual lived in
the area, Mary Saers pinpointed one person, a former taxi driver aged in his 50s who mostly kept to himself.
While there wasn't anything overtly suspicious about him, he lived alone in a small house surrounded by bushland
where he kept odd hours, typically sleeping during the day and hanging around his house at night.
In the days following William Tier's disappearance, some neighbors noticed that the taxi driver had
uncharacteristically left his house. When he returned home a couple of days later, he was carrying a backpack and
walked around his property as though checking each of his windows before going inside.
An officer went to visit the former taxi driver and noticed something odd. A box had been installed over one of his
windows, making it impossible to see inside. When questioned about his whereabouts on
the day of William's disappearance, the taxi driver claimed he'd been sleeping at home alone, an alibi that couldn't be
verified. The officer noted that the man had a small red mark on his wrist. A cursory
search of the property revealed a step ladder in the laundry that led up to a manhole.
The officer climbed to the ladder, wondering if the manhole could be used as a hiding place.
But it was obvious the manhole hadn't been accessed in some time. When the police returned to visit the
taxi driver again, his television had been paused on a news channel providing updates about William's disappearance.
Although this indicated he was keeping an eye on the story, police found nothing to suggest he was involved in
the crime in any way. The taxi driver soon sold his house and moved out of Kendall, saying there was
too much activity in the area. By day 14 of the hunt for William, line searchers had painstakingly covered an
area of 18 square kilm. Various items were found, including an abandoned children's cubby house, number
plates from a stolen vehicle, animal bones, a shovel, a spear gun, and other miscellaneous items. But all of them
were ruled out of having anything to do with William's disappearance, and still there was no sign of him.
Investigators had no choice but to scale the search back. Instead, they turned their focus to
known sex offenders in the area. This was no easy task. Within the 30 km radius of Beneroon Drive alone, 18 known
sex offenders lived among the rural properties. Just further beyond that lived another
60. Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubilan, who would later come to front Strike
Force Rosanne, remarked, "It's as if they've settled on this quiet, overlooked backwater like
mosquitoes." Detective Jubilant told reporters that police intended to track the movements
of everyone who was within a 1 km radius of Beneroon Drive on the day William went missing. If anyone who had been in
the area failed to come forward and identify themselves, Jubilan warned it would give the police grave concerns and
be an immediate cause for suspicion. CCTV footage was collected from 12 businesses around Kendall.
Police were particularly interested in the footage captured by the Kendall Tennis Club between 5 and 11 on the
morning of Friday, September 12th, 2014. This camera faced one of the main roads
leading in and out of the village, and there was a chance it had captured the abductor's car.
However, the footage was grainy and only captured the sides of the vehicles, not
their number plates, making it difficult to identify the cars that came and went.
However, there were numerous roads leading to Beneroon Drive, and it was possible the kidnapper hadn't been
captured on any cameras at all. Although William Tier's disappearance had made national headlines,
investigative resources were limited and questioning witnesses and persons of interest was a time-consuming task.
Police were also inundated with reported sightings of William coming from all over the country.
It didn't help that Spider-Man costumes were incredibly popular amongst young boys.
Every potential lead, sighting, and piece of information was diligently recorded. But the hard part for police
was figuring out which to prioritize. They worked tirelessly for several months, checking 169 CCTV cameras from
outside Kendall, as well as analyzing data from traffic cameras and mobile phone towers.
But things moved slowly and as the year drew to an end, they didn't seem to be any closer to finding William.
Then a call came in from someone who wanted to report a member of the community as a potential person of
interest. 4 days before William Tier went missing, his grandmother Mary called a local
whites repair company called Spedto's Repairs after her washing machine stopped working.
The business owner, 63-year-old Bill Speding, came to the house to provide a quote only to discover that he needed to
order a new part. He told Mary he would come back to conduct the repairs whenever the part came in.
On Friday, September 12th, just 90 minutes before William vanished, Angela had called Bill Speding on her mother's
behalf to follow up on the replacement part, as the washing machine still wasn't working.
The call had gone straight to voicemail, so she left a message asking Sping to call her back.
Mary said that he would likely show up at any time without prior notice. That's just how things were done in Kendall.
Given that Bill Sping was one of the few visitors to Beneroon Drive in the days leading up to Williams disappearance,
police had already taken him in for questioning in the early stages of the investigation.
Spetting had confirmed details about the initial repair call out, but he denied having received a follow-up phone call
from Angela. On September 12th, police confiscated Spetting's phone and found no record of Angela's voicemail.
This was immediately suspicious. Police already had Angela's phone data, confirming she had made the call to Bill
Sping, leaving officers to wonder if he had deleted it. If he had nothing to do with William's disappearance, they
wondered why he would do such a thing. But Bill Speding steadfastly denied having ever received the message at all.
He also claimed to have an alibi for the day of William's disappearance. According to Spetting, he and his wife
Margaret had coffee at a local cafe, leaving around 9:45 a.m. to attend a school assembly where their grandson had
received an award. Afterwards, Sping said he went back to his office and worked a normal day
before picking his grandchildren up from school. While Sping said his wife was the only
one who could verify his alibi, police weren't overly concerned until the tip off came through from a
member of the public to report that Bill Sping had been accused of sexually assaulting two young girls in the past.
It was alleged that in 1987, Sping had sexually assaulted a three and 5-year-old during an overnight stay in a
caravan park. Another tipster also came forward to report having seen Sping access some
storage sheds he owned 6 hours in land from Kendall on the day after William disappeared.
Suddenly, Bill Sping was looking much more interesting to the police. They obtained bank statements from the
cafe Spetting claimed to have dined at on the morning William Tier went missing and confirmed that he and Margaret had
indeed been there at 9:42. However, the cafe was only an 18-minute car trip from Beneroon Drive.
If Spetting was lying about attending his grandson's school assembly, police theorized that he could have driven to
Mary's house to work on her washing machine when he'd come across William and made the split-second decision to
snatch him. They questioned school faculty members and some other parents who attended the
assembly on the day in question, but given the passing of time, no one could specifically recall seeing Bill sping
there. Although they said that the assemblies occurred frequently and each one tended
to blur into the other. One woman had taken photos of the event on September 12th, but she had since
dropped her phone in the toilet and lost its contents. Strikeforce investigators were
conflicted about how to act. If they decided to pursue a raid on Spetting's home and business, the news would surely
leak. If Sping found out he was a suspect, this would give him a chance to destroy any potential evidence.
But if they got it right, they just might find William Terrell. On Tuesday, January 20, 2015, just over
4 months after William Tier disappeared, detectives from Strike Force Rosanne descended on Bill Spedding's home in
Bonnie Hills, a small town 20 km northeast of Kendall. He lived there with his wife and three
grandchildren for whom they were the current legal guardians. It was a dramatic scene with an
excavator, cadaavver dog, and forensic experts on standby. The search team scoured each room of the
house and the dark, dank recesses of the basement before turning their attention
to the yard and a wood pile outside. A plumber was even brought in to drain the property's septic tank.
11 km from Kendall in the coastal town of Lauratan. A search was also conducted at Spetting's office.
As feared, news of the raids had leaked and throngs of media gathered outside both properties ready to capture any
breaks in the story. Police seized phones, computers, and a mattress, but found no sign of William.
There was one item of particular interest found in his van, though, a Spider-Man toy.
Bill Sping was taken into custody and subject to 6 hours of grueling interrogation.
Investigators put it to him that on Friday, September 12th, 2004, he showed up at a Benaroon Drive to fix Mary
Saers's washing machine, but saw William playing outside and made the snap decision to abduct him.
They suggested that Sping had taken the three-year-old in his work van and quickly fled the scene.
Sping strongly rejected these allegations. He stuck by his alibi and denied having
deleted a voicemail from Angela on the day William went missing. As for the Spider-Man toy found in his
van, he claimed it belonged to one of his grandchildren. His wife supported this, saying one of
the kids had given it to Spetting to keep him company while he worked. But detectives weren't convinced.
They thought there was something off about Spetting and that he had a sly way of answering questions.
Regardless, with nothing eventuating from the raids, he was free to go. By this point, Bill Sped's potential
involvement in Williams disappearance was a hot topic around town. A month before the raids, he had shared
a Facebook post from another user that contained a picture of William Tier and Rad.
Today, somebody is keeping a secret. They got up this morning, had breakfast, realized they need to pick up some more
milk, made some calls, all the while maintaining a poker face. Some viewed this as Betting's way of
taunting the police, as though to say, "Catch me if you can." A week after the raids on Bill Speding's
properties, the investigation was officially handed over to Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubilan after the
case's initial lead detective retired. Detective Jubilan was a veteran of the New South Wales Police Force.
Known for his tenacity and resoluteness, Jubilan applied disciplined thinking and
creative policing to help solve some of the country's most high-profile murder cases.
He also worked on the Bowerville murders as covered in episode 186 of Case File and on the Matt Leverson case covered in
the case file present series Maddie. Although he had a hard edge, Jubilan was admired by victim's families for his
genuinely kind and compassionate nature. He was the kind of detective who took each case personally, giving the
investigation his all and refusing to accept mediocrity. He promised William's foster family he
would do everything he could to find William. By the time William had been missing for
6 months, police interviewed an elderly Kendall resident after hearing he had some information that could be useful to
the investigation. Ronald Chapman lived on Laurel Street about half a kilometer from Benaroon
Drive. At around 10:45 on the morning that William went missing, Ronald claimed that he had stepped outside to check the
mail. A thorncoled four-wheel drive sped past, rounding the corner so fast that loose
gravel flew onto Ronald's lawn. In the back seat, Ronald saw a young boy matching William Tier's description
standing up without a seat belt on. He had a bewildered look on his face and was wearing a blue and red outfit with
black patterns on it resembling a Spider-Man costume. The car was being driven by a woman who
Ronald described as a plump blonde in her 30s. A blue sedan with a male driver sped
behind in close proximity as though the two vehicles were traveling together. Ronald said he swore at the woman under
his breath for driving so fast with an unrestrained child on board. Police weren't sure what to make of this
information. Ronald was adamant that the incident had happened, but it begged the question of
why he hadn't reported it sooner. Ronald claimed that when he heard about William's disappearance, he did tell
some acquaintances about what he'd seen. He assumed they would pass the information on to a local officer they
were friendly with and expected police to come and question him about it. When they didn't, he just assumed they had
more significant leads worth following. Ronald was known to be an honest man with a knife for detail, but some
relatives who were staying with him at the time of this supposed incident said he'd never mentioned it. When pressed by
detectives, Ronald admitted he could have dreamt the whole thing, but when shown a photo of William, he was certain
it was the same boy that he'd seen. For William's foster parents, the decision to return to Sydney after
William's disappearance had not been easy. But they felt there was little they could do to help in Kendall, and they
needed life to return to as normal as possible for Lindsay. While the case continued making national
headlines, things were tainted by the mysterious nature surrounding William's family status.
The public still hadn't been made aware that William was a foster child, and suspicion continued to be cast upon his
parents. The fact that they weren't talking led many to believe the family had something
to hide. With their enigmatic status hindering public sympathy, the strike force
bargained with the Department of Family and Community Services to let them release an interview with Angela and
Peter online. While it still couldn't be revealed that William was a foster child, the aim of
the video was to let people know he was dearly loved and sorely missed and to give the foster parents the chance to
plead for his return. The 21-minute video interview went ahead in April 2015, over 6 months after
William vanished. While Peter and Angela's faces were blanked out, they could be heard crying
as they talked about their love for the cheeky and vibrant little boy, describing their ordeal as a living
nightmare. "I just can't believe it's happened," Angela said. "We just don't have our
boy. We just we have no idea where he is. We don't know who's got him. We don't know what's happening to him. We
know nothing about it. We just want it to be over. The couple said they continued to hold
hopes that William would be found alive. Angela pleaded. If somebody has him, and if he is alive,
I want him to be safe. I want him to be feeling loved and I want someone to be looking after him because to imagine
something else is going on. We can't live a life like that. We need to know where he is. His sister can't grow up
never knowing what happened to her brother just to give him back. Take him to a church. Take him to a police
station. Take him to a school. Give him back. Give him back. The video provoked mixed responses.
While some people felt deeply for the grieving family, others questioned why their identities continued to be
withheld. Online sleuths wondered whether the parents were involved in the crime, were
in witness protection, or were part of something dangerous like a criminal gang.
The police did their best to dispel these suspicions, but the questions loomed over public opinion like a dark
cloud. Peter and Angela began working with a not for-p profofit public relations firm
as a means to communicate with the public without having to reveal their faces. Together, they created a campaign titled
Where's William? Which included the launch of a website, billboards, and social media.
The aim of the campaign was to provide the community with more information about William's disappearance while
hopefully generating information that could assist with the investigation and ultimately bring the little boy home.
They created missing person posters that the public and businesses could share with coasters placed in pubs in the
hopes someone might become loose lipped after one too many drinks. To coincide with the launch, Peter and
Angela released a statement that read in part, "This has torn away the fabric and
foundation of our life as we know it. There is a huge gap of space, emptiness in our lives that we feel without
William being here with us. We have been entirely shattered, emotionally exhausted, physically and mentally
beaten. This is a pure living nightmare. William's sister continues to ask where
her brother is and when he'll be home. We've tried so hard to keep life as normal as possible for her, reminding
her how loved and safe she is, even though William is not here. They were like two peas in a pod.
For those who have families and children of their own, this is so unbelievably confronting.
If it could happen to us, it could happen to them. [Music] Meanwhile, the implications against
Whitewoods repairman Bill Sping kept coming. One of his neighbors, a man named Dean
Pollard, came forward to claim that on Saturday, September 13, 2014, the day after William Tier went missing, he saw
Spetting's work van driving down a dirt track. It was near an area of dense forest,
colloially known as Ghost Road. Dean claimed that when Spetting saw him, he ducked down to avoid being spotted.
Dean told police, "It was definitely Bill's van. I would know it anywhere." With this new information coming to
light, a major search was organized of the bushland surrounding the area in question.
If William's body had been left out in the elements, police were aware that there would be nothing left at this
point but his small scalidal remains, which would be easy to miss. However, if he was buried with his
clothes on, the polyester Spider-Man suit would take hundreds of years to disintegrate, and the rubber soles of
his shoes would take decades. Dozens of uniformed police officers searched with the help of cadaavver
dogs, but found nothing relevant to the William Tier investigation. Yet, something of interest did come out
of it. While the search was underway, camera crews were on standby, ready to capture
any discoveries. As the cameras rolled, they captured Bill Speding's van as it drove right
past the search site with Spetting looking out the window. When questioned, Sping denied having
been anywhere near Ghost Road on September 13. He claimed he had been celebrating the
end of the football season at the local footy club approximately 20 km away. Although police still had no evidence
against Spetting in relation to William Tier, suspicion against him was growing,
the allegations that he'd sexually assaulted two young girls in the past were enough to warrant an arrest.
If police brought spetting in for that crime, their hopes were that with enough pressure, he might cave and admit to
being involved with William's disappearance. [Music] On Wednesday, April 22, 2015, almost 7
and 1/2 months after William went missing, a team of detectives arrived at Bill Speding's house in Bonnie Hills.
They placed him under arrest for the historic sexual assault crimes he'd been accused of.
He was charged with five counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10, as well as two counts of common
assault. Sping vehemently denied the allegations. He claimed the crimes were fabricated by
his ex-wife during a time when the two were going through a bitter divorce and custody battle.
At the time, his ex-wife had been advised not to pursue the charges due to lack of evidence, and a judge had thrown
the entire case out. This time, Sping was held in jail pending the outcome of a trial.
Bill Speding's cellmate was a sex offender in his late 50s named Tony Jones, who was serving a 3-year
sentence. Although Jones had amassed a long criminal rap sheet that included charges
for assault, breaking and entering, and various drug offenses, his latest charge
was one of the more vile. Jones had joined a local community group called grandparents as parents again,
which supported older people who had been given custody of their grandchildren for various reasons.
Jones used his position to take advantage of a young intellectually disabled girl by overdosing her with
autism medication and sexually assaulting her while she was semi-conscious. He was subsequently convicted of
aggravated child sexual assault. The fact that Tony Jones and Bill Sping were cellmates was no accident.
Jones, who lived 23 km from Kendall in the town of War Hope, had also been established as a person of interest in
William Tier's disappearance. On the day William went missing, the unemployed former truck driver left home
early, telling his partner Debbie he was going out into the bush with their son to collect scrap metal.
But Debbie soon found their son at home with no knowledge of this supposed outing.
Enraged, she waited at home to confront Jones about the lie. When Jones returned home at around 2:00
p.m. on September 12th, Debbie claimed he was so intoxicated he could barely speak.
This wasn't out of the ordinary. Jones was an alcoholic, often scrging up scrap metal that he could trade for beer
money. He allegedly told Debbie he'd been out drinking with his mate, Paul Bickford.
Bickford was the former president of grandparents as parents again, who had once been named senior volunteer of the
year. But far from heroic, Bickford removed himself from the group after he was accused of sexually assaulting an
intellectually disabled 11-year-old girl while on a drive to buy her lollies. The separate sex offenses committed by
Tony Jones and Paul Bickford ultimately came to light during the investigation into William Tier's disappearance, and
both men faced charges for their crimes. Police explored the possibility that the
two men could have been part of a pedophile ring, but given they were both more solitary predators, this was deemed
unlikely. However, there was something about Tony Jones that the police couldn't ignore.
His partner, Debbie, drove a white station wagon similar to the one Williams foster mother claimed to have
spotted on Beneroon Drive on the morning of William's disappearance. Additionally, his habit of collecting
scrap metal meant he had intimate knowledge of the bushland around Kendall and surrounds.
Jones, who no longer had a driver's license, told police he didn't have access to the White Station wagon.
This was disputed by several witnesses who said he often took it without Debbie's knowledge.
Jones also gave various alibis for the morning of Friday, September 12th, 2014. First, he claimed he was out in Bego
State Forest collecting scrap metal on his own. Then he changed his mind and said he was out chopping wood.
Later he changed his story entirely and said he was off sourcing a hot water heater from a neighbor. He denied ever
being with Paul Bickford despite telling his partner that the two had been drinking together.
At around lunchtime on the day William went missing, a man was walking his dog around the bush tracks near Queens Lake
in Lauron. He looked over and noticed a tanned man with a mustache sitting in a parked car
with fogged up windows. Something about the way the man was acting seemed suspicious.
The dog walker waved at the man who quickly wound up his window in response. When the dog walker returned from his
stroll, the car and the man were gone. He didn't think much of it until he saw Tony Jones in the newspaper 8 months
later and immediately recognized him as the occupant of the vehicle. What's more, the car in question was an
old white Toyota Camry station wagon. Jones denied being near Queens Lake that day.
He said it couldn't have been him as he had emphyma and couldn't sit in a car with the windows rolled up.
Debbie's white station wagon was towed and taken in for forensic testing. But nothing of interest to the William Tur
investigation was found. However, it wasn't the only vehicle that could be linked to Jones.
Police later received a tip off from someone who had come across a silver car abandoned in the Kendall bush land.
They recognized it as the same make model as a vehicle belonging to Jones. The informant led police to the area,
but when they got to the location, they found that the car had been overturned and set on fire.
Jones's companion, Paul Bickford, also denied any involvement in Williams disappearance.
He claimed he wasn't with Tony Jones on September 12 at all, but 41 km away in Port McQuary having lunch with France,
although he couldn't recall which France or where they ate. In a bizarre coincidence, Bill Speding
and Tony Jones had once lived across the street from one another. Police hoped that by pairing them in a
cell together, one of them might be compelled to say something incriminating to the other about William Tier.
But the plan didn't work. And 3 months after Bill Speding's arrest for the unrelated child sex crimes, he was
granted conditional bail and allowed to return home pending trial. News of his arrest had made national
headlines with the inference that he was the prime suspect in Williams abduction.
This had a hugely detrimental impact on Spetting's family and business and he took it upon himself to try to change
the public's perception. Within days of his release from jail, a video appeared online.
Reading from a pre-prepared script, Sping offered his condolences to William's family and stated that he had
no involvement whatsoever in the young boy's disappearance. But the damage to his reputation was
already done, with many thinking the bizarre video did nothing but further solidify his guilt.
[Music] In September 2015, as the one-year anniversary of William's disappearance
approached, police released details about the two cars Angela had seen on Beneroon Drive on the morning William
went missing for the first time. Many questioned why they had waited so long to do this, as vital witness accounts
could be forgotten due to the time lapsed. The recording of Angela's call to emergency services was also released in
the hopes it might elicit an emotional response and prompt a new witness to come forward
to mark the anniversary and support the ongoing search. Thousands of people participated in community walks held
across the country. Organizers of the Walk for William events hoped the show of support would
encourage somebody to come forward with information with one walk held as far away as Canada.
Detective Inspector Gary Jubilant had been working tirelessly on the case and the anniversary was a rude awakening.
By this point, the Strike Force had been presented with every possible theory from the credible to the ludicrous.
With thousands of lines of inquiry still to be followed, there weren't enough hands on deck or hours in the day, and
the work continued to pile up. Detective Jubilant remarked to the press. The anniversary is a milestone that no
one in the community or family wanted to reach. 12 months without finding out what happened to William. From a police
point of view, that plays very heavily on us. We feel like we've let them down. By December that year, the strike force
was no closer to finding answers. Williams foster parents released a Christmas poem to keep the case in the
public consciousness. It read in part, "Christmas is a time for happiness. It's a time when families come together and
hold each other tight. But not our family and not this Christmas night. While our beautiful little boy William
is still missing, absent from our sight. We love you, our darling boy. You are never far from our thoughts. We remember
everything about you. Your amazing laugh, your kindness and the love you share with your sister, your complete
adoration of your daddy, your funny faces for mommy, your kisses, your hugs, and your tears. We remember your first
words, your first steps, your first fears. We miss everything about you, our beautiful little boy.
Although Peter and Angela had been cleared from the investigation in its very early stages, some among the strike
force thought it was worth looking into them again to be 100% sure. Some questions had arisen about a
possible inconsistency in Angela's story. In police interviews, she had claimed that William was wearing shoes at the
time he went missing. However, in the photos she'd taken of William at 9:37 a.m., just minutes
before he disappeared, he'd been barefoot. His shoes, a pair of sandals with Velcro
straps, sat near the back door. Members of the public had also responded negatively to the recording of her call
to police. Many thought she sounded much too calm for a mother whose child had just gone missing.
The couple were summoned to the police station under the guise of it being a routine appointment.
Once they arrived, they were separated and interrogated at length about the day of William's disappearance.
Detective Jubilan quote went hard on them. asked about the shoes. Angela said William had been barefoot when she took
the photos, but she had told him to put shoes on, which he was capable of doing on his own because there were prickly
weeds and dog feces in the grass. Unbeknownst to the couple, while all this was going down, covert listening
devices were placed in their car. If Peter and Angela had anything to hide, police hoped that they might divulge
something important as they discussed what they'd just experienced on their drive home.
But both of their stories remained unchanged and nothing of interest was captured in the covert recordings.
Detective Jubilant was confident that there was absolutely no evidence that raised any suspicion in regards to their
involvement. and again they were eliminated from the investigation. By September 2016, the search for
William Tier had become one of the largest ever in Australian history. A second arm of the strike force was
established purely to work through the 1,000 plus names that police had identified as potential persons of
interest. Detectives were required to travel all over the country to locate each
individual and cross them off the list. But despite the epic scale of work being
put in, the investigation continued with no significant breakthroughs. Strikeforce detectives wanted to offer a
reward for information, but they knew what would need to be a sizable amount of money if it was going to encourage
anyone to speak. As Detective Jubilant explained, it would need to be enough money to make a
wife turn against her husband or for one pedophile to betray another. With support from the New South Wales
Police Commissioner and the state premier, they got their wish. On the second anniversary of William
Tier's disappearance, a $1 million reward was announced. At the time, it was the largest reward
ever offered in New South Wales, and the announcement was broadcast heavily on television and shared across social
media. When nobody tried to claim it, investigators drew two conclusions. Either William's abductor had acted
alone and not told a soul, or if more than one person had been involved, none of the offenders were prepared to rat
the others out. The strike force continued questioning known sex offenders and pedophiles.
Some officers were given the grim task of viewing child exploitation material in case William could be identified in
footage or photographs. It was a brutal job that took a severe emotional toll, but members of the
strike force persevered with one ultimate goal, to bring William Tier home. In mid 2016, the Department of Housing
received an application that made them stop in their tracks. A woman named Kim Loki had applied for a
home in Sydney, citing William Tier's biological grandmother, Tracy Martin, not her real name, as her intended
roommate. The two women had worked together in the past and had recently rekindled their
friendship with Kim posting photos of herself and a Tracy together online to acknowledge their bond.
But there was something that rang alarm bells for the department of housing. Kim had applied for a three-bedroom
house even though she stated that she and Tracy would be the only occupants. When William had had been a baby and his
biological parents had hidden him from the authorities, Tracy Martin had apparently helped them.
This led the department to question whether that third bedroom was intended for William.
Perhaps Kim had been helping hide him all along. The department notified the police who
placed Kim under covert surveillance. What they discovered was shocking. Kim drove a gray Holden Commodore sedan
similar in color and shape to one of the vehicles Angela claimed to have spotted
on Benoon Drive on the day of William's disappearance. Kim was also a former customer of Bill
Sping, having hired him to fix her washing machine several years prior. But perhaps most alarming, one of Kim's
flatmates had a notable brother-in-law, person of interest in the William Tur case, convicted sex offender, Tony
Jones. She was also friends with the Jones's now exartner Debbie. When questioned about her whereabouts on
Friday, September 12th, 2014, Kim Loki claimed she was at home in Sydney. some 360 km from Kendall, but she had nothing
to verify her alibi. Her explanation for wanting a third bedroom was that she needed a studio for
her art. Kim appeared on Channel 9's current affair program to deny having anything
to do with Williams disappearance. She rejected allegations that it was her car seen on Benaroon Drive, stating,
"I wouldn't be game to do stuff like that, kidnapping a little kid." The heat was placed on William's
biological grandmother, Tracy Martin, until another twist emerged. Tracy wasn't close friends with Kim Loki
at all. The two women were nothing more than former work colleagues. Kim had used photos of them taken at a
work function years prior as testimony to their friendship and had simply wanted to ingratiate herself into the
William Tier investigation. She tried to sue a current affair for money they promised her for the
interview, but the case was thrown out of court. [Music] The fact that William was a foster child
had been publicly discussed online by those invested in the case. But by mid 2017, this fact still hadn't been
officially clarified. It continued to muddy public perception with sympathy for the anonymous family
slowly dissipating in the eyes of those who viewed them as detached. A woman who wasn't connected to either
of the families in any way took it upon herself to fight to make this detail public.
Having been sexually assaulted in a foster home during her own adolescence, the woman became an advocate for other
foster children and believed the public had a right to know the truth about Williams family's situation.
The case went to court where lawyers for the Department of Family and Community Services argued that there was a stigma
attached to being a foster child. If William was ever found alive, this stigma would follow him for life.
Likewise, his sister Lindsay would suffer from the same stigma. William's foster parents agreed that
they wanted to keep this information secret along with their identities. Up until this point, William's
biological parents, Amy Tier and Tyler Martin, had mostly been kept on the sidelines of the investigation.
They didn't receive the same regular updates as his foster parents, weren't acknowledged in the media, and had been
excluded from the national public relations campaign aimed at bringing awareness to the case.
However, they had always wanted it to be publicly known that William was in foster care at the time he went missing.
The judge agreed that the public had been misled to believe that Peter and Angela were William Tier's biological
parents. In a landmark decision, he lifted the restrictions that prevented this fact
from being reported, ruling that William being in foster care was a legitimate matter of public interest.
For the first time since William went missing, the names of his biological parents were allowed to be shared, while
the names of his foster parents and sister continued to be suppressed by a court order.
Afterwards, Amy Tier appeared on national television for the first time. In a heartfelt interview with television
presenter Melissa Doyle for Channel 7's Sunday Night program, she admitted to having made poor choices in the past,
but said she was trying to be the best mom she could be. No longer in a relationship with Tyler
Martin, Amy said William and Lindsay shouldn't have been taken away from her in the first place.
She believed the whole situation could have been improved if there had just been better support for mothers who were
experiencing domestic violence. Amy cried as she fondly recounted memories of William as a baby. She spoke
of how difficult the experience of losing him twice had been and how much it hurt her to know that William and
Lindsay were no longer together. Sob, she begged whoever had her son to bring him home unharmed, saying,
"Whoever was responsible, quote, needs a bullet." "Whatever had happened to William," Amy
believed that his foster parents should feel guilty. "I don't want to blame the carers," she
said, "but they were responsible for looking after William, and they failed. As police continued to make their way
through the long list of persons of interest when speaking with Kendall locals, one name in particular kept
coming up. The individual lived a reclusive lifestyle in an overgrown property near
Beneroon Drive, and some people thought he was worth looking into. Police arrived at the man's house, and
what they found was disturbing. Outside, animal carcasses hung from pieces of string. Inside was even
creepier. At the end of the man's bed, a shrine of sorts had been made to William Tier.
It featured photos of William along with quotes about the investigation that had
been cut from the newspaper as well as handwritten poetry about the case. Due to the man's unconventional
lifestyle, police nicknamed him Gorillas in the Mist after the book and film of the same name about an American
scientist who moved to the remote forests of Rwanda to study primates. Police questioned Gorillas in the Mist
extensively, but found nothing to suggest he was involved in William's abduction.
If anything, they thought he seemed lonely and appreciated the police company. However, there were certain things about
his behavior that they deemed concerning. Not wanting to take any chances, the police decided to put gorillas in the
mist under surveillance by installing hidden cameras in the bush surrounding his property.
Before long, one of the cameras went missing. Police had no idea what had happened to
it until 6 weeks later when it suddenly reappeared under strange circumstances. [Music]
to be continued. [Music] [Music]

[Part 1 of 2] It was a peaceful morning on Friday, September 12 2014, as three-year-old William Tyrrell played happily in the backyard of his grandmother’s home in the small New South Wales town of Kendall. One minute, William roared like a tiger, posing for a photo in his favourite Spider-Man costume. Moments later, he vanished, sparking one of the largest missing person searches in Australian history.

CORRECTION: At 51:05, it should be Friday, September 12 2014, instead of 2004.

CREDITS Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Elsha McGill Creative direction – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer

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RESOURCES

For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-322-william-tyrrell-part-1

Brief Summary

William Tyrrell, a 3-year-old boy, disappeared in 2014, prompting extensive search efforts and investigations into potential suspects.

Key points

The Distress Call. A frantic call to police reveals a missing 3-year-old boy named William.
The Search Begins. Police and locals launch a desperate search for William in the surrounding bushland.
Suspicious Vehicles. Angela recalls seeing two strange cars parked on the street the morning William vanished.
The Confusion of Amy and Tyler. When police arrive, Amy and Tyler are bewildered by the news of William's disappearance.
The Search for William Intensifies. As the investigation unfolds, police consider various suspects and theories about William's disappearance.
Suspicion on Bill Speding. Bill Speding, a repairman, becomes a person of interest after a suspicious voicemail incident.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I can't see you, William.

Angela calling for her missing son.

8:46WatchJul 19, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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