William Tyrrell: Missing boy could not survive six days in bush, police say

Updated

Police say they no longer believe it is possible a three-year-old boy could still be alive if he was lost in bushland on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

Three-year-old William Tyrrell was last seen wearing a Spider-Man costume and playing with his sister last Friday morning at their grandmother's house at Kendall, south of Port Macquarie.

Since then hundreds of police, State Emergency Service (SES), Rural Fire Service (RFS) and members of the community have searched day and night for the child.

Superintendent Paul Fehon said if William did wander into the bush, he was unlikely to still be alive.

"The experts cannot substantiate that survival in the bush would be there at this point in time," he said.

But he said there was still no solid evidence that he did wander into the bush.

Police said the search would continue into its seventh day tomorrow but would be scaled back.

They said it was now a search rather than a rescue operation.

When did he go missing? William disappeared from the balcony of his grandmother's home in Benaroon Drive, Kendall, at 10:30am on September 12. Police said he disappeared in a five-minute window while playing alongside his sister.

The house where William was last seen is directly across the road from the Kendall State Forest, about 35km south of Port Macquarie. What does he look like? William has dark hair and hazel eyes and was last seen wearing a Spider-Man costume. What has the search entailed? Police, SES volunteers and members of the public have searched an area of more than 50sq km, including bushland, dams and waterways. Was he abducted? Police are treating the investigation as a search for a missing child, but have not ruled out the possibility of abduction.

Specialist police, including the sex crimes squad, have been brought in to investigate the possibility the boy was abducted.

They have formed Strike Force Rosann and are continuing to canvass local residents, as well as examine possible sightings from all over the state.

Police said they were following a lead from shop owners in Kendall who have reported that someone was asking for directions to the street where William disappeared.

"We're grateful of all the information that's been provided to us at this point in time and we are following up on all those leads of information," Superintendent Fehon said.

"We need to go through that information, collate it, analyse it and we need to substantiate or discount that information that's provided to us.

"We're still open-minded in regards to what has happened to young William.

"As I've indicated, we have no indication whether young William is out in the bush or whether other forms of human intervention have been involved.

"So again, we're appealing to any member of the public that may have known of any person or any vehicle that was to be in the vicinity of Benaroo Drive at Kendall or the township of Kendall, if they can provide that to Crime Stoppers."

Today the search area was extended to a three-kilometre radius from the grandmother's house, while trail bikes and four-wheel drives will look beyond that area.

Police divers waded through local waterways after spending the past few days searching dams on nearby properties.

"As the search continues, of course the number of volunteers have diminished, but in regards to our resources that we have here we've continued with the numbers," Superintendent Fehon said.

"We will be looking at different facets of searching as I've indicated - trail bikes, four-wheel drives - as the ground search in this area is completed we will look at the broader area in the vicinity."

Topics: missing-person, police, kendall-2439, port-macquarie-2444, lismore-2480

First posted