Two cars seen the morning William disappeared were gone by the time family realised he was missing, coroner told

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

William Tyrrell’s foster mother has told a coroner she immediately thought “someone has taken him” when the New South Wales town of Kendall fell quiet and the three-year-old boy vanished without a trace.

“I couldn’t hear a thing. It was silent, there was no wind, there were no birds,” the woman said in Sydney on Tuesday at an inquest into William’s disappearance and suspected death in September 2014.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Gerard Craddock SC, asked: “In your experience, that little part of this little village, sound carries pretty well?”

“Oh, unbelievably. You can hear everything,” the foster carer replied.

William Tyrrell inquest: foster mother recalls seeing two cars the morning he disappeared Read more

She said she was left standing in the backyard of her mother’s house on the mid-north coast wondering why she could not hear William or see him in his red Spiderman suit because “it hasn’t been that long”. He had been playing “daddy tiger” and roaring at the two women.

“My immediate thought was somebody has taken him and he’s gone,” she said.

The woman, who cannot be identified, said she heard “like a scream” while searching for William near long grass.

“When a child hurts themselves unexpectedly, there’s a scream. And it felt like a scream. And it was quick, and it was high-pitched and it was sharp,” she said.

“I got into the bush and I thought ... maybe I imagined it, maybe it was a bird.”

In a statement made to police, the foster mother said: “William’s cry is quite distinctive when he’s distressed.”

“But it was quick, it was ... almost only like, three seconds and it sounded muffled.”

She then called triple-zero at 10.56am, estimating he had gone missing at 10.30am. The last photo of William was taken at 9.37am.

The woman, who cannot be identified, had a blue-and-red “Where’s William?” ribbon pinned to her chest as she sat in the witness box giving evidence.

On Monday, she testified having seen three cars on the street the morning he disappeared – including one white and one grey car parked between two driveways.

The woman on Tuesday said she did not realise until after William went missing that those two cars were gone.

“I know in hindsight that they weren’t there but whilst I was searching I didn’t. In the initial stage, it didn’t even occur to me that those cars weren’t there,” she said.

Neighbours quickly helped to look for William, with some posting on Facebook for assistance while others did line searches with the SES or brought in their quad bikes, the coroner heard.

Anne Maree Sharpley testified that the foster mother was “rather upset” and told her words to the effect of: “He’s either hit his head and can’t answer me or somebody’s taken him because he knows to answer me.”

Another testified her young daughter called out for William because “I thought by now he would be scared (and) maybe he would respond to a little person”.

Craddock said he expected the evidence before the inquest would establish William “was taken” and his disappearance “was the direct result of human intervention”.

The first week of hearings will explore William’s foster and biological families, when he disappeared and the action taken shortly after he went missing. Family members, neighbours and police will give evidence.

Further hearings will be held in August when persons of interest will be called to testify.

The inquest before the deputy state coroner, Harriet Grahame, continues.