Of all the country towns in Australia it would be hard to find one as peaceful as Kendall.

But in a home at the top of Benaroon Drive, every parent’s worst nightmare unfolded as a toddler, watched by three generations of his family, simply disappeared.

William Tyrell and his sister were chasing each other while his grandmother sat on the back deck.

His mother had ducked inside to make a cup of tea.

William, photographed on the same day wearing his Spiderman suit and drawing with crayons, was out of sight for five minutes at the most and then he was gone.

“He does seem to have just vanished without a trace, it’s totally unexplained this disappearance,” said Superintendent Paul Fehon.

“It’s baffling, but we’re not going to give up.”

For William to have been taken, somebody needed to be waiting in the street at the exact moment William may have wandered around into the front yard of the house.

They then need to have departed the scene in total silence, because not a person in the street saw or heard a thing, including William’s mother, who had a view of the front yard from the kitchen window.

Within five minutes the family raised the alarm, running to their neighbours and beginning the search.

Police arrived within 20 minutes and after two hours a full scale search was underway.

The search would continue for 11 days and turn up no clues.

Searchers say the bush was so prickly it tore holes in their overalls, meaning it would almost certainly have torn William’s Spiderman suit if he had simply walked off but not a shred of fabric was found.

“There is nothing that we haven’t looked at,” Supt. Fehon said.

“We’ve had cameras down the pipes, we’ve had cameras in the septic tanks, we’ve been in the homes in this small estate numerous times and searched every possible location but still no sign of anything.”

The sex crimes squad has now been verifying the whereabouts of known sex offenders in the region.

Supt. Fehon says his heart breaks for the family.

“There’d be nothing worse than when the family left to return home, having the rear child seat vacant, and even approaching their own home, let alone walking in to see young William’s home and all his toys.”