Almost seven years to the day after little William Tyrrell vanished, police are set to interview a new suspect they believe could be responsible for his disappearance and death.
In this shock development, NSW Police are confident they will solve the case and finally give William’s family a much longed-for explanation for what happened to the toddler.
According to reports, this as-yet-unnamed person was previously interviewed by police but not considered a suspect or person of interest.
But a new line of inquiry, which had never been explored before, led to a breakthrough in the investigation, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Three-year-old William vanished on September 12, 2014.
“It shines a new complexion on what investigators believe happened to William,” an officer involved in the case told the newspaper.
The suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will soon be confronted with this information and interviewed by police, who are confident they are closing in on the truth about what happened.
However, William’s foster-parents have called this new development “fake news”.
In a statement issued last week, they wrote that the new claim, which they say is “unverified”, is “disrespectful and devastating to everyone who knows and loves William”.
Three-year-old William vanished on September 12, 2014 while outside his foster grandmother’s Kendall, NSW home.
He was wearing a Spider-Man suit and playing in the yard with his five-year-old sister.
After he was originally thought to have wandered off, Kendall residents and members of local emergency services searched for William in nearby forest, creeks and fields.
But police soon decided the boy had likely been abducted or was the victim of other human intervention.
Since then, there have been numerous investigations and forensic searches into William’s disappearance, with thousands of people interviewed in connection with the case, nearly 700 people of interest identified and a $1 million reward for information offered in 2016.
But no trace of him has ever been found and no suspect charged.
There have been numerous theories about what happened, including the possibility William was abducted by a local paedophile network or that he was the victim of an accident by a hit-and-run driver.
Despite not having any breakthroughs in the case, police have continued to reassure William’s family and the public that they’ve not given up hope of finding out what happened to him.
Last June, on what would have been the boy’s 10th birthday, Homicide Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said the investigation was still very much “ongoing”.
He confirmed that Strike Force Rosann, a team made up of five fulltime investigators, were continuing to work on the case.
“Detectives are reviewing all evidence obtained since William’s disappearance and have recently sought the assistance of numerous experts to ensure no stone is left unturned,” he explained.
No trace of William has ever been found and no suspect charged.
Police have also been working closely with the Deputy State Coroner, but the findings of an 18-month coronial inquest, set to be delivered in June, have been postponed.
Because of state laws, neither William’s foster or biological family can be identified, although they have made anonymous appeals for information over the years.
In March, William’s foster-grandmother passed away, without ever knowing what happened to cause him to disappear from her garden.
During the inquest, William’s foster mother said that after the little boy vanished, “our world and the contented life we knew collapsed around us”.
William’s sister was unable to tell police much about what happened to her brother the morning of his disappearance.
In the inquest however, the 10-year-old said she wants to become a police officer when she is older so she can help find her missing brother.
“The day he disappeared we lost everything. We lost my innocent brother,” she said.
“He now needs to be found so please help our family, but most of all help me find our precious William.”
