THE SQUIZ
One of the top cops investigating the disappearance of 3yo William Tyrrell from the Mid North Coast of NSW in 2014 yesterday said he believed the boy’s former foster mother knows where he is. Detective Sergeant Andrew Lonergan was giving evidence in court against William’s woman, who was identified only as ‘SD’. She is facing charges of lying to the state’s Crime Commission over whether she struck another child in her care. SD’s lawyers say authorities are using the case to ramp up the pressure, and their belief that she was involved in Tyrrell’s disappearance is misplaced. Lonergan didn’t disagree that the charges were designed to extract information. “Our main objective is to find out where William Tyrrell is,” he said.

BACK IT UP A BIT…
Let’s go right back… On 12 September 2014 during a visit to Kendall from Sydney, William went missing. He was dressed in a Spiderman suit as he played outside his foster grandmother’s home with his 5yo sister. SD says she left them briefly to go inside, and she recounted the moment when she said it was “too quiet” and was unable to find him. A search was mounted, and after no sign of William was found, authorities concluded he had been kidnapped. What followed was one of its biggest-ever investigations launched by NSW Police involving hundreds of people of interest. In 2016, a $1 million reward for information leading to a conviction was offered. That remains in place, but William has not been found, and no one has been charged over his disappearance. And last year, a new search of the home and surrounds turned up nothing, but authorities have made it clear that SD is the only person they’re looking at.

WHAT’S NEXT?
There are these claims that William’s foster mother and father lied to the Crime Commission to get through first… Yesterday, the court heard audio recordings from March last year of a 10yo girl screaming “no, please no” and sobbing as she was allegedly hit with a wooden spoon by SD. The recordings come from phone taps and listening devices planted by police inside the family home. The child has since been removed from their care. Note: SD and her husband also face criminal charges for allegedly assaulting the child. As for the investigation into William’s disappearance, Homicide Squad boss Danny Doherty recently said that they have “a large volume of information” and looking into all “is a protracted process… This is all for William, and if it takes time and effort to get it right, it’s worth it,” he said