William, who has been missing since September 12, 2014, would be aged eight if alive today. Photo / News Corp Australia
William, who has been missing since September 12, 2014, would be aged eight if alive today. Photo / News Corp Australia
After five weeks of evidence, dozens of witnesses and two separate courthouses, the inquest into the disappearance of NSW toddler William Tyrrell was brought to a standstill.
"I'm 100 per cent sure it was William in the back of the car," Ronald Chapman said this week.
"No doubt."
The 80-year-old Kendall local's testimony was the most compelling to come before the inquest which has been plagued by extensive delays and will now not resume for seven months, reports News.com.au.
Next month marks five years since three-year-old William vanished from the yard of his foster grandmother's house in Kendall on the NSW mid north coast on September 12, 2014.
Mr Chapman was formally interviewed by police, who electronically recorded his witness statement and a property walk-through, on April 4 in 2017 — a gap of 935 days.
William disappeared from 48 Benaroon Drive while wearing his red and blue Spider-Man suit.
Mr Chapman lives 1.3 kilometres down the road, or an estimated three-minute direct drive.
In the walk-through, Mr Chapman told Detective Sergeant Laura Beacroft he had been sitting in his "favourite chair at his favourite table" inside his Laurel St home when he heard a noise.
It sounded like the lid of his neighbour's mailbox being closed.
"I thought that it was the postman," he said.
Mr Chapman gave further evidence at the inquest on August 28, 2019, Photo / News Corp Australia
William's foster mother previously told the inquest she estimates he disappeared at 10.30am, and called triple-0 at 10.56am to report him missing.
Mr Chapman said he noticed the clock in his lounge room read 10.45am as he walked outside.
He looked up and saw a woman driving "so close to the edge of the drain" and loose gravel.
A second vehicle, being driven by a man, followed "a couple of seconds" later.
"I just thought it was a hoon … showing off or whatever," Mr Chapman said in the video.
Detective Beacroft added: "He's indicated that he saw the driver's side wheels of that (second) vehicle almost on the grass as it took the corner on the wrong side of the road".
When he got in the stand at the NSW Coroners Court in Lidcombe, Mr Chapman was asked more about the first car which he had described as an "old model, box-type" four-wheel drive.
Detective Beacroft this month said she didn't believe Mr Chapman was making up the story.
Laurel St links to Benaroon Drive via Batar Creek Rd.
William Tyrrell had a difficult life even before he was taken by persons unknown. Photo / News Corp Australia
She told the inquest Mr Chapman believed the car — and the one following it — may have been driving in convoy but could have just been heading in the same direction at the same time.
Further investigations revealed that on the same morning, a mother and her two children were visiting a resident across the road and one of the children, a boy, had a Spider-Man suit, she said.
However, Detective Beacroft said the child Mr Chapman saw in the back seat of the car that afternoon was not the same boy who had visited the street.
"From the information provided by that child's mother … it was not that child Mr Chapman saw," she said.
Mr Craddock made a plea after Mr Chapman's evidence for anyone with more information.
"If there is a lady out there who was driving ... with a child in the car, we want that person to come forward," he said.
While Mr Craddock is among those looking forward, others want to turn and look at the past.
Lawyer Peter O'Brien, acting at the inquest for repairman Bill Spedding, on August 16 said police officers in charge of the investigation should be called to testify, including about why it took until 2018 for a forensic search of the Kendall area.
Mr O'Brien said this included former NSW homicide detective Gary Jubelin who was leading the investigation into William's disappearance until he was stood down from duties and quit.
"I've made it clear that I'm available to give evidence if required," the detective told reporters outside Taree courthouse earlier this month.
William was playing with dice in his hand on the verandah in the last photos of him. Photo / Supplied
Mr O'Brien said it had been a "frustrating investigation" for William's loved ones and the community — including Mr Spedding — who are entitled to know "whether it could have been done better".
"It might be that nothing can be said that's gone wrong … we don't know the answer," he said.
"There are so many question marks in this matter but this investigation, for the fact that it's ongoing, doesn't mean that it shouldn't be looked at for this point."
Mr Spedding this week gave evidence that the police investigation and media interest in him and his wife over the years had a "devastating impact" on his life.
But Mr Craddock said it "wasn't appropriate" to investigate an ongoing investigation.
"The focus of the inquest at this stage is on seeking to gather evidence which may produce an answer to the question — What has become of William?," he said.
"In due course, it may be that there comes a time when it may be appropriate to look at the investigation and the decisions made and whether there were adequate resources assigned and all of those sorts of things but that is really for the future."
Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame agreed, saying it wasn't time for a "piecemeal review".
"My focus is at this point and must remain on finding out what has happened to William," she said earlier this month.
"That is my primary focus and my greatest hope.
"It is not the time for trying to discover on a piecemeal basis if the investigation went down a wrong track at any time ... because we are still investigating which tracks are possible."
