Despite a huge manhunt, no trace of William Tyrrell has ever been found. Photo / Supplied
Despite a huge manhunt, no trace of William Tyrrell has ever been found. Photo / Supplied
William Tyrrell's foster mother made different and contradictory claims about seeing cars in the street from which the boy vanished and was asked by police if she was making up the stories, an inquest has heard.
It has also been revealed that police failed to formally take a statement from William's foster father until almost a week after this disappearance.
Unusually, the foster father was videoed on a "walk-through" at the crime scene in the New South Wales town of Kendall but was not sat down to give a statement until September 18, 2014, six days later.
On the first day of hearings being held at Taree Local Court, near Kendall, one of the senior police investigators into William's disappearance told the inquest that perhaps amid all the drama police forgot to do the interview.
But Detective Sergeant Laura Beacroft said she would always take a formal statement first.
Michelle Swift, for William's birth father, asked: "Would you agree it is best practice to take the earliest possible memories in a formal statement or record of interview?"
Detective Beacroft replied: "Yes … I can only imagine in the sheer size of what was going on, perhaps it was overlooked".
Under cross-examination by Ms Swift, Detective Beacroft agreed that the foster mother had not at first told police about seeing cars in the street on the morning William disappeared.
She also agreed that no evidence had been found supporting the foster mother's car sightings and at least one neighbour was adamant there were "no cars".
The detective had said in an investigators' note that police were "unable to identify any vehicle … unable to corroborate evidence to support the female foster carers' [statement regarding the car sightings]".
The female foster carer gave a statement to police on September 14, 2014 that "does not make any reference to sighting vehicles", the inquest heard.
But on a filmed "walk-through" four days later, she recalled seeing two cars, one grey and one white with "dark tinted windows".
Police failed to formally take a statement from William's foster father until almost a week after this disappearance. Photo / Supplied
In this video, the woman stated the white vehicle was parked first in front of a telegraph pole.
But under questioning by Ms Swift, Detective Beacroft agreed an unsigned and partially completed statement by the female foster carer may have later placed the grey car in front of the white car.
This was exemplified by a recreated image of the street made and broadcast by Channel 9 in a 60 Minutes episode, which shows the grey car in front of the white vehicle.
Ms Swift asked Detective Beacroft if the female foster carer "was challenged about the two cars" by the then chief William Tyrrell investigating detective Gary Jubelin.
Ms Swift asked: "She insisted she wasn't make it up?"
Detective Beacroft replied: "That is my recollection".
In one statement, the foster mother also said she again saw the two cars at 8.55am, just before the foster father left to go into town to get a medication prescription and have a conference call
But the foster father had no recollection of any cars in the street.
The inquest heard that the foster mother's own mother, from whose house William vanished, gave a statement that "if there were cars there, that was most unusual".
Neighbour Anne-Maree Shipley was "adamant" there were no white or grey cars in the street that morning, as sighted by the foster mother between 7am and 7.30am, and possibly until just before 9am.
"Anne-Maree Shipley was very convinced the cars were not there that morning," Detective Beacroft said.
A taxi driver had seen a Holden Commodore with a box trailer and neighbours Peter and Sharelle Crabb had heard a car which sounded like ute.
But they did not hear any car doors opening or shutting, or any voices, the inquest heard.
Earlier today, it was heard that a man living on the NSW mid-north coast just streets away from where William vanished saw a boy in a Spider-Man suit in the back of a car on the morning the toddler disappeared.
Ronald Chapman — who lived in Laurel St, Kendall, about 1.6km from Benaroon Drive, where William was staying — "saw a child in the back seat … up against the passenger-side back seat window and has a recollection the child was wearing a Spider-Man outfit".
Detective Beacroft told the inquest that Mr Chapman saw what appeared to be two cars driving in tandem down his street, with the boy in a car "driven by a woman".
The car following was "driven by a man".
Detective Beacroft said 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.
