The mystery of William Tyrrell’s 2014 disappearance has faced another shocking twist, after it was recently revealed he was reported missing two years earlier.
Last week, William’s paternal biological grandmother, Natalie Collins, admitted she had arranged for William to go into hiding, along with his biological parents, after a court ordered he be removed from their care.
“I hid them for three months after I knew [state government officials] were going to take William … I arranged it all,” Natalie told news.com.au’s podcast Witness: William Tyrrell.
William was seven months old when the order came through in 2012.
The decision was made after the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) had raised concerns about domestic violence and substance abuse within the family.
However, when the authorities went to collect William, he and his biological parents Brendan Collins and Karlie Tyrrell had vanished. They were eventually found and William was placed with a foster family in Sydney.
William’s foster parents, who legally cannot be named, reported the then-three-year-old boy missing on September 12, 2014.
At the time, they were visiting William’s foster grandmother in Kendall on the NSW Mid North Coast.
The foster parents have repeatedly denied any knowledge or involvement in William’s disappearance. No-one has been charged.
Natalie said the court’s decision to take William away has irreparably broken her family.
“I should have taken him myself … then no-one would have been able to take him off me. That’s what I should have done,” she revealed.
“These [FACS] people didn’t do their job properly. Because this shouldn’t happen these days with foster care children.
“What it’s done to my family from day one has stuffed all of us up. I’ve got one son in rehab, I’ve got one in jail and my family has been stuffed up. I lost my son and I lost myself on the way.”
A state government officer who was present when William was taken from his mother also spoke to the podcast. He says he is still affected by William’s disappearance.
“We take kids off … families all the time,” the officer said.
“You do it. It is part of the job. The thing I get upset about is … we took William off Karlie to protect him. I can still see myself walking into that bloody unit … And there was William, on the floor. And I just think … did we do the right thing? Would he still be alive? Maybe.”
An inquest into William’s suspected death is due to resume next month.
New outback sighting
Reported sightings of William in the months and years after his disappearance were also revealed on the podcast, including near Uluru, Central New South Wales and in Queensland.
Potential witness Lois Barry believed she saw William travelling with a group of four adults and several young children while on a trip to Uluru in 2015.
Lois said she crossed paths with the group twice – at a petrol station in Marla, SA and at a campsite later that night.
She said she recognised one of the children from media reports of William’s disappearance.
Another witness claimed to have seen a boy matching William’s description on a bus trip from Albury to Sydney.
The witnesses also alleged there was a pattern of police failing to respond to their tips, including an alleged sighting of a car and driver that had been identified by police prior.
However former NSW deputy police commissioner Mick Willing rejected those claims.