“Did you find William Tyrrell’s body there?” For the first time, secret tapes are played in court that show how the boy’s foster mother responded to a clear question

William Tyrrell’s foster mother was asked point-blank if she had found the toddler under the house where he disappeared “under the porch in the bracken” the morning he disappeared.

The foster mother was asked direct questions about “what she did with William’s body” during an interrogation by the NSW Crime Commission – a secretive government body – in 2021.

A video of the foster mother’s secret testimony was played in open court for the first time Thursday as part of an investigation into the boy’s disappearance and suspected death.

The foster mother, who cannot be legally identified, was also asked in the video why she did not call Triple-0 – or the foster father – when she first realized the then three-year-old child was missing on September 12. 2014.

“I thought maybe William had run away and maybe the foster father had seen him on the way and picked him up,” she said.

During the first half of the star room interrogation, the foster mother repeatedly said – more than fifty times – “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember.”

William Tyrrell’s foster mother (right) was asked point-blank if she found him under the house the day he disappeared. She is seen wearing a ‘Where’s William’ ribbon

The foster mother was asked in an interview with the NSW Crime Commission whether she had found William in the tree ferns under the verandah of her mother’s home.

In the video, Sophie Callan, who is assisting the NSW Crime Commission, can be heard asking the foster mother why she did not check the veranda of the Kendall home on the NSW Mid North Coast when William went missing.

She replies, “It never occurred to me to look on the porch.”

Mrs Callan then asks: ‘In various statements about that, the clearest story is that you walked through the crime scene (when you said you were) looking for William outside the house, you looked under the veranda, in the ferns.

“Did you find him there?” she asked.

The foster mother replied, “No.”

The foster mother was also asked about discrepancies in one of her stories that she was outside on the porch when William disappeared, and the version in which nine people, including her siblings, said she had been inside having tea when he disappeared.

Mrs Callan asked: ‘Do you accept that it is possible that you were inside making tea when William disappeared?’

Foster mother: ‘I don’t know… yes, that’s possible.’

Police search the Kendall home in 2021 around the time the foster mother and father were questioned by the NSW Crime Commission

At the start of the hearing, NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes was told: ‘You have no right to remain silent.

‘He told her she had no right to refuse to answer questions, and that if she gave a false answer she could be jailed for up to five years.

“Our main goal is to find William’s body and have it buried respectfully, to accept that he is gone and will not come back,” the commissioner told her.

“We all accept that you loved William and would not have deliberately harmed him.

‘We all accept that accidents can happen and that even the most organized people… can be forced to make quick decisions.

“If that’s what happened the day William went missing, then this is your chance to explain it safely and privately.”

Both the foster mother and father were later charged with lying to the NSW Crime Commission, and both were acquitted.

The foster mother was also asked: ‘Have you found his body and do you realize that he is deceased and that there is no point in calling the emergency services?’

Another question asked of the foster mother was, “Let me imagine what happened that day when William was walking around on that porch and fell over and it was no one’s fault.”

The inquest into William’s disappearance showed that everyone wants to be able to ‘accept that he is gone and will not come back’

Each of the questions was accompanied by the foster mother’s steadfast denial that she had any knowledge of Tyrrell’s disappearance, injury, disappearance and death.

William Tyrrell disappeared as a three-year-old and has not been seen since September 12, 2014, making the case Australia’s most notorious missing person case.

During the Crime Commission hearing, it had been suggested to the foster mother that she ‘may have dumped William’s body near a riding school’.

Ms Callan asked the foster mother: ‘Have you taken his body down (to the riding school in Kendall, on the NSW Mid North Coast)?’

SD replied: ‘No’.

SD was then asked, “Did you decide to resolve the situation that was beyond repair?” and ‘you decided to resolve the situation and hide his body rather than let your (the foster mother’s) mother… take responsibility’.

SD denied both statements. They involved William Tyrrell’s foster grandmother, who owned the house from which he disappeared and has since died.

Mrs. Callan then told the foster mother that the foster mother had found William’s body “and you put his body in your mother’s car, and that’s why you drove the car (to Kendall’s nearby riding school) that day?”

Ms Callan then said: ‘To be clear, there is no suggestion that you injured him or caused his death, only that you moved his body.’

The foster mother denied Ms. Callen’s allegations: “No, I didn’t do that.”

William Tyrrell was last seen at his grandmother’s home in Kendall (above) on the NSW Mid North Coast in 2014 and has not been seen since

One of the last photos of William Tyrrell, taken on the porch of the Kendall home the morning he disappeared without a trace

The Crime Commission’s questioning of both foster parents over William’s case in 2021 took place just before police renewed their efforts to find the missing boy’s remains.

The inquest is currently investigating police’s theory that William Tyrell’s foster mother buried his body in bushland after he fell from a balcony and died the morning he disappeared.

Counsel assisting the inquest, Gerard Craddock SC, told the inquest at its reopening on Monday that the police theory was that ‘William must have died [his foster grandmother’s home at] 48 Benaroon Drive [in Kendall].

“The theory…that the police assert is that they must have quickly come to the conclusion that if William’s accidental death was discovered, she could lose ‘Lindsay’.”

Lindsay – not her real name, which cannot be revealed for legal reasons – was another foster child in the care of the foster mother at the time, who also cannot be named.

‘The police claim that in that state of mind, [the foster mother] put William in her mother’s car,” Mr Craddock said.

‘After warning [a neighbour] until the disappearance of William, [she] drove her mother’s car to Batar Creek Road and placed William’s body somewhere in the brush.”

Mr Craddock has said the area around Batar Creek Road was extensively searched by police, who did not believe any trace of William remained there.

He also said the search for William following his disappearance – involving police, fire brigades, cadaver dogs, chainsaws and hydraulic equipment – ​​meant the little boy was not simply lost in the search area.

“William could not travel outside the area of ​​the intensive search under his own power,” he said.

‘The conclusion that there must have been human intervention.

“It is undisputed that no eyewitness can provide an account of how he left the confines of 48 Benaroon Drive.”

The inquest, which began in 2019 but has been plagued by lengthy delays, has now entered its final block of hearings and will be held this week and in the week before Christmas.

William’s disappearance has become one of Australia’s most notorious missing persons cases.

The inquest before Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame – which investigated William’s disappearance and suspected death – was postponed last year as prosecutors weighed charges against the boy’s foster mother.

Police presented a brief to the Director of Public Prosecutions recommending that William’s foster mother be charged with perverting the course of justice and disturbing a corpse.

William’s foster father was also cleared of five charges of lying to the NSW Crime Commission.

The couple has denied any wrongdoing or the disposal of his corpse.