William Tyrrell

What happened

William Tyrrell, then aged three, was playing in the yard of his grandmother’s home on Benaroon Drive at Kendall, on the New South Wales mid-north coast, at about 10:30 a.m. on Friday, September 12, 2014, when he disappeared. He was wearing a Spider-Man outfit. The National Missing Persons profile describes him as 100 cm tall, of medium build, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Within a few short hours, hundreds of local residents and emergency service workers had combined to search the rural township, looking in forests, creeks and paddocks. According to NSW Police, the speed and coordination of that local search allowed police to form the view very quickly that William had been kidnapped. Detectives from the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad established Strike Force Rosann to investigate, and NSW Police describe it as one of the largest investigations the force has ever undertaken.

On September 12, 2016, the second anniversary of his disappearance, the NSW Government announced a $1 million reward for information that leads to William’s recovery — a reward police stressed is unique, because it does not require the charge and conviction of any person. William has never been found, and he is still missing.