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Home / World

Is this the escape route taken by William Tyrrell's abductors three years ago?

By Candace Sutton
news.com.au·
11 Sep, 2017 09:58 PM3 mins to read

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William Tyrrell vanished from a back yard in Kendall, NSW three years ago on Tuesday. Photo / AAP

William Tyrrell vanished from a back yard in Kendall, NSW three years ago on Tuesday. Photo / AAP

Three years after William Tyrrell vanished, a dirt track near his grandmother's home has been revealed as a possible escape route for his abductors.

The track on the side of the house on Benaroon Drive in Kendall, on the NSW Mid North Coast, disappears into bush and connects with a local cemetery and a highway.

Walk 4 William advocates, who led the successful legal campaign to have his biological parents' identities revealed, have given news.com.au photographs of the "escape route".

Since then, Karlie Tyrrell and Brendan Collins have been named as William's real parents, and it was revealed he was in foster care when he was abducted.

The photographs show a worn track gradually winding into bushland.

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An aerial view on Google Earth of the street and the cemetery does not show the track.

An aerial view on Google Earth of Benaroon Drive, the cemetery and Batar Creek Road which may have been an escape route for Tyrrell's abductors.
An aerial view on Google Earth of Benaroon Drive, the cemetery and Batar Creek Road which may have been an escape route for Tyrrell's abductors.

But a Walk 4 William advocate told news.com.au that it leads to the cemetery behind Benaroon Drive and the track is drivable by a 4WD vehicle.

The advocate said that after reaching the cemetery, it was then possible to take the track by 4WD to Batar Creek Road which was a "highway", or major thoroughfare away from the area.

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On the day the three-year-old vanished from his foster carers - September 12, 2014 - a number of vehicles were seen in the street.

But Benaroon Drive was described as being a dead end with only "one way in, and one way out".

A year later, NSW Police Strike Force Rosann police examined the cars seen in the street, an old white station wagon and a dark-grey, old-model, medium-sized sedan.

Both cars were parked behind each other on the roadway between the driveways of two adjacent properties opposite the location from which William disappeared.

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"The reason we want to find out details of those two vehicles is the manner in which they were parked," Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin said.

William Tyrrell vanished three years ago and a judge said the little boy was "probably dead". Photo / AAP
William Tyrrell vanished three years ago and a judge said the little boy was "probably dead". Photo / AAP

"They were parked one behind each other but it was a dead-end street and they were parked between the driveways so that causes suspicion as to what they were doing there.
"We'd like to renew the appeal to the public, if anyone has information about those particular vehicles they provide it to CrimeStoppers."

There was also another vehicle described as a dark green/greyish coloured sedan police are interested in.

The vehicle drove past Benaroon Drive as William was riding his bike on the driveway about 9am and performed a U-turn.

After William disappeared, there were rumours that on the day he vanished a well-dressed man called into a local store in Kew asking for directions to the street William went missing from.

Further reports said that a couple in a caravan park nearby heard a child's cries on or around the day William went missing.

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News.com.au has sent questions to NSW Police regarding the allegations there is, or was, an "escape route" near the Tyrrell abduction house.

NSW Police said they would be holding a press conference on the third anniversary of William's abduction.

A NSW Supreme Court judge has said that William was "probably dead".

But advocates for Walk 4 William said they acted out of the desire for William to be found, no matter what had occurred on or after September 12, 2014.

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