60 Minutes reveals new evidence in William Tyrell case.

“I couldn’t see him, I couldn’t hear him,” William Tyrell’s mother said, a sob catching in her throat as she remembers the moment she realised her son was missing.

He was out of his mother’s sight for only a moment. The last noise she heard him make was a tiger’s roar as he disappeared around the side of his grandmother’s house.

Someone, somewhere knows what happens next. But his family and the rest of Australia are in the dark.

On tonight’s 60 Minutes, William Tyrell‘s mother and father revealed the pain of not knowing what happened to their little boy, and their belief that somebody, somewhere, must know the truth.

“It was – the world, you know, it’s like the world just came to a screaming halt. There was no wind, there were no birds, there was no movement, there was nothing. And I’m looking out around this garden, I’m thinking, ‘Where are you?’ And there was nothing,” William’s mother said.

In a brief moment of hope, William’s mother imagined he might have caught a glimpse of his father walking through the front gate of the house.

“I remember saying, “Can you can you see Daddy’s car?” And there was no answer, there was no answer…”

After fifteen minutes of searching, it became clear that it was time to call the police.

“Yeah hi. My son is missing. He’s three and a half,” his mother said in the triple 0 call that has been released by police.

“He was just playing around here, we heard him, and then we heard nothing. He’d be about 2½ feet. He’s wearing a Spider-Man outfit. He’s got dark, sandy coloured hair, it’s short, and he’s got really big, browny-green coloured eyes. He has got a freckle on the top of his head. When you part the hair on the left hand side, you will see a freckle on the top of his head.”

William’s mother reflected on this call in the 60 Minutes episode.

“I said right at the beginning, ‘Somebody has taken William.’ It was absolutely screaming at me,” William’s mother says of her first conversation with emergency services.

When Detective Vanessa Partridge arrived at the scene that evening, she knew immediately something wasn’t right.

“I just had this feeling that things weren’t right. There’s… There’s something wrong. William’s not missing,” she told 60 Minutes. 

A week later, Detective Partridge’s worst fears were confirmed. After extensive searches of the surrounding area, William was nowhere to be found – and William’s parents were forced to make the heartbreaking decision to return to their family home without their son.

“It was heart-wrenching,” William’s mother said.

“When I go into his room and I’d say goodnight to him, and I’d lie in his bed… and I’d just pray that he wasn’t scared, that somebody was loving him. Because it’s just, you can’t take him.”

For William’s parents, there has been no break in the constant, crippling worry.

“We imagine what was going through his head when that was happening – he would have been beside himself, he would have been petrified,” William’s mother said.

“That tears my heart out,” said his father.

The police have interviewed more than one thousand people in connection with William’s disappearance. They have created over 5000 documents related to the case and filed in excess of 1400 information reports.

And yet, a year after his disappearance, there is still no trace of William.

Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin admits the police are not happy with the way the case has turned out.

“We’re making progress, but I have to say that we’re not comfortable with the fact that 12 months down the track and we still haven’t found out what’s happened to William,” Jubelin told 60 Minutes host Michael Usher.

While persons of interest, including local repairman Bill Spedding, have been flagged in the case, there have been no concrete breakthroughs so far.

What the police do have are suspicions –  about how William was plucked from under the nose of his watchful family, and about how a stranger might have lured him away without a struggle.

The idea that an abductor ran into the yard and grabbed the little boy with his parents and grandparents only metres away has long been a sticking point for investigators, who view it as too risky a manoeuvre.

“You don’t know who’s looking out, you don’t know who’s looking there,” Jubelin told Usher.

“To do that, I think it’s very audacious, but unlikely, extremely unlikely.”

Instead, Jubelin suspects William ran down the driveway of his own accord in anticipation of his father’s arrival.

“I can understand how a three-year-old might think Dad’s coming home, waiting for him, knowing he was due home soon, then coming down the roadway and looking for him. Then if someone who has the propensity to commit an evil act like this decides, ‘This is a situation I’m gonna take advantage of,’ and that’s why we call it an opportunistic situation, opportunistic crime.”

Jubelin also believes William’s Spiderman suit may have played a part in his disappearance.

“I think the Spider-Man suit plays a part in this, in that… any stranger could come up and you could get a rapport happening with William straight away by calling him Spider-Man,” he said.

Tonight, 60 Minutes was able to reveal new evidence previously unreleased to the public.

On the morning of William’s disappearance, William’s mother saw two parked cars in the street, parked strangely with the driver’s side window down. Suspiciously, on acreage lots, the cars were not parked in a driveway but between driveways, which were about 100 metres apart.

“There’s no logical explanation as to why they would park in the location they were,” Jubelin said. “And they were very close to each other. Given that it’s a dead-end street, that raises our curiosity.”

With so few leads to go on, the best William’s family can do is continue to appeal to the public for information.

“The person who took William might have a family of their own,” William’s mother said.

“They’ve got friends. I don’t understand how someone who may think, even if it’s, like, 50% chance this person may have done something to this little boy… How on earth can they, in all good conscience, sit there and condone that person taking a child? Defenceless, helpless, three-year-old child. How on earth…?”

“I can’t even fathom what an excuse would be not to pass this information on,” Detective Inspector Jubelin added.

“If you’re protecting someone that you think is involved in this, you’re as bad as the person involved in it.”

When asked whether he believed William Tyrell was alive or dead, Detective Inspector Jubelin was clear.

“We don’t close our minds to any possibility.”

“There’s always a chance,” William’s father agrees. “I’ve tried to hold onto that.”

The police are encouraging anyone who may have information relating to the disappearance of William Tyrell to come forward. Anyone who believes they may have any information on William’s disappearance should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.