
–With AAP
1. William Tyrrell’s foster father tells inquest why toddler can’t have wandered far from his backyard.
William Tyrrell’s foster father says he held out hope in the days after he returned home from a business meeting in 2014 and his wife asked: “Is William with you?”
“Why would he be with me?” he replied.
The man, who cannot be identified, gave evidence at the NSW Coroners Court on day three of the inquest into the three-year-old’s disappearance and suspected death on the NSW mid north coast.
He was in Kendall with his wife and their two foster children, visiting the woman’s mother, when William vanished while wearing his Spiderman costume on September 12.
The man said he drove to nearby Lakewood about 9am for a strong internet connection for a conference call and planned to be home about 10.30am.
He sent a text to his wife about that time to say he’d be home in five minutes.

The foster mother called police at 10.56am to report the missing boy, estimating he'd been gone since 10.30am.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Gerard Craddock SC, on Wednesday asked why he didn't stop and talk to his wife about where she'd searched before he sprung into action.
"I had assumed in the time that I got home, if she couldn't find him, that she'd already actually done the immediate area including inside and outside the house," the man said.