The search for the remains of three-year-old William Tyrrell in the NSW mid-north coast town where the young boy disappeared in 2014 has entered its fourth day.
Diggers are searching the garden of a home in Kendall that belonged to William’s foster grandmother and where he was staying when he vanished.
The ongoing search follows two major and unrelated developments this week.
NSW Police revealed on Wednesday they’d seized a car that belonged to the foster grandmother, who has since died.
The grey Mazda was taken from a home in Gymea in Sydney’s south under a coronial order last week and is undergoing extensive forensic examination.
Also on Wednesday, William’s foster parents were charged with the unrelated assault of a different child and will face Hornsby Local Court on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the former homicide detective who was initially in charge of the case on Thursday defended his handling of the investigation.
Retired homicide detective Gary Jubelin was removed from the case after four years.
Police Commissioner Mick Fuller this week said the new investigation team had “inherited what was a bit of a mess”.
Mr Jubelin took issue with this, saying he provided monthly progress reports to his superior officers detailing everything – “what suspects I was targeting, what the future directions were”.
Mr Jubelin admitted he had formed a friendship with William’s foster parents and believed the foster mother to be “a very decent human being”.
He said he went hard when investigating the couple.
“I basically ambushed the (foster) parents and then I interrogated the (foster) parents,” he told Sydney radio 2GB on Thursday.
Mr Jubelin eliminated them as suspects after a covert operation that included placing a listening device in their car.
“At the time I was taken off the investigation … I was certainly of the belief that they were not involved,” he said.
He investigated all theories, including that William had died in an accident, but he said any theory had to be backed up with facts.
The current investigation is considering whether William might have died after falling from the balcony of the foster grandmother’s house.
Mr Jubelin said the timing of the release of the information about the foster parents during a high-profile search of the Kendall home was “a big coincidence”.
“We’ve all got to be a little bit careful,” he said.
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Malcolm Lanyon has vowed to “leave no stone unturned” and praised the “dogged determination” of investigators as they continue the search of the Kendall property, which could take weeks.
Some 30 to 40 people are helping with the search, including officers from NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police, as well as Rural Fire Service volunteers.
Police on Wednesday turned their attention to an area of bushland about a kilometre from the house where William was last seen.
A mechanical digger was used to remove the topsoil, and officers were using ground-penetrating radar and 3D cameras to analyse the ground.
An expert hydrologist and archaeologist are also on site.
There was a moment of excitement as police intensely scrutinised an item found on Wednesday afternoon – but it turned out to be nothing.
The findings of a coronial inquest into William’s disappearance, which concluded last year, are yet to be handed down.
A $1 million reward for information on the case still stands.
AAP
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