A man previously considered a ‘person of interest’ in the enduring mystery of missing three-year-old William Tyrrell had a shrine-like collage of media images from the suitcase at the foot of his bed, a podcast has revealed.
The unnamed man, who lives a few hundred meters from where Willman went missing at his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall on the NSW north coast, also displayed handwritten poetry and a quote from lead detective Gary Jubelin.
Mr Jubelin, who placed the man under surveillance and had his property searched, said the investigation would leave “no stone unturned”.
The man, into whom the police stopped their investigation in 2019, spoke to Podcast Witness: William Tyrrellproduced by News Ltd to mark the 10th anniversary of the toddler’s disappearance on September 12, 2014.
A police search of the man’s bush property two days after William’s disappearance uncovered small bones in barrels, but they were later determined to have come from animals.
The man initially denied they were there, but later claimed they had been planted by police.
He told the podcast that his off-the-grid lifestyle and rejection of the mainstream had made him a target of police.
“What I don’t like is the way people who are slightly different are being singled out here,” he said.
William Tyrrell, aged three, at his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall on the NSW north coast in September 2014
‘They are harassed and persecuted because they are strange. I don’t like the way people are presumed guilty until proven innocent.
‘It could have been someone driving by (who was responsible for William’s disappearance). That’s as likely as anything else, isn’t it?’
Mr Jubelin, who was dropped from the investigation in 2019 and later convicted of illegally recording conversations with another person of interest, told the NSW director of investigations in 2020 that the man should be called as a witness for an ongoing investigation.
The inquest before Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame has refused to call the man as a witness, despite Mr Jubelin describing his behavior as ‘concerning’.
This included allegations that the man had put a basketball down his pants near schoolchildren and that he had turned up at Port MAcquarie Police Station demands to speak to Mr. Jubelin.
On another occasion he is said to have gone to the same police station and sat there ‘his hands over the counter and motioned (sic) for him to be handcuffed and arrested for William’s disappearance’.
Former lead investigator Gary Jubelin has called for an inquest to summon a former ‘person of interest’ who lived in bushland just a few hundred meters from where William went missing.
Mr Jubelin said the man ‘gave exculpatory explanations’ for these alleged incidents.
The man previously mentioned the podcast to a detective and falsely accused him of involvement in William’s disappearance.
“Admit it, buddy, you brought the bastard, didn’t you?” The man said an unnamed detective asked him.
The man said his response was, “You’re kidding, aren’t you?”
He said the perpetrator should have known William was with his foster grandmother and accused NSW police of “bungling” the investigation by saying they had little cohesion or organization.
The man, nicknamed ‘Gorillas in the Mist’ by NSW Police for his unconventional lifestyle, claimed Mr Jubelin had made up ‘nonsense stories’ about William, including that he had ‘had a heart attack and they dumped him in the bush’.
Last year, the inquest into William’s disappearance and presumed death was postponed as prosecutors weighed charges against the boy’s foster mother.
Police began investigating a theory that William had died in an accidental fall from a balcony and that the foster mother had disposed of the body.
Police are seen overseeing bushland clearance in the nearby town of Kendall during a 2021 search for William
William’s foster mother and father have consistently denied the accusation and any wrongdoing.
The inquest will now resume with a new block of hearings later this year.
At a hearing on Tuesday at the NSW Coroner’s Court in Lidcombe, Ms Grahame confirmed the dates for the final block of hearings – in the weeks commencing November 4 and December 16.
The coroner will announce her findings at a later date.