Sinister twist as sharp-eyed truckie reveals the ‘suspicious’ sight he spotted when William Tyrrell vanished
A truck driver has told the William Tyrrell Inquiry he saw a woman acting ‘suspiciously’ near where the toddler disappeared on the morning he vanished.
Peter Bashkurt was collecting an excavator from Batar Creek Road, a few hundred meters from the house in Kendall, a town on the NSW north coast, where the three-year-old boy was last seen.
Mr Bashkurt, who appeared via audiovisual link at the inquest in Sydney, said he called Radio 2GB and the police after William was reported missing from his foster grandmother’s home at 48 Benaroon Drive, Kendall.
When asked where he had seen the car that ‘thought you were acting suspiciously’ and driven by a woman, Mr Bashkurt said he had seen it twice, in Kendall and nearby Kew.
He described a black Toyota Camry driven by an overweight blonde woman.
But the police theory for William’s disappearance is that his foster mother allegedly drove her mother’s gray Mazda 3 that day to dispose of the boy’s body.
Mr Bashkurt told police he saw the black Toyota parked across the road at an old bus stop and that she had unnecessarily crossed the road with her car and parked too close to him.
“I don’t know what made her move from where she was. She didn’t have to come and park for me,” he said.
‘Something must have made her do that. I actually pulled away from her because she was so close that I had to back up a bit. I thought that was a bit strange.’
William’s foster mother (center, maroon jacket) was seen throwing an object from her mother’s car she was driving on the morning the toddler disappeared in 2014
Police seized the foster mother’s car the morning William disappeared in September 2014, but the gray Mazda 3 (above) does not resemble the vehicles the truck driver saw on the street that morning.
When he saw the car again in Kendall, he saw a blonde, fat woman get out and enter the town’s Op Shop.
‘Only to show up five to ten minutes later at the same location where I had agreed [his contact for collecting the excavator].
‘Why would she kill time there? What was her purpose? I have no idea.’
Mr Bashkurt’s third car sighting occurred when he was loaded onto his truck with the excavator along Batar Creek Road, where police conducted extensive searches in 2021.
He saw a double cab ‘gunmetal gray’ Tradies approaching, loaded with tools, and an early 1980s BMW model, which he told police at the time was black with a ladder on it.
But when he testified Wednesday, he said it was “dark red, maybe burgundy.”
Mr. Bashkurt said he reported the sightings because he “thought, maybe I can help, I don’t know if that black car had anything to do with it.”
The inquest is currently investigating police’s theory that William Tyrell’s foster mother buried his body in bushland after he fell from a balcony and died the morning he disappeared.
Counsel assisting the inquest, Gerard Craddock SC told the inquest at its reopening on Monday that the police theory was that ‘William must have died [his foster grandmother’s home at] 48 Benaroon Drive [in Kendall].
“The theory… the police claim that they must have quickly come to the conclusion that if William’s accidental death was discovered, they could lose ‘Lindsay’.”
Lindsay – not her real name, which cannot be revealed for legal reasons – was another foster child in the care of the foster mother at the time, who also cannot be named.
‘The police claim that in that state of mind, [the foster mother] placed William in her mother’s car,” Mr Craddock said.
‘After warning [a neighbour] until the disappearance of William, [she] drove her mother’s car to Batar Creek Road and placed William’s body somewhere in the brush.”
Mr Craddock has said the area around Batar Creek Road was extensively searched by police, who did not believe any trace of William remained there.
The latest hearings in the William Tyrrell inquiry are examining police’s theory that William fell from the balcony of his grandmother’s house and that his remains were buried in bushland.
Police are searching bushland along Batar Creek Road, Kendall, where a truck driver said he saw a woman throw an object from a car on the morning William Tyrrell disappeared
He also said the search for William following his disappearance – involving police, fire brigades, cadaver dogs, chainsaws and hydraulic equipment – meant the little boy was not simply lost in the search area.
“William could not travel outside the area of the intensive search under his own power,” he said. ‘The conclusion that there must have been human intervention.
“It is undisputed that no eyewitness can provide an account of how he left the confines of 48 Benaroon Drive.”
Forensic anthropologist Dr Jennifer Menzies gave evidence that William’s skeletal remains may have survived in the bush, or could have been disintegrated by weather, rain or predation by ‘rabbits, wombats, dogs or foxes’.
Water scientist Professor Jon Olley described how he combed a local landfill and creeks in search of William, whose body he said would get snagged and caught if washed downhill.
On Tuesday, Police Intelligence Analyst Sergeant Robyn Ross testified that a mountain of tips pouring in since William’s disappearance had resulted in a list of 6,000 people.
Originally called the ‘persons of interest spreadsheet’, the identities were divided into low, medium and high risk of possible involvement in the case, and investigated by the task force.
Sergeant Ross said even after the investigation was completed, detectives would continue to accept and analyze incoming tips.
The inquest, which began in 2019 but has been plagued by lengthy delays, has now entered its final block of hearings, to be held this week and into the week before Christmas.
Taskforce commander Chief Inspector David Laidlaw (above on the search site in 2021) will not give evidence during the final and final part of the investigation
A forensic anthropologist provided evidence that William’s skeletal remains could have survived in the bush, or disintegrated by weather, rain or predation by ‘rabbits, wombats, dogs or foxes’
William’s disappearance has become one of Australia’s most notorious missing persons cases.
The inquest before Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame – which investigated William’s disappearance and suspected death – was postponed last year as prosecutors weighed charges against the boy’s foster mother.
Police presented a brief to the Director of Public Prosecutions recommending that William’s foster mother be charged with perverting the course of justice and disturbing a corpse.
Around that time, the foster parents’ attorney, Rylie Hahn, called on police to make all evidence public.
‘William’s foster mother insists she had nothing to do with his disappearance… and asks police to continue searching for William and what happened to him.’ said Mrs. Hahn.
In August this year, Ms Grahame received a letter from the DPP, outlining the status of a request for advice.
In the letter, Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling SC said NSW Police had asked her office in April to “suspend” its request for advice until the end of the final block of hearings.
In 2022, William’s foster mother was found not guilty of lying to the NSW Crime Commission.
In November last year, William’s foster father was also cleared of five charges of lying to the NSW Crime Commission.
The court was told at the time that during the Crime Commission hearing, assistant solicitor Sophie Callan SC questioned the foster mother about whether William had fallen from the balcony and she had thrown away the body.
The couple has denied any wrongdoing or the disposal of his corpse.