Never before seen images of William Tyrrell show heartbreaking final moments
Never-before-seen footage has been released of missing boy, William Tyrrell, which shows him in a happy moment with his family the night before he disappeared from his grandmother’s house.
The NSW deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame has released CCTV stills of William and his family grabbing a bite to eat from a McDonald’s on September, 11 2014 - just a day before he vanished.
At the time, William, his sister and foster parents were travelling up from Sydney to stay at William's foster grandmother's home in Kendall, on the state's north coast.
The security footage shows the family pop into Heatherbrae McDonalds which is a well known rest stop for travellers near Newcastle.
They stopped at around 6:26 PM.
The family leave about 6.40 pm and detectives have noted a vehicle “appears to be parked in the vicinity of the top middle of the CCTV frame”.
The footage however is seemingly unremarkable with the family ordering food and sitting down to eat while William’s foster dad collected napkins and straws.
The police noted the clan left “with both William Tyrrell and the female foster carer stopping to place something in the bin.”
“William then runs off to catch up to the male foster carer”.
The foster mother of William told an inquest he was playing “tiger” in his grandma’s yard when he went quiet.
He has never been seen since and police suspect the child was abducted by a stranger.
No arrests have been made.
The new footage released in response to a media application and there were pictures also released which belonged to one of the first officers involved in the case.
Senior constable Wendy Hudson revealed the details of the initial search for William and his family’s reaction.
Ms Hudson said she took the family to a nearby beach, in plain clothes, which people looked for William on September 16.
“We travelled a distance up the beach before stopping. We searched for shells with (William's sister),” Ms Hudson said.
“(The) male foster carer became upset and stood down near the water. I played in the sand with (William's sister) and we built a sand castle.
“Female foster carer joined us after spending some time with male foster carer, male foster carer then joined us placing a large stick into our sand castle.”
The Tyrrell inquest reopens for public hearings in March next year.
Scroll through the gallery to see the CCTV footage released of William Tyrrell just a day before he went missing.