Sinister twist as sharp-eyed truckie reveals the ‘suspicious’ sight he spotted when William Tyrrell vanished

A truck driver has told the William Tyrrell inquest that he saw a woman ‘acting suspiciously’ near where the toddler disappeared on the morning he vanished.

Peter Bashkurt was picking up an excavator from Batar Creek Road, a few hundred metres from the house in the NSW mid-north coast town of Kendall where the three-year-old boy was last seen.

Appearing via audio visual link at the inquest in Sydney, Mr Bashkurt said he had called Radio 2GB and the police after William was reported missing from his foster grandmother’s home at 48 Benaroon Drive, Kendall.

Asked where he had seen the car ‘you considered acting suspiciously’ and driven by a woman, Mr Bashkurt said he saw it twice, in Kendall and nearby Kew.

He described a black Toyota Camry driven by an overweight blonde woman.

But the reported police theory for William’s disappearance is that his foster mother allegedly drove her mother’s grey Mazda 3 to dispose of the boy’s body that day.

Mr Bashkurt told police that he had seen the black Toyota parked across the road from him at an old bus stop and that she had unnecessarily crossed the road in her car and parked too closely in front of him.

‘I don’t know what triggered her to move from the location she was at. She didn’t need to come and park in front of me,’ he said. 

‘Something must have triggered her to do that. I actually pulled out from behind her, because she was so close, I had to back up a bit. That was a bit odd for me.’ 

Police seized the car driven by the foster mother on the morning that William vanished in September 2014, but the grey Mazda 3 (above) does not resemble one of the vehicles sighted by the truck driver in the street on that morning

When he saw the car again in Kendall, he saw a blonde, overweight woman exit it and go into the town’s Op Shop.

‘Then five to 10 minutes later to turn up at the same location where I was meeting [his contact for collecting the excavator]. 

‘Why would she be there killing time? What was her purpose? I have no idea.’

Mr Bashkurt’s third sighting of cars came as he exited with the excavator loaded on his truck along Batar Creek Road, where police conducted extensive searches in 2021. 

He saw an approaching ‘gunmetal grey’ tradies’ dual cab ute loaded with tools, and an early 1980s model BMW which he told police at the time was black with a ladder on top of it.

But testifying on Wednesday, he said it was ‘dark red, maybe burgundy’. 

Mr Bashkurt said he reported the sightings because he ‘thought, maybe I can help, don’t know whether that black car had anything to do with it.’

The inquest is currently investigating the police theory that William Tyrell’s foster mother buried his body in bushland after he fell from a balcony and died on the morning he vanished.

Counsel assisting the inquest, Gerard Craddock SC, told the inquest when reopening on Monday that the police theory was that ‘William must have died at [his foster grandmother’s home at] 48 Benaroon Drive [in Kendall].

‘The theory… police assert, is that she must have quickly resolved that if the accidental death of William was discovered she might lose ‘Lindsay’.’

Lindsay – not her real name, which can’t be revealed for legal reasons – was another foster child in the care of the foster mother at that time, who also can’t be named.

‘Police assert that in that frame of mind, [the foster mother] placed William in her mother’s car,’ Mr Craddock said.

‘After alerting [a neighbour] to William’s disappearance, [she] drove her mother’s car to Batar Creek Road and placed William’s body somewhere in the undergrowth.’

Mr Craddock has said the area around Batar Creek Road had been extensively searched by police who did not believe any trace of William was left there.

The latest hearings in the William Tyrrell inquest are investigating the police theory that William fell from the balcony of his grandmother’s house and his remains were buried in bushland

Police searching the bushland along Batar Creek Road, Kendall, where a truckie said he saw a woman throw an object from a car on the morning William Tyrrell disappeared

He also said that in the search for William after his disappearance – with police, fire fighters, cadaver dogs, chainsaws and hydraulic equipment – meant that the little boy had not simply just been lost in the search area.

‘William under his own steam could not travel beyond the area of the intensive search,’ he said. 

‘The conclusion there must have been human intervention.

‘It’s beyond argument that no eye eyewitness can provide an account about how he left the boundaries of 48 Benaroon Drive.’

Forensic anthropologist Dr Jennifer Menzies gave evidence that William’s skeletal remains might have survived in the bush, or could have been disintegrated by weather, rain or predation by ‘rabbits, wombats, dogs, or foxes’.

Water science expert, Professor Jon Olley, described how he combed a local rubbish dump and creeks in the search for William, whose body he said would have snagged and been caught if washed downhill.  

On Tuesday, police intelligence analyst Sergeant Robyn Ross testified that a mountain of tips which had poured in since William’s disappearance had resulted in a list of 6000 persons’ names.

Originally called the ‘persons of interest spreadsheet’, the identities were triaged into low, medium and high risk of possible involvement in the case, and investigated by the task force.

Sgt Ross said even when the inquest was concluded, detectives would continue to accept and analyse tips coming in.

The inquest, which began in 2019 but has been beset by protracted delays has now entered its final block of hearings, being held this week, and over the week before Christmas.

Task force commander Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw (above at the search site in 2021) will not give evidence at the latest and final part of the inquest

A forensic anthropologist gave evidence that William’s skeletal remains could have survived in the bush, or been 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 – examining William’s disappearance and suspected death – was delayed last year when prosecutors weighed up charges against the boy’s foster mother. 

Police handed a brief of evidence to the Director of Public Prosecutions that recommended William’s foster mother be charged with perverting the course of justice and interfering with a corpse.

Around that time, the foster parents’ solicitor Rylie Hahn called for police to disclose any evidence. 

‘William’s foster mother maintains she had nothing to do with his disappearance … and asks the police to continue to look for William and what happened to him,’ Ms Hahn said.

In August this year, Ms Grahame was handed a letter from the DPP, outlining the status of a request for advice.

In the letter, the Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling SC said that NSW Police had in April asked her office to ‘suspend’ its request for advice until the conclusion of the final block of inquest 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 acquitted of five counts of lying to the NSW Crime Commission.

The court was told at the time that during the Crime Commission hearing, counsel assisting Sophie Callan SC questioned the foster mother about whether William had fallen from the balcony and she had disposed of the body.

The couple has denied any wrongdoing or disposing of his corpse.