William Tyrrell’s biological father has finally come to terms with the fact that his cheeky boy is no longer with him after eight torturous and arduous years.
It’s time to put his drug use behind him for good and move on with his life, but that’s easier said than done.
William’s father, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, discusses how the constant worry about not knowing what happened to his son drove him “nearly insane” in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Australia.
In his agony, he turned to ice to dull the agony that consumed him, only to have the drug itself consume him.
He ultimately lost everything, including his cherished William, his job, and his self-respect.
However, he now feels it’s time to put the nightmare behind him and move on with his life after realizing the boy is probably dead.
He claimed that William’s shocking disappearance from his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall, on the NSW mid-north coast, turned into an eight-year ordeal while he was sitting on a fold-out bed in the living room of a friend-of-a-friend’s government-owned townhouse in western Sydney.
In order to help the father start a new, drug-free life, his brother has started a Go Fund Me campaign. However, getting to that point hasn’t been simple because the father spent the majority of his time homeless throughout his battle with addiction, and his new address is only temporary.
Since the day the police knocked on the door and announced that he was missing, he said, “I’ve been very angry and upset.”
I thought it was a joke, so I couldn’t believe it. So strange. My hands were raised in the air.
“He’s been missing from me ever since they took him,” I told the police, “and the saddest thing is that it’s already happened to me.” I already felt numb.
Following reports of drug use and domestic violence, the Department of Family and Community Services removed William from his biological mother’s home when he was nine months old.
His parents ran off with their kids to stop the government from placing them in foster care, but investigators found them a month later and rehomed William.
About two years after that, the courageous child was wearing a Spider-Man suit on the balcony of his foster-home grandmother’s when he unexpectedly vanished on September 12, 2014. He was three years’ old.
His disappearance led to one of Australia’s largest manhunts, which was the focus of numerous inquests.
His biological parents as well as his foster parents have been extensively questioned over the years, and the Kendall house as well as the nearby bushland have frequently been combed over and dug up.
However, up to this point, all efforts have been ineffective; the little boy has never even been traced.
The boy’s biological father described how he quit his job as an excavator and turned to drugs as a coping mechanism after becoming insane from constant worry about whether William was alive or not.
“I wanted to believe that he would be home in the next five or ten minutes; that’s all that kept going through my head.”
‘I thought he’d found in ten minutes, or in 20 minutes hopefully he’ll be found.’
The father didn’t want to end his life, but he lost his drive – his zest for life was gone, and he felt as though he had nothing to lose. Methamphetamine took the pain away, even if only temporarily.
He couch surfed with friends, but (aside from a stint in jail for drug possession) he ultimately opted to sleep on the streets as an addict – waiting for the day police would contact him to say they found William.
But that day never came, and he began to realise it probably never would.
‘I thought he’d be found in one day, and then in two days, and the days just kept going and going, right up until seven years – it drove me mad and I’m still that same situation.’
‘It it still hasn’t changed – we still don’t know, so I can’t really keep living that way.’
He was so stressed and anxious when detectives renewed the search for William earlier this year that he cried.
Forensics tore up half of Kendall looking for a body, a bone fragment, or even a thread of his Spider-Man suit. Nothing was found.
The father hushedly replied, “No,” when asked if he believed William was still alive.
He took the decision to enter rehab, stop using drugs, and is now determined—if not entirely unnerved—to find employment and begin over.
The 39-year-old can only stay at his current address until the end of July, but he would like to settle down before being evicted.
I must invest my time in getting well and returning to normalcy.
I’m anxious, but I choose to do this. The street and being surrounded by my mother and brother are much nicer than this.
I’m not sure why, but I felt a little awful about the Go Fund Me. didn’t want to ask for assistance.
On Sunday, William would become 11 years old.
The father stated, “I’ve thought that for a long time,” adding that he had no idea what his son might be doing or interested in now.
“You’d hope he was living, taking in fresh air, and conversing, but I really don’t know,” said the speaker.