A new development in the ongoing search for missing New South Wales boy William Tyrrell sparked hope this week after a Spider-Man suit was discovered near the area where he vanished.

The outfit, found at a beachside property in Dunbogan, sparked immediate speculation due to its eerie similarity to the Spider-Man costume William was wearing when he disappeared from his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall in 2014.

Dunbogan is located about 20 minutes from that property, on the state’s Mid North Coast.
A supplied image obtained Saturday 13th Sept, 2014 shows three year old boy William Tyrrell, missing from a home in Kendall NSW. (AAP IMAGE/NSW POLICE). Three year old William went missing in 2014. (Credit: AAP)
The costume has since been ruled out by police, who have now confirmed it had no link to the investigation.

Police were initially called to the scene on Monday after the discovery was made during land clearing at the property. Detectives from the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad, operating under Strike Force Rosann, took possession of the red and blue suit for forensic testing.

However, after analysis, investigators confirmed that the clothing item was not connected to the missing child. No other items of interest were found at the site.

“The suit was forensically examined by Strike Force Rosann detectives from State Crime Command’s homicide squad and has been ruled out as having any connection to the William Tyrrell investigation,” NSW Police said in a statement to NewsWire,
NSW Police search bushland at Batar Creek in NSW, Wednesday, June 27, 2018. Search teams looking for evidence in the William Tyrrell case have moved to a new area of NSW bushland, about four kilometres from where the three-year-old boy was last seen nearly four years ago. The new search area is a six-minute drive from William's foster grandmother's yard in the NSW mid-north coastal town of Kendall, where the boy vanished in September 2014. There have been numerous searches for the missing child in the years since. (Credit: AAP)
William Tyrrell was just three years old when he vanished from the front yard of his foster grandmother’s home on September 12, 2014. A famous photo taken earlier that morning, showing him grinning in a Spider-Man suit, has since become one of the most recognisable images in Australian true crime history.

Despite exhaustive police efforts, including several large-scale searches across Kendall and surrounding bushland in 2021 and 2022, no trace of William has ever been found. His disappearance remains one of the country’s most haunting mysteries.

An inquest into the case, which began in 2019 but was adjourned for further police inquiries, resumed earlier this year. A final date for the coroner’s findings is expected to be set in the coming months.

The NSW Government continues to offer a $1 million reward for information that leads to the recovery of William or an arrest related to his disappearance.