Daily News Roundup

October 8, 2020

Thursday, October 8

William Tyrrell’s 10-year-old sister has made an emotional promise to find her sibling, telling an inquest into his disappearance she wants to become a detective and solve the case.

The pair were playing “tigers” on the lawn of their foster grandmother’s home at Kendall, on the NSW Mid-North Coast, when the three-year-old vanished in September 2014.

William’s sister, who cannot be named for legal reasons, recorded a message which was played at the end of a 19-month inquest into the three-year-old’s suspected abduction.

“I hope this speech makes you solve the case,” she said.

“If it doesn’t, when I am officially adult, I will be in the police force, a detective specifically, and I will find my brother and not give up until he is found.

“Please help my family, most of all me, find our precious William.”

William’s foster mother had been supervising the pair, but when she went inside to make a cup of tea, William disappeared.

Police have identified hundreds of persons of interest in the years since, but no-one has ever been charged.

William’s foster parents — who cannot be named for legal reasons — became emotional as they handed a book of photographs to Deputy State Coroner Harriet Graham as she closed the inquest at Lidcombe Coroners Court, in Sydney’s west, today.

“William was a jovial and boisterous little boy, his sense of humour and cheeky antics always made us smile,” the foster father said.

“His giggles were infectious, everyone loved being around him, including us.”

The initial search went for nine days before the foster family were forced to return home to Sydney.

“William’s empty car seat in his sister’s next to the back seat absolutely tore our hearts,” the foster mother said.

“She continued to ask where her brother was… she was deeply missing her best friend… and we had no answers.”

“Our family was living a nightmare,” she said.

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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she has not ruled out pushing back the border restrictions with NSW past the November 1 opening.

She said New South Wales health authorities have 24 hours left to trace the origins of possible community transmission cases, which were revealed yesterday.

“If the New South Wales Premier is on high alert about those cases, I’m on high alert,” she said.

“We are not ruling out anything at the moment.

“There’s another 24 hours for them to look at where those cases came from.

“Looking forward to what the Premier of NSW has got to say.

“We hope NSW gets on top of those cases very quickly.”

The borders between Queensland and New South Wales were due to open on November 1.

However, New South Wales yesterday broke its 12-day streak without a locally acquired case, when three mystery cases were confirmed.

It recorded another five locally acquired cases today.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the decision to give a 48-hour deadline to contact trace the new cases was news to her when she heard it yesterday.

“I don’t know where they got that from. Does it matter how long it takes our experts to find the links?” she said.

“Sometimes it might take them a couple of hours, sometimes it might take them a couple of days, I don’t want to put pressure on them unnecessarily, they should just be able to do their jobs.

“I also feel the Queensland Government is just being so determined and no matter what the advice is, no matter what New South Wales does … they’ve got a pre-determined position.

“I think it’s a benchmark no state our size would ever be able to meet.”

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US President Donald Trump has used his return to the Oval Office to promote the experimental cocktail of drugs he received during his treatment for COVID-19, warning China will pay a “big price for what they’ve done” to the United States.

Speaking from the White House where he has returned to work following his hospitalisation at the Walter Reed military hospital, Mr Trump said in an almost five-minute video that he was trying to get Regeneron’s REGN-COV2 given to COVID-19 patients for free.

REGN-COV2 is a highly experimental and unproven drug which was prescribed alongside two other main treatments for the President.

“I wasn’t feeling so hot, and within a very short period of time they gave me Regeneron, and other things too, but I think this was the key. It was unbelievable, I felt good immediately, I felt as good three days ago as I do now,” he said in the video shared on his Twitter account.

“I just want to say we have Regeneron, we have a very similar drug from [pharmaceutical company] Eli Lilly, and they’re coming out and we’re trying to get them on an emergency basis. I’ve authorised it.

“If you’re in a hospital and you’re feeling really bad, we’re going to work it so you can get them and can get them free. Especially if you’re a senior, we’re going to get there quick.”

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