Cases that remain open for such a significant period of time almost never result in concrete answers being uncovered, crime scene reconstruction expert Scott Roder told news.com.au.
Even if investigators found half of William’s remains, the odds were stacked against them determining when and how he was killed, said Mr Roder, who hosts the Crime Scene Time Machine
podcast.
Even if they find the bones, and identify them as this child, there’s a very low percentage chance of them being able to determine his manner of death,” he said.
“They’re certainly not at this point in time going to be able to do any sort of toxicology or skin tissue exam or anything like that. There’s going to be no trace evidence.”
“Unless there’s something on the bones that is found that can be
interpreted as a specific cause of death, the chance of being able to determine the manner of death, or even compile evidence, is pretty slim.”
“Trying to find physical evidence after seven years is very hard.”
“If you took a marble and broke that into seven pieces, you could be looking for something that small,” he said.
Given William was just three when he went missing, his skull at the time was still in four pieces and relatively “flexible and pliable”, meaning they would have more easily detached and spread.
The chin bone and the hip and femur bones might be slightly easier to locate, Mr Roder said.
“Because it’s dense bushland, you can’t really dig too deep because of all the roots,” he said
“Maybe there’s evidence that he was dragged off into that bushland.”
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