Nine years, no answers in Australia’s most high-profile disappearance: the search for justice for William Tyrrell

William Tyrrell was three years old when he disappeared in 2014 from a home in Kendall, NSW. Since his disappearance, an intense focus has been put on his foster mother and father, NSW police officers have been admonished by the court of appeal, and there have been multiple searches for his remains. Photograph: NSW police

In early spring 2014, three-year old William Tyrrell went missing from a house in Kendall, a seemingly typical Australian regional town on the mid-north coast of New South Wales.

He has not been seen since, and yet everyone in Australia seems to know what he looks like: William is the boy with light brown hair, with wide eyes, his mouth agape as if mid-roar, who wears a Spiderman suit.