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Mercury
20-05-2025
- Mercury
William Tyrrell person of interest Frank Abbott allegedly linked to a second unsolved murder
A convicted child abuser has allegedly been linked to a second unsolved murder victim by evidence tendered to the William Tyrrell inquest – but police have not contacted witnesses to find out more. yesterday revealed NSW Police Force detectives never contacted the family of another murder victim to say new evidence had also come to light at the inquest linking her death to the same sex offender. The allegations about the second victim are contained in a 2019 witness statement tendered to the inquest and released to the Witness: William Tyrrell podcast by the Coroner's Court of NSW. Its full contents have not been made public before now. The witness, Iris Northam, said she was told her evidence would be passed on to the Unsolved Homicide Team but five years later she has heard nothing. 'I don't know whether they said anything or just completely forgot about it,' Ms Northam said. Another witness named in her statement as having allegedly seen this murder victim at the house of the same convicted offender has also not been contacted by the police. That sex offender, Frank Abbott, was identified as a 'person of interest' by police investigating William's disappearance in September 2014, though he has denied any involvement. Abbott is currently in prison for sexually assaulting two girls and a boy and was previously found not guilty of murdering 17-year-old Helen Harrison. He has not responded to written questions about alleged links to the second murder victim, 38-year-old mum-of-three Margaret Cox, and he was never questioned at the William Tyrrell inquest. We are not suggesting these new allegations are true, just that they were tendered in evidence at the inquest and have not been followed up by the police. Margaret was last seen in Taree, on the NSW Mid North Coast, on the night of Thursday 19 December 1996. Her body was found two days later in the nearby Manning River. Forensic examination revealed she had been sexually assaulted. DNA from four people was found on Margaret's underwear, though only three of those people could be identified – none of whom was Abbott. An inquest later found the cause of Margaret's death 'was blunt force injuries to her head, inflicted on her by person or persons unknown'. Margaret Cox was last seen on Thursday 19 December 1996 near the Big Oyster service station on the Pacific Hwy about midnight. Ms Cox's body was found the following weekend. Murdered woman Margaret Cox, whose body was found floating in Manning River, Taree district. Mrs Northam said she first met Abbott around 1989 when he started work at a scrapyard she ran with her husband Ainsley in Taree. About 18 months later Abbott was arrested for Helen's murder and subsequently acquitted, after which they remained friends. The morning after Margaret's body was discovered, Mrs Northam and her husband met Abbott who had 'about 7-8 gouge marks on the top part of his lower arm', according to her witness statement. 'They looked to be a couple of days old as they had a kind of festy look that wounds get before they start to heal.' Abbott said the cuts were caused by oysters, according to Mrs Northam's statement, 'however I remember thinking that the marks on his arm really didn't match what he was telling us.' Frank Abbott in 1994. Picture: Dean Sewell/SMH Frank Abbott, then 79, in June of 2014. Abbott is a person of interest in the disappearance of William Tyrrell. Her statement also names a second potential witness, Noel Sonter, as saying 'that he had seen the Cox woman at Frank's house just prior to her murder. 'Noel said that he remembered the woman as she had a bandage on one arm and when he saw the photo of her in the paper after her murder, he recognised that it was the same person'. We contacted Noel Sonter and spoke to his wife Ute, who confirmed he claimed to have seen a woman at Abbott's house with a bandage or similar on her arm. Mr Sonter, who is getting older and no longer up to being interviewed, did not remember who the woman was, his wife said. We spoke to the former detective who led the initial investigation into Margaret's death and a retired nurse who treated her in hospital shortly before her murder. Both said Margaret was released on the day of her disappearance, or shortly before, with a bandage on her arm. Mrs Sonter confirmed no one from the police had contacted them about Abbott, Margaret or Mrs Northam's witness statement. 'We've all said all along that the police never investigated Frank (Abbott) enough,' Mrs Sonter told us. Asked why, she said, 'There was just something about Frank. I didn't like him and I never liked him. It was just creepy … He'd brush up against you. 'I tried to stay away from him.' Iris Northam has come forward as a witness. Picture: Dan Box/ Ms Northam's 2019 witness statement also said her husband and Mr Sonter did try to tell police about Abbott in the days after Margaret was murdered but were told, 'Oh no, we've got someone for that.' No one was ever charged over Margaret's murder. Ms Northam's husband Ainsley is also getting older and no longer able to be interviewed. Abbott himself has declined to answer questions, as has the Coroner's Court of NSW, which is investigating the disappearance of William Tyrrell. The NSW Police Force also declined to answer questions, other than saying Margaret Cox's murder is 'with the Unsolved Homicide Team who are also aware of the Helen Harrison matter'. In an emailed statement, the force said, 'any information that is identified relating to a homicide is assessed and relevant inquiries conducted'. Originally published as William Tyrrell person of interest Frank Abbott allegedly linked to a second unsolved murder
Mercury
17-05-2025
- Mercury
William Tyrrell case: Witness podcast reveals new information in toddler's disappearance
Don't miss out on the headlines from Celebrity Life. Followed categories will be added to My News. Shock new details are about to come to light in the case of missing boy William Tyrrell – a case that has gripped Australia and left the public demanding answers. In an interview with the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About, journalists Dan Box and Nina Young reveal groundbreaking information they've uncovered during their lengthy investigation into Tyrrell's disappearance. 'We've found new witnesses, we found some potential connections between this person of interest and some other unsolved cases on the New South Wales mid North Coast that are not William Tyrrell,' Young told Something To Talk About. Box and Young uncovered some 'utterly shocking' information that has never been reported before. 'What struck me throughout, is the evidence we've uncovered, a lot of it was known to police or could have been known to the police if they went asking questions. And time and time again, it seems that they haven't,' Box said. William Tyrrell remains missing without a trace. Picture: News Corp Australia Listen to an interview with the hosts of Witness: William Tyrrell on the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About: The investigative reporters have been covering the three-year-old boy's disappearance since he vanished from his foster grandmother's backyard wearing a Spider-Man suit on 12 September 2014. In October, they launched the chart-topping podcast Witness: William Tyrrell, revealing which questions are still needing to be answered. Four new episodes of the podcast will be released on Monday. Along the way, they've uncovered dark and deeply confronting material, adding to the heavy personal toll. 'It's a darkness that I never expected to [find],' Box said. 'I really struggle with the transition from work to family, and I'm not very good at it. 'Most of my work is murder at the moment: writing scripts, writing articles … so when you're working from home then flip from that to dinner time, it's rolling chaos. 'It does affect your sleep. Nina's had dreams about William Tyrrell. I've got to the point where before I go to sleep, I tell myself, don't think about him, 'cause I won't go to sleep otherwise.' The three-year-old boy vanished from his foster grandmother's backyard in 2014. Picture: Supplied The podcast Witness: William Tyrrell explores the disappearance of the toddler. Picture: Supplied Listen to an interview with the hosts of Witness: William Tyrrell on the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About: Tyrrell's disappearance shocked the nation, destroyed lives and ended careers, and Box reveals that after 20 years of crime reporting, the case has also broken him. Box said: 'It takes a toll. I don't know if I'll do crime reporting again after this.' For Box and Young, it's not just about bringing William home, it's about finding answers to the hundreds of unsolved homicides across New South Wales. 'There are hundreds and hundreds of families whose loved ones were murdered or went missing and have no answers,' Box said. 'I would love for there to be a proper investigation, firstly, into what went wrong with the William Tyrrell investigation, but also an investigation into what went wrong with all these other unsolved homicides. Because the closer you look at them, you realise that things were done wrong in a lot of them.' For more from Stellar and the podcast, Something To Talk About, click here. Listen to the four new episodes of Witness: William Tyrrell, out this week.
