The day William Tyrrell disappeared, a nearby resident saw a boy matching his description being driven away from the area, a NSW inquest has been told.
Ronald Chapman was outside his Laurel Street home in Kendall on September 12, 2014, when he saw two cars travelling east, a senior detective told the NSW Coroners Court on Monday.
In the back seat of the first car, driven by a woman, was a boy in a Spider-Man suit, the court heard.
William was three and wearing a Spider-Man suit when he went missing from his foster grandmother's Kendall home that same day.
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Detective Sergeant Laura Beacroft told the inquest further interviews with Mr Chapman led her to believe he wasn't making up the possible sighting.
Laurel Street sits between Benaroon Drive, where the foster grandmother's home was, and the highway on the eastern side of Kendall.
It links to Benaroon Drive via Batar Creek Road.
The detective said while Mr Chapman believed the two cars were driving in convoy, it was possible the cars just happened to be heading in the same direction at the same time.
She said she wasn't sure if he provided a description of the person driving the second car.
The inquest was also told on Monday that more than 400 "persons-of-interest packages" were created as police tried to identify and interview every person who could have taken William.
Acknowledging "person of interest" wasn't an official term used by NSW Police and had no settled definition in policing worldwide, Det Sgt Beacroft said the threshold for nominating someone a person of interest was very low.
The inquest continues.
With AAP...
