Speaker 1: From The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey. This is an episode
Speaker 1: of our daily news podcast The Front. Six years after
Speaker 1: The Teacher's Pet made waves around the world, The Australian's
Speaker 1: National Chief correspondent Hedley Thomas is back with a brand
Speaker 1: new podcast investigation. This time, Headley's delving into the cold
Speaker 1: case of Bronwyn Winfield, a young mum who disappeared from
Speaker 1: an idyllic surf town on the New South Wales North
Speaker 1: Coast more than three decades ago. In today's episode, Hedley
Speaker 1: explains how this story found him and if he thinks
Speaker 1: it can be solved. In twenty eighteen, Australian journalism blew
Speaker 1: up with a huge story told in a grouping new way,
Speaker 1: an investigative podcast by The Australian's National Chief correspondent Headley Thomas.
Speaker 1: The Teacher's Pet has had more than eighty million downloads
Speaker 1: around the world and it resulted in the arrest, charge
Speaker 1: and murder conviction of its subject, Christopher Michael Dawson. He
Speaker 1: is now appealing. What almost no one knows is that
Speaker 1: at that time another big story was brewing in the background.
Speaker 1: Family members and friends of another missing woman, Bronwyn Winfield
Speaker 1: was struck by the similarities between her case and that
Speaker 1: of Lynnette Simms, whose disappearance heavily investigated in the Teacher's
Speaker 1: pet In those early days, years before Lynn's husband Chris
Speaker 1: Dawson would be brought to justice, Bromwin's loved one reached
Speaker 1: out to Hedley, urging him to look into her nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety one disappearance from Lennox head in the New South
Speaker 1: Wales Northern Rivers region, but Bromwin's name was already on
Speaker 1: Headley's radar.
Speaker 2: It was late twenty seventeen Claire I was interviewing the
Speaker 2: former Deputy State Coroner for New South Wales, Karl Milavanovitch,
Speaker 2: about the case of Chris Dawson and the allegations that
Speaker 2: he'd murdered his wife Lynn all those years ago in
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two. And while I was talking to Karl,
Speaker 2: he expressed his grave concerns about a number of cases
Speaker 2: involving missing women, women who had suddenly disappeared. They had
Speaker 2: ties to the community, they had small children. Lynn was
Speaker 2: one of those, and he mentioned the case of Bromwin Winfield.
Speaker 2: He told me that he had run an inquest into
Speaker 2: that case in two thousand and two, and he'd made
Speaker 2: a recommendation about it.
Speaker 1: Here's the moment first heard Bromwyn Winfield's name from Karl Milvanovich.
Speaker 3: I did an inquest of a lady called Bromwyn Windfield,
Speaker 3: and she had two kids as well, and she went
Speaker 3: to bed one night, and she disappeared next day. And
Speaker 3: there was some suggestion from a neighbor that.
Speaker 2: And I didn't have time then to deal with it,
Speaker 2: but I wanted to revisit it at some point, and
Speaker 2: I guess for the last six and a half years,
Speaker 2: I've been collecting bits and pieces and talking to people
Speaker 2: connected to the case, reaching out to Bromwin's family. What
Speaker 2: also happened was that as the episodes of the Teacher's
Speaker 2: Pet began unfolding from May twenty eighteen, people who were
Speaker 2: listening they were reminded of something that had just eaten
Speaker 2: away at them for some time, that there hadn't been
Speaker 2: a proper resolution of Bromwin's disappearance, the deeply suspicious circumstances
Speaker 2: surrounding it, and they urged me to get involved in it.
Speaker 1: Today, all the information and evidence headly collected over the
Speaker 1: years has made it out of the folder. He created
Speaker 1: on that day in twenty seventeen and into a new
Speaker 1: podcast investigation for The Australian. It's called Bronwyn and it
Speaker 1: is hauntingly similar to the disappearance of Lynn Dawson. Loving
Speaker 1: young moms, sudden disappearances, families left in the grief and
Speaker 1: shock of ambiguous loss.
Speaker 2: Sadly, it's the case that across Australia police forces through
Speaker 2: the eighties and nineties, and no doubt earlier, were unwilling
Speaker 2: to look at foul play as the probable reason for
Speaker 2: the sudden disappearances of loving, dedicated young mums, particularly those
Speaker 2: going through a marital breakdown, So when they disappeared, the
Speaker 2: paperwork was just filed in the bottom drawer mark missing person,
Speaker 2: not given a high priority as a possible homicide. And
Speaker 2: this is what Karl Milivanovitch identified in a number of
Speaker 2: these missing women cases that he dealt with as a
Speaker 2: senior coroner before his retirement. When he flagged that to
Speaker 2: me when I met him at his home in late
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, it was a bit of a light bulb
Speaker 2: moment because you think, gosh, how many other cases are there?
Speaker 2: This was a systemic problem. It's no longer the case today.
Speaker 2: If a young mum like Bromwin suddenly disappeared at the
Speaker 2: same time as she's newly separated from her husband, there
Speaker 2: would almost certainly be a very committed police investigation, looking
Speaker 2: at all of the unusual circumstances and making sure that
Speaker 2: witnesses were soon interviewed. But unbelievably, for the first five
Speaker 2: years after Bromwin's disappearance, the police did not even take
Speaker 2: a statement from anybody. They spoke to just a couple
Speaker 2: of neighbors. They didn't bring anyone down to the police
Speaker 2: station to take a formal statement. They didn't properly search
Speaker 2: the house or the car. It's hard to believe how
Speaker 2: poor the original investigation was.
Speaker 1: Bromwn Winfield was just thirty one years old when she
Speaker 1: disappeared from the home built by her husband John.
Speaker 2: Bromwyn was to everybody who knew her, an incredibly caring
Speaker 2: and devoted young mum. She had two daughters. They were Lauren,
Speaker 2: who was five, and Crystal ten. Bromwan was close to
Speaker 2: her brother her cousins. She'd had a difficult childhood because
Speaker 2: her own mother, when Bromwin was two, had postnatal depression
Speaker 2: and she disappeared from her own young children, and very sadly,
Speaker 2: when Bromwin herself disappeared, some twenty nine years after her
Speaker 2: own mother had disappeared, there was for the police a link.
Speaker 2: They thought, well, is she doing what her own mother
Speaker 2: had done. The circumstances were very, very different. Bromwyn was
Speaker 2: of very sound mind. She had plans, She was making plans,
Speaker 2: She had appointments the next day. The kids were going
Speaker 2: back to school on the Monday.
Speaker 1: John was Bromwin's second husband and the relationship had been
Speaker 1: strained for some time.
Speaker 2: She wanted to leave her husband John, and indeed she did.
Speaker 2: She moved into a townhouse that she couldn't really afford,
Speaker 2: but she knew she had to get away, only a
Speaker 2: short drive from the family home, the home that John
Speaker 2: had built. He's a very skilled bricklayer. He could build
Speaker 2: houses from scratch and this house was his pride and joy.
Speaker 2: She disappeared on the Sunday evening. She had very little money,
Speaker 2: She didn't have means to support herself, but she and
Speaker 2: her husband were going to be having an argument over
Speaker 2: who got the spoils from the marriage. How would that
Speaker 2: property settlement unfold? And on the evening she disappeared. Her
Speaker 2: husband had left Sydney to fly back. He'd been working
Speaker 2: in Sydney building a house, and he became aware that
Speaker 2: Bromwin had moved from the rented townhouse with the girls
Speaker 2: back into the family home, the home that she had
Speaker 2: had to leave when they separated. She was there for
Speaker 2: two nights and then on the Sunday, John arrived and
Speaker 2: that's the last time anybody ever saw or heard from Bromwin.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she tucked to her children into bed that night, Headley,
Speaker 1: how do we know that were the children interviewed by police.
Speaker 2: Bromwin's eldest daughter did talk to police several years later,
Speaker 2: but the children were also in touch with their auntie
Speaker 2: and uncle. They spoke to their neighbors and friends. And
Speaker 2: it's not disputed by John that the children were in
Speaker 2: bed that Sunday night. In fact, John readily acknowledges that
Speaker 2: he was at the house too, and according to some accounts,
Speaker 2: he acknowledged that he actually had a disagreement with Bromin
Speaker 2: on the Sunday night. But his story is that she
Speaker 2: got into a car after she had made one or
Speaker 2: two phone calls from the bedroom, a car turned up.
Speaker 2: He doesn't know what sort of car it was. He
Speaker 2: said he couldn't see the driver, doesn't know who was
Speaker 2: driving it. She got into that vehicle and left. Now,
Speaker 2: it was a very unusual thing for her to do,
Speaker 2: to go away for a break. She hadn't told her
Speaker 2: friend she was going away for any sort of break.
Speaker 2: She left behind pretty much everything, and she had very
Speaker 2: little in the way of money. That's why her family
Speaker 2: was very concerned immediately. But local police did a very
Speaker 2: poor job in the early stages. They really just treated
Speaker 2: Bromwin as if she was doing what her mother had done,
Speaker 2: that she was a runaway mom, abandoning her family, her
Speaker 2: husband and her kids. Crystal has described having heard raised
Speaker 2: voices her parents arguing, and then she must have fallen
Speaker 2: asleep because she was woken up along with Lauren, late
Speaker 2: at night, probably around ten thirty pm, maybe a little
Speaker 2: bit earlier. John left the house with his daughters and
Speaker 2: drove through the night to Sydney, arriving the next morning.
Speaker 2: The children were duet school on the Monday. It was
Speaker 2: in school holidays, and they ended up staying in Sydney
Speaker 2: for ten or eleven days. And then John, at the
Speaker 2: urging of Bromwan's brother drove back up to Lennox and
Speaker 2: did report Bromwyn missing to police.
Speaker 1: Coming up, why it's taken so long for Bromwyn Winfield's
Speaker 1: case to be taken seriously? The podcast Bronwyn is available
Speaker 1: now at bronwynpodcast dot com. That's b ro Nwyn podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. Subscribers to The Australian are the first to
Speaker 1: hear episodes of Headly Thomas's brand new investigative podcast series.
Speaker 1: Plus they get breaking news alerts direct to their phones,
Speaker 1: all our lively commentary and access to special events. Check
Speaker 1: us out at The Australian dot com dot au and
Speaker 1: we'll be back after this break. There were eleven days
Speaker 1: between Bronwyn Winfield was last seen and the time her
Speaker 1: husband John reported her missing to police. On his account,
Speaker 1: Bronwyn had said she was going away for a few
Speaker 1: days to take some time for herself. So why the delay?
Speaker 2: I think that's a very good question, Claire, And as
Speaker 2: best I can understand from talking to Bromwin's family and friends,
Speaker 2: they were waiting for John to make that move and
Speaker 2: they were urging him to do so for some time. Andy,
Speaker 2: who is Broman's brother, he had told John that if
Speaker 2: he didn't report Broman missing to the police. Andy would.
Speaker 2: A woman called Deb Hall, who was Bromin's very good
Speaker 2: friend and nearest neighbor. She told me that she said
Speaker 2: was the same effect. She was very, very concerned about
Speaker 2: Bromwin and what had happened. She knew how devoted Bromin
Speaker 2: was as a mum, the plans that Bromwin had made.
Speaker 2: She was happy to be back in her house. She
Speaker 2: had flagged no plan or intention to leave the house,
Speaker 2: and Deb couldn't see when Deb went through the house
Speaker 2: that Broman had actually anything with her except for her handbag,
Speaker 2: which wasn't there.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and two, the former Deputy State Coroner
Speaker 1: Karl Milvanovitch, who you heard about at the top of
Speaker 1: his episode, found Bronwyn Winfield was dead. He recommended to
Speaker 1: the New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions that John
Speaker 1: Winfield be charged with her murder. Nicholas Cowdery, who was
Speaker 1: the DPP, then didn't pursue it. He said there was
Speaker 1: no evidence John had killed Bronwyn or played any role
Speaker 1: in her death. It's a decision that's baffled Bronwin's loved
Speaker 1: ones for decades. This is a feature of the justice
Speaker 1: system that I think some people might not know so
Speaker 1: much about. Can you explain Headley, how it can be
Speaker 1: that a coroner can make a recommendation about a case
Speaker 1: like this that doesn't turn into a prosecution.
Speaker 2: I think that there's such a mismatch between what happens
Speaker 2: when a coroner runs an inquest involving sometimes many days,
Speaker 2: sometimes a week of public hearings with witnesses appearing and
Speaker 2: giving evidence under oath, and then the coroner, who's often
Speaker 2: an experienced senior magistrate, makes certain findings and recommendations, and
Speaker 2: then there's this behind closed door paperwork review by unknown
Speaker 2: lawyers in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Speaker 2: They review the recommendation, and presumably they go through the evidence.
Speaker 2: Often the police brief is very extensive. But how much
Speaker 2: of the evidence do they go through? Do they read
Speaker 2: all the transcripts and witness statements. Are they at a
Speaker 2: sufficiently senior level to really appreciate what the senior coroner
Speaker 2: has appreciated. We don't know, because that process is very opaque.
Speaker 1: You reached out to John Winfield. What did he say?
Speaker 2: John Winfield got back to me and he acknowledged the
Speaker 2: letter that I had written to him seeking his side
Speaker 2: of the story. He said that he had previously answered
Speaker 2: something like four hundred and fifteen questions from a homicide
Speaker 2: squad detective and he stood by all the answers he
Speaker 2: gave to those, and we'll unpack those in several episodes
Speaker 2: of the podcast series. He said also, and I think
Speaker 2: this is very interesting because it's a reflection of some
Speaker 2: of the things that have been said over the years
Speaker 2: by him about Bromwin. That her side of the family
Speaker 2: has a long generational history of mental illness, on the
Speaker 2: male and female side. That's how he put it. Now,
Speaker 2: I've talked to Bromwyn's good friends in Lennox Head, I've
Speaker 2: talked to family members. The police have obviously talked to
Speaker 2: many people because when the police did do a very
Speaker 2: thorough investigation starting in nineteen ninety eight, many dozens of
Speaker 2: statements were taken by Detective side Glenn Taylor, and in
Speaker 2: none of those interviews or statements does anyone say Bromwin
Speaker 2: was showing signs of mental illness. It just doesn't register.
Speaker 2: Bromen was a very capable, intelligent, motivated young mum. It
Speaker 2: seems that having separated from John, she knew what she
Speaker 2: wanted to do. She just wanted to start again with
Speaker 2: her two girls, but without John, and the next stage
Speaker 2: in that process was working out what she would walk
Speaker 2: away with, what portion of the house and all the
Speaker 2: assets that they had jointly strived to achieve together she
Speaker 2: would be able to have to start again.
Speaker 1: What's your instinct, Headley, Is this case solvable?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I think all these cases are potentially solvable. It would
Speaker 2: only take some fresh new information that is really probative
Speaker 2: that somebody has not disclosed, has for whatever reason, decided
Speaker 2: to keep to themselves for many years. If somebody comes
Speaker 2: forward with that to the police directly to me, then
Speaker 2: if it's corroborated and checked out, that can make a difference.
Speaker 2: It could show that somebody else, somebody other than John Winfield,
Speaker 2: was responsible. For example, I mean, we don't know what
Speaker 2: happened on that Sunday night. John's story is she got
Speaker 2: into a car driven by a stranger, and that's that.
Speaker 2: Who knows. Maybe somebody has some information about that, Maybe
Speaker 2: they have information about something else that John hasn't told us,
Speaker 2: But of course they can be solved. Bromwyn disappeared nine
Speaker 2: years after Lynn disappeared. People believe that Lynn's case could
Speaker 2: never be solved, and it was.
Speaker 1: There is an important difference in the stories of Lynn
Speaker 1: Sims and Bromwyn Winfield. John Winfield has never been charged
Speaker 1: and there's no suggestion that he's anything like Chris Dawson.
Speaker 1: But the similarities between Lynn and Bromwyn are inescapable, loving,
Speaker 1: coctive mothers whose children were robbed of their right to
Speaker 1: a safe, secure maternal bond.
Speaker 2: I think we need to be very careful to not
Speaker 2: conflate them or see them as being cut from the
Speaker 2: same cloth. John Winfield has always emphatically denied any involvement
Speaker 2: in foul play. He certainly has never been charged with anything.
Speaker 2: The coroner recommended to the then DPP Nicholas Cowdery that
Speaker 2: he should be charged and considered for prosecution over Bromwin's
Speaker 2: suspected murder, but in the DPP's assessment back in two
Speaker 2: thousand and three, there was insufficient evidence. Of course, there's
Speaker 2: nobody and some might argue that Bronwin has been living
Speaker 2: a life somehow incognito, having never been seen. In my opinion,
Speaker 2: that is just completely implausible. Bromwin's almost certainly dead. What
Speaker 2: we don't know is when she died and how she died.
Speaker 2: But the idea that a very committed mum of thirty
Speaker 2: one years old could spend the next thirty one years
Speaker 2: somehow eking out a life, remaining unnoticed, being able to
Speaker 2: support herself, and never contact two little girls with whom
Speaker 2: she had a very beautiful and loving relationship is just
Speaker 2: ridiculous in my view.
Speaker 1: Betly Thomas is The Australian's national Chief correspondent and the
Speaker 1: creator of our new investigative podcast series, Bronwyn. Subscribers to
Speaker 1: The Australian are the first to hear it. You can
Speaker 1: register to listen to the first two episodes now at
Speaker 1: bromwan podcast dot com. We've also got exclusive stories, maps, timelines,
Speaker 1: graphics and video and for all Australia's best journalism twenty
Speaker 1: four seven go to The Australian dot com dot AU.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on the front this week. Our
Speaker 1: team is Kristin Amiot, Leat Sammaglu, Josh Burton, Jasper Leigue,
Speaker 1: Tiffany Dimack, Matthew Condon and me Claire Harvey.