Speaker 1: Listeners are advised that this podcast series Bromwin contains coarse
Speaker 1: language and adult themes. This podcast series is brought to
Speaker 1: you by Me Headley Thomas and The Australian.
Speaker 2: When we moved to Lennox head I was even more lonely.
Speaker 2: The house that was Bill became John's castle. In my prison.
Speaker 1: Roman Winfield wrote these words shortly before she disappeared one
Speaker 1: Sunday night in May nineteen ninety three. She had been
Speaker 1: to see her GP a couple of days earlier and
Speaker 1: was in good physical health. Apart from having strained her hand.
Speaker 1: She was of sound mind and had no known mental illness.
Speaker 1: A brief period of post natal depression after the birth
Speaker 1: five years earlier of her second daughter was well behind.
Speaker 3: Bromwin.
Speaker 4: Where do you want to go.
Speaker 5: Today?
Speaker 1: Thirty one years since the sudden disappearance of a mother
Speaker 1: of two little girls.
Speaker 3: I'm driving on.
Speaker 1: A winding road south of Byron Bay to the house
Speaker 1: that Bromwin had called her prison. Past former dairy and
Speaker 1: sugar cane farms subdivided for residential housing estates and the
Speaker 1: Great Australian Family Dream. A three or four bedroom, two
Speaker 1: bathroom bricantile close to the.
Speaker 6: Beach getting directions to Sandstone Crescent Lennox Head.
Speaker 1: The Pacific Ocean is tantalizingly close. You can hear it,
Speaker 1: smell it, its saltiness. Linger on an easterly zephyr of
Speaker 1: a breeze. In luxury homes with views over smoothly curving coastline, binoculars.
Speaker 3: Are at the ready for the first sightings of.
Speaker 1: Humpback whales on their annual migratory journey from Antarctica. They
Speaker 1: perform in the warm waters of an aquatic backyard off
Speaker 1: the most easterly part of Australia's mainland and the lighthouse
Speaker 1: at Byron Bay. It's a quieter, gentler lifestyle in this
Speaker 1: place everyone calls Lennox. It's less crowded here, more chilled
Speaker 1: than the nearby more famous Byron Roman left indelible imprints
Speaker 1: on those who loved her, Yet her thirty one years
Speaker 1: disappeared with barely a ripple in the wider world. Her life,
Speaker 1: her suspicious disappearance, and her highly probable death have barely
Speaker 1: been reported, except from time to time by regional TV
Speaker 1: and The Northern Star. The newspaper ceased publication in print
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, but Bromwin left behind her writings, her
Speaker 1: reflections on her life, her marriage and loved ones, with
Speaker 1: the occasional underlining and crossed out word on sheets of
Speaker 1: a four paper. They are poignant and compelling. All these
Speaker 1: years later, I picture Bromwyn writing in quiet moments between
Speaker 1: getting her two girls ready for school and working part
Speaker 1: time in a local takeaway store called Eden's down near
Speaker 1: the Waves.
Speaker 2: My idea of a lasting love is being able to
Speaker 2: tell your partner anything and it doesn't make a difference
Speaker 2: to your relationship. Trust, being kind to one another when
Speaker 2: you're down, supportive, having time for each other always, as
Speaker 2: well as time for other people.
Speaker 1: Her family, friends and neighbors tell me she was determined
Speaker 1: to remain separated from her husband of six years, John Winfield,
Speaker 1: wanted to go her own way. She was pursuing a divorce.
Speaker 1: Her good friends in this idyllic beachside town in northern
Speaker 1: New South Wales supported her. They were all school mums
Speaker 1: with small children who played together. They shared instant coffees,
Speaker 1: morning walks, birthday parties, turns at babysitting and random catchups
Speaker 1: for a glass of wine and easy conversation. Bromwinn had
Speaker 1: confided troubling things about her marriage. She was close to
Speaker 1: her brother Andy and his wife Michelle, who lived in Sydney,
Speaker 1: a one hour flight away.
Speaker 3: It was where.
Speaker 1: Bromwin had grown up. She had close cousins there, including
Speaker 1: Megan Reid. She had her Auntie Leah and uncle John
Speaker 1: and her half sister Melissa. Her mother Barbara, and her
Speaker 1: half sister Kim Marshall lived another hour away in Tasmania.
Speaker 1: All of these family members talked regularly to Bromwin. Kim
Speaker 1: was about to travel north to Lennox because Bromwin had
Speaker 1: invited her to come and stay for a while.
Speaker 3: Nobody had heard of any.
Speaker 1: Plans by Bromwin to suddenly go away to disappear. Writing
Speaker 1: about the unhappiness of the marriage Bromin had decided was
Speaker 1: bad for her and her girls perhaps felt cathartic. Liberating
Speaker 1: the house in Lennox was a heavy burden.
Speaker 2: I drifted away from John as he became more and
Speaker 2: more depressed about the house being less than immaculate and
Speaker 2: the death of his mother, the only woman he thought
Speaker 2: was perfect. I couldn't leave him at the time, as
Speaker 2: he was so unhappy and depressed and hated life, and
Speaker 2: probably me, I tried to plead and talk to him
Speaker 2: to open up and get things off his chest, but
Speaker 2: nothing would help him.
Speaker 1: Friends and neighbors tell me John would obsess and see
Speaker 1: over the smallest things. No matter how hard Bromwin tried.
Speaker 1: The house could never be clean enough for John. A
Speaker 1: tiny spot on a tile, a crumb on the carpet,
Speaker 1: these could set him off. John was an introvert and
Speaker 1: a perfectionist. He had built the house with his bare hands.
Speaker 1: He was often unhappy when visitors dropped by. Sometimes he
Speaker 1: would appear hostile. Bromwin, on the other hand, was naturally
Speaker 1: sociable and welcoming.
Speaker 3: She needed the.
Speaker 1: Company and support of her friends. But the children would
Speaker 1: play with their friends in the garage to ensure no
Speaker 1: mess in the house, and all the while Bromwan walked
Speaker 1: around on eggshells. She worried about how John would react
Speaker 1: when people were over All of it took a toll.
Speaker 1: The tensions must have been unbearable at times. Their marriage
Speaker 1: was clearly doomed. On March twenty one, nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: Bromwin and John formally separated.
Speaker 2: Eventually, I switched off and became cold inside. He had
Speaker 2: a heart of ice and always criticized me. No matter
Speaker 2: what I did. The man was cold and heartless and
Speaker 2: gave nothing but expected everything.
Speaker 1: Bromwyn shared recollections and sorrows, hurts, and philosophical musings with
Speaker 1: her notepad. But for whom was she writing all of
Speaker 1: this in nineteen ninety three? Why had she begun to
Speaker 1: put it all down? Bromwin hadn't kept a journal before.
Speaker 1: Bromwin's family and friends tell me she lived for her
Speaker 1: two daughters, Crystal, aged ten, and Lauren five. She loved
Speaker 1: those girls to bits. Her devotion every day was obvious
Speaker 1: to all who knew her. The three were inseparable, and
Speaker 1: Romin was a caring, nurturing mother. Nobody has suggested otherwise.
Speaker 2: My children have suffered from the environment that surrounded them.
Speaker 2: It is equally important to be honest with them and
Speaker 2: to tell them about their past, as you not only
Speaker 2: suffer from denying the truth, but so do they.
Speaker 1: As I read all of it, some big questions are inescapable?
Speaker 1: Are Rombin's writings the artifacts of a woman looking back
Speaker 1: on the thirty one years of her life to that moment,
Speaker 1: a woman looking forward with her two girls to a happier,
Speaker 1: brighter future, as a newly single mum finally freed of
Speaker 1: the shackles and sadness she felt in an intolerable marriage
Speaker 1: to John.
Speaker 2: I was surrounded by hate and abuse in various ways
Speaker 2: as a child, and am determined not to allow this
Speaker 2: to happen to my girls or myself ever again. No
Speaker 2: one will ever intimidate me again, nor will I allow
Speaker 2: anyone to force their opinions onto me, as this can
Speaker 2: cause damage to myself as well as my children. If
Speaker 2: love means not being trusted to be yourself, or thinking
Speaker 2: that everyone is out to own you paranoia, then it
Speaker 2: is not my idea of happiness.
Speaker 1: Or are they the nuanced words of a woman who
Speaker 1: is writing with a plan to leave something personal and
Speaker 1: heartfelt behind for her loved ones. When Romwin wrote in
Speaker 1: her notepad in nineteen ninety three, was she intending to
Speaker 1: imminently and dramatically change everything by leaving everyone who loved her,
Speaker 1: including her daughters? Was she intending to vanish without explanation
Speaker 1: and never see or speak to them or anyone else?
Speaker 3: She knew again.
Speaker 2: Everyone has both good and bad, and I've confronted the
Speaker 2: bad in myself and realized I am human. We all
Speaker 2: make mistakes. I can forgive myself and will now live
Speaker 2: with my memories in peace. I will always remember the
Speaker 2: people I meet. I will be fine now. A little
Speaker 2: break for a few weeks, and everyone will see the
Speaker 2: old me look out.
Speaker 1: Over months of visits to Lenox, nearby towns and villages,
Speaker 1: and the city in which she grew up, Sydney. I'm
Speaker 1: talking to people who knew Bromwin and seeking answers to
Speaker 1: these questions and more, talking to anyone who might shed
Speaker 1: light on what happened to Bromen on the night of
Speaker 1: May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three, when John was the last
Speaker 1: person to see her at the.
Speaker 3: Home in Sandstone Crescent.
Speaker 1: In this enclave worshiped by dedicated surfers and made affluent
Speaker 1: by Sea Change property owners, people who know more than
Speaker 1: they've let on before about Broman's fate are coming forward.
Speaker 1: Former police detectives are sharing information with me. Many hundreds
Speaker 1: of pages of evidence are being scrutinized for clues.
Speaker 3: Here's one example.
Speaker 1: On April two, nineteen ninety three, Doreen Strong from the
Speaker 1: Ballena Byron Family Support Service made a handwritten diary note
Speaker 1: about the first of several contacts with the newly singled
Speaker 1: Bromwin from the Life Lennox Head.
Speaker 7: Bronwyn Winfield left husband ten days ago emotional violence, custody
Speaker 7: threats being to solicitor. Received advice regarding custody. Feels better
Speaker 7: but needs support. We are to call Monday regarding availability
Speaker 7: of appointment.
Speaker 1: Bromwin saw three different solicitors after her separation from John.
Speaker 1: On March twenty one, nineteen ninety three, she sought advice
Speaker 1: about her rights in a planned property settlement with John,
Speaker 1: an intended division of their assets. The solicitor she had
Speaker 1: decided to stay with, Chrismkdebitt, was based in the nearby
Speaker 1: town of Lismore. Broman's next appointment in his office there
Speaker 1: was scheduled for Monday, May seventeenth. I have a copy
Speaker 1: of a page from her notepad with the time Bromwin
Speaker 1: jotted down for the Monday meeting with Chris mcdebitt eleven am.
Speaker 1: But Bromwin disappeared the night before Sunday, May sixteenth, nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety three, and as she didn't meet her solicitor or
Speaker 1: contact him ever again to make another appointment, the plans
Speaker 1: that had been made for divorce and the sale of
Speaker 1: the house were quietly shelved. John kept his castle on Sandstone.
Speaker 4: Crescent Head south on Balana Street.
Speaker 6: In seven hundred meters at the roundabout, take this second
Speaker 6: exit onto North Creek Road.
Speaker 1: A good wave is peeling this sunny afternoon. Board riders
Speaker 1: are carving across the face of swollen waves at a
Speaker 1: beach known as Boulders. Boulders Beach is still John Winfield's
Speaker 1: favorite location when he paddles out for a wave. Bromwin's
Speaker 1: husband didn't leave Lennox Head after she vanished, but why
Speaker 1: would he? John has always emphatically denied wrongdoing. In two
Speaker 1: thousand and two, a senior coroner made a formal finding
Speaker 1: that Bromwin was dead and he ended an inquest which
Speaker 1: had traversed a large amount of evidence over five days
Speaker 1: of hearings in a courtroom in Lismore. More importantly, the
Speaker 1: senior coroner recommended to the Director of Public Prosecutions in
Speaker 1: New South Wales that a known person, Bromwin's husband, John Winfield,
Speaker 1: should be prosecuted over her alleged murder, but the DPP
Speaker 1: firmly refused to prosecute.
Speaker 8: Wish to advise that after careful consideration of the matter,
Speaker 8: referred to him by the coroner and following further investigation,
Speaker 8: the Director of Public Prosecutions is not satisfied that there
Speaker 8: is sufficient evidence to lay any charge against Jonathan Winfield
Speaker 8: at this time.
Speaker 1: The prosecuting agency confirmed its decision in a letter of
Speaker 1: just one sentence. The letter went to the police who
Speaker 1: had reinvestigated Bromwan's case for the inquest. Roman's brother Andy
Speaker 1: Reid and his wife Michelle were astonished. They wrote to
Speaker 1: the office of the DPP in early two thousand and three.
Speaker 9: We are writing to you on behalf of ourselves and
Speaker 9: the Reed family to formally request a full explanation as
Speaker 9: to why the Crown Prosecutor in Lismore and the Director
Speaker 9: of Public Prosecutions in Sydney have decided is not sufficient
Speaker 9: evidence to lay charge against mister Jonathan Winfield.
Speaker 10: We feel that at the very least, we deserve better
Speaker 10: than a line or two informing us of this decision.
Speaker 10: It has taken ten long years to get the case
Speaker 10: to this point and we would appreciate a full written
Speaker 10: response to this matter at your earliest convenience.
Speaker 9: No doubt you are aware that we are completely dissatisfied
Speaker 9: at the decision and have already taken steps to investigate
Speaker 9: the matter further through political and departmental channels.
Speaker 1: The Director of Public Prosecutions in New South Wales at
Speaker 1: that time, Nicholas Cowdery, replied to Andy Reid.
Speaker 11: The disappearance of your sister Bronwin Winfield in May nineteen
Speaker 11: ninety three has no doubt caused much grief to you
Speaker 11: and your family, and I offer my sympathies. My advice
Speaker 11: to police and the coroner, after very careful consideration of
Speaker 11: all the evidence presently available, is that there is not
Speaker 11: sufficient evidence to charge Jonathan Winfield or any other person.
Speaker 11: Bronwin's disappearance was not reported to the police for two
Speaker 11: weeks and was initially treated as a missing person inquiry.
Speaker 11: By the time it was dealt with as a possible homicide,
Speaker 11: years had passed and any potential scientific evidence was long gone.
Speaker 11: There is nobody and no known cause of death. While
Speaker 11: Jonathan Winfield is the last known person to have seen
Speaker 11: her alive, there is no evidence that he killed her
Speaker 11: or had any role in her disappearance. Suspicion cannot be
Speaker 11: substitutioned for evidence.
Speaker 1: John has never been charged with any offense in relation
Speaker 1: to his missing wife. John suggested to police that Romwin
Speaker 1: had left to start a new life with a new identity,
Speaker 1: probably with money from, in John's words, a wealthy sugar daddy.
Speaker 1: But nobody has ever reported having seen her, and in
Speaker 1: the two decades since Nicholas Cowdery wrote that letter in
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, there's still nobody behind his back.
Speaker 12: Lennox.
Speaker 1: Locals who know the story of Bromwin Winfield scoff at
Speaker 1: John's verse. I was on assignment and rushing from one
Speaker 1: interview to the next in Sydney when I heard her
Speaker 1: name for the first time. It was December twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: Bromwin Joy Winfield had been missing for twenty four years.
Speaker 1: By then, she became real for me during my podcast
Speaker 1: investigation into the nineteen eighty two disappearance of another missing woman,
Speaker 1: Lynette Joy Dawson. At the request of Lynn's family, we
Speaker 1: now refer to her by her maiden name. She's Lynette Simms.
Speaker 1: It was a hot and humid afternoon, just a week
Speaker 1: before Christmas twenty seventeen, and I had spent several hours
Speaker 1: talking to Lynn's friend Julie Andrew in her home near
Speaker 1: the heart of Sydney. Julie made a powerful impression that day.
Speaker 1: Six months later, when the podcast had a name, The
Speaker 1: Teacher's Pet, and episode started to come outs her Julie's
Speaker 1: commitment to justice for Limb. They heard her unwavering certainty
Speaker 1: about Lynn's fate at the hands of her husband, Chris Dawson.
Speaker 13: The best way to dispose of a body when you
Speaker 13: live in the bush is to put it in the bush,
Speaker 13: and that's what I think he did on the Friday night.
Speaker 5: I'm sorrowful.
Speaker 13: I lost a tear friend and I've carried it these
Speaker 13: and I miss her every day. I just want justice,
Speaker 13: and I'd love her little girls to know she didn't
Speaker 13: leave them, she was taken away from them by the
Speaker 13: person who was supposed to protect her.
Speaker 1: I drove away from the interview in Julie's terrace house
Speaker 1: with my friend Rebecca Hazel. We headed west to meet
Speaker 1: Karl Milavanovitch, a retired deputy State coroner of New South Wales.
Speaker 5: Come in, gets out of the head.
Speaker 14: We're very sorry.
Speaker 15: We just realized we pulled up it and we didn't
Speaker 15: bring the bottle of why a cake anything organized?
Speaker 12: Come upstairs, please straight upstairs.
Speaker 1: Carl had agreed to talk to me for my podcast
Speaker 1: investigation back then about Lynn's case. He remembered the evidence
Speaker 1: well because back in two thousand and three, fourteen years
Speaker 1: before Karl met me at his home, he had led
Speaker 1: an exhaustive coronial investigation. Carl watched and heard numerous witnesses
Speaker 1: give evidence under oath in a courtroom in Sydney. These
Speaker 1: witnesses recalled Lynn and Chris their Northern Beaches home, the
Speaker 1: marriage and a schoolgirl will call JC. There were many
Speaker 1: who were adamant that Lynn would never have voluntarily left
Speaker 1: her two girls, who were just four and two at
Speaker 1: the time. Among the witnesses were Lynn's friends and family
Speaker 1: who knew her as an utterly devoted mother and wife,
Speaker 1: and sister and daughter. All were questioned under oath in
Speaker 1: the inquest by a police officer with expertise as a lawyer.
Speaker 3: Matt Fordham.
Speaker 1: He had done a lot of work to ensure the
Speaker 1: police brief of evidence was very solid. A highly committed
Speaker 1: Northern Beach's detective called Damian Loon, was sure that Chris
Speaker 1: Dawson had killed Lynn. Damien had been investigating the case
Speaker 1: off and on for several years, and his work comprised
Speaker 1: most of the police brief of evidence. Chris Dawson, a
Speaker 1: high school teacher and former first grade rugby league player
Speaker 1: with the Newtown Jets, had become infatuated in nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: with the babysitter, his former student at Cromer High School.
Speaker 1: Chris would move JC into Lynd's bed within a couple
Speaker 1: of days of Lynd's disappearance in January nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 1: but Chris didn't give any evidence. In the courtroom of
Speaker 1: the then Deputy State coroner Karl Milavanovitch in two thousand
Speaker 1: and three, Chris exercised his right to silence. A key
Speaker 1: witness was the former teenage babysitter, JC, who had gone
Speaker 1: on to marry Chris Dawson, then flee him, obtain a divorce,
Speaker 1: and raise her concerns with police about foul play. At
Speaker 1: the end of the coronial proceedings, Karl Milivanovitch found that
Speaker 1: Linn was dead and he recommended to the Director of
Speaker 1: Public Prosecutions at the time, Nicholas Cowtery, that Christopher Michael
Speaker 1: Dawson be prosecuted for murder, but the DPP refused. Nicholas
Speaker 1: Cawtery was adamant that there was not enough evidence, and nobody.
Speaker 1: From that time on, Carl believed that Chris Dawson had
Speaker 1: evaded justice despite a compelling, circumstantial case against him for
Speaker 1: the murder of his wife. This is some of what
Speaker 1: Karl told me as I sat in his lounder room
Speaker 1: in December twenty seven.
Speaker 3: Team, all the.
Speaker 5: Circumstances, when you put them together, are just so remarkable
Speaker 5: that I just could not accept that Lynn Dawson would
Speaker 5: just disappear off the face of the earth without there
Speaker 5: being some human intervention. It just defies all logic that
Speaker 5: a mother would leave a four year old, a two
Speaker 5: year old, a family, a job, and friends and just disappear.
Speaker 5: It's just not normal human behavior for a woman with
Speaker 5: her intelligence, her community ties, the fact that she was employed,
Speaker 5: two kids, had a lovely home. It just doesn't add up.
Speaker 5: And I was very disappointed that the police investigation was
Speaker 5: so poor initially, that Lynnette Dawson was just treated as
Speaker 5: another missing person and it wasn't prioritized. They never looked
Speaker 5: at the issues of domestic violence. They never looked at
Speaker 5: the reality or the possibility that this was a homicide.
Speaker 1: Karl Milavanovitch has been a powerful advocate for murdered women
Speaker 1: like Lynn. But he told me something else of great importance.
Speaker 1: On that afternoon in December twenty seventeen, Karl spoke about
Speaker 1: the case of another missing woman, Bromwn Joy Windfield. I
Speaker 1: had not heard her name, nor anything about her nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety three disappearance until Karl raised it with me. There
Speaker 1: was very little publicity about Bromwin over the years. Her
Speaker 1: case seemed to have fallen between the cracks. This is
Speaker 1: some of what Carl matter of factly told me about Bromwyn.
Speaker 5: I did an inquest of her. Lady called Bromwyn Windfield,
Speaker 5: and she had two kids as well, And she went
Speaker 5: to bed one night, and she disappeared next day. And
Speaker 5: there was some suggestion from a neighbor that they heard
Speaker 5: the car reversing down the driveway and scraping on the ground,
Speaker 5: like some suggestion there might have been something in the boot,
Speaker 5: but she was never found. The same thing happened there.
Speaker 5: He was in Sydney, the husband was in Sydney. She
Speaker 5: was up there. She went to see solicitor about organizing
Speaker 5: a separation, got the locks changed to the house. He
Speaker 5: found out about it, drove.
Speaker 12: Up there next day.
Speaker 5: She disappeared I did the inquest at Lismore. I had
Speaker 5: a very competent counsel assisting. It was a strong case.
Speaker 5: I thought circumstantial evidence. Referred it to the DPP. They
Speaker 5: didn't run with it.
Speaker 1: And when the DPP decides that they're not going to run,
Speaker 1: do they send to you or to the coroner's office a.
Speaker 5: Letter explaining what No, there's no explanation in the DPP
Speaker 5: in terms of detail reasons.
Speaker 14: For not proceeding.
Speaker 1: How do we know that they haven't just misunderstood?
Speaker 5: Well, I suppose that's always a possibility. At that stage
Speaker 5: of my career as Deputy State Coroner, I was probably
Speaker 5: just starting to do a number of missing persons cases
Speaker 5: that were historical ones. And it wasn't long after the
Speaker 5: inquest into Lynette Dawson's disappearance from and Winfield and a
Speaker 5: number of others that I was getting very concerned about
Speaker 5: historical missing person cases where clearly it was evident that
Speaker 5: they were probably homicides, and the attitude that the police
Speaker 5: had to the investigation of them. I think there was
Speaker 5: a systemic problem in the police department in how they
Speaker 5: prioritized and triarched missing persons cases. So that was a
Speaker 5: systemic attitude the police had. You don't worry about investigating
Speaker 5: until you've got a smoking gun or some evidence of
Speaker 5: foul play. They'll turn up, or they've gone off with
Speaker 5: a boyfriend or something like that.
Speaker 1: I asked Carl whether this meant that a significant number
Speaker 1: of women who had been classified by police as simply
Speaker 1: missing were more likely to have been murdered.
Speaker 5: No doubt, no doubt. I've got no doubt about that. Absolutely.
Speaker 5: If you'd asked me this question nine years ago, before
Speaker 5: I retired, I would have given you a list of
Speaker 5: all their names. And I think the majority of the
Speaker 5: long term missing persons cases that are still outstanding even
Speaker 5: to this day involve the young women who have disappeared.
Speaker 5: Inevitably they are victims.
Speaker 1: Of On the side, it was chilling to hear this conclusion,
Speaker 1: because it was also completely logical. I had a name,
Speaker 1: Bromwyn Winfield. I made a mental note to revisit her
Speaker 1: case properly. One day, I opened a folder to collect
Speaker 1: information about this other missing woman. In the second half
Speaker 1: of twenty eighteen, as weekly episodes of The Teacher's Pet
Speaker 1: were being released, I began hearing about Bromwyn Winfield from
Speaker 1: her family and friends and others. Each person who contacted
Speaker 1: me didn't know about the others. Everyone reached out independently.
Speaker 1: None of them knew that I had already heard.
Speaker 3: About Bromwin from Carl.
Speaker 1: In July twenty eighteen, I got an email about Bromin's
Speaker 1: case from Matt Fordham, the former police officer who had
Speaker 1: done a huge amount of work with Karl Milavanovitch for
Speaker 1: his two thousand and two inquest, The same Matt Fordham
Speaker 1: who had handled Linn's case for Karl in two thousand
Speaker 1: and three. Matt sent me his formal written submissions which
Speaker 1: had been presented at Bronwin's inquest. These were a matter
Speaker 1: of public record, However, they were only lightly.
Speaker 3: Reported in the media.
Speaker 1: Here's a small part of the evidence Matt Fordham presented
Speaker 1: to the then Deputy State Coroner Karl Milavanovitch in two
Speaker 1: thousand and two. These are his words, it's not his voice.
Speaker 16: Bronwin had expressed concern to her friend Alan Fisher about
Speaker 16: what would occur when Jonathan Winfield returned to Lennox from
Speaker 16: Sydney shortly before her disappearance. She stated that she was
Speaker 16: terrified about what he might do. A large number of
Speaker 16: witnesses described her as being a devoted mother who would
Speaker 16: not have left her kids. There is absolutely no evidence
Speaker 16: that anyone other than Jonathan Winfield had any motivation or
Speaker 16: opportunity to kill bronwin.
Speaker 1: In August twenty eighteen, a woman called Deborah Hall reached out.
Speaker 1: She was Bromwyn's neighbor and friend at Sandstone Crescent, lennox
Speaker 1: Head for several years until May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1: In her email, she wrote, I.
Speaker 17: Have watched and listened with great interest to the podcast
Speaker 17: and the recent media reports on Lyn Dawson. I really
Speaker 17: felt compelled to write to you and inform you of
Speaker 17: another missing person case that I was very heavily involved
Speaker 17: in back in the early nineteen nineties of my neighbor
Speaker 17: and good friend, missus Bronwyn Winfield of Sandstone Crescent, linox Head.
Speaker 17: This case was also investigated by police in a minor
Speaker 17: way in the initial days of her disappearing.
Speaker 1: She explained what Carl had disclosed some months earlier, that
Speaker 1: his coronial inquiry had found that Bromwyn was dead.
Speaker 17: Deborah added this inquiry deemed that a known person was
Speaker 17: responsible for her disappearance. It was recommended to the Director
Speaker 17: of Public Prosecutions to pursue it to trial. However, this
Speaker 17: never has eventuated, even though the coroner deemed there was
Speaker 17: enough evidence to convict this man. The reason stated by
Speaker 17: DPP was that as there was never a body found,
Speaker 17: they were not prepared to waste taxpayers dollars for a
Speaker 17: non conviction. This man, John Winfield, continues, as does Chris Dawson,
Speaker 17: to proclaim his wife just ran off and joined a
Speaker 17: cult or went with another man. There is so much
Speaker 17: more I could inform you of in this case, but
Speaker 17: it would take me hours. I just thought I needed
Speaker 17: to highlight the extreme similarities of my best friend's case.
Speaker 17: I really hope that justice is done for both these
Speaker 17: poor women. Regards Deborah.
Speaker 1: The following month, a woman living in Kim Marshall emailed
Speaker 1: to tell me that her half sister, Bromwin Winfield, had
Speaker 1: been missing since May nineteen ninety three. When we spoke
Speaker 1: on the telephone, Kim told me that it was a
Speaker 1: homicide squad cold case, but it had gone very cold.
Speaker 1: Kim told me back then in late twenty eighteen.
Speaker 18: I carry this load each week and have an obligation
Speaker 18: to try harder to find her body. I truly believe
Speaker 18: her body can be found.
Speaker 1: At the time, Chris Dawson remained a free man, enjoying
Speaker 1: his retirement near the Beach on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, but
Speaker 1: he and the criminal justice system were under enormous pressure
Speaker 1: from the teacher's pet and listeners who had heard damning
Speaker 1: evidence of the system's failure. Failure not just for the
Speaker 1: absence of justice fall in, but for never even investigating
Speaker 1: a culture of grooming and sexual exploitation of Northern Beaches
Speaker 1: high school girls by teachers, including Chris Dawson. At that time,
Speaker 1: new witnesses were coming forward to talk to me in
Speaker 1: the podcast. In twenty eighteen, some new witnesses were going
Speaker 1: straight to police with evidence about Chris and Lynn, her
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two disappearance and a ring of teachers who
Speaker 1: had pursued high school girls. There had been a lot
Speaker 1: of damage caused. It finally culminated in homicide Squad detectives
Speaker 1: arresting Chris and extraditing him to Sydney to be charged
Speaker 1: with Lynn's murder on December.
Speaker 3: Five, twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: Over the years since my folder of Bromwin Winfield files
Speaker 1: grew steadily Bromwin's half sister, Kim Marshall, and others who
Speaker 1: knew the Lenox mother of two girls stayed in touch.
Speaker 1: I heard from a woman called Fiona Husner, who as
Speaker 1: a child lived next door to Bromwin for years near
Speaker 1: Cronulla in the Shires south of Sydney. We met in
Speaker 1: Brisbane in early twenty nineteen at a bar called Felons
Speaker 1: to talk about the case. Fiona, who was very fond
Speaker 1: of her neighbor and babysitter, described what she called secrets
Speaker 1: and mystery in relation to Bromwin's unexplained disappearance. I sent
Speaker 1: a note to Broman's brother Andy Reid using Facebook Messenger.
Speaker 3: I wrote, I've.
Speaker 1: Been interested in possibly investigating the disappearance and suspected murder
Speaker 1: of your sister Bromwin. A number of people who knew
Speaker 1: Bromin have urged me to do a podcast investigation similar
Speaker 1: to the Teacher's pet into the probable murder of Lynn Dawson.
Speaker 1: I understand that you have extensive files and reasonable suspicions
Speaker 1: about what happened. It's not something I could start without
Speaker 1: full cooperation from you and other members of the family.
Speaker 1: Andy and his wife Michelle were immediately interested did. We
Speaker 1: met in a cafe in Sydney and talked about a
Speaker 1: future podcast investigation. A woman from Barner called Kerry McLain
Speaker 1: got in touch to talk to me about her conversations
Speaker 1: with Bromin's daughter Crystal, who had lived in Kerry's home
Speaker 1: for some time. You'll hear more about it later in
Speaker 1: this podcast series. At my request, Andy Reid and his
Speaker 1: wife Michelle, and Andy's half sister Kim Marshall started to
Speaker 1: track down relevant paperwork. Transcripts from the original inquest notes
Speaker 1: that they had taken at the time, and police statements.
Speaker 1: Old articles about Roman's case whenever it featured in the
Speaker 1: local newspaper, The Northern Star of Lismore were collated. In
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, I drove to Ballaner and the home
Speaker 1: of Glenn Taylor, a former Newcastle Homicide Squad detective sergeant.
Speaker 1: Here's a little of what Glenn told me back then,
Speaker 1: as extreme ragin flooded the northern Rivers and low lying
Speaker 1: areas of New South Wales. He told me that his
Speaker 1: connection to Broman's case began in nineteen ninety eight, when
Speaker 1: she had been missing for five years.
Speaker 19: Andrew Reed and Michelle Reid came to see myself in
Speaker 19: another detective in Ballina and said, look, can we have
Speaker 19: some fresh eyes look at this. We're just not happy
Speaker 19: that this is the elect as a missing person. We
Speaker 19: think there's more to it. And then when we started
Speaker 19: looking into the matter, I mean as a homicide investigator,
Speaker 19: it was abundantly clear, very early in the initially reinvestigation
Speaker 19: that it needed a lot more work done, and then
Speaker 19: a lot of formal statements.
Speaker 1: Glenn had transferred north from Newcastle's major crime unit to
Speaker 1: be a detective in the coastal.
Speaker 3: Town of Ballina.
Speaker 1: When he heard about Bromwin, he was intrigued and then suspicious.
Speaker 1: Like Damian Lohne in Lynn's case, Glenn said he's or rat,
Speaker 1: but the trail had gone cold. The odds were stacked
Speaker 1: against the seasoned former homicide squad cop when so little
Speaker 1: had been done by other police in the five years
Speaker 1: immediately following Bromlin's disappearance.
Speaker 19: I still believe that it was in the senior officer's
Speaker 19: mind that this woman had in fact just voluntarily decided
Speaker 19: to leave. It was fairly haphazard the investigation. There was
Speaker 19: very very little done. There was no statements ever taken
Speaker 19: from any particular person, like neighbors, I mean absolute critical
Speaker 19: areas like there was no forensic investigation of the home.
Speaker 19: There was no forensic investigation of the motor vehicle that
Speaker 19: Jonathan Winfield had taken within hours of arriving back from
Speaker 19: Sydney at the marital house. And over the years I
Speaker 19: think there was only initially a few inquiries done and
Speaker 19: then it just fell back to a missing person and
Speaker 19: nothing further was done.
Speaker 12: Under many years.
Speaker 19: Later I treated as a major investigation and strongly suspected
Speaker 19: that Bromin be murdered.
Speaker 12: Yeah, your statement's very detail. They need they need to
Speaker 12: be thorough.
Speaker 19: We're talking about the likely murder of a person, so
Speaker 19: they need to be thorough.
Speaker 1: Did you believe that bronwin would leave her children and
Speaker 1: stay away at any sense?
Speaker 19: All the people we took statements from in the reinvestigation,
Speaker 19: all Bromin's friends and close assationiates she absolutely adored her children.
Speaker 19: There is just no way that she would have left
Speaker 19: those children that night and not come back to the house.
Speaker 19: She was just so attached to them. She was seeking
Speaker 19: sole custodys of both the children. She was a very
Speaker 19: very good mother, according to everyone that we spoke to,
Speaker 19: absolutely totally out of her character to just walk out
Speaker 19: and leave those children not have any further contact. It
Speaker 19: just wouldn't happen unless she just couldn't prevent it. That's
Speaker 19: why it was extremely suspicious.
Speaker 12: And why was that not of you that existed in.
Speaker 1: The police in nineteen ninety three when she disappeared.
Speaker 19: It's really difficult to say, please didn't get extremely busy
Speaker 19: with other matters. Unfortunately, there's still other things happening with
Speaker 19: robberies and break and enders and sexual assaults and so forth.
Speaker 12: But it should have been highlighted to.
Speaker 14: A commander to say, look, we believe.
Speaker 19: There's something more sinistery in this. We need more resources
Speaker 19: put into this. But for one reason or another, that
Speaker 19: wasn't done.
Speaker 1: When we first met at his home, Glen urged a
Speaker 1: podcast investigation and he pledged his full support, but I
Speaker 1: didn't have time. Then Chris Dawson was waging a legal
Speaker 1: battle against the teacher's pet me and police. When Glenn
Speaker 1: Taylor and Bromwin's family and friends were quietly talking to me,
Speaker 1: Chris Dawson made a high stakes bid to avoid a
Speaker 1: murder trial. Altogether, he said the publicity from the podcast
Speaker 1: series meant that he couldn't get a fair trial. He
Speaker 1: was also arguing that a shoddy original police investigation after
Speaker 1: Lin first disappeared had prejudiced his prospects in any trial,
Speaker 1: but his bid to evade justice again was ultimately futile.
Speaker 1: At the end of his murder trial, the Supreme Court's
Speaker 1: Justice Ian Harrison delivered a verdict in late August twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two.
Speaker 20: Christopher Michael Dawson on the charts that are not about
Speaker 20: eight January nineteen eighty two, A dave you or elsewhere
Speaker 20: in the state of New South Wales, you did murder
Speaker 20: Lynnett Dawson if I find you guilty.
Speaker 1: I met Matt Fordham for the first time that day
Speaker 1: in the Supreme Court in Sydney. Matt came to watch
Speaker 1: justice unfold better late than never. Investigating Lynn's nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: two disappearance had led me to Karl Milavanovitch in December
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, and Karl would open the door to the
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three disappearance of Bromwyn Winfield. And that's why
Speaker 1: I'm driving in Northern New South Wales. In twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: thirty one years after Bromwin kissed her two girls good
Speaker 1: night and put them to bed in an unremarkable house
Speaker 1: on Sandstone Crescent, the house that John built his castle,
Speaker 1: Bromwan's prison.
Speaker 6: Turn left on the Sandstone Present. Then arrive at your destination.
Speaker 3: This is where Romo's last scene live.
Speaker 21: Arrived, and there's the house. You can't help but wonder
Speaker 21: what happened inside that night? What led to a woman
Speaker 21: disappearing more than thirty years ago?
Speaker 12: Please to be morning.
Speaker 3: Sorry it's taken almost six years.
Speaker 14: Well that didn't about thirty plus time.
Speaker 1: Deborah Hall has welcomed me inside her house at Sandstone Crescent.
Speaker 1: This is where she and her partner Murray raised their
Speaker 1: children and where their friend Bromwin Winfield lived next door
Speaker 1: until her May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three disappearance.
Speaker 14: Can I get you anything?
Speaker 12: He'd be great, Thank you. I've been up at Kingscliffe.
Speaker 5: I didn't really be there, okay.
Speaker 1: Dev Van Murray were important witnesses because they heard and
Speaker 1: saw things at key moments. Bromwin was very unhappy, and
Speaker 1: she had confided this and much more to deb as
Speaker 1: their friendship deepened. Murray the son of a police detective
Speaker 1: became highly suspicious and concerned for Bromwin at a very
Speaker 1: early stage. Their children, who used to play with Bromwin's
Speaker 1: two girls, have grown up, moved away, married, and had
Speaker 1: children of their own. They all return to Sandstone Crescent
Speaker 1: for family occasions. Roman's fate is often talked about at
Speaker 1: these catchups. Bromman and the House cast a long shadow.
Speaker 1: John has a newer grande house in Lenox. He sold
Speaker 1: up on Sandstone Crescent. His place is closer to his
Speaker 1: favorite beach boulders. It is a lot more valuable than
Speaker 1: the house in which John and Bromwin lived with the
Speaker 1: two girls, Crystal and Lauren.
Speaker 12: Do you mind do if IAV run a recorder over this? So, yeah,
Speaker 12: thank you.
Speaker 15: I don't have any problem with that, right, Do you
Speaker 15: have any other commitments this afternoon?
Speaker 1: Roman's good friend told me her reaction while listening to
Speaker 1: Linz's case unfold in The Teacher's Pet in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 22: Driving up the Coastarry nine and the current has put
Speaker 22: you on with the podcast on listen to this.
Speaker 10: I'm like, what is it?
Speaker 14: Titious pet? I had no idea, so I started listening
Speaker 14: and I'm like looking at him going are you hearing this?
Speaker 5: This is this is almost our case.
Speaker 14: I'm like going, this is like, this is Bromplin, this
Speaker 14: is Bromlin.
Speaker 22: That was what prompted me to female you, and I
Speaker 22: hope you didn't mind doing that because it was so similar,
Speaker 22: and I thought I got to just put it out there,
Speaker 22: not expecting that because I know his man getting back
Speaker 22: to me, and when you're a finer, thought, oh okay,
Speaker 22: see obviously we're a little bit aware of this situation.
Speaker 1: Deb and Bromwin had an easy rapport. They helped each
Speaker 1: other all the time. Bromwin received comfort and support from
Speaker 1: Deb and other friends from whom you'll hear they knew
Speaker 1: she was determined to walk from the ruins of her
Speaker 1: relatively brief marriage with John Winfield.
Speaker 22: Watching Chris Dawson on TV is almost like watching John Winfield.
Speaker 22: How so similar in terms of good looking, I physique, everything.
Speaker 14: You could almost be cloned. You two men.
Speaker 22: Knowing John the way I knew John, I'm like, god,
Speaker 22: you know these guys are just on the same path.
Speaker 12: Well, I was really glad that you rite.
Speaker 22: I didn't want to overstep my mark and push anything
Speaker 22: when it's up to the family.
Speaker 14: That kind of agree with that sort of thing.
Speaker 23: So I'm just so frustrated by the fact that this
Speaker 23: beautiful woman who was a good friend of mine is
Speaker 23: no longer with us, and possibly at the hands of
Speaker 23: her husband.
Speaker 22: And the fact that you know, the two girls had
Speaker 22: grown up without their mother. They've got kids of their
Speaker 22: own that she never got to meet. And from one
Speaker 22: was a very caring, very loving and beautiful person. She
Speaker 22: was a great mum. And this is why, in regards
Speaker 22: to what you've just done with the Dawson case, when
Speaker 22: I heard the story about her from one, she's almost
Speaker 22: an identical to how problem was. And there was no
Speaker 22: way she would leave those kids. And I know that,
Speaker 22: and that's the thing that I kept saying to the
Speaker 22: police in.
Speaker 14: The initial investigation. Marry, this is Headley.
Speaker 12: Yeah you too. How are the waves today? Wasn't that good?
Speaker 12: I went out the wrong spot, Star, I should have
Speaker 12: off the point.
Speaker 14: I went bowls Beach, I got smashed it.
Speaker 12: Yeah. I've been here about half an hour just going
Speaker 12: through some of the events. Yeah.
Speaker 14: She's a nice lady. Yeah, if you're sick, she brought
Speaker 14: out some suit because I remember when I had Dale,
Speaker 14: she came down with Lasagnea's And that's the sort of
Speaker 14: person she was. Yeah, she was a class even, really
Speaker 14: nice neighbor, beautiful lady.
Speaker 1: Murray Nolan still goes to Boulders Beach for a look
Speaker 1: and oftener surf most days, and he usually sees his
Speaker 1: former neighbor John Winfield down there. Sometimes they paddle for
Speaker 1: the same wave. Other times they'll look out over the
Speaker 1: water from the car park and talk about what the
Speaker 1: weather might bring.
Speaker 3: Murray liked Bromwin a lot.
Speaker 1: He cannot avoid what he believes is the truth, but
Speaker 1: it's not in his nature to avoid and ostracize John.
Speaker 24: John is perfectly civil and friendly to you. Yes, I'll
Speaker 24: still see him every day. I spoke him this morning. Okay, John,
Speaker 24: how I am a bit windy.
Speaker 14: Swells up in a beautiful surfing sort of talk.
Speaker 24: But I've seen him now, I reckon probably nine days
Speaker 24: out of ten I've seen where did you see it?
Speaker 4: This wad?
Speaker 12: He was just checking the surf. We're all went surfing.
Speaker 12: But does John know what you suspect he has done?
Speaker 24: Yes, throw him under the bus with the corrency quarry.
Speaker 24: My role is to sell the trip, and he's ever
Speaker 24: raised that with you. No, and you just get out
Speaker 24: and talk to each other as if nothing's happened.
Speaker 12: Yeah, he's wild with me.
Speaker 14: Strange, isn't it.
Speaker 12: Yeah, like we're quite friendly. It's a funny sat situation.
Speaker 1: And what's your level of confidence that he did, in
Speaker 1: fact killed.
Speaker 12: Nine point nine?
Speaker 14: How about you did one hundred? See, Mary has a
Speaker 14: nicer nature than I have. I'll steer him down. I
Speaker 14: won't speak to him.
Speaker 1: Debb is spreading documents and photographs across the table for
Speaker 1: me to read and copy.
Speaker 14: Yeah, there's a fabis here I've got that's my statement.
Speaker 14: Oh that was Brian there. That was in a very
Speaker 14: good shot. That was one of my children's birthday party.
Speaker 12: A service of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this has dated July two thousand and two.
Speaker 14: Andrew wanted to have a bit of a memorial before her.
Speaker 12: There was certainty that she instead my photograph.
Speaker 14: All these you can.
Speaker 1: It's a small community relatively, yes, but he stayed here
Speaker 1: the whole time, yes, yes, What do you think of that?
Speaker 12: Does that suggest that perhaps he's got done to hide?
Speaker 12: He's not running away. He loves this place. He knows
Speaker 12: he's done nothing wrong.
Speaker 24: I also think that he's very instillent as well, he
Speaker 24: doesn't speak to that many people.
Speaker 14: I don't know what the outcome of all this will be.
Speaker 14: What's your hope.
Speaker 1: My hope and the hope of many who knew and
Speaker 1: loved Bronwin is that new and illuminating facts emerge as
Speaker 1: a result of this podcast series, something that might finally
Speaker 1: resolve this sad cold case. If Bromwin went away, as
Speaker 1: John Winfield says, where and with whom did she go?
Speaker 1: If Bromwyn has been dead all these years, as a
Speaker 1: former deputy state coroner ruled, how did Bromwin die? And who,
Speaker 1: if anyone, bears responsibility for her death? And where is
Speaker 1: her body? I have approached John Winfield and asked him
Speaker 1: for an interview. John's side of the story is very important.
Speaker 1: John has always emphatically denied any role in any foul play.
Speaker 1: So far, John has declined to speak to me on
Speaker 1: the record or on background. I'm going to keep trying
Speaker 1: because he hasn't ruled it out. In an email to
Speaker 1: me on May twenty one, twenty twenty four, John stated, I.
Speaker 25: Have previously made a sworn statement in nineteen ninety eight
Speaker 25: in which I answered four hundred and fifteen questions and
Speaker 25: as I said to George Radmore in twenty ten, I
Speaker 25: stand by these answers I gave.
Speaker 1: Those are John's words from his email. It's not his voice,
Speaker 1: he answered questions in a nineteen ninety eight interview he
Speaker 1: agreed to do in Ballina Police station, soon after the
Speaker 1: then detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor had started to investigate Bromman's
Speaker 1: case properly for the first time. Twelve years later in
Speaker 1: twenty ten, another experienced detective, George Radmore, who was with
Speaker 1: the homicide Squad of New South Wales, led a reinvestigation.
Speaker 1: In John Winfield's email to me on the eve of
Speaker 1: the release of this episode, he said he might bring
Speaker 1: legal action depending on the content of this podcast series,
Speaker 1: and John added.
Speaker 25: There is a generational history of mental illness, both male
Speaker 25: and female in the Reed family.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: Kim Marshall in Tasmania was the first member of Broman's
Speaker 1: family to contact me. That was back in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: Kim has been a terrier with the help of her
Speaker 1: half brother Andy Reid, in finding decades old documents and
Speaker 1: evidence from the case.
Speaker 18: And Andrew has a box packed away, and Christa has
Speaker 18: a box packed away. Andrew has got masses of stuff,
Speaker 18: boxes that are in ceilings and boxes that are stacked,
Speaker 18: all that type of busy, and I love rummaging and
Speaker 18: getting everything together and putting in some type of chronological
Speaker 18: order for you. So I've asked them both to try
Speaker 18: and get access to their boxes, but I dare say
Speaker 18: it's going to be me physically being the hunter and
Speaker 18: gatherer getting there and going about my business.
Speaker 12: Well, that sounds really good, Kim.
Speaker 1: Missing police statements, which I had been asking members of
Speaker 1: the family about from the start of our contact, finally materialized.
Speaker 1: Bronwin's eldest daughter, Crystal had them.
Speaker 18: Crystal has all the original statements in full, which is
Speaker 18: what Andrew's been looking for for a very long time.
Speaker 14: Crystal actually has them.
Speaker 15: I didn't believe that material would become available, so having
Speaker 15: that makes a very big difference.
Speaker 1: Since Andy Reid, a builder and a popular community figure
Speaker 1: in Sydney's Southerlandshire near Qunella, sought the blessing of his
Speaker 1: niece Crystal to press forward with a podcast investigation. Roman's
Speaker 1: daughter is in her early forties. She's a single mum
Speaker 1: with mixed and complicated views about what happened to her
Speaker 1: own mother when Crystal was ten.
Speaker 26: She just said to us, it's just time that she
Speaker 26: finds out and she wants.
Speaker 12: To know what happened.
Speaker 26: Endeavor to do whatever's needed to be done to try
Speaker 26: and find out the truth.
Speaker 18: That she is terrified as losing the small relationship that
Speaker 18: she has with her sister Lauren. Lauren doesn't believe that
Speaker 18: John did it.
Speaker 1: In June twenty twenty three, I asked Andy about the
Speaker 1: status of police investigations into Bromwin's disappearance.
Speaker 12: Have you heard any more from the police.
Speaker 9: No, we haven't heard anything.
Speaker 26: Unless something turns up, we're basically at a dead end.
Speaker 27: You know.
Speaker 9: They weren't willing to investigate anything.
Speaker 5: That was presented to them any further than what they
Speaker 5: already had.
Speaker 21: They haven't bothered to.
Speaker 26: Reach out or contact or anything for a long time now.
Speaker 26: The last detective for Newcastle was the last person that
Speaker 26: I used.
Speaker 12: To liaise with.
Speaker 26: So every twelve months just ring and asked a couple
Speaker 26: of questions and see if he's earning it into It's
Speaker 26: just that the same response now that's been no.
Speaker 14: Activity on a cards.
Speaker 26: No activity on a bank account, blah blah blah. Well
Speaker 26: it can't be anymore anyway, because the bank account was
Speaker 26: closed down.
Speaker 1: When I spoke to Andy in June twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: before I could start a reinvestigation of the case early
Speaker 1: the following year, he confirmed his strong view about who
Speaker 1: had killed his older sister.
Speaker 26: Oh, nothing's changed, nothing's changed after the corral inquiry.
Speaker 28: How do you reckon he would be viewing the development
Speaker 28: of these true crime investigations, particularly with podcasts into the
Speaker 28: disappearances or murders unsolved, and.
Speaker 14: He'd be raddled. I'm sure he'd be rattled.
Speaker 5: Yeah, which is good unless he sleeps at night.
Speaker 12: The better off we all are.
Speaker 1: Although Andy and other members of the family have been
Speaker 1: angered that police did not do much more soon after
Speaker 1: her disappearance, they have only praise for the first detective
Speaker 1: to seriously suspect foul play.
Speaker 5: Did you speak to Glenn Taylor, Yes, I interviewed him.
Speaker 12: That would have been two and a half years ago.
Speaker 5: Just after we first met when I put you.
Speaker 12: Onto him here.
Speaker 15: Yeah, But I drove down and saw him at his
Speaker 15: house there. He had a little bit of paperwork and
Speaker 15: I took copies of that. I probably interviewed him for
Speaker 15: about two hours, and I've got that audio file.
Speaker 14: He's always been very helpful with us too.
Speaker 26: It was always so apologetic about how badly it was
Speaker 26: handled by the police in the first case, and I
Speaker 26: always said to him, would no no for you to apologize.
Speaker 26: You've only been part of getting it over the line
Speaker 26: of the Corona inquiry.
Speaker 1: Later in this series you'll hear from Glen Taylor again
Speaker 1: about the work that he did to get a brief
Speaker 1: of evidence to the coroner. Glenn's efforts to get to
Speaker 1: the bottom of Bromin's disappearance are ongoing. Glenn vented his
Speaker 1: frustrations in a letter he wrote to Andy and Michelle
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three, one year after the inquest.
Speaker 29: Now that I'm out of the New South Wales Police
Speaker 29: I can get my opinion regarding the original investigation. One
Speaker 29: word describes it disgraceful. The house in Sandstean Crescent should
Speaker 29: have been subject to a thorough and intensive crime scene investigation.
Speaker 29: The same for the Ford motor vehicle. There is nothing
Speaker 29: in the running sheets to indicate the vehicle was eva
Speaker 29: looked at. There was not one single statement taken from
Speaker 29: any witness, and more importantly, no statement or interview was
Speaker 29: taken from John Winfield.
Speaker 1: Now some things have changed since June twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: which was when Andy told me that homicide detectives were
Speaker 1: doing nothing about Bromin's case and that it had gone
Speaker 1: completely cold. It seems the police after years of inactivity
Speaker 1: and now getting active again.
Speaker 12: Is that right?
Speaker 9: This whole thing sort of stirred back up with us talking.
Speaker 26: To you, and we were very curious, and we contacted
Speaker 26: the police.
Speaker 9: Myself and Kim went and had a meeting.
Speaker 1: A senior officer in the police unsolved homicide unit told
Speaker 1: Andy and Kim that Broman's case was being reviewed at
Speaker 1: the request of another veteran detective, George Radmore.
Speaker 9: He put a very strong case forward upon his retirement
Speaker 9: and a request to have Broman's case reloked at they're
Speaker 9: in the process of doing a complete review that I'll
Speaker 9: give them.
Speaker 18: The benefit of doubt because they're trying to get up
Speaker 18: to speed because they're still looking for their documents.
Speaker 1: Shortly before the release of this first episode, Andy went
Speaker 1: to see top detectives from the Homicide Squad's unsolved unit.
Speaker 1: They had asked Andy to come to a meeting for
Speaker 1: an update on how their review of the case had gone.
Speaker 30: Basically said, well, their hands are tried. We can't do
Speaker 30: any more than what we've done, and we don't have
Speaker 30: any new evidence as it stands.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, he said.
Speaker 30: Going Look, I cannot apologize enough for how badly the
Speaker 30: original investigation was handled. They've got no intention of putting
Speaker 30: any more work into it.
Speaker 3: I'm aware that today is the anniversary of promise.
Speaker 12: Can you believe it?
Speaker 3: Thirty one years? Let's see where we get to after
Speaker 3: the podcast? Then? Is it named? Yeah? It is? What
Speaker 3: do you reckon? We're calling it?
Speaker 12: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I don't know one word. Bromwin.
Speaker 12: Oh lovely.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of people will start talking about Bromwin.
Speaker 1: This case never got any publicity.
Speaker 12: Not really.
Speaker 3: No, the Northern Star and that was it, and that
Speaker 3: was on a milk carton once she was on a
Speaker 3: milk cut. We won't have that problem this time. It'll
Speaker 3: get a lot of attention.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the game change that encourages people to come forward.
Speaker 1: We'll hear from people we've never heard of before who
Speaker 1: listen and know something that helps.
Speaker 3: I don't want to over promise, but I really hope
Speaker 3: it makes a difference.
Speaker 12: Yes, with me.
Speaker 1: Andy and Kim, Bromwin's siblings are adamant that they want
Speaker 1: the podcast to go ahead. They have been disappointed by
Speaker 1: official them too many times.
Speaker 18: There is a lot more that the police could do.
Speaker 18: They've got the wrong mindset from back in the day.
Speaker 18: They've looked at the wrong things, and there's so many
Speaker 18: pieces of evidence that have never been presented.
Speaker 1: Before Bromwin vanished, she was planning to welcome Kim to
Speaker 1: Lennox to the house at Sandstone Crescent for a rare visit.
Speaker 18: I spoke to her every day on the phone about
Speaker 18: my plane flight, what time my plane would arrive, then
Speaker 18: I'd be getting on the Greyhound bus. We found the
Speaker 18: buses out together, what time the bus would arrive in Ballina.
Speaker 18: It's going to be so exciting. I'll be able to
Speaker 18: show you all my dresses in my wardrobe. Because I'd
Speaker 18: never had an adult experience with Bonnie, if that makes sense.
Speaker 18: It was always as the youngest child, but this time
Speaker 18: it was going to be adult to adult, and so
Speaker 18: we had all these wonderful talks. And it's only now
Speaker 18: that I could talk to someone about this.
Speaker 1: It was Kim who first alerted me to Bromwyn's storytelling
Speaker 1: her writings, and it was Kim who appreciated how the
Speaker 1: words Bromwin had left behind on those A four pages
Speaker 1: were used against her early on, when she no longer
Speaker 1: had a voice.
Speaker 18: Letters that Bromwin wrote to Mum saying that she was
Speaker 18: scared for her life. There's enough circumstantial evidence.
Speaker 12: Were those letters that she wrote to your mother.
Speaker 18: The police won't give them back to me. They never
Speaker 18: ever ever ever find them or send them the story
Speaker 18: that she was writing. They've got the wrong idea about
Speaker 18: what's actually happened. Bromwyn wrote a beautiful story of her history. Okay,
Speaker 18: this big large pad which some people have copies of it.
Speaker 18: The police never gave me mind back. She actually wrote
Speaker 18: this beautiful chronological list of her history of everything. That
Speaker 18: is a story about Bromwyn. And then she says, when
Speaker 18: I come back, the real Bromwyn will be back, so
Speaker 18: watch out. That statement has got nothing to do with
Speaker 18: Bromwyn going away on a three to five day respite rest.
Speaker 18: That is her writing a story. And John has used
Speaker 18: that paragraph to say that Bromwin has lost her marbles
Speaker 18: and has actually decided to act on what she was writing.
Speaker 18: And he goes, she's unstable, she's like a mother, blah blah, blah.
Speaker 1: Kim insists that in the weeks and months after Bromwin
Speaker 1: first disappeared, police in Ballina, who has shown her writings,
Speaker 1: were persuaded that she wanted to leave her children, that
Speaker 1: she planned.
Speaker 12: To go away.
Speaker 18: They thought brom would have gone away for a rest
Speaker 18: because of this story that she'd written. The detectives asked
Speaker 18: us all these questions, but they asked the questions with
Speaker 18: a bias or a perspective already in place. They didn't
Speaker 18: actually investigate with an open mind.
Speaker 1: Now I need to explain a little of the family
Speaker 1: history of Bromwin, her brother Andy Reid, and their half
Speaker 1: sister Kim Marshall. It is going to become more relevant
Speaker 1: later in this podcast series. You heard Kim make a
Speaker 1: fleeting reference to her mother, Barbara, being unstable. Barbara had
Speaker 1: postnatal depression, and in an extraordinary coincidence, Barbara disappeared too.
Speaker 1: Bromwan was a toddler aged two, and her little brother
Speaker 1: Andy was six months old.
Speaker 3: Kim had not yet been born.
Speaker 1: The circumstances were very different in Bromwin's mother's case because
Speaker 1: Barbara came back after getting treatment for her mental health challenges,
Speaker 1: and while Barbara was away some in her family knew
Speaker 1: where she was.
Speaker 3: They were in touch with her.
Speaker 1: But as you'll hear, a sad chapter of family history
Speaker 1: revolving around Barbara would directly influence the initial investigation into
Speaker 1: Bronwin's disappearance three decades later.
Speaker 3: Her good to meet you, missus, reed Leah clea.
Speaker 1: Hi, I've come to the Sydney home of Bromwin's aunt
Speaker 1: Leah Reid and her husband John Reid. They know the
Speaker 1: family history because they lived it. Bromwan's father Philip and
Speaker 1: Bromwin's uncle John were brothers.
Speaker 12: John was very good to meet.
Speaker 27: Thomas's eight eight and I said, Jimmy's going to expect
Speaker 27: his legs to go on.
Speaker 23: No, no, he won't have a walking stick that way.
Speaker 15: With some lovely photos here three children.
Speaker 17: We've got a videotape there with problem with the father
Speaker 17: in the hospital.
Speaker 27: We could never understand why she didn't try modeling, because
Speaker 27: she was tall and blonde and good looking.
Speaker 15: You knew Bromman's mother, Yes, what do you recall about her?
Speaker 27: Well, when he met her, she was a nurse in
Speaker 27: the local hospital and he had tom slatis, wasn't it?
Speaker 27: And he said the first thing he saw when he
Speaker 27: woke up was Barbara's face, and everyone thought, you know,
Speaker 27: what a marvelous match because she was a real country girl.
Speaker 27: She made pickles, she knitted, she did everything, and it
Speaker 27: seemed like, you know, a marriage made in heaven. And
Speaker 27: then she had Bromwin. We noticed after that she became
Speaker 27: fairly strange. She'd come and stay with us in Sydney
Speaker 27: and I noticed, don't be talking to her, and suddenly
Speaker 27: she just get this vague look on her face and
Speaker 27: stopped talking and then come back into the conversation. I
Speaker 27: don't know how long, you know, it might have only
Speaker 27: been five minutes, but it seemed like a long while.
Speaker 27: And they started taking her to various different doctors and specialists,
Speaker 27: and they said that she was just a housewife and
Speaker 27: needed to get out more. And then we went to
Speaker 27: visit them in Wollongong and we were invited to dinner
Speaker 27: and I noticed that Philip was the one that was
Speaker 27: cooking the steak. He was bathing the kids, and she
Speaker 27: drops sugar all over the floor and so he had
Speaker 27: to clean that up. And I said to him, you
Speaker 27: know what's happening, And he said he couldn't rely on
Speaker 27: her to do anything, and that he didn't know whether
Speaker 27: the kids would even be fed if he didn't come
Speaker 27: home from school at lunchtime to feed them.
Speaker 1: We've been joined by a young woman, Madison Walsh, who
Speaker 1: helped arrange this interview between her grandparents and me. She's
Speaker 1: very curious about Bromin's case and has been doing her
Speaker 1: own research, reading police statements and talking to relatives. Maddie
Speaker 1: is closest to Bromwin's eldest daughter, Crystal, and they are related,
Speaker 1: of course, and you're going to hear a lot more
Speaker 1: from Maddie in later episodes.
Speaker 27: Barbara was there and then she wasn't.
Speaker 12: Sounds like she was really struggling.
Speaker 14: She was struggling, is she must have been?
Speaker 31: It also sounds like a bit of like postnatal depression,
Speaker 31: which is very prevalent these days. But back in the
Speaker 31: day you would have just been labeled.
Speaker 27: As well and in contact postnatal depression, so I know
Speaker 27: what that was about.
Speaker 12: These sorts of issues were not as well understood.
Speaker 14: They don't know about it.
Speaker 27: I mean, the poor kids had a dreadful, dreadful doing.
Speaker 5: She just took off.
Speaker 12: We didn't know where she.
Speaker 27: Was, and then she got in touch. She rang up
Speaker 27: and said that she couldn't cope with Andrew come and
Speaker 27: get him. She just disappeared.
Speaker 31: I think they reconnected. From what I've seen and heard
Speaker 31: from was eleven and Andrew was no and then there
Speaker 31: it maintained contact ever since then. Barbara din't have custody
Speaker 31: of them, which she says is why she wanted to
Speaker 31: have another child, Kim.
Speaker 3: And then many years later Bronwan disappeared. Did the family
Speaker 3: suspect that Roman.
Speaker 1: Was just doing what her mother had done?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 27: Really, I didn't, well no, because she wasn't like nothing
Speaker 27: like Barbara.
Speaker 5: We didn't ever think about it being like.
Speaker 18: No.
Speaker 27: I never thought it was, oh, you know, here we
Speaker 27: go again.
Speaker 14: Barbara all over. Nothing happened to make us think that.
Speaker 27: Certainly not me anyhow, I think if we thought there
Speaker 27: was anything wrong with Roman, we would probably would have
Speaker 27: thought it was just because of her dramatic childhood.
Speaker 1: Roman was an exceptionally caring and loving mother, but when
Speaker 1: she disappeared in nineteen ninety three, the actions three decades
Speaker 1: earlier of her mother Barbara, who was suffering without appropriate treatment,
Speaker 1: were raised and relied upon to so doubt to impune
Speaker 1: Bromwin and suggest that she had abandoned her kids.
Speaker 5: And did the police who were alerted.
Speaker 1: To Bromin's disappearance in nineteen ninety three contact you in
Speaker 1: that time?
Speaker 27: Now, I don't remember any police coming to us until
Speaker 27: that must have been nineteen ninety eight, and.
Speaker 12: That's the first time you heard from police.
Speaker 3: Yeah, hello, Hello, is that Meghan.
Speaker 1: Another family member who will be prominent in upcoming episodes
Speaker 1: is Bromwin's cousin, Megan Reid, the daughter of John and Leah.
Speaker 1: Megan played a significant role in Bromwin's life, and they
Speaker 1: were in close contact before she disappeared from the get go.
Speaker 32: When she was born, she used to stay with my family.
Speaker 32: We're only sixteen months apart, and we were as close
Speaker 32: as close her relationship with John.
Speaker 5: I knew what it was like.
Speaker 32: I knew I'd seen the bruises she showed my father.
Speaker 17: It's written in his statement to me.
Speaker 32: It's just so shocking because I used to speak to
Speaker 32: her when she was on that phone, and I could
Speaker 32: hear him yelling.
Speaker 4: And screaming and being on the door.
Speaker 32: I mean, surely other people heard it. Now, she was
Speaker 32: terrified of John, absolutely.
Speaker 8: Terrified of him.
Speaker 32: If he had made it incredibly clear that she would
Speaker 32: never get that house. The last thing she said to
Speaker 32: me was that the best thing she ever did was
Speaker 32: to move out and get away from him. She had
Speaker 32: asked my parents for money she needed to retain a solicitor.
Speaker 32: I just can't believe the timing. I don't understand to
Speaker 32: this day how Jonathan's walking around the streets.
Speaker 8: It just astound me.
Speaker 32: Of the incompetence of the police.
Speaker 5: Lost all of the internets.
Speaker 27: I can't even find it.
Speaker 32: Can you believe that the Bungle dish show.
Speaker 4: Barely they really have?
Speaker 17: I've lived with it for thirty years.
Speaker 1: Bronwyn is written and investigated by me Headley Thomas as
Speaker 1: a podcast production for The Australian. If anyone has information
Speaker 1: which may help solve this cold case, please contact me
Speaker 1: confidentially by emailing Bronwyn at the Australian dot com dot au.
Speaker 1: You can read more about this case and see a
Speaker 1: range of photographs and other artwork at the website Bronwyn
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. Our subscribers and registered users here episodes first.
Speaker 1: The production and editorial team for Bromwin includes Claire Harvey,
Speaker 1: Kristin Amiot, Joshua Burton, Bridget, Ryan Bianca far Marcus, Katie Burns,
Speaker 1: Liam Mendez, Sean Callen, and Matthew Condon and David Murray.
Speaker 1: Audio production for this podcast series is by Wasabi Audio
Speaker 1: and original theme music by Slade Gibson. We have been
Speaker 1: assisted by Madison Walsh, a relation of Bromwin Winfield. We
Speaker 1: can only do this kind of journalism with the support
Speaker 1: of our subscribers and our major sponsors like Harvey Norman.
Speaker 1: For all of our exclusive stories, videos, maps, timelines and
Speaker 1: documents about this podcast and other podcasts, including The Teacher's Pet,
Speaker 1: The Teachers Trial, The Teacher's Accuser, Shandy Story, Shandy's Legacy
Speaker 1: and The Night Driver, go to the Australian dot Com
Speaker 1: dot au and subscribe