WEBVTT - Huge twist in Bronwyn cold case 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:08.400 You can listen to the Front on your smart sneaker 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:12.639 every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:23.360 the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.760 on the front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Friday, June twenty one. 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.440 Renewables will have to make up the majority of Australia's 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:39.160 future electricity generation, even under Peter Dutton's nuclear plan. That's 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:42.680 according to energy experts who are chiming in as debate 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:48.000 rages about Australia's energy future amid fears we're already running 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:54.520 out of gas generation. There's a new fight ahead of 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.959 TV star Lisa Wilkinson, who's going to pay for her 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.840 new bid to contest the Federal Court's findings. The TV 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:05.040 presenter has already racked up legal fees of one point 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:08.840 eight million dollars defending herself from a defamation suit by 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.440 Bruce Lahman, whom the court found had, on the balance 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:17.280 of probabilities, raped fellow Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins. Lamman is 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.480 appealing those stories alive right now at The Australian dot 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:28.280 com dot a U a stunning new witness account in 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.640 the disappearance of thirty one year old mum Bronwyn Winfield 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:35.759 has emerged and it's turned the investigation on a gripping 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:36.679 new path. 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:37.760 Today. 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:42.520 What Bronwyn Winfield's neighbor saw late one night in May 0:01:42.800 --> 0:02:08.520 nineteen ninety three, thirty one years ago, Judy Singh stood 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.480 in the living area of her two story home on 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:16.720 Granite Street in Lennox, head up well after dark. She 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:20.119 was a mum, a nurse, worried about how her new 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:24.520 pregnancy was progressing, and stressing about her job and money. 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:28.959 Down the road in the darkness, a car started up. 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.280 And this night I was sitting up and I saw 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.320 the car pull out at the end of the street 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.840 when the light was on in the car. There fairly 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:42.480 squeaky brakes on that car and he drove very slowly 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.400 along the street, but he had left the car light 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.680 on and I could see directly into the car that 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:52.000 you're listening. 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.919 Judy told this story to The Australian's National Chief correspondent 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:01.240 Headley Thomas for a new episode of the Alien's investigative 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:03.279 podcast series Bronwyn. 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:05.480 Yeah, I'm transfixed. 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:10.960 Yeah, that's Hedley interviewing Dudy. In recent days, listening to 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:15.760 her remarkable account of what she remembers from May nineteen 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:20.440 ninety three. Hedley is investigating the disappearance of thirty one 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.880 year old mother of two Bronwyn Winfield from Sandstone Crescent 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:29.920 on May sixteenth in nineteen ninety three. That night, Bronwyn 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:35.040 tucked her two little girls into bed and vanished. Police 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.200 investigations conducted over the past three decades have so far 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:42.680 failed to shed any light on Bronwyn's fate. Her husband, 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:48.200 John Winfield, has always maintained Bronwyn left the family home voluntarily. 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.200 The initial police investigation failed to consider the possibility she'd 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:54.560 met with foul play. 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.840 Yeah, and I could see directa into the car, and 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.000 I had a small lantern on the balcony rail and 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.000 he kind of looked up this night and I saw 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:09.600 this what looked to be like a mummy in the 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.200 back of the car, and I thought, what are it 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.480 be going late that night with? You know, something that 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.800 looked like I just called it a mummy. And I've 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:24.480 said this to my son so many times about this thing. 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.120 And I thought, well, if he'd pulled out and that 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.200 was a body in that car, it would be pressing 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:36.200 up against the surfboard and maybe what was causing the 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.440 light to be on in the car. And I thought, well, 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.719 even if he was taking out belongings, you wouldn't make 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.479 it look like a body, do you know what I mean? 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:51.160 So when you say a mummy, it was wrapped in something. 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:57.760 Yes, it was either very pale green or cream, not white, 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:00.720 but maybe like a bed sheet or some like that. 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:06.120 Judy is quite certain it was John Winfield driving the 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:10.640 family's white Ford Falcon that night. She says she could 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.960 see into the car because the interior light was on. 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.240 Something that's always troubled her. Why would the light be on? 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:22.640 What was that shape she'd seen in the backseat. John 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:27.360 Winfield denies any wrongdoing in this matter. He's never been charged. 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.320 This isn't the first time Judy Seingh has told her story. 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:38.280 She relayed what she'd seen to her friend and neighbor 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:43.080 Kerry McLain, shortly after Bromwin disappeared in nineteen ninety three. 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.440 Not long after, Judy reported it at Ballinor police station 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.880 on the New South Wales North Coast. A decade later, 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.400 she tried again, this time with the cops in Byron Bay. 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.920 Police heard her claims, but Judy says they didn't take 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:02.440 any interest. It wasn't until January twenty twenty three when 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.960 Headley got an email from Kerry McLain, Jude's old friend 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.400 from Lennox head that the pieces began to fit together. 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.120 Kerry reached out to Headley because she knew of his 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:17.320 track record in investigating cold cases. She told him she 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:21.919 knew something about the disappearance of Bromwyn Winfield, including Judy's story. 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.360 Headley tried to track Judy down, but she's moved and remarried, 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.480 so her name has changed. Then, out of the blue, 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.880 just over a week ago, Judy contacted Headley by email, 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.320 saying she had heard about the podcast, although she hadn't 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:39.919 listened to it, and wanted to let him know what 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:40.679 she knew. 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.080 You wonder why the police wouldn't be interested in that. 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:48.360 Even now, I start getting quite churned up inside when 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.719 I'm thinking about it. It's just one of those things 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.840 that I've had to live with. My son Bo and 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.520 I talk about it a lot. I said to him 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.960 the other day, I said, you know, this is podcast 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:05.559 came on, you know the Australian newspaper, And I said 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.560 to my son, oh, there's this podcast about Bronwen. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:09.840 I haven't actually seen it. 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:13.520 I said, oh, cry, what why should I do it? 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:13.760 You know? 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.239 And he said, oh it's crazy, Mom, You've. 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:18.840 Been thinking about that forever. 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.760 And I said, oh I ready and he said, oh great, 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:27.880 great good. I need get off your conscience. He said, Mum, 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.640 you've always you know, ANNGSD over this. Why ain't you're 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.000 in here? So that's what I. 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:42.320 Did coming up how this mystery sent our team on 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:47.000 the hunt for a vintage Ford Falcon. Subscribers to The 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:51.360 Australian here episodes of Bromwin first. This explosive new installment 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:55.800 is live right now at bromwanpodcast dot com. A subscription 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.720 also includes all the australians world class journalism and commentary, 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.320 as well as breaking news alerts, newsletters and special events. 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.920 Join us at the Australian dot com dot au and 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:36.000 we'll be back after this break. Judy Singh's account of 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.920 what she saw in the early hours of May sixteenth, 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:44.440 nineteen ninety three is chilling, But investigative journalism involves really 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:48.199 digging into any new piece of info, testing every story, 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.679 every bit of evidence. That's how our team wound up 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:55.200 searching for a white nineteen eighty seven Ford Falcon XF sedan. 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:57.760 It had to be automatic because of the way the 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:01.400 car's interior was configured. It had to be the exact 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.800 make and model of John Winfield's car, so we could 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.920 establish for ourselves whether what Judy says she saw was 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:13.760 really possible. We called old colleagues, texted friends, dived into 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:18.160 the car fanatics subculture on social media, rang every petrol 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:21.840 head we knew trying to find the exact make and model. 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:26.480 It was the Australian's National Crime correspondent David Murray who 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.959 came up with the goods. He located and excess sudan 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.240 in Ipswich in Queensland, only this one was blue. 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:35.960 There's plenty of roomen here. 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:41.320 That's our visual storytelling expert Sean Callanan, who also happens 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.480 to be a surfer and brought a bunch of his 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.199 boards along to Ipswich with Dave and Headley. Their aim 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.320 was to test out Judy's account of a board and 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.880 a body in the backseat of this car? Was that possible? 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.760 Would a human body and a surfboard both fit in 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:02.040 the back of this kind of sedan? Joining me'em in Ipswich, 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.319 was Bianca far Marcus, who's actually The Australian's hugely talented 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:10.600 video editor and has been voicing Bromwyn in this podcast. 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.640 When we moved to Lennox Head, I was even more lonely. 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:18.559 The house that was Bill became John's castle and my prison. 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:24.560 Bianca reads Bromwyn's letters and notes the ones Bromwin wrote 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:28.640 back in nineteen ninety three, and Bianca is the same 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:32.960 height as Bromwan one hundred and seventy three centimeters. She 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:37.320 has the same slender build as Bromwin. Bianca did not 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.240 bat an eyelid when she was told we would be 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.640 wrapping her up in a sheet, wrapping her to look 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.600 something like an Egyptian mummy, and then picking her up 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.400 and putting her in the back of an old Ford 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:52.480 falcon along with a surfboard. 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:57.000 So you could potentially fit in a board up to 0:10:58.280 --> 0:10:59.400 close to seven foot. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:01.760 Yeah, you could even go longer, be as you could 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:03.880 turn it over and put the nose on the dash 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:08.199 and the back of it on the back bench. The 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:12.280 next bit was the most challenging. Three middle aged white 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:16.079 males needed to literally wrap Bianchor up in a sheet 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.320 and then pick her up and place her in the 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:23.199 back of the car. We needed then to cover her head, 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:25.840 and we needed to see if she would fit with 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.800 the surfboard in the way Jude had described it. 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:32.640 To hear how the boys fit Bianca and the board 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:34.640 in the back seat. You can listen to the episode 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.400 and watch the startling video footage right now at brominpodcast 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:44.120 dot com. We also sent our visual storytelling expert Sean 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.360 Callanan to go with Heavily to Judy Singh's house in 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:51.280 order to capture in a visual sense what Judy remembers. 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.880 Sean is one of those digital experts who can do anything, 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.520 and when I described to him the challenge of bringing 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.440 Judy's memories to life, he came up with the idea 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:04.680 of collaborating with another of our digital design experts, Stephen Grice, 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.880 to first sketch what Judy described, then create a computer 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.120 image of the driver and what Judy described as a 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.680 mummy in the back of the car. We bought detailed 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:19.360 three dimensional images of the nineteen eighties forward XF the 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.560 very same model, and together Stephen and Sean place the 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:26.000 elements in the car, a driver, a surfboard, and a 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:29.040 body wrapped in a sheet slumped on the back seat. 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:33.240 The effect of the digital graphic they've created is chilling. 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.400 On bromwynpodcast dot com and the Australian dot com dot 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.000 au right now, you can see an animation of the 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:43.280 car driving along the street in the darkness, with its 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:47.680 interior light illuminating the body, the board and the driver. 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.640 The next question will be how New South Wales police 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.720 react to this development a fresh eyewitness account in this 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:58.920 thirty one year old mystery. To find out, go to 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:02.880 Bromwin podcast dot com right now and join our subscribers. 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:25.560 Episode seven of Bromwin is out for subscribers now and 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.280 you can see how we brought this stunning witness account 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:32.559 to life through three D renderings and recreations at our website. 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.560 Thanks for joining us on the front. Our team is 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:40.240 Kristin amiot Leat Sammaglu, Joshua Burton, Jasper League, Tiffany Dimack 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:41.680 and name Claire Harvey.