Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to episode one of Bronwen. We dropped
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Speaker 2: Listeners are advised that this podcast series Bronwen contains course
Speaker 2: language and adult themes. This podcast series is brought to
Speaker 2: you by Me Headley Thomas and The Australian.
Speaker 3: When we moved to Lennox head I was even more lonely.
Speaker 3: The house that was built became John's Castle in my prison.
Speaker 2: Bromwin Winfield wrote these words shortly before she disappeared one
Speaker 2: Sunday night in May nineteen ninety three. She had been
Speaker 2: to see her GP a couple of days earlier and
Speaker 2: was in good physical health. Apart from having strained her hand.
Speaker 2: She was of sound mind and had no known mental illness.
Speaker 2: A brief period of postnatal depression after the birth five
Speaker 2: years earlier of her second daughter was well behind.
Speaker 4: Bromwin Where do you want to go.
Speaker 2: Today? Thirty one years since the sudden disappearance of a
Speaker 2: mother of two little girls. I'm driving on a winding
Speaker 2: road south of Byron Bay to the house that Bromwin
Speaker 2: had called her prison. Past former dairy and sugar cane farms,
Speaker 2: subdivided for residential housing estates and the Great Australian family Dream.
Speaker 2: A three or four bedroom, two bathroom ricantile close to the.
Speaker 4: Beach, getting directions to Sandstone Crescent, Lenox Head.
Speaker 2: The Pacific Ocean is tantalizingly close. You can hear it,
Speaker 2: smell it. Its saltiness lingers on an easterly zephyr of
Speaker 2: a breeze. In luxury homes with views over smoothly curving coastline,
Speaker 2: binoculars are at the ready for the first sightings of
Speaker 2: humpback whales on their annual migratory journey from Antarctica. They
Speaker 2: perform in the warm waters of an aquatic backyard off
Speaker 2: the most easterly part of Australia's mainland and the lighthouse
Speaker 2: at Byron Bay. It's a quieter, gentler lifestyle in this
Speaker 2: place everyone calls Lenox. It's less crowded here, more chilled
Speaker 2: than the nearby more famous Byron Roman left in dollible
Speaker 2: imprints on those who loved her, yet her thirty one
Speaker 2: years disappeared with barely a ripple in the wider world.
Speaker 2: Her life, her suspicious disappearance, and her highly probable death
Speaker 2: have barely been reported, except from time to time by
Speaker 2: regional TV and The Northern Star. The newspaper ceased publication
Speaker 2: in print in twenty twenty, but Bromin left behind her writings,
Speaker 2: her reflections on her life, her marriage and loved ones,
Speaker 2: with the occasional underlining and crossed out word on sheets
Speaker 2: of a four paper. They are poignant and compelling. All
Speaker 2: these years later, I picture Bromwin writing in quiet moments
Speaker 2: between getting her two girls ready for school and working
Speaker 2: part time in a local takeaway store called Eden's down
Speaker 2: near the Waves.
Speaker 3: My idea of a lasting love is being able to
Speaker 3: tell your partner anything and it doesn't make it difference
Speaker 3: to your relationship. Trust, being kind to one another when
Speaker 3: you're down, supportive, having time for each other always, as
Speaker 3: well as time for other people.
Speaker 2: Her family, friends, and neighbors tell me she was determined
Speaker 2: to remain separated from her husband of six years, John Winfield.
Speaker 2: Bromwin wanted to go her own way. She was pursuing
Speaker 2: a divorce Her good friends in this idyllic beachside town
Speaker 2: in northern New South Wales supported her. They were all
Speaker 2: school mums with small children who played together. They shared
Speaker 2: instant coffees, morning walks, birthday parties, turns at babysitting, and
Speaker 2: random catchups for a glass of wine and easy conversation.
Speaker 2: Bromwin had confided troubling things about her marriage. She was
Speaker 2: close to her brother Andy and his wife Michelle, who
Speaker 2: lived in Sydney, a one hour flight away. It was
Speaker 2: where Bromwyn had grown up. She had close cousins there,
Speaker 2: including Megan Reid. She had her auntie Leah and uncle
Speaker 2: John and her half sister Melissa. Her mother Barbara and
Speaker 2: her half sister Kim Marshall lived another hour away in Tasmania.
Speaker 2: All of these family members talked regularly to Bromwin. Kim
Speaker 2: was about to travel north to Lenox because Bromwin had
Speaker 2: invited her to come and stay for a while. Nobody
Speaker 2: had heard of any plans by Bromwin to suddenly go
Speaker 2: away to disappear. Writing about the unhappiness of the marriage,
Speaker 2: Bromin had decided was bad for her and her girls,
Speaker 2: perhaps felt cathartic. Liberating the house in Lenox was a
Speaker 2: heavy burden.
Speaker 3: I drifted away from John as he became more and
Speaker 3: more depressed about the house being less than immaculate and
Speaker 3: the death of his mother, the only woman he thought
Speaker 3: was perfect. I couldn't leave him at the time, as
Speaker 3: he was so unhappy and depressed and hated life and
Speaker 3: probably me. I tried to plead and talk to him
Speaker 3: to open up and get things off his chest, but
Speaker 3: nothing would help him.
Speaker 2: Friends and neighbors tell me John would obsess and see
Speaker 2: over the smallest things. No matter how hard Brommin tried.
Speaker 2: The house could never be clean enough for John. A
Speaker 2: tiny spot on a tile, a crumb on the carpet,
Speaker 2: these could set him off. John was an introvert and
Speaker 2: a perfectionist. He had built the house with his bare hands.
Speaker 2: He was often unhappy when visitors dropped by. Sometimes he
Speaker 2: would appear hostile. Bromwin, on the other hand, was naturally
Speaker 2: sociable and welcoming. She needed the company and support of
Speaker 2: her friends, but the children would play with their friends
Speaker 2: in the garage to ensure no mess in the house,
Speaker 2: and all the while Brommin walked around on a big shells.
Speaker 2: She worried about how John would react when people were
Speaker 2: over all of it took a toll. The tensions must
Speaker 2: have been unbearable at times. Their marriage was clearly doomed.
Speaker 2: On March twenty one, nineteen ninety three, Bromwin and John
Speaker 2: formally separated.
Speaker 3: Eventually, I switched off and became cold inside. He had
Speaker 3: a heart of ice and always criticized me no matter
Speaker 3: what I did. The man was cold and heartless and
Speaker 3: gave nothing but expected everything.
Speaker 2: Bromwyn shared recollections and sorrows, hurts, and philosophical musings with
Speaker 2: her notepad. But for whom was she writing all of
Speaker 2: this in nineteen ninety three? Why had she begun to
Speaker 2: put it all down? Bromwin hadn't kept a journal before.
Speaker 2: Bromwin's family and friends tell me she lived for her
Speaker 2: two daughters, Crystal, aged ten, and Lauren five. She loved
Speaker 2: those girls to bits. Her devotion every day was obvious
Speaker 2: to all who knew her. The three were inseparable, and
Speaker 2: Romin was a caring, nurturing mother. Nobody has suggested otherwise.
Speaker 3: My children have suffered from the environment that surrounded them.
Speaker 3: It is equally important to be honest with them and
Speaker 3: to tell them about their past, as you not only
Speaker 3: suffer from denying the truth, but so did they as.
Speaker 2: I read all of it. Some big questions are inescapable?
Speaker 2: Are Brombin's writings the artifacts of a woman looking back
Speaker 2: on the thirty one years of her life to that moment,
Speaker 2: a woman looking forward with her two girls to a happier,
Speaker 2: brighter future as a newly single mum finally freed of
Speaker 2: the shackles and sadness she felt in an intolerable marriage
Speaker 2: to John.
Speaker 3: I was surrounded by hate and abuse in various ways
Speaker 3: as a child, and am determined not to allow this
Speaker 3: to happen to my girls or myself ever again. No
Speaker 3: one will ever intimidate me again, nor will I allow
Speaker 3: anyone to force their opinions onto me, as this can
Speaker 3: cause damage to myself as well as my children. If
Speaker 3: love means not being trusted to be yourself, or thinking
Speaker 3: that everyone is out to own you paranoia, then it
Speaker 3: is not my idea of happiness.
Speaker 2: Or are they the nuanced words of a woman who
Speaker 2: is writing with a plan to leave something personal and
Speaker 2: heartfelt behind for her loved ones. When Romin wrote in
Speaker 2: her notepad in nineteen ninety three, was she intending to
Speaker 2: imminently and dramatically change everything by leaving everyone who loved her,
Speaker 2: including her daughters. Was she intending to vanish without explanation
Speaker 2: and never see or speak to them or anyone else?
Speaker 2: She knew again.
Speaker 3: Everyone has both good and bad, and I've confronted the
Speaker 3: bad in myself and realized I am human. We all
Speaker 3: make mistakes. I can forgive myself and will now live
Speaker 3: with my memories in peace. I will always remember the
Speaker 3: people I meet. I'll be fine now. A little break
Speaker 3: for a few weeks and everyone will see the old
Speaker 3: may look out.
Speaker 2: Over months of visits to Lennox, nearby towns and villages,
Speaker 2: and the city in which she grew up, Sydney, I'm
Speaker 2: talking to people who knew Bromwan and seeking answers to
Speaker 2: these questions and more, talking to anyone who might shed
Speaker 2: light on what happened to Broman on the night of
Speaker 2: May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three, when John was the last
Speaker 2: person to see her at the home in Sandstone Crescent.
Speaker 2: In this enclave worshiped by dedicated surfers and made affluent
Speaker 2: by sea change property owners, people who know more than
Speaker 2: they've let on before about Broman's fate are coming forward.
Speaker 2: Former police detectives are sharing information with me. Many hundreds
Speaker 2: of pages of evidence are being scrutinized for clues. Here's
Speaker 2: one example. On April two, nineteen ninety three, Doreen Strong
Speaker 2: from the Ballena Byron Family Support Service made a handwritten
Speaker 2: diary note about the first of several contacts with the
Speaker 2: newly singled Bromwin from Lennox Head.
Speaker 5: Bronwyn Winfield left husband ten days ago emotional violence, custody
Speaker 5: threats being to solicitor. Received advice regarding custody. Feels better
Speaker 5: but needs support. We are to call Monday regarding availability
Speaker 5: of appointment.
Speaker 2: Bromwyn saw three different solicitors after her separation from John.
Speaker 2: On March twenty one, nineteen ninety three, she sought advice
Speaker 2: about her rights in a planned property settlement with John,
Speaker 2: an intended division of their assets. The solicitor she had
Speaker 2: decided to stay with, Chris McDevitt, was based in the
Speaker 2: nearby ten of Lismore. Broman's next appointment in his office
Speaker 2: there was scheduled for Monday, May seventeen. I have a
Speaker 2: copy of a page from her notepad with the time
Speaker 2: Bromwin jotted down for the Monday meeting with Chris mcdebitt
Speaker 2: eleven am. But Bromwin disappeared the night before Sunday, May sixteenth,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three, and as she didn't meet her solicitor
Speaker 2: or contact him ever again to make another appointment, the
Speaker 2: plans that had been made for divorce and a sale
Speaker 2: of the house were quietly shelved. John kept his castle
Speaker 2: on Sandstone Crescent.
Speaker 4: Heads south on Dalana Street in seven hundred meters at
Speaker 4: the roundabout take this second exit onto North Creek Road.
Speaker 2: A good wave is peeling this sunny afternoon. Board riders
Speaker 2: are carving across the face of swollen waves at a
Speaker 2: beach known as Boulders. Boulders Beach is still John Winfield's
Speaker 2: favorite location when he paddles out for a wave. Bromwan's
Speaker 2: husband didn't leave Lennox Head after she vanished, but why
Speaker 2: would he? John has always emphatically denied wrongdoing. In two
Speaker 2: thousand and two, a senior coroner made a formal finding
Speaker 2: that Bromwin was dead, and he ended an inquest which
Speaker 2: had traversed a large amount of evidence over five days
Speaker 2: of hearings in a courtroom in Lismore. More importantly, the
Speaker 2: Senior Coroner recommended to the Director of Public Prosecutions in
Speaker 2: New South Wales that a known person, Bromwin's husband, John Winfield,
Speaker 2: should be prosecuted over her alleged murder, but the DPP
Speaker 2: firmly refused to prosecute.
Speaker 6: I wish to advise that, after careful consideration of the
Speaker 6: matter referred to him by the Coroner, and following further investigation,
Speaker 6: the Director of Public Prosecutions is not satisfied that there
Speaker 6: is sufficient evidence to lay any charge against Jonathan Winfield
Speaker 6: at this time.
Speaker 2: The prosecuting agency confirmed its decision in a letter of
Speaker 2: just one sentence. The letter went to the police who
Speaker 2: had reinvestigated Bromwin's case for the inquest. Romman's brother Andy
Speaker 2: Reid and his wife Michelle were astonished. They wrote to
Speaker 2: the office of the DPP in early two thousand than three.
Speaker 7: We are writing to you on behalf of ourselves and
Speaker 7: the Reed family to formally request a full explanation as
Speaker 7: to why the Crown Prosecutor in Lismore and the Director
Speaker 7: of Public Prosecutions in Sydney have decided there is not
Speaker 7: sufficient evidence to lay charge against mister Jonathan Winfield.
Speaker 8: We feel that at the very least, we deserve better
Speaker 8: than a line or two informing us of this decision.
Speaker 8: It has taken ten long years to get the case
Speaker 8: to this point, and we would appreciate a full written
Speaker 8: response to this matter at your earliest convenience.
Speaker 7: No doubt you are aware that we are completely dissatisfied
Speaker 7: at the decision and have already taken steps to investigate
Speaker 7: the matter further through political and departmental channels.
Speaker 2: The Director of Public Prosecutions in New South Wales at
Speaker 2: that time, Nicholas Cowdery, replied to Andy Reid.
Speaker 9: The disappears of your sister Bronwin Winfield in May nineteen
Speaker 9: ninety three has no doubt caused much grief to you
Speaker 9: and your family, and I offer my sympathies. My advice
Speaker 9: to police in the coroner, after very careful consideration of
Speaker 9: all the evidence presently available, is that there is not
Speaker 9: sufficient evidence to charge Jonathan Winfield or any other person.
Speaker 9: Bronwin's disappearance was not reported to the police for two
Speaker 9: weeks and was initially treated as a missing person inquiry.
Speaker 9: By the time it was dealt with as a possible homicide,
Speaker 9: years had passed and any potential scientific evidence was long gone.
Speaker 9: There is nobody and no known cause of death. While
Speaker 9: Jonathan Winfield is the last known person to have seen
Speaker 9: her alive, there is no evidence that he killed her
Speaker 9: or had any role in her disappearance. Suspicion cannot be
Speaker 9: substitution for evidence.
Speaker 2: John has never been charged with any offense in relation
Speaker 2: to his missing wife. John suggested two police that ronwin
Speaker 2: had left to start a new life with a new identity,
Speaker 2: probably money from, in John's words, a wealthy sugar daddy.
Speaker 2: But nobody has ever reported having seen her, and in
Speaker 2: the two decades since Nicholas Cowdery wrote that letter in
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, there's still nobody behind his back. Lennox.
Speaker 2: Locals who know the story of Bromwyn Winfield scoff at
Speaker 2: John's version. I was on assignment and rushing from one
Speaker 2: interview to the next in Sydney when I heard her
Speaker 2: name for the first time. It was December twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: Bromwin Joy Winfield had been missing for twenty four years.
Speaker 2: By then. She became real for me. During my podcast
Speaker 2: investigation into the nineteen eighty two disappearance of another missing woman,
Speaker 2: Lynette Joy Dawson at the request of Lynn's family, we
Speaker 2: now refer to her by her maiden name. She's Lynette Simms.
Speaker 2: It was a hot and humid afternoon, just a week
Speaker 2: before Christmas twenty seventeen, and I had spent several hours
Speaker 2: talking to Lynn's friend Julie Andrew in her home near
Speaker 2: the heart of Sydney. Julie made a powerful impression that day.
Speaker 2: Six months later, when the podcast had a name, The
Speaker 2: Teacher's Pet, and episode started to come out, listeners heard
Speaker 2: Julie's commitment to justice for Limb. They heard her unwavering
Speaker 2: certainty about Lynn's fate at the hands of her husband,
Speaker 2: Chris Dawson.
Speaker 10: The best way to dispose of a body when you
Speaker 10: live in the bush is to put it in the bush,
Speaker 10: and that's what I think he did on the Friday night.
Speaker 10: I'm sorrowful. I lost a tear friend and I've carried
Speaker 10: these and I miss her every day. I just want justice,
Speaker 10: and I'd love her little girls to know she didn't
Speaker 10: leave them, she was taken away from them now the
Speaker 10: person who was supposed to protect her.
Speaker 2: I drove away from the interview in Julie's terrace house
Speaker 2: with my friend Rebecca Hazel. We headed west to meet
Speaker 2: Karl Milavanovitch, a retired deputy State Coroner of New South Wales.
Speaker 11: Yeah, come in, get you out of the heat.
Speaker 12: We're very sorry.
Speaker 11: We just realized we pulled up it and we didn't
Speaker 11: bring the bottle of why a cake anything. We've got
Speaker 11: that organized.
Speaker 13: Come upstairs, please, straight up the stairs.
Speaker 2: Karl had agreed to talk to me for my podcast
Speaker 2: investigation back then about Lynn's case. He remembered the evidence
Speaker 2: well because back in two thousand and three, fourteen years
Speaker 2: before Karl met me at his home, he had led
Speaker 2: an exhaustive coronial investigation. Karl watched and heard numerous witnesses
Speaker 2: give evidence under oath in a courtroom in Sydney. These
Speaker 2: witnesses recalled Lynn and Chris, the Northern Beaches home, the
Speaker 2: marriage and a schoolgirl will call JYC. There were many
Speaker 2: who were adamant that Linn would never have voluntarily left
Speaker 2: her two girls, who were just four and two at
Speaker 2: the time. Among the witnesses were Lynn's friends and family
Speaker 2: who knew her as an utterly devoted mother and wife,
Speaker 2: and sister and daughter. All were questioned under oath in
Speaker 2: the inquest by a police officer with expertise as a lawyer,
Speaker 2: Matt Fordham. He had done a lot of work to
Speaker 2: ensure the police brief of evidence was very solid. A
Speaker 2: highly committed Northern Beach's detective called Damian Lone was sure
Speaker 2: that Chris Dawson had killed Lynn. Damien had been investigating
Speaker 2: the case off and on for several years, and his
Speaker 2: work comprised most of the police brief of evidence. Chris Dawson,
Speaker 2: a high school teacher and former first grade rugby league
Speaker 2: player with the Newtown Jets, had become in fat scituated
Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty with the babysitter, his former student at
Speaker 2: Cromer High School. Chris would move Jc into Lynd's bed
Speaker 2: within a couple of days of Lynn's disappearance in January
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two, but Chris didn't give any evidence. In
Speaker 2: the courtroom of the then Deputy State coroner Karl Milavanovitch
Speaker 2: in two thousand and three, Chris exercised his right to silence.
Speaker 2: A key witness was the former teenage babysitter, JC, who
Speaker 2: had gone on to marry Chris Dawson, then flee him,
Speaker 2: obtain a divorce and raise her concerns with police about
Speaker 2: foul play. At the end of the coronial proceedings, Karl
Speaker 2: Milavanovitch found that Lynn was dead and he recommended to
Speaker 2: the Director of Public Prosecutions at the time, Nicholas Cowtery,
Speaker 2: that Christopher Michael Dawson be prosecuted for murder, but the
Speaker 2: DPP refused. Nicholas Cartery it was adamant that there was
Speaker 2: not enough evidence, and nobody from that time on Carl
Speaker 2: believed that Chris Dawson had evaded justice despite a compelling,
Speaker 2: circumstantial case against him for the murder of his wife.
Speaker 2: This is some of what Carl told me as I
Speaker 2: sat in his lunder room in December twenty seventeen.
Speaker 13: All the circumstances, when you put them together, are just
Speaker 13: so remarkable that I just could not accept that Lyn
Speaker 13: Dawson would just disappear off the face of the earth
Speaker 13: without there being some human intervention. It just defies all
Speaker 13: logic that a mother would leave a four year old,
Speaker 13: a two year old, a family, a job, and friends
Speaker 13: and just disappear. It's just not normal human behavior for
Speaker 13: a woman with her intelligence, her community ties, the fact
Speaker 13: that she was employed, two kids, had a lovely home.
Speaker 13: It just doesn't add up. And I was very disappointed
Speaker 13: that the police investigation was so poor initially, that Lynnette
Speaker 13: Dawson was just treated as another missing person and it
Speaker 13: wasn't prioritized. They never looked at the issues of domestic violence.
Speaker 13: They never looked at the reality or the possibility that
Speaker 13: this was a homicide.
Speaker 2: Karl Milavanovitch has been a powerful advocate for murdered women
Speaker 2: like Lynn, But he told me something else of great importance.
Speaker 2: On that afternoon in December twenty seventeen, Karl spoke about
Speaker 2: the case of another missing woman, Bromwn Joy Windfield. I
Speaker 2: had not heard her name, nor anything about her nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety three disappearance until Karl raised it with me. There
Speaker 2: was very little publicity about Bromwin over the years. Her
Speaker 2: case seemed to have fallen between the cracks. This is
Speaker 2: some of what Carl matter of factly told me about Bromwin.
Speaker 13: I did an inquest of her. Lady called Bromwyn Windfield,
Speaker 13: and she had two kids as well, and she went
Speaker 13: to bed one night and she disappeared next day. And
Speaker 13: there was some suggestion from a neighbor that they heard
Speaker 13: the car reversing down the driveway and scraping on the ground,
Speaker 13: like some suggestion there might have been something in the boot,
Speaker 13: but she was never found. The same thing happened there.
Speaker 13: He was in Sydney, the husband was in Sydney.
Speaker 2: She was up there.
Speaker 13: She went to see a solicitor about organizing a separation,
Speaker 13: got the locks changed to the house. He found out
Speaker 13: about it, drove up there next day she disappeared.
Speaker 2: I did the.
Speaker 13: Inquest at Lismore. I had a very competent counsel assisting.
Speaker 13: It was a strong case. I thought circumstantial evidence. Referred
Speaker 13: it to the DPP. They didn't run with it.
Speaker 2: And when the DPP decides that they're not going to run,
Speaker 2: do they send to you or to the Coroner's.
Speaker 13: Office a letter explaining what No.
Speaker 2: There's no explanation the DPP in terms of detailed reasons
Speaker 2: for not proceeding. How do we know that they have
Speaker 2: just misunderstood the.
Speaker 13: Cats Well, I suppose that's always a possibility. At that
Speaker 13: stage of my career as deputy State coroner, I was
Speaker 13: probably just starting to do a number of missing person's
Speaker 13: cases that were historical ones. And it wasn't long after
Speaker 13: the inquest into Lynette Dawson's disappearance from and Winfield at
Speaker 13: a number of others that I was getting very concerned
Speaker 13: about historical missing person cases where clearly it was evident
Speaker 13: that they were probably homicides, and the attitude that the
Speaker 13: police had to the investigation of them. I think there
Speaker 13: was a systemic problem in the police department in how
Speaker 13: they prioritized and trianged missing person's cases. So that was
Speaker 13: a systemic attitude the police had. You don't worry about
Speaker 13: investigating until you've got a smoking gun or some evidence
Speaker 13: of foul play. They'll turn up, or they've gone off
Speaker 13: with a boyfriend or something like that.
Speaker 2: I asked Carl whether this men that a significant number
Speaker 2: of women who had been classified by police as simply
Speaker 2: missing were more likely to have been murdered.
Speaker 13: No doubt, no doubt. I've got no doubt about that. Absolutely.
Speaker 13: If you'd asked me this question nine years ago, before
Speaker 13: I retired, I would have given you a list of
Speaker 13: all their names. And I think the majority of the
Speaker 13: long term missing person's cases that are still outstanding even
Speaker 13: to this day involve the young women who have disappeared,
Speaker 13: and inevitably they are victims.
Speaker 2: Upon the side, it was chilling to hear this conclusion
Speaker 2: because it was also completely logical. I had a name,
Speaker 2: Bromwyn Winfield. I made a mental note to revisit her
Speaker 2: case properly. One day, I opened a folder to collect
Speaker 2: information about this other missing woman. In the second half
Speaker 2: of twenty eighteen, as weekly episodes of The Teacher's Pet
Speaker 2: were being released, I began hearing about Bromwyn Winfield from
Speaker 2: her family and friends and others. Each person who contacted
Speaker 2: me didn't know about the others. Everyone reached out independently.
Speaker 2: None of them knew that I had already heard about
Speaker 2: Bromwin from Karl. In July twenty eighteen, I got an
Speaker 2: email about Bromin's case from Matt Fordham, the former police
Speaker 2: officer who had done a huge amount of work with
Speaker 2: Karl Milavanovitch for his two thousand and two inquest. The
Speaker 2: same Matt Fordham who had handled Linn's case for Karl
Speaker 2: in two thousand and three. Matt sent me his formal
Speaker 2: written submissions which had been presented at Bromwin's inquest. These
Speaker 2: were a matter of public record, however, they were only
Speaker 2: lightly reported in the media. Here's a small part of
Speaker 2: the evidence Matt Fordham presented to the then deputy state
Speaker 2: coroner Karl Milavanovitch in two thousand and two. These are
Speaker 2: his words, it's not his voice.
Speaker 14: Bronwin had expressed concern to her friend Alan Fisher about
Speaker 14: what would occur when Jonathan Winfield returned to Lenox from
Speaker 14: Sydney shortly before her disappearance. She stated that she was
Speaker 14: terrified about what he might do. A large number of
Speaker 14: witnesses described her as being a devoted mother who would
Speaker 14: not have left her kids. There is absolutely no evidence
Speaker 14: that anyone other than Jonathan Winfield had any motivation or
Speaker 14: opportunity to kill Bronwin.
Speaker 2: In August twenty eighteen, a woman called Deborah Hall reached out.
Speaker 2: She was Bromwin's neighbor and friend at Sandstone Crescent, Lennox
Speaker 2: Head for several years until May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 2: In her email, she wrote.
Speaker 15: I have watched and listened with great interest to the
Speaker 15: podcast and the recent media reports on Lyn Dawson. I
Speaker 15: really felt compelled to write to you and inform you
Speaker 15: of another missing person case that I was very heavily
Speaker 15: involved in back in the early nineteen nineties of my
Speaker 15: neighbor and good friend, missus Bronwyn Winfield of Sandstone Crescent,
Speaker 15: Linix Head. This case was also investigated by police in
Speaker 15: a minor way. In the initial days of her disappearing.
Speaker 2: She explained what Karl had disclosed some months earlier, that
Speaker 2: his coronial inquiry had found that Bromwin was dead.
Speaker 15: Debra added this inquiry deemed that a known person was
Speaker 15: responsible for her disappearance. It was recommended to the Director
Speaker 15: of Public Prosecutions to pursue it to trial. However, this
Speaker 15: never has eventuated, even though the coroner deemed there was
Speaker 15: enough evidence to convict this man. The reason stated by
Speaker 15: DPP was that as there was never a body found,
Speaker 15: they were not prepared to waste taxpayers dollars for a
Speaker 15: non conviction. This man, John Winfield, continues, as does Chris Dawson,
Speaker 15: to proclaim his wife just ran off and joined a
Speaker 15: old or went with another man. There is so much
Speaker 15: more I could inform you of in this case, but
Speaker 15: it would take me hours. I just felt I needed
Speaker 15: to highlight the extreme similarities of my best friend's case.
Speaker 15: I really hope that justice is done for both these
Speaker 15: poor women. Regards Deborah.
Speaker 2: The following month, a woman living in Tasmania, Kim Marshall
Speaker 2: emailed to tell me that her half sister bromwyin Winfield,
Speaker 2: had been missing since May nineteen ninety three. When we
Speaker 2: spoke on the telephone, Kim told me that it was
Speaker 2: a homicide squad cold case, but it had gone very cold.
Speaker 2: Kim told me back then in late twenty eighteen.
Speaker 16: I carry this load each week and have an obligation
Speaker 16: to try harder to find her body. I truly believe
Speaker 16: her body can be found.
Speaker 2: At the time, Chris Dawson remained a free man, enjoying
Speaker 2: his retirement near the each on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, but
Speaker 2: he and the criminal justice system were under enormous pressure
Speaker 2: from the teacher's pet and listeners who had heard damning
Speaker 2: evidence of the system's failure. Failure not just for the
Speaker 2: absence of justice fa Lynn, but for never even investigating
Speaker 2: a culture of grooming and sexual exploitation of Northern Beaches
Speaker 2: high school girls by teachers, including Chris Dawson. At that time,
Speaker 2: new witnesses were coming forward to talk to me in
Speaker 2: the podcast. In twenty eighteen, some new witnesses were going
Speaker 2: straight to police with evidence about Chris and Lynn. Her
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two disappearance and a ring of teachers who
Speaker 2: had pursued high school girls. There had been a lot
Speaker 2: of damage caused. It finally culminated in homicide Squad detectives
Speaker 2: arresting Chris and extraditing him to Sydney to be charged
Speaker 2: with Lynn's murder on December five, twenty eighteen. Over the
Speaker 2: years since my folder of Bromwyn Winfield files grew steadily,
Speaker 2: Bromwin's half sister, Kim Marshall, and others who knew the
Speaker 2: Lenox mother of two girls stayed in touch. I heard
Speaker 2: from a woman called Fiona Housner, who as a child
Speaker 2: lived next door to Bromwin for years near Cronulla in
Speaker 2: the Shire south of Sydney. We met in Brisbane in
Speaker 2: early twenty nineteen at a bar called Felons to talk
Speaker 2: about the case. Fiona, who was very fond of her
Speaker 2: neighbor and babysitter, described what she called secrets and mystery
Speaker 2: in relation to Bromwin's unexplained disappearance. I sent a note
Speaker 2: to Broman's brother Andy Reid, using Facebook Messenger. I wrote,
Speaker 2: I've been interested in possibly investigating the disappearance and suspected
Speaker 2: murder of your sister Bromwin. A number of people who
Speaker 2: knew Bromwin have urged me to do a podcast investigation
Speaker 2: similar to the ten Each's pet into the probable murder
Speaker 2: of Lynd Dawson. I understand that you have extensive files
Speaker 2: and reasonable suspicions about what happened. It's not something I
Speaker 2: could start without full cooperation from you and other members
Speaker 2: of the family. Andy and his wife Michelle were immediately interested.
Speaker 2: We met in a cafe in Sydney and talked about
Speaker 2: a future podcast investigation. A woman from Barner called Kerry
Speaker 2: McLain got in touch to talk to me about her
Speaker 2: conversations with Brombin's daughter Crystal, who had lived in Kerry's
Speaker 2: home for some time. You'll hear more about it later
Speaker 2: in this podcast series. At my request, Andy Reid and
Speaker 2: his wife Michelle, and Andy's half sister Kim Marshall started
Speaker 2: to track down relevant paperwork. Transcripts from the original inquest
Speaker 2: notes that they had taken at the time, and police statements.
Speaker 2: Old articles about Roman's case whenever it featured in the
Speaker 2: local newspaper, The Northern Star of Lismore were collated. In
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, I drove to Ballaner and the home
Speaker 2: of Glen Taylor, a former Newcastle Homicide Squad detective sergeant.
Speaker 2: Is a little of what Glenn told me back then,
Speaker 2: as extreme rain flooded the northern rivers and low lying
Speaker 2: areas of New South Wales. He told me that his
Speaker 2: connection to Roman's case began in nineteen ninety eight when
Speaker 2: she had been missing for five years.
Speaker 17: Andrew Reed and Michelle Reid came to see myself in
Speaker 17: another detective in Ballina and said, look, can we have
Speaker 17: some fresh eyes look at this. We're just not happy
Speaker 17: that this is again the elector is a missing person.
Speaker 17: We think there's more to it, and then when we
Speaker 17: start looking into the matter, I mean as a homicide investigator,
Speaker 17: it was abundantly clear, very early in the initially reinvestigation
Speaker 17: that it needed a lot more work done and then
Speaker 17: a lot of formal statements.
Speaker 2: Glenn had transferred north from Newcastle's major crime unit to
Speaker 2: be a detective in the coastal town of Ballina. When
Speaker 2: he heard about Bromwin, he was intrigued and then suspicious.
Speaker 2: Like Damian Loon in Lynn's case, Glenn said he smelled
Speaker 2: a rat, but the trail had gone cold. The odds
Speaker 2: were stacked against the seasoned former homicide squad cop when
Speaker 2: so little had been done by other police in the
Speaker 2: five years immediately following Bromwin's disappearance.
Speaker 17: I still believe that it was in the senior officer's
Speaker 17: mind that this woman had in fact just voluntarily decided
Speaker 17: to leave. It was fairly haphazard the investigation. There was
Speaker 17: very very little done. There was no statements ever taken
Speaker 17: from any particular person, like neighbors, I mean absolute critical
Speaker 17: areas like there was no forensic investigation of the home.
Speaker 17: There was no forensic investigation of the motor vehicle that
Speaker 17: Jonathan Winfield had taken within hours of arriving back from
Speaker 17: Sydney at the marital house. And over the years I
Speaker 17: think there was only initially a few inquiries done and
Speaker 17: then it just fell back to a missing person and
Speaker 17: nothing further was done. Under many years later, I treated
Speaker 17: as a major investigation and strongly suspected that.
Speaker 11: Bromin be murdered.
Speaker 2: Yeah, your statement's very detail.
Speaker 11: They they need to be thorough.
Speaker 17: We're talking about the likely murder of a person, so they.
Speaker 2: Need to be thorough.
Speaker 18: Did you believe that Bromwin would leave her children?
Speaker 11: And stay away at any stage.
Speaker 17: All the people we took statements from in the reinvestigation,
Speaker 17: all Bromin's friends and close assationates, she absolutely adored her children.
Speaker 17: There is just no way that she would have left
Speaker 17: those children that night and not come back to the house.
Speaker 17: She was just so attached to them. She was seeking
Speaker 17: sole custodys of both the children. She was a very
Speaker 17: very good mother according to everyone that.
Speaker 2: We spoke to.
Speaker 17: It was just absolutely totally out of her character to
Speaker 17: just walk out and leave those children not have any
Speaker 17: further contact. It just wouldn't happen unless she just couldn't
Speaker 17: prevent it. That's why it was extremely suspicious.
Speaker 2: And why was that not of you that existed in.
Speaker 19: The police in nineteen ninety three when she disappeared.
Speaker 17: It's really difficult to say. Police did get extremely busy
Speaker 17: with other matters. Unfortunately, there's still other things happening with
Speaker 17: robberies and breaknanners and sexual assaults and so forth. But
Speaker 17: being highlighted to a commander to say, look, we believe
Speaker 17: there's something more sinistry in this. We need more resources
Speaker 17: put into this. But for one verse or another, that wasn't.
Speaker 2: Done when we first met at his home. Glenn urged
Speaker 2: a podcast investigation and he pledged his full support, but
Speaker 2: I didn't have time. Then Chris Dawson was waging a
Speaker 2: legal battle against the teacher's pet me and police. When
Speaker 2: Glenn Taylor and Bromwin's family and friends were quietly talking
Speaker 2: to me. Chris Dawson made a high stakes bid to
Speaker 2: avoid a murder trial altogether. He said the publicity from
Speaker 2: the podcast series meant that he couldn't get a fair trial.
Speaker 2: He was also arguing that a shoddy original police investigation
Speaker 2: after lim first disappeared had prejudiced his prospects in any trial,
Speaker 2: but his bid to evade justice again was ultimately futile.
Speaker 2: At the end of his murder trial, the Supreme Court's
Speaker 2: Justice Ian Harrison delivered a verdict in late August twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two.
Speaker 20: Christopher Michael Dawson on the charts that on about eight
Speaker 20: January nineteen eighty two, it gave you or elsewhere in
Speaker 20: the state of New South Wales, you did murder Lynett Dawson.
Speaker 17: I find you guilty.
Speaker 2: I met Matt Fordham for the first time that day
Speaker 2: in the Supreme Court in Sydney. Matt came to watch
Speaker 2: justice unfold Better late than never. Investigating Lynn's nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: two disappearance had led me to Karl Milavanovitch in December
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, and Karl would open the door to the
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three disappearance of Bromwin Winfield. And that's why
Speaker 2: I'm driving in northern New South Wales in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: thirty one years after Bromwin kissed her two girls good
Speaker 2: night and put them to bear in an unremarkable house
Speaker 2: on Sandstone Crescent, the house that John built his castle,
Speaker 2: Bromman's prison.
Speaker 4: Turn left on the Sandstone Present. Then arrive at your destination.
Speaker 2: This is where's last set in life.
Speaker 21: Arrive and there's the house. You can't help me wonder
Speaker 21: what happened inside that night?
Speaker 22: What led to a woman disappearing more thirty years ago?
Speaker 22: Pleased to meet you too, Sorry it's taken almost six years.
Speaker 12: Well that didn't about thirty plus time.
Speaker 2: Deborah Hall has welcomed me inside her house at Sandstone Crescent.
Speaker 2: This is where she and her partner Murray raised their
Speaker 2: children and where their friend Bromwin Winfield lived next door
Speaker 2: until her May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three disappearance.
Speaker 13: Can I get you anything?
Speaker 2: It'd be great, thank you. I've been up at Kingscliffe.
Speaker 2: I didn't really be there, okay. Dear Van Murray were
Speaker 2: important witnesses because they heard and saw things at key moments.
Speaker 2: Bromwin was very unhappy, and she had confided this and
Speaker 2: much more to Deb as their friendship deepened. Murray, the
Speaker 2: son of a police detective, became highly suspicious and concerned
Speaker 2: for Bromwin at a very early stage. Their children, who
Speaker 2: used to play with Broman's two girls, have grown up,
Speaker 2: moved away, married, and had children of their own. They
Speaker 2: all returned to Sandstone Crescent for family occasions. Broman's fate
Speaker 2: is often talked about at these catchups. Bromwan and the
Speaker 2: House cast a long shadow. John has a newer, grander
Speaker 2: house in Lennox. He sold up on Sandstone Crescent. His
Speaker 2: place is closer to his favorite beach, Boulders. It is
Speaker 2: a lot more valuable than the house in which John
Speaker 2: and Bromwan lived with the two girls, Crystal and Lauren.
Speaker 2: Do you mind if I have run a recorder over this?
Speaker 8: So?
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 23: I don't have any problem with that.
Speaker 11: Do you have any other commitments this afternoon.
Speaker 2: Actually, Broman's good friend told me her reaction while listening
Speaker 2: to Linz's case unfold in The Teacher's Pet in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 12: Driving up the coast, Mary and I and the current
Speaker 12: has put you on. Put the podcast on. He goes,
Speaker 12: I listen to this. I'm like, what is It's a
Speaker 12: teacher's pet. I had no idea, So I started listening,
Speaker 12: and I'm like looking at him, going, are you hearing this?
Speaker 13: This is this is almost our case.
Speaker 2: I'm like going, this is like, this is Bromplin, this
Speaker 2: is Bromlin.
Speaker 12: That was what prompted me to email you, and I
Speaker 12: hope you didn't mind me doing that because it was.
Speaker 15: So similar, and I thought I got to just.
Speaker 12: Put it out there, not expecting that because I know
Speaker 12: his man getting back to me. You know when you're
Speaker 12: a finer. I thought, oh, okay, so obviously we're a
Speaker 12: little bit aware of this situation.
Speaker 2: Dev An Bromwin had an easy rapport. They helped each
Speaker 2: other all the time. Bromin received comfort and support from
Speaker 2: deb and other friends from whom you'll hear they knew
Speaker 2: she was determined to walk from the ruins of her
Speaker 2: relatively brief marriage with John Winfield.
Speaker 12: Watching Chris Dawson on TV is almost like watching John Winfield.
Speaker 12: How so similar in terms of good looking guy, physique everything.
Speaker 24: You could almost be cloned.
Speaker 2: You two men.
Speaker 12: Knowing John the way I knew John, I'm like, God,
Speaker 12: you know, these guys are just on the same path.
Speaker 2: Well, I was really glad that you're ope.
Speaker 12: I didn't want to overset my mark and push anything
Speaker 12: when it's up to the family that kind.
Speaker 2: Of agree with that sort of thing.
Speaker 25: So I'm just so frustrated by the fact that this
Speaker 25: beautiful woman who was a good friend of mine is
Speaker 25: no longer with us, and possibly at the hands of
Speaker 25: her husband.
Speaker 24: And the fact that the two girls had grown up
Speaker 24: without their mother. They've got kids of their own that
Speaker 24: she never got to meet. And Bromwe was a very caring,
Speaker 24: very loving and beautiful person. She was a great mum.
Speaker 12: And this is why, in regards to what you've just
Speaker 12: done with the dows In case, when I heard the
Speaker 12: story about her, she's almost identical.
Speaker 24: To how problem was.
Speaker 2: And there was no way she would leave those kids.
Speaker 24: And I know that, and that's the thing that I
Speaker 24: kept saying to the police in the initial investigation.
Speaker 26: Married this is Headley.
Speaker 2: Yeah you too.
Speaker 11: How are the waves today? Wasn't that good?
Speaker 13: That I went out the wrong spots?
Speaker 2: Stars?
Speaker 11: I should have off the point I went bubbles Bach.
Speaker 11: I got smashed a bit right, quite fun.
Speaker 17: Yeah, I've been here about half an hour just going
Speaker 17: through some of the events.
Speaker 27: Yeah, she's a nice lady.
Speaker 11: You know, if you're sick, she brought you out some shit.
Speaker 15: Because I remember when I had Dale.
Speaker 24: She came down with lasagneas and that's the sort of person.
Speaker 21: She was.
Speaker 27: A class two sex is a class A really nice neighbor,
Speaker 27: beautiful lady.
Speaker 2: Murray Nolan still goes to Boulders Beach for a look
Speaker 2: and often a surf most days, and he usually sees
Speaker 2: his former neighbor John Winfield down there. Sometimes they paddle
Speaker 2: for the same wave. At other times they'll look out
Speaker 2: over the water from the car park and talk about
Speaker 2: what the weather might bring. Murray liked bromwin a lot.
Speaker 2: He cannot avoid what he believes is the truth, but
Speaker 2: it's not in his nature to avoid and ostracize John.
Speaker 27: John is perfectly civil and friendly to you. Yes, I'll
Speaker 27: still see him every day. I spoke to this morning.
Speaker 27: Oh John, how I am a bit windy, swells up,
Speaker 27: beautiful surfing sort of talk. But I see him now,
Speaker 27: I reckon probably nine days out of ten, I seene,
Speaker 27: where did you see it?
Speaker 5: This morning?
Speaker 11: He was just checking the surf.
Speaker 2: We're all went surfing. But does John know what you
Speaker 2: suspect he has done?
Speaker 27: Yes, I threw him under the bus with the currency quarry.
Speaker 11: My role is to sell the truth. And he's never
Speaker 11: raised that with you.
Speaker 27: No, and you just get out and talk to each
Speaker 27: other as if nothing's happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's fine with me.
Speaker 12: Strange, isn't it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like we're quite friendly.
Speaker 11: It's a funny, says situation.
Speaker 2: And what's your level of confidence that he did in
Speaker 2: fact kill.
Speaker 27: Robin nine point nine?
Speaker 2: How about you?
Speaker 12: Dd one hundred? See, Murray has a nicer nature than
Speaker 12: I have. I'll steer him down. I won't speak to him.
Speaker 2: DEBI is spreading documents and photographs across the table for
Speaker 2: me to read and copy.
Speaker 24: Yeah, there's a fabis here I've got that's my statement.
Speaker 14: Oh that was Brian there.
Speaker 27: That was in a very good shot.
Speaker 24: That was one of my children's birthday party.
Speaker 2: A service of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 22: Yeah, so this has dated July two thousand and two.
Speaker 12: Andrew wanted to have a bit of a memorial before her.
Speaker 2: There was certainty that she wouldstend. I might photograph all these.
Speaker 22: It's a small community relatively, yes, but he stayed here
Speaker 22: the whole time.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, What do you think of that? Does that
Speaker 2: suggest that perhaps he's got nothing to hide? He's not
Speaker 2: running away.
Speaker 11: He loves this place.
Speaker 2: He knows he's done nothing wrong. I also think that
Speaker 2: he's very instillent as well. He doesn't speak to that
Speaker 2: many people.
Speaker 24: I don't know what the outcome of all this will be.
Speaker 11: What's your hope.
Speaker 2: My hope and the hope of many who knew and
Speaker 2: loved Bronwin is that new and illuminating facts emerge as
Speaker 2: a result of this podcast series, something that might finally
Speaker 2: resolve this sad cold case. If Bromwin went away, as
Speaker 2: John Winfield says, where and with whom did she go?
Speaker 2: If Bromwin has been dead all these years, as a
Speaker 2: former deputy state coroner ruled, how did Bromwin die and who,
Speaker 2: if anyone bears responsibility for her death? And where is
Speaker 2: her body? I have approached John Winfield and asked him
Speaker 2: for an interview. John's side of the story is very important.
Speaker 2: John has always emphatically denied any role in any foul play.
Speaker 2: So far, John has declined to speak to me on
Speaker 2: the record or on background. I'm going to keep trying
Speaker 2: because he hasn't ruled it out. In an email to
Speaker 2: me on May twenty one, twenty twenty four, John stated.
Speaker 28: I have previously made a sworn statement in nineteen ninety
Speaker 28: eight in which I answered four hundred and fifteen questions,
Speaker 28: and as I said to George Radmore in twenty ten,
Speaker 28: I stand by these answers I gave.
Speaker 2: Those are John's words from his email. It's not his voice.
Speaker 2: He answered questions in a nineteen ninety eight interview he
Speaker 2: agreed to do in Ballina Police station, soon after the
Speaker 2: then detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor had started to investigate Bromman's
Speaker 2: case properly for the first time. Twelve years later, in
Speaker 2: twenty ten, another experienced detective, George Radmore, who was with
Speaker 2: the homicide Squad of New South Wales, led a reinvestigation.
Speaker 2: In John Winfield's email to me on the eve of
Speaker 2: the release of this episode, he said he might bring
Speaker 2: legal action depending on the content of this podcast series,
Speaker 2: and John added there is.
Speaker 28: A generational history of mental illness, both male and female
Speaker 28: in the Reed family.
Speaker 2: Now. Kim Marshall in Tasmania was the first member of
Speaker 2: Bromman's family to contact me. That was back in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: Kim has been a terrier with the help of her
Speaker 2: half brother Andy Reid, in finding decades old documents and
Speaker 2: evidence from the case.
Speaker 16: And Andrew has a box packed away, and Christal has
Speaker 16: a box packed away. Andrew has got masses of stuff,
Speaker 16: boxes that are in ceilings and boxes that are stacked,
Speaker 16: all that type of business. And I love rummaging and
Speaker 16: getting everything together and putting in some type of chronological
Speaker 16: order for you. So I've asked them both to try
Speaker 16: and get access to their boxes, but I dare say
Speaker 16: it's going to be me physically being the hunter and gatherer,
Speaker 16: getting there and going about my business.
Speaker 2: Well, that sounds really good, Kim. Missing police statements, which
Speaker 2: I had been asking members of the family about from
Speaker 2: the start of our contact, finally materialized. Bronwin's eldest daughter,
Speaker 2: Crystal had them.
Speaker 16: Crystal has all the original statements in full, which is
Speaker 16: what Andrew's been looking for for a very long time.
Speaker 16: Crystal actually has them.
Speaker 18: I didn't believe that material would become available, So having
Speaker 18: that makes a very big difference.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 2: Andy Reid, a builder and a popular community figure in
Speaker 2: Sydney's Sutherlandshire near Qunella, sought the blessing of his niece
Speaker 2: Crystal to press forward with a podcast investigation. Roman's daughter
Speaker 2: is in her early forties. She's a single mum with
Speaker 2: mixed and complicated views about what happened to her own
Speaker 2: mother when Crystal was ten.
Speaker 29: She just said to us, it's just time that she
Speaker 29: finds you out, and she wants to know what happened. Endeavor
Speaker 29: to do whatever's needed to be done to try and
Speaker 29: find out the truth.
Speaker 16: She is terrified as losing the small relationship that she
Speaker 16: has with her sister Lauren. Lauren doesn't believe that John
Speaker 16: did it.
Speaker 2: In June twenty twenty three, I asked Andy about the
Speaker 2: status of police investigations into Bromwin's disappearance.
Speaker 11: Have you heard any more from the police?
Speaker 29: No, we haven't heard anything. Unless something turns up, we're
Speaker 29: basically at a dead end.
Speaker 16: You know.
Speaker 29: They weren't willing to investigate anything that was presented to
Speaker 29: them any further than what they.
Speaker 16: Already had they haven't bothered.
Speaker 29: To reach out or contact or anything for a long
Speaker 29: time now. The last detective at Newcastle was the last
Speaker 29: person that I used.
Speaker 7: To liaise with.
Speaker 29: So every twelve months just ring and asked a couple
Speaker 29: of questions and see if he's heard anything into it's
Speaker 29: just that the same response.
Speaker 21: Now that's been no.
Speaker 29: Activity on a cards, no activity on a bank account,
Speaker 29: blah blah blah. Well it can't be anymore anyway, because
Speaker 29: the bank account was closed down.
Speaker 2: When I spoke to Andy in June twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: before I could start a reinvestigation of the case early
Speaker 2: the following year, he confirmed his strong view about who
Speaker 2: had killed his older sister.
Speaker 29: Oh, nothing's changed, nothing's changed after the corral inquiry.
Speaker 18: How do you reckon he would be viewing the development
Speaker 18: of these true crime investigations, particularly with podcasts into the
Speaker 18: disappearances or murders unsolved of women.
Speaker 13: He'd be raddled.
Speaker 11: I'm sure he'd be rattled.
Speaker 13: Yep, which is good.
Speaker 7: Unless she sleeps at night, the better off we all are.
Speaker 2: Although Andy and other members of the family have been
Speaker 2: angered that police did not do much more soon after
Speaker 2: her disappearance, they have only praise for the first detective
Speaker 2: to seriously suspect foul play.
Speaker 13: Did you speak to Glenn Taylor, Yes.
Speaker 11: I interviewed him. That would have been two and a
Speaker 11: half years.
Speaker 13: Ago, just after we first met when I put you
Speaker 13: onto him here.
Speaker 11: Yeah, but I drove down and saw him at his house. There.
Speaker 2: He had a little bit of paperwork and I took
Speaker 2: copies of that.
Speaker 18: I probably interviewed him for about two hours and I've
Speaker 18: got that audiophile.
Speaker 13: He's always been very helpful with us too.
Speaker 29: It was always so apologetic about how badly it was
Speaker 29: handled by the police in the first case, and I
Speaker 29: always said to him, no, no, for you to apologize,
Speaker 29: You've only been part of getting it over the line
Speaker 29: of the Corona inquiry.
Speaker 2: Later in this series you'll hear from Glenn Taylor again
Speaker 2: about the work that he did to get a brief
Speaker 2: of evidence to the coroner. Glenn's efforts to get to
Speaker 2: the bottom of Bromin's disappearance are ongoing. Glenn vented his
Speaker 2: frustrations in a letter he wrote to Andy and Michelle
Speaker 2: in two thousand and three, one year after the inquest.
Speaker 30: Now that I'm out of the New South Wales Police,
Speaker 30: I can get my opinion. Regarding the original investigation, one
Speaker 30: word describes it disgraceful. The house in Sandstean Crescent should
Speaker 30: have been subject to an intensive crime scene investigation. The
Speaker 30: same for the Ford motor vehicle. There is nothing in
Speaker 30: the running sheets to indicate the vehicle was either looked at.
Speaker 30: There was not one single statement taken from any witness,
Speaker 30: and more importantly, no statement or interview was taken from
Speaker 30: John Winfield.
Speaker 2: Now, some things have changed since June twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: which was when Andy told me that homicide detectives were
Speaker 2: doing nothing about Bromin's case and that it had gone
Speaker 2: completely cold. It seems the police, after years of inactivity
Speaker 2: and now getting active again, Is that right?
Speaker 7: This whole thing sort of stirred back up with us talking.
Speaker 31: To you, and we were very curious, and we contacted
Speaker 31: the police.
Speaker 7: Myself and Kim went and had a meeting.
Speaker 2: A senior officer in the police Unsolved Homicide Unit told
Speaker 2: Andy and Kim that Bromin's case was being reviewed the
Speaker 2: request of another veteran detective, George Radmore.
Speaker 31: He put a very strong case forward upon his retirement
Speaker 31: and a request to have Borman's case looked at they're
Speaker 31: in the process of doing a complete review that I'll
Speaker 31: give them.
Speaker 16: The benefit of doubt because they're trying to get up
Speaker 16: to speed because they're still looking for their documents.
Speaker 2: Shortly before the release of this first episode, Andy went
Speaker 2: to see top detectives from the Homicide Squad's unsolved unit.
Speaker 2: They had asked Andy to come to a meeting for
Speaker 2: an update on how their review of the case had gone.
Speaker 32: Basically said, well, their hands are tried. We can't do
Speaker 32: any more than what we've done, and we don't have
Speaker 32: any new evidence.
Speaker 11: As it stands.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, he said.
Speaker 32: Going Look, I cannot apologize enough for how badly the
Speaker 32: original investigation was handled. They've got no intention of putting
Speaker 32: any more work into it.
Speaker 2: I'm aware that today is the anniversary of Yeah, can
Speaker 2: you believe it?
Speaker 11: Thirty one years.
Speaker 2: Let's see where we get to after the podcast.
Speaker 11: Then is it named?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is? What do you reckon we're calling it?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I don't know one word Bromwin. Oh lovely. You know
Speaker 2: a lot of people will start talking about Bromwin. This
Speaker 2: case never got any publicity.
Speaker 11: Not really. No.
Speaker 2: The Northern Star and that was it.
Speaker 32: And that was on a milk cart and once she
Speaker 32: was on a milk cut.
Speaker 2: We won't have that problem this time. It'll get a
Speaker 2: lot of attention. That's the game change that encourages people
Speaker 2: to come forward. We'll hear from people we've never heard
Speaker 2: of before who listen and know something that helps. I
Speaker 2: don't want to over promise, but I really hope it
Speaker 2: makes a difference. Yeah, same with me and and Kim.
Speaker 2: Bromwyn's siblings are adamant that they want the podcast to
Speaker 2: go ahead. They have been disappointed by official them too
Speaker 2: many times.
Speaker 16: There is a lot more that the police could do.
Speaker 16: They've got the wrong mindset from back in the day.
Speaker 16: They've looked at the wrong things, and there's so many
Speaker 16: pieces of evidence that have never been presented.
Speaker 2: Before Bromwin vanished. She was planning to welcome Kim to
Speaker 2: Lennox to the house at Sandstone Crescent for a rare visit.
Speaker 16: I spoke to her every day on the phone about
Speaker 16: my plane flight, what time my plane would arrive, then
Speaker 16: I'd be getting on the Greyhound bus. We found the
Speaker 16: buses out together, what time the bus would arrive in Ballina.
Speaker 16: It's going to be so exciting. I'll be able to
Speaker 16: show you all my dresses in my wardrobe because I've
Speaker 16: never had an adult experience with Bonnie, if that makes sense.
Speaker 16: It was always as the youngest child, but this time
Speaker 16: it was going to be adult to adult, and so
Speaker 16: we had all these wonderful talks. And it's only now
Speaker 16: that I could talk to someone about this.
Speaker 2: It was Kim who first alerted me to Bromwyn's storytelling
Speaker 2: her writings, and it was Kim who appreciated how the
Speaker 2: words Bromwyn had left behind on those A four pages
Speaker 2: were used against her early on, when she no longer
Speaker 2: had a voice.
Speaker 16: Letters that Bromwin wrote to Mum saying that she was
Speaker 16: scared for her life. There's enough circumstantial evidence.
Speaker 11: Were those letters that she wrote to your mother.
Speaker 16: The police won't give them back to me. They never
Speaker 16: ever ever ever find them or send them the story
Speaker 16: that she was writing. They've got the wrong idea about
Speaker 16: what's actually happened there. Bromwyn wrote a beautiful story of
Speaker 16: her history. Okay, this big large pad which some people
Speaker 16: have copies of it. The police never gave me mind back.
Speaker 16: She actually wrote this beautiful chronological list of her history
Speaker 16: of everything. That is a story about Bromwyn and then
Speaker 16: she says, when I come back, the real Bromwyn will
Speaker 16: be back, so watch out. That statement has got nothing
Speaker 16: to do with Bromwyn going away on a three to
Speaker 16: five day respite rest. That is her writing a story.
Speaker 16: And John has used that paragraph to say that Bromwin
Speaker 16: has lost her marbles and has actually decided to act
Speaker 16: on what she was writing. And he goes, she's unstable,
Speaker 16: she's like a mother, blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: Kim insists that in the weeks and months after Bromwin
Speaker 2: first disappeared, police in Balina, who has showing her writings,
Speaker 2: were persuaded that she wanted to leave her children, that
Speaker 2: she planned to go away.
Speaker 16: They thought brom would have gone away for a rest
Speaker 16: because of this story that she'd written. The detectives asked
Speaker 16: us all these questions, but they asked the questions with
Speaker 16: a bias or a perspective already in place. They didn't
Speaker 16: actually investigate with an open mind.
Speaker 2: Now I need to explain a little of the family
Speaker 2: history of Bromwan, her brother Andy Reid, and their half
Speaker 2: sister Kim Marshall. It is going to become more relevant
Speaker 2: later in this podcast series. You heard Kim make a
Speaker 2: fleeting reference to her mother, Barbara, being unstable. Barbara had
Speaker 2: postonatal depression, and in an extraordinary coincidence, Barbara disappeared too.
Speaker 2: Bromman was a toddler aged two, and her little brother
Speaker 2: Andy was six months old. Kim had not yet been born.
Speaker 2: The circumstances were very different in Bromwin's mother's case because
Speaker 2: Barbara came back after getting treatment for her her mental
Speaker 2: health challenges. And while Barbara was away, some in her
Speaker 2: family knew where she was, they were in touch with her.
Speaker 2: But as you'll hear, a sad chapter of family history
Speaker 2: revolving around Barbara would directly influence the initial investigation into
Speaker 2: Bronwin's disappearance three decades later.
Speaker 11: Good to meet you, missus, reed Leah Cleia, Hi, come
Speaker 11: on in.
Speaker 2: I've come to the Sydney home of Bromwin's aunt Leah
Speaker 2: Reid and her husband John Reid. They know the family
Speaker 2: history because they lived it. Bromwin's father Philip and Bromwin's
Speaker 2: uncle John were brothers.
Speaker 26: Thomas and I said, Jimmy's going to expect his lenks
Speaker 26: to go on, but no, no, he won't have a
Speaker 26: walking sticks.
Speaker 11: A lovely photos here three children and grandchildren.
Speaker 21: We've got a videotype there with Broma with a father
Speaker 21: at the hospital.
Speaker 26: We could never understand why she didn't try modeling because
Speaker 26: she was tall and blonde and good looking.
Speaker 11: You knew Bromman's mother, Yes, what do you recall about her?
Speaker 26: Well, when he met her, she was a nurse in
Speaker 26: the local hospital and he had tom slatis, wasn't it
Speaker 26: And he said the first thing he saw when he
Speaker 26: woke up was Barbara's face. And everyone thought, you know,
Speaker 26: what a marvelous match because she was a real country girl.
Speaker 26: She made pickles, she knitted, she did everything, and it
Speaker 26: seemed like, you know, a marriage made in heaven. And
Speaker 26: then she had Bromwin. We noticed after that she became strange.
Speaker 26: She'd come and stay with us in Sydney, and I noticed,
Speaker 26: don't be talking to her, and suddenly she just get
Speaker 26: this vague look on her face and stopped talking and
Speaker 26: then come back into the conversation. I don't know how long,
Speaker 26: you know, it might have only been five minutes, but
Speaker 26: it seemed like a long while. And they started taking
Speaker 26: her to various different doctors and specialists, and they said
Speaker 26: that she was just a housewife and needed to get
Speaker 26: out more. And then we went to visit them in
Speaker 26: Wollongong and we were invited to dinner, and I noticed
Speaker 26: that Philip was the one that was cooking the steak.
Speaker 26: He was bathing the kids, and she dropped sugar all
Speaker 26: over the floor, and so he had to clean that up.
Speaker 26: And I said to him, you know what's happening, And
Speaker 26: he said he couldn't rely on her to do anything,
Speaker 26: and that he didn't know whether the kids would even
Speaker 26: be fed. I didn't come home from school at lunchtime
Speaker 26: to feed them.
Speaker 2: We've been joined by a young woman, Madison Walsh, who
Speaker 2: helped arrange this interview between her grandparents and me. She's
Speaker 2: very curious about Bromwin's case and has been doing her
Speaker 2: own research, reading police statements and talking to relatives. Maddie
Speaker 2: is closest to Bromwin's eldest daughter, Crystal, and they are related,
Speaker 2: of course, and you're going to hear a lot more
Speaker 2: from Maddie in later episodes.
Speaker 26: Barbara was there and then she wasn't.
Speaker 11: Sounds like she was really struggling.
Speaker 29: She was struggling.
Speaker 14: She must have been.
Speaker 23: It also sounds like a bit of like postnatal depression,
Speaker 23: which is very prevalent these days. But back in the day,
Speaker 23: you would have just been labeled as.
Speaker 26: Well, Hey, an postnatal depression, so I know what that
Speaker 26: was about.
Speaker 11: These sorts of issues were not as well understood.
Speaker 26: They didn't know about it. I mean, the poor kids
Speaker 26: had a dreadful, dreadful doing.
Speaker 13: She just took off.
Speaker 10: We didn't know where she was.
Speaker 26: And then she got in touch. She rang up and
Speaker 26: said that she couldn't cope with Andrew, come and get him.
Speaker 26: She just disappeared.
Speaker 23: I think they reconnected from what I've seen in her
Speaker 23: bron was eleven and Andrew was around nine, and then
Speaker 23: they maintained contact ever since.
Speaker 21: Then.
Speaker 23: Barbara didn't have custody of them, which she says is
Speaker 23: why she wanted to have another child, Kim.
Speaker 19: And then many years later Bronwan disappeared. Did the family
Speaker 19: suspect that Roman was just doing what her mother had done.
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 26: Really, I didn't, well no, because she wasn't like nothing
Speaker 26: like Barbara.
Speaker 13: We didn't ever think about it being like.
Speaker 21: No.
Speaker 26: I never thought it was, oh, you know, here we.
Speaker 13: Go again, Barbara all over. Nothing happened to make us
Speaker 13: think that, and certain on me anyhow.
Speaker 26: I think if we thought there was anything wrong with Roman,
Speaker 26: we probably would have thought it was just because of
Speaker 26: her dramatic childhood.
Speaker 2: Brommin was an exceptionally caring and loving mother. But when
Speaker 2: she disappeared in nineteen ninety three, the actions three decades
Speaker 2: earlier of her mother Barbara, who was suffering without appropriate treatment,
Speaker 2: were raised and relied upon to so doubt to impune
Speaker 2: Bromwin and suggest that she had abandoned her kids.
Speaker 19: And did the police, who were alerted to Broman's disappearance
Speaker 19: in nineteen ninety three contact you in that time?
Speaker 26: No, I don't remember any police coming to us until
Speaker 26: that must have been nineteen ninety eight, and.
Speaker 11: That's the first time you heard from police.
Speaker 26: Yeah, hello, Hello?
Speaker 2: Is that Meghan? Another family member who will be prominent
Speaker 2: in upcoming episodes is Bromwin's cousin, Megan Reid, the daughter
Speaker 2: of John and Leah. Meghan played a significant role in
Speaker 2: Bromwin's life, and they were in close contact before she disappeared.
Speaker 33: Right from the get go when she was born, she
Speaker 33: used to stay with my family. We're only sixteen months apart,
Speaker 33: and we were as close as close.
Speaker 6: Her relationship with John.
Speaker 16: I knew what it was like.
Speaker 33: I knew I'd seen the bruises. She showed my father's
Speaker 33: news statement to me.
Speaker 34: It's just so shocking because I used to speak to
Speaker 34: her when she was on that phone and I could
Speaker 34: hear him yelling and screaming and being on the door.
Speaker 15: I mean, surely other people heard it.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 34: She was terrified of John, absolutely terrifying of him. If
Speaker 34: he had made it incredibly clear that she would never
Speaker 34: get that house. The last thing she said to me
Speaker 34: was that the best and she ever did was to
Speaker 34: move out and get away from him. She had asked
Speaker 34: my parents for money she needed to retain a solicitor.
Speaker 6: I just can't believe the timing.
Speaker 33: I don't understand to this day how Jonathan's walking around
Speaker 33: the streets. It just astound me as the incoonfidence.
Speaker 14: Of the police.
Speaker 15: They've lost a lot of the evidence.
Speaker 33: They can't even find it, can in believe it.
Speaker 34: They've bungled this so barely they really have.
Speaker 15: I've lived with it for thirty years.
Speaker 2: Bronwyn has written and investigated by me Headley Thomas as
Speaker 2: a podcast production for The Australian. If anyone has information
Speaker 2: which may help solve this cold case, please contact me
Speaker 2: confidentially by email Bronwyn at the Australian dot com dot Au.
Speaker 2: You can read more about this case and see a
Speaker 2: range of photographs and other artwork at the website Bromwyn
Speaker 2: podcast dot com. Our subscribers and registered users here episodes first.
Speaker 2: The production and editorial team for bromwin includes Claire Harvey,
Speaker 2: Kristin Amiot, Joshua Burton, Bridget, Ryan Bianca, far Marcus, Katie Burns,
Speaker 2: Liam Mendez, Sean Callen and Matthew Condon and David Murray.
Speaker 2: Audio production for this podcast series is by Wasabi Audio
Speaker 2: and original theme music by Slade Gibson. We have been
Speaker 2: assisted by Madison Walsh, a relation of bromwyin Winfield. We
Speaker 2: can only do this kind of journalism with the support
Speaker 2: of our subscribers and our major sponsors like Harvey Norman.
Speaker 2: For all of our exclusive stories, videos, maps, timelines and
Speaker 2: documents about this podcast and other podcasts including The Teacher's Pet,
Speaker 2: The Teacher's Trial, The Teacher's Accuser, Shandy Story, Shandy's Legacy
Speaker 2: and The Night Driver, go to the Australian dot com
Speaker 2: dot Au and subscribe