Speaker 1: Listeners are advised that this podcast series Bromwan 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: I met Jody and she was adorable and needed a
Speaker 2: mother who loved her, so everything was going to work
Speaker 2: out well. I would look after Jody in Crystal and
Speaker 2: he would be the perfect husband.
Speaker 1: At the beginning of their relationship, it must have seemed
Speaker 1: an ideal match. John sir, fit handsome single dad aged thirty,
Speaker 1: Bromwin a strikingly attractive, slender and deeply committed single mum
Speaker 1: of twenty three. They had shared interest from having grown
Speaker 1: up in the same area of Sydney. Many rusted on
Speaker 1: residents say that it's God's country. They insist Kronella's beaches
Speaker 1: are better and the lifestyle slower, easier than in Sydney's
Speaker 1: eastern suburbs. John's daughter Jodi, was twelve and being raised
Speaker 1: largely by her grandparents in the Shire when Bromwyn and
Speaker 1: John got together in nineteen eighty five. At that time,
Speaker 1: Bronwyn was a full time mum to Crystal, age two.
Speaker 2: We moved to South Crenella behind a milkbar. John moved in.
Speaker 2: I found out I was pregnant and we married a
Speaker 2: few months before Lauren was born in Ballina.
Speaker 1: Broman's brother Andy Reid, has taken a day off work
Speaker 1: as a construction manager to meet me for several hours
Speaker 1: of recorded interviews. In his his wife Michelle is by
Speaker 1: his side. Andy and Michelle met on the Famed Hill
Speaker 1: near the old Doug Walters stand at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Speaker 1: Andy has kept some history about his older sister Bottled Up.
Speaker 1: He confides that he has felt guilty for many years
Speaker 1: over things he had done and not done for Bromwin
Speaker 1: when she needed help. Has she been the big sister
Speaker 1: who's been more inclined to look after you or vice versa.
Speaker 3: Oh, she was always there for me and always there
Speaker 3: for me.
Speaker 4: I moved out of home at a reason early age
Speaker 4: New Year Zoo. When I was nineteen. I got blown
Speaker 4: up by a bonfire. Someone had doused the buddy thinking
Speaker 4: petrol and not told me and asked for someone to
Speaker 4: light the bonfire, and I lit it and woke up.
Speaker 4: She went and up I went with it. I stayed
Speaker 4: with Braun for a couple of weeks. She was nursing
Speaker 4: me back to health and changing bandages. And she was
Speaker 4: very nurturing, always part of my life. And she need
Speaker 4: a hand to. Dad used to call a concert pitch
Speaker 4: a highly strung needed support.
Speaker 3: Loved someone to be there for her as well. But
Speaker 3: she was also there for you.
Speaker 1: Had you heard Roman in the past saying, I can't
Speaker 1: handle this, the kids are just.
Speaker 5: Driving me crazy and I've got to get away.
Speaker 3: Never. Never, Roman was just so dating. Those kids were
Speaker 3: her life.
Speaker 5: Did she ever take a break away from a children?
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 3: Never.
Speaker 4: To give you a little bit of insight into Bromwin's
Speaker 4: motherly nature, Jodie was actually raised by John Winfield's parents,
Speaker 4: so Bromwin brought and asked John to bring Jodie out
Speaker 4: of that environment into their environment to be part of
Speaker 4: the family. The first time she lived in a family
Speaker 4: or environment was at the little house down at South
Speaker 4: Kronola where Jadie had actually moved in with John and
Speaker 4: Bromwin and moved into the house down there.
Speaker 3: That's the type of person Bromin was.
Speaker 1: Michelle recalls meeting Bromwin at the time of the birth
Speaker 1: of Lauren, her second daughter.
Speaker 7: We got on will Yeah, she was great. She was
Speaker 7: a lovely person, a beautiful mum, spoke kindly to the kids,
Speaker 7: was caring, looked after them. They were always beautifully presented.
Speaker 1: And how would you describe the relationship between her and
Speaker 1: John at that time?
Speaker 7: From what you saw, John was the type of person
Speaker 7: who was always he was doing his own thing. He
Speaker 7: often went surfing, did that a lot. If we were there,
Speaker 7: he'd come in, he'd say the hi, how are you
Speaker 7: kind of thing? Nothing in depth. I don't remember anything
Speaker 7: in depth with John, and they need zay on going
Speaker 7: for a surf. He was always one of those in
Speaker 7: and out, Hi, how are you going?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 7: In and out, in and out. He wasn't always around.
Speaker 2: I often begged him to spend more time with us,
Speaker 2: as I had postnatal depression after having Lauren and didn't
Speaker 2: have anyone around to help. Never ever met very many
Speaker 2: of the people he worked with, or any of the
Speaker 2: people he went down the coast with. His mother hated
Speaker 2: the fact that I had heard John so never looked
Speaker 2: after Lauren or any of the girls. I was dreadfully lonely,
Speaker 2: but never complained too much as he was always tired
Speaker 2: from working. In the end, I threw myself into looking
Speaker 2: after the children.
Speaker 7: I know when we would visit there, like we'd go
Speaker 7: to have a cup of tea or something, and she'd
Speaker 7: open up the cupboards and she'd make comments like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 7: I can only afford to buy generic food and tins
Speaker 7: and stuff like that. He only gives me sixty dollars
Speaker 7: a week. I knew that John was a person who
Speaker 7: ran the house.
Speaker 2: I found it harder to cope with Lauren's sleepless nights
Speaker 2: and John never being around, but I slowly became friends
Speaker 2: with a few people, and I then joined playgroup and
Speaker 2: met heaps of great people. Unfortunately, John didn't want to
Speaker 2: socialize at all, so I started to go out and
Speaker 2: do things for myself. Playgroup and the people I met
Speaker 2: there kept me amused and gave me time for myself.
Speaker 2: I also had enough time for the children.
Speaker 1: I went to see Bromwin's friend from the nineteen nineties,
Speaker 1: Denise Barnard, at her home in Lenox, his years recalling
Speaker 1: that time of their lives.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 6: I was in the playgroup as a secretary. She was
Speaker 6: the president, and she would often come to my home
Speaker 6: because I couldn't go to hers. John was quite antisocial,
Speaker 6: didn't like having people there because they might make a mess.
Speaker 6: He had a very i'd say, like an OCD almost
Speaker 6: about the us.
Speaker 3: She told you that, didn't she?
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, but I did witness it as well. Crystal
Speaker 6: had spilt the lemonade and the floor, and Browin had
Speaker 6: got down and was cleaning it up with a toothbrush.
Speaker 6: And John came in to say what to be spilled
Speaker 6: on the floor, and Broman said she'd done it. She
Speaker 6: didn't want him going off a crystal. She told me
Speaker 6: this very particular with the house. He'd done some work
Speaker 6: for us at our house.
Speaker 3: Was there any problem with John's work?
Speaker 6: He's an amazing bricklayer, is he? Yeah? Yeah, he's a
Speaker 6: very very talented tradesman. My husband's very particular and John
Speaker 6: had that skill.
Speaker 1: You'll hear more from Denise later in this episode.
Speaker 7: If there was anything out of place in the house,
Speaker 7: it would be a big argument. If anyone spilt anything
Speaker 7: on the floor, she would have to get down and
Speaker 7: scrub it up, because if John felt a sticky bit
Speaker 7: on the floor, he'd go off his brain. A very
Speaker 7: volatile type of person.
Speaker 1: Those things you're talking about in relation to spills and
Speaker 1: so on, are they what you witnessed or heard her talking.
Speaker 7: About Honey, what she'd told us?
Speaker 1: When did you become aware that there were serious tensions
Speaker 1: in their relationship? Michelle is the first to acknowledge that
Speaker 1: even close relatives never really know for sure what is
Speaker 1: going on in another couple's marriage.
Speaker 7: What you see on the outside isn't always what's happening
Speaker 7: on the inside. Is it what happens behind closed doors
Speaker 7: in someone's house. The only people who can really tell
Speaker 7: you about that is Broman, and she can't and John,
Speaker 7: and he.
Speaker 1: Wrote perhaps the relationship was always doomed. Michelle believes she
Speaker 1: can put her finger on one of the most distressing
Speaker 1: and serious catalysts for it to go irretrievably bad. Roman
Speaker 1: was living with John in Sandstone Present when she told
Speaker 1: Michelle and Andy that she had wanted to have a
Speaker 1: third child.
Speaker 7: She'd become pregnant. She'd wanted to keep the child, and
Speaker 7: John didn't want to. John had just lost his mum
Speaker 7: and he was particularly close to his mother and he
Speaker 7: wasn't coping with that. He insisted she have an abortion.
Speaker 7: He didn't want any more kids.
Speaker 1: Bromwin told other friends about this. They have shared their recollections,
Speaker 1: and the accounts are consistent is Deb Hall from next door.
Speaker 8: She fell pregnant and she was really torn. He did
Speaker 8: not want another child. She wanted another baby, she loved kids.
Speaker 8: She didn't go ahead with it, but I know she
Speaker 8: struggled big time over that, as you would.
Speaker 9: That kind of like to me was the catalyst of
Speaker 9: their marriage.
Speaker 8: And I thought, you know what, you've got to get
Speaker 8: away from this guy if you're that miserable when he's controlling.
Speaker 8: And I did used to say to her when you know,
Speaker 8: when she'd had her crying sessions about him down here,
Speaker 8: and I say, Rowin, you can't.
Speaker 3: Live like this. You've got to get away from him.
Speaker 9: Oh but I've got nowhere to go, and I'll have
Speaker 9: no money. And that went on for a while.
Speaker 1: Romman's medical records show that she became pregnant in the
Speaker 1: second half of November nineteen ninety brow.
Speaker 7: Being the type of person that she is, well, she
Speaker 7: loved kids. Having the abortion was probably heartbreaking for her,
Speaker 7: and for him to have insisted on it then that
Speaker 7: would have been another nail in the coffin, so to speak,
Speaker 7: on their marriage.
Speaker 1: How would you describe her level of distress over that?
Speaker 10: It was a hard time.
Speaker 7: That was stressful for everybody. And that's when in that
Speaker 7: conversation she had said to me again, if anything ever
Speaker 7: happened to her, would I would we make sure that
Speaker 7: Crystal was looked after? Would we look after Crystal?
Speaker 1: You never saw any signs of physical assault or bruising
Speaker 1: on Romwin.
Speaker 7: No, I can't say that we did, but we weren't
Speaker 7: living nearby anymore. They'd moved to lennex Head. One day
Speaker 7: Jody came around to visit. Mitchell was little and he
Speaker 7: was just born. I was asking Jody how everyone was.
Speaker 7: I instigated a bit of talk about Romwin and John
Speaker 7: and she had been living up there and then I
Speaker 7: know she went up and down fairly regularly, so she
Speaker 7: saw them a lot more than we did. I said,
Speaker 7: tod ever, argue like, was there ever any arguments and
Speaker 7: stuff like that? And she said, oh, I remember one
Speaker 7: day Brumbell was sitting in a chair and he picked
Speaker 7: her up in the chair and dropped it with her
Speaker 7: in it. That was an argument they were having. And
Speaker 7: I was quite really surprised, like I hadn't.
Speaker 3: Heard stuff like that before.
Speaker 7: And I had written that down, of course, And that
Speaker 7: was in nineteen ninety three, and when that was brought
Speaker 7: up at the inquest. She couldn't recall having said that
Speaker 7: or denied it one or the other. Crystal used to
Speaker 7: say that there was lots of yelling and arguing. I
Speaker 7: know Bromwan wasn't allowed to look sideways at anybody. He
Speaker 7: was a jealous person.
Speaker 1: In her writing in nineteen ninety three, Bromwin refers to
Speaker 1: a platonic friendship she forged with a single dad and
Speaker 1: his child. They were housemates for a time shortly before
Speaker 1: John and Bromwin started seeing each other.
Speaker 2: A genuinely nice man, but he was a friend. Wonder
Speaker 2: how they're going, as John would have had a fit
Speaker 2: if I'd rung to see how they were going. He
Speaker 2: would have thought there was something going on, paranoia.
Speaker 3: Here's deb Hall.
Speaker 8: When I first met from them, they were building the
Speaker 8: house next door and I was at the front here
Speaker 8: on my veranda, and she came down to introduce them. Yeah,
Speaker 8: we got chatting them him and welcome to the neighborhood.
Speaker 6: We were chatting.
Speaker 8: We had things in common, we had kids and the
Speaker 8: same age. She was about the same age as me.
Speaker 8: But whilst I was talking to her, she kind of
Speaker 8: broke down and I hadn't met her before, and she
Speaker 8: started to cry.
Speaker 9: She said, I've just got some things going on with
Speaker 9: my husband. And I thought, no, I don't even know you.
Speaker 3: And that struck me and I went, oh.
Speaker 9: There's anything I can do.
Speaker 11: Let me know.
Speaker 8: She didn't sort of elaborate, and I didn't kind of
Speaker 8: push the agenda, and.
Speaker 3: Then she went.
Speaker 8: When they moved into the house, we got to know
Speaker 8: each other very well.
Speaker 3: She would be here a lot.
Speaker 8: The reason she would be at my house was because
Speaker 8: John would not allow anyone to come to their house.
Speaker 8: John was an absolute neat freak. I mean you could
Speaker 8: eat off the floor, nothing was out of place, and
Speaker 8: Rowan was neat. But she wanted a house to we
Speaker 8: lived in. They had kids, so I had four kids,
Speaker 8: but they were never allowed in the house. If they
Speaker 8: went up there to play, they had to play in
Speaker 8: the garage. But quite often she would offload to me
Speaker 8: about him. How you know, he wouldn't let her have
Speaker 8: this and wouldn't let.
Speaker 3: Her do that.
Speaker 8: When I ever I spoke to him, it would always
Speaker 8: just be polite conversation. I think they came down here
Speaker 8: once or twice and had a dream. But Roman would
Speaker 8: come down here all the time we sit and have
Speaker 8: coffee for hours.
Speaker 1: In early nineteen ninety Michelle and Andy were newly weird
Speaker 1: and holidaying in Queensland for their honeymoon. They decided to
Speaker 1: stop in at Lennox Head on the drive back to
Speaker 1: Sydney to see Andy's.
Speaker 7: Sister and Roman and the kids weren't there. Only John was,
Speaker 7: and we kind of thought, oh, that's crazy, where are they?
Speaker 7: And he said, ah, they're in Sydney having a holiday.
Speaker 7: I think was he said. We found out later that
Speaker 7: heat up and left Uncle John's house, which is Andrew's uncle,
Speaker 7: and left them there and taken himself back to Lenox Head.
Speaker 7: There'd been some sort of ish and that was probably
Speaker 7: I don't know, I suppose when I first started to think, oh,
Speaker 7: let's be crazy, like who does that.
Speaker 1: There was another incident remembered by the Reed family and
Speaker 1: cited as evidence of John having a callous disregard for Bromwin.
Speaker 1: Bromin's uncle John and Auntie Leah were hosting Bromwin and
Speaker 1: John Winfield with their young children overnight in the Reed
Speaker 1: home in Sydney. It was Christmas nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 12: And he said he was going to Newcastle to look
Speaker 12: at a car, and I said, you're going to be
Speaker 12: back for dinner, and oh, yes, yes. We cooked dinner
Speaker 12: and waited and waited and he hadn't turned up. And
Speaker 12: I said to bromin about half us nine ten, do
Speaker 12: you think he's coming back? And she did, no, I
Speaker 12: don't think he is. And she was left here and
Speaker 12: we were going overseas within a couple of days. We
Speaker 12: gave him money and we had nobody around here could
Speaker 12: help him. That time. When he didn't come back, she
Speaker 12: indicated that they were having problems.
Speaker 3: It was really strong, and it.
Speaker 12: Was his father that came and picked her up and
Speaker 12: drove her back up to home. Obviously John had taken
Speaker 12: off and had no intention of coming back and picking
Speaker 12: her up.
Speaker 1: Ronman's cousin Megan Reid, says she was there and that
Speaker 1: the occasion was a lunch on Boxing Day, December twenty six,
Speaker 1: not at dinner, as remembered by her mother, Leah Bosting.
Speaker 12: Day was to read Christmas poets.
Speaker 6: The whole turkey and all the rest.
Speaker 12: Of it, and so Bonn went and the family, they
Speaker 12: were all there. He never would have thought anything was wrong,
Speaker 12: no fight for whatever, and he said he'd be back
Speaker 12: by one day, two o'clock for lunch. Well, he never
Speaker 12: showed up, and it wasn't sure. About nine hours later
Speaker 12: that we found it out he was back at lenach Shad,
Speaker 12: but he just choldn't back.
Speaker 3: But what was his explanation for just taking.
Speaker 10: Oh, there wasn't one. We never got an explanation.
Speaker 12: Where were gobsmacked perfectly honest. Mom and dad didn't know
Speaker 12: what to do, and John refused point blank to pay
Speaker 12: for them to be flown home. But this is the
Speaker 12: second occurrence, very very strange.
Speaker 10: At the end, I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 12: The first time was when Andrew got married January nineteen ninety.
Speaker 6: Woman came down.
Speaker 12: In fact, the photo is the police used were the
Speaker 12: ones I took for her in the purple dress. But
Speaker 12: he went back to learn i'd set again. So that
Speaker 12: was the first time he did it. Roman It ended
Speaker 12: up staying for quite some time.
Speaker 5: Both times, here's Michelle again.
Speaker 7: She would bring up. She would be saying that things like, oh,
Speaker 7: I'm not very happy, I'm not happy with John and
Speaker 7: stuff like that. I'm thinking about moving out and we
Speaker 7: had a baby. I said to her, well, do you
Speaker 7: want to move back to Sydney like, I can help
Speaker 7: you try and find somewhere to live, and she'd say,
Speaker 7: I can't afford to do that.
Speaker 10: I've got no money.
Speaker 7: And then she'd say, you know, if anything ever happens
Speaker 7: to me, will you promise me you'll look after Crystal,
Speaker 7: particularly Crystal, because Crystal was not John's genetic child whereas
Speaker 7: Lauren was. She kind of felt that John would look
Speaker 7: after his own more than he would look after Crystal,
Speaker 7: which rang through in the end. We would discuss what
Speaker 7: was happening, and we even thought, oh, we can't even
Speaker 7: really put them up here. We're in a little three
Speaker 7: bedroom home. We had hardly any room to fit another
Speaker 7: person and two kids. Another time she rang up and
Speaker 7: she was unhappy and was talking about leaving him again,
Speaker 7: and said again the next time about looking after the
Speaker 7: kids if anything ever happened to me. She never ever
Speaker 7: said straight out, oh, I think John's going to do
Speaker 7: something to me. That never got said. It just got implied.
Speaker 1: When she was saying, where's the effect if something happens
Speaker 1: to me?
Speaker 5: I guess There's a couple of different ways you can
Speaker 5: interpret that. She may self harm. For example, she might
Speaker 5: have a health.
Speaker 1: Issue, or she may be fearful of a partner. Do
Speaker 1: you recall what you took from it at that time?
Speaker 7: Oh, definitely fearful. We knew she wasn't unwill she would
Speaker 7: never leave her kids. She loved those kids wholeheartedly, like
Speaker 7: everything for her. It was fear. It was fear of John.
Speaker 7: I just knew that.
Speaker 1: Why do you think she didn't actually express that bluntly?
Speaker 7: Maybe her fear of him find out out she'd said that.
Speaker 1: Michelle recalls Broman telling her about John's volatility and his
Speaker 1: intolerance for visitors in his house, his castle.
Speaker 7: He didn't want anyone there. He didn't want her having friends.
Speaker 7: A really strange bloat.
Speaker 3: Andy.
Speaker 5: Around this time, when Robin was telling you.
Speaker 1: About her troubles in the marriage, you were counseling her
Speaker 1: to try to work things through and keep a marriage intact.
Speaker 4: Do you remember that I was doing my best to
Speaker 4: sort of advise Brian to do her best to see
Speaker 4: if she could work through it.
Speaker 3: She had a previous marriage.
Speaker 4: I knew John was very controlling, you know, with money
Speaker 4: and all the rest of it. She was on that
Speaker 4: tide of budget that she used to hand so all
Speaker 4: the kids, little dressed, little summer dresses and things like that.
Speaker 4: But I was just sort of doing my best to
Speaker 4: see if she tried everything before she threw the town
Speaker 4: in Tremerally, people have probably got this very talle that
Speaker 4: you're going to meet someone and you have your first
Speaker 4: kiss and lost a better roses for the rest of
Speaker 4: your life, like a good marriage, you're a long lasting
Speaker 4: marriage or something that's worked at and you just need
Speaker 4: to be good mates and good friends and support each
Speaker 4: other and that sort of thing. So I was sort
Speaker 4: of adamant that after witnessing sort of the upbringing I had,
Speaker 4: I thought it's a good idea for Bronda, maybe at
Speaker 4: least try.
Speaker 3: As much as she could.
Speaker 1: But Debhall knew that a reconciliation was pointless, if not impossible.
Speaker 8: To my astonishment, one day, she and I can't remember
Speaker 8: exactly when it was, but she told me she was
Speaker 8: going to leave him. And I said, oh, okay, well
Speaker 8: where are you going to go? And she said, I've
Speaker 8: organized the place down in Lennox. I said, well that's good.
Speaker 8: I said, well, you know what is John thing. Well,
Speaker 8: he's agreeable to it, and I'm.
Speaker 9: Going to move down there, and so she did. I
Speaker 9: did visit her there.
Speaker 3: She got a dog.
Speaker 8: The kids always wanted a puppy, and then she thought, well,
Speaker 8: I'm going to get him a puppy.
Speaker 9: And I used to think, oh, she's really branching out,
Speaker 9: you know, she's really and she had a job at
Speaker 9: the cafe down there, and she was sort of getting
Speaker 9: on with it. And you'd go down there and the
Speaker 9: house has lived in, the kids had their stuff, and
Speaker 9: that my kids would go and play, and you know,
Speaker 9: it was just a normal environment, albeit a little bit
Speaker 9: difficult for her.
Speaker 5: Why did she even move out?
Speaker 1: She didn't have a choice. It's a jointly owned house,
Speaker 1: not in Don's ice. But would it have been a
Speaker 1: legally jointly owned house to your knowledge?
Speaker 3: Of course it should have been. Of course it would
Speaker 3: have been.
Speaker 1: And in a situation like that, where there's a mother,
Speaker 1: a father and two girls being raised ostensibly by Bromwin,
Speaker 1: it's normal for the male to leave the family, not
Speaker 1: the moment of the kids to be up.
Speaker 4: Ready, she was forced out, basically. I remember having the
Speaker 4: conversation that she just said, she doesn't have a choice.
Speaker 4: She's going to have to find somewhere to go. And
Speaker 4: that's when I believe that she'd found that little townhouse
Speaker 4: down in Byron Street.
Speaker 7: Turn left onto Byron Street.
Speaker 1: At that time, Michelle and Andy were having their second child, Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Andy wonders how things would have turned out if their
Speaker 1: lives had been less hectic.
Speaker 7: Then we were trying to tell her we'd had a
Speaker 7: boy and she was happy, but all then channeled back
Speaker 7: to her leaving John. She was leaving. She was going
Speaker 7: to find somewhere to live. Mitchell was born on the
Speaker 7: thirty first of March. Bromwin was very preoccupied. That was
Speaker 7: all happening in her life right then and there.
Speaker 1: When Bromwin had called about the advertisement for the townhouse
Speaker 1: on March twenty two in the Northern Star newspaper, the
Speaker 1: property's owner and landlady cut her some slack. Shirley Taylor
Speaker 1: knew it must have been a financial struggle for the
Speaker 1: newly single young mum. These are Shirley's words to police
Speaker 1: in September nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 3: It's not her voice.
Speaker 13: She informed me that she had separated from her husband
Speaker 13: and was looking for a place to rent. At the time,
Speaker 13: she had two young girls with her. After inspecting the flat,
Speaker 13: she informed me that she wished to rent it, but
Speaker 13: told me that she would have trouble paying the one
Speaker 13: hundred and fifty dollars a week rent. I told her
Speaker 13: that she could move in and we would see how
Speaker 13: things go.
Speaker 1: Shirley also asked for a bond of seven hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: A check for the amount was signed by John Winfield.
Speaker 1: Bronwin handed it over the same day.
Speaker 13: Whilst bron was moving in. On that day, her husband,
Speaker 13: John came over to my place and asked for the
Speaker 13: bond money to be given.
Speaker 6: Back to him.
Speaker 13: I told him that Bromin had given me the money
Speaker 13: for the bond, and he was very angry and demanded
Speaker 13: the money because of the way he was acting in
Speaker 13: his aggressive manner. I gave him back the check and
Speaker 13: he left. A couple of days later, broman came over
Speaker 13: to my place and gave me another check for seven
Speaker 13: hundred dollars. I think it was the same check that
Speaker 13: her husband had taken from me.
Speaker 1: Shirley grew fond.
Speaker 3: Of the young woman.
Speaker 13: I came to know Bromwin fairly well, and I would
Speaker 13: mind her children if she had to go down the street.
Speaker 13: I found her to be a most devoted mother who
Speaker 13: was very attached to her children. I didn't really have
Speaker 13: any conversations with her about her private life. I do recall, though,
Speaker 13: that she told me that she hated her husband.
Speaker 1: Bromwin spoke to a solicitor, Tony Mannering, at his office
Speaker 1: in the nearby town of Ballino. It was a fortnight
Speaker 1: after she and her daughters had moved out of the
Speaker 1: house in Sandstone Crescent. John promptly changed the locks up
Speaker 1: there put a deadlock on the front door. It was
Speaker 1: a powerful signal to Bronwin that she would not be
Speaker 1: welcomed back. The solicitor must have taken careful notes during
Speaker 1: their first meeting. He and his new client covered a
Speaker 1: lot of ground for a pending divorce and a possible
Speaker 1: battle over custody and property. It was important to have
Speaker 1: as much information as possible. Mannering summarized the facts and
Speaker 1: circumstances in a letter that he wrote to Bromwin on
Speaker 1: April sixth, nineteen ninety three. His letter was sent to
Speaker 1: her at the townhouse in Byron Street. These are Tony
Speaker 1: Mannering's words, it's not his voice.
Speaker 14: Dear madam. We advise your instructions as follows. You married
Speaker 14: your husband on fourteen December nineteen eighty seven, at Ballina.
Speaker 14: Although you did not live with your husband as man
Speaker 14: and wife prior to your marriage, you did look after
Speaker 14: your husband's daughter, Jodi Line Winfield, on a full time
Speaker 14: basis sometime prior to your marriage. You separated from your
Speaker 14: husband on twenty one March nineteen ninety three. Your husband
Speaker 14: has been married twice before, and you have been married
Speaker 14: once before. You and your husband have a child together,
Speaker 14: Lauren Mary Winfield born nineteen eighty eight. Lauren now lives
Speaker 14: with you. You have a child from a previous relationship,
Speaker 14: Crystal Joy Winfield born nineteen eighty two. Cristel was five
Speaker 14: years old when you married your husband. Your husband treated
Speaker 14: Cristel as his daughter and insisted that Cristel called him Dad.
Speaker 1: The solicitor noted the respective assets of Bromwin and John
Speaker 1: at the time they became a couple and when they separated.
Speaker 1: Bromwin owned furniture and a car with the value of
Speaker 1: about five thousand dollars. When she and John got together,
Speaker 1: John had a car worth one thousand dollars.
Speaker 14: And some fifty thousand dollars being his share of the
Speaker 14: proceeds of the sale of a former home owned by
Speaker 14: him and a previous wife.
Speaker 1: Tony Mannering described what he.
Speaker 14: Called the present asset of both you and your husband
Speaker 14: a home at Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head, the former matrimonial home,
Speaker 14: which you value between two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 14: and three hundred thousand dollars. The former matrimonial home is
Speaker 14: not encumbered by mortgage or debt. Your understanding is that
Speaker 14: the former matrimonial home is in your husband's name alone.
Speaker 1: The solicitor listed a white Ford Falcon worth about five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. There was the household furniture, a bank account
Speaker 1: in the name of her youngest daughter, Lauren with a
Speaker 1: balance of about seven hundred dollars, and an account in
Speaker 1: John's name, but Bromin didn't know how much John had saved.
Speaker 14: Throughout the marriage, you and your husband adopted traditional family
Speaker 14: roles in that you were the homemaker and mother and
Speaker 14: your husband and worked as a bricklayer.
Speaker 1: Bromwin had been doing some casual work in her friend
Speaker 1: Robin Shanahan's hamburger and sandwich joint called Eden's Takeaway on
Speaker 1: Pacific Parade facing the beach. It gave her some pocket
Speaker 1: money without affecting her availability for school. Drop offs and pickups.
Speaker 14: You wish to continue your role as a mother at
Speaker 14: least until Lauren is a bit older. Your husband is
Speaker 14: a qualified bricklayer, although he has had some neck and
Speaker 14: shoulder injuries which he says have prevented him from working.
Speaker 14: We confirm our advice to you as follows. The Family
Speaker 14: Law Act provides that you are entitled to make a
Speaker 14: claim upon the assets that we have listed above.
Speaker 1: He described some of the things that would be taken
Speaker 1: into account in a fair property settlement. Their respective financial
Speaker 1: contributions to the marriage and the work of Bromwan as
Speaker 1: homemaker and parent were part of this.
Speaker 14: In this regard, we note your instructions that you have
Speaker 14: been the parent to perform the majority of the parental
Speaker 14: duties for the three children, including your husband's daughter. Further,
Speaker 14: you have been the party to the marriage who undertook
Speaker 14: the majority of the household tasks and duties.
Speaker 1: It was too soon to provide Roman with a percentage, however,
Speaker 1: Tony Mannering wrote.
Speaker 14: You can be assured that you are entitled to a
Speaker 14: significant percentage of the assets. We note our suggestion that
Speaker 14: you do not leave property matters for too long, but
Speaker 14: contact us again in say one month's time to assess
Speaker 14: when you will make your claim on your husband for
Speaker 14: the finalization of property matters in respect of dissolving your marriage.
Speaker 14: You can make an application for dissolution after twelve months
Speaker 14: has expired from the date of your separation.
Speaker 1: Roman was doing the legal rounds. She had asked for
Speaker 1: advice from a solicitor called Graham Holland in Byron Bay,
Speaker 1: north of Lennox. The third solicitor she would go and see,
Speaker 1: Chris mcdebitt, was based in the inland town of Lismore.
Speaker 1: On April twenty fourth, nineteen ninety three, Bromin had a birthday.
Speaker 1: She turned thirty one. Her friend de Niece remembered it
Speaker 1: was a happy occasion for her and the other playgroup mums.
Speaker 6: She'd moved into a unit with the girls and they
Speaker 6: had got a puppy because John had never wanted to
Speaker 6: have a dog, so they've got a puppy. We went down,
Speaker 6: we surprised her and we had her birthday morning there,
Speaker 6: which was lovely.
Speaker 3: She loved it. What did you think of Romin's state
Speaker 3: of mind?
Speaker 6: She always seemed to have it together. You would never
Speaker 6: imagine them as a couple. Here was the surfy, sort
Speaker 6: of very good looking, piercing blue eyes. Alona doesn't have
Speaker 6: any mates, as far as I know, didn't have any.
Speaker 6: Den don't think he has a knee now. Bromwan was
Speaker 6: the almost prum and proper tall slender. She was very intelligent,
Speaker 6: uckly groomed, as were the children always they were very
Speaker 6: chalk and cheese.
Speaker 1: You're certain about Bromwen confiding to you that John was
Speaker 1: threatening towards her.
Speaker 6: I still recollect when she told me that he had
Speaker 6: had her by the throat up against the wall, and
Speaker 6: that she was frightened.
Speaker 1: That he physically held her, that she was scared of him.
Speaker 3: Yep. It's not something that.
Speaker 6: He had a by a throat, yep. I remember the conversation.
Speaker 1: Presumably John would say that he was never threatening towards
Speaker 1: Bromman and that she made up these stories or she
Speaker 1: grossly exaggerated and you didn't see any actual violence. What
Speaker 1: do you think about the proposition that Bromwin, for example,
Speaker 1: could embellish or fabricate stories about John.
Speaker 6: I don't know that she would need to.
Speaker 1: Did she ever say to you, I just need to
Speaker 1: go away for a long long time.
Speaker 7: No.
Speaker 6: I think she was committed to leaving him and taking
Speaker 6: the girls and starting a new life for herself. Probably
Speaker 6: the bottom line, she would never have left those children
Speaker 6: never they were her life, and knowing that Chrystaw wasn't John's,
Speaker 6: she wouldn't have gone anywhere without them. She just wouldn't
Speaker 6: have done it. And afterwards, after she disappeared, John contacted
Speaker 6: me because he didn't want the dog, So my parents
Speaker 6: ended up with that lovely little dog for like eighteen years.
Speaker 3: What was the name, Muffy?
Speaker 1: How do you feel about Bromin's case becoming part of
Speaker 1: this podcast investigation?
Speaker 6: Fantastic?
Speaker 1: You're not worried about bringing up painful memories and no
Speaker 1: difficult situation.
Speaker 6: No, I think we need to We need to do it.
Speaker 6: It's been too long. I think anybody that had anything
Speaker 6: to impart any more information to try and get this
Speaker 6: resolved one way or the other would be interesting in
Speaker 6: talking to you. Whatever happened that night, on that Sunday
Speaker 6: night that was the last of Bromwin. That's tonight those
Speaker 6: girls lost their mum.
Speaker 1: I drove to a park in a rural town near
Speaker 1: Lennox to meet one of Bromwin's friends. She has been
Speaker 1: anxious about meeting me and speaking publicly. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to identify you by your name in this podcast, but
Speaker 1: your voice will be heard.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Are you okay with that? And I understand that you've
Speaker 1: got personal reasons. Where would you like to start? And
Speaker 1: talking about your friend brom.
Speaker 11: She loved kids, so there was no way she would
Speaker 11: willingly fell off and leave her kids.
Speaker 1: At the time, she and Bromwan were good friends. In
Speaker 1: this place. Joan had recently left a violent relationship. She
Speaker 1: still looked over her shoulder.
Speaker 5: Had you been through a tough time?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Broman supported her until her disappearance.
Speaker 3: She understood, and you knew about the termination.
Speaker 7: Yes.
Speaker 11: She told me that he had made her have an
Speaker 11: abush That would have been really hard for her because
Speaker 11: she loved kids.
Speaker 1: Broman told her friend that she had wanted to leave
Speaker 1: John for some time, but that he had warned her
Speaker 1: she would get next to nothing. He was not going
Speaker 1: to vacate or sell the house on Sandstone. Isn't the
Speaker 1: title deeds show that he had put the property in
Speaker 1: his name, and.
Speaker 11: He said he would give her And I can't remember
Speaker 11: the exact amount, I have ten dollars something like that.
Speaker 11: There was no mortgage on house and she said, no,
Speaker 11: I won't. I'll get a real estate to value it.
Speaker 1: Joan recalled Roman, disclosing that she had organized a valuer
Speaker 1: to put a potential price on the property. It came
Speaker 1: in around two hundred and forty five thousand dollars in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 11: She couldn't get a certain one because he was friends
Speaker 11: with them, and.
Speaker 1: She wanted the house valued so she could work out
Speaker 1: what her equity in it potentially would be in a
Speaker 1: property settlement.
Speaker 11: Yes, and she'd told me she'd one time he was
Speaker 11: talking to his father. He didn't want to lose that house.
Speaker 11: Like she said, she overheard him talking to his father,
Speaker 11: it'd be better if he had the kids more chance
Speaker 11: of having the house.
Speaker 3: Had you been in the house?
Speaker 7: Yeah, not often.
Speaker 11: And then she moved into the un.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the townhouse that she moved into, trying
Speaker 1: to cast your mind back to that period nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: three when she was living there.
Speaker 3: You visited her there?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 3: How did she see?
Speaker 11: It's fine? Probably more relaxed. I think she could feel
Speaker 11: like she could do what she wanted to do.
Speaker 1: I met Joan again a few weeks later in a
Speaker 1: riverside park. Do you recall Broum whenever saying things to
Speaker 1: you that made you concern for her safety.
Speaker 15: Yes, she had told me that John had said to
Speaker 15: her she bad mouth killer around the hound.
Speaker 11: He would killing.
Speaker 3: She said that to you.
Speaker 15: I got the impression she felt like he would. I
Speaker 15: had no ideat about believing anything she told me.
Speaker 3: You took that seriously at the time, Well.
Speaker 9: She certainly did.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 15: Somebody at that loved kids like she did wasn't going to
Speaker 15: go off and leave her own kids.
Speaker 11: I was so.
Speaker 15: Wanting to get answers right because I felt like, but
Speaker 15: for the grace of God go I.
Speaker 1: I know from talking to Brohman's family and friends that
Speaker 1: she was finding it difficult to support herself and the
Speaker 1: girls while also trying to find rent of one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars a week for the townhouse. Here's her
Speaker 1: Auntie Leah again.
Speaker 7: Well, she was on the phone.
Speaker 12: She wanted me to give us two thousand dollars, and
Speaker 12: we didn't have two thousand dollars without taking it out
Speaker 12: of our business. Our business was new, we weren't in
Speaker 12: that sort of position. Particularly, she wouldn't tell me what
Speaker 12: it was for. At that time, she had moved out
Speaker 12: of the house, and she told me she was living
Speaker 12: in an apartment.
Speaker 10: She called me constantly.
Speaker 12: I'd get these long phone calls and she'd talk about
Speaker 12: clair voyance and all this sort of thing, and that's
Speaker 12: what I thought she wanted the money for.
Speaker 1: What did you understand about her interest in the clear words?
Speaker 12: I think she was trying to find out, you know,
Speaker 12: what was going to happen with a marriage that sort
Speaker 12: of couldn't get her off the phone. Must have been
Speaker 12: the last I would say months. But she didn't really
Speaker 12: tell me she was moving. I remember being surprised when
Speaker 12: I found that she had gone, and she said, I'm
Speaker 12: in an apartment, but I'm going back to my house
Speaker 12: because John has got to go down to Sydney for
Speaker 12: a job, and I'll go back while he's gone.
Speaker 3: Did you detect any fear or urgency in the conversations.
Speaker 12: Because I would have lent him money if i'd thought
Speaker 12: that she needed it for something important from my recollection,
Speaker 12: As you said at the time, she wouldn't tell you
Speaker 12: what she wandered for. Yeah, Broman wanted money, but she
Speaker 12: wouldn't tell us what it was for. And she said
Speaker 12: to me, and you'll all be sorry that's right. She
Speaker 12: said you'll all be sorry.
Speaker 1: And that comment that she made you'll be sorry, was
Speaker 1: that connected to her being unable to get alone?
Speaker 9: I think so.
Speaker 12: We discussed it at the time whether we should give
Speaker 12: her the money, don't you remember, And our own kids
Speaker 12: were all wanting money too at the time.
Speaker 3: Do you recall whether you or John had lent money
Speaker 3: to Bromwin before.
Speaker 12: No, No, it was quite a lot of money, and
Speaker 12: we thought.
Speaker 7: If we give her money, we're going to have to
Speaker 7: give our.
Speaker 10: Own kids money.
Speaker 12: Perhaps she wanted to get a lawyer or.
Speaker 10: Something like that.
Speaker 12: But if she'd said that to us, if she'd said
Speaker 12: I need a lawyer, and there'd been no reason not
Speaker 12: to tell us, were there that she wanted a lawyer,
Speaker 12: I certainly wouldn't have thought, from what I knew of
Speaker 12: John that she was in any danger from him.
Speaker 1: What was it about John's personality and demeanor that made
Speaker 1: you feel she would be in no danger from.
Speaker 3: Him even though they were going through marital issues.
Speaker 12: Well, it just seemed like a normal everyday father of
Speaker 12: the time.
Speaker 10: My man name didn't do anything terribly terrific or bad.
Speaker 12: Did They just had an unhappy marriage.
Speaker 1: Do you recall Broman's showing you her arm and a
Speaker 1: bruise and saying that she had been.
Speaker 3: Assaulted by John. That's in your statement. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 3: recall it now, Hedley, but.
Speaker 11: If I said that would have been what what happened?
Speaker 3: You recall it now.
Speaker 1: John Reid is an elderly man. It is unsurprising that
Speaker 1: he cannot remember what he told police twenty six years
Speaker 1: ago when he signed a formal statement. I'm going to
Speaker 1: read some key sentences from John Reid's police statement. It's
Speaker 1: dated August eleventh, nineteen ninety eight. He is describing a
Speaker 1: visit by Bronwan to the Reid home in Sydney, about
Speaker 1: five months before his niece's disappearance. Bromwin's uncle says in
Speaker 1: this statement, quote, whilst Broman was at our house, she
Speaker 1: informed me that John had been assaulting her and she
Speaker 1: showed me a significant bruise on her forearm. I cannot
Speaker 1: remember which arm it was.
Speaker 3: Unquote.
Speaker 1: He then raised the stream of telephone calls from Bromwin
Speaker 1: when she was seeking money in the weeks before her disappearance,
Speaker 1: and he says in his statement from nineteen ninety eight, quote,
Speaker 1: I was aware that Broman was causing Leah some anguish
Speaker 1: about these regular telephone calls. So I asked my daughter Megan,
Speaker 1: who was very friendly with Broman, to ask her to
Speaker 1: stop ringing. I can't really remember what happened after this,
Speaker 1: but I am aware that Bromwin disappeared a very short
Speaker 1: time later. Unquote, Broman worked when she could at Eden's Takeaway,
Speaker 1: but it was not enough to pay all the bills.
Speaker 1: I spoke to Robin Shanahan, who owned the fast food
Speaker 1: place with her husband and two friends, doing a.
Speaker 3: Couple of ships a week for you. Is that right?
Speaker 3: Can you recall?
Speaker 16: Yeah, she was always keen to get to work.
Speaker 9: She liked a job, just go worker.
Speaker 16: And I think she needed the money to make milkshakes,
Speaker 16: I think, and make sandwiches and stuff. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 16: little takeaway. We just all paid our staff cash. She
Speaker 16: obviously needed finance some money to keep going. If she
Speaker 16: wasn't living at home and she wasn't getting any money off.
Speaker 16: John and her were toxic. I had thought I knew her,
Speaker 16: and we got to know her very well. And I'll
Speaker 16: tell you this because I don't I ever told anybody
Speaker 16: she was so nervous. I think with John.
Speaker 1: Robin told me that in the kitchen of Bromman's home
Speaker 1: at Lennox Head, there was a teatawel draped over the
Speaker 1: back of the taps at the kitchen sink. When Robin asked,
Speaker 1: why do you have a teatawel there, Robin replied that
Speaker 1: when peeling potato, starch sometimes sprayed onto the taps it
Speaker 1: would set John off. The tetail minimized the risk of
Speaker 1: an argument.
Speaker 6: In my opin shouldn't infere.
Speaker 1: John had taken his tools and gone to Sydney to work.
Speaker 1: The family home in Sandstone Crescent was sitting empty, but
Speaker 1: John did not want Bromwyn and the two girls, Crystal
Speaker 1: and Lauren, living there now that he had separated from
Speaker 1: his wife. John's daughter from his first marriage, Jody, was
Speaker 1: in Sydney and working in a hair salon when the
Speaker 1: breakup occurred. Bromwin was fond of her stepdaughter. They had
Speaker 1: formed an affectionate bond over the previous six years. On
Speaker 1: May sixth, nineteen ninety three, that's ten days before Bromwin disappeared,
Speaker 1: she wrote to Jody from the townhouse in Byron Street.
Speaker 2: Dear Jody, since I didn't want to run up your
Speaker 2: phone bills, saying what things needed to be said. I
Speaker 2: thought I would write you a letter. It's always easier
Speaker 2: to write these things down than it is to say them.
Speaker 2: When I spoke to you last and said that I
Speaker 2: will always be there for you, I meant every word
Speaker 2: of it. A young girl always needs someone to talk
Speaker 2: to and hopefully guide them until they can make the
Speaker 2: right decisions. I know you have your own mother, but
Speaker 2: she doesn't always think of what's best for you. Even
Speaker 2: though your mother let you down, you must always love
Speaker 2: her because she is your mother, despite any faults, and
Speaker 2: because you can't change the past. I think I could
Speaker 2: have been a better step mother to you by making
Speaker 2: your family see that they should have been more supportive
Speaker 2: of you over the past few years since you left me.
Speaker 2: I am hoping to make amends for letting you down
Speaker 2: by telling you that I will always be here for
Speaker 2: you to talk to and be your best friend, and
Speaker 2: that if you ever need me, I will be there
Speaker 2: for you. You are more than welcome to visit me
Speaker 2: in the your sisters, and if you ever get into
Speaker 2: any trouble financially, emotionally, or in any way, you can
Speaker 2: come to me and we will sort them out together.
Speaker 2: I may not have much money at the moment, but
Speaker 2: there will always be a solution. You are the best
Speaker 2: daughter that anyone could have had, even if we had
Speaker 2: our disagreements, and if you ever need a home, you
Speaker 2: will always be welcome in mine.
Speaker 1: Throughout this time, as Bromin did her best to make
Speaker 1: ends meet in the rented townhouse, she and her brother
Speaker 1: Andy were talking regularly.
Speaker 4: You know, that's something I've always lived with since the
Speaker 4: day I was the one that's in that week when
Speaker 4: she found out that John had actually left Lennox and
Speaker 4: the house was vacant, and here she is on absolute
Speaker 4: struggle street.
Speaker 3: I said, well, Ron possessions, no intense at the law.
Speaker 4: She's just struggling for money, not getting any support from him. Really,
Speaker 4: I said, don't get back in the head, get back
Speaker 4: in the house, and then it's going to force the issue.
Speaker 3: It's going to force everything to be resolved. She'd boomed
Speaker 3: to see a solicitor and started the process. Go and
Speaker 3: so if you can get back in the house.
Speaker 1: In Lismore, Bromwin's new solicitor, Chris McDevitt, offered the same
Speaker 1: advice she was getting from Andy. Chris acted promptly on
Speaker 1: Broman's instructions to write a formal legal letter to John.
Speaker 17: Dear mister Winfield, Bronwyin is hopeful that you will both
Speaker 17: be able to reach an agreement in relation to financial matters,
Speaker 17: and we will be writing to you further with a
Speaker 17: proposal in this regard in the near future.
Speaker 1: Bromwin must have told her solicitor to leave John in
Speaker 1: no doubt about her intentions to proceed to a divorce.
Speaker 1: The letter is dated Friday May fourteen, that's two days
Speaker 1: before Bromwan disappeared, and the letter was sent to John's brother,
Speaker 1: Peter Winfield's address in Sydney. John was working in Sydney
Speaker 1: and staying at Peter's house, but it is unlikely John
Speaker 1: saw it before Bromin disappeared.
Speaker 3: The letter, if.
Speaker 1: Posted in the usual way, would not have arrived there
Speaker 1: until early the following week. Bromwin's sister in law Michelle
Speaker 1: and brother Andy are adamant that John knew the gist
Speaker 1: of what was in the.
Speaker 7: Letter, but told him so he was aware that it
Speaker 7: was in the process.
Speaker 17: We are instructed by Bronwyn that in her view, your
Speaker 17: marriage is at an end and that there is no
Speaker 17: prospect of a reconciliation. In the meantime, we require your
Speaker 17: immediate agreement for Bronwinn to retain the use and possession
Speaker 17: of the Ford motor vehicle pending finalization of your financial matters.
Speaker 1: The letter doesn't disclose to John that Bromwin was about
Speaker 1: to move back into Sandstone Crescent, but Bromwyn and Chris
Speaker 1: mcdebitt had talked about this in his office in Lismore.
Speaker 1: He told her she had every legal right to do so.
Speaker 1: Broman made up her mind that she would move back
Speaker 1: in on Friday May fourteenth. In a separate note to her,
Speaker 1: Chris mcdebitt wrote that he would let her know of
Speaker 1: any reply from John in the meantime.
Speaker 3: Chris mcdebitt added.
Speaker 17: We look forward to seeing you at your appointment next Monday.
Speaker 1: But Broman didn't show up for that appointment at the
Speaker 1: law firm in Molesworth Street, Lismore on Monday May seventeenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three. Meaghan Reid has invited me to her
Speaker 1: house on Sydney's Northern Beaches to look at some of
Speaker 1: the newly recovered police files. Meghan also has a lot
Speaker 1: to say about John Winfield.
Speaker 12: I've been on the phone talking to her at her
Speaker 12: flat when she moved into Byron Speed and in here
Speaker 12: screaming outside let me let me in.
Speaker 10: And she actually tore.
Speaker 12: The phone off the wall at one point to stop
Speaker 12: me ringing out a hassling out.
Speaker 3: These are bills for missus b J.
Speaker 1: Winfield Byron Street Lennox head phone bills from Telecom Australia.
Speaker 10: Yes there were more than a police have got them.
Speaker 1: And the date of issue this one was the seventeenth
Speaker 1: of the fifth ninety three.
Speaker 3: God went.
Speaker 1: Phone calls expensive then four hundred and thirty dollars and
Speaker 1: sixty six cents.
Speaker 3: Back then, usually.
Speaker 12: Bromwin would call me and I would call her back.
Speaker 12: My husband was very wealthy, so I could afford to
Speaker 12: doing her so I did.
Speaker 3: Was Bromwin materialistic No, not at all.
Speaker 10: She had dreadful u friends.
Speaker 12: She was left it too and she had to go
Speaker 12: and live with my grandmother, my father's mother, who then
Speaker 12: had a nurse breakdown.
Speaker 10: Ever since she was a little girl who wanted the.
Speaker 12: Fairy tale when she was sort of most loving gentle person.
Speaker 10: Because I was always saying to her, come over scenes
Speaker 10: with me, she did want that.
Speaker 12: She wanted to have more children, desperately and just have
Speaker 12: a house of her own, to be a mother. That's
Speaker 12: all she wanted to be, and a homemaker and a wife.
Speaker 12: All I want is the white picket fence. That was
Speaker 12: her whole thing, and she threw herself into it head first.
Speaker 10: She was a brilliant mother. She just loved those kids.
Speaker 12: They were always immaculate, They were happy, even when obviously
Speaker 12: there were problems in the marriage. She never showed it
Speaker 12: in front of those children. She never wanted to move
Speaker 12: to Lane Upset. All her friends were in Sydney. Her
Speaker 12: whole support circle was in Sydney. But John bought that
Speaker 12: book of Land with his ex wife the one before.
Speaker 10: He made her go up there.
Speaker 12: Took her a while to meet people, but she did
Speaker 12: because she's very friendly. The last time I actually laid
Speaker 12: eyes on her was just before she moved into Byron
Speaker 12: Street in March. And I know that because I was
Speaker 12: with my dean husband on a business trip and she
Speaker 12: looked dreadful. And she's sitting there, she's chainsmoking and drip
Speaker 12: cuts coffee.
Speaker 10: The house looked like a showroom.
Speaker 3: What do you mean the house look like a showroom.
Speaker 12: They looked like a display home. All the time sold
Speaker 12: where they used to live. Cristoll actually went up there
Speaker 12: for Christmas last year. She calls him dad.
Speaker 3: Still And what is Lauren's position?
Speaker 12: Lauren believes her mother has taken off and left her father.
Speaker 12: She doesn't believe for a minute that he would hurt her.
Speaker 3: And does Lauren have contact with you?
Speaker 10: I've met her once.
Speaker 12: John built her a house next door to his house,
Speaker 12: another house for his other daughter on the other side.
Speaker 3: Do you think that he would be interviewed by the
Speaker 3: by you, I don't know.
Speaker 10: I don't know.
Speaker 12: He'll be very upset because he is such a private,
Speaker 12: private individual.
Speaker 10: Maybe he would feel that he needs to put his
Speaker 10: side forth. I'd give it a go.
Speaker 1: I have written to John Winfield and left messages for
Speaker 1: him explaining who I am. I wrote to John that
Speaker 1: this podcast series Bronwin is an investigation into the disappearance
Speaker 1: in May nineteen ninety three of his missing wife. John
Speaker 1: has always denied foul play. He has also always tried
Speaker 1: to minimize media interest. John has insisted that Bronwin got
Speaker 1: into somebody's car one Sunday night at the house in
Speaker 1: Lennox Head and that was the last time he saw
Speaker 1: her so far. He has declined to be interviewed for
Speaker 1: this podcast investigation. I am hope that he or someone
Speaker 1: close to him speaking on his behalf, will agree to
Speaker 1: talk to me In a later episode. In a telephone
Speaker 1: interview with me, Meghan expanded on something from that morning
Speaker 1: catch up in nineteen ninety three at Sandstone Crescent, the
Speaker 1: last time she saw her cousin and good friend, and
Speaker 1: Meghan recalled that Broman looked very worried.
Speaker 10: She looked really really irishy, and she said he's.
Speaker 6: Going to be back any minute.
Speaker 12: Other words, she was trying to chell us when should go.
Speaker 1: Madison Walsh has been sorting through the piles of paper
Speaker 1: in front of her while we've been talking at the
Speaker 1: dining table.
Speaker 3: How deeply have you read into these files?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I've gotten quite deep.
Speaker 18: I just havn't gotten that far into the criminal inquest
Speaker 18: by for a lot of the statements and nary entries.
Speaker 1: She has come to her Auntie Meghan's home to help
Speaker 1: organize more files of evidence about the case.
Speaker 10: Grew up with a whole thing. She's heard about it
Speaker 10: all her life.
Speaker 3: I was told about.
Speaker 18: It from a previous I can remember.
Speaker 12: She's got done a bachelor in a forensic science and
Speaker 12: specializing in crime scene investigation.
Speaker 1: Brommin's fate has intrigued Maddie for years. She's been bringing
Speaker 1: order and structure to a very large number of documents.
Speaker 1: Most of these are important evidence at the heart of
Speaker 1: the disappearance and the suspected murder of the woman. Maddie
Speaker 1: grew up hearing about her mother's cousin. Great that you're
Speaker 1: going through the detail of it and reading it and
Speaker 1: that you've got that expertise.
Speaker 18: Here we have witness statements from nineteen ninety eight. Some
Speaker 18: of them are from neighbors, and that's from Judy.
Speaker 12: Nineteen ninety eight. It's the first time Eddie statements Bedegen.
Speaker 18: That's what got me. Why was nothing done? So we
Speaker 18: have these statements by there five years later. The police
Speaker 18: didn't search for her, the house wasn't investigated, was at
Speaker 18: a crime scene. Usually in this day when there's a
Speaker 18: missing person, there at least like a search of surrounding areas,
Speaker 18: even if it's just volunteers. But that didn't happen. It
Speaker 18: was like no one cared. It was like, oh, she
Speaker 18: just ran off, that's it. Never met another phone call,
Speaker 18: never reshot to her kids, again, never traveled, didn't take
Speaker 18: a passport. The only thing that John claims that she
Speaker 18: took was her herme bag. Never used many care nothing, and.
Speaker 3: Didn't have any money or not much money at.
Speaker 10: The time, but there was money at her bank accounts.
Speaker 1: Never been touched, so money not touched, and equity in
Speaker 1: the house that she owned with John, yes for this,
Speaker 1: but she didn't touch the equity, which she couldn't.
Speaker 12: Barbara, who was Bromwin and Andrew's mother, she had personal
Speaker 12: depression after having Bromwin, and she got even worse when
Speaker 12: she had Andrew.
Speaker 10: What John was trying.
Speaker 12: To say is that because Barbara was a paranoid schizophrenic,
Speaker 12: and she was, and she ran away and disappeared out
Speaker 12: of their lives when Andrew was six months old and
Speaker 12: broman was two, and then she came back about ten
Speaker 12: years later.
Speaker 10: That that's what she did. So that's what he's saying now.
Speaker 12: I distinctly remember Bromwin saying, if anything happens to me,
Speaker 12: that's what he's going to say. With Bromwan's mother, it
Speaker 12: was brought on by post natal depression after having children.
Speaker 7: Both mother.
Speaker 3: While I went, oh, good girl, this is really helpful Maddie,
Speaker 3: thank you.
Speaker 1: Numerous printouts of emails over the years may also hold
Speaker 1: clues and fresh leads.
Speaker 10: So many she kind of sought them into dates of what's.
Speaker 7: Kind of going on.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about being part of this investigation
Speaker 1: with me?
Speaker 9: I love to so.
Speaker 3: Do you think you can be objective.
Speaker 1: About it though your knowledge of the family, your expertise?
Speaker 10: Definitely, she never met her.
Speaker 18: I did hear about it all the time, but I
Speaker 18: never knew her. That was what I was talking to
Speaker 18: Megan and Kim about. Obviously, for them, a lot of
Speaker 18: emotions would drive it, and it can blur the evidence.
Speaker 18: I am disconnected from it because it happened before I
Speaker 18: was born.
Speaker 1: What if we found some evidence that suggested that the
Speaker 1: person your family believes killed your auntie didn't.
Speaker 10: Do that, then that would be okay.
Speaker 18: I would understand that, And there is a possibility that
Speaker 18: it wasn't who my family thinks.
Speaker 1: Thanks to the family tree drawn by Maddie, I realized
Speaker 1: that Bromwin, if she were alive, would be Maddie's second cousin,
Speaker 1: not an auntie.
Speaker 18: So if it turns out she did run away, I'd
Speaker 18: be like, okay, we have evidence of that.
Speaker 7: We know that.
Speaker 18: I do have no open mind, and I have questioned
Speaker 18: everything that Megan has told me. I'm like, how do
Speaker 18: you know? How do you know this didn't happen? How
Speaker 18: do you know she shouldn't run off? Why are you
Speaker 18: blaming this one guy?
Speaker 1: This record of interview with Winfield is obviously a crucial.
Speaker 10: Document, seventy six pages.
Speaker 1: We haven't seen a tape of this anyway. Do you
Speaker 1: have some photographs of it?
Speaker 11: Yeah?
Speaker 10: I do, I got it.
Speaker 12: That's when the day she booked John over to me
Speaker 12: I was living in Double Bow.
Speaker 3: Open a folder just for selected plans. Thanks Manny.
Speaker 12: That's brain Baby, that is John the first time I'm eating,
Speaker 12: And that's Crystal to the left hand side.
Speaker 10: That's Brawn and I.
Speaker 12: That's Jodie to step to it, Michelle, mum, Bromwin and myself.
Speaker 10: She's such a good mother.
Speaker 11: Thought.
Speaker 12: But that's Crystal starther Mark Davis, who's deceased. That's Ronnie
Speaker 12: on the track. She's gone there, she's gone there to
Speaker 12: thest family photos. She's gone.
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 Bromwyn
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 Amiert, 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 Bromwan 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 Teacher's 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