0:03

From the Australian, here's What's on the Front.

0:06

I'm Claire Harvey. It's Friday, May 24. It's

0:12

been two years since Labor won

0:14

government and Anthony Albanese is coming

0:16

for Peter Dutton. The PM will

0:19

launch a ferocious political attack on

0:21

the opposition leader in a speech

0:23

marking the election anniversary today. He

0:25

says Dutton's a carbon copy of his

0:28

predecessor Scott Morrison and he'll

0:30

urge voters to reject fear and

0:32

division stoked by the coalition

0:34

in the run-up to the election. That

0:38

story's live right now at

0:40

theaustralian.com.au. Six

0:45

years after the teacher's pet made

0:47

waves around the world, the Australian's

0:49

National Chief Correspondent Headley Thomas is

0:51

back with a brand new podcast

0:53

investigation. This time, Headley's

0:55

delving into the cold case of

0:58

Bronwyn Winfield, a young mum

1:00

who disappeared from an idyllic surf town

1:02

on the New South Wales north coast

1:04

more than three decades ago. In

1:07

today's episode, Headley explains how

1:09

this story found him and

1:11

if he thinks it can be solved. In

1:31

2018, Australian journalism blew up

1:33

with a huge story told

1:35

in a gripping new way,

1:37

an investigative podcast by

1:40

the Australian's National Chief Correspondent

1:42

Headley Thomas, the

1:44

teacher's pet. The

1:47

teacher's pet has had more than 80 million

1:49

downloads around the world and

1:52

it resulted in the arrest,

1:54

charge and murder conviction of

1:56

its subject, Christopher Michael Dawson.

1:59

He is now a child. Appearing. What?

2:02

Almost? No. One knows is

2:04

that at that time another big

2:06

story was brewing in the background.

2:09

Family members and friends

2:11

as another missing woman

2:13

Bronwen Winfield. Was. Struck by

2:15

the similarities between her case and

2:17

that of Lin, it seems. His

2:20

disappearance Headley investigated in the

2:22

teachers pit. In

2:25

those early days years before leans

2:27

husband Chris Dawson would be brought

2:29

to justice. Problems. Loved ones

2:31

reached out to. Headley urging him

2:33

to look into her ninety ninety

2:35

One disappearance. From. Linux head

2:37

in the New South Wales Northern

2:40

Rivers Region. But. Bruins

2:42

name was already on

2:44

Headley Writer. Who.

2:46

Was like twenty seven Same clay.

2:49

I was interviewing the former Deputy

2:51

State Corner for New South Wales

2:53

Calm and the Benefits about the

2:55

case of Chris Dawson and the

2:57

allegations of he murdered his wife

3:00

Lynn all those years ago in

3:02

Nineteen Eighty Two. And while I

3:04

was talking to Kyle, he expressed

3:06

his grave concerns about a number

3:08

of cases involving missing women women

3:11

who had suddenly disappeared by, had

3:13

ties to to me and either

3:15

had small children. Lin was

3:17

one of those, and he mentioned the

3:19

case of Bronwyn Wingfield. He told me

3:21

that he'd run an inquest into that

3:23

case in two thousand and two. And

3:26

he'd made a recommendation about us.

3:30

To. Use the moment Headley Cyst heard

3:32

from When Windshields name from Kyle

3:34

Mills and of it's. Or.

3:36

Did an inquest of a

3:38

lady cool Bronwyn Winfield. And.

3:41

She had two kids as well. And.

3:45

She went. To. Bed one

3:47

night she disappeared next day in.

3:49

There was some suggestions from in

3:51

either that than I can. Didn't

3:53

have time in to deal with

3:55

it but I wanted to revisit

3:57

some point and sing. And. I guess for.

4:00

Last and a half years I've

4:02

been collecting bits and pieces and

4:04

talking to people connected to the

4:06

case, reaching out to brahmins family.

4:09

Would also happened was that

4:11

as the episodes of The

4:13

Teacher's Pet began unfolding from

4:15

May, twenty eighteen people who

4:17

were listening. They. Were reminders

4:19

of something that had just eaten

4:21

away at them for some time

4:24

that they hadn't been a proper

4:26

resolution of Brahmins disappearance, the deeply

4:28

suspicious circumstances surrounding it, and they

4:30

urged me to get involved in

4:32

it. Today.

4:36

All the information and evidence Headley collected over

4:39

the years as made it out of the

4:41

folder he created on that day. And twenty

4:43

seventeen. And into a new

4:45

podcast investigation for the Easter Island.

4:48

It's. Called Bronwyn and.

4:50

It is hauntingly similar to the

4:52

disappearance of windows and. Loving.

4:55

Young moms, Sudden. Disappearance

4:57

his. Family's List in

4:59

the Grease. And shock as

5:02

ambiguous loss. Sadly,

5:04

it's the case that across

5:07

Australia police forces through the

5:09

eighties and nineties and no

5:11

doubt earlier, were unwilling to

5:13

look at Cel Play as

5:16

the probable raise him for

5:18

the sudden disappearances of loving

5:20

dedicated young moms, particularly those

5:22

going through a marital breakdown.

5:25

So when they disappeared, the

5:27

paperwork was just piled in

5:29

the bottom drawer marked missing

5:31

person not given a high

5:34

priority. as a possible homicide and

5:36

this is what com milliband a

5:38

bitch identified in a number of

5:40

these missing women cases that he

5:42

dealt with as a senior corner

5:44

before his retirement when he flag

5:46

that to me when i miss

5:48

him his home in like twenty

5:50

seventeen it was a bit of

5:52

a light bulb moment because you

5:54

think josh how many other cases

5:56

are this this was a systemic

5:58

problem it's known long the case

6:00

today if a young mum like

6:02

Bronwyn suddenly disappeared at

6:04

the same time as she's newly separated

6:06

from her husband, there

6:09

would almost certainly be a

6:11

very committed police investigation looking

6:13

at all of the

6:15

unusual circumstances and making sure

6:17

that witnesses were soon interviewed.

6:19

But unbelievably for

6:22

the first five years after

6:24

Bronwyn's disappearance, the police did

6:26

not even take a statement

6:28

from anybody. They spoke to

6:30

just a couple of neighbours. They didn't

6:32

bring anyone down to the police station

6:35

to take a formal statement. They didn't

6:37

properly search the house or the

6:39

car. It's hard to

6:41

believe how poor the original

6:43

investigation was. Bronwyn

6:50

Winfield was just 31 years

6:52

old when she disappeared from

6:54

the home built by her husband

6:56

John. Bronwyn

6:59

was to everybody who knew

7:01

her an incredibly caring and

7:03

devoted young mum. She

7:06

had two daughters. They were

7:08

Lauren who was five and Crystal

7:10

10. Bronwyn was close to

7:12

her brother, her

7:14

cousins. She'd had

7:16

a difficult childhood because her own

7:19

mother when Bronwyn was two had

7:22

postnatal depression and she

7:24

disappeared from her own young children. Very

7:27

sadly when Bronwyn herself disappeared

7:30

some 29 years after her

7:32

own mother had disappeared, there

7:35

was for the police a

7:38

link. They thought, well, is she doing

7:40

what her own mother had done? The

7:42

circumstances were very, very different.

7:45

Bronwyn was of very sound

7:48

mind. She had plans. She

7:50

was making plans. She had appointments the next

7:52

day. The kids were going back to school

7:54

on the Monday. John

7:58

was Bronwyn's second husband. and

8:00

the relationship had been strained for some

8:02

time. She wanted

8:04

to leave her husband John, and indeed

8:06

she did. She moved into a townhouse

8:09

that she couldn't really afford, but she

8:11

knew she had to get away. Only

8:14

a short drive from the family home, the

8:17

home that John had built. He's

8:19

a very skilled bricklayer. He could

8:21

build houses from scratch, and

8:24

this house was his pride and joy. She

8:27

disappeared on the Sunday evening. She

8:30

had very little money. She didn't have

8:32

means to support herself, but

8:34

she and her husband were going to be

8:36

having an argument over who got the spoils

8:38

from the marriage. How would

8:40

that property settlement unfold? And

8:43

on the evening she disappeared, her husband

8:45

had left Sydney to fly back. He'd

8:48

been working in Sydney, building a house,

8:51

and he became aware that Bronwyn had

8:53

moved from the rented townhouse with

8:55

the girls back into the

8:57

family home, that she

9:00

had had to leave when they separated.

9:03

She was there for two nights, and

9:05

then on the Sunday John arrived, and

9:07

that's the last time anybody ever saw

9:09

or heard from Bronwyn. Yeah,

9:14

she tucked her children into bed that

9:16

night, Headley. How do we know that?

9:18

Were the children interviewed by police? Bronwyn's

9:21

eldest daughter did talk to police

9:23

several years later, but

9:25

the children were also in touch

9:28

with their auntie and uncle. They

9:30

spoke to their neighbours and friends, and

9:33

it's not disputed by John that the

9:35

children were in bed that Sunday night.

9:38

In fact, John readily acknowledges that

9:40

he was at the house too, and

9:43

according to some accounts, he

9:45

acknowledged that he actually had a

9:47

disagreement with Bronwyn on the Sunday

9:49

night. But his story is

9:51

that she got into a car after

9:53

she had made one or two

9:55

phone calls from the bedroom. A car

9:57

turned up. He doesn't know what sort of car it was.

10:00

He said he couldn't see the driver, doesn't know

10:02

who was driving it. She

10:04

got into that vehicle and left.

10:06

Now it

10:09

was a very unusual thing for her to do, to

10:11

go away for a break. She

10:13

hadn't told her friends she was going away for any

10:15

sort of break. She

10:17

left behind pretty much everything and

10:20

she had very little in the way of

10:22

money. That's why

10:24

her family was very concerned immediately.

10:26

But local police did a very

10:29

poor job in the

10:32

early stages. They really just

10:34

treated Bronwyn as if she was doing what

10:36

her mother had done, that she was a

10:39

runaway mum abandoning her family, her husband,

10:41

her kids. Crystal

10:44

has described having heard raised voices,

10:46

her parents arguing and then she

10:48

must have fallen

10:50

asleep because she was woken up along

10:52

with Lauren late at

10:54

night, probably around 10.30pm,

10:57

maybe a little bit earlier. John

10:59

left the house with his daughters and

11:02

drove through the night to Sydney

11:04

arriving the next morning. Now

11:07

back then it might have been a good

11:09

9 hour drive from Lennox to Sydney and

11:12

it struck Bronwyn's family as a quite unusual

11:14

thing to do, to leave that suddenly in

11:16

the car that Bronwyn had been driving when,

11:19

according to John's account, she had just decided

11:21

to go away for a few days. The

11:24

children were due at school on the

11:26

Monday, it wasn't school holidays and they

11:28

ended up staying in Sydney for 10

11:31

or 11 days and then John,

11:33

at the urging of Bronwyn's brother,

11:35

drove back up to Lennox and

11:38

did report Bronwyn missing to police.

11:44

Coming up why it's taken so

11:46

long for Bronwyn Winfield's case to

11:49

be taken seriously. Subscribers

12:01

to The Australian are the first to

12:03

hear episodes of Headley Thomas' brand new

12:05

investigative podcast series. Plus, they get breaking

12:07

news alerts direct to their phones, all

12:10

our lively commentary and access to special

12:12

events. Check us out

12:14

at theaustralian.com.au and we'll be back

12:16

after this break. My

12:25

name is Manny Carutas and I'm a

12:27

former New South Wales policeman turned investigative

12:29

reporter with a passion for missing

12:31

persons cases. I'm here to

12:33

quickly tell you about our true Crime Australia

12:36

podcast, The Missing. In this series I look

12:38

at old missing persons cases which have all

12:40

gone cold in an attempt to try and

12:42

uncover new information which could help see these

12:44

missing people reunited with their loved ones or

12:46

any form of clue that could bring these

12:48

families closure. The Missing is available

12:51

now wherever you get your podcast and early

12:53

in ad free on Crime X Plus on

12:55

Apple Podcasts. There

13:12

were 11 days between Bronwyn

13:15

Winfield was last seen and the

13:17

time her husband John reported her

13:19

missing to police. On

13:21

his account Bronwyn had said she was going

13:23

away for a few days to take some

13:26

time for herself. So why

13:28

the delay? I

13:31

think that's a very good question

13:33

Claire and as best I can

13:35

understand from talking to Bronwyn's family

13:37

and friends, they

13:39

were waiting for John to make that

13:41

move and they were urging him to

13:44

do so for some time. Andy

13:47

who is Bronwyn's brother, he had

13:49

told John that if he didn't

13:51

report Bronwyn missing to the police

13:53

Andy would. A woman

13:55

called Deb Hall who was Bronwyn's very

13:57

good friend and nearest neighbour. She

14:00

told me that she said was the

14:02

same effect. She was very,

14:04

very concerned about Bronwyn and what

14:06

had happened. She knew how devoted

14:08

Bronwyn was as a mum, the

14:11

plans that Bronwyn had made. She

14:14

was happy to be back in her house. She

14:17

had flagged no plan or intention to leave

14:19

the house. And Deb

14:21

couldn't see when Deb went through the

14:23

house that Bronwyn had actually taken anything

14:25

with her, except for her

14:28

handbag which wasn't there. In

14:33

2002, the former Deputy State Coroner Carl

14:35

Milovanovitch, who you heard about at the top

14:37

of this episode, found Bronwyn

14:40

Winfield was dead. He

14:42

recommended to the NSW Director of

14:44

Public Prosecutions that John Winfield be

14:46

charged with her murder. Nicholas

14:48

Cowdery, who was the DPP then,

14:51

didn't pursue it. He said

14:53

there was no evidence John had killed

14:55

Bronwyn or played any role in her

14:57

death. It's

15:00

a decision that's baffled Bronwyn's loved

15:02

ones for decades. This

15:06

is a feature of the justice system

15:08

that I think some people might not

15:10

know so much about. Can

15:12

you explain how it can be that

15:14

a coroner can make a recommendation about

15:17

a case like this that doesn't turn

15:19

into a prosecution? I

15:21

think that there's such a mismatch

15:23

between what happens when a coroner

15:26

runs an inquest involving

15:29

sometimes many days, sometimes a

15:31

week of public hearings with

15:33

witnesses appearing and giving evidence

15:35

under oath. And then the

15:37

coroner, who is often an

15:39

experienced senior magistrate, makes

15:42

certain findings and recommendations. And

15:45

then there's this behind closed door

15:48

paperwork review by

15:51

unknown lawyers in the Office

15:53

of the Director of Public

15:55

Prosecutions. They review the recommendation

15:57

and presumably they go through

15:59

the end. evidence. Often

16:01

the police brief is very extensive but

16:03

how much of the evidence do they go

16:05

through? Do they read all the transcripts and

16:07

witness statements? Are they

16:10

at a sufficiently senior level

16:12

to really appreciate what the

16:14

senior coroner has appreciated? We

16:17

don't know because that process is very

16:19

opaque. You

16:21

reached out to John Winfield. What did

16:23

he say? John

16:25

Winfield got back to me and he

16:28

acknowledged the letter that I had

16:30

written to him seeking his side

16:32

of the story. He said that

16:34

he had previously answered something like

16:36

415 questions from

16:39

a homicide squad detective and

16:41

he stood by all the answers he gave

16:43

to those and we'll unpack those in several

16:46

episodes of the podcast series. He

16:48

said also and I think this is very

16:51

interesting because it's

16:53

a reflection of some of the things

16:56

that have been said over the years

16:58

by him about Bronwyn that

17:00

her side of the family has a

17:02

long generational history of mental illness on

17:04

the male and female side. That's how

17:06

he put it. Now I've

17:09

talked to Bronwyn's good friends in

17:11

Lenox Head. I've talked to family

17:13

members. The police have obviously talked

17:15

to many people because when the

17:17

police did do a very thorough

17:19

investigation starting in 1998 many

17:22

dozens of statements were taken by

17:24

Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor and

17:27

in none of those interviews or

17:29

statements does anyone say Bronwyn was

17:31

showing signs of mental illness? It

17:34

just doesn't register. Bronwyn was

17:36

a very capable, intelligent, motivated

17:39

young mum. It seems

17:41

that having separated from John she knew

17:43

what she wanted to do. She

17:45

just wanted to start again with her two

17:47

girls but without John and the

17:50

next stage in that process was working out

17:52

what she would walk away with, what portion

17:54

of the house and all the assets that

17:56

they had jointly strived to achieve together she

17:59

would be in. able to have

18:01

to start again. What's

18:04

your instinct Headley? Is this case solvable? Well

18:07

I think all these cases are potentially

18:09

solvable. It would only

18:11

take some fresh new information

18:14

that is really probative that

18:16

somebody has not disclosed, has

18:19

for whatever reason decided to keep

18:21

to themselves for many years. If

18:24

somebody comes forward with that to the police

18:26

directly to me then

18:28

if it's corroborated and checked out that

18:30

can make a difference. It could show

18:32

that somebody else, somebody other than John

18:35

Winfield was responsible for example. I mean

18:37

we don't know what happened on that

18:39

Sunday night. John's story is she got

18:42

into a car driven by a stranger

18:44

and that's that. Who knows?

18:46

Maybe somebody has some information

18:48

about that. Maybe they have

18:51

information about something else that John hasn't told

18:53

us but of course they can be solved.

18:56

Bronwyn disappeared nine years after Lyn

18:58

disappeared. People believe that Lyn's case

19:00

could never be solved and

19:02

it was. There

19:08

is an important difference in the stories

19:10

of Lyn Sims and Bronwyn Winfield. John

19:13

Winfield has never been charged and

19:16

there's no suggestion that he's anything

19:18

like Chris Dawson. But

19:20

the similarities between Lyn and Bronwyn

19:23

are inescapable. Loving

19:25

protective mothers whose children were robbed

19:27

of their right to a safe,

19:29

secure maternal bond. And

19:33

I've been reminded of them by

19:35

people I've been interviewing for Bronwyn's

19:37

podcast. But every case

19:39

has to be treated as its

19:42

own set of circumstances. I think we

19:44

need to be very careful to not

19:46

conflate them or see them as being

19:49

cut from the same cloth. John

19:51

Winfield has always emphatically

19:53

denied any involvement in

19:56

foul play. He

19:58

certainly has never been charged. with

20:00

anything, the coroner recommended to

20:02

the then DPP Nicholas Cowdery that

20:04

he should be charged and

20:07

considered for prosecution over

20:10

Bronwyn's suspected murder.

20:12

But in the DPP's assessment

20:14

back in 2003, there was

20:17

insufficient evidence. Of

20:19

course, there is no body and some

20:22

might argue that Bronwyn has been living

20:24

a life somehow

20:26

incognito, having never been

20:28

seen. In my

20:30

opinion, that is just

20:33

completely implausible. Bronwyn's

20:35

almost certainly dead. What we don't

20:37

know is when she died and

20:39

how she died. But the idea

20:42

that a very committed mum of

20:44

31 years old could spend the

20:48

next 31 years somehow

20:50

eking out a life

20:53

remaining unnoticed, being able to support

20:55

herself and never contact two little

20:57

girls with whom she had a

20:59

very beautiful and loving relationship is just

21:02

ridiculous in my view. Natalie

21:25

Thomas is the Australian's National Chief

21:27

Correspondent and the creator of

21:29

our new investigative podcast series, Bronwyn.

21:32

Subscribers to the Australian are the

21:35

first to hear it. You can

21:37

register to listen to the first

21:39

two episodes now at bronwynpodcast.com. We've

21:42

also got exclusive stories, maps, timelines,

21:44

graphics and video. And

21:46

for all Australia's best journalism

21:48

week, our team is Justin

21:50

Amiet, Leah Samagloo, Josh Burton,

21:52

Jasper Lee, Tiffany Dimac, Matthew Condon

21:55

and me, Claire Harvey. Hey,

22:02

I'm Felicity Harley and I host Healthy

22:04

Ish where we chat to experts, influencers

22:06

and people in the know from around

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the globe to arm you with the

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22:12

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we're going to be focusing on health,

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that. I think sleep is the cornerstone. Like

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