Episode 1: Jon’s Castle

In an idyllic surf town, Bronwyn Winfield is a loving young mother determined to divorce her husband Jon and start again with her two daughters.

She writes about her life and describes a deeply unhappy marriage. She tells friends and relatives that she fears Jon. Bronwyn discloses firm plans including an imminent meeting with a lawyer advising her about her separation from her estranged husband.

Jon has a strong tether to the family home. He built it. Bronwyn calls it ‘Jon’s castle, my prison’, but the house is at risk of being sold in a break-up.

When Bronwyn suddenly disappears, Jon keeps the house and the two girls. And nobody sees or hears from Bronwyn again.

Jon denies foul play and says his wife went away for a break. He still surfs most days.

Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com. 

If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can contact our team confidentially by emailing [e-mail]

If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Listeners are advised that this podcast series Bromwin contains coarse
language and adult themes. This podcast series is brought to
you by Me Headley Thomas.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
And The Australian.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
When we moved to Lennox head I was even more lonely.
The house that was Bill became John's castle. In my prison.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Roman Winfield wrote these words shortly before she disappeared one
Sunday night in May nineteen ninety three. She had been
to see her GP a couple of days earlier and
was in good physical health. Apart from having strained her hand.
She was of sound mind and had no known mental illness.

(01:13):
A brief period of postnatal depression after the birth five
years earlier of her second daughter was well behind.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Bromwin.

Speaker 5 (01:21):
Where do you want to go.

Speaker 6 (01:23):
Today?

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Thirty one years since the sudden disappearance of a mother
of two little girls. I'm driving on a winding road
south of Byron Bay to the house that Bromwin had
called her prison. Past former dairy and sugar cane farms
subdivided for residential housing estates and the Great Australian Family Dream.
A three or four bedroom, two bathroom bricantile close to the.

Speaker 5 (01:47):
Beach getting directions to Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
The Pacific Ocean is tantalizingly close. You can hear it,
smell it, its saltiness. Linger on an easterly zephyr of
a breeze. In luxury homes with views over smoothly curving coastline,
binoculars are at the ready for the first sightings of
humpback whales on their annual migratory journey from Antarctica. They

(02:15):
perform in the warm waters of an aquatic backyard off
the most easterly part of Australia's mainland and the lighthouse
at Byron Bay. It's a quieter, gentler lifestyle in this
place everyone calls Lennox. It's less crowded here, more chilled
than the nearby, more famous Byron Rowan left indelible imprints

(02:39):
on those who loved her, Yet her thirty one years
disappeared with barely a ripple in the wider world. Her life,
her suspicious disappearance, and her highly probable death have barely
been reported, except from time to time by regional TV
and The Northern Star. The newspaper ceased publication in print

(03:03):
in twenty twenty, but Bromwin left behind her writings, her
reflections on her life, her marriage and loved ones, with
the occasional underlining and crossed out word on sheets of
a four paper. They are poignant and compelling. All these
years later, I picture Bromwyn writing in quiet moments between

(03:25):
getting her two girls ready for school and working part
time in a local takeaway store called Eden's down near
the Waves.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
My idea of a lasting love is being able to
tell your partner anything and it doesn't make a difference
to your relationship. Trust, being kind to one another when
you're down, supportive, having time for each other always, as
well as time for other people.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Her family, friends and neighbors tell me she was determined
to remain separated from her husband of six years, John Winfield,
wanted to go her own way. She was pursuing a divorce.
Her good friends in this idyllic beachside town in northern
New South Wales supported her. They were all school mums

(04:11):
with small children who played together. They shared instant coffees,
morning walks, birthday parties, turns at babysitting and random catchups
for a glass of wine and easy conversation. Bromwin had
confided troubling things about her marriage. She was close to
her brother Andy and his wife Michelle, who lived in Sydney,

(04:34):
a one hour flight away.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
It was where.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Bromwin had grown up. She had close cousins there, including
Megan Reid. She had her Auntie Leah and uncle John
and her half sister Melissa. Her mother Barbara, and her
half sister Kim Marshall lived another hour away in Tasmania.
All of these family members talked regularly to Bromwin. Kim

(05:00):
was about to travel north to Lennox because Bromwin had
invited her to come and stay for a while. Nobody
had heard of any plans by Bromwin to suddenly go
away to disappear. Writing about the unhappiness of the marriage
Bromin had decided was bad for her and her girls
perhaps felt cathartic. Liberating the house in Lennox was a

(05:25):
heavy burden.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
I drifted away from John as he became more and
more depressed about the house being less than immaculate and
the death of his mother, the only woman he thought
was perfect. I couldn't leave him at the time, as
he was so unhappy and depressed and hated life, and
probably me, I tried to plead and talk to him
to open up and get things off his chest, but
nothing would help him.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Friends and neighbors tell me John would obsess and see
over the smallest things. No matter how hard Bromwin tried.
The house could never be clean enough for John. A
tiny spot on a tile, a crumb on the carpet,
these could set him off. John was an introvert and

(06:10):
a perfectionist. He had built the house with his bare hands.
He was often unhappy when visitors dropped by. Sometimes he
would appear hostile. Bromwin, on the other hand, was naturally
sociable and welcoming. She needed the company and support of
her friends. But the children would play with their friends

(06:32):
in the garage to ensure no mess in the house,
and all the while Bromwan walked around on eggshells. She
worried about how John would react when people were over
All of it took a toll. The tensions must have
been unbearable at times. Their marriage was clearly doomed. On

(06:53):
March twenty one, nineteen ninety three, Bromwin and John formally separated.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Eventually, I switched off and became cold inside. He had
a heart of ice and always criticized me. No matter
what I did. The man was cold and heartless and
gave nothing but expected everything.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Bromwyn shared recollections and sorrows, hurts, and philosophical musings with
her notepad. But for whom was she writing all of
this in nineteen ninety three? Why had she begun to
put it all down? Bromwin hadn't kept a journal before.
Bromwin's family and friends tell me she lived for her

(07:36):
two daughters, Crystal, aged ten, and Lauren five. She loved
those girls to bits. Her devotion every day was obvious
to all who knew her. The three were inseparable, and
Romin was a caring, nurturing mother. Nobody has suggested otherwise.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
My children have suffered from the environment that surrounded them.
It is equally important to be honest with them and
to tell them about their past, as you not only
suffer from denying the truth, but so do they.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
As I read all of it, some big questions are inescapable?
Are Brombin's writings the artifacts of a woman looking back
on the thirty one years of her life to that moment,
a woman looking forward with her two girls to a happier,
brighter future. As a newly single mum finally freed of
the shackles and sadness she felt in an intolerable marriage

(08:30):
to John.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
I was surrounded by hate and abuse in various ways
as a child, and am determined not to allow this
to happen to my girls or myself ever again. No
one will ever intimidate me again, nor will I allow
anyone to force their opinions onto me, as this can
cause damage to myself as well as my children. If
love means not being trusted to be yourself, or thinking

(08:55):
that everyone is out to own you paranoia, then it
is not my idea of happiness.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Or are they the nuanced words of a woman who
is writing with a plan to leave something personal and
heartfelt behind for her loved ones. When Romwin wrote in
her notepad in nineteen ninety three, was she intending to
imminently and dramatically change everything by leaving everyone who loved her,

(09:22):
including her daughters? Was she intending to vanish without explanation
and never see or speak to them or anyone else?
She knew again.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Everyone has both good and bad, and I've confronted the
bad in myself and realized I am human. We all
make mistakes. I can forgive myself and will now live
with my memories in peace. I will always remember the
people I meet. I will be fine now. A little
break for a few weeks, and everyone will see the

(09:54):
old me look out.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Over months of visits to Lenox, nearby towns and villages,
and the city in which she grew up, Sydney. I'm
talking to people who knew Bromwin and seeking answers to
these questions and more, talking to anyone who might shed
light on what happened to Bromen on the night of
May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three, when John was the last

(10:19):
person to see her at the home in Sandstone Crescent.
In this enclave worshiped by dedicated surfers and made affluent
by Sea Change property owners, people who know more than
they've let on before about Broman's fate are coming forward.
Former police detectives are sharing information with me. Many hundreds

(10:41):
of pages of evidence are being scrutinized for clues.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Here's one example.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
On April two, nineteen ninety three, Doreen Strong from the
Ballena Byron Family Support Service made a handwritten diary note
about the first of several contacts with the newly singled
Bromwin from the Life Lennox Head.

Speaker 7 (11:01):
Bronwyn Winfield left husband ten days ago emotional violence, custody
threats being to solicitor. Received advice regarding custody. Feels better
but needs support. We are to call Monday regarding availability
of appointment.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Bromwin saw three different solicitors after her separation from John.
On March twenty one, nineteen ninety three, she sought advice
about her rights in a planned property settlement with John,
an intended division of their assets. The solicitor she had
decided to stay with, Chrismkdebitt, was based in the nearby

(11:38):
town of Lismore. Broman's next appointment in his office there
was scheduled for Monday, May seventeenth. I have a copy
of a page from her notepad with the time Bromwin
jotted down for the Monday meeting with Chrismcdebitt eleven am.
But Bromwin disappeared the night before Sunday, May sixteenth, nineteen

(12:01):
ninety three, and as she didn't meet her solicitor or
contact him ever again to make another appointment, the plans
that had been made for divorce and the sale of
the house were quietly shelved. John kept his castle on
Sandstone Crescent.

Speaker 5 (12:46):
Head south on Balana Street in seven hundred meters at
the roundabout, take this second exit onto North Creek Road.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
A good wave is peeling this sunny afternoon. Board riders
are carving across the face of swollen waves at a
beach known as Boulders. Boulders Beach is still John Winfield's
favorite location when he paddles out for a wave. Bromwin's
husband didn't leave Lennox Head after she vanished, but why

(13:18):
would he? John has always emphatically denied wrongdoing. In two
thousand and two, a senior coroner made a formal finding
that Bromwin was dead and he ended an inquest which
had traversed a large amount of evidence over five days
of hearings in a courtroom in Lismore. More importantly, the

(13:42):
senior coroner recommended to the Director of Public Prosecutions in
New South Wales that a known person, Bromwin's husband, John Winfield,
should be prosecuted over her alleged murder, but the DPP
firmly refused to prosecute.

Speaker 8 (14:00):
Wish to advise that after careful consideration of the matter,
referred to him by the coroner and following further investigation,
the Director of Public Prosecutions is not satisfied that there
is sufficient evidence to lay any charge against Jonathan Winfield
at this time.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
The prosecuting agency confirmed its decision in a letter of
just one sentence. The letter went to the police who
had reinvestigated Bromwan's case for the inquest. Roman's brother Andy
Reid and his wife Michelle were astonished. They wrote to
the office of the DPP in early two thousand and three.

Speaker 9 (14:40):
We are writing to you on behalf of ourselves and
the Reed family to formally request a full explanation as
to why the Crown Prosecutor in Lismore and the Director
of Public Prosecutions in Sydney have decided is not sufficient
evidence to lay charge against mister Jonathan Winfield.

Speaker 10 (15:00):
We feel that at the very least, we deserve better
than a line or two informing us of this decision.
It has taken ten long years to get the case
to this point and we would appreciate a full written
response to this matter at your earliest convenience.

Speaker 9 (15:17):
No doubt you are aware that we are completely dissatisfied
at the decision and have already taken steps to investigate
the matter further through political and departmental channels.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
The Director of Public Prosecutions in New South Wales at
that time, Nicholas Cowdery, replied to Andy Reid.

Speaker 11 (15:38):
The disappearance of your sister Bronwyn Winfield in May nineteen
ninety three has no doubt caused much grief to you
and your family, and I offer my sympathies. My advice
to police and the coroner, after very careful consideration of
all the evidence presently available, is that there is not
sufficient evidence to charge Jonathan Winfield or any other person.
Bronwin's disappearance was not reported to the police for two

(15:59):
weeks and was initially treated as a missing person inquiry.
By the time it was dealt with as a possible homicide,
years had passed and any potential scientific evidence was long gone.
There is nobody and no known cause of death. While
Jonathan Winfield is the last known person to have seen
her alive, there is no evidence that he killed her
or had any role in her disappearance. Suspicion cannot be

(16:22):
substitutioned for evidence.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
John has never been charged with any offense in relation
to his missing wife. John suggested to police that Romwin
had left to start a new life with a new identity,
probably with money from, in John's words, a wealthy sugar daddy.
But nobody has ever reported having seen her, and in

(16:46):
the two decades since Nicholas Cowdery wrote that letter in
two thousand and three, there's still nobody behind his back.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Lennox.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Locals who know the story of Bromwin Winfield scoff at
John's verse. I was on assignment and rushing from one
interview to the next in Sydney when I heard her
name for the first time. It was December twenty seventeen.
Bromwin Joy Winfield had been missing for twenty four years.

(17:16):
By then, she became real for me during my podcast
investigation into the nineteen eighty two disappearance of another missing woman,
Lynette Joy Dawson. At the request of Lynn's family, we
now refer to her by her maiden name. She's Lynette Simms.
It was a hot and humid afternoon, just a week

(17:38):
before Christmas twenty seventeen, and I had spent several hours
talking to Lynn's friend Julie Andrew in her home near
the heart of Sydney. Julie made a powerful impression that day.
Six months later, when the podcast had a name, The
Teacher's Pet, and episode started to come outs her Julie's

(18:00):
commitment to justice for Limb. They heard her unwavering certainty
about Lynn's fate at the hands of her husband, Chris Dawson.

Speaker 12 (18:10):
The best way to dispose of a body when you
live in the bush is to put it in the bush,
and that's what I think he did on the Friday night.
I'm sorrowful. I lost a tear friend and I've carried
it these and I miss her every day. I just

(18:32):
want justice, and I'd love her little girls to know
she didn't leave them, she was taken away from them
by the person who was supposed to protect her.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
I drove away from the interview in Julie's terrace house
with my friend Rebecca Hazel. We headed west to meet
Karl Milavanovitch, a retired deputy State coroner of New South Wales.

Speaker 6 (18:58):
Come in, gets out of the heat.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
We're very sorry.

Speaker 13 (19:00):
We just realized we pulled up it and we didn't
bring the bottle of why a cake anything organized?

Speaker 4 (19:05):
Come upstairs, please straight upstairs.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Carl had agreed to talk to me for my podcast
investigation back then about Lynn's case. He remembered the evidence
well because back in two thousand and three, fourteen years
before Karl met me at his home, he had led
an exhaustive coronial investigation. Carl watched and heard numerous witnesses

(19:32):
give evidence under oath in a courtroom in Sydney. These
witnesses recalled Lynn and Chris their Northern Beaches home, the
marriage and a schoolgirl will call JC. There were many
who were adamant that Lynn would never have voluntarily left
her two girls, who were just four and two at
the time. Among the witnesses were Lynn's friends and family

(19:56):
who knew her as an utterly devoted mother and wife,
and sister and daughter. All were questioned under oath in
the inquest by a police officer with expertise as a lawyer.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Matt Fordham.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
He had done a lot of work to ensure the
police brief of evidence was very solid. A highly committed
Northern Beach's detective called Damian Loon, was sure that Chris
Dawson had killed Lynn. Damien had been investigating the case
off and on for several years, and his work comprised
most of the police brief of evidence. Chris Dawson, a

(20:33):
high school teacher and former first grade rugby league player
with the Newtown Jets, had become infatuated in nineteen eighty
with the babysitter, his former student at Cromer High School.
Chris would move JC into Lynd's bed within a couple
of days of Lynd's disappearance in January nineteen eighty two,

(20:53):
but Chris didn't give any evidence. In the courtroom of
the then Deputy State coroner Karl Milavanovitch in two thousand
and three, Chris exercised his right to silence. A key
witness was the former teenage babysitter, JC, who had gone
on to marry Chris Dawson, then flee him, obtain a divorce,

(21:15):
and raise her concerns with police about foul play. At
the end of the coronial proceedings, Karl Milivanovitch found that
Lynn was dead and he recommended to the Director of
Public Prosecutions at the time, Nicholas Cowtery, that Christopher Michael
Dawson be prosecuted for murder, but the DPP refused. Nicholas

(21:38):
Cawtery was adamant that there was not enough evidence and nobody.
From that time on, Carl believed that Chris Dawson had
evaded justice despite a compelling, circumstantial case against him for
the murder of his wife. This is some of what
Karl told me as I sat in his lounder room

(21:58):
in December twenty seven.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
Team, all the.

Speaker 6 (22:02):
Circumstances, when you put them together, are just so remarkable
that I just could not accept that Lynn Dawson would
just disappear off the face of the earth without there
being some human intervention. It just defies all logic that
a mother would leave a four year old, a two
year old, a family, a job, and friends and just disappear.

(22:24):
It's just not normal human behavior for a woman with
her intelligence, her community ties, the fact that she was employed,
two kids, had a lovely home. It just doesn't add up.
And I was very disappointed that the police investigation was
so poor initially, that Lynnette Dawson was just treated as
another missing person and it wasn't prioritized. They never looked

(22:47):
at the issues of domestic violence. They never looked at
the reality or the possibility that this was a homicide.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
Karl Milavanovitch has been a powerful advocate for murdered women
like Lynn. But he told me something else of great importance.
On that afternoon in December twenty seventeen, Karl spoke about
the case of another missing woman, Bromwn Joy Windfield. I
had not heard her name, nor anything about her nineteen

(23:14):
ninety three disappearance until Karl raised it with me. There
was very little publicity about Bromwin over the years. Her
case seemed to have fallen between the cracks. This is
some of what Carl matter of factly told me about Bromwyn.

Speaker 6 (23:31):
I did an inquest of her. Lady called Bromwyn Windfield,
and she had two kids as well, And she went
to bed one night, and she disappeared next day. And
there was some suggestion from a neighbor that they heard
the car reversing down the driveway and scraping on the ground,
like some suggestion there might have been something in the boot,

(23:53):
but she was never found. The same thing happened there.
He was in Sydney, the husband was in Sydney. She
was up there. She went to see solicitor about organizing
a separation, got the locks changed to the house. He
found out about it, drove.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Up there next day.

Speaker 6 (24:07):
She disappeared I did the inquest at Lismore. I had
a very competent counsel assisting. It was a strong case.
I thought circumstantial evidence. Referred it to the DPP. They
didn't run with it.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
And when the DPP decides that they're not going to run,
do they send to you or to the coroner's.

Speaker 6 (24:25):
Office a letter explaining what No, there's no explanation in.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
The DPP in terms of detail reasons.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
For not proceeding.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
How do we know that they haven't just misunderstood?

Speaker 6 (24:38):
Well, I suppose that's always a possibility. At that stage
of my career as Deputy State Coroner, I was probably
just starting to do a number of missing persons cases
that were historical ones. And it wasn't long after the
inquest into Lynette Dawson's disappearance from and Winfield and a
number of others that I was getting very concerned about

(25:02):
historical missing person cases where clearly it was evident that
they were probably homicides, and the attitude that the police
had to the investigation of them. I think there was
a systemic problem in the police department in how they
prioritized and triarched missing persons cases. So that was a

(25:23):
systemic attitude the police had. You don't worry about investigating
until you've got a smoking gun or some evidence of
foul play. They'll turn up, or they've gone off with
a boyfriend or something like that.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
I asked Carl whether this meant that a significant number
of women who had been classified by police as simply
missing were more likely to have been murdered.

Speaker 6 (25:47):
No doubt, no doubt. I've got no doubt about that. Absolutely.
If you'd asked me this question nine years ago, before
I retired, I would have given you a list of
all their names. And I think the majority of the
long term missing persons cases that are still outstanding even
to this day involve the young women who have disappeared. Inevitably,
they are victims.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Of on side.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
It was chilling to hear this conclusion, because it was
also completely logical. I had a name, Bromwyn Winfield. I
made a mental note to revisit her case properly. One day,
I opened a folder to collect information about this other
missing woman. In the second half of twenty eighteen, as

(26:31):
weekly episodes of The Teacher's Pet were being released, I
began hearing about Bromwyn Winfield from her family and friends
and others. Each person who contacted me didn't know about
the others. Everyone reached out independently. None of them knew
that I had already heard about Bromwin from Carl. In

(26:52):
July twenty eighteen, I got an email about Bromin's case
from Matt Fordham, the former police officer who had done
a huge amount of work with Karl Milavanovitch for his
two thousand and two inquest, The same Matt Fordham who
had handled Linn's case for Karl in two thousand and three.
Matt sent me his formal written submissions which had been

(27:14):
presented at Bronwin's inquest. These were a matter of public record, However,
they were only lightly reported in the media. Here's a
small part of the evidence Matt Fordham presented to the
then Deputy State Coroner Karl Milavanovitch in two thousand and two.
These are his words, it's not his voice.

Speaker 14 (27:37):
Bronwin had expressed concern to her friend Alan Fisher about
what would occur when Jonathan Winfield returned to Lennox from
Sydney shortly before her disappearance. She stated that she was
terrified about what he might do. A large number of
witnesses described her as being a devoted mother who would
not have left her kids. There is absolutely no evidence

(28:00):
that anyone other than Jonathan Winfield had any motivation or
opportunity to kill bronwin.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
In August twenty eighteen, a woman called Deborah Hall reached out.
She was Bromwyn's neighbor and friend at Sandstone Crescent, lennox
Head for several years until May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three.
In her email, she wrote.

Speaker 15 (28:25):
I have watched and listened with great interest to the
podcast and the recent media reports on Lyn Dawson. I
really felt compelled to write to you and inform you
of another missing person case that I was very heavily
involved in back in the early nineteen nineties of my
neighbor and good friend, missus Bronwyn Winfield of Sandstone Crescent,
linox Head. This case was also investigated by police in

(28:48):
a minor way in the initial days of her disappearing.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
She explained what Carl had disclosed some months earlier, that
his coronial inquiry had found that Bromwyn was dead.

Speaker 15 (29:01):
Deborah added this inquiry deemed that a known person was
responsible for her disappearance. It was recommended to the Director
of Public Prosecutions to pursue it to trial. However, this
never has eventuated, even though the coroner deemed there was
enough evidence to convict this man. The reason stated by

(29:22):
DPP was that as there was never a body found,
they were not prepared to waste taxpayers dollars for a
non conviction. This man, John Winfield, continues, as does Chris Dawson,
to proclaim his wife just ran off and joined a
cult or went with another man. There is so much

(29:42):
more I could inform you of in this case, but
it would take me hours. I just felt I needed
to highlight the extreme similarities of my best friend's case.
I really hope that justice is done for both these
poor women. Regards Deborah.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
The following month, a woman living in Kim Marshall emailed
to tell me that her half sister, Bromwin Winfield, had
been missing since May nineteen ninety three. When we spoke
on the telephone, Kim told me that it was a
homicide squad cold case, but it had gone very cold.

(30:18):
Kim told me back then in late twenty eighteen.

Speaker 16 (30:22):
I carry this load each week and have an obligation
to try harder to find her body. I truly believe
her body can be found.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
At the time, Chris Dawson remained a free man, enjoying
his retirement near the Beach on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, but
he and the criminal justice system were under enormous pressure
from the teacher's pet and listeners who had heard damning
evidence of the system's failure. Failure not just for the
absence of justice fall in, but for never even investigating

(30:57):
a culture of grooming and sexual exploitation of Northern Beaches
high school girls by teachers, including Chris Dawson. At that time,
new witnesses were coming forward to talk to me in
the podcast. In twenty eighteen, some new witnesses were going
straight to police with evidence about Chris and Lynn, her

(31:17):
nineteen eighty two disappearance and a ring of teachers who
had pursued high school girls. There had been a lot
of damage caused. It finally culminated in homicide Squad detectives
arresting Chris and extraditing him to Sydney to be charged
with Lynn's murder on December.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Five, twenty eighteen.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Over the years since my folder of Bromwin Winfield files
grew steadily Bromwin's half sister, Kim Marshall, and others who
knew the Lenox mother of two girls stayed in touch.
I heard from a woman called Fiona Housner, who as
a child lived next door to Bromwin for years near
Cronulla in the Shires south of Sydney. We met in

(32:02):
Brisbane in early twenty nineteen at a bar called Felons
to talk about the case. Fiona, who was very fond
of her neighbor and babysitter, described what she called secrets
and mystery in relation to Bromwin's unexplained disappearance. I sent
a note to Broman's brother Andy Reid using Facebook Messenger.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
I wrote, I've.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
Been interested in possibly investigating the disappearance and suspected murder
of your sister Bromwin. A number of people who knew
Bromin have urged me to do a podcast investigation similar
to the Teacher's pet into the probable murder of Lynn Dawson.
I understand that you have extensive files and reasonable suspicions

(32:46):
about what happened. It's not something I could start without
full cooperation from you and other members of the family.
Andy and his wife Michelle were immediately interested did. We
met in a cafe in Sydney and talked about a
future podcast investigation. A woman from Barner called Kerry McLain

(33:09):
got in touch to talk to me about her conversations
with Bromin's daughter Crystal, who had lived in Kerry's home
for some time. You'll hear more about it later in
this podcast series. At my request, Andy Reid and his
wife Michelle, and Andy's half sister Kim Marshall started to
track down relevant paperwork. Transcripts from the original inquest notes

(33:34):
that they had taken at the time, and police statements.
Old articles about Roman's case whenever it featured in the
local newspaper, The Northern Star of Lismore were collated. In
twenty twenty one, I drove to Ballaner and the home
of Glenn Taylor, a former Newcastle Homicide Squad detective sergeant.

(33:56):
Here's a little of what Glenn told me back then,
as extreme ragin flooded the northern Rivers and low lying
areas of New South Wales. He told me that his
connection to Broman's case began in nineteen ninety eight, when
she had been missing for five years.

Speaker 17 (34:13):
Andrew Reed and Michelle Reid came to see myself in
another detective in Ballina and said, look, can we have
some fresh eyes look at this. We're just not happy
that this is the elect as a missing person. We
think there's more to it. And then when we started
looking into the matter, I mean as a homicide investigator,

(34:33):
it was abundantly clear, very early in the initially reinvestigation
that it needed a lot more work done and then
a lot of formal statements.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Glenn had transferred north from Newcastle's major crime unit to
be a detective in the coastal.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
Town of Ballina.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
When he heard about Bromwin, he was intrigued and then suspicious.
Like Damian Loon in Lynn's case, Glenn said he's or rat,
but the trail had gone cold. The odds were stacked
against the seasoned former homicide squad cop when so little
had been done by other police in the five years

(35:11):
immediately following Bromin's disappearance.

Speaker 17 (35:15):
I still believe that it was in the senior officer's
mind that this woman had in fact just voluntarily decided
to leave. It was fairly haphazard the investigation. There was
very very little done. There was no statements ever taken
from any particular person, like neighbors, I mean absolute critical

(35:38):
areas like there was no forensic investigation of the home.
There was no forensic investigation of the motor vehicle that
Jonathan Winfield had taken within hours of arriving back from
Sydney at the marital house. And over the years I
think there was only initially a few inquiries done and

(35:59):
then it just fell back to a missing person and
nothing further was done.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Under many years.

Speaker 17 (36:04):
Later I treated as a major investigation and strongly suspected
that Bromin be murdered.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Yeah, your statement's very detail. They need they need to
be thorough.

Speaker 17 (36:15):
We're talking about the likely murder of a person, so.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
They need to be thorough.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Did you believe that Bronwin would leave her children and
stay away at any stase?

Speaker 17 (36:29):
All the people we took statements from in the reinvestigation,
all Bromin's friends and close assationiates she absolutely adored her children.
There is just no way that she would have left
those children that night and not come back to the house.
She was just so attached to them. She was seeking

(36:51):
sole custodys of both the children. She was a very
very good mother, according to everyone that we spoke to.
Absolutely totally out of her character to just walk out
and leave those children not have any further contact. It
just wouldn't happen unless she just couldn't prevent it. That's
why it was extremely suspicious.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
And why was that not of you that existed in.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
The police in nineteen ninety three when she disappeared.

Speaker 17 (37:23):
It's really difficult to say, please didn't get extremely busy
with other matters. Unfortunately, there's still other things happening with
robberies and break and enders and sexual assaults and so forth.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
But it should have been highlighted to.

Speaker 17 (37:40):
A commander to say, look, we believe there's something more
sinistery in this. We need more resources put into this.
But for one reason or another, that wasn't done.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
When we first met at his home, Glen urged a
podcast investigation and he pledged his full support, but I
didn't have time. Then Chris Dawson was waging a legal
battle against the teacher's pet me and police. When Glenn
Taylor and Bromwin's family and friends were quietly talking to me,

(38:13):
Chris Dawson made a high stakes bid to avoid a
murder trial. Altogether, He said the publicity from the podcast
series meant that he couldn't get a fair trial. He
was also arguing that a shoddy original police investigation after
Limb first disappeared had prejudiced his prospects in any trial,

(38:34):
but his bid to evade justice again was ultimately futile.
At the end of his murder trial, the Supreme Court's
Justice Ian Harrison delivered a verdict in late August twenty
twenty two.

Speaker 18 (38:50):
Christopher Michael Dawson on the charts that are about eight
January nineteen eighty two.

Speaker 17 (38:54):
It gave you or elsewhere in the state of New
South Wales, you did murder Lynette Dwson.

Speaker 6 (39:00):
If I find you guilty.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
I met Matt Fordham for the first time that day
in the Supreme Court in Sydney. Matt came to watch
justice unfold. Better late than never. Investigating Lynn's nineteen eighty
two disappearance had led me to Karl Milavanovitch in December
twenty seventeen, and Karl would open the door to the

(39:24):
nineteen ninety three disappearance of Bromwyn Winfield. And that's why
I'm driving in Northern New South Wales. In twenty twenty four,
thirty one years after Bromwin kissed her two girls good
night and put them to bed in an unremarkable house
on Sandstone Crescent, the house that John built his castle,

(39:46):
Bromwan's prison.

Speaker 5 (40:16):
Turn left on the Sandstone Present. Then arrive at your destination.

Speaker 4 (40:23):
This is where Romo's last scene live.

Speaker 5 (40:29):
Arrived.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
And there's the house.

Speaker 4 (40:37):
You can't help but wonder what happened inside that night?

Speaker 1 (40:41):
What led to a woman disappearing more than thirty years ago?

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Please to be come morning. Sorry it's taken almost six years.

Speaker 19 (41:00):
Well that didn't about thirty plus time.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Deborah Hall has welcomed me inside her house at Sandstone Crescent.
This is where she and her partner Murray raised their
children and where their friend Bromwin Winfield lived next door
until her May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three disappearance.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
Can I get you anything, he'd be great, Thank you.
I've been up at Kingscliffe.

Speaker 6 (41:26):
I didn't really be there, okay.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Dev Van Murray were important witnesses because they heard and
saw things at key moments. Bromwin was very unhappy, and
she had confided this and much more to deb as
their friendship deepened. Murray the son of a police detective.
Became highly suspicious and concerned for Bromwin at a very

(41:50):
early stage. Their children, who used to play with Bromwan's
two girls, have grown up, moved away, married, and had
children of their own. They all return to Sandstone Crescent
for family occasions. Roman's fate is often talked about at
these catchups. Bromman and the House cast a long shadow.

(42:13):
John has a newer grande house in Lenox he sold
up on Sandstone Crescent. His place is closer to his
favorite beach boulders. It is a lot more valuable than
the house in which John and Bromwin lived with the
two girls, Crystal and Lauren.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Do you mind if iav run a recorder over this? So, yeah,
thank you.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
I don't have any problem with that, right, Do you
have any other commitments this afternoon? Roman's good friend told
me her reaction while listening to Linz's case unfold in
the Teacher's Pet in twenty eighteen.

Speaker 15 (42:53):
Driving up the Coastarry nine and the current has put
you on with the podcast on listen to this.

Speaker 10 (42:59):
I'm like, what is it?

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Titious that I had no idea? So I started listening.

Speaker 19 (43:04):
And I'm like looking at him, going, are you hearing.

Speaker 15 (43:06):
This, this is this is almost our case. I'm like, going,
this is like, this is Bromplin, this is Bromlin. That
was what prompted me to female you, and I hope
you didn't mind me doing that because it was so similar,
and I thought I got to just put it out there,
not expecting that because I know his man getting back
to me, and when you're a flier, I thought, oh, okay, see,

(43:28):
obviously we're a little bit aware of this situation.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Deb and Bromwin had an easy rapport. They helped each
other all the time. Bromwin received comfort and support from
Deb and other friends from whom you'll hear they knew
she was determined to walk from the ruins of her
relatively brief marriage with John Winfield.

Speaker 15 (43:51):
Watching Chris Dawson on TV is almost like watching John Winfield.
How so similar in terms of good looking, physique, everything.

Speaker 6 (44:04):
You could almost be cloned.

Speaker 4 (44:05):
You two men.

Speaker 15 (44:06):
Knowing John the way I knew John, I'm like, god,
you know these guys are just on the same path.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Well, I was really glad that you write.

Speaker 15 (44:14):
I didn't want to overstep my mark and push anything
when it's up to the family that kind.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Of agree with that sort of thing.

Speaker 20 (44:21):
So I'm just so frustrated by the fact that this
beautiful woman who was a good friend of mine is
no longer with us, and possibly at the hands of
her husband.

Speaker 19 (44:34):
And the fact that you know, the two girls had
grown up without their mother. They've got kids of their
own that she never got to meet. And from one
was a very caring, very loving and beautiful person. She
was a great mum. And this is why, in regards
to what you've just done with the Dawson case, when

(44:54):
I heard the story about her from one, she's almost
an identical to how problem was. And there was no
way she would leave those kids. And I know that,
and that's the thing that I kept saying to the
police in the initial investigation.

Speaker 15 (45:12):
Marry, this is Headley.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
Yeah you too.

Speaker 21 (45:15):
How are the waves today? Wasn't that good? I went
out the wrong spot, Star, I should have off the point.
I went on Bowls Beach. I got smashed it.

Speaker 18 (45:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (45:25):
I've been here about half an hour just going through
some of the events.

Speaker 21 (45:29):
Yeah, she's a nice lady. Yeah, if you're sick, she
brought out some suit.

Speaker 15 (45:34):
Because I remember when I had Dale, she came down
with Lasagnea's and that's the.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Sort of person she was. Yeah, she was a class even,
really nice neighbor, beautiful lady.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Murray Nolan still goes to Boulders Beach for a look
and oftener surf most days, and he usually sees his
former neighbor John Winfield down there. Sometimes they paddle for
the same wave. Other times they'll look out over the
water from the car park and talk about what the
weather might bring. Murray liked Bromwin a lot. He cannot

(46:09):
avoid what he believes is the truth, but it's not
in his nature to avoid and ostracize John.

Speaker 22 (46:17):
John is perfectly civil and friendly to you. Yes, I'll
still see him every day. I spoke him this morning. Okay, John,
how I am a bit windy.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Swells up in a beautiful surfing sort of talk. But
I've seen him now, I reckon probably nine days out
of ten I've seen where did you see it?

Speaker 5 (46:33):
This wad?

Speaker 2 (46:34):
He was just checking the surf. We're all went surfing.
But does John know what you suspect he has done?

Speaker 22 (46:41):
Yes, threw him under the bus with the corrency quarry.
My role is to sell the trip, and he's ever
raised that with you. No and you just get out
and talk to each other as if nothing's happened.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Yeah, he's fine with me.

Speaker 21 (46:51):
Strange, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
Yeah, like we're quite friendly. It's a funny, says situation.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
And what's your level of confidence that he did, in
fact killed.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Nine point nine? How about you did one hundred.

Speaker 19 (47:07):
See, Mary has a nicer nature than I have.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
I'll steer him down. I won't speak to him.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
Debb is spreading documents and photographs across the table for
me to read and copy.

Speaker 15 (47:19):
Yeah, there's a Fabis here I've got that's my statement.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Oh that was Brian there. That was in a very
good shot. That was one of my children's birthday party,
a service of Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yeah, so this has dated July two thousand and two.

Speaker 19 (47:38):
Andrew wanted to have a bit of a memorial before her.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
There was certainty that she instead my photograph.

Speaker 15 (47:45):
All these you can.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
It's a small community relatively, yes, but he stayed here
the whole time.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Yes, yes, What do you think of that? Does that
suggest that perhaps he's got done to hide? He's not
running away. He loves this place. He knows he's done
nothing wrong. I also think that he's very instillent as well.
He doesn't speak to that many people.

Speaker 15 (48:14):
I don't know what the outcome of all this will be.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
What's your hope.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
My hope and the hope of many who knew and
loved Bronwin is that new and illuminating facts emerge as
a result of this podcast series, something that might finally
resolve this sad cold case. If Bromwin went away, as
John Winfield says, where and with whom did she go?

(48:40):
If Bromwyn has been dead all these years, as a
former deputy state coroner ruled, how did Bromwin die? And who,
if anyone, bears responsibility for her death? And where is
her body? I have approached John Winfield and asked him
for an interview. John's side of the story is very important.

(49:02):
John has always emphatically denied any role in any foul play.
So far, John has declined to speak to me on
the record or on background. I'm going to keep trying
because he hasn't ruled it out. In an email to
me on May twenty one, twenty twenty four, John stated, I.

Speaker 23 (49:23):
Have previously made a sworn statement in nineteen ninety eight
in which I answered four hundred and fifteen questions, and
as I said to George Radmore in twenty ten, I
stand by these answers I gave.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
Those are John's words from his email. It's not his voice.
He answered questions in a nineteen ninety eight interview he
agreed to do in Ballina Police station, soon after the
then detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor had started to investigate Bromman's
case properly for the first time. Twelve years later in

(50:00):
twenty ten, another experienced detective, George Radmore, who was with
the homicide Squad of New South Wales, led a reinvestigation.
In John Winfield's email to me on the eve of
the release of this episode, he said he might bring
legal action depending on the content of this podcast series,

(50:21):
and John added.

Speaker 23 (50:23):
There is a generational history of mental illness, both male
and female in the Reed family.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Now. Kim Marshall in Tasmania was the first member of
Bromman's family to contact me. That was back in twenty eighteen.
Kim has been a terrier with the help of her
half brother Andy Reid, in finding decades old documents and
evidence from the case.

Speaker 16 (50:48):
And Andrew has a box packed away and Christa has
a box packed away Andrew has got masses of stuff,
boxes that are in ceilings and boxes that are stacked,
all that type of busy and I love rummaging and
getting everything together and putting in some type of chronological
order for you. So I've asked them both to try

(51:10):
and get access to their boxes, but I dare say
it's going to be me physically being the hunter and
gatherer getting there and going about my business.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Well, that sounds really good, Kim.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
Missing police statements, which I had been asking members of
the family about from the start of our contact, finally materialized.
Bronwin's eldest daughter, Crystal had them.

Speaker 16 (51:33):
Crystal has all the original statements in full, which is
what Andrew's been looking for for a very long time.
Crystal actually has them.

Speaker 13 (51:42):
I didn't believe that material would become available, so having
that makes a very big difference.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Since Andy Reid, a builder and a popular community figure
in Sydney's Southerlandshire near Qunella, sought the blessing of his
niece Crystal to press forward with a podcast investigation. Roman's
daughter is in her early forties. She's a single mum
with mixed and complicated views about what happened to her

(52:12):
own mother when Crystal was ten.

Speaker 18 (52:15):
She just said to us, it's just time that she
finds out and she wants to.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
Know what happened.

Speaker 18 (52:21):
Endeavor to do whatever's needed to be done to try
and find out the truth that she.

Speaker 16 (52:27):
Is terrified as losing the small relationship that she has
with her sister Lauren. Lauren doesn't believe that John did it.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
In June twenty twenty three, I asked Andy about the
status of police investigations into Bromwin's disappearance.

Speaker 4 (52:47):
Have you heard any more from the police.

Speaker 18 (52:50):
No, we haven't heard anything. Unless something turns up, we're
basically at a dead end.

Speaker 16 (52:54):
You know.

Speaker 18 (52:56):
They weren't willing to investigate anything that was presented to
them any further than what.

Speaker 6 (53:03):
They already had. They haven't bothered to.

Speaker 18 (53:06):
Reach out or contact or anything for a long time now.
The last detective for Newcastle was the last person that
I used to liaise with. So every twelve months just
ring and asked a couple of questions and see if
he's earning it into It's just that the same response
now that's been no.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Activity on a cards.

Speaker 18 (53:22):
No activity on a bank account, blah blah blah. Well
it can't be anymore anyway, because the bank account was
closed down.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
When I spoke to Andy in June twenty twenty three,
before I could start a reinvestigation of the case. Early
the following year, he confirmed his strong view about who
had killed his older sister.

Speaker 18 (53:41):
Oh, nothing's changed, nothing's changed after the corral inquiry.

Speaker 13 (53:46):
How do you reckon he would be viewing the development
of these true crime investigations, particularly with podcasts into the
disappearances or murders unsolved, and.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
He'd be raddled. I'm sure he'd be rattled.

Speaker 6 (54:04):
Yeah, which is good unless he sleeps at night. The
better off we all are.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Although Andy and other members of the family have been
angered that police did not do much more soon after
her disappearance, they have only praise for the first detective
to seriously suspect foul play.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
Did you speak to Glenn Taylor, Yes, I interviewed him.
That would have been two and a half years ago.

Speaker 6 (54:30):
Just after we first met when I put you.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Onto him here.

Speaker 4 (54:33):
Yeah, But I drove down and saw him at his house. There.
He had a little bit of paperwork and I took
copies of that.

Speaker 13 (54:39):
I probably interviewed him for about two hours, and I've
got that audio file.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
He's always been very helpful with us too.

Speaker 18 (54:47):
It was always so apologetic about how badly it was
handled by the police in the first case, and I
always said to him, would no no for you to apologize.
You've only been part of getting it over the line
of the Corona inquiry.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Later in this series you'll hear from Glen Taylor again
about the work that he did to get a brief
of evidence to the coroner. Glenn's efforts to get to
the bottom of Bromin's disappearance are ongoing. Glenn vented his
frustrations in a letter he wrote to Andy and Michelle
in two thousand and three, one year after the inquest.

Speaker 24 (55:22):
Now that I'm out of the New South Wales Police
I can get my opinion regarding the original investigation. One
word describes it disgraceful. The house in Sandstean Crescent should
have been subject to a thorough and intensive crime scene investigation.

(55:42):
The same for the Ford motor vehicle. There is nothing
in the running sheets to indicate the vehicle was eva
looked at. There was not one single statement taken from
any witness, and more importantly, no statement or interview was
taken from John Winfield.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
Now, some things have changed since June twenty twenty three,
which was when Andy told me that homicide detectives were
doing nothing about Bromin's case and that it had gone
completely cold.

Speaker 25 (56:13):
It seems the police, after years of inactivity and now
getting active again.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
Is that right?

Speaker 9 (56:19):
This whole thing sort of stirred back up with us talking.

Speaker 18 (56:22):
To you, and we were very curious, and we contacted
the police.

Speaker 9 (56:27):
Myself and Kim went and had a meeting.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
A senior officer in the police unsolved homicide unit told
Andy and Kim that Broman's case was being reviewed at
the request of another veteran detective, George Radmore.

Speaker 18 (56:43):
He put a very strong case forward upon his retirement
and a request to have Broman's case reloked at they're
in the process.

Speaker 9 (56:52):
Of doing a complete review that I'll give them.

Speaker 16 (56:56):
The benefit of doubt because they're trying to get up
to speed because they're still looking for their documents.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
Shortly before the release of this first episode, Andy went
to see top detectives from the Homicide Squad's unsolved unit.
They had asked Andy to come to a meeting for
an update on how their review of the case had gone.

Speaker 26 (57:19):
Basically said, well, their hands are tried. We can't do
any more than what we've done, and we don't have
any new evidence as it stands.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
Yeah, okay, he said.

Speaker 26 (57:28):
Going look, I cannot apologize enough for how badly the
original investigation was handled. They've got no intention of putting
any more work into it.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
I'm aware that today is the anniversary of promise.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
Can you believe it? Thirty one years?

Speaker 4 (57:48):
Let's see where we get to after the podcast?

Speaker 2 (57:50):
Then?

Speaker 6 (57:51):
Is it named?

Speaker 2 (57:53):
Yeah? It is? What do you reckon? We're calling it?

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Yeah, I don't know one word Bromwin.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Oh lovely.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
You know a lot of people will start talking about Bromwin.
This case never got any publicity.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Not really.

Speaker 4 (58:10):
No, the Northern Star and that was it, and that
was on a milk carton once she was on a
milk cut. We won't have that problem this time. It'll
get a lot of attention.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
Yeah, that's the game change that encourages people to come forward.
We'll hear from people we've never heard of before who
listen and know something that helps. I don't want to
over promise, but I really hope.

Speaker 2 (58:34):
It makes a difference.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Yes, with me, Andy and Kim Bromwin's siblings are adamant
that they want the podcast to go ahead. They have
been disappointed by official them too many times.

Speaker 16 (58:49):
There is a lot more that the police could do.
They've got the wrong mindset from back in the day.
They've looked at the wrong things, and there's so many
pieces of evidence that have never been presented.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Before Bromwin vanished, she was planning to welcome Kim to
Lennox to the house at Sandstone Crescent for a rare visit.

Speaker 16 (59:12):
I spoke to her every day on the phone about
my plane flight, what time my plane would arrive, then
I'd be getting on the Greyhound bus. We found the
buses out together, what time the bus would arrive in Ballina.
It's going to be so exciting. I'll be able to
show you all my dresses in my wardrobe. Because I'd
never had an adult experience with Bonnie, if that makes sense.

(59:34):
It was always as the youngest child, but this time
it was going to be adult to adult, and so
we had all these wonderful talks. And it's only now
that I could talk to someone about this.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
It was Kim who first alerted me to Bromwyn's storytelling
her writings, and it was Kim who appreciated how the
words Bromwin had left behind on those A four pages
were used against her early on, when she no longer
had a voice.

Speaker 16 (01:00:03):
Letters that Bromwin wrote to Mum saying that she was
scared for her life. There's enough circumstantial evidence.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
Were those letters that she wrote to your mother.

Speaker 16 (01:00:12):
The police won't give them back to me. They never
ever ever ever find them or send them the story
that she was writing. They've got the wrong idea about
what's actually happened. Bromwyn wrote a beautiful story of her history. Okay,

(01:00:32):
this big large pad which some people have copies of it.
The police never gave me mind back. She actually wrote
this beautiful chronological list of her history of everything. That
is a story about Bromwyn. And then she says, when
I come back, the real Bromwyn will be back, so
watch out. That statement has got nothing to do with

(01:00:56):
Bromwyn going away on a three to five day respite rest.
That is her writing a story. And John has used
that paragraph to say that Bromwin has lost her marbles
and has actually decided to act on what she was writing,
and he goes she's unstable she's like a mother. Blah

(01:01:18):
blah blah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Kim insists that in the weeks and months after Bromwin
first disappeared, police in Ballina, who has shown her writings,
were persuaded that she wanted to leave her children, that
she planned.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
To go away.

Speaker 16 (01:01:34):
They thought brom would have gone away for a rest
because of this story that she'd written. The detectives asked
us all these questions, but they asked the questions with
a bias or a perspective already in place. They didn't
actually investigate with an open mind.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
Now I need to explain a little of the family
history of Bromwin, her brother Andy Reid, and their half
sister Kim Marshall. It is going to become more relevant
later in this podcast series. You heard Kim make a
fleeting reference to her mother, Barbara, being unstable. Barbara had
postnatal depression, and in an extraordinary coincidence, Barbara disappeared too.

(01:02:21):
Bromwan was a toddler aged two, and her little brother
Andy was six months old. Kim had not yet been born.
The circumstances were very different in Bromwin's mother's case, because
Barbara came back after getting treatment for her mental health challenges,
and while Barbara was away, some in her family knew

(01:02:44):
where she was. They were in touch with her. But
as you'll hear, a sad chapter of family history revolving
around Barbara would directly influence the initial investigation into Bronwin's
disappearance three decades later.

Speaker 4 (01:03:00):
Her good to meet you, missus, reed Leah clea, Hi.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
Come, I've come to the Sydney home of Bromwin's aunt
Leah Reid and her husband John Reid. They know the
family history because they lived it. Bromwan's father Philip and
Bromwin's uncle John were brothers.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
John was very good to me.

Speaker 27 (01:03:31):
Thomas's eight and I said, Jimmy's going to expect his
legs to go on. No, no, he won't have a
walking stick.

Speaker 28 (01:03:39):
Way with some lovely photos here three children.

Speaker 15 (01:03:51):
We've got a videotape there with problem with the father
in the hospital.

Speaker 27 (01:03:55):
We could never understand why she didn't try modeling, because
she was tall and blonde and good looking.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
You knew Bromman's mother, Yes, what do you recall about her?

Speaker 27 (01:04:07):
Well, when he met her, she was a nurse in
the local hospital and he had tom slatis, wasn't it?
And he said, the first thing he saw when he
woke up was Barbara's face. And everyone thought, you know,
what a marvelous match, because she was a real country girl.
She made pickles, she knitted, she did everything, and it

(01:04:29):
seemed like, you know, a marriage made in heaven. And
then she had Bromwin. We noticed after that she became
fairly strange. She'd come and stay with us in Sydney,
and I noticed, don't be talking to her, and suddenly
she just get this vague look on her face and

(01:04:50):
stopped talking and then come back into the conversation. I
don't know how long, you know, it might have only
been five minutes, but it seemed like a long while.
And they started taking her to various different doctors and specialists,
and they said that she was just a housewife and
needed to get out more. And then we went to

(01:05:12):
visit them in Wollongong and we were invited to dinner,
and I noticed that Philip was the one that was
cooking the steak. He was bathing the kids, and she
drops sugar all over the floor and so he had
to clean that up. And I said to him, you
know what's happening, And he said he couldn't rely on

(01:05:34):
her to do anything, and that he didn't know whether
the kids would even be fed if he didn't come
home from school at lunchtime to feed them.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
We've been joined by a young woman, Madison Walsh, who
helped arrange this interview between her grandparents and me. She's
very curious about Bromin's case and has been doing her
own research, reading police statements and talking to relatives. Maddie
is closest to Bromwin's eldest daughter, Crystal, and they are related,

(01:06:05):
of course, and you're going to hear a lot more
from Maddie in later episodes.

Speaker 27 (01:06:12):
Barbara was there and then she wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
Sounds like she was really struggling. She was struggling, is
she must have been?

Speaker 29 (01:06:20):
It also sounds like a bit of like postnatal depression,
which is very prevalent these days. But back in the
day you would have just been labeled.

Speaker 27 (01:06:26):
As well and in contact postnatal depression, so I know
what that was about.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
These sorts of issues were not as well understood.

Speaker 15 (01:06:34):
They don't know about it.

Speaker 27 (01:06:36):
I mean, the poor kids had a dreadful, dreadful doing.

Speaker 6 (01:06:41):
She just took off.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
We didn't know where she.

Speaker 27 (01:06:43):
Was and then she got in touch. She rang up
and said that she couldn't cope with Andrew, come and
get him.

Speaker 15 (01:06:50):
She just disappeared.

Speaker 29 (01:06:53):
I think they reconnected. From what I've seen and heard
from was eleven and Andrew was no and then there
it maintained contact ever since then. Barbara don't have custody
of them, which she says is why she wanted to
have another child, Kim.

Speaker 25 (01:07:11):
And then many years later Bronwan disappeared. Did the family
suspect that Roman was just doing what her mother had done?

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
No?

Speaker 27 (01:07:25):
Really I didn't, well no, because she wasn't like nothing
like Barbara.

Speaker 6 (01:07:32):
We didn't ever think about it being like.

Speaker 16 (01:07:37):
No.

Speaker 27 (01:07:37):
I never thought it was, oh, you know, here we
go again.

Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
Barbara all over. Nothing happened to make us think that.
Certainly not me anyhow.

Speaker 27 (01:07:46):
I think if we thought there was anything wrong with Roman,
we would probably would have thought it was just because
of her dramatic childhood.

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
Roman was an exceptionally caring and loving mother, but when
she disappeared in nineteen ninety three, the actions three decades
earlier of her mother, Barbara, who was suffering without appropriate treatment,
were raised and relied upon to so doubt to impune
Bromwin and suggest that she had abandoned her kids.

Speaker 6 (01:08:18):
And did the police, who were alerted.

Speaker 25 (01:08:21):
To Bromin's disappearance in nineteen ninety three contact you in
that time?

Speaker 27 (01:08:27):
Now, I don't remember any police coming to us until
that must have been nineteen ninety eight, and.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
That's the first time you heard from police.

Speaker 14 (01:08:35):
Yeah, hello, Hello?

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
Is that Meghan.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
Another family member who will be prominent in upcoming episodes
is Bromwin's cousin, Megan Reid, the daughter of John and Leah.
Megan played a significant role in Bromwin's life, and they
were in close contact before she disappeared from the get go.

Speaker 30 (01:09:00):
When she was born, she used to stay with my family.
We're only sixteen months apart, and we were as close
as close her relationship with John. I knew what it
was like. I knew I'd seen the bruises she showed
my father.

Speaker 15 (01:09:13):
It's written in his statement to me.

Speaker 30 (01:09:15):
It's just so shocking because I used to speak to
her when she was on that phone, and I could
hear him yelling and screaming and being on the door.
I mean, surely other people heard it.

Speaker 17 (01:09:27):
Now.

Speaker 30 (01:09:28):
She was terrified of John, absolutely terrified of him. If
He had made it incredibly clear that she would never
get that house.

Speaker 15 (01:09:35):
The last thing she said to me.

Speaker 30 (01:09:37):
Was that the best thing she ever did was to
move out and get away from him. She had asked
my parents for money she needed to retain a solicitor.
I just can't believe the timing. I don't understand to
this day how Jonathan's walking around the streets. It just
astounds me. Of the incompetence of the police.

Speaker 15 (01:10:00):
Lost are of the internets.

Speaker 30 (01:10:01):
I can't even find it. Can you believe that the
Bungle dish show barely they really have?

Speaker 15 (01:10:08):
I've lived with it for thirty years.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
Bronwyn is written and investigated by me Headley Thomas as
a podcast production for The Australian. If anyone has information
which may help solve this cold case, please contact me
confidentially by emailing Bronwyn at the Australian dot com dot au.

(01:10:43):
You can read more about this case and see a
range of photographs and other artwork at the website Bronwyn
podcast dot com. Our subscribers and registered users here episodes first.
The production and editorial team for Bromwin includes Claire Harvey,
Kristin Amiot, Joshua Burton, Bridget, Ryan Bianca, far Marcus, Katie Burns,

(01:11:09):
Liam Mendez, Sean Callen, and Matthew Condon and David Murray.
Audio production for this podcast series is by Wasabi Audio
and original theme music by Slade Gibson. We have been
assisted by Madison Walsh, a relation of Bromwin Winfield. We
can only do this kind of journalism with the support

(01:11:30):
of our subscribers and our major sponsors like Harvey Norman.
For all of our exclusive stories, videos, maps, timelines and
documents about this podcast and other podcasts, including The Teacher's Pet,
The Teachers Trial, The Teacher's Accuser, Shandy Story, Shandy's Legacy
and The Night Driver, go to the Australian dot Com

(01:11:52):
dot au and subscribe