Episode 5: Detectives, Red Flags and Failure

Analysis of police internal running sheets and other files from 1993, when Bronwyn disappeared in Lennox Head, reveals remarkable red flags – yet local detectives still didn’t treat the case as probable foul play.

After making fundamental errors with key evidence on the timing of phone calls, documents show that the cop in charge suggests Bronwyn has left the house voluntarily and returned to Sandstone Crescent to make a call at 2.13am to check lottery results.

Bronwyn’s sister-in-law Michelle Read discovers an extraordinary police failure. Women who were questioned back then express their frustration at the tone and conduct of the 1993 investigation. Other informants come forward after hearing the podcast.

Meanwhile, rallies across Australia raise a national crisis of domestic violence and the murders of women.

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 Bronwyn contains coarse
language and adult themes. This podcast series is brought to
you by me Headley Thomas and The Australian. Bronwin's good

(00:42):
friend Anise Barnard and her husbands are making plans. They
are going to sell the house Denise loves and Fareweller
community in which they have lived for about thirty five years.
They are moving a few hundred kilometers north to be
closer to their children on Queensland and Sunshine Coast.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Just go and start a new life with my family.
Time to move on and be with my granddaughter.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
And how do you feel about leaving all these memories
and after se many years?

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Oh, I'm fine stoke.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
As we chatted at her home, I showed Denise the
brief snippet of video of Bromman. The bit filmed while
she visited her father Philip in a Brisbane hospital. He
was gravely ill after a liver transplant and would die
days later.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Sometimes you'll blink or wink or move his head if
I think he's responding.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
It makes me feel a lot better. But all I
ever telling me said he's going to get better. Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's exactly how she looked. It's amazing to see her,
see her talking.

Speaker 5 (01:53):
You forget how people sound.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
Too much time gone by.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Right after hearing and seeing Bromin on the screen of
my laptop at an outdoor table, Denise disclosed something unexpected
and do you.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Know Broman's third person of my friends that's gone missing
without a trace. You would have heard of Wi Borkin
and Julie Jamison. Yeah, there were two of my friends
in Sydney that disappeared, never a trace of them ever.
Both nurses then rumored I'd heard Ivan Latt.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
They're eighteen. Whatever happened to them?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
How do people just disappear and you never see them again?

Speaker 5 (02:40):
Welcome to the program.

Speaker 6 (02:41):
His crimes left a trail of fear and sorrow stretching
all the way from Australia to Europe. Ivan Malatt remains
a key suspect for a spate of unsolved murders dating
back to nineteen eighty.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
In May two thousand and six, ABC News reported.

Speaker 7 (02:58):
Serial killer Ivan Malatt has been named as a person
of interest at an inquest into the deaths of two
Sydney nurses. Westmead Coroner's Court has heard that Gillian Jamison
and Deborah Balkan were last seen in a Western Sydney
hotel in nineteen eighty. The coroner has recommended the case
be referred to the Unsolved Homicide Squad for further investigation

(03:20):
outside the court. Detective Sergeant Ian McNab said the case
would indeed be referred to the Cold case Unit.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Detective Sergeant McNab said, it's always frustrating if you can't
solve the matter.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
A more timely day.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
When Bromin disappeared, what did you believe had happened?

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, I hadn't seen her for a little while. I'd
gotten right into the gym. She was working at Eden's
and doing other things. And I think the first call
I got was from Andrew, her brother, and he said
had I seen Brown? And I said no, I hadn't,
And then that was followed up by Debbie. Were you
all started this wear issue? What's happened to her?

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Do you remember talking to police in nineteen ninety three,
immediately after Bromin vanished?

Speaker 4 (04:14):
No, I don't think I did speak to police.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Did it take until nineteen ninety eight when you gave
your statement?

Speaker 4 (04:21):
No, I think it was nineteen ninety eight.

Speaker 5 (04:24):
Do you know why do you know why police didn't
speak to you?

Speaker 4 (04:29):
I have no idea. Yeah, I don't remember.

Speaker 5 (04:34):
Well, you know, it's understandable.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
We're going back thirty one years to when Bromin disappeared.
One of the things that I think people like Debbie
and others have some regrets over is that the suspicions
they had were not acted upon by police or even
by themselves at that time.

Speaker 5 (04:58):
In ninety three. You've said that you formed the suspicion
straight away.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well in that time period, you know, recently after she disappeared.

Speaker 5 (05:10):
Are we talking days, weeks, months?

Speaker 4 (05:12):
Probably weeks?

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, after talking to like back then, Andrew, Debbie, obviously
we're all on board talking about what was going on
and the night the car went down the driveway and
all that sort of thing. That I've never gone from
the assumption that I think he did something, whether it
be in the heat of the moment, that's how I
believe it happened. But I've never waited from that. He

(05:38):
from memory, filed a missing person report, yes, and I
believe at the time a lot of that was that
they believed John that she'd just gone off and disappeared.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
Left him yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Why would you if you loved your girls, why would
you ever want to assume a your identity and even
go and set up again. Unless she had a plan
to maybe set yourself up and then come back and get.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
Them, But no, I don't think it's pausible.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
In an earlier episode, you heard Denise disclosing what she
told police when they came to her for a statement
in nineteen ninety eight, five years after Bromwin's disappearance.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
I still recollect when she told me that he had
had her by the throat up against the wall and
that she was frightened.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
It's not an easy question to ask, but I have
to ask. Do you think that Bromwin's friends could have
should have said more, done more early on to raise
the alarm.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
Yes, I'm sure we should have. I don't know even
now why we didn't.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Presuably you could have formed the group of mums you
were for playgroup and all gone to the police station
and said, hey, we think she's met with foul play.

Speaker 5 (07:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
I don't know why we didn't do that.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Even now, I don't that would be what I would
do now, But back then, I don't know why we didn't.
For a while did we believe that as John had said,
she'd gone away for a while to have a break.
But after that, why didn't we go?

Speaker 4 (07:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
And in other cases, I've talked to people who say
that the hope that someone they really loble are very
close to will come back prevents them from accepting that
foul play has occurred.

Speaker 5 (07:39):
There's this candle that they keep alive.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
I don't think at any time I thought she was
going to come back after that?

Speaker 4 (07:50):
Why didn't I do anything? I don't know.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Was it my husband saying, oh no, that John's a
good bloke. Nothing, there wouldn't been anything like that happening.
Did I tend to go that way for a while?

Speaker 4 (08:02):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (08:03):
Was that Lester's view?

Speaker 4 (08:06):
My husband's always sat in the fence. He knows my feelings.
He's always set in offense about it. But where is she?

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Then?

Speaker 4 (08:14):
I said to him, or where is she? If she's
still around?

Speaker 5 (08:16):
Where is she?

Speaker 4 (08:18):
Yeah? Currently answer that, Penny.

Speaker 5 (08:23):
Have you understood why he's sat on the fence.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
I just think it's just a blokey thing.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
As I write this, another ABC News story reports on
a national summit about violence perpetrated by men against.

Speaker 8 (08:38):
Women at its first national round table, the Federal Circuit
and Family Course of Australia looks to find solutions to
a growing emergency.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
It is a national disgrace and has tell me do
more about it. There is no doubt it is getting worse.

Speaker 7 (08:54):
So we do have a national crisis in this country
and this Court is absolutely committed to making sure that
it's playing it's part.

Speaker 8 (09:00):
Addressing the crowd was the Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, who
called on men to step up.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
One death of a woman at the hands of a
man is one too many. One death a week is
an epidemic.

Speaker 8 (09:14):
At least twenty four women have been killed in Australia
this year, ten more than this time last year.

Speaker 4 (09:21):
In Victoria.

Speaker 8 (09:21):
They include Samantha Murphy, Sweza Madigani, Rebecca Young and Hannah Maguire,
all allegedly murdered by men, and as the community grieves,
outrage grows. Last week, hundreds took the streets of Balaras
demanding action.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
The ABC's journalist at the summit, Leanne Wog, reported it's rare.

Speaker 8 (09:45):
For judicial leaders to speak out publicly on any topic.
Today's round table is a clear sign of the crisis
facing Australia amid surging levels of family violence and violence
against women.

Speaker 9 (09:57):
A call to action for a nation in mourning.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
My friend and colleague Claire Harvey is regularly reporting and
analyzing policy and cases concerning domestic violence.

Speaker 10 (10:16):
From The Australian. Here's what's on the front coming up.
Why domestic violence has suddenly rocketed to national attention. The
Australian spent decades leading the conversation on domestic violence, coercive
control and the safety of women. Domestic violence now takes
up well over half police time, but there are deep
flaws in the systems of prosecution and protection. Sarah Eisen

(10:38):
is a political reporter with The Australian.

Speaker 11 (10:40):
We've had twenty seven murders of women in the first
four months of twenty twenty four. There's never been as
many women killed in the first four months of.

Speaker 4 (10:48):
Any year ever.

Speaker 11 (10:50):
There's a real concern that the national plant and violence
against women and children just isn't really working.

Speaker 7 (10:56):
Say it was.

Speaker 10 (11:01):
At one of the rallies on the lawn in front
of Parliament House in Canberra. Prime Minister Anthony Alberanesi took
the microphone.

Speaker 9 (11:11):
To the mind that governments of all levels must do better.

Speaker 10 (11:15):
The declaration was met with cheers, jeers and tears. Victims
can obtain apprehended violence orders, but offenders can ignore them
if they're determined enough. Police can arrest perpetrators, but magistrates
can grant them bail, or they can serve light sentences,
which leaves victims doubly vulnerable.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
In my conversations with Madison Walsh, who was born a
decade after her blood relation Bromwin disappeared, we kick around
ideas and angles.

Speaker 5 (12:07):
It helps to share. So, Maddie a couple of things
I'd like you to do.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Timelines are so important, definitely in cases like this. They
help us understand what's going on, Who said, what, when,
what happened. As you go through it, it'll become more
and more detail.

Speaker 12 (12:28):
Lynn's niece did a timeline years before I got involved
in the Teacher's pet She did this for the month
of January because it was a crucial month leading up
to when the disappeared. I remember talking to once to
a great criminal lawyer, and he said timelines win cases.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Maddie has driven from the northern beaches of Sydney to
meet me at the home of Bromwin's brother Andy Reid
and his wife Michelle in the Shire near Qunella in
the south. We are looking at the time John spent
in the Shire after he arrived in the family sedan
on the morning of Monday May seventeen, nineteen ninety three,

(13:08):
with the two children, Lauren and Crystal. They had driven
through the night from Lennox. The children should have been
in school in Lenox, but instead they were in Sydney.
According to John, Bronwin had told him on the Sunday night,
May sixteen that she needed a few days away, a
short break.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
They ended up staying with you for how long?

Speaker 13 (13:33):
Think about ten days? Yep, Because by then he kept stalling.
He kept stalling about going back, and we said, John,
the kids need to be back into school.

Speaker 9 (13:43):
I want you to take the kids back up.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
By this stage, Andy knew that the authorized break in
by Bromwin's neighbor Murray at the house at Sandstone Crescent
had not provided clues to the whereabouts of Bromwin, and
Bromwin hadn't turned up for work at Eden's takeaway on
Wednesday May nineteen. Where was he staying while his children

(14:06):
were with you?

Speaker 9 (14:07):
The first night he slept in our place.

Speaker 13 (14:10):
But on the Wednesday, when Bromin obviously didn't turn up
to the takeaway shop, he wasn't comfortable enough. He was
seeing the kids at our place, might have dinner with us,
but then he go and sleep.

Speaker 9 (14:19):
At his parents.

Speaker 13 (14:20):
And by very early in that next week, I'd made
the decision that and I'd confronted him and said, either
I'm going to cradle a police station to report brom
And missing now, or you pack the kids up, you
take them back home, and you report a missing.

Speaker 9 (14:36):
So which one is it?

Speaker 13 (14:40):
He opted said, I'll get the kids back up there,
get them back into school, and I'll go.

Speaker 5 (14:44):
And report a missing.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
He went back to Ballina and he did report brom
And missing in late May.

Speaker 13 (14:51):
Yes, in hindsight, there's no way in the world that
I would have let John report her missing if I
knew the ramifications that would lead me too.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
As Bromwin's next of kin, John Winfield was at a
distinct advantage.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
The police policy.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
At the time meant they dealt first and foremost with
next of kin of a missing person. In circumstances where
the next of kin, for example, the husband should have
been a number one person of interest. When Lynne disappeared
in nineteen eighty two from her house at Bayview on
the Northern Beaches and from her two children. Her husband

(15:30):
Chris Dawson, was next of kin. Chris had reported Lynn
missing some five and a half weeks after she disappeared,
and even though Lynn's brother, Greg Simms was a police
officer at the time, he was effectively excluded by police
in the early years they deferred to Chris. The Northern

(15:52):
Beaches cops told Greg that as his sister's husband was
the next of kin, they would deal with him try
number of occasions sting out missing persons, and because I
wasn't the next to king Chris Dawson was, they wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (16:07):
Tell me anything.

Speaker 10 (16:09):
Pass hands were tired, as well as Griggs, as well
as everybody's because she was classed as a missing person
and we were not next to kin.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
In this way, Lynn's killer got preferential treatment.

Speaker 13 (16:22):
Because at that stage I had to jump through that
many hoops to be the person that was doing Bromwin's
official next of kin on police records, it was just stonewalled, stonewalled,
stonewalled by John Winfield.

Speaker 9 (16:37):
I know you can't, we can't put Bromin's.

Speaker 13 (16:39):
Picture on a milk carton because that'll upset the kids.

Speaker 9 (16:43):
Can't do this, that'll upset the kids.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
What do you recall about your contact with Detective discu It.

Speaker 13 (16:52):
I had several conversations with Detective chrome Discin, but knowing.

Speaker 9 (16:59):
What we know now, none of what they did earlier.
The piece was very thorough.

Speaker 14 (17:05):
John's the husband.

Speaker 15 (17:07):
He was having all the stay seven hundred kilometers away.
We're down here with two little kids. He's up there.
He had an answer for everything.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Did you say to Detective discon or any of the
other officers in the weeks or even months after Browin disappeared. Look,
I think that this could be foul play.

Speaker 13 (17:33):
Yeah, I'd said to him straight out. I don't think
this is right. I do not think this is right.
This is so out of character of my sister. You
need to investigate that.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
I have been reading the original police running sheets, a
contemporaneous record kept by police which shows who was contacted,
with a date and a brief summary for each entry.
The running sheet shows that on May twenty eighth, nineteen
ninety three, the day after John Winfield reported Brodman missing,
a police officer, Julie Donovan.

Speaker 16 (18:09):
Spoke with doctor Chris Mitchell, who stated Winfield last saw
him on May fourteenth, nineteen ninety three. Was aware of
marriage problems, however, did not find Winfield to be depressed.
Spoke with manager Peter Jacobson at Commonwealth Bank. Stated that
there was an account in the name of Bronwin Winfield
in San Suzi that was receiving a family supplement. However,

(18:31):
up to date money had gone in from supplement but
none taken out.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
There is another entry for eleven am. On May thirty,
Denise Barnard and Deborah Hall attended the police station.

Speaker 16 (18:45):
Both girls stated very much out of character for Winfield
to leave children. Hall informs that on May fourteen, Winfield
started to move back into house at Sandstone Crescent.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
The entry shows that deb Hall discovered those two police
what John had told deb that John and Romlan had
an altercation on the Sunday evening May sixteenth, when John
arrived at the house. That's the word in the police
document from nineteen ninety three, altercation. The Collins Dictionary defines

(19:20):
an altercation as a noisy argument or disagreement. According to
the running Sheets, police officer Julie Donovan spoke to the
clairvoyant and tarot card reader who had been receiving visits
from Bromlin, but he said he had not seen Bromlin
since early May. On June one, Detective Graham Diskin's name

(19:42):
features prominently in the running sheets.

Speaker 14 (19:45):
Two pm, visited Sandstone Crescent, spoke to husband Jonathan Winfield,
inspected house and obtained letters written by missing woman. Questioned
husband further and delved into past.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
It must have been a relatively brief inspection and conversation
with the person who had a noisy disagreement with his
wife and was the last person to see her alive,
because at three pm Detective Discan was at the Rental
Accommodation in Byron Street, where he talked to the owner,
Shirley Taylor. Half an hour later, Detective Sergeant Discan went

(20:21):
to the Ballina Taxi Service depot to see if Broman
had possibly traveled out of town in a cab. The
next day, June two, he contacted Australian Federal Police, who
told him Broman had not held an Australian or New
Zealand passport since nineteen eighty and he was advised that
Broman had not applied to travel overseas. Graham Diskin then

(20:44):
contacted Telecom, which was the name then for the telecommunications
company now known as Telstra.

Speaker 14 (20:51):
To obtain phone usage at home. Since sixteen May nineteen ninety.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Three, he reported that there were three relevant long distance
or meeted telephone calls. His records do not indicate any
reference to local calls. The first long distance call was
made at six point fifty three pm on the Sunday
and it was to John's daughter Jody Winfield in Sydney.

(21:17):
The second was just thirteen minutes later, at seven oh
six pm, and it was to John's brother Peter Winfield
in Sydney. It seems that John was letting family members
know that he had arrived safely after the flight from Sydney.
The third number, however, is a curious one. In the
official police running sheet, Detective Sergeant Graham Diskin has reported

(21:40):
that this number was called at two thirteen in the morning,
and that was the morning of May seventeen, a Monday.
It is a strange time for someone to be making
a telephone call. Remember, neither John nor Broman was using
mobile telephones then. All these calls were made from fixed
home phones or landlines. Now John Winfield must have been

(22:05):
well on the way to Sydney in the early hours
of Monday morning. But the actual number which police claimed
was called from the house at Sandstone Crescent at two
thirteen am was also unusual. It started with zero zero
five five, and that meant it wasn't a normal long
distance call, it was some kind of service. Graham Diskin

(22:30):
compared the number with other numbers he saw on uncollected
mail enclosing Roman's telephone bill for the separate Byron Street
rental accommodation and here's what the detective reported in the
running sheet for June two, nineteen ninety three.

Speaker 14 (22:47):
Account shows that missing person had called the double zero
double five numbers on a number of occasions prior to
moving back to the family home. Unusual that the husband
stated that he left the family home at eleven pm
on May sixth, nineteen ninety three, and a double zero
double five number was called at two thirteen am on
May seventeen, nineteen ninety three. It may well be that

(23:10):
the missing person has returned to the family home after
the husband left allegedly at eleven pm, But.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
Detective Sergeant Diskan had misunderstood something very fundamental. He made
an error with significant ramifications. Contrary to what he wrote
down in the police running sheet. The information obtained from
the telephone company by the detective does not show that
a call from the home phone at Sandstone Crescent was

(23:38):
made at two thirteen am on Monday May seventeen. In fact,
it shows that the call was made at two thirteen
pm in the afternoon of Sunday the day before, and
there was no mystery about it. Bromwin or someone else
it could have been Crystal had called the number to

(23:59):
get the results for the weekly lotto draw. Here's Michelle
Reid with her husband Andy.

Speaker 15 (24:07):
They told us that they checked the phone records and
someone had been at the house after John had left.
They'd been making phone calls to some doub double five
number which ended up the police couldn't check it up
because those numbers were banned from.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
The police station.

Speaker 15 (24:24):
Because someone at the police station had been ringing sex
lines and that was straight out of his mouth, leading
us so long thinking someone had done that in the
middle of the night, and the fool of a man
had said what happened in the am and it was
actually in the pm of the day before. He didn't
even get that right, and from that mistake that led

(24:48):
all of the original police officers up there to think
that shed They all believed that Broman had gone off,
so they were.

Speaker 9 (24:59):
At all thinking John had done anything.

Speaker 15 (25:03):
John ran with that, He ran with that, He ran
that she had to please said please, said, she's someone.

Speaker 17 (25:10):
Ring the phone.

Speaker 15 (25:11):
I left at eleven o six and must have been
Bromlin because no one else had a king.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
But that discovery is not made for five years, a
long time.

Speaker 15 (25:23):
Until the next lot of policemen took over.

Speaker 5 (25:26):
That was a royal creup point.

Speaker 13 (25:28):
And it was actually Michelle found that out because Michelle
was looking at phone records trying to point out numbers
and that for them, and that's.

Speaker 9 (25:34):
When Michelle turned around and went, hey, on.

Speaker 13 (25:37):
This phone call was never there was no No one
ever returned to the house and made a phone call
at two am on the in the Monday morning after
midnight Sunday.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
No one the detective's a mistake over the timing of
this telephone call appears to have had a crucial bearing
on the course of the investigation. The misunderstanding lent weight
to discons theory that had slipped back into the house
after John had left. This was despite other evidence which

(26:06):
in my view, should have already been ringing loud alarm bells.

Speaker 14 (26:10):
Inquiries at the Commonwealth Bank indicate that her bank account
has not been touched to date.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
The running sheets become more detailed over the following days.
At nine thirty am on June three, Detective Sergeant Discan
teamed with Detective Wayne Temby and they went back to
talk to Deborah.

Speaker 14 (26:29):
Hall, unable to assist with any further information except for
a conversation relayed to her by John Winfield that on
the night she left, she informed him that she had
the opportunity of getting away for a few days and
was going to take the opportunity. Paul is very surprised
that missing person has left children and not made contact.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
At eleven am, detectives Discan and Temby.

Speaker 14 (26:55):
Had a long conversation with John Winfield about missing person
and reason for taking children to see Sydney on Sunday night.
Stated that they travel better at night and that his
wife was aware that he would have them for eight
to ten days in Sydney.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
Whilst she had a break.

Speaker 14 (27:10):
Produced a document where he purchased petrol in Ballina at
six minutes past eleven on May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three.
This is consistent with next door neighbor hearing him leave
the premises unable to assist with phone call being made
from his premises at two thirteen am on the Monday morning.
Indications are that the missing person has returned to the

(27:31):
family home after he and the children had left, and
made the call whilst obtaining her property. He still states
that after she made the call early in the evening,
she walked out the front door about nine pm, carrying
no property. We still can't find her handbag or a
small blue suitcase. John states that he did have a
conversation with her about getting away for a couple of weeks,

(27:55):
deny as receiving any phone call in the middle of
the night after missing person had been missing a few days.
Apparently has told other people he had a call, but
no person spoke.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
It is notable in my opinion that the proposed duration
of Bromwin's purported break has by early June blown out
by a long way. Initially, according to John, his wife
Bromwin had told him she wanted a break for a
few days, but by early June, with Bromwyn still missing,
John is saying to police that she had said she wanted.

Speaker 5 (28:29):
To get away for a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
Detectives Discan and Temby went to Eden's Takeaway and spoke
to Bromwyn's workmates, but they were unable to help. The
Running sheet states that an unnamed person at the takeaway
told police that Bromwyn.

Speaker 14 (28:47):
For about the last month has been strange and seemed
to be lacking in concentration. Also, she seemed to lack confidence.
Any man that smiled or spoke to the missing person
caused her to believe that there was a likelihood of
some Eventually, Romance confided in them that she was having
an affair with Jacko, now in New Zealand. He too

(29:07):
was friends with the owners of the shop, and they
are aware that no such affair was happening. This is
supported by the letter from Jackson to the missing person.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Recently, Gary Jackson is still known to many as Jacko.
He spoke to my friend and colleague David Murray to
share some information about Bromlin.

Speaker 5 (29:27):
Jacko was clearly.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Very fond of Bromwin, and Bromwin believed that with Jacko
she had a chance of a loving and healthy relationship.

Speaker 18 (29:36):
See this is a trouble. I've had a stroke and
this is hard. I can remember the words where I
can't sound Gary.

Speaker 9 (29:43):
Can I share this reporting with Headley for the podcast.

Speaker 18 (29:47):
Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (29:48):
It's really sad.

Speaker 18 (29:50):
I didn't know that bron Wan liked me, and she
said you are the perfect person for me.

Speaker 19 (29:58):
I really do like was Golbs tracked by that we
kiss and that's all we did. I said that I
loved her and Rowan was tall, lay the shoes, a
beautiful woman.

Speaker 18 (30:11):
She just left John and watching divorced. I had a
thing with her, was about two weeks. It wasn't sexual
because we didn't have sex. There was more than friendship,
you know. But John was always around us.

Speaker 20 (30:31):
We couldn't go out anywhere.

Speaker 18 (30:34):
John was out there sitting in his chair watching us.
I knew John before, but he was terrible for her.
John intimidated her.

Speaker 9 (30:45):
Can you tell me what you think happened?

Speaker 18 (30:47):
Yeah, he killed her. John killed her, but they can't
find the body at the police didn't do their job.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
Broman had separate from her husband and was struggling to
make ends meet while living in rented accommodation with her
two girls. Good friends tell me she had confided she
was fearful of John. She was no doubt lonely, distracted,
lacking in confidence, and hopeful of meeting someone else. You

(31:19):
heard in an earlier episode from Kelly O'Brien, one of
the local heroes of lenox because of her longtime commitment
to young people in the community. I asked Kelly what
she remembered about the efforts by police in nineteen ninety
three when they started talking to people in Lenox Head
about Bromin's disappearance. Detective Graham Diskin, along with the detective

(31:44):
Wayne Tembe, spoke to a number of people who knew
Bromin in nineteen ninety three, and they spoke to them
in nineteen ninety three. They didn't take any statements from
any people at that time. Call from nineteen ninety three
the tone or commitment of police. Why your contact with Brohman,

(32:12):
your recollections of her as a mother and so on
were not actually put down in formal statements as they
were five years later.

Speaker 20 (32:22):
I remember thinking.

Speaker 21 (32:26):
That it was so scared what they were asking and
how they approached the staff around what had happened. I
remember thinking it was so unprofessional and poor at the time. Honestly,
The first conversations were like two minute conversation, and I

(32:50):
was like, really, is that it?

Speaker 1 (32:53):
I mean, it is such an unusual thing, isn't it?
A mother with two small girls and everybody says she
doated on them? Just vanishers, never contacts anybody again, who's
never seen again, doesn't return to say hang on, I've

(33:14):
got a legal right to half this house. I need
money to support myself. Do you find all of that bizarre?

Speaker 21 (33:21):
I guess I had a blind trust that I wasn't
that important to be speaking with, and perhaps the other
people that they were speaking with they were.

Speaker 20 (33:32):
Getting more from.

Speaker 21 (33:34):
Because I'd never been involved with the system in these ways.
I became more infuriated that it had not been dealt
with properly and was cross.

Speaker 20 (33:45):
How does someone disappear?

Speaker 21 (33:48):
And no one seemed to care that was responsible for
finding out the answer. To think that people would believe
a story that she'd listened to a Taro reader and
then run off with someone's quite ludicrous. I still think
that if they had have dealt with that really swiftly,

(34:08):
we wouldn't be here today talking.

Speaker 20 (34:10):
Yeah, it would have been solved. It's really sad.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Do you have any ideas as to why it was
treated just so routinely in those early days.

Speaker 21 (34:22):
No, I can only imagine that they had some sense
or view that women weren't important, or women did these
things and believed here. So I'll just find that kind
of thing outrageous to entertain. Any idea that we don't
count is something I wouldn't want to think. It surprised
me at the time as a young person, and certainly

(34:45):
now working in the field, I would call out pretty slack.
It is baffling, and I don't know whether our society
was happy to just turn a blind eye or let
things be.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
I know from talking to other women a little bit
older than us who have been in similar situations, they've said,
you trusted the police, you didn't speak up.

Speaker 20 (35:08):
In hindsight, we were all very remiss in that we
were led by police.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
So maybe people were fawning to the police rather than saying,
do you fricking jobs properly.

Speaker 21 (35:23):
We're taught to believe our elders, our teachers, our administrators,
the priests, the police, and the doctors. But I think
we should never let the elephant be hanging around too
long under the table. I think it's best that transparency
comes about. We know as a society, we find things out,

(35:45):
we make things right in the end, and you get
a better sleep for it.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Maybe it's a case of better late than never for Bromin.

Speaker 21 (35:55):
Bromwin's not here, but certainly the girls and the girl's
children surely need to know their family story and the
rightness of it, the wrongness of it.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
Let's go back to the police running sheets from June
nineteen ninety three. At two pm on June three, Graham
Diskin talk to Michelle Reid, Bromwyn's sister in law, and
the detective reported in the running sheet.

Speaker 14 (36:22):
She is very concerned about the missing person and stated
that the actions of the missing person are identical to
what her mother did.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
This is a reference to Bara Reid, the mother of
Bromwyn and Andy.

Speaker 14 (36:35):
Reid has spoken to the mother and she does not
seem too concerned, although she is a schizophrenic herself.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
At three pm, the detective talk to Bromwyn's solicitor in Lismore,
Chris McDevitt.

Speaker 14 (36:48):
He has been instructed by the missing person so far
as property settlement and family law matters are concerned. He
stated that the missing person had sought advice about moving
back into the family home during a week prior to
her disappearance. He advised her that because the house was
jointly owned and the husband was in Sydney, her and
the children were quite entitled to move back in now.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
The next line in the detective's running sheet, as a
result of talking to the solicitor mcdebittt, is in my
view important.

Speaker 14 (37:19):
On Sunday May sixteenth, in the late afternoon, the missing
person contacted him and stated that her husband had returned
from Sydney and she was concerned about him being in
the house. Mcdevittt advised the missing person that she might
contact the police and inform them of the situation, and
if need be, have them call by as a precaution
in order to prevent a breach of the peace. The

(37:41):
missing person seemed happy with that and made an appointment
to see mcdebittt at nine am on May seventeen, nineteen
ninety three, an appointment she never kept.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
This is a striking piece of information. Firstly, let me
clarify the contact. The telephone call from rom When to
her solicitor was a local call. That's why it didn't
show up. When the detective got information about meeted calls
or long distance calls. But as of three pm on

(38:11):
June three, Detective Sergeant Graham Discin has been told by
a lawyer an officer of the Supreme Court, that his
client had called him out of ours on a Sunday
and they then talked about escalating it to police. This
is surely a red flag, but no, it appeared to
have changed nothing and no statement was taken by police

(38:34):
from Chris mcdebittt in nineteen ninety three. The only record
made at the time was the brief June three entry
by Detective Sergeant Graham Discan in the police running sheet.
It seems that police continued to treat Bromman as a
brooding housewife who walked away from her kids. In an

(38:55):
earlier episode, you heard that Broman's appointment time with her
solicitor was a lie.

Speaker 5 (39:00):
Am.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
The arrangement had been made the previous week, not in
a Sunday afternoon telephone call. I've wondered whether Bromwin and
Chris mcdebittt decided to bring the meeting forward by two
hours to nine am as a result of John's arrival
in Lenox. Did things become more urgent and focused on

(39:22):
June four which is getting onto three weeks.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
Since Bromwin's disappearance.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Detective Graham Diskin telephoned Bromwin's half sister, Kim Marshall, was
twenty two at the time and she lived in Tasmania
with her mother, Barbara, Bromwin's mother. According to the entry,
Kim believed that Bromwyn would contact Kim soon, as they
had plans to catch up in Lenox on June fourteen.

Speaker 14 (39:46):
Kim states that Bromwin is very similar to mother. When
everything builds up around her, she will walk away and
eventually go and get some help. Believes that she appears
to be unusual in not taking or contacting children since
May sixth. Kim also believes that, like their mother, Bromwin
suffered a hormonal imbalance after the birth of the children,

(40:07):
which causes them to be irrational. Kim believes that Brombin
will get help and then walk into the family home
like nothing has happened.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
On June eighth, detectives Graham Diskin and Wayne Tenby note
that they went to see a close friend of Bromin,
a woman I've called Joan. In an earlier episode of
this podcast series, Joan isn't her real name, but you
heard her voice in episode two. She has asked that
I not reveal her true name.

Speaker 14 (40:36):
She stated that she had spoken to the missing person
on the morning of May sixteen, and all appeared well,
although the missing person seemed to be rambling on about
things in general and slightly confused, no mention about leaving
or being in fear of anybody.

Speaker 5 (40:51):
I received a different version from Joan.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
Are you saying now that you believed in ninety ninety three,
within a few days of Brown disappearing, that you suspected
foul play by John.

Speaker 22 (41:06):
Yeah, I'd fill it. I'd like to report it to
the police, but not being family, I didn't think they'd
taken any notice of this. He told me that I
was a planned trip. She was had an opportunity to
go to Queensland for a couple of weeks, and I

(41:27):
felt it, well, it wasn't a plan trip because I'd
just spoken to her, because I said, well, she wouldn't
have just gone away and leave the kids. So he
had to report it. I even went to the police
station after he'd said he had reported, to check if

(41:52):
he had, because it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
Sure he would have, and what did they tell you that.

Speaker 22 (42:00):
To start with, they were treating it as like a
domestic sitch basis, the people go missing because they want
to sometimes, but now they were treating it as a
missing person.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
Did you say to the police in nineteen ninety three,
I suspect that Jonathan has got rid of his wife
and he's just lying now about her going on a trip.

Speaker 22 (42:29):
Probably not straight away, but when they started coming around
asking questions, I did say it, Well, I don't believe
what he was saying, that she'd planned it and she
wouldn't go off and leave the kids.

Speaker 20 (42:47):
It would have been weeks, I'd.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
Say, And there was a detective discount. Yeah, do you
remember him, yes? Do you believe you told him that
you thought it was suspicious?

Speaker 20 (43:00):
I would say so, yes.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
But your recollection is that you told at least detective
disc And in nineteen ninety three, within weeks of Bromin's disappearance,
that you were suspicious of possible foul play.

Speaker 22 (43:14):
He'd come around a few times, so it could have
been more than a couple of weeks.

Speaker 20 (43:21):
But yeah, I suspected.

Speaker 22 (43:24):
Just didn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Why then didn't it become a full blown murder investigation
in nineteen ninety three.

Speaker 22 (43:32):
I have no idea. I think they messed up.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
Why hasn't there been more disquiet in this little community?

Speaker 22 (43:41):
It's me I can understand it. But John also said, oh,
she was seen in Ninburn. No, I said, I can't
imagine Bromwin walking down the street in Lidburn, little mane.
If he didn't do it, I feel sorry for him

(44:01):
because we all think that he did.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
Now let's go back to Detective Discan's internal police report.

Speaker 14 (44:10):
Since the report of the missing person, checks with the
Commonwealth Bank, Kirklands Medicare, Harveyworld Travel, jet Set Travel and
CountryLink rail services have all met with a negative result.
On June ten, interviewed Solicitor Graham Holland of Byron Bay
states that he had been consulted by the missing person
on May four regarding dissolution of marriage, property settlement and

(44:33):
custody of the two girls, which was to take priority.
The missing person was in fear of returning to the
family home if the husband should return from Sydney whilst
she was residing there. Solicitor Holland stated that she had
very little money and was only concerned about the welfare
of her two little girls.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Detective Sergeant Graham Diskin has reported.

Speaker 14 (44:54):
Spoke again to John Winfield by telephone, unable to assist
with any further information, and he has had no contact
from missing person. Stated that he had been ringing family
over the last few days, hoping they had heard something.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
The running sheet shows that the detectives had a conversation
with someone from a family support group in Ballina.

Speaker 14 (45:17):
Card indicates that there has only been emotional abuse by
the husband towards the missing person. On April nineteen, seemed
to be coping well with the pension, but was alarmed
if husband were to return to the family home.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
You heard in the first episode that Romman's contact with
the ballaner Byron Family Support Service had been diorized by
a counselor there, Doreen Strong. Perhaps she wrote about it
on a card at the support service. Is that missus,
Dorian Strong? Yes, your daughter in law contacted me. She

(45:50):
said that you remembered the case.

Speaker 23 (45:53):
Yeah, well I did, because I did the initial call
from them when she was wanting to make an appointment.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
I've mentioned your connection to the case in one of
the episodes.

Speaker 23 (46:06):
Yeah. Well, look, I was looking forward to trying to
find my original statement.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
It's not very long. If you'd like, I can read
it to you.

Speaker 22 (46:14):
Ah.

Speaker 23 (46:14):
Yes, I was in holidays and Tasmania and I had
a call from our manager Trish, who said the detectives
were looking back into it. Now that would have been
gosh aunt about two thousand or something like that. I'm
not quite sure exactly what you So you made.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
It in October nineteen ninety eight at Ballina Police Station
and say, I'm currently employed as a support worker at
the Ballana Byron Family Support Service. You received a telephone
call on Friday, the second of April from a woman
named Bromwin Winfield, who was living in Lennox Head. You say,

(46:58):
I recall Bromwin stating that she had left her husband
ten days earlier. Bromin indicated that there had been emotional
violence and threats relating to custody of her children. Broman
stated that she had been to a solicitor and had
received advice in relation to custody of the children. Broman
stated that she was feeling better, but felt she needed

(47:20):
some support. I told Bromwin that the service would telephone
her back and arrange an appointment to see her. Details
surrounding this conversation are recorded on the original day sheet
for the second of April nineteen ninety three, retained by
the service.

Speaker 23 (47:39):
Yeah, yeah, I can remember it quite clearly. We spoke
to it, and I think it was one of Broman's
friends that it was ringing and talking to us about it.
I was doing intake that day and it was another
worker that was going to see her.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
On the next page, you say from records, I am
able to say that on Wednesday, the seventh of April
nineteen ninety three, a family support worker, Stephanie Irvin, contacted
Bromwan by telephone.

Speaker 21 (48:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Records indicate that Bromwin stated that she could not talk
to Stephanie over the phone as someone was there and
she could not go into any depth. The records state
that Broman sounded okay, voice was strong, but the girls
need some help. The records indicate that Bromin stated that
she would get back to us. From records maintained, I

(48:39):
could also say that on Thursday, fifteen April nineteen ninety three,
there was a phone call from Bromwan received. Bromen apparently
stated that she was coping okay, but feels that she
would like someone to talk to Bromen requested that Stephanie
Irvin telephoned her. The statement goes on to say that

(49:00):
the record show a telephone call was made to Bromwin
by Stephanie and an appointment was made for a house
visit at ten am on April twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three,
but no person.

Speaker 5 (49:14):
Was at home.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
The last paragraph of your statement, missus Strong says, from
my experience as a family support counselor, I find it
strange that Broman would go missing without taking the children,
as she was concerned over their custody. Just prior to
her disappearance, Broman was concerned over the custody of her children,

(49:39):
and there was no indication that she intended to give
custody of the children to her husband. Yeah.

Speaker 23 (49:47):
Well, after that conversation with her, and she was concerned
that he would come and take the children.

Speaker 20 (49:55):
That was so.

Speaker 23 (49:55):
I think I have heard her to Tony Mannering he
was the solicited whether she kept that or not that appointment.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Yes, she did see him.

Speaker 23 (50:05):
I remember saying to the police at the time, and
like she wouldn't leave the kids because that was her
main concern when she rang.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
Right, do you recall the tone or anything about the
conduct of the police in the original inquiry that came
just weeks after Bromin disappeared. When they spoke to you.

Speaker 23 (50:30):
No, I just thought they would be doing their job.
I didn't get any indication that they weren't serious about it.
But I'd listen to your podcast and evidently there was
lots of things that weren't done initially. I know it's

(50:52):
a long time ago, but I can still remember it,
and we talked about it at work between workers, and
it was ever Or one of her friends who was
really not going to live up on it. She was
quite concerned. We still remember. And now I've just turned eighty.
I'm not young anymore.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
When did you retire from the service, missus Strong?

Speaker 23 (51:16):
I worked there for eighteen years and then I retired
in twenty eleven.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Well, in your statement, you say that records indicate that
on four June nineteen ninety three, a friend of Bromin's
contacted the service stating that Broman had been missing for
about three weeks and had taken no clothes and her
bank accounts had not been touched. And you say that
this friend was checking the service to see if Broman

(51:43):
had been in touch. In the podcast, we're referring to
this woman as Joan, not as her real name, so
you will have a different name.

Speaker 22 (51:54):
It's the police looking into it, like they said, and
I've gone missing all time because they want to, and
I think that's the view they had to start with.
She would not go off and leave their kids.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
So I think she's probably the person who put Romin
in touch.

Speaker 23 (52:15):
I know she had several conversations about her missing and
she was quite concerned.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
Do you have any ideas as to why this wasn't
taken more seriously at the time. And it's so unusual
for a woman to disappear when she's got children and
clearly seems dedicated to them, and she's actually going through
a separation from her husband. About whom she's concerned.

Speaker 23 (52:43):
Well, we were all concerned, and naturally if we were concerned,
we would have thought the authorities would have been concerned
as well.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
You spoke to detectives Discn and Tembe in June of
nineteen ninety three, but no statement taken from you until
October twenty eight, nineteen ninety eight, five years later.

Speaker 23 (53:09):
Five years here. Yeah, well, I just can't remember the
conversation with those two detectives.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
I'm really glad we've had this chat, Missus Strong.

Speaker 23 (53:19):
I just hope that something can be done.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
It is possible that a page or more of the
police file from nineteen ninety three disappeared before the detective
Sergeant Glenn Taylor became involved and did a thorough investigation
in nineteen ninety eight. On June ten, Detective Wayne Temby
spoke to Tony Mannering, one of the three solicitors visited by

(54:06):
Bromwan after she had separated from John. Tony Mannering had
a record of their meeting in his office on April two,
and this had resulted in a lengthy letter to broman
You heard most of it read aloud in a previous episode.
Here's what the detective Wayne Temby put down in the
police running sheet in June nineteen ninety three.

Speaker 24 (54:29):
Stated that she appeared to be level headed and fully
aware of her intentions under wanted custody of the two children.
He subsequently informed her of guidelines in respect to family
law matters in a letter which was sent on April six.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
The next major document in the police files is a
three and a half page report dated July fourteen, nineteen
ninety three and written by a detective Senior Constable of
Ballina Police, a detective others rather than Graham Diskin or
Wayne Temby. The first paragraph of the police report sets

(55:06):
the tone.

Speaker 17 (55:07):
It states, about nine point thirty pm on Sunday, May sixteen,
Bronwyn Joy Winfield born April twenty fourth, nineteen sixty two
of Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head went into the main bedroom
of the family home and made a telephone call. Shortly after,
she walked out the front door of the house, and
a car was heard to drive away from the area.

(55:29):
Missus Winfield has not been seen or heard from since
that date.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
This report was circulated among police, but right from the
start it fully adopts the version of events that has
come from Romwin's husband, John Winfield. There is not a
hint of a suggestion that this version from him might
be self serving. John was the only purported witness and

(55:55):
the last person known to have seen Roman. None of
the neighbors or heard a car at nine point thirty
pm stop outside the house. Why wasn't the report's opening
expressed factually such as according to the account given by
the husband of the missing person, she went into the

(56:15):
main bedroom of the family home and made a telephone call.
The next misleading point in the report states.

Speaker 17 (56:23):
The husband, Jonathan Winfield, has been interviewed no less than
six times and he's not been able to offer any
ideas as to her whereabouts.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
According to the records, the police spoke to John, but
they didn't record an interview with him until nineteen ninety eight.
No statement was taken from him or anyone else until
nineteen ninety eight. The other theme of this police report
revolves around Bromman's mental health.

Speaker 17 (56:53):
Missus Winfield, according to close friends, appeared to be suffering
from a state of mental confusion in the weeks leading
up to her disappate appearance, and after visiting a clairvoyant
at Lennox Head, she believed that he was her father.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
The report discloses that the clairvoyant was put under covert surveillance.

Speaker 17 (57:12):
This was carried out for two days and evenings and
met with a negative result.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
The report then discloses more of John Winfield's version of
what happened. When he arrived at the house on the
Sunday evening May sixteen.

Speaker 17 (57:26):
He stated that his wife met him at the door
and they sat and talked for some time in the
dining room. The children were then put to bed and
both he and his wife had an evening meal.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
There is no reference whatsoever to any altercation, and the
concerns expressed by Bromwin two solicitors whom she consulted have
been minimized.

Speaker 17 (57:48):
Inquiries revealed that Jonathan and the two girls left Sandstone
Crescent around eleven pm and traveled to Ballina, where he
filled the car with petrol and traveled to Sydney. It
would appear that whilst the husband was traveling to Sydney,
the missing person has returned to the family home, gathered
some clothes and her handbag, and made another double zero
double five call.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
This is a reference to the error made about the
telephone call, the one that was actually made at two
thirteen pm on a Sunday, and how police somehow misconstrued
it as having happened at two thirteen am on Monday.

Speaker 17 (58:24):
When listened to for that period, the recorded voice supplies
lot of results.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
And then after disclosing that Bromman has not been in
touch with anyone and apparently left with little to know
money and hadn't touched her bank accounts, the report revisits
Bromwin's state of mind. The report states.

Speaker 17 (58:45):
It is known the missing person was suffering from a
mental state of confusion. Documents in the handwriting of the
missing person located at the family home indicate that she
may have been suffering from mild depression. It would also
appear that she carries some form of grudge against certain
members of her family over property dealings, and her father
over minor things. On July twelveth, nineteen ninety three, Jonathan

(59:09):
Winfield reported to police that he had been absent in
Sydney with his children from June twenty sixth to July eleven.
Upon his return to Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head, he found
that clothing belonging to the missing person, together with photographs,
had been taken from the family home.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
The unlikelihood of this does not seem to have been
considered by police. They know from their inquiries with her
bank that she has not withdrawn one dollar of her
own money for food or shelter. Why how did they
imagine she was supporting herself from May sixteen until the
day on which she has, according to John, gone back

(59:49):
into the house. Briefly, the final paragraph states.

Speaker 17 (59:54):
It is now requested that particulars of telephone calls made
by the missing person from her home and from her
neighbors be canvassed in an effort to locate her.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
In terms of suspicion, none whatsoever is expressed in relation
to the husband from whom Bronwyn had newly separated. The
only person regarded with suspicion apart from Bromwyn was a
local clairvoyant and tarot card reader who was put under
surveillance for two days, with more police attention to come.

Speaker 5 (01:00:24):
As the report.

Speaker 17 (01:00:25):
States, arrangements are now in place to have a regional
crime squad surveillance unit carry out further observations, particularly of
his nighttime activities.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Bronwyn's second cousin, Maddie Walsh, and I have arrived at
the home of Terry Batisse and her husband Brian at
Ocean Shores, about a half hour drive north of Lenox.
When Terry was thirty, she and Bromwan were friends on
the local Lenox school's playgroup committee.

Speaker 25 (01:00:54):
I was the treasurer, she was the president, and I
think Denise was the secretary. There was this psych called
Pendragon hanging around Lennox at the time. She'd been to
him and the talk was did he tell her something
that made her want to go and hide.

Speaker 22 (01:01:15):
For a little while.

Speaker 25 (01:01:16):
That was the talk that was going around.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
And what's obvious from the police files is that after
Bromwin disappeared, he was the only person who was put
under any kind of surveillance. In subsequent investigations by the
then detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor from nineteen ninety eight, the
man known as Pendragon was ruled out as a person

(01:01:40):
of interest. Harry recalled Broman's love of children and maternalistic instincts.

Speaker 25 (01:01:46):
Once my daughter was born, I was in balin affair
and she saw me and she came up and she
was just, oh.

Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
What a beautiful baby.

Speaker 25 (01:01:55):
She was just so overwhelming. It was like, oh, you're
so lucky, genuine, very heartwarming, and she was just so
kind with my new little baby.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
But when Bromin vanished under those bizarre circumstances in May
nineteen ninety three, Terry's husband Brian, a former first grade
and two time Grand Final winning rugby league player for
the Canterbury Bulldogs in the nineteen eighties, immediately fastened onto
a grave view.

Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
Terry tom of the story and I said, she's dead.
I'll guarantee you'll never see your friend again.

Speaker 25 (01:02:32):
Probably because I said she would never leave those girls,
never ever would leave.

Speaker 9 (01:02:37):
Terry was a good shocked when I said that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
I remember why, given that certainty that so many people
had that she wouldn't have left her kids, didn't it
become a more serious police matter very early?

Speaker 25 (01:02:50):
Definitely, my friend was always onto it. She kept ringing
the detective every week, what are you doing?

Speaker 5 (01:02:57):
What are you doing?

Speaker 25 (01:02:58):
And I think people in town may have been dead perhaps,
and no one really came to any sort of decision.

Speaker 5 (01:03:05):
Were you scared of him?

Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
No, I guess I can't fright.

Speaker 9 (01:03:10):
Nine out watch the police.

Speaker 20 (01:03:13):
Police goes over.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
This will be a try.

Speaker 9 (01:03:14):
Brian police goes over.

Speaker 25 (01:03:17):
He do he ripped himself around, he saw the break,
He stepped over three players.

Speaker 26 (01:03:23):
It definitely sounds like when I hear all you guys
talking about it, it's something that was kept so under wraps.

Speaker 4 (01:03:30):
It was more of a whisper than a talk.

Speaker 26 (01:03:32):
It was kept in No one disappears at the face
of the earth for no reason, So hopefully with the
media involvement.

Speaker 27 (01:03:44):
What do you think they will do when police do
a good investigation as they did in the second stage
of this in ninety eight, and then they get a
police brief evidence to the corner, and the corner recommends
a prosecution. The DPP, when it says no, never has
to explain properly why. In early two thousand and three,

(01:04:08):
the DPP told the police that there's nobody, no evidence
that John killed Bromlin, so we're not going to prosecute.
Have they misunderstood something in the evidence that's caused them
to come to this negative view.

Speaker 5 (01:04:24):
We don't know, because they don't have to say.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
I think a lot of Roman's friends and family believe
that if all of the circumstances, if they were all
put before a jury, then what.

Speaker 9 (01:04:36):
Other explanations exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
You just hope that a fresh set of eyes in
the office of the DPP would come along and say,
let's take another look at this. Why didn't we prosecute
it back in two thousand and three after the inquest.

Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
Well, I still believe then she.

Speaker 23 (01:04:58):
Died that night.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
Marilyn Hannigan lives in the nearby town of Ballina these days,
but in the nineteen nineties she and her partner Bruce
Huxtable were near neighbors of John and Bromwin. In Sandstone Crescent.
They were fond of Bromwyn and wary of John. Bruce
died in two thousand and five.

Speaker 28 (01:05:21):
The last time I saw her actually standing in the
driveway beside the car. Oh my god, she was so
tiny and so thin. We lived at fifty seven, just
cross the road on the corner, and my partner was
a retired senior detective sergeant with police. The first time

(01:05:44):
somebody came to the neighborhood actually and ask us about anything,
it was about five months after she disappeared, and Bruce
gave this copper a hell of addressing down because he said,
she's been missing for five months and it's just now
that you're coming to us the neighbors and whatever. And

(01:06:05):
it was like, you, well, you wouldn't have been on
my team mate, and that sort of stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:06:09):
He was with Victoria Police.

Speaker 20 (01:06:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
Do you recall whether after Bromin disappeared, In the months
after she disappeared, what the thinking was about what had happened.

Speaker 28 (01:06:24):
Bruce had pretty well said straight up, oh what the
hell has he done with her?

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Were you more of the view that Bromin might have
wanted to take a.

Speaker 20 (01:06:33):
Break, No, she wouldn't have left those girls and.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
Bruce being retired, he didn't feel that he could do.

Speaker 5 (01:06:41):
Anything he could have.

Speaker 28 (01:06:45):
We had a spit catering business that we did go
and do a few jobs for police at different times,
like Ballana police.

Speaker 20 (01:06:52):
We'd do a pig on the spit. He did know
local policemen.

Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
So why do you think there wasn't a whole lot
more focus and concern from police but also from the community.

Speaker 20 (01:07:09):
I don't really know.

Speaker 28 (01:07:10):
It just seemed to be a botch from the word go,
and I know Dare She would ring them every week
and then every month or whatever and ask the police
had they gotten news, have done anything new, or.

Speaker 4 (01:07:24):
All that sort of stuff.

Speaker 20 (01:07:25):
She was really dogged. Nothing much ever happened. It just
all seems so unfair and awful.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
Close your eyes and picture Roman coming in with her daughters.

Speaker 29 (01:07:41):
Yes, yes, it was all about the little girls having
their head trimmed, their little friends trimmed, and had them
dressed beautifully. And she was always well dressed too, very
neat and tidy. You can't help but notice somebody like that,
because in Lennox it was all hippie stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
Longtime local of Lenox head people like Bernadette Armstrong are
hearing about this investigation and striving to help. They've harbored
grave concerns for three decades. A retired senior police officer,
Glenn Taylor disclosed in the first episode of this podcast
series that the original investigation into Broman's disappearance was very poor.

(01:08:23):
The more I talk to people from lenox the more
misguided the nineteen ninety three investigation looks. It's difficult to
disagree with the view of many in this place that
police back in nineteen ninety three, when the trail was fresh,
saw Bromwin as a feckless young woman who'd possibly taken
off with another fella. But as Bromin's neighbor and good

(01:08:47):
friend Debhaul described it to me one day recently, it
is a two way street. There were undoubtedly people in
Lenox Head who kept their suspicions and knowledge of some
things to them, and the police are not mind readers.
I have tried to talk to the former Detective Sergeant
Graham Diskin, who was in charge of the investigation in

(01:09:10):
nineteen ninety three. His side of things is important, but
he has declined to talk about the case. He has
been retired from the New South Wales Police for more
than twenty years. In nineteen ninety three, there was a
more junior officer, Wayne Temby, who helped Graham discin in
those early days. Wayne Temby has been retired for some

(01:09:34):
time too, and he also declined an interview request. Wayne
Temby played an integral role in the subsequent investigation in
nineteen ninety eight, led by Glenn Taylor, which made so
much progress. But you can't silence women like Bernadette Armstrong.

Speaker 29 (01:09:53):
I have to tell you onto this right from the
word Joe, I want to see her found.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
Bernie's hairdressing salon had pride of place next to a
Chinese restaurant in Lennox Head in the nineteen nineties, and
opposite was Eden's Takeaway, where Broman worked part time.

Speaker 29 (01:10:13):
I've been churned up the last few days about the podcast.
I'll never rest until I find out what happened to
that Paul girl. I did thirty six years of hairdressing.
I've done thousands of people's hair, especially women, And do
you know out of all the people I've done, Bromwan
stood out to me and she struck me as the

(01:10:34):
most wonderful, impeccable mother.

Speaker 20 (01:10:37):
I never lost that feeling.

Speaker 29 (01:10:38):
Whenever she came in, I think, oh my god, she's
got the dress beautifully. So when that happened that she'd disappeared,
there was a fellow called Graham.

Speaker 4 (01:10:50):
Graham disc game discan.

Speaker 20 (01:10:52):
Yeah, yeah, have you heard of him?

Speaker 1 (01:10:54):
Yes, I've heard of him, but I do know that
he was involved in the original investigation in nineteen ninety
three when Bromin first disappeared.

Speaker 29 (01:11:03):
That's exactly right. But he came into my salon. I
didn't know him really from a bar of soap and
I was at turning to a lady's here. I was
doing her hair and I had another lady in the
chair next to her, and he went, Bernadette, I believe
you know Bromin Winfield. And I said, oh, yes, she's

(01:11:24):
kind here. And he said, come on, this is where
we find the gossip. This is how he spoke to me.
Come on, you're in here, all you girls, and you
know what she's done. I said, what are you talking about?
And I got on the high horse straight away, and
he said, you've got the goss here. I said, I
haven't got the goths here. Just spit it out and

(01:11:44):
what do you want? And he went, you know she's
run off with somebody. She would have told you she's
got a boyfriend. And he went, yeah, come on, he said,
she's run away. And I said, listen, stop right now.
I said, don't you speak to me like that. And
I said, and I'm telling you now that I know
nothing about that.

Speaker 20 (01:12:04):
He said it.

Speaker 29 (01:12:04):
About three times, and I thought, you say that again,
I said.

Speaker 20 (01:12:08):
Graham, I said, I'm busy.

Speaker 18 (01:12:09):
Oh was wild?

Speaker 29 (01:12:10):
How dare he try to put words in my mouth? Oh,
she's got a fellow. She's run up with a fellow.
That's what he was saying. Get your fact right, you know,
before he come into my place and start spreading gossip.
I said, she was a lovely client. That's all I know.
I said, I know nothing personally about the girl.

Speaker 20 (01:12:27):
I said, but I'll tell you what.

Speaker 29 (01:12:29):
That's something I would never believe that she's left those
two little girls. And you know, I've stuck to that
headly all the way through, all the way through, and
I'm still still the same. And I complained to them
in that ball at the police station. I said, listen,
he came in here into my salon and I said,
tell me what I thought or knew. She would never

(01:12:54):
have left the Little Girls and I will never change
that opinion ever.

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
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.

(01:13:32):
You can read more about this case and see a
range of photographs and other artwork at the website Bromwyn
podcast dot com. Our subscribers and registered users here episodes first.

Speaker 5 (01:13:46):
The production and.

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
Editorial team for Bromwin includes Claire Harvey, Kristin Amiot, Joshua Burton, Bridget,
Ryan Bianca, far Marcus, Katie Burns, Liam Mendez, Sean Callen,
Matthew Condon and David Murray. Audio production for this podcast
series is by Wasabi Audio and original theme music by

(01:14:09):
Slade Gibson. We have been assisted by Madison Walsh, a relation.

Speaker 5 (01:14:13):
Of Romwin Winfield.

Speaker 1 (01:14:15):
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Speaker 5 (01:14:36):
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Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
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