Listen to episode 1 of BRONWYN

The Night Driver creator Hedley Thomas returns with a new podcast investigation for The Australian. 

Subscribers to The Australian and registered users hear episodes of ‘Bronwyn’ first. Plus, you can read more about this case and see exclusive stories, maps, timelines, graphics, video and more at bronwynpodcast.com

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to episode one of Bronwen. We dropped
this in your feed because we thought you might like it.
To hear the rest, search Bronwen that's b r n
w y N wherever you listen, and to be the
first to know about all our investigations, subscribe at the
Australian dot com dot au.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Listeners are advised that this podcast series Bronwen contains course
language and adult themes. This podcast series is brought to
you by Me Headley Thomas and The Australian.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
When we moved to Lennox head I was even more lonely.
The house that was built became John's Castle in my prison.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Bromwin 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.

(01:34):
A brief period of postnatal depression after the birth five
years earlier of her second daughter was well behind.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
Bromwin Where do you want to go.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Today? 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 ricantile close to the.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
Beach, getting directions to Sandstone Crescent, Lenox Head.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
The Pacific Ocean is tantalizingly close. You can hear it,
smell it. Its saltiness lingers 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

(02:36):
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 Lenox. It's less crowded here, more chilled
than the nearby more famous Byron Roman left in dollible

(03:00):
imprints 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

(03:23):
in print in twenty twenty, but Bromin 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 Bromwin writing in quiet moments

(03:46):
between 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 (03:55):
My idea of a lasting love is being able to
tell your partner anything and it doesn't make it 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 2 (04:10):
Her family, friends, and neighbors tell me she was determined
to remain separated from her husband of six years, John Winfield.
Bromwin 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

(04:32):
school mums 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

(04:54):
lived in Sydney, a one hour flight away. It was
where Bromwyn 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.

(05:17):
All of these family members talked regularly to Bromwin. Kim
was about to travel north to Lenox 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,

(05:37):
Bromin had decided was bad for her and her girls,
perhaps felt cathartic. Liberating the house in Lenox was a
heavy burden.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
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 2 (06:10):
Friends and neighbors tell me John would obsess and see
over the smallest things. No matter how hard Brommin 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

(06:31):
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

(06:53):
in the garage to ensure no mess in the house,
and all the while Brommin walked around on a big shells.
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.

(07:14):
On March twenty one, nineteen ninety three, Bromwin and John
formally separated.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
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 2 (07:36):
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

(07:57):
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 (08:15):
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 did they as.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
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

(08:51):
to John.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
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

(09:16):
that everyone is out to own you paranoia, then it
is not my idea of happiness.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
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 Romin wrote in
her notepad in nineteen ninety three, was she intending to
imminently and dramatically change everything by leaving everyone who loved her,

(09:43):
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 (09:55):
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'll be fine now. A little break
for a few weeks and everyone will see the old

(10:16):
may look out.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Over months of visits to Lennox, nearby towns and villages,
and the city in which she grew up, Sydney, I'm
talking to people who knew Bromwan and seeking answers to
these questions and more, talking to anyone who might shed
light on what happened to Broman on the night of
May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three, when John was the last

(10:40):
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

(11:02):
of pages of evidence are being scrutinized for clues. Here's
one example. 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 Lennox Head.

Speaker 5 (11:23):
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 2 (11:39):
Bromwyn 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, Chris McDevitt, was based in the

(11:59):
nearby ten of Lismore. Broman's next appointment in his office
there was scheduled for Monday, May seventeen. I have a
copy of a page from her notepad with the time
Bromwin jotted down for the Monday meeting with Chris mcdebitt
eleven am. But Bromwin disappeared the night before Sunday, May sixteenth,

(12:22):
nineteen 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 a sale
of the house were quietly shelved. John kept his castle
on Sandstone Crescent.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
Heads south on Dalana Street in seven hundred meters at
the roundabout take this second exit onto North Creek Road.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
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. Bromwan's
husband didn't leave Lennox Head after she vanished, but why

(13:40):
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

(14:03):
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 6 (14:21):
I 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 2 (14:38):
The prosecuting agency confirmed its decision in a letter of
just one sentence. The letter went to the police who
had reinvestigated Bromwin's case for the inquest. Romman's brother Andy
Reid and his wife Michelle were astonished. They wrote to
the office of the DPP in early two thousand than three.

Speaker 7 (15:01):
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 there is not
sufficient evidence to lay charge against mister Jonathan Winfield.

Speaker 8 (15:21):
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 7 (15:38):
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 2 (15:51):
The Director of Public Prosecutions in New South Wales at
that time, Nicholas Cowdery, replied to Andy Reid.

Speaker 9 (15:59):
The disappears of your sister Bronwin 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 in 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

(16:20):
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

(16:44):
substitution for evidence.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
John has never been charged with any offense in relation
to his missing wife. John suggested two police that ronwin
had left to start a new life with a new identity,
probably money from, in John's words, a wealthy sugar daddy.
But nobody has ever reported having seen her, and in

(17:07):
the two decades since Nicholas Cowdery wrote that letter in
two thousand and three, there's still nobody behind his back. Lennox.
Locals who know the story of Bromwyn Winfield scoff at
John's version. I was on assignment and rushing from one
interview to the next in Sydney when I heard her

(17:28):
name for the first time. It was December twenty seventeen.
Bromwin Joy Winfield had been missing for twenty four years.
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

(17:51):
now refer to her by her maiden name. She's Lynette Simms.
It was a hot and humid afternoon, just a week
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.

(18:13):
Six months later, when the podcast had a name, The
Teacher's Pet, and episode started to come out, listeners heard
Julie's commitment to justice for Limb. They heard her unwavering
certainty about Lynn's fate at the hands of her husband,
Chris Dawson.

Speaker 10 (18:32):
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
these and I miss her every day. I just want justice,

(18:54):
and I'd love her little girls to know she didn't
leave them, she was taken away from them now the
person who was supposed to protect her.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
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 11 (19:19):
Yeah, come in, get you out of the heat.

Speaker 12 (19:21):
We're very sorry.

Speaker 11 (19:22):
We just realized we pulled up it and we didn't
bring the bottle of why a cake anything. We've got
that organized.

Speaker 13 (19:27):
Come upstairs, please, straight up the stairs.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Karl 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. Karl watched and heard numerous witnesses

(19:53):
give evidence under oath in a courtroom in Sydney. These
witnesses recalled Lynn and Chris, the Northern Beaches home, the
marriage and a schoolgirl will call JYC. There were many
who were adamant that Linn 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

(20:17):
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,
Matt Fordham. 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 Lone was sure

(20:41):
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 high school teacher and former first grade rugby league
player with the Newtown Jets, had become in fat scituated
in nineteen eighty with the babysitter, his former student at

(21:04):
Cromer High School. Chris would move Jc into Lynd's bed
within a couple of days of Lynn's disappearance in January
nineteen eighty two, 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.

(21:27):
A key witness was the former teenage babysitter, JC, who
had gone on to marry Chris Dawson, then flee him,
obtain a divorce and raise her concerns with police about
foul play. At the end of the coronial proceedings, Karl
Milavanovitch found that Lynn was dead and he recommended to

(21:48):
the Director of Public Prosecutions at the time, Nicholas Cowtery,
that Christopher Michael Dawson be prosecuted for murder, but the
DPP refused. Nicholas Cartery it 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,

(22:11):
circumstantial case against him for the murder of his wife.
This is some of what Carl told me as I
sat in his lunder room in December twenty seventeen.

Speaker 13 (22:22):
All the circumstances, when you put them together, are just
so remarkable that I just could not accept that Lyn
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

(22:43):
and just disappear. 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

(23:06):
wasn't prioritized. They never looked at the issues of domestic violence.
They never looked at the reality or the possibility that
this was a homicide.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
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

(23:36):
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 Bromwin.

Speaker 13 (23:52):
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,

(24:14):
but she was never found. The same thing happened there.
He was in Sydney, the husband was in Sydney.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
She was up there.

Speaker 13 (24:20):
She went to see a solicitor about organizing a separation,
got the locks changed to the house. He found out
about it, drove up there next day she disappeared.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
I did the.

Speaker 13 (24:30):
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 2 (24:41):
And when the DPP decides that they're not going to run,
do they send to you or to the Coroner's.

Speaker 13 (24:46):
Office a letter explaining what No.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
There's no explanation the DPP in terms of detailed reasons
for not proceeding. How do we know that they have
just misunderstood the.

Speaker 13 (24:58):
Cats 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 person's
cases that were historical ones. And it wasn't long after
the inquest into Lynette Dawson's disappearance from and Winfield at

(25:19):
a number of others that I was getting very concerned
about 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 trianged missing person's cases. So that was

(25:44):
a 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 2 (25:57):
I asked Carl whether this men that a significant number
of women who had been classified by police as simply
missing were more likely to have been murdered.

Speaker 13 (26:09):
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 person's cases that are still outstanding even
to this day involve the young women who have disappeared,
and inevitably they are victims.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Upon the side, 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

(26:51):
of twenty eighteen, as 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

(27:11):
Bromwin from Karl. In 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

(27:34):
written submissions which had been presented at Bromwin'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

(27:55):
his words, it's not his voice.

Speaker 14 (27:58):
Bronwin had expressed concern to her friend Alan Fisher about
what would occur when Jonathan Winfield returned to Lenox 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

(28:21):
that anyone other than Jonathan Winfield had any motivation or
opportunity to kill Bronwin.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
In August twenty eighteen, a woman called Deborah Hall reached out.
She was Bromwin'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 (28:46):
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,
Linix Head. This case was also investigated by police in

(29:10):
a minor way. In the initial days of her disappearing.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
She explained what Karl had disclosed some months earlier, that
his coronial inquiry had found that Bromwin was dead.

Speaker 15 (29:23):
Debra 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

(29:43):
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
old or went with another man. There is so much

(30:03):
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 2 (30:18):
The following month, a woman living in Tasmania, Kim Marshall
emailed to tell me that her half sister bromwyin 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.

(30:40):
Kim told me back then in late twenty eighteen.

Speaker 16 (30:43):
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 2 (30:54):
At the time, Chris Dawson remained a free man, enjoying
his retirement near the each 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 fa Lynn, but for never even investigating

(31:19):
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

(31:39):
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 five, twenty eighteen. Over the

(32:00):
years since my folder of Bromwyn 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 Shire south of Sydney. We met in Brisbane in

(32:24):
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. I wrote,

(32:47):
I've been interested in possibly investigating the disappearance and suspected
murder of your sister Bromwin. A number of people who
knew Bromwin have urged me to do a podcast investigation
similar to the ten Each's pet into the probable murder
of Lynd Dawson. I understand that you have extensive files
and reasonable suspicions about what happened. It's not something I

(33:10):
could start without full cooperation from you and other members
of the family. Andy and his wife Michelle were immediately interested.
We met in a cafe in Sydney and talked about
a future podcast investigation. A woman from Barner called Kerry
McLain got in touch to talk to me about her

(33:32):
conversations with Brombin'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

(33:54):
notes 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 Glen Taylor, a former Newcastle Homicide Squad detective sergeant.

(34:17):
Is a little of what Glenn told me back then,
as extreme rain flooded the northern rivers and low lying
areas of New South Wales. He told me that his
connection to Roman's case began in nineteen ninety eight when
she had been missing for five years.

Speaker 17 (34:34):
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 again the elector is a missing person.
We think there's more to it, and then when we
start looking into the matter, I mean as a homicide investigator,

(34:55):
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 2 (35:05):
Glenn had transferred north from Newcastle's major crime unit to
be a detective in the coastal town of Ballina. When
he heard about Bromwin, he was intrigued and then suspicious.
Like Damian Loon in Lynn's case, Glenn said he smelled
a rat, but the trail had gone cold. The odds
were stacked against the seasoned former homicide squad cop when

(35:29):
so little had been done by other police in the
five years immediately following Bromwin's disappearance.

Speaker 17 (35:36):
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

(36:00):
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

(36:20):
then it just fell back to a missing person and
nothing further was done. Under many years later, I treated
as a major investigation and strongly suspected that.

Speaker 11 (36:30):
Bromin be murdered.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, your statement's very detail.

Speaker 11 (36:34):
They they need to be thorough.

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

Speaker 2 (36:40):
Need to be thorough.

Speaker 18 (36:42):
Did you believe that Bromwin would leave her children?

Speaker 11 (36:48):
And stay away at any stage.

Speaker 17 (36:50):
All the people we took statements from in the reinvestigation,
all Bromin's friends and close assationates, 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

(37:12):
sole custodys of both the children. She was a very
very good mother according to everyone that.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
We spoke to.

Speaker 17 (37:20):
It was just 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 (37:35):
And why was that not of you that existed in.

Speaker 19 (37:40):
The police in nineteen ninety three when she disappeared.

Speaker 17 (37:45):
It's really difficult to say. Police did get extremely busy
with other matters. Unfortunately, there's still other things happening with
robberies and breaknanners and sexual assaults and so forth. But
being highlighted to a commander to say, look, we believe
there's something more sinistry in this. We need more resources

(38:08):
put into this. But for one verse or another, that wasn't.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
Done when we first met at his home. Glenn 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

(38:33):
to me. 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 lim first disappeared had prejudiced his prospects in any trial,

(38:55):
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 20 (39:11):
Christopher Michael Dawson on the charts that on about eight
January nineteen eighty two, it gave you or elsewhere in
the state of New South Wales, you did murder Lynett Dawson.

Speaker 17 (39:21):
I find you guilty.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
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

(39:46):
nineteen ninety three disappearance of Bromwin 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 bear in an unremarkable house
on Sandstone Crescent, the house that John built his castle,

(40:07):
Bromman's prison.

Speaker 4 (40:37):
Turn left on the Sandstone Present. Then arrive at your destination.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
This is where's last set in life.

Speaker 21 (40:51):
Arrive and there's the house. You can't help me wonder
what happened inside that night?

Speaker 22 (41:02):
What led to a woman disappearing more thirty years ago?
Pleased to meet you too, Sorry it's taken almost six years.

Speaker 12 (41:21):
Well that didn't about thirty plus time.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
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 13 (41:42):
Can I get you anything?

Speaker 2 (41:44):
It'd be great, thank you. I've been up at Kingscliffe.
I didn't really be there, okay. Dear 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

(42:05):
son of a police detective, became highly suspicious and concerned
for Bromwin at a very early stage. Their children, who
used to play with Broman's two girls, have grown up,
moved away, married, and had children of their own. They
all returned to Sandstone Crescent for family occasions. Broman's fate

(42:27):
is often talked about at these catchups. Bromwan and the
House cast a long shadow. John has a newer, grander
house in Lennox. 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

(42:49):
and Bromwan lived with the two girls, Crystal and Lauren.
Do you mind if I have run a recorder over this?

Speaker 8 (42:57):
So?

Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 23 (42:58):
I don't have any problem with that.

Speaker 11 (43:00):
Do you have any other commitments this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Actually, Broman's good friend told me her reaction while listening
to Linz's case unfold in The Teacher's Pet in twenty eighteen.

Speaker 12 (43:15):
Driving up the coast, Mary and I and the current
has put you on. Put the podcast on. He goes,
I listen to this. I'm like, what is It's a
teacher's pet. I had no idea, So I started listening,
and I'm like looking at him, going, are you hearing this?

Speaker 13 (43:28):
This is this is almost our case.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
I'm like going, this is like, this is Bromplin, this
is Bromlin.

Speaker 12 (43:35):
That was what prompted me to email you, and I
hope you didn't mind me doing that because it was.

Speaker 15 (43:40):
So similar, and I thought I got to just.

Speaker 12 (43:42):
Put it out there, not expecting that because I know
his man getting back to me. You know when you're
a finer. I thought, oh, okay, so obviously we're a
little bit aware of this situation.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Dev An Bromwin had an easy rapport. They helped each
other all the time. Bromin 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 12 (44:12):
Watching Chris Dawson on TV is almost like watching John Winfield.
How so similar in terms of good looking guy, physique everything.

Speaker 24 (44:25):
You could almost be cloned.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
You two men.

Speaker 12 (44:27):
Knowing John the way I knew John, I'm like, God,
you know, these guys are just on the same path.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
Well, I was really glad that you're ope.

Speaker 12 (44:36):
I didn't want to overset my mark and push anything
when it's up to the family that kind.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
Of agree with that sort of thing.

Speaker 25 (44:43):
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 24 (44:56):
And the fact that the two girls had grown up
without their mother. They've got kids of their own that
she never got to meet. And Bromwe was a very caring,
very loving and beautiful person. She was a great mum.

Speaker 12 (45:12):
And this is why, in regards to what you've just
done with the dows In case, when I heard the
story about her, she's almost identical.

Speaker 24 (45:22):
To how problem was.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
And there was no way she would leave those kids.

Speaker 24 (45:26):
And I know that, and that's the thing that I
kept saying to the police in the initial investigation.

Speaker 26 (45:33):
Married this is Headley.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
Yeah you too.

Speaker 11 (45:37):
How are the waves today? Wasn't that good?

Speaker 13 (45:39):
That I went out the wrong spots?

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Stars?

Speaker 11 (45:41):
I should have off the point I went bubbles Bach.
I got smashed a bit right, quite fun.

Speaker 17 (45:46):
Yeah, I've been here about half an hour just going
through some of the events.

Speaker 27 (45:50):
Yeah, she's a nice lady.

Speaker 11 (45:51):
You know, if you're sick, she brought you out some shit.

Speaker 15 (45:55):
Because I remember when I had Dale.

Speaker 24 (45:57):
She came down with lasagneas and that's the sort of person.

Speaker 21 (45:59):
She was.

Speaker 27 (46:00):
A class two sex is a class A really nice neighbor,
beautiful lady.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Murray Nolan still goes to Boulders Beach for a look
and often a surf most days, and he usually sees
his former neighbor John Winfield down there. Sometimes they paddle
for the same wave. At 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.

(46:30):
He cannot avoid what he believes is the truth, but
it's not in his nature to avoid and ostracize John.

Speaker 27 (46:38):
John is perfectly civil and friendly to you. Yes, I'll
still see him every day. I spoke to this morning.
Oh John, how I am a bit windy, swells up,
beautiful surfing sort of talk. But I see him now,
I reckon probably nine days out of ten, I seene,
where did you see it?

Speaker 5 (46:54):
This morning?

Speaker 11 (46:55):
He was just checking the surf.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
We're all went surfing. But does John know what you
suspect he has done?

Speaker 27 (47:02):
Yes, I threw him under the bus with the currency quarry.

Speaker 11 (47:05):
My role is to sell the truth. And he's never
raised that with you.

Speaker 27 (47:07):
No, and you just get out and talk to each
other as if nothing's happened.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Yeah, he's fine with me.

Speaker 12 (47:13):
Strange, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Yeah, like we're quite friendly.

Speaker 11 (47:16):
It's a funny, says situation.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
And what's your level of confidence that he did in
fact kill.

Speaker 27 (47:22):
Robin nine point nine?

Speaker 2 (47:26):
How about you?

Speaker 12 (47:26):
Dd one hundred? See, Murray has a nicer nature than
I have. I'll steer him down. I won't speak to him.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
DEBI is spreading documents and photographs across the table for
me to read and copy.

Speaker 24 (47:41):
Yeah, there's a fabis here I've got that's my statement.

Speaker 14 (47:46):
Oh that was Brian there.

Speaker 27 (47:48):
That was in a very good shot.

Speaker 24 (47:49):
That was one of my children's birthday party.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
A service of Thanksgiving.

Speaker 22 (47:53):
Yeah, so this has dated July two thousand and two.

Speaker 12 (48:00):
Andrew wanted to have a bit of a memorial before her.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
There was certainty that she wouldstend. I might photograph all these.

Speaker 22 (48:09):
It's a small community relatively, yes, but he stayed here
the whole time.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Yes, yes, What do you think of that? Does that
suggest that perhaps he's got nothing to hide? He's not
running away.

Speaker 11 (48:25):
He loves this place.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
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 24 (48:35):
I don't know what the outcome of all this will be.

Speaker 11 (48:38):
What's your hope.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
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?

(49:01):
If Bromwin 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.

(49:23):
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.

Speaker 28 (49:44):
I 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 2 (50:00):
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

(50:21):
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,

(50:42):
and John added there is.

Speaker 28 (50:44):
A generational history of mental illness, both male and female
in the Reed family.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
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 (51:09):
And Andrew has a box packed away, and Christal 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 business. 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

(51:31):
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 (51:40):
Well, that sounds really good, Kim. 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 (51:54):
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 18 (52:04):
I didn't believe that material would become available, So having
that makes a very big difference.

Speaker 5 (52:11):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Andy Reid, a builder and a popular community figure in
Sydney's Sutherlandshire 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 own

(52:34):
mother when Crystal was ten.

Speaker 29 (52:36):
She just said to us, it's just time that she
finds you out, and she wants to know what happened. Endeavor
to do whatever's needed to be done to try and
find out the truth.

Speaker 16 (52:48):
She is terrified as losing the small relationship that she
has with her sister Lauren. Lauren doesn't believe that John
did it.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
In June twenty twenty three, I asked Andy about the
status of police investigations into Bromwin's disappearance.

Speaker 11 (53:09):
Have you heard any more from the police?

Speaker 29 (53:11):
No, we haven't heard anything. Unless something turns up, we're
basically at a dead end.

Speaker 16 (53:16):
You know.

Speaker 29 (53:17):
They weren't willing to investigate anything that was presented to
them any further than what they.

Speaker 16 (53:25):
Already had they haven't bothered.

Speaker 29 (53:27):
To reach out or contact or anything for a long
time now. The last detective at Newcastle was the last
person that I used.

Speaker 7 (53:34):
To liaise with.

Speaker 29 (53:35):
So every twelve months just ring and asked a couple
of questions and see if he's heard anything into it's
just that the same response.

Speaker 21 (53:41):
Now that's been no.

Speaker 29 (53:42):
Activity on a cards, no activity on a bank account,
blah blah blah. Well it can't be anymore anyway, because
the bank account was closed down.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
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 29 (54:02):
Oh, nothing's changed, nothing's changed after the corral inquiry.

Speaker 18 (54:07):
How do you reckon he would be viewing the development
of these true crime investigations, particularly with podcasts into the
disappearances or murders unsolved of women.

Speaker 13 (54:22):
He'd be raddled.

Speaker 11 (54:23):
I'm sure he'd be rattled.

Speaker 13 (54:25):
Yep, which is good.

Speaker 7 (54:27):
Unless she sleeps at night, the better off we all are.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
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 13 (54:45):
Did you speak to Glenn Taylor, Yes.

Speaker 11 (54:47):
I interviewed him. That would have been two and a
half years.

Speaker 13 (54:51):
Ago, just after we first met when I put you
onto him here.

Speaker 11 (54:54):
Yeah, but I drove down and saw him at his house. There.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
He had a little bit of paperwork and I took
copies of that.

Speaker 18 (55:01):
I probably interviewed him for about two hours and I've
got that audiophile.

Speaker 13 (55:05):
He's always been very helpful with us too.

Speaker 29 (55:08):
It was always so apologetic about how badly it was
handled by the police in the first case, and I
always said to him, no, no, for you to apologize,
You've only been part of getting it over the line
of the Corona inquiry.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
Later in this series you'll hear from Glenn 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 30 (55:43):
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 an intensive crime scene investigation. The

(56:04):
same for the Ford motor vehicle. There is nothing in
the running sheets to indicate the vehicle was either 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 2 (56:22):
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. It seems the police, after years of inactivity
and now getting active again, Is that right?

Speaker 7 (56:41):
This whole thing sort of stirred back up with us talking.

Speaker 31 (56:44):
To you, and we were very curious, and we contacted
the police.

Speaker 7 (56:48):
Myself and Kim went and had a meeting.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
A senior officer in the police Unsolved Homicide Unit told
Andy and Kim that Bromin's case was being reviewed the
request of another veteran detective, George Radmore.

Speaker 31 (57:04):
He put a very strong case forward upon his retirement
and a request to have Borman's case looked at they're
in the process of doing a complete review that I'll
give them.

Speaker 16 (57:17):
The benefit of doubt because they're trying to get up
to speed because they're still looking for their documents.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
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 32 (57:40):
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.

Speaker 11 (57:47):
As it stands.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
Yeah, okay, he said.

Speaker 32 (57:50):
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 2 (58:01):
I'm aware that today is the anniversary of Yeah, can
you believe it?

Speaker 11 (58:08):
Thirty one years.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Let's see where we get to after the podcast.

Speaker 11 (58:11):
Then is it named?

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Yeah, it is? What do you reckon we're calling it?

Speaker 6 (58:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (58:18):
I don't know one word Bromwin. Oh lovely. You know
a lot of people will start talking about Bromwin. This
case never got any publicity.

Speaker 11 (58:31):
Not really. No.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
The Northern Star and that was it.

Speaker 32 (58:34):
And that was on a milk cart and once she
was on a milk cut.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
We won't have that problem this time. It'll get a
lot of attention. 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 it
makes a difference. Yeah, same with me and and Kim.

(59:00):
Bromwyn's siblings are adamant that they want the podcast to
go ahead. They have been disappointed by official them too
many times.

Speaker 16 (59:10):
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 2 (59:24):
Before Bromwin vanished. She was planning to welcome Kim to
Lennox to the house at Sandstone Crescent for a rare visit.

Speaker 16 (59:33):
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've
never had an adult experience with Bonnie, if that makes sense.

(59:55):
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 2 (01:00:07):
It was Kim who first alerted me to Bromwyn's storytelling
her writings, and it was Kim who appreciated how the
words Bromwyn had left behind on those A four pages
were used against her early on, when she no longer
had a voice.

Speaker 16 (01:00:24):
Letters that Bromwin wrote to Mum saying that she was
scared for her life. There's enough circumstantial evidence.

Speaker 11 (01:00:31):
Were those letters that she wrote to your mother.

Speaker 16 (01:00:33):
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 there. Bromwyn wrote a beautiful story of
her history. Okay, this big large pad which some people

(01:00:57):
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 Bromwyn going away on a three to

(01:01:20):
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 blah blah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
Kim insists that in the weeks and months after Bromwin
first disappeared, police in Balina, who has showing her writings,
were persuaded that she wanted to leave her children, that
she planned to go away.

Speaker 16 (01:01:56):
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 2 (01:02:15):
Now I need to explain a little of the family
history of Bromwan, 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
postonatal depression, and in an extraordinary coincidence, Barbara disappeared too.

(01:02:42):
Bromman 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 her mental
health challenges. And while Barbara was away, some in her

(01:03:05):
family knew 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 11 (01:03:28):
Good to meet you, missus, reed Leah Cleia, Hi, come
on in.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
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. Bromwin's father Philip and Bromwin's
uncle John were brothers.

Speaker 26 (01:03:52):
Thomas and I said, Jimmy's going to expect his lenks
to go on, but no, no, he won't have a
walking sticks.

Speaker 11 (01:04:04):
A lovely photos here three children and grandchildren.

Speaker 21 (01:04:12):
We've got a videotype there with Broma with a father
at the hospital.

Speaker 26 (01:04:16):
We could never understand why she didn't try modeling because
she was tall and blonde and good looking.

Speaker 11 (01:04:24):
You knew Bromman's mother, Yes, what do you recall about her?

Speaker 26 (01:04:28):
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

(01:04:50):
seemed like, you know, a marriage made in heaven. And
then she had Bromwin. We noticed after that she became 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 stopped talking and

(01:05:13):
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 visit them in

(01:05:34):
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 dropped 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 her to do anything,

(01:05:56):
and that he didn't know whether the kids would even
be fed. I didn't come home from school at lunchtime
to feed them.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
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 Bromwin'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,

(01:06:27):
of course, and you're going to hear a lot more
from Maddie in later episodes.

Speaker 26 (01:06:33):
Barbara was there and then she wasn't.

Speaker 11 (01:06:36):
Sounds like she was really struggling.

Speaker 29 (01:06:38):
She was struggling.

Speaker 14 (01:06:39):
She must have been.

Speaker 23 (01:06:41):
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 as.

Speaker 26 (01:06:47):
Well, Hey, an postnatal depression, so I know what that
was about.

Speaker 11 (01:06:52):
These sorts of issues were not as well understood.

Speaker 26 (01:06:55):
They didn't know about it. I mean, the poor kids
had a dreadful, dreadful doing.

Speaker 13 (01:07:02):
She just took off.

Speaker 10 (01:07:03):
We didn't know where she was.

Speaker 26 (01:07:04):
And then she got in touch. She rang up and
said that she couldn't cope with Andrew, come and get him.
She just disappeared.

Speaker 23 (01:07:14):
I think they reconnected from what I've seen in her
bron was eleven and Andrew was around nine, and then
they maintained contact ever since.

Speaker 21 (01:07:24):
Then.

Speaker 23 (01:07:25):
Barbara didn't have custody of them, which she says is
why she wanted to have another child, Kim.

Speaker 19 (01:07:32):
And then many years later Bronwan disappeared. Did the family
suspect that Roman was just doing what her mother had done.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
No?

Speaker 26 (01:07:46):
Really, I didn't, well no, because she wasn't like nothing
like Barbara.

Speaker 13 (01:07:53):
We didn't ever think about it being like.

Speaker 21 (01:07:58):
No.

Speaker 26 (01:07:58):
I never thought it was, oh, you know, here we.

Speaker 13 (01:08:01):
Go again, Barbara all over. Nothing happened to make us
think that, and certain on me anyhow.

Speaker 26 (01:08:07):
I think if we thought there was anything wrong with Roman,
we probably would have thought it was just because of
her dramatic childhood.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
Brommin 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 19 (01:08:39):
And did the police, who were alerted to Broman's disappearance
in nineteen ninety three contact you in that time?

Speaker 26 (01:08:48):
No, I don't remember any police coming to us until
that must have been nineteen ninety eight, and.

Speaker 11 (01:08:55):
That's the first time you heard from police.

Speaker 26 (01:08:57):
Yeah, hello, Hello?

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
Is that Meghan? Another family member who will be prominent
in upcoming episodes is Bromwin's cousin, Megan Reid, the daughter
of John and Leah. Meghan played a significant role in
Bromwin's life, and they were in close contact before she disappeared.

Speaker 33 (01:09:21):
Right from the get go when she was born, she
used to stay with my family. We're only sixteen months apart,
and we were as close as close.

Speaker 6 (01:09:29):
Her relationship with John.

Speaker 16 (01:09:30):
I knew what it was like.

Speaker 33 (01:09:31):
I knew I'd seen the bruises. She showed my father's
news statement to me.

Speaker 34 (01:09:36):
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.

Speaker 15 (01:09:46):
I mean, surely other people heard it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
Now.

Speaker 34 (01:09:49):
She was terrified of John, absolutely terrifying of him. If
he had made it incredibly clear that she would never
get that house. The last thing she said to me
was that the best and 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.

Speaker 6 (01:10:07):
I just can't believe the timing.

Speaker 33 (01:10:09):
I don't understand to this day how Jonathan's walking around
the streets. It just astound me as the incoonfidence.

Speaker 14 (01:10:19):
Of the police.

Speaker 15 (01:10:20):
They've lost a lot of the evidence.

Speaker 33 (01:10:22):
They can't even find it, can in believe it.

Speaker 34 (01:10:25):
They've bungled this so barely they really have.

Speaker 15 (01:10:29):
I've lived with it for thirty years.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Bronwyn has 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 email Bronwyn at the Australian dot com dot Au.

(01:11:05):
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.
The production and editorial team for bromwin includes Claire Harvey,
Kristin Amiot, Joshua Burton, Bridget, Ryan Bianca, far Marcus, Katie Burns,

(01:11:30):
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 bromwyin Winfield. We
can only do this kind of journalism with the support

(01:11:51):
of our subscribers and our major sponsors like Harvey Norman.
For all of our exclusive stories, videos, maps, timelines and
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The Teacher's Trial, The Teacher's Accuser, Shandy Story, Shandy's Legacy
and The Night Driver, go to the Australian dot com

(01:12:13):
dot Au and subscribe