Lynette’s brother and sister desperate for answers after Chris Dawson arrest
The urgent voice at the other end of the phone at 9.15am wasted no words: “There’s been an arrest, (of) Chris Dawson”. It was the moment Lynette Dawson’s brother Greg Simmon had been dreaming of for years. READ THE FULL INTERVIEWS.
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The urgent voice at the other end of the phone at 9.15am wasted no words: “There’s been an arrest, (of) Chris Dawson”.
LYNETTE’S BROTHER
Greg Simms, the brother of Lynette Dawson, who has been missing for 37 years, had dreamed of moment he would get the call and when it came on Wednesday, from the lead investigator probing her death, he felt numb.
“My wife and I looked at each other and when it finally sank in, we hugged and had a little cry,” he said steeling himself at the kitchen table of his home in Eleebana, on Lake Macquarie on the NSW Central Coast.
GREG SIMMS SPEAKS TO THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
“We’ve had this hanging over us for 37 years and now I hope the court system will reveal the truth of what happened to my sister.
“I have prayed for this day and now it’s here it feels surreal. My skin has got goosebumps, I feel numb.
“Lynn’s daughters are in shock too, we all are. We need time to process an arrest has finally been made.”
Mr Dawson, the subject of a podcast called The Teacher’s Pet, was arrested by Queensland police officers at a home in Biggera Waters on the Gold Coast on Wednesday morning, at the request of NSW Police.
He is due to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Thursday and is expected to be charged with murder.
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Mother-of-two Mrs Dawson disappeared in 1982 and her body has never been found.
Chris Dawson has always maintained he had no involvement in his wife’s disappearance.
“The bonus for us now would be for justice to prevail through the court system and to find Lynn’s body to give her a decent burial once and for all,” retired policeman Mr Simms, 66, said.
“If I’m called as a witness, I will have no qualms looking Chris (Dawson) straight in the eye and telling the truth.
“The last time I saw him was the year she went missing, in 1982, when he came round to mum’s house in Clovelly to dump bags of her clothes.
“He was downcast and didn’t look me in the eye back then.
“Mum and Lynn and dad will be looking down on us right now saying ‘Thank god.’”
Police allege Mr Dawson was in the process of divorcing his wife and had been having an “illicit affair”.
They also allege there was evidence of domestic violence and the pair had been struggling to work out issues over outstanding property in the separation.
Police will use previous interviews they have conducted with Mr Dawson since his wife’s disappearance as evidence in the case.
Detectives allege Mrs Dawson was having financial trouble when she disappeared and will argue that, because she had organised a family portrait and her oldest daughter was due to start kindergarten, she did not plan to disappear voluntarily.
“Lynn’s only downfall was that she loved Chris with all her heart and trusted him, that she adored her two girls and her home was her life,” Mr Simms said, wiping away a fallen tear.
“I’ve spoken to Shanelle (Lynette’s daughter). In her adult years she has questioned her mother’s disappearance and she’s in shock. She says she wants ‘the truth to come out.’
BACKGROUNDER: WHO IS CHRIS DAWSON?
“Sherryn was only two when her mother vanished, and is still trying to work it all out and has only what her father has told her to go on.”
Mrs Dawson went missing weeks before her daughter was due to start kindergarten and has not been seen or heard from since.
Mr Dawson did not report his wife missing for almost six weeks.
Two days after Mrs Dawson went missing, Joanne Curtis, a 16-year-old student at Cromer High School where Mr Dawson was a teacher, moved into the family’s home. She went on to become his wife.
The NSW Coroner has twice found that Mr Dawson most likely killed his wife, but the then Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, QC, declined to prosecute due to a lack of evidence.
In 2015, NSW homicide detectives established Strike Force Scriven to reinvestigate the circumstances surrounding Mrs Dawson’s disappearance and suspected murder.
Following extensive investigations, detectives requested the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions review their brief of evidence in April this year.
Earlier this week, the DPP provided advice to police, and amid further inquiries, NSW Police detectives applied for an arrest warrant before travelling to Queensland.
Just before 8am on Wednesday, Mr Dawson was arrested by Queensland Police detectives in the presence of Strike Force Scriven investigators.
In September, police excavated the Dawsons’ former home in Bayview on a Sydney’s northern beaches but did not find any trace of Mrs Dawson’s body.
“New pieces of evidence have come forward from people speaking to the police who previously hadn’t,” Mr Simms said.
“The cloud hasn’t quite lifted but there’s a chance of rain.
“We haven’t been able to live an ordinary life since Lynn went missing. It’s been a roller coaster ride, one minute there’s another coronial inquiry, then a reinvestigation, then digging up more homes … hopefully a court case will finally bring us closure.”
LYNETTE’S SISTER
Pat Jenkins says the arrest of Chris Dawson over the murder of her sister Lyn will be hard on the couple’s daughters but she hopes the news will unite the family.
Speaking at her home in Seaforth on Wednesday afternoon, Ms Jenkins said Lyn’s two daughters, Shanelle and Sherryn, who were 4 and 2, when she disappeared in Sydney in 1982, would have mixed reactions after their father was arrested in Queensland.
“I’m sure for (Shanelle) it will be very mixed, for (Sherryn) – she will be devastated, (she) believes totally in her father,” Ms Jenkins said.
“ (Shanelle) wants the truth, she wants to honour her mother, she always talks about honouring her mother. She feels the truth has to come out.”
However, Ms Jenkins said she hoped the news would bring their family together as the case proceeded to court.
“I think we’ve been united because of what happened to Lyn,” she said.
“That was very evident on The Walk For Lyn. A cousin came from Queensland, a cousin flew up from Victoria, one flew up from the south coast. There will be emails from all our cousins (after the arrest news).”
Ms Jenkins said the arrest of Chris came after almost 37 years of desperate searching for the truth.
“Lyn was considered by the police as a missing person — my brother would ring up and they would say ‘we’re not going to give you any information because you’re not the next of kin’,” she said.
“My mother, on the basis (Lyn) was a missing person, contacted all the hospitals, all the major police stations in New Zealand and Australia, the Salvation Army and put ads in the paper.
“I contacted some private investigators in the year Lyn went missing but they would probably do the same searches the police were doing and that came to a dead end. We had a petition going with about 5000 signatures after the second coronial inquiry.
“Until 1998, we had no idea of the bruising and how badly she’d been treated. She was living in a dream world and she didn’t want to let the family know what was happening because of this image.
“But now lately I’ve thought no, she didn’t want to upset mum. But mum was upset anyway, she was worried because she could see things weren’t right.
“We wrote to members of parliament, the minister for police, DPP, aunts did that, cousins did that — there was a real groundswell in the family of people writing letters — but you’d get the same reply all the time.”
Ms Jenkins said she had been in contact with investigators before the arrest.
“We had to go through evidence lately and that’s because he was in constant contact with the DPP — we had to review what we said,” she said.
She said it was surreal an arrest had finally been made.
“I really can’t take it in — it’s such mixed feelings. We’ve wanted this for nearly 37 years and we’ve had ups and downs,” she said.
“Two coronial inquiries and so you’re up and down — there’s been great disappointments and high hopes along the way. This — I don’t think I can absorb it — I’m thinking about my nieces up there, especially one of them who is going to be absolutely devastated.”
Ms Jenkins said she called family in Sydney when she heard the news.
“(We talked about) just how amazing it was and we just — it’s overwhelming,” she said.
“I was cold and got goosebumps. It’s just such a big deal to have this happen. I’ve been told by the DPP not to say too much, but at last he’s going to have to go to court and if he chooses to speak, he doesn’t have to speak, but he’s got the option to.
“Because he didn’t attend the coronial inquiries so he’s going to be forced to attend this.
“37 years – it’s time there are answers.”
TIMELINE
■ 1970: Chris Dawson marries Lynette Simms, both aged 21. They have two daughters together and Chris begins working as a PE teacher at Cromer High School
■ 1980: Chris begins a secret affair with Joanne Curtis, 16, his student, soon after introducing her to his family as the babysitter. He starts asking her to marry him.
■ 1981: Lyn is persuaded by Chris to let Joanne move into their family home as the teenager’s stepfather is violent. Lyn discovers the relationship.
■ 1981: Chris flees Sydney with Joanne to start a new life in Queensland, but Joanne has second thoughts and they turn around and return to Sydney.
■ 1982: Joanne goes camping with her sister and school friends to mark the end of their schooling. Chris and Lyn go to marriage counselling together.
■ 1982: Lyn speaks with her mum on the phone but the next day Lyn fails to meet her family at Northbridge Baths as planned.
■ 1982: One or two days after Lyn’s no-show at the pool, Chris drives to the Central Coast to pick up Joanne and they return to Sydney. He asks Joanne to move in with him. He does not report Lyn missing until almost six weeks later.
■ 1983-1985: Chris divorces the missing Lyn and marries Joanne. The couple move to Queensland and have a daughter together.
■ 1985: Chris starts working at Keebra Park State High School.
■ 1990: Joanne and Chris separate and she returns to Sydney. She contacts Lyn’s family and police and provides information about Chris and Lyn.
■ 1992-2000: Areas of the Dawsons’ former Sydney home are excavated by police on different occasions, and a woman’s cardigan is found, in pieces and bearing what appear to be slash marks. Forensic testing does not make a positive match with Lyn.
■ 2001-2003: Two inquests are held into Lyn’s disappearance. Two coroners find she was murdered by someone known to her. Chris does not appear at either inquest. The DPP does not support a prosecution for murder or the laying of charges, citing a lack of evidence.
■ 2010 — 2014: Rewards of up to $200,000 are offered for information to help solve the case.
Timeline by The Australian
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