Police start new forensic search at Lynette Dawson’s former home in Bayview
POLICE say they will continue to pursue Chris Dawson over the disappearance of his former wife Lynette Dawson, regardless of whether human remains are found at their old Bayview property from a new forensic search that began on Wednesday.
Manly
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POLICE say they will continue to pursue Chris Dawson over the disappearance of his former wife Lynette Dawson, regardless of whether human remains are found at their old Bayview property from a new forensic search that began on Wednesday.
Forensic teams swarmed the house on Gilwinga Drive with concrete cutting power tools and digging machines in a bid to update a briefing of evidence before the DPP.
Detective Superintendent Scott Cook said he wrote to the DPP in April arguing that Mr Dawson should be charged with Lynette’s murder and the dig would hopefully bolster his collection of evidence.
“The director is considering (whether to charge Mr Dawson) but where there are better options in terms of better technology being available in terms of improving our evidence we will take that.
“We are going to continue to pursue this no matter the outcome with the director.”
Forensic teams will spend the next five days cutting into concrete and digging up to four metres into the ground in four key areas.
The four areas include a small area behind the house, between the rock and the building, an area by the clothesline in the backyard, at the back of the backyard and around the pool area.
Det Supt Cook said police had been on site many times already to survey the area and this time the search would be comprehensive as they did not want to be coming back in three or even 12 months time.
He said he wanted to do the “best job we can” and that it was all about “doing justice for Lyn”.
He said he would dig as far as they had to, including to the bottom of the pool, and in “other areas we will go down until we hit rock”.
Det Supt Cook said they were using machines as well as hand dig.
Some of the areas are new and have not been searched before and others were searched during the original investigation.
Mr Cook said laser mapping had identified “anomalies” in rock formations which suggested the site had been disturbed in an unnatural manner.
The entire back yard will be mapped and plotted digitally and submitted to the DPP.
Forensic teams will dig until they hit hard stone which police believe is around four metres below the surface of the land.
The family who now lives in the home have agreed to let police conduct the search.
The mother of two, who disappeared in 1982, was the wife of Chris Dawson, a teacher at Cromer High.
Mrs Dawson’s sister Pat Jenkins, of Seaforth, said the family were hopeful that the search would bring results.
“We hope it will resolve the question of what happened to Lyn,” Mrs Jenkins said.
“We really hope they find what they are looking for and that it’s a thorough and extensive search.
“I don’t know anything about where they are searching or what type of search it will be.”
Former pupil Robyn Wheeler said she was “pleased and relieved” that the police had launched a new search of the property.
“It has been a long time coming and I sincerely hope her daughters and her family will at last receive some closure,” she said.
When Mrs Dawson went missing aged 33, Mr Dawson was having an affair with Cromer High student Joanne Curtis, that started when she was 16.
A previous police search of a small area around the pool of Mrs Dawson’s former Bayview home in 1999, uncovered a pale pink cardigan with what they believed were cut marks through the material.
It was believed to belong to Mrs Dawson.
Mrs Dawson’s brother Greg Simms said at the time his sister often wore cardigans similar to the ones found.
However, despite the find, the police did not dig further.
THE LYN DAWSON TIMELINE
1980: Chris Dawson meets Joanne Curtis, a pupil at Cromer High.
January 8-9, 1982, Lyn Dawson disappears.
February 18, 1982: Chris Dawson reports his wife missing to police.
June 15, 1983: Chris Dawson granted a decree nisi divorce.
January 15, 1984: Chris Dawson and Joanne Curtis marry and later move to the Gold Coast.
1989: Dawson and Curtis divorce.
1991: NSW Homicide squad re-open investigation.
1998: Dee Why detective Damian Loone reopens investigation.
1999: Police dig up area near the pool at the Bayview home and find a cardigan, believed to belong to Lyn Dawson.
2001: A coroner finds Mrs Dawson was murdered by a known person.
2003: A second inquest and another coroner finds Mrs Dawson was murdered by a known person.
2018: Hedley Thomas investigates Lyn’s disappearance in the podcast The Teacher’s Pet, which has seen 17 million downloads so far.
September 12, 2018: Police start a second forensic search at Lyn’s former home.