Chris Dawson trial: Police believe they know where Lynette’s body is buried

Detectives who investigated the murder of Lynette Dawson have revealed where they believe her husband Chris buried her body.

Detectives who investigated the murder of Lynette Dawson believe her husband Chris buried her body somewhere on the state’s Central Coast, it can be revealed.

As the murdered mother-of-two’s family pleaded with Dawson after his guilty verdict this week to tell them where he hid her remains 40 years ago, police sources said the search area was so vast it was unlikely her lonely grave will ever be found unless someone comes forward.

Justice Ian Harrison found former sports star Dawson, 74, guilty of murdering his first wife on January 8 and 9, 1982 and disposing of her body either alone or in company.

One theory is that Dawson killed her after she spoke to her mother Helena Simms “half sozzled” on the evening of January 8 and hid her body in their Bayview home on Sydney’s northern beaches overnight while their daughters aged two and four slept.

“There was the theory that he travelled to the Central Coast on January 9,” a police source said.

Detectives believe convicted killer Chris Dawson dumped his wife’s body in bushland north of Sydney. Picture: Troy Bendeich

“The challenge with that is that there is no physical evidence to point in any direction.

“The problem is that there is a lot of regional bush area between their home and when he went up the coast.

Searches of the Dawsons’s former family home at Bayview on Sydney’s Northern Beaches found no trace of Lynette Dawson’s remains.

“There is no possibly way to search it, it’s so vast.”

But Justice Harrison said Dawson had given himself time to dispose of her body by getting a friend, Phillip Day, to take the couple’s two daughters, aged two and four, to stay with Ms Simms on the afternoon and overnight on January 9.

“No one has given evidence about what Chris ­Dawson did that night,” the judge said.

Dawson’s twin brother Paul and his wife Marilyn were camping at Lake Munmorah in a caravan, the judge said.

Pink ribbons have been tied to the letterbox of the former Dawson home at Bayview in the wake of this week’s murder verdict. Pink was Lynette’s favourite colour. Picture: John Grainger

“The Crown case is that (Dawson) used that time to dispose of the body,” Justice Harrison said.

Police said that today they could have tracked Dawson using CCTV, speed cameras, dashcam or through his mobile phone.

“Four decades ago, none of that existed so we can’t even go back and find it,” a source said.

“Without any co-operation or physical evidence I don’t think we are going to look unless something else or someone else comes forward.

“We are skint on what happened.”

Justice Ian Harrison found Lynette Dawson was murdered by her husband Chris in January 1982 and that he disposed of her body alone or in company.

On January 11, Dawson drove to South West Rocks on the mid-north coast to bring his schoolgirl lover JC back to the family’s Bayview home where she moved in immediately with Dawson telling her: “Lyn’s gone, she’s not coming back.”

Justice Harrison said Dawson had become obsessed with the teenager who had been the couple’s babysitter and killed Lynette so he could be with her.

Police have discounted that Lynette’s body was buried on the couple’s Bayview property after using ground penetrating and taking part in a number of digs.

Excavations around the pool in 1999 yielded a woman’s cardigan and a popper container with a 1981 expiry date. The cardigan was in pieces and bore what appeared to be slash marks but forensic testing by experts in the US could not match them to Ms Dawson.

Homicide squad boss Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said police remained looking for Ms Dawson’s body.

“Our efforts and inquiries to find Lyn’s remains are ongoing and we once again urge anyone with information which may assist us to get in touch,” he said.

“After a journey of more than 40 years, we hope to give Lyn’s family the chance to say goodbye.”

Originally published as Chris Dawson trial: Police believe they know where Lynette’s body is buried