Bronwyn podcast asks why more was not done when young mums disappeared

Thirty-one years after the disappearance of young NSW mother Bronwyn Joy Winfield, Hedley Thomas is applying the power of investigative journalism to interrogate the cold case. On two occasions the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has ignored a recommendation, first from the state coroner and then a police taskforce, that Bronwyn’s husband, Jon Winfield, be charged. Bronwyn’s relatives have been told that fresh evidence is needed to solve the case. In The Weekend Australian’s new podcast, Thomas will take listeners and readers into his investigation to find the evidence of what happened to Bronwyn.

Bronwyn’s story, and our dedication to it, is about more than what happened to one woman. It exposes the disregard shown to domestic violence by authorities across many years. As Thomas writes on Saturday, it is more pressing than ever to confront a failure of the criminal justice system spanning decades until the late 1990s. Police routinely would file reports of missing women in the bottom drawer. The Bronwyn podcast investigation follows the successful The Teacher’s Pet series, which led to the conviction – 40 years after Lynette Simms vanished from Sydney’s northern beaches – of Christopher Dawson for the murder of his young wife. Thomas did not convict Dawson but his forensic work provided new leads for police that enabled them to do their job in court. Former NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller has acknowledged the pivotal role of The Teacher’s Pet podcast in delivering justice for Simms. Mr Fuller said the way in which the case was finally solved was ­testament to the power and reach of podcasts and investigative ­journalism. “The public interest at the end of the day is what hopefully generates evidence that police don’t have,” he said following Dawson’s conviction, which is being appealed. “It’s just that one piece of the pie that we need, that one piece of the puzzle, to hopefully get the matter put before the court.” A highlight of The Teacher’s Pet podcast ­series was the discovery of Dawson’s handwritten statement to police from August 1982 that had not been seen by two coroners and a previous lead police investigator.

The investigation is now under way to find the missing evidence to uncover what happened to Bronwyn Winfield, who separated from her husband in March 1993. She had told friends she feared for her safety in the presence of her husband, that he was possessive and dominant, had assaulted her and threatened to kill her if she badmouthed him around town. Bronwyn disappeared, leaving two young children, after returning to the family home about three weeks after she had walked out. Her disappearance followed a visit by her husband and a disagreement. The day after she disappeared, Bronwyn had an appointment with a solicitor to sort out her life, and establish custody of her children and any financial entitlement that was owed to her because of the collapse of her marriage. Jon Winfield reported Bronwyn missing 11 days after she disappeared. No statements were taken from anyone for the first five years and there are no forensic examinations of the house or the Winfield family car. Detectives believed Bronwyn went away voluntarily. But her solicitor told police she called him on May 16, worried about her husband coming back to the house. Her brother and friends told police it was out of character for her to leave the children. Five years after Bronwyn disappeared a police investigation was launched. In 2002, nine years after Bronwyn disappeared and four years after the police investigation had begun, deputy state coroner Carl Milovanovich found Bronwyn was dead and Jon Winfield should be prosecuted over her alleged murder. But the DPP declined to prosecute. A new police taskforce was launched in 2008 but in 2013 the NSW DPP again declined to prosecute. Homicide detectives told Bronwyn’s brother that new evidence was needed. Jon Winfield has emphatically denied wrongdoing and said there was “a generational history of mental illness” in Bronwyn’s family. Thomas is on the case to find out what really happened. He says “bringing fresh eyes to these cases also holds the potential of clearing male partners of missing women if they have done nothing wrong but been regarded for years as prime suspects”.

The Weekend Australian is proud of the success our podcasts have achieved. Readers can be assured we will apply all the resources required to find out what happened to Bronwyn.