400 questions, two tapes, one side of the story: Jon Winfield’s only police interview about missing wife

During an 84-minute interview, Jon Winfield told detectives his wife had suffered a nervous breakdown prior to her disappearance.

Former detective sergeant Glenn Taylor interviewed Bronwyn’s husband, who is suspected of her murder, in August 1998. Picture: Bianca Farmarkis

Murder suspect Jon Winfield told detectives his wife had suffered a nervous breakdown prior to her disappearance.

Mr Winfield sat down with Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor and Detective Senior Constable Wayne Temby in August 1998 – just over five years after his wife, Bronwyn, vanished from the home they shared in Lennox Head on the NSW North Coast.

The 84-minute interview – the first in Taylor’s renewed investigation – is the only official statement given by Mr Winfield to police in the 31 years since ­Bronwyn disappeared.

No statements were taken by Detective Sergeant Graeme Diskin during a flawed initial police investigation, when Bronwyn was being treated as a missing person rather than a potential homicide victim.

Bronwyn Winfield, Jon Winfield and their daughter Lauren.

There are only two known copies of the interview recording in existence: one is tightly held by NSW police, and the other by Mr Winfield himself.

“We will then seal the tapes in your presence, and you’ll be provided with a copy of the tape. Do you understand that?” Sergeant Taylor asked at the conclusion of the interview, to which Mr Winfield responded that he did.

A 76-page, typewritten transcript of the interview was provided to The Australian’s national chief correspondent Hedley Thomas by Bronwyn’s half-sister, Kim Marshall.

The transcript is being extensively examined in new episodes of the Bronwyn podcast series.

Mr Winfield told the interviewing detectives his marriage to Bronwyn had become strained in the months before she vanished, on May 16, 1993, due, in part, to her declining mental health.

He said Bronwyn told him she suffered a nervous breakdown in January of 1993, for which she sought treatment.

“I sort of didn’t understand, but she reckons she had a nervous breakdown, and she went to see the doctor in Lennox … I don’t know which one it was,” Mr Winfield said.

“And apparently she was being treated for depression, you know, like a nervous breakdown.”

Sergeant Taylor went to the doctors Bronwyn was known to have consulted, but none had any recollection or record of any treatment for a nervous breakdown or mental illness. Bronwyn’s brother, Andy Read, said it was a false claim by Mr Winfield

In the first episode of the Bronwyn podcast series, Mr Winfield reiterated his belief Bronwyn’s psychological state was a factor in her disappearance.

“There is a generational history of mental illness, both male and female, in the Read family,” he wrote in an email to Thomas.

Mr Winfield also said his relationship with Bronwyn was strained in the months before they formally separated, in March 1993, after an unplanned pregnancy was terminated.

“I mean we were goin’ through a pretty tough time … When mum died, I took it pretty tough and, sort of, she got pregnant, which wasn’t planned,” Mr Winfield said.

“And we decided, you know, we weren’t going to have any more kids because at that stage, you know, we had three kids really living with us.”

Lauren Winfield, Mel Taylor's sisters Aymee and Keira, Mel Taylor and Chrystal Winfield

Reflecting on the interview more than two decades after it happened, Sergeant Taylor, now retired, said he was wary of projecting his suspicions onto Mr Winfield during the interview.

“We still have to maintain a rapport with the person,” he said.

“You cannot get verbally aggressive or directly put allegations, ‘Did you murder her, Bronwyn, in the house that night?’

“So we’re not going to try to get directly off-side with him ­because we’re … still gathering information.”

Retired NSW homicide detective Glenn Taylor. Picture: Liam Mendes

Sergeant Taylor asked Mr Winfield more than 400 questions over the course of the interview, traversing the nature and breakdown of his marriage to Bronwyn, the death of his mother, his work as a bricklayer, and his wife’s mental health.

“I think he still wanted to project in the interview that he was concerned for her and he had nothing to hide, he’d done nothing wrong,” Sergeant Taylor said.

Sergeant Taylor said Mr Winfield attended the interview willingly. “I believe he wanted to put himself across as wanting to assist the police,” he said.

The 2½-year investigation conducted by Sergeant Taylor culminated in an inquest in Lismore in 2002. Former deputy state coroner Carl Milovanovich referred the case to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions recommending a known person – Mr Winfield – be prosecuted over her alleged murder. The former NSW DPP Nicholas Cowdery declined to pursue charges, saying there was insufficient evidence.