Bronwyn Winfield podcast evidence sought by NSW Police
NSW Police have made a broad request for material from the Bronwyn Winfield podcast, following the chilling account of a new witness and a search of a tannin-stained lake for her body.
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NSW police have made a broad request for material from the Bronwyn Winfield podcast following the chilling account of a new witness and a search of a tannin-stained lake for her body.
Detective Inspector Nigel Warren from the Unsolved Homicide Team in August sought from The Australian “raw and unedited” video and audio recordings, documents, emails, text messages and other material connected to the Bronwyn podcast.
The disappearance and suspected murder in Lennox Head in May 1993 of Bronwyn, a mother of two young girls, is being examined in the investigative series by journalist Hedley Thomas.
Police requests for information are revealed in a new episode, released at the weekend ahead of the launch of a second series at the end of this month.
Retired nurse Judy Singh came forward on the podcast to reveal she saw a “mummy-like thing” that “resembled a body”, wrapped in what looked like bedsheets, in the back of a car.
She said the vehicle was being driven by Winfield’s estranged husband, bricklayer Jon Winfield, who denies any wrongdoing and has never been charged in connection to the disappearance.
Inspector Warren sought material relating to Ms Singh and three other potentially corroborating witnesses, all women she spoke to about the alleged sighting: Kerry McLean, Virginia Beves and a New Zealand doctor.
“Strike Force Chelmsbrook investigators are seeking Mr Thomas’s raw and unedited material held, produced or created by him or others that is in his possession, in relation to the below four persons,” Mr Warren stated in an email.
Material sought included “all correspondence via letters, emails, telephone calls, text messages or other communications, all documents, notes, photographs, digital files, video and audio recordings”.
Ms Singh, who lived about 50m from the Winfields, said she tried to report what she saw from her upper level balcony to local police within weeks, and at Byron Bay station years later when she was accompanied by the New Zealand doctor.
The doctor has verified the account of going to the station.
Ms Singh’s version of events was re-enacted by The Australian using an identical model to the 1987 Ford Falcon XF sedan the Winfields drove.
Inspector Warren also wanted from Thomas “all raw/unedited material … in relation to any re-enactments relating to or referencing the information provided by Judy Singh, Kerry McLean and Virginia Beves”.
He added in his request: “Also, all raw/unedited material held, produced or created by him or others that is in his possession, in relation to any search conducted at Lake Ainsworth, Lennox Head.
“We understand this may take some time to collate. If you have any questions please let me know.”
Why the material was being sought, and how it would be used, was not elaborated on.
The Australian organised a search of the dark waters of Lake Ainsworth for Bronwyn’s remains, aided by former Australian navy diver Ash McDonald and volunteers from Search Dogs Sydney, who brought along trained cadaver dogs, a boat, sonar equipment and a drone.
It was attended by locals including Ian “Scruffy” Gluyas, who knew the Winfields and suspected foul play when Bronwyn vanished. Also in attendance was Bronwyn’s brother Andy Read and his daughter Caitlin, Bronwyn’s second cousin Madi Walsh, 21, the Winfields’ former neighbours Debbie Hall and Murray Nolan, and Bronwyn’s friends Denise Barnard and Ms Beves.
Former homicide detective Glenn Taylor, who led the police investigation into Bronwyn’s disappearance, and former detective Damian Loone, who helped solve the murder of Sydney mother Lyn Simms by her husband, Chris Dawson, watched on too.
The Australian has agreed to put detectives in direct contact with volunteer searcher Chris D’Arcy and to give police a map he generated showing the Lake Ainsworth search patterns.
Inspector Warren agreed to let go, for the time being, his requests for what would be a huge amount of material relating to the re-enactment with the Ford Falcon.
Thomas told the new episode of the Bronwyn podcast that he was providing police his recordings with Ms Singh, Ms McLean and Ms Beves, as well as text messages and emails. He would also hand over a file note he made of his conversation with the New Zealand doctor.
“We’re grateful that NSW police and Inspector Warren are no longer asking us to do a very significant volume of unnecessary work, which would have meant we’d have to put our own ongoing investigation for the Bronwyn podcast series on hold,” he said.
In the week prior to the podcast’s launch, Unsolved Homicide Team detectives including Inspector Warren had a face-to-face meeting with Bronwyn’s brother, Mr Read, and his wife, Michelle. The detectives apologised for past police mistakes, but said after a recent full review and reinvestigation of the case, they had done all they could, Mr Read said at the time.
It was clear at that stage that police investigations were effectively over without new evidence emerging, he added. “They basically said, well, their hands are tied (and) ‘We can’t do any more than what we’ve done and we don’t have any new evidence as it stands’. He said, ‘Oh, and again, look, I cannot apologise enough for how badly the original investigation was handled’.”
NSW police said in May that since a 2002 coronial inquest into Bronwyn’s disappearance, the matter had been referred to the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions at least three times. “That investigation remains open and ongoing under Strike Force Chelmsbrook. However, since … 2014, there has been no further information or evidence to progress the investigation or assist with further submissions to the DPP.”
That may have changed with the emergence of Ms Singh’s account on the Bronwyn podcast.
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