Bronwyn Winfield was ‘having an affair’, according to husband accused of murder

Bronwyn Winfield podcast: Husband Jon Winfield repeatedly told loved ones missing wife was having an affair.

Bronwyn Winfield disappeared from Lennox Head in NSW in 1993.

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Accused murderer Jon Winfield repeatedly told his wife’s friends and family and police she left their Lennox Head home to be with another man.

Bronwyn Winfield was last seen alive at the Sandstone Crescent home on Sunday, May 16, 1993. A 2002 inquest into her disappearance recommended a known person – namely, Jon Winfield – be prosecuted for her murder.

Mr Winfield vehemently denies any role in Bronwyn’s disappearance, and maintains she voluntarily walked out of the house around 9pm that night after making a phone call.

He told police she climbed into a car driven by an unknown person and never returned.

But Bronwyn’s neighbour and friend Debbie Hall told the inquest Mr Winfield indicated to her she’d “run off” with a romantic interest.

Deborah Hall and Murray Nolan at their home in Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

“He indicated to me ... a few fables, I believe, that she’d run off with a gentleman in town ...” Ms Hall said. Her evidence is recreated in a new episode of The Australian’s investigative podcast series Bronwyn. “I just found that a bit unbelievable, but yes, he did try and indicate a few scenarios of who she may have gone off with.”

Several other witnesses recalled being given a similar explanation by Mr Winfield in the months and years after his wife vanished.

Bronwyn’s brother, Andy Read, recalls a phone call he received from his agitated brother-in-law before Bronwyn’s disappearance in which he said his wife was “running around town on the back of a motorbike”.

Andy Read and his wife Michelle. Picture: John Feder / The Australian

Mr Winfield also told Bronwyn’s younger half-sister Kim Marshall he believed she was having an affair.

In a diary entry made in 1993, Bronwyn’s cousin, Megan Read, wrote about Mr Winfield’s belief his wife had left her two young daughters to be with another man. The suggestion Bronwyn was romantically involved with another man made its way to the police, too.

Megan Read. Picture: John Feder / The Australian

A Lennox Head hairdresser told The Australian’s National Chief Correspondent Hedley Thomas that Detective Sargeant Graeme Diskin – who led the flawed initial investigation into Bronwyn’s disappearance – conveyed to her multiple times that the 31-year-old had “run off with a fella”.

“He went, ‘You know she’s run off with somebody. She would have told you she’d got a boyfriend’,” Bernadette Armstrong said. “I said ‘I know nothing personally about the girl … but I tell you what, that’s something I would never believe – that she’s left those two little girls’.”

According to Det Diskin’s police running sheet, he pursued three possible leads provided by Mr Winfield. All three denied being romantically involved with Bronwyn Winfield.

In 1998, Mr Winfield phoned Detective Glenn Taylor – whose investigation reinvigorated the search for Bronwyn – to express his belief that Bronwyn was holed up with a “rich sugar daddy”.

Neither the 1993 nor 1998 police investigations uncovered evidence of an extramarital affair on Bronwyn’s part.