Bronwyn Winfield’s daughter Chrystal breaks her silence: ‘Keep an open mind’
The daughter of missing woman Bronwyn Winfield breaks her silence, says her mother may have ‘trusted the wrong person’ as she reveals she herself has been the victim of a devastating scam.
The daughter of a missing NSW woman suspected to have been murdered 31 years ago says her mother may have “trusted the wrong person” and has revealed she was herself recently robbed of all her money in a devastating scam.
Chrystal Winfield opened up on being the victim of “cold and heartless” fraud as she for the first time publicly weighed into what may have happened to her mother, Bronwyn Winfield.
Chrystal was 10 when her mother vanished from Lennox Head on the NSW far-north coast in May 1993.
The unsolved case is being examined in The Australian’s investigative podcast, Bronwyn, with a new bridging episode out today ahead of the launch of a second season in coming weeks.
“Based on my memories and life experiences, I have many theories of what might have happened to her, not just one,” Chrystal posted on the official Bronwyn podcast Facebook group on Monday.
Bronwyn, 31, was in the process of divorcing her husband, bricklayer Jon Winfield, and was seeking a division of assets, including the couple’s Sandstone Crescent family home, when she vanished.
Mr Winfield has denied any involvement. He is Chrystal’s stepfather and also had a daughter, Lauren, with Bronwyn and another daughter, Jodie, from a previous marriage.
Chrystal joined the Facebook group after a listener posted that Mr Winfield’s “eldest daughter was, and still is, anti-Bronwyn, pro-her father”.
She wrote in her initial post: “I’m (the) eldest daughter of Bronwyn and I’m definitely not anti-mum or pro-anyone. My mum was a beautiful person and the best mum I could have asked for.”
In response to a request from another contributor to the Facebook page, Chrystal shared more about her views.
“Honestly, our family has been through a lot. Both mum & I were very trusting people … as a result I was recently scammed (out of) my entire life savings by strangers,’’ she wrote.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if she trusted the wrong person, someone she has just met and they were responsible for her disappearance. I also have other theories but this seems likely to me as I know she never would have left us for long.”
Police had “no luck” in finding the people who stole her savings or in recovering the money.
“It’s OK, it’s just money, no one died. I try to believe there is good in everyone but not these people. So cold and heartless,” she wrote.
After being asked if she knew of anyone her mother could have met who could possibly have been responsible for her disappearance, she replied: “There is talk of that actually, but there’s been no clear leads.”
She added that Mr Winfield’s eldest daughter from the previous marriage was “not anti-mum at all … Her and my mum had a wonderful relationship.
“People will always have opinions on what they think other people think and it’s just their opinion.
“Sometimes people just want to know what happened so bad they go with what seems like the obvious choice but I’m a very open-minded and positive person.
“Unfortunately, the police didn’t have much to work with or that they could do in my situation but I’ve just put it behind me now as a terrible life lesson and just focusing on my son and my new (business). I just want my son to have a normal happy childhood and life.”
Responding to a direct question about whether she thought Mr Winfield was innocent, she said: “I think everyone needs to keep an open mind, there’s every possibility he is innocent. Sometimes people just want answers so bad they close off to other possibilities.
“I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion. A lot of people have spoken on behalf of my sisters and I and a lot of what has been said is their opinion, not ours.
“Honestly, I’m a pretty easygoing person, I’ve lived and breathed this for so long that I’ve learned how to cope well with … all the comments and theories. At the end of the day we all just really want the truth, I think everyone has a right to believe in whatever they like.”
In a further post to the group on Thursday, Chrystal asked people to imagine “growing up with some people around you thinking your dad murdered your mum”.
She did not want the next generation of the family to go through the same distress.
“Ostracised and at times ridiculed for being the daughter of JW (Jon Winfield). If anyone knows JW best, it’s us, people that actually lived with him and mum behind closed doors. This has destroyed our lives at times and, honestly, at the end of day there is no body, it’s all circumstantial evidence.
“I feel this podcast has only explored one possibility when there are other possibilities to her disappearance. Our mum would never want this kind of pain and heartache on her daughters and grandchildren, she’d be devastated as I know she would just want a happy life for us.”
She thanked those who had “been there for us throughout these years”, saying it was “hard enough growing up without a mum but having so much gossip about it made it so much harder”.
Bronwyn’s sister, Kim Marshall, said the deeply spiritual Chrystal had been searching for a way to bring “permanent positivity” into her life when she was taken advantage of by a stranger she met in the street in Sydney.
Chrystal believed the stranger, a person she called a trainee “soul doctor”, knew what she was going through and could help in lifting any “family curse” to allow her to have a free and happy life, Kim said. It started with Chrystal making a $300 donation to a charitable fund “to help feed and make a better life for these children in India”, Kim said.
“That was just her first investment, followed by other investments. It could be up to $300,000.” Chrystal believed some of the money was going to be taken away and blessed before being returned. Instead, the scammers claimed it had been stolen on a train when the “soul doctor” slept.
In another instance, she was asked to buy gold bullion that was also going to be blessed.
“While they were actually sitting with her in a park, they showed her a magic trick. And while she’s being blown away by the magic trick and she’s not paying attention, they have switched the container,” Kim said.
Later, Chrystal “decided to open the container against their advice and found that the gold was not in there, it was actually cement”.
Chrystal realised she had been tricked, and that the spiritual guidance was not authentic.
The stolen money was drawn from funds she had set aside for a future property development that was meant to set her up to be independent as a single mother and to provide for her son.
“Chrystal is the most beautiful, delightful, giving, happy person,” Kim said. “It’s just so sad that there’s always people out there that betray a person’s trust.
“We’ve called people within the police force. It might actually help capture this group of people, because it might be similar to what other victims have reported.”
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