Bronwyn Winfield’s family ‘deranged’: husband’s police report

The first police report on Bronwyn Winfield’s disappearance claimed her family was disturbed and she had phoned her stepdaughter to say she wasn’t returning.

Jon Winfield pictured at Sharpes Beach on the NSW far north coast recently. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

The first police report on the disappearance of devoted mother-of-two Bronwyn Winfield described her as being from a “deranged” family, and claimed that she phoned her stepdaughter to say she wasn’t returning.

The one-page missing person report was typed in Ballina Police Station on the NSW far north coast when bricklayer Jon Winfield reported Bronwyn missing at the insistence of her relatives on May 27, 1993.

Bronwyn had vanished from her home in nearby Lennox Head 11 days earlier, leaving behind her daughters Chrystal, 10, and Lauren, 5.

Referring to Bronwyn as a POI or person of interest, the missing person report prepared by police officer Julie Donovan is based almost entirely on information from Mr Winfield. Examined on a new episode of the Bronwyn podcast, it states there were no fears for her safety.

“On the night of (Sunday) 16/5/93 the POI had a conversation with her ex husband and informed him that she was leaving … and going for a couple of weeks holiday,” the report states.

Mr Winfield, who emphatically denies any involvement in the disappearance and has never been charged in connection to it, had earlier told family and friends Bronwyn was going away for a break for just a few days, the podcast reveals.

A striking feature of the police document is a claim that two days after Bronwyn disappeared she contacted Mr Winfield’s 18-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, Jodie Winfield.

Bronwyn had not been in touch with her brother, mother, daughters, sister, friends or employer, but according to the police report she phoned Jodie at the hair salon where she worked in southern Sydney.

“On 18/5/93 the POI telephoned her ex husband’s daughter Jodie Lyn Winfield at her salon at 57 Flinders Road, Woolooware, and informed her that she was in Queensland and that she was not coming back.”

Jodie told police in a statement five years later that she had not been working at the salon the day the call was made.

“About lunchtime, Michelle my boss told me that Bronwyn had rang and spoken to Tanya Robertson at the salon and said to her, `Can I speak to Jodie?’” Jodie told police.

“Tanya said, `She’s not here, it’s her day off’. She said that Bronwyn then said, `Tell her I’m never coming back and for her to watch over the kids’. She then hung up.”

Jodie said Bronwyn would have known she wasn’t working as it was her regular day off.

“She could have rung and left a message at the salon because we had been arguing and maybe she didn’t want to speak to me,” she told police. “I told Dad about the phone call and he thought that it was just her blowing off hot air.

“He is definite that one day she will turn up on the front door step and attempt to take Chrystal and Lauren.”

Bronwyn’s brother Andy Read said he went to the salon himself and spoke to Ms Robertson, who took the purported call from Bronwyn.

“The lady at the salon said ‘I don’t know whose voice (it was), whether it was Bronwyn or not’,” he said. “Why would she ring Jodie and not ring an immediate member of her family to say that she was OK? That just doesn’t make any sense to us.”

Mr Read said he now believed the missing person report was “trying to falsify a proof of life after the Sunday night at the house”. There was also a second assertion by Mr Winfield in the police report that Bronwyn was alive.

“Jonathon has made several inquiries with the POI’s girlfriends and associated friends and it appears that the POI has not been heard of or seen since, except for a brief interlude with a clairvoyant, David,” it states.

Police later spoke to the clairvoyant, who said he had not seen Bronwyn since early May, before she went missing.

The report concludes with damaging inferences about Bronwyn’s stability.

“It appears that the POI has come from a very darranged (sic) family and her mother has been treated for a psychiatric problem for the last twenty years,” it states.

“Apparently when the POI was 11 years old she had a nervous breakdown, however, it is not known whether she is suffering from any disorder at this stage and has not been treated for associated problems known to the husband.”

Bronwyn’s GP, Christopher Mitchell, saw her at his surgery on Friday, May 14, two days before she disappeared, because she sprained her left hand, and did not notice anything unusual about her manner.

Mr Read said there was no nervous breakdown when she was aged 11 or any time after.

She had commitments including a solicitor’s appointment the day after she went missing, her job at a local takeaway and school runs to do with her children. But these things weren’t mentioned.

Do you know something about this case? Contact Hedley Thomas confidentially at [e-mail]

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