Cops tell Bronwyn Winfield’s family: We’ve done what we can

Homicide detectives have met with the family of missing NSW mother Bronwyn Winfield, apologising for past mistakes but saying their hands are tied.

Missing housewife Bronwyn Winfield is the subject of The Australian’s new investigative podcast series, Bronwyn.

Homicide detectives have met with the family of missing NSW mother Bronwyn Winfield, apologising for past mistakes but saying they have done all they could.

Bronwyn’s brother, Andy Read, says he met with detectives from the NSW Police Force unsolved homicide unit last week, a day before the 31st anniversary of her disappearance from Lennox Head on the state’s far north coast.

“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’,” Mr Read said.

Police mishandling of the case in the first five years after Bronwyn’s disappearance was raised by one of the detectives at the meeting, he said.

“He said, ‘Oh, and again, look, I cannot apologise enough for how badly the original investigation was handled’,” Mr Read told The Australian’s new investigative podcast series, Bronwyn.

The devoted mother of two young girls had separated from her husband, bricklayer Jonathon Winfield, on March 21, 1993, and she and the children moved into a rented townhouse.

Less than two months later, with Mr Winfield working in Sydney, she took the advice of family and solicitors and moved back into the family home her husband built at Sandstone Crescent. He had changed the locks but she called a locksmith and gained access.

Mr Winfield, on hearing his wife had moved back into the home, flew from Sydney to Ballina and returned to Sandstone Crescent on May 16, 1993.

That night Bronwyn, 31, put her daughters Chrystal and Lauren, 10 and 5, to bed, then was never seen or heard from again.

Mr Winfield woke the two little girls, put them in the family’s Ford Falcon, and left the home around 10.40pm, driving through the night to Sydney.

Bronwyn had previously seen three lawyers, seeking a division of marital assets including the family home, and had an appointment booked with one the next day, Monday, May 17.

Mr Winfield told Mr Read on the Monday that Bronwyn left the house around 9.30pm the previous night in an unknown person’s car for a “break” for a few days. He has always denied any involvement in her disappearance, and this week said he made a sworn statement to police in 1998 and confirmed that version in 2010.

He told The Australian he stands by the answers he gave.

Former homicide detective Glenn Taylor started seriously investigating the case for the first time in 1998 after being approached by Mr Read and his wife, Michelle, at Ballina station. He has said the prior police investigation was “disgraceful”, with “very little done”, and he became convinced Bronwyn was murdered.

In 2002, coroner Carl Milovanovich found after a five-day inquest that Bronwyn was dead and recommended a known person, her husband Jon, be prosecuted over her alleged murder.

Then director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery QC declined to prosecute, citing insufficient evidence.

Mr Winfield has never been charged in connection to the disappearance, and still lives in Lennox Head. Now 69, he resides in a newer, grander home close to his favourite beach, Boulders, where he regularly surfs.

Mr Read said there was recently some movement in the case after years of inactivity. Homicide detectives started “a complete review”, before last week saying they were at a dead end, he said.

Bronwyn’s sister, Kim Marshall, refuses to accept the case can’t be solved. “There is a lot more that the police could do. They’ve got the wrong mindset from back in the day,” she said.

Before vanishing, Bronwyn was planning to welcome Ms Marshall to the Sandstone Crescent house for a rare visit.

Bronwyn’s sister Kim Marshall. Picture: Peter Mathew

“I spoke to her every day on the phone about my plane flight, what time my plane would arrive. Then I’d be getting on the Greyhound bus. We found the buses out together, what time the bus would arrive in Ballina,” she said.

She believes notes and letters Bronwyn wrote were misinterpreted and used against her.

“The story that she was writing, they’ve got the wrong idea about what’s actually happened,” she said.

“She actually wrote this beautiful chronological list of her history of everything. That is a story about Bronwyn. And then she says, ‘When I come back, the real Bronwyn will be back, so watch out’.

“That statement has got nothing to do with Bronwyn going away on a three- to five-day respite rest. That is her writing a story.”

Police in Ballina shown the writings in the weeks and months after Bronwyn disappeared were persuaded she wanted to leave her children, Ms Marshall said.

“The detectives asked us all these questions, but they asked the questions with a bias or a perspective already in place. They didn’t actually investigate with an open mind.”

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