I knew straight away Chris Dawson killed her: Lyn Dawson’s close friend

One of the last people to have seen Lynette Dawson alive said she knew ‘within days’ of her disappearance that Chris Dawson had murdered his wife | The Teacher’s Pet podcast is back for subscribers: LISTEN NOW

Sue Strath, at her home in Sydney’s northern beaches on Friday, never gave up on pursuing justice for her long-lost friend Lynette Dawson. Picture: Nikki Short

One of the last people to have seen Lynette Dawson alive – her close confidante Sue Strath – said on Friday she knew within days of her work colleague’s disappearance that Chris Dawson had murdered his wife.

Ms Strath, 71, said that when she heard that Lyn had vanished on Friday, January 8, 1982, she was convinced she’d been killed.

This week Dawson, 74, was found guilty of murdering his wife and is awaiting sentencing.

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Ms Strath worked with Lyn at a Warriewood childcare centre on Sydney’s northern beaches and spoke to her on that Friday afternoon. Lyn and Chris had been to see a marriage counsellor that day and Lyn was optimistic about the future of her marriage despite being aware her husband, a physical education teacher, had had a sexual relationship with one of his Cromer High students, the babysitter JC.

“We were at work soon after Lyn disappeared and the first thing I said was – ‘he’s killed her’,” Ms Strath recalled. “And everyone laughed and said, ‘Oh, come on.’ I went, ‘Then where is she’? It’s always been the ‘insular peninsula’ on the northern beaches. There was a lot of talk at the time about him being seen quite blatantly at the football holding hands with JC. There was a lot of talk about him having this teenage babysitter that was living with him … that he killed Lyn was a foregone conclusion as far as I was concerned.”

Ms Strath never accepted that Lyn had simply decided to walk away from her two daughters – aged four and two at the time – and start a new life.

She also couldn’t understand why authorities had not investigated Lyn’s disappearance. In February 1985 she hand-wrote a three-page letter to the NSW Ombudsman demanding that something be done.

Lynette Dawson with her daughter Shanelle.

In response to this Chris Dawson wrote what would famously become known as his “antecedent report”, listing his own efforts to find his missing wife.

The lies in this report – buried in the Ombudsman’s files until it was discovered by The Australian’s national chief correspondent Hedley Thomas during his podcast investigation The Teacher’s Pet – would ultimately contribute to Dawson’s murder conviction this week.

“So I wrote my letter,” Ms Strath said. “I was probably one of the last people to see her alive. ­Besides Chris, I thought surely the police would come and talk to me. They never did.

“I just kept thinking, you know, she would never have left her family. And I put myself into her position, and I thought I would never have left my family. And I would hope that someone would go looking for me.”

Ms Strath was present in the “spillover” Banco Court in the NSW Supreme Court building in Sydney on Tuesday to witness the verdict. “I felt very confident that he (Justice Ian Harrison) would make the right decision,” she said. “The truth is always the right decision. And that’s what was Chris’s undoing. He told too many lies and he knew once you start lying, you just get yourself tangled up.”

Chris Dawson.

Through both The Teacher’s Pet – to be re-released today – and The Australian’s The Teacher’s Trial podcast, Ms Strath has been the object of praise and admiration for her relentless pursuit of justice on behalf of her long lost friend. So much so that listener Willy Hyland from Scone – who was also present for the verdict – praised her as the sort of friend everybody needed to cover their back in times of need, and had a special T-shirt made up with the words “Who’s Your Sue?”

Ms Hyland presented the T-shirt to a teary Ms Strath after the verdict this week.

Ms Strath, who still lives on the northern beaches, said a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

“I’m hoping that maybe I’ve encouraged other people to stand up for injustices,” she said. “Stand up, say something, do something. That’s what I would hope, you know, my legacy might give to people. Speak the truth.”

Ms Strath’s daughter, Lulu Wilkinson, this week wrote a note to her mother on Facebook. It read in part: “My entire life, Mum has taught us to stick up for your friends, to always be kind, and to never lie – that the truth is easier and more powerful than any lie. There’s a special irony that it was Chris’s lies that were his ultimate undoing. Lie after lie after lie …

“Lyn always deserved her truth to be spoken – and finally, it has been. It may have taken 40 years but Chris Dawson’s lies caught up with him.

“I’m so proud of you, Mum.”