Lyn Dawson: ‘Her spirit still lives on in our house’

The current owners of Chris and Lyn Dawson’s former home at Bayview in Sydney have embraced the murdered mother’s spirit and believe last week’s guilty verdict is ‘justice done for sure’.

Sue Saul and husband Keith at the Bayview home once owned by Chris and Lyn Dawson on Tuesday. Picture: Jane Dempster

The current owners of Chris and Lyn Dawson’s former home at Bayview in Sydney have embraced the murdered mother’s spirit and believe last week’s guilty verdict against Dawson is “justice done for sure’’.

Sue and Keith Saul bought No. 2 Gilwinga Drive in 2017, unaware of its connection to what would become one of the most famous crimes in the country.

Soon, they knew the whole story, including that Chris was suspected of murdering his 33-year-old wife at the home, and possibly burying her on the property. In May 2018, The Australian launched The Teacher’s Pet podcast. The shocked couple found the world’s attention focused on their quiet slice of paradise on Sydney’s northern beaches.

The Sauls have never let the home’s history worry them.

“I thought the house had a nice feeling to it,” Ms Saul said. “I think that was Lyn. I think it brought out Lyn’s personality.

“I never thought that it was Chris’s domination of the house; I thought she left a nice feeling. I never felt uneasy.”

Early last Tuesday, the day Dawson was found guilty, the Sauls tied a pink ribbon on the letterbox in a show of hope and support for Lyn’s family.

Murdered mother-of-two Lyn Dawson.

At 9.56am, four minutes before NSW Supreme Court judge Ian Harrison SC began reading his judgment, they emailed the journalist whose work prompted the dig at their home, Hedley Thomas. “Good luck for today. 2 Gilwinga Drive Bayview is flying pink in spirit for Lynette,” their message read.

It was accompanied by two photographs of the letterbox and its pink ribbon. Just over five hours later, Justice Harrison declared Dawson, 74, guilty of murdering Lyn. “It’s what I thought would happen,” Ms Saul said. “Justice has been done, for sure.”

The Sauls knew Lyn’s family would be anxiously awaiting the verdict. “We read that they were wearing pink in memory of Lyn and that they were hoping other people would,” Ms Saul said.

“So I put something on the let-terbox. I just thought that would be nice. We’ve been thinking about them all the time.”

Chris Dawson.

The Dawsons had built the house and were living there when Lyn vanished in January 1982. Only limited searches had been carried out there, and police were under intense public pressure to do more.

Bob Gibbs, a former detective and crime scene examiner who oversaw forensic examinations at the site almost 20 years earlier, came out publicly and said searches had been halted too soon. Former lead detective Damian Loone was also in favour of a new dig.

In September 2018, police returned to the property to complete unfinished business, conducting a comprehensive new search for Lyn’s remains. It went on for a week. Police sources put the cost of the excavation and restoration work at about $1m.

Police conduct a forensic search at Lyn and Chris’s former home in Bayview in September 2018. Picture: Hollie Adams

The Sauls – gracious and understanding – say it took a year to fully repair the damage, but have no complaints.

“We were approached by the police about if we would mind, if they could come and have a look,” Ms Saul said. “It had to be up to us because they couldn’t force anybody to have it done at that stage.

“But we were quite happy, more than happy, when we knew the story. If it was us, we’d want the closure.”

Ms Saul told homicide detectives: “Yes, come down. Do whatever it takes.”

High on the list of priorities for police was to examine an area in the backyard known as the “soft soil”, put forward as a possible location of Lyn’s remains. Blood-detection dogs were brought into the house, and the septic tank was searched. Detectives also sought to definitively rule out the area around the swimming pool.

A limited police search of the pool area in 2000 had turned up pieces of a woman’s pink cardigan, bearing what appeared to be slash marks. Lyn’s remains were not found in the new search.

“They were very thorough,” Ms Saul said. “They had to take up all the concrete around the back.”

The location of Lyn’s remains is still a mystery.