Michael Drury’s verdict on Bronwyn Winfield: Something very disturbing happened that Sunday night
One of Australia’s most celebrated detectives, Mick Drury, says missing woman Bronwyn Winfield’s estranged husband engaged in a disturbing pattern of ‘alibi construction’ | NEW EPISODE
One of the nation’s most celebrated detectives says missing woman Bronwyn Winfield’s estranged husband engaged in a disturbing pattern of “alibi construction”, and has thrown his support behind calls to search a Sydney property for her remains.
Michael Drury has been closely following The Australian’s investigative podcast, Bronwyn, from his home in the NSW Northern Rivers, close to Lennox Head where the mother of two girls vanished more than 30 years ago.
He believes the podcast medium holds exceptional power to solve intractable cold cases through its reach and harnessing of the public.
“You have an investigational team of 10,000 or more. That’s one hell of a team,” Mr Drury said in an interview for a new episode of the series.
“When you’ve got exposure Australia-wide, and even overseas for that matter, you’ve got tens and tens and tens of thousands of people listening to it … who want a positive and truthful outcome. And someone out there may have a fresh idea.”
He added: “I can tell you now, something very disturbing happened on that Sunday night.”
Mr Drury was the youngest detective appointed to a criminal investigation branch in Sydney, and his relentless determination to expose organised crime in the NSW underworld almost came at the price of his own life.
On the evening of June 6, 1984, in front of his wife and two small children, he was shot twice through the kitchen window of his home in Chatswood on Sydney’s lower north shore.
It left him in a coma but he survived the assassination attempt, orchestrated by corrupt cop Roger Rogerson and Christopher “Mr Rent-a-Kill” Flannery after Mr Drury refused to take a bribe in a major drugs case.
Now retired, the former undercover drug squad officer said the versions of events provided by Bronwyn’s husband, Jon Winfield, “just does not ring true”.
In 2002, deputy state coroner Carl Milovanovich recommended Mr Winfield be prosecuted over his wife’s alleged murder, but the Director of Public Prosecutions refused, citing insufficient evidence. Mr Winfield, now 70, has always emphatically denied any involvement.
“Why would a loving, dedicated mother, for no reason whatsoever, after one so-called private phone call in the bedroom, come out the front and say to Jon Winfield, ‘oh, by the way, I’m off, see you later’,” Mr Drury said.
“Wave to him, close the door and off into the never never and be never seen later. Absolute bullshit. That is not correct. I stake my entire career on that.”
Mr Drury focused on the hours immediately before and after Bronwyn went missing from her home on the night of Sunday, May 16, 1993. Mr Winfield had travelled back to Lennox Head from Sydney that day.
“Jon Winfield was a dedicated surfboard rider. He brings the surf board up by plane from Sydney, which would indicate he’s coming home for several days. And yet he leaves that night,” Mr Drury said.
Mr Winfield says Bronwyn went into a bedroom and made some phone calls before a car arrived and picked her up. He then drove through the night to Sydney with the two girls, Chrystal, 10, and Lauren, five, uncharacteristically leaving the house in a mess.
“I find leaving the house in that state or condition diametrically opposed to the normality of Jon Winfield which is obsessive compulsive in that regard,” Mr Drury said. “What was going through his mind? It is so ridiculous that it is in my opinion, humble as it is, absolutely compelling evidence of a very disturbing nature.”
Arriving in Sydney, Mr Winfield left the girls with a woman they had never met, his former wife’s mother-in-law. It “freed him up with the motor car to do whatever he wanted, unobserved and unsupervised”, Mr Drury said.
Later that day, unprompted, Mr Winfield showed Bronwyn’s brother Andy Read and his wife Michelle a receipt to prove he bought petrol near Lennox Head at 11.06pm the previous night.
“When you’re the suspect of a crime and you have this ridiculous example of alibi construction, on the balance of probability it does not work in your favour. It is a mark against you,” Mr Drury said.
Five years later, when interviewed by police, Mr Winfield still had a Medicare cheque purportedly bearing Bronwyn’s signature.
He said he found the cheque on the kitchen table in the weeks after she disappeared, and was adamant it wasn’t there when Bronwyn went missing.
He put it forward as proof she must have been alive and that she returned to the home and left the cheque there, but police believed it was forged, according to Bronwyn’s family.
“Why would he keep that cheque for five years? Why would he keep a petrol docket for five years? This is what’s called alibi construction at its finest. It takes my breath away. This is nonsense,” Mr Drury said.
The podcast has discovered evidence of concrete pours around the time Bronwyn vanished at a residential building site in Illawong in Sydney’s southern suburbs where Mr Winfield was working as a bricklayer.
It has led to suspicion Bronwyn’s remains or other evidence could be concealed at the site.
“When I look at the movements of Jon Winfield from that fabled Sunday night … it is absolutely critical to find out what may be happening underneath. That is a vital area of consideration for intense forensic examination,” Mr Drury said.
More Coverage
Ley battles against the opposition leader curse
Of the seven politicians before Sussan Ley to take on the leadership of a party defeated at a recent election, only one – Anthony Albanese – has gone on to become prime minister.
PM backs away from France in recognising Palestine as state
Anthony Albanese said support for Palestinian statehood was contingent on a ‘structure’ in which Hamas had no part, while also slamming the ‘indefensible’ civilian death toll in Gaza in a moral condemnation of Israel later echoed by Penny Wong.