The army of sleuths dedicated to helping solve a 31-year cold case

The Bronwyn podcast’s success has in no small measure stemmed from the extraordinary emotional investment in the case of its listeners.

Clockwise from left: neighbours Deborah Hall and Murray Nolan; former policeman Glenn Taylor; husband Jon Winfield. Picture: Liam Mendes

American crime writer Diane Mott Davidson once said any sleuth worth their salt must be believably involved and emotionally invested in solving a crime.

She could have been talking about the millions of listeners of the smash hit podcast Bronwyn, created by The Australian’s nat­ional chief correspondent Hedley Thomas, which has just released The Shire, the final episode of its second season.

The podcast’s success has in no small measure stemmed from the extraordinary emotional investment in the case of its listeners, an army of citizen sleuths who, in several instances, have made serious contributions towards resolving this 31-year cold case.

Bronwyn tells the story of missing mother Bronwyn Winfield, who vanished from her home in Lennox Heads on the NSW far north coast on Sunday, May 16, 1993. She had been separated from her husband, Jon Winfield, for a couple of months before she dis­appeared from the family home in Sandstone Crescent.

Bronwyn had an appointment to see a lawyer about a potential divorce the week after she vanished. Jon Winfield said she had walked out of the house on that Sunday night after saying she needed a “break” from the children: Chrystal, then 10, and Lauren, 5. She has never been seen since.

Soon after Winfield claimed his wife had been picked up that night in a car driven by a person unknown, he took the two children in the family’s white Falcon and drove through the night to Sydney. Winfield was not formally interviewed by police about his wife’s disappearance until 1998.

Ballina detective Glenn Taylor, sensing possible foul play, conducted the first major investigation into Bronwyn’s case and interviewed all the main players.

Jon Winfield continues to strenuously deny any involvement in Bronwyn’s vanishing.

He has never been charged in relation to the case.

To date, the 20-episode podcast has attracted more than four million downloads and the vibrant Bronwyn Podcast Official Discussion Group page on Facebook has more than 21,800 members.

Fans of the show have even taken to the streets of the village of Lennox Head, visiting crucial locations in the Bronwyn story, particularly the Winfield family home in Sandstone Crescent, a shoehorn suburban street above the Coast Road.

Member Carole Goddard recently posted: “I just spent four days in the beautiful Byron Bay hinterland. It was interesting that two of our group were Bronwyn Podcast listeners … we discussed Bronwyn with others and decided we would like to see Lennox Head on the way to the airport. We travelled in the same car together and shared Bronwyn’s story to others as we drove there. So yes, we did go to the house in Sandstone Crescent and we wondered how annoying this must be to the neighbours now (yes, someone was watching).”

Former Winfield neighbour Murray Nolan is a key figure in the Bronwyn story by virtue of having lived directly next door to Bronwyn and Jon during the height of their marital discord in early to mid-1993. Late on the night Bronwyn disappeared, Nolan told the podcast he heard Jon Winfield’s car pull out of the driveway and saw it cruise down the street without its headlights on.

Since the podcast first launched in late May, Nolan has been identified outside his house by Bronwyn fans touring locations in the story. The village of Lennox Head has been abuzz with rumours and innuendo for months.

Astonishingly, Bronwyn fans right across the community spectrum have stepped forward to lend unique skills and abilities to the investigative process.

As the story has progressed, the offers continue to roll in – ordinary citizens eager to pitch in and work towards a resolution for Bronwyn’s family. For example, avid listener and Canberra lawyer Karina Berger tracked down critical 1993 flight schedules for the now defunct Ansett Airlines in order to conform or otherwise the time Jon Winfield told police he had flown from Sydney to Ballina on Sunday, May 16, 1993, to confront his wife at Sandstone Crescent.

She had been living in a rented flat on the outskirts of Lennox Heads since their separation in March 1993, and while he was in Sydney working on a building site she decided to move back into the family home with her children. Winfield had changed the locks but she secured a locksmith and gained entry to the house.

On hearing she was in the house, Winfield caught a flight north from Sydney. Berger dedicated hours to researching the whereabouts of the timetables.

She told The Australian: “I’ve always had a strong desire to do work that’s in the public interest, and my background … means I have a skillset and experience that might be of benefit to [Thomas] and, through him, Bronwyn’s ­family.”

West Australian crop-dusting pilot Terry Freeman and his wife, Heather, took it upon themselves to track down replicas of the Winfield family car – a Ford Falcon FX.

Terry Freeman and his wife, Heather, pictured, tracked down Ford motor vehicles similar to Jon and Bronwyn Winfield’s and tested whether a person could fit in the boot. Picture: Terry Freeman

The car became a critical point of interest after former Lennox Head neighbour Judy Singh listened to the podcast and decided to come forward with information that late on the night Bronwyn disappeared, she had been sitting on her front veranda in a street adjacent to Sandstone Crescent when she claimed to have seen Jon Winfield drive past in the Falcon.

The vehicle’s interior light was switched on.

She told police she saw what looked like a body wrapped in a sheet in the back seat of the car. The sighting posed important questions – was Bronwyn’s body disposed of locally, or did Winfield allegedly drive it to Sydney that night?

The Freemans, conducting their own experiments with a replica Falcon, proved conclusively that a body could have “easily” fitted into the boot.

In July, Thomas and the podcast team conducted a search of Lake Ainsworth, the pretty ­tannin-stained recreational lake just north of Lennox Head village. Had Bronwyn’s body been dumped there all those years ago?

Podcast devotee and former Australian navy diver Captain Ash McDonald drove up from Newcastle, north of Sydney, to lend his expertise in the search. He was joined, free of charge, by Search Dogs Sydney president Chris Darcy and his team, both human and canine.

Captain McDonald told Thomas: “I think the … stories that you’ve told through various podcasts have made a difference in people’s lives. I was inspired by the possibility of being able to help … bring closure to the family.”

Hope. Goodwill. A common goal. These are the tenets of the growing Bronwyn podcast family.

As Sherlock Holmes said in The Adventure of the Crooked Man: “It’s every man’s (and woman’s) business to see justice done.”

Bronwyn Season Three will be released in early 2025.