Email from Chris Dawson’s brother insults Lyn’s kin

A curt email declaring Lyn Dawson simply walked out on her husband and children has angered her family | LISTEN

Rebecca Hazel received an email from Chris Dawson’s brother claiming Lyn Dawson walked out on her husband. Picture: Hollie Adams.

A curt email declaring Lyn Dawson simply walked out on her husband and children has angered her family.

Peter Dawson, the older brother of Lyn’s husband and suspected killer Chris Dawson, wrote in the email that there was nothing “at all” interesting in Lyn’s “decision” to leave.

It was sent to aspiring author Rebecca Hazel after she sought an interview for a book she is writing on Lyn’s 1982 disappearance from Bayview, on Sydney’s northern beaches.

Two coroners found, in 2001 and 2003, that Lyn was murdered by her husband Chris but he was not charged, with the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions finding there was not enough evidence to prosecute.

“There is no story or book in Lynette Dawson’s decision to leave her husband and children. That is a decision made freely and consciously by many women, including Lynette,” the email states.

“Your interest in the matter can only be generated by the periodic media regurgitation of unsubstantiated and unsustainable allegations against Chris Dawson.

“Those allegations were made in the course of the incompetent, expensive and totally unnecessary forensic investigation of Lynette’s decision and have already caused great distress to Lynette’s daughters and to the entire Dawson family.

“We therefore have no interest whatsoever in assisting you to perpetuate the myth that there is anything interesting at all about Lynette’s decision.”

The email was revealed in The Australian’s investigative podcast The Teacher’s Pet, which is examining Lyn’s suspected murder.

Lyn’s eldest daughter, Shanelle, emphatically rejected the suggestion her mother walked out. “I just don’t believe for a moment that she left us voluntarily and then stayed away all of this time,” she told the podcast, in an interview for a later ­episode.

Lyn’s sister Pat Jenkins yesterday said Lyn would not have left her two daughters, aged four and two when she vanished.

“They’re grasping at straws. This is what the police used to say when they didn’t do anything in the beginning — ‘she left of her own volition’,” Ms Jenkins said.

“It’s just pathetic they come out with this. They can’t see the bigger picture of all the hurt and the harm it has done. For him to say that, it’s unbelievable really.”

1970-1979

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Chris Dawson marries Lynette Simms, both aged 21. They have two children and Chris begins working as a PE teacher at Cromer High School.

1980

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Chris begins a secret affair with Joanne Curtis, 16, his student, soon after introducing her to his family as the babysitter. He starts asking her to marry him.

1981

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Lyn is persuaded by Chris to let Joanne move into their family home as the teenager's step father is violent. Lyn discovers the relationship.

December, 1981

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

With his marriage to Lyn in trouble, Chris flees Sydney with Joanne to start a new life in Queensland, but along the way Joanne changes her mind and wants to take a break. They return to Sydney.

January, 1982

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Joanne goes camping with her sister and school friends to mark the end of year 12. Chris and Lyn attend marriage counselling together. On January 8, Lyn speaks with her mother on the phone. The next day, Lyn fails to meet her family at Northbridge Baths as planned.

January 10-11, 1982

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

One or two days after Lyn's no-show at the pool, Chris drives up the Central Cost to pick up Joanne and they return to Sydney. He asks Joanne to move in with him. He does not report Lyn missing until almost six weeks later.

1983-1985

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Chris divorces the missing Lyn and marries Joanne. The couple move to Queensland and have a daughter together. They separate in 1990 and Joanne returns to Sydney. She contacts Lyn's family and police and provides information about Chris and Lyn.

1992-2000

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Areas of the Dawsons' former Sydney home are excavated by police on different occasions, and a woman's cardigan is found, in pieces and bearing what appear to be slash marks. Forensic testing does not make a positive match with Lyn.

2001-2003

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Two inquests are held into Lyn's disappearance. Two coroners find she was murdered by someone known to her. Chris does not appear at either inquest. The DPP does not support a prosecution for murder or the laying of charges, citing a lack of evidence.

2010-2014

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Rewards of up to $200,000 are offered for information to help solve the case.

Lyn and her husband struggled to have children, and were about to turn to adoption just before she fell pregnant with her first daughter.

She had worked as a nurse at a children’s hospital and been employed at a childcare centre.

“She just loved children, loved babies, and she just wanted her own,” Ms Jenkins said.

“It heaps hurt upon hurt, to infer that she would do that. She’s not here to defend herself.”

The Teacher’s Pet podcast

Chris Dawson strenuously denies killing his wife. Now living in a beachside home on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, he has declined to be interviewed for the podcast.

He once told family he thought he recognised Lyn on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, decades after she went missing. It was filmed in Padstow, Cornwall, in 2006, but Lyn’s relatives have dismissed the sighting.

Peter Dawson could not be contacted yesterday.

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