As tragic milestone passes, millions await justice for Bronwyn

Just last month the calendar recorded without fanfare that young mother Bronwyn Joy Winfield had been missing and presumed dead longer than she was ever alive. But her case is no longer forgotten. In fact, it’s roared back into public focus.

Bronwyn Winfield, who has been missing and presumed dead longer than she was ever alive, pictured with her daughters Lauren and Chrystal.

Just last month the calendar silently registered a tragic milestone. It recorded without fanfare that young mother Bronwyn Joy Winfield had been missing and presumed dead longer than she was ever alive. Bronwyn was 31 years and three weeks old when she disappeared from the family home in Lennox Head on the NSW far north coast on May 16, 1993. 

A coroner later ruled she most likely died around this date. As of this weekend, she has now been unaccounted for 31 years and seven weeks. That life and death scale may have sadly tipped over. 

But the case of the loving mother whose inexplicable vanishing had, for decades, become just another forgotten suburban mystery, has roared back into public focus, courtesy of The Australian’s podcast, Bronwyn. Not just that. Millions of people across Australia and overseas now not only know all about this modest Mum but are actively invested in a resolution to her fate.

Bronwyn and Jon Winfield and their daughter Lauren (centre).

Hers could have been considered an uneventful suburban life, notwithstanding her devotion to her children. It has now been made remarkable. 

So much so that the podcast’s official Facebook page has been deluged with amateur sleuths offering theories, timelines, memories and even conducting their own research into specific aspects of the investigation. Sensationally, too, a new witness, prompted by the podcast, has stepped forward with vital information.

Legions of strangers want justice for Bronwyn, an uncomplicated woman who wanted nothing more than a loving marriage, happy and healthy children, and a home to call her own. Before Bronwyn, created by The Australian’s Chief National Correspondent Hedley Thomas, stretched a barely interrupted information vacuum into this woman’s vanishing.

She had entered the neglected annals of just another missing person. Bronwyn’s initial disappearance in 1993 was reported sporadically in the local press, primarily The Northern Star newspaper in Lismore.

News articles of Bronwyn Winfield

Interest briefly flared again during a police reinvestigation in 1998. This was followed by a week-long coronial inquest in 2002 which declared that Bronwyn had died around the time she disappeared. The deputy state coroner Carl Milovanovich recommended that Mr Winfield be prosecuted over his wife’s alleged murder. But the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to pursue the case citing lack of evidence. 

In early 2010 the then NSW Minister for Police, Michael Daley, offered a $100,000 reward to help solve the suspected murder.

Michael Daley, pictured in 2010, announcing a $100,000 reward to help solve Bronwyn Winfield’s suspected murder. Picture: Brad Hunter

At that point, Bronwyn had been missing for almost 17 years. “Ms Winfield’s family, particularly her children, deserve to know what happened – and her murderer deserves to be behind bars,” Mr Daley said at the time. “It may not seem like much but if anybody has any piece of information, however small, it could prove to be the vital link police need to find out what happened.”

Fourteen years beyond that, the financial lure has remained unclaimed. And once again the Winfield case drifted back into collective societal amnesia. Until Bronwyn the podcast. Thomas was responsible for The Teacher’s Pet, an investigation into the disappearance of Sydney mother Lynette Simms in 1982. 

Lynette Simms with her daughter Shanelle.

The podcast became a global phenomenon, exceeded 80 million downloads and contributed to the arrest and ultimate conviction of her husband, football star and teacher Chris Dawson. He was found guilty of Lyn’s murder in 2022.

It was during work on The Teacher’s Pet that Thomas first became aware of the missing Bronwyn Winfield of Lennox Head, the quaint seaside surfing and fishing village just south of Byron Bay. 

With this new podcast, Thomas has once again combined his investigative skills with vast reach of the podcast platform to give voice to women, particularly mothers, lost to the system. “In cases where a devoted mother of sound mind suddenly vanishes from her children, as a general rule in my view it is hard to believe that those women just takeoff to start new lives, somehow avoiding all identity checks, all proof of life checks, never contacting children or loved ones, siblings, friends and colleagues again,” Thomas said. 

“We know that through the decades, until recent years, police and the criminal justice system did not prioritise these cases involving missing women. They treated them as just runaway mum cases and flicked them to the bottom drawer.

“Journalists have a role to play in launching serious follow-up investigations all these years later. I believe many of these cases could still be solved.

“In the six weeks since the podcast began – it was launched on May 25 and the latest and ninth episode, The Lake, was released to subscribers of The Australian last week – its followers have offered their expertise to the case, debating theories and tracking down obscure data to fill in gaps in the story.

The basics of that story are now well known. 

Bronwyn vanished from the Winfield family home in Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head, late on that Sunday, May 16, 1993.

At the time she was separated from husband Jon and for months prior had been living in a small flat in town with her two daughters – Chrystal, then 10, and Lauren, 5. In mid-May, while Jon was working in Sydney, Bronwyn decided to move back into Sandstone Crescent with the girls. Jon had changed the locks but she utilised a locksmith to gain entry to the property. 

Jon Winfield at Sharpes Beach in May. Picture: Liam Mendes

At the time Bronwyn had been seeking legal advice and faced a child custody and assets dispute with her husband.

On hearing she had returned to live in the house, Jon flew back to Lennox from Sydney and confronted his wife on that Sunday evening. 

He later told police she had decided to take some time out from the children and was picked up outside the house by a person unknown and driven away. Jon then decided to pack up the family Ford Falcon and drive the girls to Sydney, where he and Bronwyn had relatives. A next door neighbour, Murray Nolan, reported that he heard the boot of the Falcon scrape loudly on the road as it left the driveway.

He also saw the car roll down Sandstone Crescent without the motor running or the headlights on. Another neighbour, Judy Singh, sensationally came forward to the podcast last month with fresh allegations.

She had been sitting on the balcony of her house in nearby Granite Street on the night Bronwyn disappeared and claimed she saw Jon Winfield drive past in the Falcon with what looked like a “mummy” or wrapped corpse in the back seat, along with a surfboard. 

She said the vehicle’s interior light was on and Jon briefly looked up, though Ms Singh was not sure if he saw her.

Ms Singh reported this to police soon after Bronwyn vanished and several years later but no action was taken.

Officers from the NSW unsolved homicide squad finally took a statement from Ms Singh in late June.

Judy Singh sensationally came forward to the podcast last month with fresh allegations.

Ms Singh’s sighting questioned the accepted timeline of the case – that after Bronwyn had been picked up by a stranger that Sunday night, Jon had taken the children in the car, filled up the fuel tank at a nearby petrol station at 11.06pm, and headed south to Sydney. Ms Singh said she saw the “mummy” in the car closer to midnight. 

And daughter Chrystal told relatives she had a vague memory of leaving the Sandstone Crescent house for Sydney around 1am.

In the latest episode, Bronwyn’s brother, Andy Read, said he believed his sister’s body had been dumped in Lake Ainsworth, a popular freshwater lake close to Lennox Head village.

This swirling mystery has totally captivated the public and set alight Lennox Head, where Jon Winfield still lives, with chatter and speculation. 

Jon Winfield surfing

Murray Nolan, who still lives in the same house in Sandstone Crescent, has been taken aback by podcast fans driving by the former Winfield home and shouting out to him in recognition.

Meanwhile, the podcast’s Facebook page has been inundated with the thoughts of eager listeners. 

Murray Nolan and his partner Deborah Hall at their home in Sandstone Crescent. Picture: Liam Mendes

“Just finished listening to ep 7 and I am so choked up with sadness and tears that the police just brushed all this aside. So neglectful!” said Jo Anne on the Bronwyn Facebook page. It’s incredibly sad that these beautiful women from back then were forgotten by the authorities.

May this never ever happen again. Podcasters and the public want justice for all those who have been swept aside, dismissed and seemingly forgotten. We won’t stop banding together! Thank God for podcasts.”

Shelley mulled over the Lake Ainsworth hypothesis. 

“I got logically stuck with the surfboard paddling out theory,” she wrote. “The physics of dragging a body in a surfboard bag with bricks in it while paddling doesn’t seem plausible. I would struggle to believe that someone would drive from Lennox Head to Sydney with a body in the boot … so I think it’s very possible that if Bronwyn was murdered that night, that she’s close to Lennox Head in a place that the perp could keep a close eye on her.” 

Others went into specifics, following what Ms Singh says she witnessed, about the interior light of the Ford Falcon – what would cause the interior light to remain on? Some questioned the “scrape” on the road and detailed the mechanics of power steering in that particular vehicle and how it might have contributed to the boot gouging the bitumen. 

Another contributor warned of hasty conclusions and “bad detectives” so desperate to solve a crime that they suffered from “tunnel vision”, urging that everyone keep an open mind. It was Lisa, though, who summed up the renewed Bronwyn saga. 

“Podcasts like these are a stark reminder of how unimportant women were in those days,” she wrote. “Thank you Hedley for casting a modern lens to historical crimes, and giving women like Bronwyn the respect they didn’t get then, but always deserved. 

“To anyone who may have information, but fear they will be judged, please come forward. Your bravery and honesty will be the only thing people like me, who now feel like they know Bronwyn, will remember.”

Do you know more? Email Hedley Thomas confidentially at [e-mail]