Bronwyn Winfield podcast: Phone call blunder derailed investigation

Police mixed up the timing of a key phone call in the Bronwyn Winfield investigation, knocking it badly off course in a major bungle | NEW EPISODE LIVE NOW

Bronwyn’s brother Andy Read and his wife Michelle have told the Bronwyn podcast how a major police mistake over the timing of a phone call shaped the investigation and deflected attention from her husband. Picture: John Feder

A major police bungle over the timing of a crucial phone call knocked the initial investigation into Bronwyn Winfield’s disappearance badly off course.

NSW police wrongly wrote down that a phone call was made from the Lennox Head home of Bronwyn and her estranged husband Jon Winfield at 2.13am on Monday May 17, 1993.

It led investigators to believe the devoted mother returned to the home and made the call while Mr Winfield was driving her two girls through the night to Sydney.

But police made a serious mistake over the phone records because the call was actually made at 2.13pm the day before – on the afternoon of Sunday May 16.

Bronwyn Winfield hasn’t been seen or heard from in 31 years.

Bronwyn or someone else had called the “0055” number to check Lotto results, a new episode of the Bronwyn podcast reveals.

Michelle Read, the wife of Bronwyn’s brother Andy Read, said the basic error very early in the investigation helped deflect police attention away from Mr Winfield.

“From that mistake, that led all of the original police officers up there to think that she’d … gone off. So they weren’t at all thinking Jon had done anything,” Ms Read said.

The blunder was only discovered five years later when former homicide detective Glenn Taylor took over the case and started investigating Bronwyn’s disappearance seriously for the first time.

Mr Read, said: “That was a real key point and it was actually ­Michelle that found that out. ­Michelle was looking at phone records, trying to point out numbers for them, and that’s when (she) went, ‘hang on … no one ever returned to the house and made a phone call at 2am on the Monday morning after midnight Sunday. No one’.”

Bronwyn separated from her bricklayer husband and moved out of the family home in Sandstone Crescent with her daughters Chrystal, 10, and Lauren, 5, in March 1993.

Seven weeks later, she followed the advice of lawyers, ­family members and friends and moved back into the house with the children while her husband was working in Sydney, intending to protect her property rights.

On hearing Bronwyn was back in the home, Mr Winfield returned to Lennox Head on Sunday, May 16.

Bronwyn disappeared that night, with Mr Winfield saying she left the house around 9.30pm in a car with an unknown person to have a short break away, and that he then drove to Sydney with her two girls at 11pm.

Mr Winfield denies any involvement in his wife’s disappearance and he has not been charged with any offence in connection to it.

Detective Sergeant Graeme Diskin recorded the incorrect time for the phone call in official police running sheets on June 2, 1993, two weeks after Bronwyn went missing, the podcast reveals.

He had compared the phone number with other numbers he saw on Bronwyn’s phone bill from the townhouse she lived in prior to returning to the family home.

“Account shows that MP (missing person) had called the 0055 numbers on a number of occasions prior to moving back to the family home,” he reported.

“Unusual that the husband stated that he left the family home at 11pm on 16/5/93 – and a 0055 number was called at 2.13am on 17/5/93. It may well be that the missing person has returned to the family home after the husband left allegedly at 11pm.”

Police running sheets show Detective Sergeant Diskin and another detective, Wayne Temby, spoke with Mr Winfield again on the morning of June 3.

“Had a long conversation with Jon Winfield about MP and reason for taking children to Sydney on Sunday night,” the logs state.

“Stated that they travel better at night and that his wife was aware that he would have them for 8-10 days in Sydney whilst she had a break.

“Produced a document where he purchased petrol in Ballina at six minutes past 11 on 16/5/93. This is consistent with next door neighbour hearing him leave the premises.

“Unable to assist with phone call being made from his premises at 2.13am on the Monday morning. Indications are that the MP has returned to the family home after he and the children had left – and made the call whilst obtaining her property.

“He still states that after she made the call early in the evening, she walked out the front door … carrying no property. We still can’t find her handbag or a small blue suitcase.”

A report prepared by another Ballina detective dated July 14, 1993, eight weeks after Bronwyn vanished, also has the phone call’s timing wrong.

“Inquiries reveal that Jonathon and the two girls left Sandstone Crescent around 11pm and travelled to Ballina where he filled the car with petrol and travelled to Sydney,” the report states.

“It would appear that whilst the husband was travelling to Sydney, the Missing Person has returned to the family home, gathered some clothes and her handbag, and made another 0055 call.”

Ms Read said police initially had difficulty checking the 0055 number. “Those numbers were banned from the police station, because someone at the police station had been ringing sex lines – and that was straight out of (a detective’s) mouth,” she said.

Do you know something about this case? Email Hedley Thomas at [e-mail]

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