The Teacher’s Pet: Loose soil areas could easily conceal a body, says concreter

A concreter who worked at the former Dawson home says areas of loose soil around the house could conceal a body as the search enters its second day.

Police sort through dirt from near the pool area on day two of the forensic search at the former home of Lynette Dawson's at Bayview. Picture: Hollie Adams

A concreter who did extensive work on the former Dawson home says areas of loose soil at both the back and front of the house could conceal a body, while a former crime scene examiner says further investigations may be required ­inside.

Concreter Joe Cimino came forward for the first time about his knowledge of the block during the podcast series The Teacher’s Pet and yesterday welcomed the new search.

“I’ll be quite interested to see what comes out of it,” Mr Cimino said. “It mightn’t be the solution in the end, but hopefully there will somehow be closure to it.

“I hope something comes out of it for the family’s sake.”

Remarkably, Mr Cimino had kept diaries detailing his family company’s digging and concreting at the property 30 years ago.

Mr Cimino had never been contacted by police investigating Lyn Dawson’s disappearance and suspected murder at the hands of her husband, Chris Dawson.

 

Mr Cimino had dug footings and poured concrete on the areas of soft soil at the back of the house. He had also excavated an area about half a metre wide near the swimming pool at the front. “And I can remember this clear as today that the shovel was just going into dirt like I was cutting a cheesecake, it was so soft,” he told the podcast, referring to the pool area.

A larger area between the boundary and pool edge where he had not dug was “absolutely” large enough to fit a body “and the easiest place”.

He said yesterday police had not contacted him before the latest search. “I haven’t heard from the police. I’m very surprised,” he said.

“My area of concern was the side, away from where they originally dug, between the boundary fence and the edge of the pool. But there were areas around that we’d concreted also, all down that side of the boundary was all pretty soft.

“And even behind the children’s bedroom next to the garage. We did the garage and also bits of concrete at the back of the house.

“The area at the back of the house near the children’s bedroom, that was a pretty soft area. We didn’t go very deep there to put a concrete slab there.”

Police from the NSW homicide set up a tent near the pool area this morning. Picture: Hollie Adams

Police are today continuing to dig around the home on the second day of a planned five-day operation.

Detectives from the NSW Homicide Squad arrived at the Bayview home on Sydney’s northern beaches about 6:45 on Thursday morning, after it had been guarded by police overnight.

Unearthed rocks and soil from the pool area were seen in the hands of detectives shortly after 9am this morning.

Deck chairs, rocks, and other outdoor furniture were also removed from the pool area as the Gilwinga Drive site was cleared prior to digging.

A policeman removes rocks from near the pool area. Picture: Hollie Adams

Joined by members of the police rescue team and electricians, about 10 investigators from the homicide squad were seen bringing wheelbarrows, evidence bags, drills, protective wear and other equipment for the dig onto the property.

Detectives entering the pool area were seen wearing dust masks, and have set up a tent adjacent to the dig spot to lay out found objects.

Four sites across the property have been identified by police as the targets for their search.

The case has generated significant media attention, with TV crews and other media lining the leafy streets around the property while the digging continues.

Joe and Sandra Cimino at their home in Warriewood, Sydney. Joe (holding a diary that he wrote in at the time) has recalled the concreting he did at Chris and Lyn Dawson's old house at 2 Gilwinga Drive. Picture: John Feder

Former NSW detective sergeant Bob Gibbs is following the new search after telling the podcast series he believed Lyn was buried on the block.

Mr Gibbs was the crime scene examiner who oversaw forensics when police conducted a partial dig next to the swimming pool in 2000 and discovered a buried pink cardigan that was dotted with holes consistent with stab marks.

He told the podcast police “definitely” may have missed Lyn’s body because they did not have the budget to keep digging and the search was called off too soon. “They’ve got to do it, even if she’s not there,” he said of the dig yesterday. “I’m hoping they are going to do inside as well.

“Assuming she’s been stabbed and that it’s her jumper, it’s probably happened inside.

“It happens all the time: people go ‘What am I going to do?’ and leave the body to think about it. You’d at least need to search the inside of the house for blood if you were going to do it properly. We never went in when I was involved. I was the local crime scene guy so I would have known about it.”

NSW Police during a limited dig at the Bayview home of Lyn And Chris Dawson in January 2000.