Police interview Judy Singh and visit Bronwyn Winfield’s last known location after bombshell revelations

NSW Police have moved swiftly on The Australian’s bombshell revelations about the disappearance of Bronwyn Winfield, with specialist detectives interviewing a new eyewitness and visiting Bronwyn’s last known location | NEW EPISODE

Bronwyn Winfield, left, new witness Judy Singh, top right, and Jon Winfield, bottom right.

NSW police have moved swiftly on The Australian’s bombshell revelations about the disappearance of Bronwyn Winfield, with specialist detectives interviewing a new eyewitness and visiting Bronwyn’s last known location.

Detectives from the Unsolved Homicide squad have conducted a “lengthy interview” with former neighbour Judy Singh, who last week claimed she saw what she suspects was Bronwyn’s corpse in a car being driven by her husband, Jon Winfield.

This week police also accompanied Ms Singh, 69, to Lennox Head on the NSW far north coast where she was living when she saw the “mummy” in the car on the night Bronwyn vanished in 1993. Ms Singh resided in Granite Street, just 50 metres from the Winfield family home in Sandstone Crescent.

Ms Singh, a retired nurse, last week sensationally claimed to The Australian’s podcast, Bronwyn, that she saw what looked like a body wrapped in a sheet in the back seat of the Winfields’ Ford Falcon being driven by Mr Winfield late on the night of Sunday, May 16, 1993.

Ms Singh alleged the car’s interior light was on and that she briefly locked eyes with Mr Winfield as the car cruised slowly past her house. She had been up late and sitting alone on her deck facing Granite Street when she saw the Falcon.

Bronwyn Winfield, 31, has not been seen since.

On Tuesday detectives interviewed Ms Singh for several hours.

Police said in a statement: “Detectives from the Homicide Squad Unsolved Homicide Team have travelled to the Lennox Head area and spoken to a potential witness as part of the ongoing investigation into the 1993 disappearance and suspected murder of Bronwyn Winfield.

“As investigations under Strike Force Chelmsbrook continue, detectives urge anyone who may have information that could assist to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.”

Bronwyn’s brother, Andy Read, said on Thursday he had spoken to the Sydney-based unsolved homicide team and detectives confirmed they had taken the statement from Ms Singh.

“They said they needed time to work through that and would meet with me at the end of next week to discuss it and any ideas I might have about what happened to Bronwyn,” he said.

On Wednesday, the day after Ms Singh’s formal interview in Tweed Heads on the NSW-Queensland border, police travelled an hour south with her and conducted basic daylight tests in Granite Street to ascertain if it was possible to look down into a passing car from the front deck of the house, a source said.

The current owners of the house – which still has a front deck – consented to the police tests, the source added.

The police action comes less than a week after Ms Singh gave her chilling account of what she remembered that night to The Australian’s national chief correspondent and Bronwyn podcast creator Hedley Thomas. She contacted Thomas in early June after seeing advertising for the podcast.

“I know that he (Jon Winfield) had something in that car that resembled a body. Just made me feel sick. Just a body shape in the back seat,” Ms Singh said. “Without a doubt in my mind, it was him (Jon).

“He looked up when he saw me. And I could see this mummy-like thing. I hate saying mummy because it is somebody’s mummy, but it was a long white (thing) with a rounded head right in the very corner of the back of the car as it went past.”

Ms Singh twice attempted to report to police what she’d seen that night – soon after Bronwyn disappeared and again years later – but nothing was done.

Mr Read said on Thursday that despite recent police reactivity around the case, he and the family were still frustrated.

“To say we’re so close and yet still so far away would be a fair quote,” he said.

At the time of her vanishing Bronwyn was separated from her husband and had sought legal advice on child custody and marital assets.

For two months Bronwyn and her daughters – Chrystal, then 10, and Lauren, 5 – had been living in a rented flat in Lennox during the marriage breakdown. Then in mid-May Bronwyn decided to move back into the Sandstone Crescent house with the children while Jon was working in Sydney.

The locks to the house had been changed but Bronwyn contacted a locksmith and gained access to the property.

She had only been in the house for a couple of days when Jon Winfield flew back from Sydney on that Sunday and confronted his estranged wife.

Daughter Chrystal would go on to tell police she had heard her parents arguing and her mother crying on that Sunday night.

Jon Winfield explained to police that on that Sunday evening his wife had told him she needed some time out from the children and that an unknown person picked her up in a car and drove her away.

Mr Winfield then said he decided to drive the children through the night to Sydney in the family’s white Ford Falcon. Both Mr Winfield and Bronwyn had relatives in the Cronulla area.

That coming week Bronwyn had an appointment to see a solicitor in nearby Lismore about the impending divorce but never attended the meeting. She also had a shift at Eden’s Takeaway in town where she worked part-time, but didn’t show up.

Mr Winfield has always strenuously denied any involvement in the disappearance of Bronwyn. He has never been charged in relation to the case of his missing wife.

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

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