Retired detective’s call for action over new Bronwyn evidence

Relatives of Bronwyn Winfield have unearthed new records that may point to where the missing mother is buried, in an explosive final episode of our video series.

Bronwyn Winfield's remains could be under a suburban Sydney home, her relatives believe.

The homicide detective in charge of the 1998 investigation into Bronwyn Winfield’s suspected murder has said new evidence demands a search of a former building site in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire where Bronwyn’s remains may be buried under a concrete slab.

Retired detective sergeant Glenn Taylor said if he were in charge of the police investigation he would ask a coroner to order a search of the Illawong property where Bronwyn’s estranged husband, Jon Winfield, was working as a bricklayer at the time of her disappearance in May 1993.

Council records obtained by Bronwyn’s brother, Andy Read, and cousin Madi Walsh as part of The Australian’s Bronwyn podcast series reveal that a concrete pour was imminent at the Illawong site about the time Bronwyn vanished on Sunday night, May 16, 1993.

“You’ve got to move forward in an investigation,” Mr Taylor told Bronwyn podcast creator Hedley Thomas. “I think that is the way to move forward now – to try to eliminate the possibility that Bronwyn is, in fact, under that slab.”

NSW homicide detective Glenn Taylor. Picture: Liam Mendes

Asked what he would do now with the new information that has come out, Mr Taylor said: “I’d be putting in a written request to the coroner seeking a coroner’s order that the site be examined.

“I believe they certainly should be doing (and) looking at that right now,” said Mr Taylor, whose 1998 investigation did not explore the prospect of Bronwyn being buried at the Illawong site.

The former detective appears with other key figures in the final instalment of a three-part Bronwyn video series released to subscribers on Saturday that spans 90 minutes of fresh interviews and analysis exploring the Lennox Head mother’s disappearance and suspected murder.

Mr Winfield has always emphatically denied involvement and has never been charged in relation to Bronwyn’s disappearance.

Mr Winfield flew to Ballina on the evening of May 16, 1993 on discovering Bronwyn had returned to the family home in Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head, later telling police his estranged wife made some phone calls that night before being picked up in a car driven by an unknown person. Bronwyn, 31, has not been seen or heard from since.

He then drove through the night to Sydney in the family’s Ford Falcon sedan, taking Bronwyn’s daughter from a previous relationship, Chrystal, 10, and their daughter, Lauren, five.

Retired Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor said if he was in charge of the police investigation today he would ask a coroner to order a search of the Illawong property.

Mr Winfield’s whereabouts for several hours the following day in Sydney were not accounted for by police.

On arriving in Sydney the next morning he left the children with the mother-in-law of his former wife, Jenny Mason – a woman he’d never met – despite having other childminding options nearby including Mr Read and his wife, Michelle.

When asked by police in August 1998 about his movements on arriving in Sydney with the children, Mr Winfield didn’t mention that he’d left the girls in their pyjamas at his former wife’s house.

He told Mr Taylor and Detective Senior Constable Wayne Temby that he visited his daughter, Jodie, at the hair salon where she worked, went to the motor registry and registered the couple’s Ford Falcon, and visited the Reads later that afternoon.

When asked what he did in Sydney over the following days, Mr Winfield replied: “Probably just hang about, just sort of sightseeing, and everything, you know.”

“It’s a reasonable possibility that Bronwyn was put in under the slab before the concrete pour,” Mr Taylor said. “But we didn’t have that information (about the concrete pour) when we interviewed him.

“And his answers were extremely vague at the interview. What did he do? Where did he go?”

Mr Winfield was employed as bricklayer in Sydney in May 1993 helping build a two-storey family house at Illawong for Sydney builder Glenn Webster.

A building application file for the house, tracked down by Mr Read and Ms Walsh late last year, states that three days before Bronwyn vanished the builders were given approval to proceed with a garage slab incorporating a front porch.

Mr Winfield allegedly told a witness when he arrived in Sydney on the Monday that “there’s a concrete pour, it’s coming”, and appeared anxious and agitated.

Mr Taylor left the NSW police force in 2003 and has remained in contact with Andy and Michelle Read over the years.

“I’m the first to admit that I’ve learned things from the podcast we’ve missed,” Mr Taylor said.

“We’ve had Judy Singh come forward,” he said, referring to stunning revelations in the podcast from former neighbour Ms Singh, who alleges she saw what appeared to be a “mummy” wrapped in bedsheets in the back of the family Ford Falcon being driven by Mr Winfield late on the night of May 16, 1993.

“I wasn’t aware of Judy, but without Hedley’s efforts and the podcast, we would still not have her evidence,” Mr Taylor said.