Teacher’s Pet podcast: concreter urges probe of ‘loose soil’

A concreter who did work on the home where Lyn Dawson vanished has revealed his concerns | PODCAST

Joe Cimino with his wife Sandra at their home in Warriewood, Sydney. Joe believes he knows where Lyn Dawson could be buried. Picture: John Feder

A concreter who did extensive work on the Sydney home where Lyn Dawson vanished has come forward for the first time, revealing his concerns about disturbed ground where he believes her body could be buried.

Joe Cimino has kept diaries detailing his family company’s digging and concreting at the Dawsons’ former home 30 years ago.

He said he had never been contacted by police investigating Lyn’s 1982 disappearance and suspected murder at the hands of her husband, former Newtown Jets rugby league star Chris Dawson.

Mr Cimino dug footings and poured concrete in areas of soft soil at the back of the house and near the swimming pool at the front, giving him unique insight into possible locations of Lyn’s ­remains.

“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 said.

He had excavated an area about half a metre wide near the pool. 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. “When a pool’s constructed you always over-excavate and then backfill.

“It concerns me because if I was going to get rid of a body, to pull up those pavers and excavate down there and place the pavers back and cover it up is not a huge job to do.”

He and his wife Sandra bought a neighbouring property previously owned by Mr Dawson’s twin brother and closest confidant, Paul Dawson. The Cimino family lived there for years and owned the house for two decades.

He said he was coming forward after listening to The Australian ’s investigative podcast series The Teacher’s Pet.

Two coroners have found Chris Dawson murdered his wife, but he has not been charged and maintains he is innocent.

The Ciminos are well-known construction-industry figures, with Mr Cimino and his father and brother pouring millions of metres of concrete at new homes, in driveways, retaining walls and swimming pools.

His diaries record his work at Chris and Lyn Dawson’s former home in Gilwinga Drive at Bayview, on Sydney’s northern beaches, between January 1988 and January 1989. Mr Dawson had sold the home in late 1984 and moved to Queensland with his former schoolgirl lover, Joanne Curtis.

The house was sold again, in 1987, to Neville and Sue Johnston, who hired the Ciminos to perform work on a garage floor, a retaining wall and some pathways.

Local police had not conducted any serious investigations into Lyn’s disappearance, filing it away as a missing persons case without interviewing friends, family members, neighbours or other ­witnesses.

Chris and Lyn Dawson.

That was despite highly suspicious circumstances, including the intense affair between Mr Dawson, a sports teacher, and Ms Curtis, who was 16 and one of his students when their relationship started.

In 1990, after they broke up, Ms Curtis told homicide detectives to search around the swimming pool at the Gilwinga Drive house. Police went to the property with ground-penetrating radar at the time but did not do any digging.

Another detective, Damian Loone, started investigating in 1998 and dug up a small area next to the pool where radar detected a soil disturbance.

On that occasion, police found the buried remnants of Lyn’s favourite cardigan, which had been sliced with a knife.

Mr Cimino recalled digging a hole between one side of the pool and a boundary fence. There were some sunken pavers and when he dug he came across “quite a few” children’s toys.

The pool was installed in 1980 and completed when Lyn and Chris Dawson’s daughter Shanelle was three and daughter Sherryn was one. The toys may have been buried in the soil at the time of construction.

Mr Cimino speculated the toys may also have ended up there by mistake if Lyn’s body was indeed buried beside the pool.

Joe Cimino’s 1988 diary notations.

“If someone’s quickly filling up a hole, you don’t know what’s around and what you’re throwing in there. And it’s not going to be done during daylight hours,” he said.

“When we did the work for Neville Johnston, I knew that Chris Dawson had owned the house, but I had no idea at the time that his wife was still missing. If I’d known that I would have excavated a bit further in that area.”

The Australian understands police did not continue beyond a small area because they discovered underground pipes that they believed explained the disturbed earth.

Mr Cimino also concreted over the “soft soil” area at the back of the house and estimates he would have dug only 15cm in the process, meaning a body could have been there without being disturbed.

1970-1979

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Chris Dawson marries Lynette Simms, both aged 21. They have two children and Chris begins working as a PE teacher at Cromer High School.

1980

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Chris begins a secret affair with Joanne Curtis, 16, his student, soon after introducing her to his family as the babysitter. He starts asking her to marry him.

1981

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Lyn is persuaded by Chris to let Joanne move into their family home as the teenager's step father is violent. Lyn discovers the relationship.

December, 1981

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

With his marriage to Lyn in trouble, Chris flees Sydney with Joanne to start a new life in Queensland, but along the way Joanne changes her mind and wants to take a break. They return to Sydney.

January, 1982

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Joanne goes camping with her sister and school friends to mark the end of year 12. Chris and Lyn attend marriage counselling together. On January 8, Lyn speaks with her mother on the phone. The next day, Lyn fails to meet her family at Northbridge Baths as planned.

January 10-11, 1982

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

One or two days after Lyn's no-show at the pool, Chris drives up the Central Cost to pick up Joanne and they return to Sydney. He asks Joanne to move in with him. He does not report Lyn missing until almost six weeks later.

1983-1985

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Chris divorces the missing Lyn and marries Joanne. The couple move to Queensland and have a daughter together. They separate in 1990 and Joanne returns to Sydney. She contacts Lyn's family and police and provides information about Chris and Lyn.

1992-2000

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Areas of the Dawsons' former Sydney home are excavated by police on different occasions, and a woman's cardigan is found, in pieces and bearing what appear to be slash marks. Forensic testing does not make a positive match with Lyn.

2001-2003

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Two inquests are held into Lyn's disappearance. Two coroners find she was murdered by someone known to her. Chris does not appear at either inquest. The DPP does not support a prosecution for murder or the laying of charges, citing a lack of evidence.

2010-2014

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Rewards of up to $200,000 are offered for information to help solve the case.

He wants to return to the property, if the current owners permit it. “It’s a difficult ask. But I could bring my diary and I could bring one of my brothers who worked there with me. We’d recall nearly everything we did and how far down we dug and whether it was rock or whether it was soft.”

Paul Dawson was his football coach and sports teacher at school.

They were on friendly terms and Mr Cimino and his wife bought a home on Gilwinga Drive that Paul had lived in with his family. It was the Cimonos’ home until 2015, and he and his wife believed Lyn was buried close by.

“It’s so secluded and away from civilisation you could do anything up there without anyone ever knowing it,” Mr Cimino said.

Chris Dawson had an unusual interest in his former home, visiting it regularly in the years after he moved out, witnesses say.

His visits have contributed to suspicions he buried his wife on the property.

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