The Teacher’s Pet: Friends’ regrets: Why didn’t we go to the police immediately?

Friends of Lyn Dawson are struggling with feelings of regret that they did not go to police as soon as she vanished 26 years ago.

Annette Leary. Picture: John Feder

Friends of missing Sydney ­mother Lyn Dawson are ­struggling with feelings of ­remorse that they did not go to police as soon as she vanished 36 years ago.

It was six weeks before her husband, Chris Dawson, reported her disappearance, and eight years before homicide investi­gators began to look at the case.

“I wish I would have done more. Why didn’t we? Why didn’t I?” says Anna Grantham, in the latest episode of The Australian’s investigative podcast series The Teacher’s Pet, released ­tomorrow.

Ms Grantham is still brought to tears when she thinks of Dawson, her friend and co-worker at a childcare centre, who dis­appeared in January 1982.

She can think of no reason for anyone to hurt a “caring mum” and “lovely person” who was ­devoted to her two young daughters, but recalls a disturbing story Lyn Dawson once told her about her ­husband.

“She said: ‘You know we had an argument around the pool and he actually grabbed me by the back of my hair, and he put my face on the mud.’ She said: ‘I thought I was going to die … I just could not breathe.’ ”

There was also a feeling of fear that “any one of us” could go missing and nothing might be done, Ms Grantham said.

Annette Leary, another friend and co-worker from the childcare centre, recalls being stopped in her tracks when Dawson told a story about her husband concerning a visit with him to a marriage counsellor who worked from the first floor of a building in Manly.

“They had to go up, and there was only the two of them in the lift,” Ms Leary said. “And they got in together and he pushed her up against the wall, holding her by the throat and said: ‘I’m only doing this once and if it doesn’t work, I’m getting rid of you.’ ”

Ms Leary says Lyn Dawson laughed it off as a joke — perhaps he meant he would seek a divorce.

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.

“She pretended that, you know, he was only being silly and he wouldn’t really hurt her,” Ms Leary said. “We found it strange, very hard to understand. I can only put it down to the fact she loved him and couldn’t believe he would really hurt her.”

Dawson was a “responsible young woman”, who took her job seriously, and Ms Leary “couldn’t imagine that she would embellish anything”.

The incident was just before Dawson went missing, and she had given no indication she planned to leave her husband.

“When she came back after that counselling session, she told us she thought it was going to work and she could save her marriage. She was hopeful,” she said.

Friend Sue Strath was the ­exception in that she did complain to the NSW Ombudsman in 1985 about police inactivity, but her complaint was dismissed.

Homicide detectives started investigating in 1990, but concluded they could not take it further. Ms Strath kept trying, getting police to mount a second murder inquiry in the late 1990s.

For years, police have wanted to charge Mr Dawson with his wife’s murder. Two coroners found, in 2001 and 2003, that he should be charged. The NSW ­Director of Public Prosecutions has always maintained there was not enough evidence, and Mr Dawson strenuously maintains his innocence.

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