Bronwyn

The ‘smoking gun’ is data from the phone company about any local calls made from Sandstone Crescent on the night of May 16, 1993. Jon insists that Bronwyn made a couple of local calls, then a car came to pick her up and she disappeared. But if no local calls were made, his story falls over. Hedley and Karina hunt for local call data which fell between the cracks during previous police investigations. Terry and Heather Freeman track down a Ford Falcon XF sedan with a large LPG tank to test if there was space for Bronwyn’s body to fit in the boot. Andy, Hedley and Madi meet in the Shire to investigate the house Jon was helping build in May 1993. Jon drove the Ford Falcon overnight from Lennox Head to the Shire hours after Bronwyn vanished. One or two days later, a concrete pour made a garage slab and a large patio at the house. Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com [https://www.theaustralian.com.au/bronwyn].  If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au [bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au] If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Jon disparages Bronwyn’s mother Barbara as a sex worker. In one of his final comments in his 1998 interview with police investigating the disappearance of Jon’s estranged wife five years earlier, Jon’s smear of the grandmother of Lauren and Chrystal goes unchallenged until now. Kim Marshall and her brother Andy emphatically reject the labelling and explain Barbara’s mental illness struggles as depression took hold. A deeply personal account of Barbara’s life story is told through her own statement to police. Bronwyn’s long-silent sister Melissa comes forward, shedding more light on Jon’s controlling nature and his jealousy of Bronwyn’s relationships with her friends and siblings. Inconsistencies and omissions in Jon’s 1998 account of his conversations with Bronwyn and their actions on the night of her disappearance are singled out for special attention by listeners who zero in on the detail and compare it with known evidence and Jon’s earlier versions. Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com.  If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au [bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au] If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb and her top Homicide detectives come under fire. Bronwyn’s brother, Andy Read, calls out a lack of effort, urgency and competence in the police investigations of his sister’s case, which has been hopelessly bungled all the way back to 1993. Commissioner Webb and her top Homicide detective Danny Doherty look uncomfortable and unwilling to talk about a case which has embarrassed detectives for three decades. Jon insists that Bronwyn went back to the house in Sandstone Crescent about six weeks after her disappearance, yet nobody saw her. Jon says Bronwyn left behind a Medicare cheque – and he says she must have signed it. Jon adds that Bronwyn took two bags of her own clothing as well as a pair of Jon’s jeans. It’s proof of life, according to Jon. Andy, Megan and Kim ridicule his claims. The signature on the cheque appears to be a crude forgery.  Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com [https://www.theaustralian.com.au/bronwyn].  If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au [bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au] If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

A politician and a leading newspaper speculate that a serial killer could have murdered Bronwyn and 66 other women on the New South Wales north coast over the past three decades. Bronwyn’s daughter Chrystal – who still supports Jon Winfield – welcomes news of a possible serial killer instead of her step-father being responsible for Bronwyn’s presumed slaying. In stark contrast, other members of the Read family point the finger at Jon. The powerful emotions and different views fuel family tensions and lead to Chrystal icing cousin Madi Walsh. Bronwyn’s youngest daughter, Lauren, who also backs her Dad, hits out at podcast listeners, calling some "gutless keyboard bullies who think they're detective heroes". Analysis of Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor’s 1998 interview with Jon raises more mystery because of Jon’s omission of key information about what he did for a few hours in the Shire, the day after Bronwyn disappeared on the night of May 16, 1993. Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com [https://www.theaustralian.com.au/bronwyn].  If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au [bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au] If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

For 31 years, key parts of Jon’s story have been taken for granted. Even while he has been a longtime murder suspect, nobody challenged Jon’s claims that he made two long-distance telephone calls from the house at Sandstone Crescent on the night Bronwyn was last seen alive. The first call, he claimed, was made to his daughter Jodie. The second one to his brother Peter. Hedley Thomas and Matt Condon delve deeply into Jon’s own words from his recorded interview with police in 1998, and they test the veracity of these claims by retracing his steps on the fateful night. They conclude that Bronwyn, not Jon, made those calls when she was fearful about his return. Pro sleuthing by avid listener and experienced lawyer Karina Berger as she searches for an airline’s flights timetable from 1993 leads to a breakthrough. But Jon says Bronwyn has just started a new life with a mystery boyfriend. Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com [https://bronwynpodcast.com/].  If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can contact our team confidentially by emailing bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au [bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au] If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.