The story of Lynette Dawsons disappearance has sparked interest around the world after it was featured on a podcast called The Teachers Pet, produced by The Australian newspaper. ChrisDawson, 73, is accused of killing his wife Lynette Dawson and disposing of her body in January 1982 so he could have an unfettered relationship with one of his former students, known as JC, while holding onto assets including the family home in Bayview, Sydney. He also homed in on what he suggested were serious errors in the police investigation of the case, and the failure of the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to charge Dawson despite two separate inquest findings that he had been responsible for the death of Lynette Dawson. A second inquest, held in February 2003 by State Coroner Carl Milovanovich, recommended Chris be charged with Lynette's murder. "So we wanted to come here to put these flowers on the memorial seat, to pay our respects to my sister. The family's babysitter, a schoolgirl who can only be identified as JC, moves into the home within days. Harrison said the prosecution had provided multiple reasons to explain the unlikelihood that Lynette Dawson had done this, and he had found them strongly persuasive when considered together. Dawson, 74, had been accused of killing Lynette Dawson in 1982. He dismissed claims Lynette Dawson had been seen alive after January 1982 or that she had contacted her husband. On Tuesday, New South Wales supreme court Justice Ian Harrison found Dawson guilty. The main reason for Dawsons application was the publicity generated in the case by the Australian newspapers Teachers Pet podcast. On the surface, the event was puzzling. How do they reconcile that? Her father and new stepmother never shared stories about Lyn, saying it was like the day she left she ceased to exist. In 1990, the pair split up. But it will never be enough. Over the following years he divorced his missing wife and ended up marrying Joanne. Though the likelihood of a doting mother simply leaving her two young daughters behind out of the blue was incredibly low, Chris defense team maintained that this wasnt that far-fetched. This strange coincidence certainly helped Chris defense make their case. In a marathon five-hour hearing, Justice Harrison laid out in painstaking detail the evidence persuading him that the 74-year-old former rugby league star and high school teacher had killed Lynette in January 1982 to have "unfettered" access to his teen lover, known to the court as JC. To make matters worse, not only was she Chris Dawsons student, but also his childrens babysitter. [20] The prosecution presented a circumstantial case, alleging Dawson's motive for murder was his desire for an "unfettered relationship" with Curtis. It was a bond that was mirrored between Lyn and her own mother, Helena, whose 66th birthday Lyn was planning when she disappeared. Speaking after she had been interview by police in 1999 about the possibility Lynette had been allegedly murdered, Marilyn Dawson said of the Dawson twins, 'I know they have boys' talks, but they wouldn't be plotting murder. The family's babysitter, a schoolgirl who can only be identified as JC, moves into the home within days. It was then that she went to the police, advising them to search the garden in his old Bayview property. YoutubeHedley Thomas, the journalist behind The Teachers Pet. iPhone users claim Apple is trying to TRICK them into Are YOU at risk of being cancelled? Barbara Cruise, the owner of the childcare centre where Lyn worked as a registered nurse, believes police were blinded by Dawson's "celebrity". "That door closing was so final," adds Merilyn. On the surface, they had it all a wholesome relationship, respectable jobs and a home in an idyllic suburb on Sydneys northern beaches. Outside court, Lynettes brother, Greg Simms, called on Dawson to reveal where her body was buried. They were married from 1954 to 1978 until Jacqueline passed away at the age of 41. 'I remember it very clearly because it was so odd.' Lyn worked a nurse, and was seen as a kind and gentle soul. During that month, attitudes toward Dawsons husband, Chris, would swing from sympathy to suspicion. EXCLUSIVE 'I hope he has a hard time in a men's prison': Estranged wife of trans double rapist Isla Bryson Ed Sheeran reveals wife Cherry was diagnosed with tumour while pregnant which couldn't be treated until Matt Hancock was warned it was 'inhumane' to impose restrictions on visiting care homes and elderly were at Jacob Rees-Mogg 'had a Covid test for one of his children couriered to his home amid a shortage', according Time to veto keto? Chris Dawson found guilty of murdering wife Lynette in Sydney 40 years ago The Teacher's Pet: hit podcast thrust Lynette Dawson's 1982 disappearance into the spotlight Get our free news app,. Some time later, Ms Hardiman went to the police about Lyn's disappearance. '(He) said she'd gone away and doesn't want them anymore. Though she hadnt been seen at the beach or even leaving for it, and despite the fact that she couldnt be reached by phone, Lynette Dawson was not reported missing. For them, this is not a happy ending. Chris Dawson in his suit on Tuesday before he was convicted of the 1982 murder of Lynette Dawson and taken away to prison. But with no body or definitive proof of her death, the case was seen as something of a legal quandary. Before Joanne came along, she was the family babysitter. Tonight, Lynette's daughters will likely go to sleep thinking of their mother and their father. Now fully grown adults with families of their own, they've grown up with a constantly spooling nightmare that most of us will never understand. Or maybe you will, for just a second. January 1982 - Lynette "Lyn" Dawson, 33, disappears from her home at Bayview on Sydney's northern beaches, leaving behind two young daughters. In a dramatic day on Tuesday, Justice Harrison found Dawson guilty just after 3pm - bringing to a close a mystery that has haunted Lynette's family and Sydney's northern beaches for four decades. Dawson, 73, is accused of murdering his wife and disposing of her body in January 1982 so he could have an unfettered relationship with JC, who was his babysitter and one of his former students.. Having left Chris Dawson, she was keen to reveal her suspicions that he was involved in Lyn's disappearance. She said JC had described a visit to a pub by Dawson to meet a man and hand over an envelope shortly before his first wife Lyn disappeared. Thoroughly investigated by seasoned journalist Hedley Thomas, the story is compelling: In 1982, Lyn Dawson disappeared, leaving behind her husband and two young daughters. "I think the world is crying," says Merilyn Simms, standing close to her husband Greg. According to Hedley Thomas, the senior News Corp journalist who has investigated the case for The Teachers Pet, Chris became increasingly angry and threatening towards Joanne. How does anyone reconcile that? She didn't drive, so she'd take the train up to the Central Coast because that's where Chris had said that Lyn had rung from.". "And the suspicions I'd had in relation to not seeing my sister again had come to fruition really, and I knew then that I would never see my sister again.". She thought (Dawson's) first wife had been killed". Bev firmly believes Lyn did not choose to leave. "Maybe we were gullible, we wish we would have done more.". [9] She planned to meet her mother and family at Northbridge Baths the following day, but never arrived. A former student of Cromer High, where Lynettes husband Chris Dawson was a PE teacher, has alleged there was a culture of male teachers trying to have sex with female students at the school, saying they were described as fair game. A body was never found but they did discover Lyns pink cardigan during a police dig. He taught us tennis and played in the pool with us, she said. Walsh also suggested his client would appeal Tuesdays verdict. This verdict is for Lyn. Lynette Dawsons last known conversation was with her mother. "Why couldn't he just bloody walk away? She contacted Dawson every day via a reverse charge call from a payphone, as Dawson had told her to. I think maybe she'd come from the country and didn't have her family around, so Lyn used to go down in her time off and sit with her, just to give her some comfort. The second time I saw him being extremely violent towards her near the bedroom door and that just shattered me. [14] In February 2020, Chris was committed to stand trial for the murder of Dawson. NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes has urged any survivor of abuse to speak to police. My emotions and my love for my dad aside, I can see that there a lot of people saying all those things, its not just one person, she said. Harrison said Dawson "lied" about receiving phone calls from his missing wife, and concluded she died on or around January 8, 1982. To the untrained eye, it is just a regular wooden park bench, but to Lyn's family it has always been a very special place. Depending on how enraptured you were with the true crime podcast The Teacher's Pet, you might feel a moment of joyous satisfaction about the outcome of this case, or a shrugging indifference. Journalist Hedley Thomas, centre, with Lynette Dawsons brother Greg Simms and his wife Merilyn outside the NSW supreme court after the guilty verdict was handed down. 'She said "Im heading back to Sydney" and she was going to go to the police and she said if she doesnt make it, I was to go to police and tell them some information she' relayed to me,' Ms Melrose-Mikeska said via video link from Tweed Heads. He had told her Lyns gone, shes not coming back, come back to Sydney and help look after the kids and live with me. In a statement to police, Chris suggested that she had joined a religious organisation. Her disappearance sparked a 30-year police investigation and, after renewed attention from a podcast published by The Australian, her husband Chris Dawson was charged with her murder. She shared a short excerpt from the poem Still Possible, written by David Whyte, which describes understanding that 'you have secretly been, all along, a goodness that can continue to be a goodness to itself'. And I actually said to my daughter, 'What's a podcast?'". For the people who loved her, today's verdict will bring some form of closure. However, when the mother arrived, Lynette was nowhere to be found. Ms Dawson, a mother herself, said the poem 'inspired those of us when we forget to do so'. "Chris Dawson's case was, I think from the outset, quite a difficult one," says Anthony Whealy, QC, the former NSW Supreme Court judge, who presided over the 2010 jury trial of Keli Lane, which saw the mother convicted of her baby's murder in the absence of a body. He has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. For the next three years, the investigators gathered evidence, and in April 2018 they had enough material to bring to prosecutors. 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Similarly, he said he could not accept Dawsons description of what his wife said in the conversations, which included that she told him she needed more time, was working things out, and that he should not worry about her. [4] Chris was arrested in Queensland in December 2018, extradited to New South Wales, and charged with the murder of his first wife. The mother-of-two disappeared in mysterious circumstances in 1982. "Nanna, Pa, we did it we never gave up," echoes Merilyn. The artist who drew the portraits,Kristin Hardiman, told the court that Lyn 'was very excited' about the portraits after approaching her at the 1981 Christmas fair at Narrabeen High School. Harrison agreed that Lynette Dawson died on this date, dismissing claims by Dawson that his wife had called him after this date as lies. Updated. I try not to dwell in self-pity, but I guess I do sometimes dip in there, especially on Mothers Day when I see everybody out with their mums, she told 60 Minutes. But when regard is had to their combined force, I am left in no doubt. On the morning of January 8, 1982, Dawsons mother called to plan an outing to the Northbridge Baths, a local beach on the Sydney Harbor. The couple ended up in marriage counselling. Lynette Dawson went missing almost four decades ago. (60 Minutes) The then-33-year-old mum of two little girls has never been heard from since. In 1981, while teaching at Cromer High School in New South Wales, Chris started up an affair with a pupil, 16-year-old Joanne Curtis. Everything in the house had to be perfect because she never wanted to upset him, Bev told 60 Minutes. In a teary interview with 60 Minutes back in 2018, Shanelle Dawson said 'it's not looking good for my father, I will be honest to say'. Reputation management expert reveals why it doesn't just happen to How did Russia lose HALF of its 45,000 elite paratroopers in just seven months? I really hope they have been able to establish their own families outside this drama to lean on now. Then, in 2018, a journalist took to the airwaves with a podcast that flipped the investigation on its head and spurred the police back into action. He turned her young daughters memories against her - tarring her as a cowardly, unloving mother who just "went away". Everything.. The U.S. Navy Is Drafting New Internal Guidelines For Reporting UFOs, 44 Harrowing Photos Captured Inside The Warsaw Ghetto During The Holocaust, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. Shanelle said her mother was rarely spoken about after her disappearance. Shanelle is seen with her mother Lyn before her disappearance in 1982. He MUST seize it, starting with the Budget, writes ANDREW NEIL, Do not sell or share my personal information. None of the circumstances considered alone can establish Mr Dawsons guilt, the judge said. The garment had multiple cut marks consistent with stabbing. In a year or five, you might not even remember who Lynette Dawson was. [1] Her whereabouts are unknown, but two coronial inquests found that she had been murdered. A couple of times at their house I did see him turn quite nasty, and it shocked me.. This time, testimony was given by several people of interest, including Joanne Curtis and Lynette Dawsons family. In the podcast, Thomas alleged he had uncovered new evidence that indicated Dawson may have killed his wife in order to continue an affair with a former student. 'We didn't mention my mother. It was "possessive infatuation" that drove Dawson to murder Lyn, Justice Harrison said. Over the span of 14 weeks, Thomas broke down the case, examining and interviewing new witnesses that the police failed to contact. Rewards were issued several times for information on the case, though no one came forward with anything useful. Though no remains have been found and Chris Dawson maintains his innocence, it seems that the case may finally be coming to a close. When JC tried to leave him, Dawson became so "distressed, frustrated and ultimately overwhelmed" that he resolved to kill his wife to get her out of the picture. The couple moved to Queensland and had a daughter in 1986. In 1975, the Dawson brothers and their spouses appeared on the ABC documentary program Chequerboard to discuss how the twins' close bond affected their lives. Bev McNally who was another student at Chris Dawsons school tells another story. "The picture came from one of the nurses who was working on the ward," Pat explains. He grabbed the tea towel. Chris Dawson and his twin brother Paul posing for a Levis ad. Karen Longhurst said JC had indicated that Dawson had 'taunted' his first wife, saying 'Chris used to wander around the house singing songs (like) "I don't love you any more".'. She said he was a loving father to her, and struggled to see him as the narcissistic, abusive man that others made him out to be. More snow and ice could batter Britain next week: Met Office warns Arctic blast from Greenland could send Is YOUR lifestyle good for your heart? In the four decades following the strange disappearance of Lynette Dawson, several smaller investigations into the case have taken place. The couple's daughter, Shanelle Dawson, who was just four-years-old when her mother Lyn vanished, has not been in court for her father's trial but appeared to address the case on Wednesday morning. Dawson is accused of murdering his first wife Lynette Dawson to enable him to have an unfettered relationship with the then-16-year-old schoolgirl he had become infatuated with, according to. Related posts of Trending "Essentially it came down to the infatuation with the young girl, [a] deteriorating marriage and a sudden realisation on Chris Dawson's part that, in order to have this girl with him as he wanted for the rest of his life, he had to get rid of his wife.". The Dawson family did not disclose what the evidence was, but claimed the 70-year-old former PE teacher once wrote to his daughter claiming Lyn was still alive and well and living in the UK. In 1981, Joanne, pictured centre, moved in with the Dawsons at Bayview. [6] Between 1972 and 1976, Chris and his identical twin brother Paul played professional rugby league football for the Newtown Jets. In the late 1950s, she went missing for several years. She has starred in the films Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), Gone Baby Gone (2007), Made of Honor (2008), Eagle Eye (2008), Trucker (2008), Source Code (2011), Pixels (2015), and Patriots Day (2016). In January 1982, a small neighborhood in Sydney, Australia was devastated by the disappearance of doting wife and mother Lynette Dawson. Like the 2001 inquest, this one also recommended laying charges against Chris Dawson. "She was never one to want to stand out.". We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. 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