Listeners are advised that this podcast series Bronwyn contains coarse language and adult themes. This podcast series is brought to you by me Headley Thomas and The Australian. Bronwin's good friend Anise Barnard and her husbands are making plans. They are going to sell the house Denise loves and Fareweller community in which they have lived for about thirty five years. They are moving a few hundred kilometers north to be closer to their children on Queensland and Sunshine Coast.
Just go and start a new life with my family. Time to move on and be with my granddaughter.
And how do you feel about leaving all these memories and after se many years?
Oh, I'm fine stoke.
As we chatted at her home, I showed Denise the brief snippet of video of Bromman. The bit filmed while she visited her father Philip in a Brisbane hospital. He was gravely ill after a liver transplant and would die days later.
Sometimes you'll blink or wink or move his head if I think he's responding.
It makes me feel a lot better. But all I ever telling me said he's going to get better. Wow.
It's exactly how she looked. It's amazing to see her, see her talking.
You forget how people sound.
Too much time gone by.
Right after hearing and seeing Bromin on the screen of my laptop at an outdoor table, Denise disclosed something unexpected and do you.
Know Broman's third person of my friends that's gone missing without a trace. You would have heard of Wi Borkin and Julie Jamison. Yeah, there were two of my friends in Sydney that disappeared, never a trace of them ever. Both nurses then rumored I'd heard Ivan Latt.
They're eighteen. Whatever happened to them?
How do people just disappear and you never see them again?
Welcome to the program.
His crimes left a trail of fear and sorrow stretching all the way from Australia to Europe. Ivan Malatt remains a key suspect for a spate of unsolved murders dating back to nineteen eighty.
In May two thousand and six, ABC News reported.
Serial killer Ivan Malatt has been named as a person of interest at an inquest into the deaths of two Sydney nurses. Westmead Coroner's Court has heard that Gillian Jamison and Deborah Balkan were last seen in a Western Sydney hotel in nineteen eighty. The coroner has recommended the case be referred to the Unsolved Homicide Squad for further investigation outside the court. Detective Sergeant Ian McNab said the case would indeed be referred to the Cold case Unit.
Detective Sergeant McNab said, it's always frustrating if you can't solve the matter.
A more timely day.
When Bromin disappeared, what did you believe had happened?
Well, I hadn't seen her for a little while. I'd gotten right into the gym. She was working at Eden's and doing other things. And I think the first call I got was from Andrew, her brother, and he said had I seen Brown? And I said no, I hadn't, And then that was followed up by Debbie. Were you all started this wear issue? What's happened to her?
Do you remember talking to police in nineteen ninety three, immediately after Bromin vanished?
No, I don't think I did speak to police.
Did it take until nineteen ninety eight when you gave your statement?
No, I think it was nineteen ninety eight.
Do you know why do you know why police didn't speak to you?
I have no idea. Yeah, I don't remember.
Well, you know, it's understandable.
We're going back thirty one years to when Bromin disappeared. One of the things that I think people like Debbie and others have some regrets over is that the suspicions they had were not acted upon by police or even by themselves at that time.
In ninety three. You've said that you formed the suspicion straight away.
Well in that time period, you know, recently after she disappeared.
Are we talking days, weeks, months?
Probably weeks?
Yeah, after talking to like back then, Andrew, Debbie, obviously we're all on board talking about what was going on and the night the car went down the driveway and all that sort of thing. That I've never gone from the assumption that I think he did something, whether it be in the heat of the moment, that's how I
believe it happened. But I've never waited from that. He from memory, filed a missing person report, yes, and I believe at the time a lot of that was that they believed John that she'd just gone off and disappeared.
Left him yeah, and.
Why would you if you loved your girls, why would you ever want to assume a your identity and even go and set up again. Unless she had a plan to maybe set yourself up and then come back and get.
Them, But no, I don't think it's pausible.
In an earlier episode, you heard Denise disclosing what she told police when they came to her for a statement in nineteen ninety eight, five years after Bromwin's disappearance.
I still recollect when she told me that he had had her by the throat up against the wall and that she was frightened.
It's not an easy question to ask, but I have to ask. Do you think that Bromwin's friends could have should have said more, done more early on to raise the alarm.
Yes, I'm sure we should have. I don't know even now why we didn't.
Presuably you could have formed the group of mums you were for playgroup and all gone to the police station and said, hey, we think she's met with foul play.
Yeah.
I don't know why we didn't do that.
Even now, I don't that would be what I would do now, But back then, I don't know why we didn't. For a while did we believe that as John had said, she'd gone away for a while to have a break. But after that, why didn't we go?
I don't know.
And in other cases, I've talked to people who say that the hope that someone they really loble are very close to will come back prevents them from accepting that foul play has occurred.
There's this candle that they keep alive.
I don't think at any time I thought she was going to come back after that?
Why didn't I do anything? I don't know.
Was it my husband saying, oh no, that John's a good bloke. Nothing, there wouldn't been anything like that happening. Did I tend to go that way for a while?
I don't know.
Was that Lester's view?
My husband's always sat in the fence. He knows my feelings. He's always set in offense about it. But where is she?
Then?
I said to him, or where is she? If she's still around?
Where is she?
Yeah? Currently answer that, Penny.
Have you understood why he's sat on the fence.
I just think it's just a blokey thing.
As I write this, another ABC News story reports on a national summit about violence perpetrated by men against.
Women at its first national round table, the Federal Circuit and Family Course of Australia looks to find solutions to a growing emergency.
It is a national disgrace and has tell me do more about it. There is no doubt it is getting worse.
So we do have a national crisis in this country and this Court is absolutely committed to making sure that it's playing it's part.
Addressing the crowd was the Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, who called on men to step up.
One death of a woman at the hands of a man is one too many. One death a week is an epidemic.
At least twenty four women have been killed in Australia this year, ten more than this time last year.
In Victoria.
They include Samantha Murphy, Sweza Madigani, Rebecca Young and Hannah Maguire, all allegedly murdered by men, and as the community grieves, outrage grows. Last week, hundreds took the streets of Balaras demanding action.
The ABC's journalist at the summit, Leanne Wog, reported it's rare.
For judicial leaders to speak out publicly on any topic. Today's round table is a clear sign of the crisis facing Australia amid surging levels of family violence and violence against women.
A call to action for a nation in mourning.
My friend and colleague Claire Harvey is regularly reporting and analyzing policy and cases concerning domestic violence.
From The Australian. Here's what's on the front coming up. Why domestic violence has suddenly rocketed to national attention. The Australian spent decades leading the conversation on domestic violence, coercive control and the safety of women. Domestic violence now takes up well over half police time, but there are deep flaws in the systems of prosecution and protection. Sarah Eisen is a political reporter with The Australian.
We've had twenty seven murders of women in the first four months of twenty twenty four. There's never been as many women killed in the first four months of.
Any year ever.
There's a real concern that the national plant and violence against women and children just isn't really working.
Say it was.
At one of the rallies on the lawn in front of Parliament House in Canberra. Prime Minister Anthony Alberanesi took the microphone.
To the mind that governments of all levels must do better.
The declaration was met with cheers, jeers and tears. Victims can obtain apprehended violence orders, but offenders can ignore them if they're determined enough. Police can arrest perpetrators, but magistrates can grant them bail, or they can serve light sentences, which leaves victims doubly vulnerable.
In my conversations with Madison Walsh, who was born a decade after her blood relation Bromwin disappeared, we kick around ideas and angles.
It helps to share. So, Maddie a couple of things I'd like you to do.
Timelines are so important, definitely in cases like this. They help us understand what's going on, Who said, what, when, what happened. As you go through it, it'll become more and more detail.
Lynn's niece did a timeline years before I got involved in the Teacher's pet She did this for the month of January because it was a crucial month leading up to when the disappeared. I remember talking to once to a great criminal lawyer, and he said timelines win cases.
Maddie has driven from the northern beaches of Sydney to meet me at the home of Bromwin's brother Andy Reid and his wife Michelle in the Shire near Qunella in the south. We are looking at the time John spent in the Shire after he arrived in the family sedan on the morning of Monday May seventeen, nineteen ninety three, with the two children, Lauren and Crystal. They had driven through the night from Lennox. The children should have been in school in Lenox, but instead they were in Sydney.
According to John, Bronwin had told him on the Sunday night, May sixteen that she needed a few days away, a short break.
They ended up staying with you for how long?
Think about ten days? Yep, Because by then he kept stalling. He kept stalling about going back, and we said, John, the kids need to be back into school.
I want you to take the kids back up.
By this stage, Andy knew that the authorized break in by Bromwin's neighbor Murray at the house at Sandstone Crescent had not provided clues to the whereabouts of Bromwin, and Bromwin hadn't turned up for work at Eden's takeaway on Wednesday May nineteen. Where was he staying while his children were with you?
The first night he slept in our place.
But on the Wednesday, when Bromin obviously didn't turn up to the takeaway shop, he wasn't comfortable enough. He was seeing the kids at our place, might have dinner with us, but then he go and sleep.
At his parents.
And by very early in that next week, I'd made the decision that and I'd confronted him and said, either I'm going to cradle a police station to report brom And missing now, or you pack the kids up, you take them back home, and you report a missing.
So which one is it?
He opted said, I'll get the kids back up there, get them back into school, and I'll go.
And report a missing.
He went back to Ballina and he did report brom And missing in late May.
Yes, in hindsight, there's no way in the world that I would have let John report her missing if I knew the ramifications that would lead me too.
As Bromwin's next of kin, John Winfield was at a distinct advantage.
The police policy.
At the time meant they dealt first and foremost with next of kin of a missing person. In circumstances where the next of kin, for example, the husband should have been a number one person of interest. When Lynne disappeared in nineteen eighty two from her house at Bayview on the Northern Beaches and from her two children. Her husband
Chris Dawson, was next of kin. Chris had reported Lynn missing some five and a half weeks after she disappeared, and even though Lynn's brother, Greg Simms was a police officer at the time, he was effectively excluded by police
in the early years they deferred to Chris. The Northern Beaches cops told Greg that as his sister's husband was the next of kin, they would deal with him try number of occasions sting out missing persons, and because I wasn't the next to king Chris Dawson was, they wouldn't.
Tell me anything.
Pass hands were tired, as well as Griggs, as well as everybody's because she was classed as a missing person and we were not next to kin.
In this way, Lynn's killer got preferential treatment.
Because at that stage I had to jump through that many hoops to be the person that was doing Bromwin's official next of kin on police records, it was just stonewalled, stonewalled, stonewalled by John Winfield.
I know you can't, we can't put Bromin's.
Picture on a milk carton because that'll upset the kids.
Can't do this, that'll upset the kids.
What do you recall about your contact with Detective discu It.
I had several conversations with Detective chrome Discin, but knowing.
What we know now, none of what they did earlier. The piece was very thorough.
John's the husband.
He was having all the stay seven hundred kilometers away. We're down here with two little kids. He's up there. He had an answer for everything.
Did you say to Detective discon or any of the other officers in the weeks or even months after Browin disappeared. Look, I think that this could be foul play.
Yeah, I'd said to him straight out. I don't think this is right. I do not think this is right. This is so out of character of my sister. You need to investigate that.
I have been reading the original police running sheets, a contemporaneous record kept by police which shows who was contacted, with a date and a brief summary for each entry. The running sheet shows that on May twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three, the day after John Winfield reported Brodman missing, a police officer, Julie Donovan.
Spoke with doctor Chris Mitchell, who stated Winfield last saw him on May fourteenth, nineteen ninety three. Was aware of marriage problems, however, did not find Winfield to be depressed. Spoke with manager Peter Jacobson at Commonwealth Bank. Stated that there was an account in the name of Bronwin Winfield in San Suzi that was receiving a family supplement. However, up to date money had gone in from supplement but none taken out.
There is another entry for eleven am. On May thirty, Denise Barnard and Deborah Hall attended the police station.
Both girls stated very much out of character for Winfield to leave children. Hall informs that on May fourteen, Winfield started to move back into house at Sandstone Crescent.
The entry shows that deb Hall discovered those two police what John had told deb that John and Romlan had an altercation on the Sunday evening May sixteenth, when John arrived at the house. That's the word in the police document from nineteen ninety three, altercation. The Collins Dictionary defines
an altercation as a noisy argument or disagreement. According to the running Sheets, police officer Julie Donovan spoke to the clairvoyant and tarot card reader who had been receiving visits from Bromlin, but he said he had not seen Bromlin since early May. On June one, Detective Graham Diskin's name features prominently in the running sheets.
Two pm, visited Sandstone Crescent, spoke to husband Jonathan Winfield, inspected house and obtained letters written by missing woman. Questioned husband further and delved into past.
It must have been a relatively brief inspection and conversation with the person who had a noisy disagreement with his wife and was the last person to see her alive, because at three pm Detective Discan was at the Rental Accommodation in Byron Street, where he talked to the owner, Shirley Taylor. Half an hour later, Detective Sergeant Discan went to the Ballina Taxi Service depot to see if Broman
had possibly traveled out of town in a cab. The next day, June two, he contacted Australian Federal Police, who told him Broman had not held an Australian or New Zealand passport since nineteen eighty and he was advised that Broman had not applied to travel overseas. Graham Diskin then contacted Telecom, which was the name then for the telecommunications company now known as Telstra.
To obtain phone usage at home. Since sixteen May nineteen ninety.
Three, he reported that there were three relevant long distance or meeted telephone calls. His records do not indicate any reference to local calls. The first long distance call was made at six point fifty three pm on the Sunday and it was to John's daughter Jody Winfield in Sydney. The second was just thirteen minutes later, at seven oh six pm, and it was to John's brother Peter Winfield
in Sydney. It seems that John was letting family members know that he had arrived safely after the flight from Sydney. The third number, however, is a curious one. In the official police running sheet, Detective Sergeant Graham Diskin has reported that this number was called at two thirteen in the morning, and that was the morning of May seventeen, a Monday. It is a strange time for someone to be making a telephone call. Remember, neither John nor Broman was using
mobile telephones then. All these calls were made from fixed home phones or landlines. Now John Winfield must have been well on the way to Sydney in the early hours of Monday morning. But the actual number which police claimed was called from the house at Sandstone Crescent at two thirteen am was also unusual. It started with zero zero five five, and that meant it wasn't a normal long
distance call, it was some kind of service. Graham Diskin compared the number with other numbers he saw on uncollected mail enclosing Roman's telephone bill for the separate Byron Street rental accommodation and here's what the detective reported in the running sheet for June two, nineteen ninety three.
Account shows that missing person had called the double zero double five numbers on a number of occasions prior to moving back to the family home. Unusual that the husband stated that he left the family home at eleven pm on May sixth, nineteen ninety three, and a double zero double five number was called at two thirteen am on May seventeen, nineteen ninety three. It may well be that the missing person has returned to the family home after the husband left allegedly at eleven pm, But.
Detective Sergeant Diskan had misunderstood something very fundamental. He made an error with significant ramifications. Contrary to what he wrote down in the police running sheet. The information obtained from the telephone company by the detective does not show that a call from the home phone at Sandstone Crescent was made at two thirteen am on Monday May seventeen. In fact, it shows that the call was made at two thirteen pm in the afternoon of Sunday the day before, and
there was no mystery about it. Bromwin or someone else it could have been Crystal had called the number to get the results for the weekly lotto draw. Here's Michelle Reid with her husband Andy.
They told us that they checked the phone records and someone had been at the house after John had left. They'd been making phone calls to some doub double five number which ended up the police couldn't check it up because those numbers were banned from.
The police station.
Because someone at the police station had been ringing sex lines and that was straight out of his mouth, leading us so long thinking someone had done that in the middle of the night, and the fool of a man had said what happened in the am and it was actually in the pm of the day before. He didn't even get that right, and from that mistake that led all of the original police officers up there to think that shed They all believed that Broman had gone off, so they were.
At all thinking John had done anything.
John ran with that, He ran with that, He ran that she had to please said please, said, she's someone.
Ring the phone.
I left at eleven o six and must have been Bromlin because no one else had a king.
But that discovery is not made for five years, a long time.
Until the next lot of policemen took over.
That was a royal creup point.
And it was actually Michelle found that out because Michelle was looking at phone records trying to point out numbers and that for them, and that's.
When Michelle turned around and went, hey, on.
This phone call was never there was no No one ever returned to the house and made a phone call at two am on the in the Monday morning after midnight Sunday.
No one the detective's a mistake over the timing of this telephone call appears to have had a crucial bearing on the course of the investigation. The misunderstanding lent weight to discons theory that had slipped back into the house after John had left. This was despite other evidence which in my view, should have already been ringing loud alarm bells.
Inquiries at the Commonwealth Bank indicate that her bank account has not been touched to date.
The running sheets become more detailed over the following days. At nine thirty am on June three, Detective Sergeant Discan teamed with Detective Wayne Temby and they went back to talk to Deborah.
Hall, unable to assist with any further information except for a conversation relayed to her by John Winfield that on the night she left, she informed him that she had the opportunity of getting away for a few days and was going to take the opportunity. Paul is very surprised that missing person has left children and not made contact.
At eleven am, detectives Discan and Temby.
Had a long conversation with John Winfield about missing person and reason for taking children to see Sydney on Sunday night. Stated that they travel better at night and that his wife was aware that he would have them for eight to ten days in Sydney.
Whilst she had a break.
Produced a document where he purchased petrol in Ballina at six minutes past eleven on May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three. This is consistent with next door neighbor hearing him leave the premises unable to assist with phone call being made from his premises at two thirteen am on the Monday morning. Indications are that the missing person has returned to the family home after he and the children had left, and
made the call whilst obtaining her property. He still states that after she made the call early in the evening, she walked out the front door about nine pm, carrying no property. We still can't find her handbag or a small blue suitcase. John states that he did have a conversation with her about getting away for a couple of weeks, deny as receiving any phone call in the middle of the night after missing person had been missing a few days.
Apparently has told other people he had a call, but no person spoke.
It is notable in my opinion that the proposed duration of Bromwin's purported break has by early June blown out by a long way. Initially, according to John, his wife Bromwin had told him she wanted a break for a few days, but by early June, with Bromwyn still missing, John is saying to police that she had said she wanted.
To get away for a couple of weeks.
Detectives Discan and Temby went to Eden's Takeaway and spoke to Bromwyn's workmates, but they were unable to help. The Running sheet states that an unnamed person at the takeaway told police that Bromwyn.
For about the last month has been strange and seemed to be lacking in concentration. Also, she seemed to lack confidence. Any man that smiled or spoke to the missing person caused her to believe that there was a likelihood of some Eventually, Romance confided in them that she was having an affair with Jacko, now in New Zealand. He too was friends with the owners of the shop, and they are aware that no such affair was happening. This is supported by the letter from Jackson to the missing person.
Recently, Gary Jackson is still known to many as Jacko. He spoke to my friend and colleague David Murray to share some information about Bromlin.
Jacko was clearly.
Very fond of Bromwin, and Bromwin believed that with Jacko she had a chance of a loving and healthy relationship.
See this is a trouble. I've had a stroke and this is hard. I can remember the words where I can't sound Gary.
Can I share this reporting with Headley for the podcast.
Absolutely?
It's really sad.
I didn't know that bron Wan liked me, and she said you are the perfect person for me.
I really do like was Golbs tracked by that we kiss and that's all we did. I said that I loved her and Rowan was tall, lay the shoes, a beautiful woman.
She just left John and watching divorced. I had a thing with her, was about two weeks. It wasn't sexual because we didn't have sex. There was more than friendship, you know. But John was always around us.
We couldn't go out anywhere.
John was out there sitting in his chair watching us. I knew John before, but he was terrible for her. John intimidated her.
Can you tell me what you think happened?
Yeah, he killed her. John killed her, but they can't find the body at the police didn't do their job.
Broman had separate from her husband and was struggling to make ends meet while living in rented accommodation with her two girls. Good friends tell me she had confided she was fearful of John. She was no doubt lonely, distracted, lacking in confidence, and hopeful of meeting someone else. You heard in an earlier episode from Kelly O'Brien, one of the local heroes of lenox because of her longtime commitment
to young people in the community. I asked Kelly what she remembered about the efforts by police in nineteen ninety three when they started talking to people in Lenox Head about Bromin's disappearance. Detective Graham Diskin, along with the detective Wayne Tembe, spoke to a number of people who knew Bromin in nineteen ninety three, and they spoke to them in nineteen ninety three. They didn't take any statements from any people at that time. Call from nineteen ninety three
the tone or commitment of police. Why your contact with Brohman, your recollections of her as a mother and so on were not actually put down in formal statements as they were five years later.
I remember thinking.
That it was so scared what they were asking and how they approached the staff around what had happened. I remember thinking it was so unprofessional and poor at the time. Honestly, The first conversations were like two minute conversation, and I was like, really, is that it?
I mean, it is such an unusual thing, isn't it? A mother with two small girls and everybody says she doated on them? Just vanishers, never contacts anybody again, who's never seen again, doesn't return to say hang on, I've got a legal right to half this house. I need money to support myself. Do you find all of that bizarre?
I guess I had a blind trust that I wasn't that important to be speaking with, and perhaps the other people that they were speaking with they were.
Getting more from.
Because I'd never been involved with the system in these ways. I became more infuriated that it had not been dealt with properly and was cross.
How does someone disappear?
And no one seemed to care that was responsible for finding out the answer. To think that people would believe a story that she'd listened to a Taro reader and then run off with someone's quite ludicrous. I still think that if they had have dealt with that really swiftly, we wouldn't be here today talking.
Yeah, it would have been solved. It's really sad.
Do you have any ideas as to why it was treated just so routinely in those early days.
No, I can only imagine that they had some sense or view that women weren't important, or women did these things and believed here. So I'll just find that kind of thing outrageous to entertain. Any idea that we don't count is something I wouldn't want to think. It surprised me at the time as a young person, and certainly now working in the field, I would call out pretty slack. It is baffling, and I don't know whether our society was happy to just turn a blind eye or let things be.
I know from talking to other women a little bit older than us who have been in similar situations, they've said, you trusted the police, you didn't speak up.
In hindsight, we were all very remiss in that we were led by police.
So maybe people were fawning to the police rather than saying, do you fricking jobs properly.
We're taught to believe our elders, our teachers, our administrators, the priests, the police, and the doctors. But I think we should never let the elephant be hanging around too long under the table. I think it's best that transparency comes about. We know as a society, we find things out, we make things right in the end, and you get a better sleep for it.
Maybe it's a case of better late than never for Bromin.
Bromwin's not here, but certainly the girls and the girl's children surely need to know their family story and the rightness of it, the wrongness of it.
Let's go back to the police running sheets from June nineteen ninety three. At two pm on June three, Graham Diskin talk to Michelle Reid, Bromwyn's sister in law, and the detective reported in the running sheet.
She is very concerned about the missing person and stated that the actions of the missing person are identical to what her mother did.
This is a reference to Bara Reid, the mother of Bromwyn and Andy.
Reid has spoken to the mother and she does not seem too concerned, although she is a schizophrenic herself.
At three pm, the detective talk to Bromwyn's solicitor in Lismore, Chris McDevitt.
He has been instructed by the missing person so far as property settlement and family law matters are concerned. He stated that the missing person had sought advice about moving back into the family home during a week prior to her disappearance. He advised her that because the house was jointly owned and the husband was in Sydney, her and the children were quite entitled to move back in now.
The next line in the detective's running sheet, as a result of talking to the solicitor mcdebittt, is in my view important.
On Sunday May sixteenth, in the late afternoon, the missing person contacted him and stated that her husband had returned from Sydney and she was concerned about him being in the house. Mcdevittt advised the missing person that she might contact the police and inform them of the situation, and if need be, have them call by as a precaution
in order to prevent a breach of the peace. The missing person seemed happy with that and made an appointment to see mcdebittt at nine am on May seventeen, nineteen ninety three, an appointment she never kept.
This is a striking piece of information. Firstly, let me clarify the contact. The telephone call from rom When to her solicitor was a local call. That's why it didn't show up. When the detective got information about meeted calls or long distance calls. But as of three pm on June three, Detective Sergeant Graham Discin has been told by a lawyer an officer of the Supreme Court, that his client had called him out of ours on a Sunday
and they then talked about escalating it to police. This is surely a red flag, but no, it appeared to have changed nothing and no statement was taken by police from Chris mcdebittt in nineteen ninety three. The only record made at the time was the brief June three entry by Detective Sergeant Graham Discan in the police running sheet. It seems that police continued to treat Bromman as a
brooding housewife who walked away from her kids. In an earlier episode, you heard that Broman's appointment time with her solicitor was a lie.
Am.
The arrangement had been made the previous week, not in a Sunday afternoon telephone call. I've wondered whether Bromwin and Chris mcdebittt decided to bring the meeting forward by two hours to nine am as a result of John's arrival in Lenox. Did things become more urgent and focused on June four which is getting onto three weeks.
Since Bromwin's disappearance.
Detective Graham Diskin telephoned Bromwin's half sister, Kim Marshall, was twenty two at the time and she lived in Tasmania with her mother, Barbara, Bromwin's mother. According to the entry, Kim believed that Bromwyn would contact Kim soon, as they had plans to catch up in Lenox on June fourteen.
Kim states that Bromwin is very similar to mother. When everything builds up around her, she will walk away and eventually go and get some help. Believes that she appears to be unusual in not taking or contacting children since May sixth. Kim also believes that, like their mother, Bromwin suffered a hormonal imbalance after the birth of the children, which causes them to be irrational. Kim believes that Brombin will get help and then walk into the family home like nothing has happened.
On June eighth, detectives Graham Diskin and Wayne Tenby note that they went to see a close friend of Bromin, a woman I've called Joan. In an earlier episode of this podcast series, Joan isn't her real name, but you heard her voice in episode two. She has asked that I not reveal her true name.
She stated that she had spoken to the missing person on the morning of May sixteen, and all appeared well, although the missing person seemed to be rambling on about things in general and slightly confused, no mention about leaving or being in fear of anybody.
I received a different version from Joan.
Are you saying now that you believed in ninety ninety three, within a few days of Brown disappearing, that you suspected foul play by John.
Yeah, I'd fill it. I'd like to report it to the police, but not being family, I didn't think they'd taken any notice of this. He told me that I was a planned trip. She was had an opportunity to go to Queensland for a couple of weeks, and I felt it, well, it wasn't a plan trip because I'd just spoken to her, because I said, well, she wouldn't have just gone away and leave the kids. So he
had to report it. I even went to the police station after he'd said he had reported, to check if he had, because it wasn't.
Sure he would have, and what did they tell you that.
To start with, they were treating it as like a domestic sitch basis, the people go missing because they want to sometimes, but now they were treating it as a missing person.
Did you say to the police in nineteen ninety three, I suspect that Jonathan has got rid of his wife and he's just lying now about her going on a trip.
Probably not straight away, but when they started coming around asking questions, I did say it, Well, I don't believe what he was saying, that she'd planned it and she wouldn't go off and leave the kids.
It would have been weeks, I'd.
Say, And there was a detective discount. Yeah, do you remember him, yes? Do you believe you told him that you thought it was suspicious?
I would say so, yes.
But your recollection is that you told at least detective disc And in nineteen ninety three, within weeks of Bromin's disappearance, that you were suspicious of possible foul play.
He'd come around a few times, so it could have been more than a couple of weeks.
But yeah, I suspected.
Just didn't make sense.
Why then didn't it become a full blown murder investigation in nineteen ninety three.
I have no idea. I think they messed up.
Why hasn't there been more disquiet in this little community?
It's me I can understand it. But John also said, oh, she was seen in Ninburn. No, I said, I can't imagine Bromwin walking down the street in Lidburn, little mane. If he didn't do it, I feel sorry for him because we all think that he did.
Now let's go back to Detective Discan's internal police report.
Since the report of the missing person, checks with the Commonwealth Bank, Kirklands Medicare, Harveyworld Travel, jet Set Travel and CountryLink rail services have all met with a negative result. On June ten, interviewed Solicitor Graham Holland of Byron Bay states that he had been consulted by the missing person on May four regarding dissolution of marriage, property settlement and custody of the two girls, which was to take priority.
The missing person was in fear of returning to the family home if the husband should return from Sydney whilst she was residing there. Solicitor Holland stated that she had very little money and was only concerned about the welfare of her two little girls.
Detective Sergeant Graham Diskin has reported.
Spoke again to John Winfield by telephone, unable to assist with any further information, and he has had no contact from missing person. Stated that he had been ringing family over the last few days, hoping they had heard something.
The running sheet shows that the detectives had a conversation with someone from a family support group in Ballina.
Card indicates that there has only been emotional abuse by the husband towards the missing person. On April nineteen, seemed to be coping well with the pension, but was alarmed if husband were to return to the family home.
You heard in the first episode that Romman's contact with the ballaner Byron Family Support Service had been diorized by a counselor there, Doreen Strong. Perhaps she wrote about it on a card at the support service. Is that missus, Dorian Strong? Yes, your daughter in law contacted me. She said that you remembered the case.
Yeah, well I did, because I did the initial call from them when she was wanting to make an appointment.
I've mentioned your connection to the case in one of the episodes.
Yeah. Well, look, I was looking forward to trying to find my original statement.
It's not very long. If you'd like, I can read it to you.
Ah.
Yes, I was in holidays and Tasmania and I had a call from our manager Trish, who said the detectives were looking back into it. Now that would have been gosh aunt about two thousand or something like that. I'm not quite sure exactly what you So you made.
It in October nineteen ninety eight at Ballina Police Station and say, I'm currently employed as a support worker at the Ballana Byron Family Support Service. You received a telephone call on Friday, the second of April from a woman named Bromwin Winfield, who was living in Lennox Head. You say, I recall Bromwin stating that she had left her husband ten days earlier. Bromin indicated that there had been emotional
violence and threats relating to custody of her children. Broman stated that she had been to a solicitor and had received advice in relation to custody of the children. Broman stated that she was feeling better, but felt she needed some support. I told Bromwin that the service would telephone her back and arrange an appointment to see her. Details surrounding this conversation are recorded on the original day sheet for the second of April nineteen ninety three, retained by the service.
Yeah, yeah, I can remember it quite clearly. We spoke to it, and I think it was one of Broman's friends that it was ringing and talking to us about it. I was doing intake that day and it was another worker that was going to see her.
On the next page, you say from records, I am able to say that on Wednesday, the seventh of April nineteen ninety three, a family support worker, Stephanie Irvin, contacted Bromwan by telephone.
Yeah.
Records indicate that Bromwin stated that she could not talk to Stephanie over the phone as someone was there and she could not go into any depth. The records state that Broman sounded okay, voice was strong, but the girls need some help. The records indicate that Bromin stated that she would get back to us. From records maintained, I could also say that on Thursday, fifteen April nineteen ninety three,
there was a phone call from Bromwan received. Bromen apparently stated that she was coping okay, but feels that she would like someone to talk to Bromen requested that Stephanie Irvin telephoned her. The statement goes on to say that the record show a telephone call was made to Bromwin by Stephanie and an appointment was made for a house visit at ten am on April twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three, but no person.
Was at home.
The last paragraph of your statement, missus Strong says, from my experience as a family support counselor, I find it strange that Broman would go missing without taking the children, as she was concerned over their custody. Just prior to her disappearance, Broman was concerned over the custody of her children, and there was no indication that she intended to give custody of the children to her husband. Yeah.
Well, after that conversation with her, and she was concerned that he would come and take the children.
That was so.
I think I have heard her to Tony Mannering he was the solicited whether she kept that or not that appointment.
Yes, she did see him.
I remember saying to the police at the time, and like she wouldn't leave the kids because that was her main concern when she rang.
Right, do you recall the tone or anything about the conduct of the police in the original inquiry that came just weeks after Bromin disappeared. When they spoke to you.
No, I just thought they would be doing their job. I didn't get any indication that they weren't serious about it. But I'd listen to your podcast and evidently there was lots of things that weren't done initially. I know it's a long time ago, but I can still remember it, and we talked about it at work between workers, and it was ever Or one of her friends who was really not going to live up on it. She was quite concerned. We still remember. And now I've just turned eighty. I'm not young anymore.
When did you retire from the service, missus Strong?
I worked there for eighteen years and then I retired in twenty eleven.
Well, in your statement, you say that records indicate that on four June nineteen ninety three, a friend of Bromin's contacted the service stating that Broman had been missing for about three weeks and had taken no clothes and her bank accounts had not been touched. And you say that this friend was checking the service to see if Broman had been in touch. In the podcast, we're referring to this woman as Joan, not as her real name, so you will have a different name.
It's the police looking into it, like they said, and I've gone missing all time because they want to, and I think that's the view they had to start with. She would not go off and leave their kids.
So I think she's probably the person who put Romin in touch.
I know she had several conversations about her missing and she was quite concerned.
Do you have any ideas as to why this wasn't taken more seriously at the time. And it's so unusual for a woman to disappear when she's got children and clearly seems dedicated to them, and she's actually going through a separation from her husband. About whom she's concerned.
Well, we were all concerned, and naturally if we were concerned, we would have thought the authorities would have been concerned as well.
You spoke to detectives Discn and Tembe in June of nineteen ninety three, but no statement taken from you until October twenty eight, nineteen ninety eight, five years later.
Five years here. Yeah, well, I just can't remember the conversation with those two detectives.
I'm really glad we've had this chat, Missus Strong.
I just hope that something can be done.
It is possible that a page or more of the police file from nineteen ninety three disappeared before the detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor became involved and did a thorough investigation in nineteen ninety eight. On June ten, Detective Wayne Temby spoke to Tony Mannering, one of the three solicitors visited by
Bromwan after she had separated from John. Tony Mannering had a record of their meeting in his office on April two, and this had resulted in a lengthy letter to broman You heard most of it read aloud in a previous episode. Here's what the detective Wayne Temby put down in the police running sheet in June nineteen ninety three.
Stated that she appeared to be level headed and fully aware of her intentions under wanted custody of the two children. He subsequently informed her of guidelines in respect to family law matters in a letter which was sent on April six.
The next major document in the police files is a three and a half page report dated July fourteen, nineteen ninety three and written by a detective Senior Constable of Ballina Police, a detective others rather than Graham Diskin or Wayne Temby. The first paragraph of the police report sets the tone.
It states, about nine point thirty pm on Sunday, May sixteen, Bronwyn Joy Winfield born April twenty fourth, nineteen sixty two of Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head went into the main bedroom of the family home and made a telephone call. Shortly after, she walked out the front door of the house, and a car was heard to drive away from the area. Missus Winfield has not been seen or heard from since that date.
This report was circulated among police, but right from the start it fully adopts the version of events that has come from Romwin's husband, John Winfield. There is not a hint of a suggestion that this version from him might be self serving. John was the only purported witness and the last person known to have seen Roman. None of the neighbors or heard a car at nine point thirty
pm stop outside the house. Why wasn't the report's opening expressed factually such as according to the account given by the husband of the missing person, she went into the main bedroom of the family home and made a telephone call. The next misleading point in the report states.
The husband, Jonathan Winfield, has been interviewed no less than six times and he's not been able to offer any ideas as to her whereabouts.
According to the records, the police spoke to John, but they didn't record an interview with him until nineteen ninety eight. No statement was taken from him or anyone else until nineteen ninety eight. The other theme of this police report revolves around Bromman's mental health.
Missus Winfield, according to close friends, appeared to be suffering from a state of mental confusion in the weeks leading up to her disappate appearance, and after visiting a clairvoyant at Lennox Head, she believed that he was her father.
The report discloses that the clairvoyant was put under covert surveillance.
This was carried out for two days and evenings and met with a negative result.
The report then discloses more of John Winfield's version of what happened. When he arrived at the house on the Sunday evening May sixteen.
He stated that his wife met him at the door and they sat and talked for some time in the dining room. The children were then put to bed and both he and his wife had an evening meal.
There is no reference whatsoever to any altercation, and the concerns expressed by Bromwin two solicitors whom she consulted have been minimized.
Inquiries revealed that Jonathan and the two girls left Sandstone Crescent around eleven pm and traveled to Ballina, where he filled the car with petrol and traveled to Sydney. It would appear that whilst the husband was traveling to Sydney, the missing person has returned to the family home, gathered some clothes and her handbag, and made another double zero double five call.
This is a reference to the error made about the telephone call, the one that was actually made at two thirteen pm on a Sunday, and how police somehow misconstrued it as having happened at two thirteen am on Monday.
When listened to for that period, the recorded voice supplies lot of results.
And then after disclosing that Bromman has not been in touch with anyone and apparently left with little to know money and hadn't touched her bank accounts, the report revisits Bromwin's state of mind. The report states.
It is known the missing person was suffering from a mental state of confusion. Documents in the handwriting of the missing person located at the family home indicate that she may have been suffering from mild depression. It would also appear that she carries some form of grudge against certain members of her family over property dealings, and her father
over minor things. On July twelveth, nineteen ninety three, Jonathan Winfield reported to police that he had been absent in Sydney with his children from June twenty sixth to July eleven. Upon his return to Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head, he found that clothing belonging to the missing person, together with photographs, had been taken from the family home.
The unlikelihood of this does not seem to have been considered by police. They know from their inquiries with her bank that she has not withdrawn one dollar of her own money for food or shelter. Why how did they imagine she was supporting herself from May sixteen until the day on which she has, according to John, gone back into the house. Briefly, the final paragraph states.
It is now requested that particulars of telephone calls made by the missing person from her home and from her neighbors be canvassed in an effort to locate her.
In terms of suspicion, none whatsoever is expressed in relation to the husband from whom Bronwyn had newly separated. The only person regarded with suspicion apart from Bromwyn was a local clairvoyant and tarot card reader who was put under surveillance for two days, with more police attention to come.
As the report.
States, arrangements are now in place to have a regional crime squad surveillance unit carry out further observations, particularly of his nighttime activities.
Bronwyn's second cousin, Maddie Walsh, and I have arrived at the home of Terry Batisse and her husband Brian at Ocean Shores, about a half hour drive north of Lenox. When Terry was thirty, she and Bromwan were friends on the local Lenox school's playgroup committee.
I was the treasurer, she was the president, and I think Denise was the secretary. There was this psych called Pendragon hanging around Lennox at the time. She'd been to him and the talk was did he tell her something that made her want to go and hide.
For a little while.
That was the talk that was going around.
And what's obvious from the police files is that after Bromwin disappeared, he was the only person who was put under any kind of surveillance. In subsequent investigations by the then detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor from nineteen ninety eight, the man known as Pendragon was ruled out as a person of interest. Harry recalled Broman's love of children and maternalistic instincts.
Once my daughter was born, I was in balin affair and she saw me and she came up and she was just, oh.
What a beautiful baby.
She was just so overwhelming. It was like, oh, you're so lucky, genuine, very heartwarming, and she was just so kind with my new little baby.
But when Bromin vanished under those bizarre circumstances in May nineteen ninety three, Terry's husband Brian, a former first grade and two time Grand Final winning rugby league player for the Canterbury Bulldogs in the nineteen eighties, immediately fastened onto a grave view.
Terry tom of the story and I said, she's dead. I'll guarantee you'll never see your friend again.
Probably because I said she would never leave those girls, never ever would leave.
Terry was a good shocked when I said that.
I remember why, given that certainty that so many people had that she wouldn't have left her kids, didn't it become a more serious police matter very early?
Definitely, my friend was always onto it. She kept ringing the detective every week, what are you doing?
What are you doing?
And I think people in town may have been dead perhaps, and no one really came to any sort of decision.
Were you scared of him?
No, I guess I can't fright.
Nine out watch the police.
Police goes over.
This will be a try.
Brian police goes over.
He do he ripped himself around, he saw the break, He stepped over three players.
It definitely sounds like when I hear all you guys talking about it, it's something that was kept so under wraps.
It was more of a whisper than a talk.
It was kept in No one disappears at the face of the earth for no reason, So hopefully with the media involvement.
What do you think they will do when police do a good investigation as they did in the second stage of this in ninety eight, and then they get a police brief evidence to the corner, and the corner recommends a prosecution. The DPP, when it says no, never has to explain properly why. In early two thousand and three, the DPP told the police that there's nobody, no evidence that John killed Bromlin, so we're not going to prosecute.
Have they misunderstood something in the evidence that's caused them to come to this negative view.
We don't know, because they don't have to say.
I think a lot of Roman's friends and family believe that if all of the circumstances, if they were all put before a jury, then what.
Other explanations exactly.
You just hope that a fresh set of eyes in the office of the DPP would come along and say, let's take another look at this. Why didn't we prosecute it back in two thousand and three after the inquest.
Well, I still believe then she.
Died that night.
Marilyn Hannigan lives in the nearby town of Ballina these days, but in the nineteen nineties she and her partner Bruce Huxtable were near neighbors of John and Bromwin. In Sandstone Crescent. They were fond of Bromwyn and wary of John. Bruce died in two thousand and five.
The last time I saw her actually standing in the driveway beside the car. Oh my god, she was so tiny and so thin. We lived at fifty seven, just cross the road on the corner, and my partner was a retired senior detective sergeant with police. The first time somebody came to the neighborhood actually and ask us about anything, it was about five months after she disappeared, and Bruce gave this copper a hell of addressing down because he said, she's been missing for five months and it's just now
that you're coming to us the neighbors and whatever. And it was like, you, well, you wouldn't have been on my team mate, and that sort of stuff.
He was with Victoria Police.
Yeah.
Do you recall whether after Bromin disappeared, In the months after she disappeared, what the thinking was about what had happened.
Bruce had pretty well said straight up, oh what the hell has he done with her?
Were you more of the view that Bromin might have wanted to take a.
Break, No, she wouldn't have left those girls and.
Bruce being retired, he didn't feel that he could do.
Anything he could have.
We had a spit catering business that we did go and do a few jobs for police at different times, like Ballana police.
We'd do a pig on the spit. He did know local policemen.
So why do you think there wasn't a whole lot more focus and concern from police but also from the community.
I don't really know.
It just seemed to be a botch from the word go, and I know Dare She would ring them every week and then every month or whatever and ask the police had they gotten news, have done anything new, or.
All that sort of stuff.
She was really dogged. Nothing much ever happened. It just all seems so unfair and awful.
Close your eyes and picture Roman coming in with her daughters.
Yes, yes, it was all about the little girls having their head trimmed, their little friends trimmed, and had them dressed beautifully. And she was always well dressed too, very neat and tidy. You can't help but notice somebody like that, because in Lennox it was all hippie stuff.
Longtime local of Lenox head people like Bernadette Armstrong are hearing about this investigation and striving to help. They've harbored grave concerns for three decades. A retired senior police officer, Glenn Taylor disclosed in the first episode of this podcast series that the original investigation into Broman's disappearance was very poor. The more I talk to people from lenox the more
misguided the nineteen ninety three investigation looks. It's difficult to disagree with the view of many in this place that police back in nineteen ninety three, when the trail was fresh, saw Bromwin as a feckless young woman who'd possibly taken off with another fella. But as Bromin's neighbor and good friend Debhaul described it to me one day recently, it
is a two way street. There were undoubtedly people in Lenox Head who kept their suspicions and knowledge of some things to them, and the police are not mind readers. I have tried to talk to the former Detective Sergeant Graham Diskin, who was in charge of the investigation in nineteen ninety three. His side of things is important, but he has declined to talk about the case. He has been retired from the New South Wales Police for more
than twenty years. In nineteen ninety three, there was a more junior officer, Wayne Temby, who helped Graham discin in those early days. Wayne Temby has been retired for some time too, and he also declined an interview request. Wayne Temby played an integral role in the subsequent investigation in nineteen ninety eight, led by Glenn Taylor, which made so much progress. But you can't silence women like Bernadette Armstrong.
I have to tell you onto this right from the word Joe, I want to see her found.
Bernie's hairdressing salon had pride of place next to a Chinese restaurant in Lennox Head in the nineteen nineties, and opposite was Eden's Takeaway, where Broman worked part time.
I've been churned up the last few days about the podcast. I'll never rest until I find out what happened to that Paul girl. I did thirty six years of hairdressing. I've done thousands of people's hair, especially women, And do you know out of all the people I've done, Bromwan stood out to me and she struck me as the most wonderful, impeccable mother.
I never lost that feeling.
Whenever she came in, I think, oh my god, she's got the dress beautifully. So when that happened that she'd disappeared, there was a fellow called Graham.
Graham disc game discan.
Yeah, yeah, have you heard of him?
Yes, I've heard of him, but I do know that he was involved in the original investigation in nineteen ninety three when Bromin first disappeared.
That's exactly right. But he came into my salon. I didn't know him really from a bar of soap and I was at turning to a lady's here. I was doing her hair and I had another lady in the chair next to her, and he went, Bernadette, I believe you know Bromin Winfield. And I said, oh, yes, she's kind here. And he said, come on, this is where we find the gossip. This is how he spoke to me. Come on, you're in here, all you girls, and you know what she's done. I said, what are you talking about?
And I got on the high horse straight away, and he said, you've got the goss here. I said, I haven't got the goths here. Just spit it out and what do you want? And he went, you know she's run off with somebody. She would have told you she's got a boyfriend. And he went, yeah, come on, he said, she's run away. And I said, listen, stop right now. I said, don't you speak to me like that. And I said, and I'm telling you now that I know nothing about that.
He said it.
About three times, and I thought, you say that again, I said.
Graham, I said, I'm busy.
Oh was wild?
How dare he try to put words in my mouth? Oh, she's got a fellow. She's run up with a fellow. That's what he was saying. Get your fact right, you know, before he come into my place and start spreading gossip. I said, she was a lovely client. That's all I know. I said, I know nothing personally about the girl.
I said, but I'll tell you what.
That's something I would never believe that she's left those two little girls. And you know, I've stuck to that headly all the way through, all the way through, and I'm still still the same. And I complained to them in that ball at the police station. I said, listen, he came in here into my salon and I said, tell me what I thought or knew. She would never have left the Little Girls and I will never change that opinion ever.
Bronwyn is written and investigated by me Headley Thomas as a podcast production for The Australian. If anyone has information which may help solve this cold case, please contact me confidentially by emailing Bronwyn at the Australian dot com dot au. You can read more about this case and see a range of photographs and other artwork at the website Bromwyn podcast dot com. Our subscribers and registered users here episodes first.
The production and.
Editorial team for Bromwin includes Claire Harvey, Kristin Amiot, Joshua Burton, Bridget, Ryan Bianca, far Marcus, Katie Burns, Liam Mendez, Sean Callen, Matthew Condon and David Murray. Audio production for this podcast series is by Wasabi Audio and original theme music by Slade Gibson. We have been assisted by Madison Walsh, a relation.
Of Romwin Winfield.
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