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From the Australian, here's what's on the front I'm Christinamiot. It's Monday, June twenty four. Parliament will be back in session before the winter break this week and the PM is planning on a political comeback. He'll focus on cost of living relief in the form of grocery prices, tax cuts and energy subsidies, as well as vaping reforms in a bid to regain ground from the Coalition and the Greens. That story is live right now at the Australian dot
com dot AU. A Westfield shopping center in Adelaide was evacuated on Sunday afternoon after a fight broke out in a food court. South Australian Police said two groups of young men were potentially armed when the clash occurred. The daughter of missing Lennox Head woman Bronwyn Winfield didn't want her stepfather to know she'd made a formal statement to
police about the night her mum vanished. Now a podcast investigation by the Australian's National Chief correspondent Hedley Thomas is shedding light on Crystal's last memory of her mother that's in today's episode. In nineteen ninety nine, Crystal Winfield was boarding with a woman named Kerry McLain in the town of Balina on the New South Wales North Coast. Her stepfather, John was working as a brick lay in Sydney at the time and had taken Cristel's younger sister Lauren down
south with him. Cristel's mother, Bronwyn, had vanished from the family home on Sandstone Crescent six years earlier, on the evening of Sunday May sixteen, nineteen ninety three. Bronwin's mysterious disappearance is the subject of a podcast investigation by The Australian's National Chief correspondent Hedley Thomas, and revelations made in the latest episode have cast Crystal's recollections of that night
in a sinister new light. The episode, titled Did Judy See Bronwyn's Body, is available for subscribers right now at Bronlin podcast dot Com. Kerry Maclin plays a pivotal role in this latest episode. She connected Headley with Judy Singh, a former neighbor of the Winfields, whose explosive account of what she saw on the night of May sixteen, nineteen ninety three, was ignored by police until last week.
And this night I was sitting up and I saw the carl pull out the end of the street in the law was on in a car. There's verly squeaky brakes on that car, and he drove very slowly along the street, but he had left the car hite on. I could see directly into the car, and I had a small lantern on the balcony rail and he kind of looked up this night and I saw this what looked to be like a mummy in the back of the car.
Kerry MacLean also opened her home up to a then sixteen year old Crystal Winfield in the years after her mother vanished.
So those are two big coincidences, Kerrie. One that Crystal is staying with you while police are investigating her mother's suspected yep. And two that your friend who lives in the street witnessed somede.
It was Kerrie who took Crystal to the nearby Ballina Police station in nineteen ninety nine to fire finally make a formal statement about what she remembered about the night her mother disappeared. Her words are being read by a voice actor.
I have attended the Ballana Police station today again of my own free will. I've been very concerned about what has happened to my mother, and I would like the police to conduct a thorough investigation to try and find out what has happened to her.
Cristal gave her statement to Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor years after the fact because the initial investigation into her mother's disappearance was severely lacking.
I am prepared to do that, and I understand that the statement may be given to the coroner to assist in any further inquiry.
Cristal says in her statement that she was at home on Sandstone Crescent with her mother and sister on the afternoon of May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three. They'd moved back in just days earlier after a stint in a townhouse on Byron Street. That's where they stayed after Bronwin and John formally separated two months earlier in March. She says her stepfather, who she calls Dad, returned Sandstone Crescent from Sydney at some stage that afternoon with a woman in tow.
Cristel didn't know her name and says she left pretty quickly. Heather Johnson asked in the podcast Facebook discussion group, if we know who that woman was, you can find it and join the conversation by searching for Bronwyn podcast Official discussion group on Facebook. We know from earlier episodes of Bronwyn that the woman was probably a friend of John Winfield's oldest daughter, Jodi. Twenty two year old Becky maguire.
She said in her statement that John picked her up on his way to Sandstone Crescent on the Sunday afternoon. A voice actor is reading Becky's words.
John must have had a set of keys to the car, because we then got into the car and he drove me home. John didn't go inside the house at all while I was in the house with him. While we were driving back to my house, John thanked me for coming with him and told me he was sorry for getting me involved.
Later in the evening, Cristel remembers Bronwyn and John argued about unpaid bills.
I don't recall what was being said between mom and dad, but I could tell that they were arguing. I could hear them arguing until I must have fellously. My next recollection that night was being woken by my father. Dad told me that he was taking Lauren a night to Sydney. I recall that we packed a small bag of clothes and got into the car.
Crystal says her stepfather stopped to buy fuel at a petrol station near Lennox Head on their way out of town. And we know that's true because when he got to Sydney, John Winfield produced a receipt of payment timestamp at eleven o six pm on the sixteenth. What's not clear is exactly when Judy Singh saw John Winfield allegedly driving the family car with what she fears was Bronwin Winfield's body
wrapped in a sheet. He's never been charged and denies any wrongdoing coming up how Fresh Eyes and Ears turned this case around. Episode seven of Bronwyn is live for subscribers right now at bronwinpodcast dot com, and if you have any information about Bronwin Winfield's disappearance, email Hedley Thomas at Bronwyn at the Australian dot com dot au. We'll be back after this break. Christal Winfield is still close with her sister Lauren. She has a relationship with her stepdad,
John two. Those connections are a big part of the reason she hasn't directly participated in Headley Thomas's podcast investigation into her mother's nineteen ninety three disappearance. She said in her statement to police in nineteen ninety nine that she doesn't know what happened to Bronwyn Winfield or if her stepfather was involved. It wasn't something the trio discussed.
I have not had any contact with my mother since her disappearance in nineteen ninety three. Over the years, I have often thought about what has happened to her. Dad has never brought up my mother in conversation. Basically, over the years, my mother has gradually been built out of our lives. My dad never talks about Mom or his past relationship with her. I have never tried to bring up Mom in conversation with my father. I am aware
that he does not like to talk about her. I am very concerned about what has happened to my mother, and that is why I've attended the police station today to speak to the police.
It's a heartbreaking statement and it took a lot of courage for this teenage girl to go into a police station and offer a statement about her concerns about her mother's disappearance.
Matthew Condon is a senior reporter with The Australian.
And then in the statement to Detective Glenn Taylor, she stayed, very clearly, I would prefer if you don't tell my father that I was here and that I made this statement. Now, why could that be? Clearly the concern she had for her mother overrode I guess any sensibilities she might have had at the time in terms of worrying about whether she was doing the right thing or not. From her point of view, it was important she went to the
police to offer her assistance. And she also, when does the statement, says to urge them to the fullest extent to reinvestigate her mother's disappearance. So she was ten when her mom disappeared. Six years later she made the decision that she would urge the police to forcefully reinvestigate what happened to her mum. She needed answers.
When Kristal Winfield attended Ballina Police Station to make a formal statement in nineteen ninety nine, she implored Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor to conduct a thorough investigation into her mother's disappearance. The veteran former homicide cop had reinitiated the investigation a year earlier after a visit from Bronwin Winfield's brother, Andy Reid and his wife Michelle. Here's how they described it to Headley Thomas in the first episode of bronwin Andrew.
Read and Michelle Reid came to see myself and another detective being Blenor and said, look, and we had some pressure eye put it.
We're just not happy that again the letter which think there's.
More to it, and that with abundantly clear very early in the initially reinvestigation that he needed a lot more work done and then a lot of form of statement. The initial investigation, from what we've learned, certainly from witnesses that have come forward and people interviewed on the podcast, is that there seemed to be from the police perspective that the story of the husband in this case, John Winfield, was largely accepted, and that Bronwyn Winfield was deemed quite
literally a missing person. There's a significant leap from being a missing person to a potential homicide victim. But as Glen Taylor said to me, only this week that a dozen red flags presented themselves to him, just leaped off
the pages. But I've spoken to police friends and retired police colleagues who have said to me that this is a generalization I know, but they will agree now as retired officers that the attitudes in general were lacks that not just in this instance, but in many instances shortcuts were taken out of sight, out of mind. So look, you know, without criticizing other generations of police officers and their work, we can say that a set of fresh
eyes can be critical. And fortunately in this case, Glen Taylor, diligent detective in his day, saw it for what it was. But yet again, after that nineteen ninety eight ninety nine reinvestigation, it went into the hands of the coroner and then it was up to the DPP and thus remained inert for thirty one years.
Within hours of episode seven going live for subscribers, New South Wales Police got in touch with the Australian's National crime correspondent, David Murray. After all these years, they wanted to speak to Judy seeing about what she believes she saw that night. You're a seasoned podcaster and Matt and You've known Headley for a really long time. Why do you think this medium is so effective in moving these cold case investigations forward.
Well, firstly, I mean I covered the trial of Christopher Dawson and his case, which of course stemmed out of Headley Thomas's The Teacher's Pet. We come now to Bronwin and we see again fresh information arising out of a podcast investigation to which the police have reacted to their credit immediately to certainly the witness Judy Sing and what she alleges she saw on the night that Bronwyn disappeared.
We can be thankful that happened in that podcast pretty much, unlike any other component of the media, as a platform can reach hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people, very very quickly. The information coming out of Bronwen and accurately reported was that the initial investigation into Bronwen could
have been better, a lot better. And now with a fresh witness coming forward with this startling information that had never entered the Bronwyn Winfield Missing Persons file courtesy of the power of the podcast, I mean, Headley Thomas is an extraordinary podcaster. He lends his investigative talents now to this amazing medium, and we're seeing in real time the results of that.
Matthew Condon is a senior reporter with The Australian. For all the latest updates on Headley Thomas's cold case investigation, go to the Australian dot com dot au