Search for Bronwyn Winfield dives deep - podcast episode cover

Search for Bronwyn Winfield dives deep

Jul 11, 202414 min
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Episode description

The Australian’s podcast investigation into the disappearance of Bronwyn Winfield searches a body of water near where she was last seen.

Find out more about The Front podcast here. You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian’s app.

This episode of The Front is presented and produced by Kristen Amiet, and edited by Josh Burton. Our regular host is Claire Harvey and original music is composed by Jasper Leak.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

A warning before we start. This episode contains serious allegations of physical assault and murder from The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamiot. It's Friday, July twelve. A woman whose visa was canceled by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles under the flawed Direction ninety nine will appeal the decision in the Federal Court. It could be a huge legal headache for the government if more foreign criminals caught up

in the immigration bungle take their cases to court. That exclusive story by Brihannon Down is live right now at The Australian dot com dot a U. A twenty eight year old man was charged with three counts of domestic violence related murder on Thursday after a fire at his home in Western Sydney killed two boys aged six and two and a five month old baby. The man was also charged with five counts of attempted murder relating to his partner and four other children, who escaped the inferno

with the help of a neighbor. The ex wife of John Winfield told police the Lenox Head bricklayer choked and threatened to kill her. That's a stunning allegation made In the latest installment of an investigation into the disappearance of Winfield's third wife, Bronwyn in nineteen ninety three, John Winfield has denied all wrongdoing. We'll have more on that later.

In the episode first up, the podcast series by National Chief correspondent Headley Thomas dives deep in search of the missing lennox Head Mum Lake Ainsworth on the New South Wales North coast. The Tea Tree Lake is a literal stones throw from Lennox Head's famed seven Mile Beach on its eastern edge. It's here that the road ends, and

passage between the two is only possible on foot. It's twelve hectares or about twenty football fields of deep, dark fresh water, stained by tannets from the paper bark trees that hug its perimeter. In the warmer months, locals and tourists pull up stumps, swimming and barbecuing their way through long summer days. And it's here, in this deep still water that some friends and family believe Bronwyn Winfield's body

has been hidden for thirty one years. Bronwyn Winfield vanished from her home on Sandstone Cresset in lennox Head on the evening of May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three. On that night, she tucked her two little girls into bed and kissed them good night. Her husband, John Winfield says she was feeling overwhelmed by the disintegration of their relationship and caring for the two little girls on her own, and he says she'd relayed her intentions to take a break from

it all for a couple of days. Then, he says, she made a phone call, got into a car at the front and left their Sandstone Crescent house around nine thirty pm. Bronwin hasn't been seen or heard from since. John Winfield has denied all wrongdoing. Bron Win Winfield's mysterious disappearance is the subject of an investigative podcast by The

Australian's National Chief correspondent Headley Thomas. In that series, Bronwin's loved ones have voiced their grave concerns about what they believe happened on the night she disappeared three decades ago.

Speaker 2

With the shortest route if you're looking for a body of water is Lake Ainsworth.

Speaker 1

That's Bronwyn Winfield's brother, Andy Reid. He was joined by his wife Michelle. In episode nine of the Bronwyn podcast.

Speaker 3

The street on the right hand side of the lake, and if you go up there you can nearly at some point back your car or path right beside the edge of the road, and the water is right next to you.

Speaker 4

What's the function of the surfboard.

Speaker 2

To be able to take there out to the center of the lake where it's quite deep way down, drop her off the board, paddle back in, come on, pick up the girls file out to Sydney.

Speaker 1

Lake Ainsworth is about seven minutes drive from Sandstone Crescent, potentially faster at night when there are less cars on the road and fewer pedestrians milling about. Andy Reid and others believe it's plausible Bronwin Winfield met with foul play sometime after her children went to bed, and that her husband bundled her body into the family car, paddled out on Lake Ainsworth and submerged Bronwin's body into that dark water.

Speaker 2

Swim all the way out out to the middle. She could jump back on paddlebacking. Job done ten minutes flat. It's a terrible thing to be thinking of. That makes sense.

Speaker 1

Ronman's cousin, Madison Walsh, has just completed a degree in forensic science and believes searching the lake is a worthwhile exercise. She's been assisting Heady with this investigation into the disappearance of the cousin who vanished before she was born.

Speaker 5

I think we need to get a sona a side scan sona because they have found so many people. I will happily die if we find something and the police aren't doing anything, so might just have to be asked.

Speaker 1

And so off they went. On a windy weekend in early July, Headley, Maddie and a contingent of search and rescue experts, including a former Australian Navy captain, traveled to Lake Ainsworth where they probed its murky depths for signs of Bronwyn Winfield.

Speaker 6

Of interest. So I'll get this the view ready, We'll get the battery ready.

Speaker 1

In some intriguing discoveries were made, like a brick pulled from the lake's depths.

Speaker 6

Rapairs is potentially something I'd larger than than what I've been seeing, so I'd love to get the diver down to investigate what it could potentially be. It's in the far northwest corner of the lake, which correlates the potentially attract of it well.

Speaker 4

This was a very different type of search because the police had no connection to this.

Speaker 1

Headley Thomas is the Australian's National Chief correspondent and the creator of the investigative podcast Bronwyn.

Speaker 4

It was really conducted by volunteers, Solely volunteers who had specialized training. We had Ash mc donald, a very highly trained scuba diver, former Australian Navy captain, and Chris Darcy who has a lot of experience and doing searches of terrain and underwater. He has site Scancena and he also has cadaverdocs and they gave their time, their equipment. They traveled from Sydney and Newcastle respectively, and we're very grateful. And this is the lake that is very close to

the beach north of Lenox. It's loved by the locals and it was a popular place for Bromwin and John two when they lived together in Lenox. It must have been a really difficult time for Andy. He'd come up with his daughter Caitlin and they were very apprehensive, but also I think joining in what was a really positive community spirit. People came down to see what we were doing. Friends of Bromwin, people who have been featured in the podcast,

who have helped me with the investigation. They also came down to the shore and you know there was a nice atmosphere, but everybody knew that. You know, we were looking for Bromman's body. That's what Andy wanted to find. And he said at one point, you know, wouldn't it just be remarkable if I went out on the boat with Chris and found my own sister's body.

Speaker 1

Coming up? What's next for this remarkable investigation. Subscribers to The Australian here episodes of bronwin First episode ten is live right now at bronwanpodcast dot com. A subscription also includes all of the australians world class journalism and commentary, as well as breaking news alerts, newsletters and special events. Join us at the Australian dot com dot au and we'll be back after this break.

Speaker 7

There's been a development in a suspected murder of New South Wales mother bronwyn Winfield more than three decades ago. A witness account which was previously dismissed, is now being considered by detectives.

Speaker 1

Headley Thomas's investigative podcast series into the disappearance of Lennox head mother Bronwin Winfield has advanced her case in leaps and bounds since it first aired in late May. It brought to the extraordinary account of Judy Singh, who was ignored by New South Wales police assigned to the investigation in those early days when Bronwyn Winfield was being treated as a missing person, not a potential homicide victim.

Speaker 8

I could see directly into the car and I saw what looked to be like a mummy in the back of the car, and I thought, would it be going late at night with you know something that looked like I just called it a mummy and I thought, well, ign if he was taking out belongings, you wouldn't make it look like a body, do you know?

Speaker 7

Men.

Speaker 1

In the weeks since that episode was released, police have interviewed Judy sEH at length and visited her old stomping ground near Sandstone Crescent in order to finally understand what she says she saw on the evening of May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three, the last time Bronwyn Winfield was seen

alive and still the revelations are coming. Episode ten of Bronwyn released for the Australian subscribers on Thursday revealed disturbing allegations made by John Winfield's ex wife about their relationship. Jennifer Mason married John Winfield when she was a teenager, after falling pregnant with his child in early nineteen seventy four.

In a statement to police made in nineteen ninety eight, when the detective Glenn Taylor finally conducted a thorough investigation into Bronwin Winfield's disappearance, Jenny Mason claimed she was scared of Winfield's temper and alleges he choked and threatened to kill her. A voice actor is reading part of that statement.

Speaker 9

I recall on one occasion when he pushed me back onto the bed because answers back to him. On that time, he scared me a great deal. He said to me, I'll kill you if you say that again. And at the time he had his hands around my throat and was squeezing. I remember I managed to say go ahead. Into my surprise, he kept squeezing me around the throat. I managed to kick him in the groin and I got away from him and hit in the outside laundry.

Speaker 1

When Headley first began work on Bronwin he believed the series would comprise six, maybe eight episodes, but now there are ten, running at about an hour apiece. If you ran all the scripts back to back, you'd have enough for a pretty chunky book. And that's to say nothing of the many drafts and edits that don't make the final cut. Now the podcast will take a break.

Speaker 4

Something remarkable has happened. During the eight weeks we've been releasing weekly episodes. We've been deluged with information from members of the public. Friends and acquaintances of Bronwyn and John have been sharing a lot too. Hundreds of listeners have contacted me via Bronwyn at the Australian dot com dot au with information, and some of it is we believe

very significant. Our Facebook group, the Bromwyn Podcast Official Discussion Group, has become a lively exercise in crowdsolving, with listeners constructively putting together maps and timelines to try to work out what might have happened. As a result, the narrative arc

of the Bromwyn series has changed fundamentally. One of the key reasons this investigative podcast began was because I believe Bromwyn's disappearance and alleged murder could still be old This belief has only grown stronger as the series has unfolded.

Speaker 1

Headley Thomas is The Australian's National Chief correspondent and the creator of the investigative podcast ron Wynn. Thanks for joining us on the front this week. Our team is Claire Harvey, Jasper leik Leat Sammagloo, Josh Burton, Matthew Condon, Tiffany Dimmack and me Kristen amiet

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