Episode 29: Out Of Character

Did Bronwyn have a secret boyfriend with whom she was having a clandestine relationship before he spirited her away from her daughters and her Lennox Head home? Was Jon’s neighbour Murray affected by painkillers or cannabis when he says he saw Jon leaving the house with his car’s engine and its lights off on the night Bronwyn disappeared? Was such a departure even unusual for Jon? The bricklayer’s lawyer Craig Leggat turns up the heat on witnesses on Day 3 of the inquest. Bronwyn’s close friend and neighbour Deb Hall answers the challenge as the legal strategy approved by her estranged husband and alleged killer pivots to depict the missing mother of two as a fantasist with multiple lovers.  Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com. If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bronwyn’s state of mind and powerful maternal instincts for her two daughters face a determined challenge as Jon’s side depicts the missing mother in a negative light. Bronwyn’s care for Chrystal and Lauren comes into sharp focus when Jon’s lawyer asks if it would have been out of character for the Lennox Head mum to go to a Saturday night party, leaving the girls home alone. Witness after witness reject the suggestions. Andy’s wife Michelle is combative as Jon’s lawyer questions her closely. It’s decision time too – we decide whether to move on Illawong to attempt a dig, ahead of the current State Coroner and homicide detectives. The wait for an answer from authorities is excruciating for Andy. Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com. If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jon’s lawyer Craig Leggat does his homework, analysing witness statements and other documents to discover significant and inconsequential flaws in the evidence. He knows that if things go badly in the inquest, Jon faces a murder charge. But if defects in the evidence are properly highlighted, there’s a chance Jon can walk away. Bronwyn’s cousin Megan Read faces another torrid time in the witness stand because Jon and his lawyer see her evidence as the weakest link. Bruised but not beaten, Megan finally gets a reprieve, and then it’s the turn of Scruffy, his wife Maria, and Andy. Bronwyn’s brother shares his suspicions that the missing mother of two was dumped in a septic tank in Sandstone Crescent. Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com. If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bronwyn’s friend and cousin Megan Read drops new bombshells while under oath on Day 2 of the inquest. Megan gives evidence at the coronial inquiry about having been told by Jon Winfield that he saw and spoke to Bronwyn in Brisbane, several years after her disappearance. Jon’s lawyer starts a fierce cross examination of Megan in the witness box. Jodie also comes under renewed scrutiny for pushing a claim that Bronwyn has been happily living in a hippie community. The claim appears baseless and police officer Matt Fordham challenges Jodie for having omitted key details when she put it around. Jodie says that she opened a personal letter meant for Chrystal with photos of her missing Mum.  Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com.  If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The inquest into Bronwyn’s disappearance hears that when detective Glenn Taylor attended Jon and Bronwyn’s former family home at Lennox Head, dozens of photographs lined the walls. Glenn only started investigating the unsolved case five years after Bronwyn disappeared, and Jon was still living at the same property in Sandstone Crescent. The pictures in the home included happy snaps of Jon and daughters Jodie, Chrystal and Lauren, but Bronwyn had been erased. Not one image in the house showed Bronwyn, the detective says. Jon’s lawyer Craig Leggat seizes his chance to question Glenn in the witness box, raising purported sightings of Bronwyn and other evidence he suggests points to the missing mother still being alive. But on the first day of the inquest, coroner Carl Milovanovich isn't convinced, saying that there were also still sightings of long-dead rockstar, Elvis Presley. With another four days of the inquest to go, the coroner gives his preliminary view that there isn’t any prospect in the world that Bronwyn has survived. Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com.  If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For more than 140 years, the Lismore courthouse has stood firm through a procession of natural disasters. Withstanding everything nature has thrown at the town, the courthouse has witnessed a tragic roll call of cases. Cases such as the alleged shooting murder of local mother Carolyn Stuckey by her enraged husband, pharmacist Allan Stuckey. And cases like Bronwyn’s. In 2002, Bronwyn’s family and friends gather at the court for an inquest that explores in detail her disappearance and suspected murder. Proceedings stretch over five days in front of deputy state coroner, Carl Milovanovich. Day one begins with evidence from the first detective to ever conduct a thorough investigation into what happened to Bronwyn, Glenn Taylor. It is Glenn’s last official duty as a police officer after two decades as a detective on constant callout to serious crime scenes. He summarises the evidence of witnesses and concludes by stating that there is very strong circumstantial evidence a known person, namely Jon, was responsible for her death. Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com.  If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this special live event recorded at the Art Gallery of NSW on a warm late summer evening, listeners and Bronwyn's family gather for a Q&A with the podcast team, including Hedley Thomas, David Murray, Matthew Condon, Madi Walsh and Claire Harvey. Through panel discussion and thoughtful audience questions, we examine twists in the story so far, including the mystery of how Jon Winfield became a beneficiary of Beverley Brooker's estate, and explore the status of the police investigation. There are deep reflections on toxic relationships, violence against women and coercive control, and Hedley reflects on efforts to have the site at Illawong searched.  As always, we find moments of humour — and enjoy an opportunity to thank the people who make it all possible: our listeners.   Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com. If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

News of Jon Winfield’s windfall and changes to the Will of his near-neighbour, Bev, shock the Lennox Head community and galvanise Bev’s friends and relations. Bev’s cousin Cathy comes forward and says she was isolated from knowledge of what had happened to her lifelong friend, Bev. Cathy describes having been ‘warned off’ by a gruff man using Bev’s phone after her death. Cathy and her husband Les are aghast and they’re back in touch with their cousin’s brothers Geoff and Paul. A legal challenge could force Jon to justify his handling of the Will and his whopping inheritance. In New Zealand, a medical doctor comes forward publicly to vouch for Judy Singh, the retired nurse who is adamant she saw Bronwyn’s body wrapped in sheets in a car being driven by Jon, who emphatically denies wrongdoing. Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com. If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lennox Head locals are suspicious of Jon’s motives with a well-off elderly woman who lives alone and has a terminal illness. Jon has been spending a lot of time at her ocean-facing house, helping with renovations and an expensive makeover. As she’s dying, the woman buys two new cars and new furniture and appliances. Her two brothers are shocked when they finally get hold of her will after she dies and discover she has changed it to make Jon the new prime beneficiary and executor. Almost everything in her multimillion-dollar estate is left to Jon, a stranger to her brothers, who investigate legal action believing she was of unsound mind. Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com.  If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Investigations reveal Jon’s fast work to get federal government welfare payments diverted from Bronwyn’s bank account to his account when she went missing. The single parent pension and other payments to Bronwyn to help her raise the children were cut off quickly after Jon said it should be going to him. Andy Read says Jon’s actions were not those of someone expecting Bronwyn to come back. A ‘lightbulb moment’ during filming with the podcast team at Hedley’s house results in Andy making a formal approach to the State Coroner, asking her to order a proper search under the slab of the house at Illawong. The retired detective sergeant Glenn Taylor has become highly suspicious of the slab as a result of fresh information. He says police should be looking there as a priority. Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com. If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can – contact our team confidentially by emailing [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.