Bronwyn

Police Commissioner Karen Webb and her top Homicide detectives come under fire.

Bronwyn’s brother, Andy Read, calls out a lack of effort, urgency and competence in the police investigations of his sister’s case, which has been hopelessly bungled all the way back to 1993. Commissioner Webb and her top Homicide detective Danny Doherty look uncomfortable and unwilling to talk about a case which has embarrassed detectives for three decades.

Jon insists that Bronwyn went back to the house in Sandstone Crescent about six weeks after her disappearance, yet nobody saw her. Jon says Bronwyn left behind a Medicare cheque – and he says she must have signed it.

Jon adds that Bronwyn took two bags of her own clothing as well as a pair of Jon’s jeans. It’s proof of life, according to Jon. Andy, Megan and Kim ridicule his claims. The signature on the cheque appears to be a crude forgery. 

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]

If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14.

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A politician and a leading newspaper speculate that a serial killer could have murdered Bronwyn and 66 other women on the New South Wales north coast over the past three decades.

Bronwyn’s daughter Chrystal – who still supports Jon Winfield – welcomes news of a possible serial killer instead of her step-father being responsible for Bronwyn’s presumed slaying.

In stark contrast, other members of the Read family point the finger at Jon. The powerful emotions and different views fuel family tensions and lead to Chrystal icing cousin Madi Walsh. Bronwyn’s youngest daughter, Lauren, who also backs her Dad, hits out at podcast listeners, calling some "gutless keyboard bullies who think they're detective heroes".

Analysis of Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor’s 1998 interview with Jon raises more mystery because of Jon’s omission of key information about what he did for a few hours in the Shire, the day after Bronwyn disappeared on the night of May 16, 1993.

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]

If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For 31 years, key parts of Jon’s story have been taken for granted.

Even while he has been a longtime murder suspect, nobody challenged Jon’s claims that he made two long-distance telephone calls from the house at Sandstone Crescent on the night Bronwyn was last seen alive. The first call, he claimed, was made to his daughter Jodie. The second one to his brother Peter.

Hedley Thomas and Matt Condon delve deeply into Jon’s own words from his recorded interview with police in 1998, and they test the veracity of these claims by retracing his steps on the fateful night. They conclude that Bronwyn, not Jon, made those calls when she was fearful about his return.

Pro sleuthing by avid listener and experienced lawyer Karina Berger as she searches for an airline’s flights timetable from 1993 leads to a breakthrough. But Jon says Bronwyn has just started a new life with a mystery boyfriend.

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]

If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14.

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What was going on in Jon’s marriage to Bronwyn leading up to the separation in 1993?

Why did he suddenly take a flight from Sydney one Sunday afternoon to return to the house in Lennox Head when Bronwyn moved back in with her daughters? What did Bronwyn say and do when he turned up at the front door? What did they talk about when he went inside the house? Did he know that Bronwyn was getting legal advice about her rights to the property?

These questions and many more are asked in Jon’s only interview with the then Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor. Analysis of his answers throws up new leads as renowned forensic biologist Dr Kirsty Wright advises Hedley and Madi on how a possible crime scene should have been quarantined and examined.

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]

If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A surprise message opens a long-closed door to Jon’s secret past.

Sonia Lee has been listening to every episode in the Bronwyn podcast series while weighing the right time to come forward for the first time. She made a promise to her grandmother on her death bed to tell the truth about her biological father when the time was right.

A man she has never known— but is now hearing so much about.

In a remarkable interview with Hedley Thomas, Sonia Lee reveals her biological father is Jon Winfield, and his then-girlfriend was 15 and left heartbroken when Jon denied being the father. He refused to help her or his baby.

Bronwyn’s sister-in-law, Michelle Read, recovers an historic document from the files of the police Unsolved Homicide unit, confirming Jon’s conduct. Sonia Lee says Jon needs to stop lying. She hopes her truth can help solve Bronwyn’s cold case. 

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]

If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An update from the Bronwyn team: Listen to a taste of Episode 15, the latest in Bronwyn's second season.

The full episode is live now at bronwynpodcast.com, where you can also see subscriber-only content like photographs, maps, timelines. 

If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can contact our team confidentially by emailing [email protected]

If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An update from the Bronwyn team: Listen to a taste of Episode 13, which kicks off Season 2.

The full episode is live now at bronwynpodcast.com, along with episodes 11 and 12.

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]

If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of The Australian's daily news podcast, a family ‘curse’, an audacious scam, and a remarkable young woman helping to solve the mystery of Bronwyn Winfield’s likely murder. 

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 by Claire Harvey, produced by Kristen Amiet, and edited by Lia Tsamoglou. Original music is composed by Jasper Leak.

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Distressing evidence from Jon Winfield’s first wife, Jennifer Mason, was part of the police brief which the then-Detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor believed would result in a prosecution over Bronwyn’s disappearance.

A dispute over the identity of her first daughter’s father resulted in Jon challenging one man to have his DNA tested.

At Lake Ainsworth, on the northern edge of Lennox Head, locals joined with volunteers and Bronwyn’s brother, Andy, to try to find her body beneath the dark, stained waters.

Bronwyn’s half-sister Kim helps to discover what Bronwyn meant when she wrote that she was going “on a short break”.

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]

If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A short walk from the sandy northern beaches of Lennox Head is a lake loved by locals and visitors alike.

It is deep only in a few places, but nobody can see the bottom - the waters of eerie Lake Ainsworth are always dark because of staining from the leaves of the Tea Trees which flourish on the foreshore.

As a result of Judy Singh’s disclosures, Andy Read and locals including Murray and Scruffy fear Bronwyn’s body has been at the bottom of the lake since May 1993.

Madi has been doing her homework on the possibilities and she wants to start searching. But a house block near bushland in the ‘Shire’ south of Sydney, where Jon was bricklaying immediately before, and after, Bronwyn’s disappearance, is also under a cloud of suspicion.

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]

If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.