GUILTY Australia - Lynette Dawson, 34, Sydney, Jan 1982 *Arrest* #4

[DRT]

That theory has a hell of a lot going for it. Dawson was (is) a terrific fantasist,, and this would fit in with his train of thought.

Driving round with her body in the boot.. It's been done, not forgetting it was January.... he would have had to leave the car in the car park at Northside pool for hours... I don't see him doing that, but I can see him doing Lyn's 'running away' for her.

I hate these situations where the husband not only murders his wife, but takes on the role of doctor declaring death, and funeral director. How could BadenClay be sure Alison was dead? what quals did Borce have to pronounce Karen dead? it's all guesswork, but no. go right ahead and bury them.. It is a window into their soul and character of how invincible, how taking ownership of a wife took them to the limits...

ps) January in Sydney is high summer, temp is around 80 to 90, F 34 38 C )

I checked the Sydney Morning Herald Archives because of this chat. The weather for Sydney was forecast as 16 to 24. (60 - 75F) so it was a mild January Day.

 

[DRT]

What do you all think of the lead someone gave to the idea that her body could be on the Central Coast?

Where did that lead come from?

Paul and Marilyn were on holidays at Lake Munmorah on the Central Coast which coincidentally is on the way to South West Rocks. It takes just under 90 minutes now to get there.

It was part of the prosecutions case that Chris Dawson murdered Lyn either alone or with assistance.

Just a guess that is why there is this thinking. Plenty of bushland there.

 

[Trooper]

I checked the Sydney Morning Herald Archives because of this chat. The weather for Sydney was forecast as 16 to 24. (60 - 75F) so it was a mild January Day.

Thanks DRT, I forgot how things were cooler back then! ..

 

[TootsieFootsie]

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Here's the Australian Story Vanished episode on YouTube

 

[K_i_w_i]

"Around 1987 or 1988, the new owners of the Bayview home at Gilwinga Drive visits solicitor Jeff Linder about something else and the conversation turns to the disappearance of Lynette Dawson. Mr Linden is told Chris Dawson recently visited the home and asked where the new owner was digging. No one reported the conversation to police. Jeff Linden has now claimed the conversation was chilling"
From this article

IMO Lynette is still at Gilwinga Drive

 

[TootsieFootsie]

"Around 1987 or 1988, the new owners of the Bayview home at Gilwinga Drive visits solicitor Jeff Linder about something else and the conversation turns to the disappearance of Lynette Dawson. Mr Linden is told Chris Dawson recently visited the home and asked where the new owner was digging. No one reported the conversation to police. Jeff Linden has now claimed the conversation was chilling"
From this article

I remember the new owner talking about Chris Dawson visiting and asking where the new owner was digging.
That was one of the things that me feel certain that he had murdered her and she was there on the property somewhere.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Found it, it was 2018 when the solicitor came forward re the conversation with the new owner.

Chilling visit haunts a magistrate

A serving magistrate has revealed a decades-old secret conversation in which he was told that murder suspect Chris Dawson went back to his old property when the new owners were renovating and asked: Where are you digging

amp.theaustralian.com.au

It's behind a paywall but maybe some can read it.

This article says that Chris Dawson made repeated visits to the property in the years after he'd sold it.
The one where he asked where are you digging was unannounced and uninvited. I presume the others were too.

 

[Trooper]

I did not register before tonight that Lynn, as well as leaving her glasses behind, had left her contact lenses.


No one. NO one leaves their contact lenses behind. What a lack of insight the Northern Beaches Police showed...

 

[DRT]

I did not register before tonight that Lynn, as well as leaving her glasses behind, had left her contact lenses.


No one. NO one leaves their contact lenses behind. What a lack of insight the Northern Beaches Police showed...

There were a couple of things that struck me about the glasses. One thing from Helena's diary about Lyn having an appointment for new contact lenses.

"Wednesday 13th
I waited in all day for her call, which didn’t eventuate. Chris’s didn’t either. Wednesday 13th Lyn had an appointment with Dr King at Dee Why, an eye specialist, to have new contact lenses fitted as she held a credit or $138 for them. She did not keep it and I have recently cancelled the credit with OPSM sanctum."

From the judgement:
285 Lynette Dawson packed no bag. She took no clothes. She appears to have taken no personal items such as toiletries, makeup or jewellery. Even her contact lenses were found amongst her possessions in a blue container when delivered by Mr Dawson with the rest of her belongings. According to Mr Dawson’s account, she stepped from his car in that condition onto the metaphorical footpath at Mona Vale, presumably on this hypothesis by then already having decided never to return.

This was provided by Greg Simms in testimony in returned items.

From JC's evidence
71. Paul Dawson also spoke about this: “Q. How many times, if ever, were you shown a bankcard statement for Lynette Dawson? A. I can’t remember ever being shown a bankcard statement for Lyn Dawson.”

72. JC was taken to a statement that she gave to the police on 18 September 1998, in which she said this: “In 1982 I recall see something a bankcard statement at the house which indicated a transaction involving something connected to an optical purchase. I cannot remember how much it was or any other details or who made the transaction. I cannot remember the circumstances of my actual seeing this statement but it seemed to be an indication that Lyn was still around. Lyn used to wear contact lenses and spectacles."
73 JC confirmed that she gave similar evidence at the coronial proceedings in 2003 in the following terms: “Q. Did you ever see a bankcard statement come into the house? A. I can't recall I think I might have. Q. Can you remember when that was? A. Very early in 1982."

So from this statement from JC in 1982, the optical purchase may have been a credit on the statement for her contact lenses that she never got or a refund for them. The defence trying to make it seem like proof of life, in context this could have meant the opposite.

 

[Via Marple]

I did not register before tonight that Lynn, as well as leaving her glasses behind, had left her contact lenses.


No one. NO one leaves their contact lenses behind. What a lack of insight the Northern Beaches Police showed...

I wonder if this means she had time to take off her glasses or contacts, before she was killed. Which means she could be ready for bed, or already in bed.

 

[hoodunnit]

If CD gave Lynn a "lovely drink", maybe he also gave the little girls something to make sure they slept soundly that night?

I was thinking that. If he moved Lyn the same night/early morning, (even within their own grounds,) there would always be the risk of the girls waking up.

 

[Podcast Tragic]

Found it, it was 2018 when the solicitor came forward re the conversation with the new owner.

Chilling visit haunts a magistrate

A serving magistrate has revealed a decades-old secret conversation in which he was told that murder suspect Chris Dawson went back to his old property when the new owners were renovating and asked: Where are you digging

amp.theaustralian.com.au

It's behind a paywall but maybe some can read it.

This article says that Chris Dawson made repeated visits to the property in the years after he'd sold it.
The one where he asked where are you digging was unannounced and uninvited. I presume the others were too.

This is a question I can't seem to find an answer for. Neville and Sue Johnston bought the house in 1987 from the family that bought it from CD in 1984. Soon after they laid 6 inches of concrete over the "soft soil" area , outside the girls bedrooms. The reason being that water collected in that area. CD visited the house uninvited one day and asked Neville "where are you digging" .CD made several visits to the house over time always uninvited . My question unanswered is at the second dig by police did they actually dig up that concrete slab and dig under it? I was under the impression that future owners (after Neville and Sue) had then renovated and built onto the house using that slab. I read somewhere that at the second dig they did not interfere with the structure of the house. I have searched for this information but can't seem to find any real details of the actual details of the location of the dig.

 

[hoodunnit]

Paul and Marilyn were on holidays at Lake Munmorah on the Central Coast which coincidentally is on the way to South West Rocks. It takes just under 90 minutes now to get there.

It was part of the prosecutions case that Chris Dawson murdered Lyn either alone or with assistance.

Just a guess that is why there is this thinking. Plenty of bushland there.

I read something the other day that suggested the Dawson parents owned property in Ourimbah which is on the way to Lake Munmorah. Looks pretty isolated out there.

 

[Podcast Tragic]

Area in red...soft soil area that was later built over . Did dig 2 go far enough under the extension ???

 

[k-mac]

Area in red...soft soil area that was later built over . Did dig 2 go far enough under the extension ???

what a beautiful quality home. For late 70s this was a lavish comfortable home.
Lyn tried so hard to hang on to all she/they had created.


So glad he is going to spend his dying days in prison for it.

no..they did not dig far enough...we were gob smacked at the time.
We assumed the radar tech satisfied them that they didnt need to.

 

[SouthAussie]

Area in red...soft soil area that was later built over . Did dig 2 go far enough under the extension ???

In 1990, the police used ground penetrating radar. They were said to have focussed on the area around the pool, but perhaps they also went over the floor of the extension.

Ground penetrating radar is likely the only way they could safely see under the house, without digging up the whole extension.

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/courts-law/chris-dawson-murder-trial-inside-the-case-that-gripped-a-nation/news-story/ef5224494ab2eb3dca0639a2ac771ee1

 

[Cliff Hardy]

That Chris Dawson returned to Gilwinga Drive and asked the owners where they were digging has to set off alarm bells.

If Lyn is still buried at Gilwinga Drive, Chris Dawson must have been sweating bullets during the police dig and could not have possibly believed his luck when they came up empty.

We can only hope his daughters shame him into divulging where he buried Lyn.

 

[Via Marple]

That Chris Dawson returned to Gilwinga Drive and asked the owners where they were digging has to set off alarm bells.

If Lyn is still buried at Gilwinga Drive, Chris Dawson must have been sweating bullets during the police dig and could not have possibly believed his luck when they came up empty.

We can only hope his daughters shame him into divulging where he buried Lyn.

Or some future owner decides to knock down and rebuild..

 

[Trooper]

Those jeans, on Lynns Bankcard. Harrison leaned towards Marilyn signing for those jeans... I reckon it was a case of Paul and Marilyn going off piste, on their own, with the family solicitor finding out about it and ending that little adventure.

Which, I think, is why Marilyn signed off on the Insurance policy. a bit of leaning heavily would have done the trick. The insurance policy was money, estate, lying around doing nothing, and therefore possibly Dawson territory. ..

Back in those days. no internet, for Dawson to satisfy a family court judge , since he wanted to marry again, he would have had to cough up with a fair whack of money, around the time that insurance policy was signed off on. Interstate phone calls ( with lots of please hold on, sir ) , Lots of paperwork, some international mail and phone work (no email then ), document translation, translators, and so on. I asked a friend how much this would cost, he said today, about $11,000.00... then, about the same but money meant more.


One more thing. the jeans. Lynn made her own clothes..Tencel wasn't around then, (1992)..the jeans. When you join this up with Dawson's declaration that she ran off to join a cult, looking up some of them, religious cults he claimed, like the Family, the Plymouth bretheren. the reformed Bretheren, theTruth church, all this stuff.. the last thing they let the women wear are pants/trousers. Denim, wool, cotton. Absolutely not. Longish dresses, hats, and gloves. Aprons. Sensible shoes. Lynn would have had to undergo an entire personality change to cop that kind of clothing.

So it's a fair call that Lynn either did not buy those jeans, or did not enter into a religious cult. the two things being anathema to the other.


(Back then, wearing black stockings was considered a sign of a depraved mind, married women working was only just allowable, and not by much, pantihose was suspicious, and girdles and garters still went thru the wash cycle. Lyn was a bit of a holdout not being a driver, though. I would say, 70% of her peers would be drivers. )

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Re Lyn not driving.
Maybe Chris wanted her more or less dependant on him to go places.