Bronwyn went missing from Lennox Head in 1993. New evidence from her sister could change everything.

Hedley Thomas was deep in his investigation into the disappearance of Lynette Dawson in late 2017, when he heard the name Bronwyn Winfield for the first time.

She was mentioned in passing, her story used as an example to reiterate that cases like that of missing Sydney mother Lynette, were not uncommon.

The similarities between the two women's lives were remarkable. Both mothers to two little girls, both struggling in their marriages, and both vanishing one day out of nowhere — with their husbands claiming they'd left to have a break and just never returned.

All manner of excuses were used to explain away their absences, but those who knew them were adamant; they'd never willingly abandon their little girls.

Listen to Hedley Thomas talk about Bronwyn on True Crime Conversations.

As Thomas' The Teacher's Pet podcast started to make waves in 2018, more and more people started to contact him about Bronwyn.

Had he heard about her? Her case was so similar! Like Lynette Dawson, she was in her early 30s, and was a doting mother and friend. Like Lynette she had been missing for decades.

Would he help them find her, too?

Six years later, with Lynette's former husband Chris Dawson behind bars for her murder, Thomas finally has the capacity to do just that.

Bronwyn Winfeld, 31, was last seen on Sunday May 16, 1993, at her Sandstone Crescent home in Lennox Head, NSW.

She'd recently divorced her husband Jon and moved into a nearby rental with her two daughters Crystal, 10, and Lauren, five. But her part-time wage at a local takeaway shop wasn't going far, and as winter approached, their new home was getting cold.

Jon, a bricklayer, had taken work in Sydney, and Bronwyn — emboldened by her lawyer's insistence that the family home was half hers too — moved her kids back in while he was away.

Bronwyn Winfield, Jon Winfield and their daughter Lauren. Image: The Australian.

She was still unpacking when Jon turned up on the doorstep on Sunday evening. The kids were put to bed and they had an argument, during which Jon says Bronwyn made a call and a car came to pick her up and take her away.

He said she told him she needed to take a break for a little while.

Later that night he woke up the kids, transferred them to the car and drove them all the way to Sydney. As Thomas told True Crime Conversatons, "[Jon] says he got fuel at 11:06pm, and he kept the receipt for that fuel for years and years in his wallet."

It would be two whole weeks before Jon reported his ex-wife missing, and the 1993 police investigation was over before it even started. Before the internet you would call an 0055 number to check all manner for things, and at 2:13pm on the Sunday Bronwyn made a call to check the Lotto results.

"However the police misinterpreted the call being made at 2:30am the next day," said Hedley.

"The police had evidence from Jon that he was on the road to Sydney with a receipt for fuel being purchased at 11:06pm. So the conclusion that the police drew in their internal reports, was that Bronwyn had become aware that her husband had left the house with the children, returned to the house, rang the number [for the Lotto] and then left again."

"It's preposterous. Just unbelievable that you could screw up something so fundamental, so badly," he added.

But the town of Lennox Head never forgot about Bronwyn. They'd heard her lament about a relationship marred by financial abuse, coercive control and isolation.

Thomas says, "[Jon] really scared her," and she even told one of her friends that one day, "he had put his hands around her throat and was acting in a really threatening way."

Some of her friends would regularly call the local police pushing for updates in the years after she vanished. They didn't think enough was being done to find her.

In 1998 police finally began a more serious investigation into Bronwyn's disappearance, and an inquest in 2002 ruled that Bronwyn was dead, recommending her ex-husband Jon be prosecuted over her alleged murder.

But the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions declined to do so.

"I don't believe that we should see that as a final word," said Thomas.

"The same office of the DPP repeatedly refused to prosecute wife killer Chris Dawson. The first time Dawson was prosecuted — after the podcast and a renewed investigation by New South Wales police — a judge acting alone said 'I have no doubt about his guilt.' So I think there's a lesson here... DPPs don't get everything right."

Big breakthrough.

So far, Thomas's podcast Bronwyn has painted a picture of a flawed police investigation and a community living alongside a man they believe murdered one of their own.

One local told Thomas their nickname for the 69-year-old tradie and keen surfer who mainly keeps to himself in the small town is 'JTM', short for 'Jon The Murderer.'

Jon denies any involvement in his wife's disappearance and it must be clear, has not been charged with any offence in connection to it. But the whispers in the small town have never stopped.

Bronwyn's friends and neighbours remember a devoted mother and a beautiful friend who was determined to carve out a new life for herself and her girls. She even had her eye on a new love interest when she went missing — a far cry from the woman Jon painted as "crazy" and having a history of mental illness.

Worlds away from a woman who would run from it all and start again; never touching her bank accounts or anything in her name again.

Bronwyn Winfield went missing aged 31. Image: The Australian.

In early June 2024, Thomas received a phone call from a former Lennox Head resident that changed everything.

"Judy lived very close to Bronwyn and she was up late at night sitting on a balcony that overlooks a street. She says she saw the Winfield family sedan go very slowly along the street... in the back seat there was what looked like a body wrapped in a sheet. She's described it as looking like a mummy."

Judy Singh says an internal light was on in the car and that Jon looked up at her as he slowly drove past.

It's not the first time she has told the story. She tried to tell the police too but, "they didn't take a statement from her. She says they couldn't have been less interested," said Thomas.

This time however, police are taking her seriously. Within two hours of Thomas' podcast going live with the revelation, his team was fielding a call from a NSW police media representative.

NSW Police assistant commissioner and commander of State Crime Command, Michael Fitzgerald, emailed him directly minutes later requesting Judy's contact details.

They say they've been re-investigating the circumstances of Bronwyn's disappearance since 2022 under Strike Force Chelmsbrook and have a $100,000 reward out for information.

With Singh's revelations ringing in his ears, Thomas and a group of volunteers — including an Australian navy diver and Search Dogs Sydney — organised an independent search of nearby Lake Ainsworth. It's only a five-minute drive from Sandstone Crescent and the most obvious place to quickly dispose of a body.

They didn't find anything, and family and friends have shared with Thomas they believe Bronwyn could alternatively be buried at building site in suburban Sydney, where Jon was working. That theory has also been shared with police.

A crucial piece of evidence.

One of Jon Winfield's claims is that Bronwyn returned home to the house and left a Medicare cheque after she went missing. It's a part of what he attests is "proof of life", per The Australian.

He claims that the cheque, bearing what looks like Bronwyn's signature, turned up at the house while he was in Sydney with his children in the July school holidays, over a month after she went missing.

However, Bronwyn's sister Kim Marshall told the Bronwyn podcast that she saw the cheque when she was in the family's Lennox Head home in June, weeks before Jon alleges he 'found it'.

If her memory is correct, it would make Jon's story implausible.

Kim claims that she and Bronwyn had been planning for her to travel to NSW from her home in Tasmania prior to her disappearance. When Bronwyn went missing, Kim, not suspecting that Jon could ever possibly be involved, still went and stayed in the family home in June.

She remembers the cheque because she discussed her sister's beautiful penmanship with Jon, Kim alleges.

"I had a conversation in detail with Jonathan about it, because I love the fact of all the letter-writing that's happened over the years, that Bronwyn's printing is so beautiful… like my mother's running writing and my own writing," Ms Marshall said."I made the comment of how… all of us ladies in the family have the most beautiful writing."

In the investigation, the cheque was sent to Scotland Yard to confirm if the signature was Bronwyn's. Both Andy and Kim allege it was forged.

Kim said that the police have never taken a statement from her about the cheque.

"I've been always discounted and dismissed. In this instance, it's happened again, and I just don't understand why it's not a significant piece of evidence," she told the podcast.

A hope for the future.

Thomas is hopeful that with the renewed focus, Bronwyn's family might finally get some answers. But he's not making promises.

"I don't feel like I'm putting pressure on myself. But I hope that if the evidence puts pressure on those who should be reviewing a case that was always deeply suspicious, then that's a good thing. I can't force an outcome, I can only be the messenger in showing things that have happened [and] evidence that was not properly considered."

He also knows that there are so many more women out there deserving of the attention he's given Lynette and Bronwyn. So many more stalled police investigations from the past that seem to explain away the suspect and apparent 'vanishing' of dedicated mothers and friends.

"I don't believe that mothers just willfully, without any extreme events in their lives, walk out without any warning on their young children," he told True Crime Conversations.

"I don't believe that happens unless there's some intervening event. I just think we have to go back to common sense and our understanding of the incredible bonds that mothers have with their children and ask ourselves, does this pass the smell test? Does this seem plausible?"

You can find Hedley Thomas's full investigation here.

Feature image: The Australian.