Lynette Dawson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lynette Joy Simms 1948 New South Wales, Australia |
| Disappeared | 9 January 1982 (aged 33) Bayview, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Status | Missing for 40 years, 5 months and 29 days |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Spouse(s) | Chris Dawson (m. 1970; div. 1983) |
| Children | 2 |
Lynette Joy Dawson (born 1948) was an Australian missing person who disappeared on 9 January 1982, leaving two daughters and her husband, former rugby league footballer Chris Dawson. [1] Her whereabouts are unknown, but two coronial inquests have found that she had been murdered. [2] In December 2018, Chris Dawson was charged with her murder and, in June 2019, pleaded not guilty. In February 2020 he was committed to stand trial for the murder of his wife.
Lynette Simms and Chris Dawson, both aged 16, met at a high-school function in 1965. They were married in 1970 at St Jude's Church, Randwick in Sydney [3] [4] and later had two children. [5] Between 1972 and 1976, Chris and his identical twin brother Paul played professional rugby league football for the Newtown Jets. In 1975, the Dawson brothers and their spouses appeared on the ABC documentary program Chequerboard to discuss how the twins' close bond affected their lives. [6]
After ending their rugby careers, the Dawson brothers found employment as physical education teachers, with Chris working at Cromer High School near Sydney. Both Chris and Paul are alleged to have regularly engaged in illicit sexual behavior with female students at their respective schools; Chris is further alleged to have been one of six male teachers who preyed on students at Cromer High School. [7] In 1981, Chris groomed and slept with Cromer student Joanne Curtis, who temporarily moved into the Dawson family residence in Bayview at Chris' invitation. [3] She permanently moved into the residence on 10 January 1982, two days after Lynette's disappearance. [3]
Lynette was phoned by her mother on 8 January 1982, the last time they would communicate with each other. [8] She planned to meet her mother and family at Northbridge Baths the following day, but she never arrived. [8] Chris didn't report his wife as missing until 18 February 1982, six weeks after she had vanished. [3] He claimed that she left after marital problems caused over her Bankcard spending. In a statement to police, Chris suggested that she had joined a religious organisation. He finalised divorce proceedings against Dawson in 1983; and the following year married Curtis. [3]
After investigations by the New South Wales Police proved inconclusive, the NSW State Coroner conducted two coronial inquiries into Lynette's disappearance. At the first inquest held in February 2001, the Deputy State Coroner Jan Stevenson determined that Lynette had been murdered and that her killer was someone she knew. The coroner recommended charges be laid; however Nicholas Cowdery QC , the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, assessed that there was insufficient evidence for a criminal conviction. A second inquest, held in February 2003 by State Coroner Carl Milovanovich, recommended Chris be charged with Lynette's murder. [3] [4] [9] [8] Cowdery again refused to prosecute Dawson, citing the lack of evidence. [3]
In April 2018, following extensive investigations, NSW Police requested the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to review its brief of evidence. [3] Chris was arrested in Queensland in December 2018, extradited to New South Wales, and charged with the murder of his first wife. [10] [11] He was granted bail; [12] and in June 2019 pleaded not guilty to her murder. [13] In February 2020, Chris was committed to stand trial for the murder of Dawson. [14] He is also facing a charge of carnal knowledge with a girl between the ages of 10 and 17, relating to his sexual relationship with Curtis while still a teacher at Cromer High School. [15]
A 16-part Australian crime podcast series, The Teacher's Pet , by Walkley Award-winning journalist Hedley Thomas of The Australian , was broadcast in 2018 with large amounts of evidence that was not collected by any of the police investigations. [16] The series has close to 30 million downloads [17] and created a large amount of public interest in the case, [16] but was made unavailable in Australia in consideration of the ongoing legal proceedings.
Alice Lynne "Lindy" Chamberlain-Creighton is a New Zealand-born Australian woman who was wrongfully convicted in one of Australia's most publicised murder trials. Accused of killing her nine-week-old daughter, Azaria, while camping at Uluru in 1980, she maintained that she saw a dingo leave the tent where Azaria was sleeping. The prosecution case was circumstantial and depended on forensic evidence.
Michael Leigh Chamberlain was a New Zealand-Australian writer, teacher and pastor falsely implicated in the August 1980 death of his missing daughter Azaria, which was later demonstrated to be the result of a dingo attack while the family was camping near Uluru in the Northern Territory, Australia. Chamberlain's then-wife Lindy was falsely convicted of the baby's murder in 1982 and he was convicted of being an accessory after the fact. The findings of a 1987 royal commission ultimately exonerated the couple, but not before they were subjected to sensationalist reporting and intense public scrutiny.
Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain was a nine-week-old Australian baby girl who was killed by a dingo on the night of 17 August 1980 during a family camping trip to Uluru in the Northern Territory. Her body was never found. Her parents, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent by a dingo. However, Lindy was tried for murder and spent more than three years in prison, despite there being "no body, no evidence of motive and no eyewitness evidence that even vaguely incriminated the Chamberlains" and that "it appears that none of these witnesses—campers, rangers, trackers, searchers or local police who initially attended the scene—doubted that the baby had been taken by a dingo". Michael was also put in jail for some time. Lindy was released only after Azaria's jacket was found near a dingo lair and new inquests were opened. In 2012, 32 years after Azaria's death, the Chamberlains' version of events was officially supported by a coroner.
Juanita Joan Nielsen was an Australian newspaper publisher, journalist and activist, and heiress of the Mark Foy family. She was notable for her advocacy against the urban development on heritage Victoria Street, Kings Cross, Sydney, and her support for the Builders Labourers' Federation's Green Bans. Nielsen disappeared in Kings Cross in July 1975. The people responsible for her disappearance have never been identified, and her remains have never been found.
Dianne Elizabeth Brimble died aboard a P&O Cruises cruise ship of a drug overdose. She is alleged to have been neglected and received callous treatment at the hands of passengers, and to have been given the drug without her knowledge or consent. The investigation into her death has resulted in widespread media coverage in Australia, and criticism of both party culture aboard cruise ships and of the investigation immediately following Brimble's death.
The Cromer Campus of the Northern Beaches Secondary College is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school, located in Cromer, a suburb on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
The 2004 Palm Island death in custody incident relates to the death of an Aboriginal resident of Palm Island, Cameron Doomadgee on Friday, 19 November 2004 in a police cell. The death of Mulrunji led to civic disturbances on the island and a legal, political and media sensation that continued for fourteen years.
Daniel James Morcombe was an Australian boy who was abducted from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland on 7 December 2003 when he was 13 years old. Eight years later, Brett Peter Cowan, a former Sunshine Coast resident, was charged with Morcombe's murder. In the same month, DNA tests confirmed bones in the Glass House Mountains were Morcombe's. On 13 March 2014, Cowan was found guilty of the murder, and was sentenced to life imprisonment for indecently dealing with a child and interference with a corpse.
Louise Yvonne Faulkner and Charmian Christabel Alexis Faulkner were a mother and daughter who went missing from St Kilda, Victoria, Australia, in 1980. As of 2022, no-one has been charged over the disappearance and no bodies have been found.
Rahma el-Dennaoui is a Lebanese Australian girl who went missing on 10 November 2005, when 19 months old. She was last seen early that morning in the bedroom of her home in Lurnea, Sydney, Australia, where she and her siblings slept. Despite a police search and investigation, appeals to the general public and a coronial inquest in 2012, no trace has been found of the child as of May 2019.
Shirley June Finn, née Shewring, an Australian brothel keeper, nightclub operator and socialite who was shot dead at about midnight on 22–23 June 1975 in Perth, Western Australia. Her body, dressed in an elaborate ball gown and expensive jewellery, was found at dawn in her car, which was parked on a golf course next to a busy freeway. The murder is notable because of Finn's close relationship with Western Australia Police detectives who, in that era, controlled and regulated Perth's prostitution and gambling activities. The crime remains unsolved. A coronial inquest held between 2017 and 2020 returned an open finding with an acknowledgement that "it was most likely she was killed because she had tried to blackmail police about corruption."
Tina Watson was a 26-year-old American woman from Helena, Alabama, who died while scuba diving in Queensland, Australia, on 22 October 2003. Tina had been on her honeymoon with her new husband, fellow American Gabe Watson, who was initially charged by Queensland authorities with his wife's murder. Watson pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
Anthony John "Tony" Jones was an Australian man who disappeared while backpacking in North Queensland in November 1982. The case garnered substantial mass media attention, with critics charging that police mishandled the investigation into Jones' disappearance.
Keli Lane, a former Australian water polo player and teacher was convicted of the 1996 murder of her newborn baby, Tegan, and of three counts of making a false declaration. Lane is serving an 18-year prison sentence and will be eligible for parole on 12 May 2023, after serving a period of 13 years and five months in custody. On 18 April 2011, Lane's lawyers lodged an appeal against her conviction at the same time as a Sydney taxi driver alleged he saw Lane dispose of the child. Her final application for appeal was rejected by the High Court in August 2014.
Mervyn Henry Stevenson (1926-2001) served as a Queensland police officer from 1947 until 1982. He started as a bush cop and ended up as the superintendent in charge of the Townsville Police District, though his retirement years were tainted with the spectre of corruption.
The Osmington shooting was a familicide in Osmington, Western Australia, Australia, on 11 May 2018, in which Peter Miles, a 61-year-old retired high school farm manager, shot dead his wife, daughter, and four grandchildren, before calling police and then committing suicide. It is the worst shooting incident in Australia since the Port Arthur massacre of 1996.
Christopher Michael Dawson is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s.
The Teacher's Pet is a 2018 Australian crime podcast that investigated the disappearance of Lynette Dawson. Published by The Australian newspaper, the podcast was hosted by journalist Hedley Thomas and produced by Slade Gibson. As of 2020, the series has had close to 30 million downloads and reached number one in podcast charts in Australia, the UK, Canada, and New Zealand.
Simone Monika Strobel was a 25-year-old German kindergarten teacher and backpacker whose body was found at a sportsground in Lismore, New South Wales, six days after being reported missing from the caravan park where she had been staying. An initial inquest in 2007 found insufficient evidence to lay charges over her death.
Shandee Blackburn was a 23 year old woman who was murdered in Mackay, Queensland, Australia in February 2013. Shandee's ex-boyfriend John Peros was initially charged with her murder but was then acquitted in 2017 at trial. A podcast by The Australian's Hedley Thomas was released in late 2021 which detailed the entirety of the case.
