# Episode 5: Detectives, Red Flags and Failure

An episode of [Bronwyn](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1748010922), 20 Jun 2024, 1 h 15 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/0e400008-7145-4507-9ec3-b16f003bc21e/52990f0a-8153-40e6-b529-b18d0064542a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=9c4a5876-5f11-4f95-b245-b16f003c3379

Analysis of police internal running sheets and other files from 1993, when Bronwyn disappeared in Lennox Head, reveals remarkable red flags – yet local detectives still didn’t treat the case as probable foul play. After making fundamental errors with key evidence on the timing of phone calls, documents show that the cop in charge suggests Bronwyn has left the house voluntarily and returned to Sandstone Crescent to make a call at 2.13am to check lottery results. Bronwyn’s sister-in-law Michelle Read discovers an extraordinary police failure. Women who were questioned back then express their frustration at the tone and conduct of the 1993 investigation. Other informants come forward after hearing the podcast. Meanwhile, rallies across Australia raise a national crisis of domestic violence and the murders of women. 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 bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au If you need support, Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Listeners are advised that this podcast series Bronwyn contains coarse
[0:04] Speaker 1: language and adult themes. This podcast series is brought to
[0:08] Speaker 1: you by me Headley Thomas and The Australian. Bronwin's good
[0:42] Speaker 1: friend Anise Barnard and her husbands are making plans. They
[0:47] Speaker 1: are going to sell the house Denise loves and Fareweller
[0:50] Speaker 1: community in which they have lived for about thirty five years.
[0:55] Speaker 1: They are moving a few hundred kilometers north to be
[0:58] Speaker 1: closer to their children on Queensland and Sunshine Coast.
[1:02] Speaker 2: Just go and start a new life with my family.
[1:05] Speaker 2: Time to move on and be with my granddaughter.
[1:08] Speaker 3: And how do you feel about leaving all these memories
[1:13] Speaker 3: and after se many years?
[1:16] Speaker 4: Oh, I'm fine stoke.
[1:21] Speaker 1: As we chatted at her home, I showed Denise the
[1:23] Speaker 1: brief snippet of video of Bromman. The bit filmed while
[1:27] Speaker 1: she visited her father Philip in a Brisbane hospital. He
[1:31] Speaker 1: was gravely ill after a liver transplant and would die
[1:35] Speaker 1: days later.
[1:36] Speaker 2: Sometimes you'll blink or wink or move his head if
[1:40] Speaker 2: I think he's responding.
[1:41] Speaker 4: It makes me feel a lot better. But all I
[1:43] Speaker 4: ever telling me said he's going to get better. Wow.
[1:48] Speaker 2: It's exactly how she looked. It's amazing to see her,
[1:52] Speaker 2: see her talking.
[1:53] Speaker 5: You forget how people sound.
[1:56] Speaker 4: Too much time gone by.
[2:00] Speaker 1: Right after hearing and seeing Bromin on the screen of
[2:03] Speaker 1: my laptop at an outdoor table, Denise disclosed something unexpected
[2:08] Speaker 1: and do you.
[2:09] Speaker 2: Know Broman's third person of my friends that's gone missing
[2:13] Speaker 2: without a trace. You would have heard of Wi Borkin
[2:16] Speaker 2: and Julie Jamison. Yeah, there were two of my friends
[2:20] Speaker 2: in Sydney that disappeared, never a trace of them ever.
[2:23] Speaker 2: Both nurses then rumored I'd heard Ivan Latt.
[2:28] Speaker 4: They're eighteen. Whatever happened to them?
[2:32] Speaker 2: How do people just disappear and you never see them again?
[2:40] Speaker 5: Welcome to the program.
[2:41] Speaker 6: His crimes left a trail of fear and sorrow stretching
[2:44] Speaker 6: all the way from Australia to Europe. Ivan Malatt remains
[2:48] Speaker 6: a key suspect for a spate of unsolved murders dating
[2:51] Speaker 6: back to nineteen eighty.
[2:54] Speaker 1: In May two thousand and six, ABC News reported.
[2:58] Speaker 7: Serial killer Ivan Malatt has been named as a person
[3:01] Speaker 7: of interest at an inquest into the deaths of two
[3:03] Speaker 7: Sydney nurses. Westmead Coroner's Court has heard that Gillian Jamison
[3:08] Speaker 7: and Deborah Balkan were last seen in a Western Sydney
[3:11] Speaker 7: hotel in nineteen eighty. The coroner has recommended the case
[3:15] Speaker 7: be referred to the Unsolved Homicide Squad for further investigation
[3:20] Speaker 7: outside the court. Detective Sergeant Ian McNab said the case
[3:24] Speaker 7: would indeed be referred to the Cold case Unit.
[3:28] Speaker 1: Detective Sergeant McNab said, it's always frustrating if you can't
[3:32] Speaker 1: solve the matter.
[3:35] Speaker 4: A more timely day.
[3:36] Speaker 3: When Bromin disappeared, what did you believe had happened?
[3:42] Speaker 2: Well, I hadn't seen her for a little while. I'd
[3:45] Speaker 2: gotten right into the gym. She was working at Eden's
[3:48] Speaker 2: and doing other things. And I think the first call
[3:51] Speaker 2: I got was from Andrew, her brother, and he said
[3:55] Speaker 2: had I seen Brown? And I said no, I hadn't,
[4:00] Speaker 2: And then that was followed up by Debbie. Were you
[4:02] Speaker 2: all started this wear issue? What's happened to her?
[4:06] Speaker 3: Do you remember talking to police in nineteen ninety three,
[4:11] Speaker 3: immediately after Bromin vanished?
[4:14] Speaker 4: No, I don't think I did speak to police.
[4:17] Speaker 3: Did it take until nineteen ninety eight when you gave
[4:20] Speaker 3: your statement?
[4:21] Speaker 4: No, I think it was nineteen ninety eight.
[4:24] Speaker 5: Do you know why do you know why police didn't
[4:29] Speaker 5: speak to you?
[4:29] Speaker 4: I have no idea. Yeah, I don't remember.
[4:34] Speaker 5: Well, you know, it's understandable.
[4:36] Speaker 3: We're going back thirty one years to when Bromin disappeared.
[4:41] Speaker 3: One of the things that I think people like Debbie
[4:44] Speaker 3: and others have some regrets over is that the suspicions
[4:51] Speaker 3: they had were not acted upon by police or even
[4:56] Speaker 3: by themselves at that time.
[4:58] Speaker 5: In ninety three. You've said that you formed the suspicion
[5:04] Speaker 5: straight away.
[5:06] Speaker 2: Well in that time period, you know, recently after she disappeared.
[5:10] Speaker 5: Are we talking days, weeks, months?
[5:12] Speaker 4: Probably weeks?
[5:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, after talking to like back then, Andrew, Debbie, obviously
[5:19] Speaker 2: we're all on board talking about what was going on
[5:22] Speaker 2: and the night the car went down the driveway and
[5:25] Speaker 2: all that sort of thing. That I've never gone from
[5:28] Speaker 2: the assumption that I think he did something, whether it
[5:31] Speaker 2: be in the heat of the moment, that's how I
[5:33] Speaker 2: believe it happened. But I've never waited from that. He
[5:38] Speaker 2: from memory, filed a missing person report, yes, and I
[5:44] Speaker 2: believe at the time a lot of that was that
[5:47] Speaker 2: they believed John that she'd just gone off and disappeared.
[5:52] Speaker 4: Left him yeah, and.
[5:55] Speaker 2: Why would you if you loved your girls, why would
[5:57] Speaker 2: you ever want to assume a your identity and even
[6:00] Speaker 2: go and set up again. Unless she had a plan
[6:03] Speaker 2: to maybe set yourself up and then come back and get.
[6:06] Speaker 4: Them, But no, I don't think it's pausible.
[6:12] Speaker 1: In an earlier episode, you heard Denise disclosing what she
[6:16] Speaker 1: told police when they came to her for a statement
[6:19] Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety eight, five years after Bromwin's disappearance.
[6:24] Speaker 2: I still recollect when she told me that he had
[6:27] Speaker 2: had her by the throat up against the wall and
[6:30] Speaker 2: that she was frightened.
[6:33] Speaker 3: It's not an easy question to ask, but I have
[6:35] Speaker 3: to ask. Do you think that Bromwin's friends could have
[6:39] Speaker 3: should have said more, done more early on to raise
[6:43] Speaker 3: the alarm.
[6:44] Speaker 4: Yes, I'm sure we should have. I don't know even
[6:51] Speaker 4: now why we didn't.
[6:54] Speaker 3: Presuably you could have formed the group of mums you
[6:59] Speaker 3: were for playgroup and all gone to the police station
[7:01] Speaker 3: and said, hey, we think she's met with foul play.
[7:05] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[7:05] Speaker 4: I don't know why we didn't do that.
[7:07] Speaker 2: Even now, I don't that would be what I would
[7:09] Speaker 2: do now, But back then, I don't know why we didn't.
[7:13] Speaker 2: For a while did we believe that as John had said,
[7:16] Speaker 2: she'd gone away for a while to have a break.
[7:18] Speaker 2: But after that, why didn't we go?
[7:19] Speaker 4: I don't know.
[7:23] Speaker 1: And in other cases, I've talked to people who say
[7:26] Speaker 1: that the hope that someone they really loble are very
[7:32] Speaker 1: close to will come back prevents them from accepting that
[7:38] Speaker 1: foul play has occurred.
[7:39] Speaker 5: There's this candle that they keep alive.
[7:44] Speaker 2: I don't think at any time I thought she was
[7:45] Speaker 2: going to come back after that?
[7:50] Speaker 4: Why didn't I do anything? I don't know.
[7:54] Speaker 2: Was it my husband saying, oh no, that John's a
[7:56] Speaker 2: good bloke. Nothing, there wouldn't been anything like that happening.
[7:59] Speaker 2: Did I tend to go that way for a while?
[8:02] Speaker 4: I don't know.
[8:03] Speaker 5: Was that Lester's view?
[8:06] Speaker 4: My husband's always sat in the fence. He knows my feelings.
[8:11] Speaker 4: He's always set in offense about it. But where is she?
[8:14] Speaker 2: Then?
[8:14] Speaker 4: I said to him, or where is she? If she's
[8:16] Speaker 4: still around?
[8:16] Speaker 5: Where is she?
[8:18] Speaker 4: Yeah? Currently answer that, Penny.
[8:23] Speaker 5: Have you understood why he's sat on the fence.
[8:27] Speaker 4: I just think it's just a blokey thing.
[8:30] Speaker 1: As I write this, another ABC News story reports on
[8:34] Speaker 1: a national summit about violence perpetrated by men against.
[8:38] Speaker 8: Women at its first national round table, the Federal Circuit
[8:43] Speaker 8: and Family Course of Australia looks to find solutions to
[8:46] Speaker 8: a growing emergency.
[8:47] Speaker 4: It is a national disgrace and has tell me do
[8:50] Speaker 4: more about it. There is no doubt it is getting worse.
[8:54] Speaker 7: So we do have a national crisis in this country
[8:57] Speaker 7: and this Court is absolutely committed to making sure that
[8:59] Speaker 7: it's playing it's part.
[9:00] Speaker 8: Addressing the crowd was the Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, who
[9:04] Speaker 8: called on men to step up.
[9:06] Speaker 4: One death of a woman at the hands of a
[9:09] Speaker 4: man is one too many. One death a week is
[9:13] Speaker 4: an epidemic.
[9:14] Speaker 8: At least twenty four women have been killed in Australia
[9:17] Speaker 8: this year, ten more than this time last year.
[9:21] Speaker 4: In Victoria.
[9:21] Speaker 8: They include Samantha Murphy, Sweza Madigani, Rebecca Young and Hannah Maguire,
[9:27] Speaker 8: all allegedly murdered by men, and as the community grieves,
[9:31] Speaker 8: outrage grows. Last week, hundreds took the streets of Balaras
[9:36] Speaker 8: demanding action.
[9:40] Speaker 1: The ABC's journalist at the summit, Leanne Wog, reported it's rare.
[9:45] Speaker 8: For judicial leaders to speak out publicly on any topic.
[9:49] Speaker 8: Today's round table is a clear sign of the crisis
[9:52] Speaker 8: facing Australia amid surging levels of family violence and violence
[9:56] Speaker 8: against women.
[9:57] Speaker 9: A call to action for a nation in mourning.
[10:01] Speaker 1: My friend and colleague Claire Harvey is regularly reporting and
[10:05] Speaker 1: analyzing policy and cases concerning domestic violence.
[10:16] Speaker 10: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front coming up.
[10:19] Speaker 10: Why domestic violence has suddenly rocketed to national attention. The
[10:22] Speaker 10: Australian spent decades leading the conversation on domestic violence, coercive
[10:27] Speaker 10: control and the safety of women. Domestic violence now takes
[10:30] Speaker 10: up well over half police time, but there are deep
[10:33] Speaker 10: flaws in the systems of prosecution and protection. Sarah Eisen
[10:38] Speaker 10: is a political reporter with The Australian.
[10:40] Speaker 11: We've had twenty seven murders of women in the first
[10:44] Speaker 11: four months of twenty twenty four. There's never been as
[10:46] Speaker 11: many women killed in the first four months of.
[10:48] Speaker 4: Any year ever.
[10:50] Speaker 11: There's a real concern that the national plant and violence
[10:53] Speaker 11: against women and children just isn't really working.
[10:56] Speaker 7: Say it was.
[11:01] Speaker 10: At one of the rallies on the lawn in front
[11:03] Speaker 10: of Parliament House in Canberra. Prime Minister Anthony Alberanesi took
[11:07] Speaker 10: the microphone.
[11:11] Speaker 9: To the mind that governments of all levels must do better.
[11:15] Speaker 10: The declaration was met with cheers, jeers and tears. Victims
[11:21] Speaker 10: can obtain apprehended violence orders, but offenders can ignore them
[11:24] Speaker 10: if they're determined enough. Police can arrest perpetrators, but magistrates
[11:28] Speaker 10: can grant them bail, or they can serve light sentences,
[11:32] Speaker 10: which leaves victims doubly vulnerable.
[11:57] Speaker 1: In my conversations with Madison Walsh, who was born a
[12:00] Speaker 1: decade after her blood relation Bromwin disappeared, we kick around
[12:05] Speaker 1: ideas and angles.
[12:07] Speaker 5: It helps to share. So, Maddie a couple of things
[12:11] Speaker 5: I'd like you to do.
[12:14] Speaker 1: Timelines are so important, definitely in cases like this. They
[12:19] Speaker 1: help us understand what's going on, Who said, what, when,
[12:23] Speaker 1: what happened. As you go through it, it'll become more
[12:27] Speaker 1: and more detail.
[12:28] Speaker 12: Lynn's niece did a timeline years before I got involved
[12:32] Speaker 12: in the Teacher's pet She did this for the month
[12:36] Speaker 12: of January because it was a crucial month leading up
[12:38] Speaker 12: to when the disappeared. I remember talking to once to
[12:41] Speaker 12: a great criminal lawyer, and he said timelines win cases.
[12:48] Speaker 1: Maddie has driven from the northern beaches of Sydney to
[12:51] Speaker 1: meet me at the home of Bromwin's brother Andy Reid
[12:54] Speaker 1: and his wife Michelle in the Shire near Qunella in
[12:57] Speaker 1: the south. We are looking at the time John spent
[13:01] Speaker 1: in the Shire after he arrived in the family sedan
[13:04] Speaker 1: on the morning of Monday May seventeen, nineteen ninety three,
[13:08] Speaker 1: with the two children, Lauren and Crystal. They had driven
[13:12] Speaker 1: through the night from Lennox. The children should have been
[13:16] Speaker 1: in school in Lenox, but instead they were in Sydney.
[13:20] Speaker 1: According to John, Bronwin had told him on the Sunday night,
[13:24] Speaker 1: May sixteen that she needed a few days away, a
[13:28] Speaker 1: short break.
[13:29] Speaker 5: They ended up staying with you for how long?
[13:33] Speaker 13: Think about ten days? Yep, Because by then he kept stalling.
[13:38] Speaker 13: He kept stalling about going back, and we said, John,
[13:41] Speaker 13: the kids need to be back into school.
[13:43] Speaker 9: I want you to take the kids back up.
[13:45] Speaker 1: By this stage, Andy knew that the authorized break in
[13:49] Speaker 1: by Bromwin's neighbor Murray at the house at Sandstone Crescent
[13:53] Speaker 1: had not provided clues to the whereabouts of Bromwin, and
[13:57] Speaker 1: Bromwin hadn't turned up for work at Eden's takeaway on
[14:01] Speaker 1: Wednesday May nineteen. Where was he staying while his children
[14:06] Speaker 1: were with you?
[14:07] Speaker 9: The first night he slept in our place.
[14:10] Speaker 13: But on the Wednesday, when Bromin obviously didn't turn up
[14:12] Speaker 13: to the takeaway shop, he wasn't comfortable enough. He was
[14:16] Speaker 13: seeing the kids at our place, might have dinner with us,
[14:18] Speaker 13: but then he go and sleep.
[14:19] Speaker 9: At his parents.
[14:20] Speaker 13: And by very early in that next week, I'd made
[14:24] Speaker 13: the decision that and I'd confronted him and said, either
[14:28] Speaker 13: I'm going to cradle a police station to report brom
[14:30] Speaker 13: And missing now, or you pack the kids up, you
[14:33] Speaker 13: take them back home, and you report a missing.
[14:36] Speaker 9: So which one is it?
[14:40] Speaker 13: He opted said, I'll get the kids back up there,
[14:42] Speaker 13: get them back into school, and I'll go.
[14:44] Speaker 5: And report a missing.
[14:45] Speaker 1: He went back to Ballina and he did report brom
[14:49] Speaker 1: And missing in late May.
[14:51] Speaker 13: Yes, in hindsight, there's no way in the world that
[14:54] Speaker 13: I would have let John report her missing if I
[14:57] Speaker 13: knew the ramifications that would lead me too.
[15:02] Speaker 1: As Bromwin's next of kin, John Winfield was at a
[15:05] Speaker 1: distinct advantage.
[15:08] Speaker 5: The police policy.
[15:09] Speaker 1: At the time meant they dealt first and foremost with
[15:12] Speaker 1: next of kin of a missing person. In circumstances where
[15:16] Speaker 1: the next of kin, for example, the husband should have
[15:20] Speaker 1: been a number one person of interest. When Lynne disappeared
[15:24] Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two from her house at Bayview on
[15:27] Speaker 1: the Northern Beaches and from her two children. Her husband
[15:30] Speaker 1: Chris Dawson, was next of kin. Chris had reported Lynn
[15:35] Speaker 1: missing some five and a half weeks after she disappeared,
[15:39] Speaker 1: and even though Lynn's brother, Greg Simms was a police
[15:42] Speaker 1: officer at the time, he was effectively excluded by police
[15:47] Speaker 1: in the early years they deferred to Chris. The Northern
[15:52] Speaker 1: Beaches cops told Greg that as his sister's husband was
[15:55] Speaker 1: the next of kin, they would deal with him try
[16:00] Speaker 1: number of occasions sting out missing persons, and because I
[16:03] Speaker 1: wasn't the next to king Chris Dawson was, they wouldn't.
[16:07] Speaker 5: Tell me anything.
[16:09] Speaker 10: Pass hands were tired, as well as Griggs, as well
[16:11] Speaker 10: as everybody's because she was classed as a missing person
[16:15] Speaker 10: and we were not next to kin.
[16:18] Speaker 1: In this way, Lynn's killer got preferential treatment.
[16:22] Speaker 13: Because at that stage I had to jump through that
[16:25] Speaker 13: many hoops to be the person that was doing Bromwin's
[16:30] Speaker 13: official next of kin on police records, it was just stonewalled, stonewalled,
[16:35] Speaker 13: stonewalled by John Winfield.
[16:37] Speaker 9: I know you can't, we can't put Bromin's.
[16:39] Speaker 13: Picture on a milk carton because that'll upset the kids.
[16:43] Speaker 9: Can't do this, that'll upset the kids.
[16:46] Speaker 1: What do you recall about your contact with Detective discu It.
[16:52] Speaker 13: I had several conversations with Detective chrome Discin, but knowing.
[16:59] Speaker 9: What we know now, none of what they did earlier.
[17:03] Speaker 9: The piece was very thorough.
[17:05] Speaker 14: John's the husband.
[17:07] Speaker 15: He was having all the stay seven hundred kilometers away.
[17:12] Speaker 15: We're down here with two little kids. He's up there.
[17:16] Speaker 15: He had an answer for everything.
[17:19] Speaker 1: Did you say to Detective discon or any of the
[17:22] Speaker 1: other officers in the weeks or even months after Browin disappeared. Look,
[17:28] Speaker 1: I think that this could be foul play.
[17:33] Speaker 13: Yeah, I'd said to him straight out. I don't think
[17:36] Speaker 13: this is right. I do not think this is right.
[17:40] Speaker 13: This is so out of character of my sister. You
[17:43] Speaker 13: need to investigate that.
[17:46] Speaker 1: I have been reading the original police running sheets, a
[17:50] Speaker 1: contemporaneous record kept by police which shows who was contacted,
[17:54] Speaker 1: with a date and a brief summary for each entry.
[17:58] Speaker 1: The running sheet shows that on May twenty eighth, nineteen
[18:01] Speaker 1: ninety three, the day after John Winfield reported Brodman missing,
[18:06] Speaker 1: a police officer, Julie Donovan.
[18:09] Speaker 16: Spoke with doctor Chris Mitchell, who stated Winfield last saw
[18:13] Speaker 16: him on May fourteenth, nineteen ninety three. Was aware of
[18:17] Speaker 16: marriage problems, however, did not find Winfield to be depressed.
[18:21] Speaker 16: Spoke with manager Peter Jacobson at Commonwealth Bank. Stated that
[18:25] Speaker 16: there was an account in the name of Bronwin Winfield
[18:27] Speaker 16: in San Suzi that was receiving a family supplement. However,
[18:31] Speaker 16: up to date money had gone in from supplement but
[18:34] Speaker 16: none taken out.
[18:36] Speaker 1: There is another entry for eleven am. On May thirty,
[18:40] Speaker 1: Denise Barnard and Deborah Hall attended the police station.
[18:45] Speaker 16: Both girls stated very much out of character for Winfield
[18:48] Speaker 16: to leave children. Hall informs that on May fourteen, Winfield
[18:53] Speaker 16: started to move back into house at Sandstone Crescent.
[18:57] Speaker 1: The entry shows that deb Hall discovered those two police
[19:01] Speaker 1: what John had told deb that John and Romlan had
[19:05] Speaker 1: an altercation on the Sunday evening May sixteenth, when John
[19:10] Speaker 1: arrived at the house. That's the word in the police
[19:14] Speaker 1: document from nineteen ninety three, altercation. The Collins Dictionary defines
[19:20] Speaker 1: an altercation as a noisy argument or disagreement. According to
[19:26] Speaker 1: the running Sheets, police officer Julie Donovan spoke to the
[19:29] Speaker 1: clairvoyant and tarot card reader who had been receiving visits
[19:33] Speaker 1: from Bromlin, but he said he had not seen Bromlin
[19:37] Speaker 1: since early May. On June one, Detective Graham Diskin's name
[19:42] Speaker 1: features prominently in the running sheets.
[19:45] Speaker 14: Two pm, visited Sandstone Crescent, spoke to husband Jonathan Winfield,
[19:51] Speaker 14: inspected house and obtained letters written by missing woman. Questioned
[19:55] Speaker 14: husband further and delved into past.
[19:59] Speaker 1: It must have been a relatively brief inspection and conversation
[20:03] Speaker 1: with the person who had a noisy disagreement with his
[20:06] Speaker 1: wife and was the last person to see her alive,
[20:10] Speaker 1: because at three pm Detective Discan was at the Rental
[20:13] Speaker 1: Accommodation in Byron Street, where he talked to the owner,
[20:16] Speaker 1: Shirley Taylor. Half an hour later, Detective Sergeant Discan went
[20:21] Speaker 1: to the Ballina Taxi Service depot to see if Broman
[20:24] Speaker 1: had possibly traveled out of town in a cab. The
[20:28] Speaker 1: next day, June two, he contacted Australian Federal Police, who
[20:32] Speaker 1: told him Broman had not held an Australian or New
[20:35] Speaker 1: Zealand passport since nineteen eighty and he was advised that
[20:39] Speaker 1: Broman had not applied to travel overseas. Graham Diskin then
[20:44] Speaker 1: contacted Telecom, which was the name then for the telecommunications
[20:49] Speaker 1: company now known as Telstra.
[20:51] Speaker 14: To obtain phone usage at home. Since sixteen May nineteen ninety.
[20:55] Speaker 1: Three, he reported that there were three relevant long distance
[21:00] Speaker 1: or meeted telephone calls. His records do not indicate any
[21:05] Speaker 1: reference to local calls. The first long distance call was
[21:10] Speaker 1: made at six point fifty three pm on the Sunday
[21:13] Speaker 1: and it was to John's daughter Jody Winfield in Sydney.
[21:17] Speaker 1: The second was just thirteen minutes later, at seven oh
[21:21] Speaker 1: six pm, and it was to John's brother Peter Winfield
[21:24] Speaker 1: in Sydney. It seems that John was letting family members
[21:28] Speaker 1: know that he had arrived safely after the flight from Sydney.
[21:32] Speaker 1: The third number, however, is a curious one. In the
[21:36] Speaker 1: official police running sheet, Detective Sergeant Graham Diskin has reported
[21:40] Speaker 1: that this number was called at two thirteen in the morning,
[21:44] Speaker 1: and that was the morning of May seventeen, a Monday.
[21:49] Speaker 1: It is a strange time for someone to be making
[21:51] Speaker 1: a telephone call. Remember, neither John nor Broman was using
[21:56] Speaker 1: mobile telephones then. All these calls were made from fixed
[22:00] Speaker 1: home phones or landlines. Now John Winfield must have been
[22:05] Speaker 1: well on the way to Sydney in the early hours
[22:08] Speaker 1: of Monday morning. But the actual number which police claimed
[22:12] Speaker 1: was called from the house at Sandstone Crescent at two
[22:16] Speaker 1: thirteen am was also unusual. It started with zero zero
[22:22] Speaker 1: five five, and that meant it wasn't a normal long
[22:25] Speaker 1: distance call, it was some kind of service. Graham Diskin
[22:30] Speaker 1: compared the number with other numbers he saw on uncollected
[22:34] Speaker 1: mail enclosing Roman's telephone bill for the separate Byron Street
[22:38] Speaker 1: rental accommodation and here's what the detective reported in the
[22:42] Speaker 1: running sheet for June two, nineteen ninety three.
[22:47] Speaker 14: Account shows that missing person had called the double zero
[22:49] Speaker 14: double five numbers on a number of occasions prior to
[22:52] Speaker 14: moving back to the family home. Unusual that the husband
[22:56] Speaker 14: stated that he left the family home at eleven pm
[22:59] Speaker 14: on May sixth, nineteen ninety three, and a double zero
[23:02] Speaker 14: double five number was called at two thirteen am on
[23:06] Speaker 14: May seventeen, nineteen ninety three. It may well be that
[23:10] Speaker 14: the missing person has returned to the family home after
[23:12] Speaker 14: the husband left allegedly at eleven pm, But.
[23:16] Speaker 1: Detective Sergeant Diskan had misunderstood something very fundamental. He made
[23:22] Speaker 1: an error with significant ramifications. Contrary to what he wrote
[23:27] Speaker 1: down in the police running sheet. The information obtained from
[23:31] Speaker 1: the telephone company by the detective does not show that
[23:35] Speaker 1: a call from the home phone at Sandstone Crescent was
[23:38] Speaker 1: made at two thirteen am on Monday May seventeen. In fact,
[23:44] Speaker 1: it shows that the call was made at two thirteen
[23:48] Speaker 1: pm in the afternoon of Sunday the day before, and
[23:53] Speaker 1: there was no mystery about it. Bromwin or someone else
[23:57] Speaker 1: it could have been Crystal had called the number to
[23:59] Speaker 1: get the results for the weekly lotto draw. Here's Michelle
[24:04] Speaker 1: Reid with her husband Andy.
[24:07] Speaker 15: They told us that they checked the phone records and
[24:10] Speaker 15: someone had been at the house after John had left.
[24:13] Speaker 15: They'd been making phone calls to some doub double five
[24:17] Speaker 15: number which ended up the police couldn't check it up
[24:21] Speaker 15: because those numbers were banned from.
[24:23] Speaker 4: The police station.
[24:24] Speaker 15: Because someone at the police station had been ringing sex
[24:27] Speaker 15: lines and that was straight out of his mouth, leading
[24:30] Speaker 15: us so long thinking someone had done that in the
[24:33] Speaker 15: middle of the night, and the fool of a man
[24:36] Speaker 15: had said what happened in the am and it was
[24:40] Speaker 15: actually in the pm of the day before. He didn't
[24:43] Speaker 15: even get that right, and from that mistake that led
[24:48] Speaker 15: all of the original police officers up there to think
[24:52] Speaker 15: that shed They all believed that Broman had gone off,
[24:57] Speaker 15: so they were.
[24:59] Speaker 9: At all thinking John had done anything.
[25:03] Speaker 15: John ran with that, He ran with that, He ran
[25:07] Speaker 15: that she had to please said please, said, she's someone.
[25:10] Speaker 17: Ring the phone.
[25:11] Speaker 15: I left at eleven o six and must have been
[25:15] Speaker 15: Bromlin because no one else had a king.
[25:19] Speaker 1: But that discovery is not made for five years, a
[25:21] Speaker 1: long time.
[25:23] Speaker 15: Until the next lot of policemen took over.
[25:26] Speaker 5: That was a royal creup point.
[25:28] Speaker 13: And it was actually Michelle found that out because Michelle
[25:31] Speaker 13: was looking at phone records trying to point out numbers
[25:33] Speaker 13: and that for them, and that's.
[25:34] Speaker 9: When Michelle turned around and went, hey, on.
[25:37] Speaker 13: This phone call was never there was no No one
[25:39] Speaker 13: ever returned to the house and made a phone call
[25:41] Speaker 13: at two am on the in the Monday morning after
[25:44] Speaker 13: midnight Sunday.
[25:45] Speaker 1: No one the detective's a mistake over the timing of
[25:49] Speaker 1: this telephone call appears to have had a crucial bearing
[25:53] Speaker 1: on the course of the investigation. The misunderstanding lent weight
[25:58] Speaker 1: to discons theory that had slipped back into the house
[26:02] Speaker 1: after John had left. This was despite other evidence which
[26:06] Speaker 1: in my view, should have already been ringing loud alarm bells.
[26:10] Speaker 14: Inquiries at the Commonwealth Bank indicate that her bank account
[26:13] Speaker 14: has not been touched to date.
[26:16] Speaker 1: The running sheets become more detailed over the following days.
[26:20] Speaker 1: At nine thirty am on June three, Detective Sergeant Discan
[26:24] Speaker 1: teamed with Detective Wayne Temby and they went back to
[26:28] Speaker 1: talk to Deborah.
[26:29] Speaker 14: Hall, unable to assist with any further information except for
[26:33] Speaker 14: a conversation relayed to her by John Winfield that on
[26:37] Speaker 14: the night she left, she informed him that she had
[26:40] Speaker 14: the opportunity of getting away for a few days and
[26:43] Speaker 14: was going to take the opportunity. Paul is very surprised
[26:46] Speaker 14: that missing person has left children and not made contact.
[26:51] Speaker 1: At eleven am, detectives Discan and Temby.
[26:55] Speaker 14: Had a long conversation with John Winfield about missing person
[26:58] Speaker 14: and reason for taking children to see Sydney on Sunday night.
[27:02] Speaker 14: Stated that they travel better at night and that his
[27:05] Speaker 14: wife was aware that he would have them for eight
[27:07] Speaker 14: to ten days in Sydney.
[27:08] Speaker 5: Whilst she had a break.
[27:10] Speaker 14: Produced a document where he purchased petrol in Ballina at
[27:14] Speaker 14: six minutes past eleven on May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three.
[27:18] Speaker 14: This is consistent with next door neighbor hearing him leave
[27:20] Speaker 14: the premises unable to assist with phone call being made
[27:24] Speaker 14: from his premises at two thirteen am on the Monday morning.
[27:29] Speaker 14: Indications are that the missing person has returned to the
[27:31] Speaker 14: family home after he and the children had left, and
[27:35] Speaker 14: made the call whilst obtaining her property. He still states
[27:39] Speaker 14: that after she made the call early in the evening,
[27:41] Speaker 14: she walked out the front door about nine pm, carrying
[27:44] Speaker 14: no property. We still can't find her handbag or a
[27:47] Speaker 14: small blue suitcase. John states that he did have a
[27:51] Speaker 14: conversation with her about getting away for a couple of weeks,
[27:55] Speaker 14: deny as receiving any phone call in the middle of
[27:57] Speaker 14: the night after missing person had been missing a few days.
[28:01] Speaker 14: Apparently has told other people he had a call, but
[28:04] Speaker 14: no person spoke.
[28:07] Speaker 1: It is notable in my opinion that the proposed duration
[28:10] Speaker 1: of Bromwin's purported break has by early June blown out
[28:14] Speaker 1: by a long way. Initially, according to John, his wife
[28:19] Speaker 1: Bromwin had told him she wanted a break for a
[28:22] Speaker 1: few days, but by early June, with Bromwyn still missing,
[28:26] Speaker 1: John is saying to police that she had said she wanted.
[28:29] Speaker 5: To get away for a couple of weeks.
[28:33] Speaker 1: Detectives Discan and Temby went to Eden's Takeaway and spoke
[28:36] Speaker 1: to Bromwyn's workmates, but they were unable to help. The
[28:40] Speaker 1: Running sheet states that an unnamed person at the takeaway
[28:45] Speaker 1: told police that Bromwyn.
[28:47] Speaker 14: For about the last month has been strange and seemed
[28:49] Speaker 14: to be lacking in concentration. Also, she seemed to lack confidence.
[28:54] Speaker 14: Any man that smiled or spoke to the missing person
[28:56] Speaker 14: caused her to believe that there was a likelihood of
[28:59] Speaker 14: some Eventually, Romance confided in them that she was having
[29:03] Speaker 14: an affair with Jacko, now in New Zealand. He too
[29:07] Speaker 14: was friends with the owners of the shop, and they
[29:09] Speaker 14: are aware that no such affair was happening. This is
[29:12] Speaker 14: supported by the letter from Jackson to the missing person.
[29:15] Speaker 1: Recently, Gary Jackson is still known to many as Jacko.
[29:21] Speaker 1: He spoke to my friend and colleague David Murray to
[29:24] Speaker 1: share some information about Bromlin.
[29:27] Speaker 5: Jacko was clearly.
[29:28] Speaker 1: Very fond of Bromwin, and Bromwin believed that with Jacko
[29:32] Speaker 1: she had a chance of a loving and healthy relationship.
[29:36] Speaker 18: See this is a trouble. I've had a stroke and
[29:39] Speaker 18: this is hard. I can remember the words where I
[29:41] Speaker 18: can't sound Gary.
[29:43] Speaker 9: Can I share this reporting with Headley for the podcast.
[29:47] Speaker 18: Absolutely?
[29:48] Speaker 5: It's really sad.
[29:50] Speaker 18: I didn't know that bron Wan liked me, and she
[29:54] Speaker 18: said you are the perfect person for me.
[29:58] Speaker 19: I really do like was Golbs tracked by that we
[30:02] Speaker 19: kiss and that's all we did. I said that I
[30:06] Speaker 19: loved her and Rowan was tall, lay the shoes, a
[30:09] Speaker 19: beautiful woman.
[30:11] Speaker 18: She just left John and watching divorced. I had a
[30:17] Speaker 18: thing with her, was about two weeks. It wasn't sexual
[30:23] Speaker 18: because we didn't have sex. There was more than friendship,
[30:27] Speaker 18: you know. But John was always around us.
[30:31] Speaker 20: We couldn't go out anywhere.
[30:34] Speaker 18: John was out there sitting in his chair watching us.
[30:37] Speaker 18: I knew John before, but he was terrible for her.
[30:42] Speaker 18: John intimidated her.
[30:45] Speaker 9: Can you tell me what you think happened?
[30:47] Speaker 18: Yeah, he killed her. John killed her, but they can't
[30:52] Speaker 18: find the body at the police didn't do their job.
[30:59] Speaker 1: Broman had separate from her husband and was struggling to
[31:02] Speaker 1: make ends meet while living in rented accommodation with her
[31:05] Speaker 1: two girls. Good friends tell me she had confided she
[31:10] Speaker 1: was fearful of John. She was no doubt lonely, distracted,
[31:14] Speaker 1: lacking in confidence, and hopeful of meeting someone else. You
[31:19] Speaker 1: heard in an earlier episode from Kelly O'Brien, one of
[31:23] Speaker 1: the local heroes of lenox because of her longtime commitment
[31:26] Speaker 1: to young people in the community. I asked Kelly what
[31:30] Speaker 1: she remembered about the efforts by police in nineteen ninety
[31:34] Speaker 1: three when they started talking to people in Lenox Head
[31:37] Speaker 1: about Bromin's disappearance. Detective Graham Diskin, along with the detective
[31:44] Speaker 1: Wayne Tembe, spoke to a number of people who knew
[31:49] Speaker 1: Bromin in nineteen ninety three, and they spoke to them
[31:52] Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety three. They didn't take any statements from
[31:56] Speaker 1: any people at that time. Call from nineteen ninety three
[32:04] Speaker 1: the tone or commitment of police. Why your contact with Brohman,
[32:12] Speaker 1: your recollections of her as a mother and so on
[32:15] Speaker 1: were not actually put down in formal statements as they
[32:18] Speaker 1: were five years later.
[32:22] Speaker 20: I remember thinking.
[32:26] Speaker 21: That it was so scared what they were asking and
[32:34] Speaker 21: how they approached the staff around what had happened. I
[32:39] Speaker 21: remember thinking it was so unprofessional and poor at the time. Honestly,
[32:46] Speaker 21: The first conversations were like two minute conversation, and I
[32:50] Speaker 21: was like, really, is that it?
[32:53] Speaker 1: I mean, it is such an unusual thing, isn't it?
[32:58] Speaker 1: A mother with two small girls and everybody says she
[33:02] Speaker 1: doated on them? Just vanishers, never contacts anybody again, who's
[33:09] Speaker 1: never seen again, doesn't return to say hang on, I've
[33:14] Speaker 1: got a legal right to half this house. I need
[33:16] Speaker 1: money to support myself. Do you find all of that bizarre?
[33:21] Speaker 21: I guess I had a blind trust that I wasn't
[33:25] Speaker 21: that important to be speaking with, and perhaps the other
[33:30] Speaker 21: people that they were speaking with they were.
[33:32] Speaker 20: Getting more from.
[33:34] Speaker 21: Because I'd never been involved with the system in these ways.
[33:38] Speaker 21: I became more infuriated that it had not been dealt
[33:42] Speaker 21: with properly and was cross.
[33:45] Speaker 20: How does someone disappear?
[33:48] Speaker 21: And no one seemed to care that was responsible for
[33:52] Speaker 21: finding out the answer. To think that people would believe
[33:56] Speaker 21: a story that she'd listened to a Taro reader and
[34:00] Speaker 21: then run off with someone's quite ludicrous. I still think
[34:05] Speaker 21: that if they had have dealt with that really swiftly,
[34:08] Speaker 21: we wouldn't be here today talking.
[34:10] Speaker 20: Yeah, it would have been solved. It's really sad.
[34:15] Speaker 1: Do you have any ideas as to why it was
[34:17] Speaker 1: treated just so routinely in those early days.
[34:22] Speaker 21: No, I can only imagine that they had some sense
[34:26] Speaker 21: or view that women weren't important, or women did these
[34:30] Speaker 21: things and believed here. So I'll just find that kind
[34:33] Speaker 21: of thing outrageous to entertain. Any idea that we don't
[34:38] Speaker 21: count is something I wouldn't want to think. It surprised
[34:42] Speaker 21: me at the time as a young person, and certainly
[34:45] Speaker 21: now working in the field, I would call out pretty slack.
[34:49] Speaker 21: It is baffling, and I don't know whether our society
[34:53] Speaker 21: was happy to just turn a blind eye or let
[34:57] Speaker 21: things be.
[34:59] Speaker 1: I know from talking to other women a little bit
[35:01] Speaker 1: older than us who have been in similar situations, they've said,
[35:05] Speaker 1: you trusted the police, you didn't speak up.
[35:08] Speaker 20: In hindsight, we were all very remiss in that we
[35:14] Speaker 20: were led by police.
[35:16] Speaker 1: So maybe people were fawning to the police rather than saying,
[35:20] Speaker 1: do you fricking jobs properly.
[35:23] Speaker 21: We're taught to believe our elders, our teachers, our administrators,
[35:28] Speaker 21: the priests, the police, and the doctors. But I think
[35:32] Speaker 21: we should never let the elephant be hanging around too
[35:36] Speaker 21: long under the table. I think it's best that transparency
[35:41] Speaker 21: comes about. We know as a society, we find things out,
[35:45] Speaker 21: we make things right in the end, and you get
[35:48] Speaker 21: a better sleep for it.
[35:51] Speaker 1: Maybe it's a case of better late than never for Bromin.
[35:55] Speaker 21: Bromwin's not here, but certainly the girls and the girl's
[35:59] Speaker 21: children surely need to know their family story and the
[36:03] Speaker 21: rightness of it, the wrongness of it.
[36:07] Speaker 1: Let's go back to the police running sheets from June
[36:10] Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three. At two pm on June three, Graham
[36:15] Speaker 1: Diskin talk to Michelle Reid, Bromwyn's sister in law, and
[36:19] Speaker 1: the detective reported in the running sheet.
[36:22] Speaker 14: She is very concerned about the missing person and stated
[36:25] Speaker 14: that the actions of the missing person are identical to
[36:28] Speaker 14: what her mother did.
[36:30] Speaker 1: This is a reference to Bara Reid, the mother of
[36:33] Speaker 1: Bromwyn and Andy.
[36:35] Speaker 14: Reid has spoken to the mother and she does not
[36:37] Speaker 14: seem too concerned, although she is a schizophrenic herself.
[36:42] Speaker 1: At three pm, the detective talk to Bromwyn's solicitor in Lismore,
[36:46] Speaker 1: Chris McDevitt.
[36:48] Speaker 14: He has been instructed by the missing person so far
[36:51] Speaker 14: as property settlement and family law matters are concerned. He
[36:55] Speaker 14: stated that the missing person had sought advice about moving
[36:58] Speaker 14: back into the family home during a week prior to
[37:00] Speaker 14: her disappearance. He advised her that because the house was
[37:04] Speaker 14: jointly owned and the husband was in Sydney, her and
[37:07] Speaker 14: the children were quite entitled to move back in now.
[37:11] Speaker 1: The next line in the detective's running sheet, as a
[37:14] Speaker 1: result of talking to the solicitor mcdebittt, is in my
[37:17] Speaker 1: view important.
[37:19] Speaker 14: On Sunday May sixteenth, in the late afternoon, the missing
[37:22] Speaker 14: person contacted him and stated that her husband had returned
[37:25] Speaker 14: from Sydney and she was concerned about him being in
[37:28] Speaker 14: the house. Mcdevittt advised the missing person that she might
[37:32] Speaker 14: contact the police and inform them of the situation, and
[37:35] Speaker 14: if need be, have them call by as a precaution
[37:38] Speaker 14: in order to prevent a breach of the peace. The
[37:41] Speaker 14: missing person seemed happy with that and made an appointment
[37:44] Speaker 14: to see mcdebittt at nine am on May seventeen, nineteen
[37:47] Speaker 14: ninety three, an appointment she never kept.
[37:51] Speaker 1: This is a striking piece of information. Firstly, let me
[37:56] Speaker 1: clarify the contact. The telephone call from rom When to
[38:00] Speaker 1: her solicitor was a local call. That's why it didn't
[38:04] Speaker 1: show up. When the detective got information about meeted calls
[38:08] Speaker 1: or long distance calls. But as of three pm on
[38:11] Speaker 1: June three, Detective Sergeant Graham Discin has been told by
[38:15] Speaker 1: a lawyer an officer of the Supreme Court, that his
[38:19] Speaker 1: client had called him out of ours on a Sunday
[38:22] Speaker 1: and they then talked about escalating it to police. This
[38:27] Speaker 1: is surely a red flag, but no, it appeared to
[38:30] Speaker 1: have changed nothing and no statement was taken by police
[38:34] Speaker 1: from Chris mcdebittt in nineteen ninety three. The only record
[38:39] Speaker 1: made at the time was the brief June three entry
[38:43] Speaker 1: by Detective Sergeant Graham Discan in the police running sheet.
[38:47] Speaker 1: It seems that police continued to treat Bromman as a
[38:51] Speaker 1: brooding housewife who walked away from her kids. In an
[38:55] Speaker 1: earlier episode, you heard that Broman's appointment time with her
[38:58] Speaker 1: solicitor was a lie.
[39:00] Speaker 5: Am.
[39:01] Speaker 1: The arrangement had been made the previous week, not in
[39:04] Speaker 1: a Sunday afternoon telephone call. I've wondered whether Bromwin and
[39:09] Speaker 1: Chris mcdebittt decided to bring the meeting forward by two
[39:13] Speaker 1: hours to nine am as a result of John's arrival
[39:16] Speaker 1: in Lenox. Did things become more urgent and focused on
[39:22] Speaker 1: June four which is getting onto three weeks.
[39:24] Speaker 5: Since Bromwin's disappearance.
[39:26] Speaker 1: Detective Graham Diskin telephoned Bromwin's half sister, Kim Marshall, was
[39:31] Speaker 1: twenty two at the time and she lived in Tasmania
[39:34] Speaker 1: with her mother, Barbara, Bromwin's mother. According to the entry,
[39:39] Speaker 1: Kim believed that Bromwyn would contact Kim soon, as they
[39:42] Speaker 1: had plans to catch up in Lenox on June fourteen.
[39:46] Speaker 14: Kim states that Bromwin is very similar to mother. When
[39:50] Speaker 14: everything builds up around her, she will walk away and
[39:52] Speaker 14: eventually go and get some help. Believes that she appears
[39:56] Speaker 14: to be unusual in not taking or contacting children since
[39:59] Speaker 14: May sixth. Kim also believes that, like their mother, Bromwin
[40:04] Speaker 14: suffered a hormonal imbalance after the birth of the children,
[40:07] Speaker 14: which causes them to be irrational. Kim believes that Brombin
[40:11] Speaker 14: will get help and then walk into the family home
[40:13] Speaker 14: like nothing has happened.
[40:15] Speaker 1: On June eighth, detectives Graham Diskin and Wayne Tenby note
[40:20] Speaker 1: that they went to see a close friend of Bromin,
[40:22] Speaker 1: a woman I've called Joan. In an earlier episode of
[40:25] Speaker 1: this podcast series, Joan isn't her real name, but you
[40:30] Speaker 1: heard her voice in episode two. She has asked that
[40:33] Speaker 1: I not reveal her true name.
[40:36] Speaker 14: She stated that she had spoken to the missing person
[40:39] Speaker 14: on the morning of May sixteen, and all appeared well,
[40:42] Speaker 14: although the missing person seemed to be rambling on about
[40:44] Speaker 14: things in general and slightly confused, no mention about leaving
[40:48] Speaker 14: or being in fear of anybody.
[40:51] Speaker 5: I received a different version from Joan.
[40:55] Speaker 3: Are you saying now that you believed in ninety ninety three,
[41:00] Speaker 3: within a few days of Brown disappearing, that you suspected
[41:03] Speaker 3: foul play by John.
[41:06] Speaker 22: Yeah, I'd fill it. I'd like to report it to
[41:11] Speaker 22: the police, but not being family, I didn't think they'd
[41:15] Speaker 22: taken any notice of this. He told me that I
[41:20] Speaker 22: was a planned trip. She was had an opportunity to
[41:24] Speaker 22: go to Queensland for a couple of weeks, and I
[41:27] Speaker 22: felt it, well, it wasn't a plan trip because I'd
[41:29] Speaker 22: just spoken to her, because I said, well, she wouldn't
[41:35] Speaker 22: have just gone away and leave the kids. So he
[41:41] Speaker 22: had to report it. I even went to the police
[41:47] Speaker 22: station after he'd said he had reported, to check if
[41:52] Speaker 22: he had, because it wasn't.
[41:56] Speaker 1: Sure he would have, and what did they tell you that.
[42:00] Speaker 22: To start with, they were treating it as like a
[42:03] Speaker 22: domestic sitch basis, the people go missing because they want
[42:10] Speaker 22: to sometimes, but now they were treating it as a
[42:15] Speaker 22: missing person.
[42:17] Speaker 1: Did you say to the police in nineteen ninety three,
[42:22] Speaker 1: I suspect that Jonathan has got rid of his wife
[42:24] Speaker 1: and he's just lying now about her going on a trip.
[42:29] Speaker 22: Probably not straight away, but when they started coming around
[42:34] Speaker 22: asking questions, I did say it, Well, I don't believe
[42:40] Speaker 22: what he was saying, that she'd planned it and she
[42:45] Speaker 22: wouldn't go off and leave the kids.
[42:47] Speaker 20: It would have been weeks, I'd.
[42:48] Speaker 1: Say, And there was a detective discount. Yeah, do you
[42:53] Speaker 1: remember him, yes? Do you believe you told him that
[42:57] Speaker 1: you thought it was suspicious?
[43:00] Speaker 20: I would say so, yes.
[43:03] Speaker 1: But your recollection is that you told at least detective
[43:07] Speaker 1: disc And in nineteen ninety three, within weeks of Bromin's disappearance,
[43:12] Speaker 1: that you were suspicious of possible foul play.
[43:14] Speaker 22: He'd come around a few times, so it could have
[43:18] Speaker 22: been more than a couple of weeks.
[43:21] Speaker 20: But yeah, I suspected.
[43:24] Speaker 22: Just didn't make sense.
[43:27] Speaker 1: Why then didn't it become a full blown murder investigation
[43:31] Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety three.
[43:32] Speaker 22: I have no idea. I think they messed up.
[43:37] Speaker 1: Why hasn't there been more disquiet in this little community?
[43:41] Speaker 22: It's me I can understand it. But John also said, oh,
[43:46] Speaker 22: she was seen in Ninburn. No, I said, I can't
[43:52] Speaker 22: imagine Bromwin walking down the street in Lidburn, little mane.
[44:00] Speaker 22: If he didn't do it, I feel sorry for him
[44:01] Speaker 22: because we all think that he did.
[44:05] Speaker 1: Now let's go back to Detective Discan's internal police report.
[44:10] Speaker 14: Since the report of the missing person, checks with the
[44:13] Speaker 14: Commonwealth Bank, Kirklands Medicare, Harveyworld Travel, jet Set Travel and
[44:17] Speaker 14: CountryLink rail services have all met with a negative result.
[44:22] Speaker 14: On June ten, interviewed Solicitor Graham Holland of Byron Bay
[44:26] Speaker 14: states that he had been consulted by the missing person
[44:29] Speaker 14: on May four regarding dissolution of marriage, property settlement and
[44:33] Speaker 14: custody of the two girls, which was to take priority.
[44:36] Speaker 14: The missing person was in fear of returning to the
[44:39] Speaker 14: family home if the husband should return from Sydney whilst
[44:42] Speaker 14: she was residing there. Solicitor Holland stated that she had
[44:45] Speaker 14: very little money and was only concerned about the welfare
[44:48] Speaker 14: of her two little girls.
[44:50] Speaker 1: Detective Sergeant Graham Diskin has reported.
[44:54] Speaker 14: Spoke again to John Winfield by telephone, unable to assist
[44:58] Speaker 14: with any further information, and he has had no contact
[45:00] Speaker 14: from missing person. Stated that he had been ringing family
[45:04] Speaker 14: over the last few days, hoping they had heard something.
[45:09] Speaker 1: The running sheet shows that the detectives had a conversation
[45:12] Speaker 1: with someone from a family support group in Ballina.
[45:17] Speaker 14: Card indicates that there has only been emotional abuse by
[45:19] Speaker 14: the husband towards the missing person. On April nineteen, seemed
[45:24] Speaker 14: to be coping well with the pension, but was alarmed
[45:26] Speaker 14: if husband were to return to the family home.
[45:30] Speaker 1: You heard in the first episode that Romman's contact with
[45:33] Speaker 1: the ballaner Byron Family Support Service had been diorized by
[45:37] Speaker 1: a counselor there, Doreen Strong. Perhaps she wrote about it
[45:41] Speaker 1: on a card at the support service. Is that missus,
[45:45] Speaker 1: Dorian Strong? Yes, your daughter in law contacted me. She
[45:50] Speaker 1: said that you remembered the case.
[45:53] Speaker 23: Yeah, well I did, because I did the initial call
[45:58] Speaker 23: from them when she was wanting to make an appointment.
[46:01] Speaker 1: I've mentioned your connection to the case in one of
[46:04] Speaker 1: the episodes.
[46:06] Speaker 23: Yeah. Well, look, I was looking forward to trying to
[46:09] Speaker 23: find my original statement.
[46:11] Speaker 1: It's not very long. If you'd like, I can read
[46:13] Speaker 1: it to you.
[46:14] Speaker 22: Ah.
[46:14] Speaker 23: Yes, I was in holidays and Tasmania and I had
[46:18] Speaker 23: a call from our manager Trish, who said the detectives
[46:24] Speaker 23: were looking back into it. Now that would have been
[46:28] Speaker 23: gosh aunt about two thousand or something like that. I'm
[46:32] Speaker 23: not quite sure exactly what you So you made.
[46:35] Speaker 1: It in October nineteen ninety eight at Ballina Police Station
[46:40] Speaker 1: and say, I'm currently employed as a support worker at
[46:44] Speaker 1: the Ballana Byron Family Support Service. You received a telephone
[46:49] Speaker 1: call on Friday, the second of April from a woman
[46:52] Speaker 1: named Bromwin Winfield, who was living in Lennox Head. You say,
[46:58] Speaker 1: I recall Bromwin stating that she had left her husband
[47:01] Speaker 1: ten days earlier. Bromin indicated that there had been emotional
[47:05] Speaker 1: violence and threats relating to custody of her children. Broman
[47:11] Speaker 1: stated that she had been to a solicitor and had
[47:13] Speaker 1: received advice in relation to custody of the children. Broman
[47:17] Speaker 1: stated that she was feeling better, but felt she needed
[47:20] Speaker 1: some support. I told Bromwin that the service would telephone
[47:24] Speaker 1: her back and arrange an appointment to see her. Details
[47:29] Speaker 1: surrounding this conversation are recorded on the original day sheet
[47:34] Speaker 1: for the second of April nineteen ninety three, retained by
[47:38] Speaker 1: the service.
[47:39] Speaker 23: Yeah, yeah, I can remember it quite clearly. We spoke
[47:43] Speaker 23: to it, and I think it was one of Broman's
[47:45] Speaker 23: friends that it was ringing and talking to us about it.
[47:51] Speaker 23: I was doing intake that day and it was another
[47:54] Speaker 23: worker that was going to see her.
[47:58] Speaker 1: On the next page, you say from records, I am
[48:03] Speaker 1: able to say that on Wednesday, the seventh of April
[48:07] Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, a family support worker, Stephanie Irvin, contacted
[48:12] Speaker 1: Bromwan by telephone.
[48:14] Speaker 21: Yeah.
[48:15] Speaker 1: Records indicate that Bromwin stated that she could not talk
[48:19] Speaker 1: to Stephanie over the phone as someone was there and
[48:22] Speaker 1: she could not go into any depth. The records state
[48:26] Speaker 1: that Broman sounded okay, voice was strong, but the girls
[48:31] Speaker 1: need some help. The records indicate that Bromin stated that
[48:35] Speaker 1: she would get back to us. From records maintained, I
[48:39] Speaker 1: could also say that on Thursday, fifteen April nineteen ninety three,
[48:44] Speaker 1: there was a phone call from Bromwan received. Bromen apparently
[48:48] Speaker 1: stated that she was coping okay, but feels that she
[48:51] Speaker 1: would like someone to talk to Bromen requested that Stephanie
[48:55] Speaker 1: Irvin telephoned her. The statement goes on to say that
[49:00] Speaker 1: the record show a telephone call was made to Bromwin
[49:02] Speaker 1: by Stephanie and an appointment was made for a house
[49:06] Speaker 1: visit at ten am on April twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three,
[49:13] Speaker 1: but no person.
[49:14] Speaker 5: Was at home.
[49:17] Speaker 1: The last paragraph of your statement, missus Strong says, from
[49:22] Speaker 1: my experience as a family support counselor, I find it
[49:26] Speaker 1: strange that Broman would go missing without taking the children,
[49:30] Speaker 1: as she was concerned over their custody. Just prior to
[49:34] Speaker 1: her disappearance, Broman was concerned over the custody of her children,
[49:39] Speaker 1: and there was no indication that she intended to give
[49:42] Speaker 1: custody of the children to her husband. Yeah.
[49:47] Speaker 23: Well, after that conversation with her, and she was concerned
[49:52] Speaker 23: that he would come and take the children.
[49:55] Speaker 20: That was so.
[49:55] Speaker 23: I think I have heard her to Tony Mannering he
[49:58] Speaker 23: was the solicited whether she kept that or not that appointment.
[50:02] Speaker 1: Yes, she did see him.
[50:05] Speaker 23: I remember saying to the police at the time, and
[50:07] Speaker 23: like she wouldn't leave the kids because that was her
[50:11] Speaker 23: main concern when she rang.
[50:14] Speaker 1: Right, do you recall the tone or anything about the
[50:22] Speaker 1: conduct of the police in the original inquiry that came
[50:26] Speaker 1: just weeks after Bromin disappeared. When they spoke to you.
[50:30] Speaker 23: No, I just thought they would be doing their job.
[50:36] Speaker 23: I didn't get any indication that they weren't serious about it.
[50:42] Speaker 23: But I'd listen to your podcast and evidently there was
[50:47] Speaker 23: lots of things that weren't done initially. I know it's
[50:52] Speaker 23: a long time ago, but I can still remember it,
[50:55] Speaker 23: and we talked about it at work between workers, and
[50:59] Speaker 23: it was ever Or one of her friends who was
[51:01] Speaker 23: really not going to live up on it. She was
[51:05] Speaker 23: quite concerned. We still remember. And now I've just turned eighty.
[51:10] Speaker 23: I'm not young anymore.
[51:12] Speaker 1: When did you retire from the service, missus Strong?
[51:16] Speaker 23: I worked there for eighteen years and then I retired
[51:19] Speaker 23: in twenty eleven.
[51:20] Speaker 1: Well, in your statement, you say that records indicate that
[51:24] Speaker 1: on four June nineteen ninety three, a friend of Bromin's
[51:28] Speaker 1: contacted the service stating that Broman had been missing for
[51:32] Speaker 1: about three weeks and had taken no clothes and her
[51:36] Speaker 1: bank accounts had not been touched. And you say that
[51:40] Speaker 1: this friend was checking the service to see if Broman
[51:43] Speaker 1: had been in touch. In the podcast, we're referring to
[51:46] Speaker 1: this woman as Joan, not as her real name, so
[51:52] Speaker 1: you will have a different name.
[51:54] Speaker 22: It's the police looking into it, like they said, and
[51:59] Speaker 22: I've gone missing all time because they want to, and
[52:01] Speaker 22: I think that's the view they had to start with.
[52:07] Speaker 22: She would not go off and leave their kids.
[52:11] Speaker 1: So I think she's probably the person who put Romin
[52:14] Speaker 1: in touch.
[52:15] Speaker 23: I know she had several conversations about her missing and
[52:20] Speaker 23: she was quite concerned.
[52:22] Speaker 1: Do you have any ideas as to why this wasn't
[52:24] Speaker 1: taken more seriously at the time. And it's so unusual
[52:28] Speaker 1: for a woman to disappear when she's got children and
[52:34] Speaker 1: clearly seems dedicated to them, and she's actually going through
[52:39] Speaker 1: a separation from her husband. About whom she's concerned.
[52:43] Speaker 23: Well, we were all concerned, and naturally if we were concerned,
[52:46] Speaker 23: we would have thought the authorities would have been concerned
[52:49] Speaker 23: as well.
[52:51] Speaker 1: You spoke to detectives Discn and Tembe in June of
[52:57] Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, but no statement taken from you until
[53:02] Speaker 1: October twenty eight, nineteen ninety eight, five years later.
[53:09] Speaker 23: Five years here. Yeah, well, I just can't remember the
[53:13] Speaker 23: conversation with those two detectives.
[53:16] Speaker 1: I'm really glad we've had this chat, Missus Strong.
[53:19] Speaker 23: I just hope that something can be done.
[53:46] Speaker 1: It is possible that a page or more of the
[53:48] Speaker 1: police file from nineteen ninety three disappeared before the detective
[53:53] Speaker 1: Sergeant Glenn Taylor became involved and did a thorough investigation
[53:57] Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety eight. On June ten, Detective Wayne Temby
[54:02] Speaker 1: spoke to Tony Mannering, one of the three solicitors visited by
[54:06] Speaker 1: Bromwan after she had separated from John. Tony Mannering had
[54:11] Speaker 1: a record of their meeting in his office on April two,
[54:15] Speaker 1: and this had resulted in a lengthy letter to broman
[54:18] Speaker 1: You heard most of it read aloud in a previous episode.
[54:22] Speaker 1: Here's what the detective Wayne Temby put down in the
[54:25] Speaker 1: police running sheet in June nineteen ninety three.
[54:29] Speaker 24: Stated that she appeared to be level headed and fully
[54:32] Speaker 24: aware of her intentions under wanted custody of the two children.
[54:37] Speaker 24: He subsequently informed her of guidelines in respect to family
[54:41] Speaker 24: law matters in a letter which was sent on April six.
[54:45] Speaker 1: The next major document in the police files is a
[54:49] Speaker 1: three and a half page report dated July fourteen, nineteen
[54:53] Speaker 1: ninety three and written by a detective Senior Constable of
[54:57] Speaker 1: Ballina Police, a detective others rather than Graham Diskin or
[55:01] Speaker 1: Wayne Temby. The first paragraph of the police report sets
[55:06] Speaker 1: the tone.
[55:07] Speaker 17: It states, about nine point thirty pm on Sunday, May sixteen,
[55:11] Speaker 17: Bronwyn Joy Winfield born April twenty fourth, nineteen sixty two
[55:16] Speaker 17: of Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head went into the main bedroom
[55:19] Speaker 17: of the family home and made a telephone call. Shortly after,
[55:24] Speaker 17: she walked out the front door of the house, and
[55:26] Speaker 17: a car was heard to drive away from the area.
[55:29] Speaker 17: Missus Winfield has not been seen or heard from since
[55:32] Speaker 17: that date.
[55:34] Speaker 1: This report was circulated among police, but right from the
[55:38] Speaker 1: start it fully adopts the version of events that has
[55:42] Speaker 1: come from Romwin's husband, John Winfield. There is not a
[55:46] Speaker 1: hint of a suggestion that this version from him might
[55:50] Speaker 1: be self serving. John was the only purported witness and
[55:55] Speaker 1: the last person known to have seen Roman. None of
[55:59] Speaker 1: the neighbors or heard a car at nine point thirty
[56:02] Speaker 1: pm stop outside the house. Why wasn't the report's opening
[56:07] Speaker 1: expressed factually such as according to the account given by
[56:12] Speaker 1: the husband of the missing person, she went into the
[56:15] Speaker 1: main bedroom of the family home and made a telephone call.
[56:20] Speaker 1: The next misleading point in the report states.
[56:23] Speaker 17: The husband, Jonathan Winfield, has been interviewed no less than
[56:27] Speaker 17: six times and he's not been able to offer any
[56:30] Speaker 17: ideas as to her whereabouts.
[56:32] Speaker 1: According to the records, the police spoke to John, but
[56:36] Speaker 1: they didn't record an interview with him until nineteen ninety eight.
[56:41] Speaker 1: No statement was taken from him or anyone else until
[56:45] Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight. The other theme of this police report
[56:50] Speaker 1: revolves around Bromman's mental health.
[56:53] Speaker 17: Missus Winfield, according to close friends, appeared to be suffering
[56:56] Speaker 17: from a state of mental confusion in the weeks leading
[56:59] Speaker 17: up to her disappate appearance, and after visiting a clairvoyant
[57:02] Speaker 17: at Lennox Head, she believed that he was her father.
[57:07] Speaker 1: The report discloses that the clairvoyant was put under covert surveillance.
[57:12] Speaker 17: This was carried out for two days and evenings and
[57:14] Speaker 17: met with a negative result.
[57:17] Speaker 1: The report then discloses more of John Winfield's version of
[57:20] Speaker 1: what happened. When he arrived at the house on the
[57:23] Speaker 1: Sunday evening May sixteen.
[57:26] Speaker 17: He stated that his wife met him at the door
[57:29] Speaker 17: and they sat and talked for some time in the
[57:31] Speaker 17: dining room. The children were then put to bed and
[57:34] Speaker 17: both he and his wife had an evening meal.
[57:37] Speaker 1: There is no reference whatsoever to any altercation, and the
[57:42] Speaker 1: concerns expressed by Bromwin two solicitors whom she consulted have
[57:46] Speaker 1: been minimized.
[57:48] Speaker 17: Inquiries revealed that Jonathan and the two girls left Sandstone
[57:51] Speaker 17: Crescent around eleven pm and traveled to Ballina, where he
[57:55] Speaker 17: filled the car with petrol and traveled to Sydney. It
[57:58] Speaker 17: would appear that whilst the husband was traveling to Sydney,
[58:01] Speaker 17: the missing person has returned to the family home, gathered
[58:04] Speaker 17: some clothes and her handbag, and made another double zero
[58:07] Speaker 17: double five call.
[58:09] Speaker 1: This is a reference to the error made about the
[58:11] Speaker 1: telephone call, the one that was actually made at two
[58:15] Speaker 1: thirteen pm on a Sunday, and how police somehow misconstrued
[58:20] Speaker 1: it as having happened at two thirteen am on Monday.
[58:24] Speaker 17: When listened to for that period, the recorded voice supplies
[58:28] Speaker 17: lot of results.
[58:29] Speaker 1: And then after disclosing that Bromman has not been in
[58:32] Speaker 1: touch with anyone and apparently left with little to know
[58:37] Speaker 1: money and hadn't touched her bank accounts, the report revisits
[58:41] Speaker 1: Bromwin's state of mind. The report states.
[58:45] Speaker 17: It is known the missing person was suffering from a
[58:47] Speaker 17: mental state of confusion. Documents in the handwriting of the
[58:51] Speaker 17: missing person located at the family home indicate that she
[58:54] Speaker 17: may have been suffering from mild depression. It would also
[58:58] Speaker 17: appear that she carries some form of grudge against certain
[59:00] Speaker 17: members of her family over property dealings, and her father
[59:04] Speaker 17: over minor things. On July twelveth, nineteen ninety three, Jonathan
[59:09] Speaker 17: Winfield reported to police that he had been absent in
[59:13] Speaker 17: Sydney with his children from June twenty sixth to July eleven.
[59:18] Speaker 17: Upon his return to Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head, he found
[59:21] Speaker 17: that clothing belonging to the missing person, together with photographs,
[59:24] Speaker 17: had been taken from the family home.
[59:27] Speaker 1: The unlikelihood of this does not seem to have been
[59:30] Speaker 1: considered by police. They know from their inquiries with her
[59:34] Speaker 1: bank that she has not withdrawn one dollar of her
[59:38] Speaker 1: own money for food or shelter. Why how did they
[59:42] Speaker 1: imagine she was supporting herself from May sixteen until the
[59:46] Speaker 1: day on which she has, according to John, gone back
[59:49] Speaker 1: into the house. Briefly, the final paragraph states.
[59:54] Speaker 17: It is now requested that particulars of telephone calls made
[59:57] Speaker 17: by the missing person from her home and from her
[1:00:00] Speaker 17: neighbors be canvassed in an effort to locate her.
[1:00:04] Speaker 1: In terms of suspicion, none whatsoever is expressed in relation
[1:00:08] Speaker 1: to the husband from whom Bronwyn had newly separated. The
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: only person regarded with suspicion apart from Bromwyn was a
[1:00:16] Speaker 1: local clairvoyant and tarot card reader who was put under
[1:00:20] Speaker 1: surveillance for two days, with more police attention to come.
[1:00:24] Speaker 5: As the report.
[1:00:25] Speaker 17: States, arrangements are now in place to have a regional
[1:00:28] Speaker 17: crime squad surveillance unit carry out further observations, particularly of
[1:00:33] Speaker 17: his nighttime activities.
[1:00:36] Speaker 1: Bronwyn's second cousin, Maddie Walsh, and I have arrived at
[1:00:40] Speaker 1: the home of Terry Batisse and her husband Brian at
[1:00:43] Speaker 1: Ocean Shores, about a half hour drive north of Lenox.
[1:00:47] Speaker 1: When Terry was thirty, she and Bromwan were friends on
[1:00:50] Speaker 1: the local Lenox school's playgroup committee.
[1:00:54] Speaker 25: I was the treasurer, she was the president, and I
[1:00:57] Speaker 25: think Denise was the secretary. There was this psych called
[1:01:03] Speaker 25: Pendragon hanging around Lennox at the time. She'd been to
[1:01:07] Speaker 25: him and the talk was did he tell her something
[1:01:12] Speaker 25: that made her want to go and hide.
[1:01:15] Speaker 22: For a little while.
[1:01:16] Speaker 25: That was the talk that was going around.
[1:01:18] Speaker 1: And what's obvious from the police files is that after
[1:01:22] Speaker 1: Bromwin disappeared, he was the only person who was put
[1:01:26] Speaker 1: under any kind of surveillance. In subsequent investigations by the
[1:01:32] Speaker 1: then detective Sergeant Glenn Taylor from nineteen ninety eight, the
[1:01:36] Speaker 1: man known as Pendragon was ruled out as a person
[1:01:40] Speaker 1: of interest. Harry recalled Broman's love of children and maternalistic instincts.
[1:01:46] Speaker 25: Once my daughter was born, I was in balin affair
[1:01:50] Speaker 25: and she saw me and she came up and she
[1:01:52] Speaker 25: was just, oh.
[1:01:54] Speaker 4: What a beautiful baby.
[1:01:55] Speaker 25: She was just so overwhelming. It was like, oh, you're
[1:01:57] Speaker 25: so lucky, genuine, very heartwarming, and she was just so
[1:02:02] Speaker 25: kind with my new little baby.
[1:02:05] Speaker 1: But when Bromin vanished under those bizarre circumstances in May
[1:02:09] Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, Terry's husband Brian, a former first grade
[1:02:14] Speaker 1: and two time Grand Final winning rugby league player for
[1:02:18] Speaker 1: the Canterbury Bulldogs in the nineteen eighties, immediately fastened onto
[1:02:22] Speaker 1: a grave view.
[1:02:24] Speaker 4: Terry tom of the story and I said, she's dead.
[1:02:29] Speaker 4: I'll guarantee you'll never see your friend again.
[1:02:32] Speaker 25: Probably because I said she would never leave those girls,
[1:02:34] Speaker 25: never ever would leave.
[1:02:37] Speaker 9: Terry was a good shocked when I said that.
[1:02:38] Speaker 1: I remember why, given that certainty that so many people
[1:02:43] Speaker 1: had that she wouldn't have left her kids, didn't it
[1:02:46] Speaker 1: become a more serious police matter very early?
[1:02:50] Speaker 25: Definitely, my friend was always onto it. She kept ringing
[1:02:54] Speaker 25: the detective every week, what are you doing?
[1:02:57] Speaker 5: What are you doing?
[1:02:58] Speaker 25: And I think people in town may have been dead perhaps,
[1:03:01] Speaker 25: and no one really came to any sort of decision.
[1:03:05] Speaker 5: Were you scared of him?
[1:03:07] Speaker 4: No, I guess I can't fright.
[1:03:10] Speaker 9: Nine out watch the police.
[1:03:13] Speaker 20: Police goes over.
[1:03:14] Speaker 1: This will be a try.
[1:03:14] Speaker 9: Brian police goes over.
[1:03:17] Speaker 25: He do he ripped himself around, he saw the break,
[1:03:20] Speaker 25: He stepped over three players.
[1:03:23] Speaker 26: It definitely sounds like when I hear all you guys
[1:03:26] Speaker 26: talking about it, it's something that was kept so under wraps.
[1:03:30] Speaker 4: It was more of a whisper than a talk.
[1:03:32] Speaker 26: It was kept in No one disappears at the face
[1:03:36] Speaker 26: of the earth for no reason, So hopefully with the
[1:03:42] Speaker 26: media involvement.
[1:03:44] Speaker 27: What do you think they will do when police do
[1:03:49] Speaker 27: a good investigation as they did in the second stage
[1:03:52] Speaker 27: of this in ninety eight, and then they get a
[1:03:56] Speaker 27: police brief evidence to the corner, and the corner recommends
[1:04:00] Speaker 27: a prosecution. The DPP, when it says no, never has
[1:04:04] Speaker 27: to explain properly why. In early two thousand and three,
[1:04:08] Speaker 27: the DPP told the police that there's nobody, no evidence
[1:04:14] Speaker 27: that John killed Bromlin, so we're not going to prosecute.
[1:04:19] Speaker 27: Have they misunderstood something in the evidence that's caused them
[1:04:22] Speaker 27: to come to this negative view.
[1:04:24] Speaker 5: We don't know, because they don't have to say.
[1:04:27] Speaker 1: I think a lot of Roman's friends and family believe
[1:04:29] Speaker 1: that if all of the circumstances, if they were all
[1:04:33] Speaker 1: put before a jury, then what.
[1:04:36] Speaker 9: Other explanations exactly.
[1:04:38] Speaker 1: You just hope that a fresh set of eyes in
[1:04:41] Speaker 1: the office of the DPP would come along and say,
[1:04:45] Speaker 1: let's take another look at this. Why didn't we prosecute
[1:04:49] Speaker 1: it back in two thousand and three after the inquest.
[1:04:55] Speaker 4: Well, I still believe then she.
[1:04:58] Speaker 23: Died that night.
[1:05:01] Speaker 1: Marilyn Hannigan lives in the nearby town of Ballina these days,
[1:05:05] Speaker 1: but in the nineteen nineties she and her partner Bruce
[1:05:08] Speaker 1: Huxtable were near neighbors of John and Bromwin. In Sandstone Crescent.
[1:05:13] Speaker 1: They were fond of Bromwyn and wary of John. Bruce
[1:05:18] Speaker 1: died in two thousand and five.
[1:05:21] Speaker 28: The last time I saw her actually standing in the
[1:05:24] Speaker 28: driveway beside the car. Oh my god, she was so
[1:05:27] Speaker 28: tiny and so thin. We lived at fifty seven, just
[1:05:32] Speaker 28: cross the road on the corner, and my partner was
[1:05:37] Speaker 28: a retired senior detective sergeant with police. The first time
[1:05:44] Speaker 28: somebody came to the neighborhood actually and ask us about anything,
[1:05:49] Speaker 28: it was about five months after she disappeared, and Bruce
[1:05:54] Speaker 28: gave this copper a hell of addressing down because he said,
[1:05:58] Speaker 28: she's been missing for five months and it's just now
[1:06:01] Speaker 28: that you're coming to us the neighbors and whatever. And
[1:06:05] Speaker 28: it was like, you, well, you wouldn't have been on
[1:06:07] Speaker 28: my team mate, and that sort of stuff.
[1:06:09] Speaker 5: He was with Victoria Police.
[1:06:12] Speaker 20: Yeah.
[1:06:13] Speaker 1: Do you recall whether after Bromin disappeared, In the months
[1:06:18] Speaker 1: after she disappeared, what the thinking was about what had happened.
[1:06:24] Speaker 28: Bruce had pretty well said straight up, oh what the
[1:06:27] Speaker 28: hell has he done with her?
[1:06:30] Speaker 1: Were you more of the view that Bromin might have
[1:06:33] Speaker 1: wanted to take a.
[1:06:33] Speaker 20: Break, No, she wouldn't have left those girls and.
[1:06:39] Speaker 1: Bruce being retired, he didn't feel that he could do.
[1:06:41] Speaker 5: Anything he could have.
[1:06:45] Speaker 28: We had a spit catering business that we did go
[1:06:48] Speaker 28: and do a few jobs for police at different times,
[1:06:51] Speaker 28: like Ballana police.
[1:06:52] Speaker 20: We'd do a pig on the spit. He did know
[1:06:55] Speaker 20: local policemen.
[1:06:57] Speaker 1: So why do you think there wasn't a whole lot
[1:07:00] Speaker 1: more focus and concern from police but also from the community.
[1:07:09] Speaker 20: I don't really know.
[1:07:10] Speaker 28: It just seemed to be a botch from the word go,
[1:07:14] Speaker 28: and I know Dare She would ring them every week
[1:07:18] Speaker 28: and then every month or whatever and ask the police
[1:07:21] Speaker 28: had they gotten news, have done anything new, or.
[1:07:24] Speaker 4: All that sort of stuff.
[1:07:25] Speaker 20: She was really dogged. Nothing much ever happened. It just
[1:07:32] Speaker 20: all seems so unfair and awful.
[1:07:36] Speaker 1: Close your eyes and picture Roman coming in with her daughters.
[1:07:41] Speaker 29: Yes, yes, it was all about the little girls having
[1:07:44] Speaker 29: their head trimmed, their little friends trimmed, and had them
[1:07:47] Speaker 29: dressed beautifully. And she was always well dressed too, very
[1:07:51] Speaker 29: neat and tidy. You can't help but notice somebody like that,
[1:07:54] Speaker 29: because in Lennox it was all hippie stuff.
[1:07:58] Speaker 1: Longtime local of Lenox head people like Bernadette Armstrong are
[1:08:03] Speaker 1: hearing about this investigation and striving to help. They've harbored
[1:08:09] Speaker 1: grave concerns for three decades. A retired senior police officer,
[1:08:14] Speaker 1: Glenn Taylor disclosed in the first episode of this podcast
[1:08:18] Speaker 1: series that the original investigation into Broman's disappearance was very poor.
[1:08:23] Speaker 1: The more I talk to people from lenox the more
[1:08:26] Speaker 1: misguided the nineteen ninety three investigation looks. It's difficult to
[1:08:32] Speaker 1: disagree with the view of many in this place that
[1:08:35] Speaker 1: police back in nineteen ninety three, when the trail was fresh,
[1:08:39] Speaker 1: saw Bromwin as a feckless young woman who'd possibly taken
[1:08:43] Speaker 1: off with another fella. But as Bromin's neighbor and good
[1:08:47] Speaker 1: friend Debhaul described it to me one day recently, it
[1:08:51] Speaker 1: is a two way street. There were undoubtedly people in
[1:08:55] Speaker 1: Lenox Head who kept their suspicions and knowledge of some
[1:08:59] Speaker 1: things to them, and the police are not mind readers.
[1:09:04] Speaker 1: I have tried to talk to the former Detective Sergeant
[1:09:07] Speaker 1: Graham Diskin, who was in charge of the investigation in
[1:09:10] Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three. His side of things is important, but
[1:09:15] Speaker 1: he has declined to talk about the case. He has
[1:09:18] Speaker 1: been retired from the New South Wales Police for more
[1:09:21] Speaker 1: than twenty years. In nineteen ninety three, there was a
[1:09:25] Speaker 1: more junior officer, Wayne Temby, who helped Graham discin in
[1:09:30] Speaker 1: those early days. Wayne Temby has been retired for some
[1:09:34] Speaker 1: time too, and he also declined an interview request. Wayne
[1:09:39] Speaker 1: Temby played an integral role in the subsequent investigation in
[1:09:43] Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight, led by Glenn Taylor, which made so
[1:09:47] Speaker 1: much progress. But you can't silence women like Bernadette Armstrong.
[1:09:53] Speaker 29: I have to tell you onto this right from the
[1:09:56] Speaker 29: word Joe, I want to see her found.
[1:10:01] Speaker 1: Bernie's hairdressing salon had pride of place next to a
[1:10:04] Speaker 1: Chinese restaurant in Lennox Head in the nineteen nineties, and
[1:10:08] Speaker 1: opposite was Eden's Takeaway, where Broman worked part time.
[1:10:13] Speaker 29: I've been churned up the last few days about the podcast.
[1:10:17] Speaker 29: I'll never rest until I find out what happened to
[1:10:19] Speaker 29: that Paul girl. I did thirty six years of hairdressing.
[1:10:22] Speaker 29: I've done thousands of people's hair, especially women, And do
[1:10:28] Speaker 29: you know out of all the people I've done, Bromwan
[1:10:31] Speaker 29: stood out to me and she struck me as the
[1:10:34] Speaker 29: most wonderful, impeccable mother.
[1:10:37] Speaker 20: I never lost that feeling.
[1:10:38] Speaker 29: Whenever she came in, I think, oh my god, she's
[1:10:41] Speaker 29: got the dress beautifully. So when that happened that she'd disappeared,
[1:10:47] Speaker 29: there was a fellow called Graham.
[1:10:50] Speaker 4: Graham disc game discan.
[1:10:52] Speaker 20: Yeah, yeah, have you heard of him?
[1:10:54] Speaker 1: Yes, I've heard of him, but I do know that
[1:10:56] Speaker 1: he was involved in the original investigation in nineteen ninety
[1:11:01] Speaker 1: three when Bromin first disappeared.
[1:11:03] Speaker 29: That's exactly right. But he came into my salon. I
[1:11:07] Speaker 29: didn't know him really from a bar of soap and
[1:11:11] Speaker 29: I was at turning to a lady's here. I was
[1:11:13] Speaker 29: doing her hair and I had another lady in the
[1:11:15] Speaker 29: chair next to her, and he went, Bernadette, I believe
[1:11:19] Speaker 29: you know Bromin Winfield. And I said, oh, yes, she's
[1:11:24] Speaker 29: kind here. And he said, come on, this is where
[1:11:27] Speaker 29: we find the gossip. This is how he spoke to me.
[1:11:31] Speaker 29: Come on, you're in here, all you girls, and you
[1:11:33] Speaker 29: know what she's done. I said, what are you talking about?
[1:11:36] Speaker 29: And I got on the high horse straight away, and
[1:11:39] Speaker 29: he said, you've got the goss here. I said, I
[1:11:42] Speaker 29: haven't got the goths here. Just spit it out and
[1:11:44] Speaker 29: what do you want? And he went, you know she's
[1:11:47] Speaker 29: run off with somebody. She would have told you she's
[1:11:50] Speaker 29: got a boyfriend. And he went, yeah, come on, he said,
[1:11:53] Speaker 29: she's run away. And I said, listen, stop right now.
[1:11:57] Speaker 29: I said, don't you speak to me like that. And
[1:11:59] Speaker 29: I said, and I'm telling you now that I know
[1:12:02] Speaker 29: nothing about that.
[1:12:04] Speaker 20: He said it.
[1:12:04] Speaker 29: About three times, and I thought, you say that again,
[1:12:07] Speaker 29: I said.
[1:12:08] Speaker 20: Graham, I said, I'm busy.
[1:12:09] Speaker 18: Oh was wild?
[1:12:10] Speaker 29: How dare he try to put words in my mouth? Oh,
[1:12:14] Speaker 29: she's got a fellow. She's run up with a fellow.
[1:12:16] Speaker 29: That's what he was saying. Get your fact right, you know,
[1:12:18] Speaker 29: before he come into my place and start spreading gossip.
[1:12:21] Speaker 29: I said, she was a lovely client. That's all I know.
[1:12:24] Speaker 29: I said, I know nothing personally about the girl.
[1:12:27] Speaker 20: I said, but I'll tell you what.
[1:12:29] Speaker 29: That's something I would never believe that she's left those
[1:12:32] Speaker 29: two little girls. And you know, I've stuck to that
[1:12:35] Speaker 29: headly all the way through, all the way through, and
[1:12:39] Speaker 29: I'm still still the same. And I complained to them
[1:12:43] Speaker 29: in that ball at the police station. I said, listen,
[1:12:45] Speaker 29: he came in here into my salon and I said,
[1:12:49] Speaker 29: tell me what I thought or knew. She would never
[1:12:54] Speaker 29: have left the Little Girls and I will never change
[1:12:57] Speaker 29: that opinion ever.
[1:13:12] Speaker 1: Bronwyn is written and investigated by me Headley Thomas as
[1:13:16] Speaker 1: a podcast production for The Australian. If anyone has information
[1:13:21] Speaker 1: which may help solve this cold case, please contact me
[1:13:25] Speaker 1: confidentially by emailing Bronwyn at the Australian dot com dot au.
[1:13:32] Speaker 1: You can read more about this case and see a
[1:13:35] Speaker 1: range of photographs and other artwork at the website Bromwyn
[1:13:40] Speaker 1: podcast dot com. Our subscribers and registered users here episodes first.
[1:13:46] Speaker 5: The production and.
[1:13:48] Speaker 1: Editorial team for Bromwin includes Claire Harvey, Kristin Amiot, Joshua Burton, Bridget,
[1:13:54] Speaker 1: Ryan Bianca, far Marcus, Katie Burns, Liam Mendez, Sean Callen,
[1:14:00] Speaker 1: Matthew Condon and David Murray. Audio production for this podcast
[1:14:04] Speaker 1: series is by Wasabi Audio and original theme music by
[1:14:09] Speaker 1: Slade Gibson. We have been assisted by Madison Walsh, a relation.
[1:14:13] Speaker 5: Of Romwin Winfield.
[1:14:15] Speaker 1: We can only do this kind of journalism with the
[1:14:18] Speaker 1: support of our subscribers and our major sponsors like Harvey Norman.
[1:14:23] Speaker 1: For all of our exclusive stories, videos, maps, timelines and
[1:14:27] Speaker 1: documents about this podcast and other podcasts, including The Teacher's pet,
[1:14:32] Speaker 1: the teachers Trial, the Teacher's accuser, Shandy's Story, Shandy's.
[1:14:36] Speaker 5: Legacy and The Night Driver.
[1:14:38] Speaker 1: Go to the Australian dot com dot au and subscribe

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