Bronwyn

In an idyllic surf town, Bronwyn Winfield is a loving young mother determined to divorce her husband Jon and start again with her two daughters.

She writes about her life and describes a deeply unhappy marriage. She tells friends and relatives that she fears Jon. Bronwyn discloses firm plans including an imminent meeting with a lawyer advising her about her separation from her estranged husband.

Jon has a strong tether to the famil...

It’s a toxic relationship. Friends and family recall Bronwyn’s sadness and frustrations over what appears to be coercive control and emotional violence.

Bronwyn’s efforts to keep the family home ‘immaculate’ while raising children take a toll. Crumbs or soft drink spills on the floor anger Jon, who doesn’t want visitors and directs the children to play in the garage to avoid making a mess.

Neighbours, friends, and their children se...

Jon's second wife reveals some home truths about her brief failed marriage and why she decided to file for divorce, triggering a bitter row over the house she and Jon built in Sandstone Crescent, Lennox Head. The house is close to where Bronwyn would build a house with Jon several years later.

When Bronwyn decides to get a locksmith in and take her lawyer's advice to move back into the house, friends are worried for her. One reveal...

Bronwyn's estranged husband, Jon, hastily packs the family car for an unplanned drive through the night to Sydney with the two girls. His neighbour, Murray Nolan, hears the car's distinctive brakes and is surprised to see the Ford sedan quietly rolling down Sandstone Crescent with lights off and engine off at 10:40pm on Sunday, May 16, 1993.

When Jon arrives in Sydney he says Bronwyn has gone away for a break, leaving him to look a...

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 ...

As celebrities from Hollywood stars Chris Hemsworth to Simon Baker wax lyrical about Lennox Head, locals like Scruffy speculate about Bronwyn and the whereabouts of her remains.

Analysis of a missing person report made to police by her estranged husband Jon Winfield in late May, 1993, strongly suggests that Bronwyn is alive and telephoned Jon’s daughter Jodie to say she had moved to Queensland and would not be coming back. Bronwyn’...

A new witness emerges with a chilling account of seeing what she fears was Bronwyn Winfield's body wrapped in sheets in the back of a car, in a development that could change everything in the 31 year mystery.

Retired nurse and former Lennox Head resident Judy Singh lived about 50m from the Winfields and says she tried to report what she saw from her upper level balcony to local police within weeks, and at Byron Bay station years la...

Bronwyn’s friends and loved ones reel as the revelation of Judy Singh’s sighting of what appeared to be a body wrapped in a sheet, being driven away by her estranged husband Jon Winfield in 1993, is understood.

Detectives fly north to take a statement from Judy. They drive her to her old home in Lennox Head as part of a renewed homicide investigation.

Former neighbour Murray Nolan admits deep regret about his handling of potentiall...

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

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

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

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

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

At Lake Ainsworth, on the northern edge of Lennox Head, locals joined with volunteers and Bronwyn’s br...

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

Find out more about The Front podcast here. You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian’s app.

This episode of The Front is presented by Claire Harvey, produced by Kristen Amiet, and edited by Lia Tsamo...

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

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

Read more about this case and see photographs, maps, timelines and more at bronwynpodcast.com. 

If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can contact our team confidentially by emailing bronwyn@theaustralian.com...

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

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

If you have information which may help solve this cold case, you can contact our team confidentially by emailing bronwyn@theaustralian.com.au

If you need support, Lifeli...

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

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

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

In a remarkable interview with Hedley Th...

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

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

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

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

Hedley Thomas and Matt Condon delve deeply into Jon’s own words...

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

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

In stark contrast, other members of the Read family point the finger at J...

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

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