a woman in Australia left her home and disappeared Without a Trace leaving her husband and two children behind relatives tried to contact her but after several weeks of unsuccessful attempts they decided to turn to the police an investigation was conducted and it was concluded that the woman was not in danger and had the right to control her own fate since then she has not contacted her family and only 40 years later that they learned the shocking truth Lynette Joy Dawson was born on May 5th 1948 and the Australian state of New
South Wales she grew up in a large loving family with two brothers and a sister together with her parents they lived in the small town of clovely which is essentially a suburb of Sydney Lynette was a cheerful child had many friends and always tried to help her loved ones her parents decided to send her to Sydney Girls High School believing it would be the best choice for her the school often held events in conjunction with Sydney boys high school and in 1965 at one of these events Lynette met a boy named Chris
Dawson they were both 16 years old and soon the couple began dating after finishing school Lynette decided to pursue a career in medicine she wanted to help people so she chose to become a nurse at the same time she took a part-time job at a child care center when Chris and Lynette were 21 they decided to get married the couple got married in 1970.
the newlyweds moved to the northern suburb of Sydney called Bayview where the woman got a job at a local hospital Chris was actively involved in sports and played professional rugby since 1972. he had a twin brother named Paul with whom they were in the same sports team later they both decided to end their professional careers and became physical education coaches at one of the Sydney schools Chris and Lynette dreamed of a large family but they struggled to conceive for a long time after six years of unsuccessful attempts they began to
consider adopting a child from an orphanage but Lynette finally became pregnant and the couple had their first daughter followed by their second Lynette and Chris were happy to finally have children their family seemed exemplary to friends and acquaintances but soon the first signs of trouble began to appear in this idyllic picture Lynette’s friends started to notice bruises and injuries on her body periodically when asked about it Lynette claimed that it was nothing serious and her friends shouldn’t worry about it Lynette’s
friends were concerned for her but they didn’t see what was happening as something truly terrible in those days domestic violence wasn’t considered a serious crime in the eyes of a significant portion of society in Australia moreover everyone who knew Chris considered him a loving husband and caring father who never showed signs of aggression and was a positive person therefore their friends tried not to interfere in their marriage and hoped that the couple would solve their problems but the relationship between
Lynette and Chris only continued to deteriorate Lynette noticed that her husband had cooled towards her and was worried about the future of their family a few years after the birth of their daughters they decided to use the services of a nanny Chris suggested this job to one of his 15 year old school students Bev McNally but she didn’t stay in this part-time job for long she witnessed Chris raising his hand to Lynette twice and decided to leave after this Chris offered this job to another of his 16 year old students
Joanne Curtis after some time Joanne had problems in her family and Chris offered her to stay with them for some time so she could spend more time looking after the children until the situation in her family improved despite her kindness and desire to help people Lynette was against this she was deeply concerned about the problems in their own family and didn’t want someone else to be constantly present in their home however Chris insisted on it and in October 1981 Joanne moved in with them the young woman lived with them for about a month
until Lynette discovered that her husband was sleeping with Joanne it was a real shock for her and another blow to their marriage she kicked Joanne out of the house but decided not to divorce Chris Lynette wanted to keep their family together for the sake of their children and she continued to love her husband despite his actions just a few months later on December 3rd 1981 Lynette phased yet another shock Chris left her a note saying that he was leaving the family he wrote that he would move to another city with Joanne and asked his wife not
to portray him in a bad light to the children Lynette was devastated by this news but a few days later she was surprised again Chris returned home because Joanne changed her mind about avoiding him in another city and asked to be taken back meanwhile Chris spent New Year’s Eve with Joanne leaving his wife alone with the children at that time Joanne moved into Chris’s brother’s house which was on the same street despite everything that was happening Lynette wanted to keep their family together no matter what so she decided
to enroll in Family Therapy Chris was against this idea but she managed to convince him she went to see The Specialist right after New Year’s and it seemed that the therapy had a positive effect on their relationship Chris started to spend more time with his wife and showed a desire to fix everything on January 8 1982 Lynette called her mother and told her that the family therapy was going well they also agreed to meet with her and other relatives at the local Beach the next day and her mother thought that her daughter’s
speech sounded a bit unclear as if Lynette was drunk the woman explained that Chris had prepared some alcoholic drink for her the next day the relatives were waiting for Lynette on the beach but she never showed up they called her at home and Chris said that he had driven his wife to the bus stop that morning she was going to the store to return some clothes that didn’t fit however she never returned home and her relatives began to worry in the evening Chris called Lynette’s mother and told her that his wife had contacted him by
phone she said that because of the problems in their marriage she had decided to be away from home for a while and gather her thoughts her relatives thought that what was happening was strange as they were aware of the problems that had been building up between the spouses for years but they still couldn’t imagine Lynette leaving her two daughters she loved her children more than anything in the world and never mentioned considering the possibility of going somewhere days passed but Lynette still didn’t contact her family which only added to
their worry on January 12th Chris reported that Lynette had called their home phone and said that she was okay since then he had spoken to her a few more times and told her relatives that she had been using her bank card despite this her family continued to doubt that Lynette was okay she didn’t know how to drive and didn’t take any items that she might need for a living she even left behind cash that was hidden in case of an emergency three weeks later Lynette’s eldest daughter started first grade as the school year in Australia begins in
January but Lynette missed this event which caused even more concern for her relatives they were practically certain that something bad had happened to her while Chris said that she continued to regularly call home and the last such call was at the end of January since then Lynette hadn’t been in contact on February 18th six weeks after Lynette left home her husband went to the police he filed a missing person report and expressed suspicion that amid all the problems in their marriage Lynette could have joined some religious organization
or even a cult her relatives denied such a possibility as Lynette was not religious and didn’t attend church the police began a surge but they had absolutely no leads Lynette’s mother and other members of her family were certain that she would never leave home abandoning her daughters so they believed that she had been kidnapped were some other tragedy had occurred despite this the police concluded that Lynette had indeed left home as they had no evidence of the contrary they tried to find her for some time and
then stopped the investigation Chris posted a message for Lynette in the local newspaper calling for her to come home he wrote that he loved her and was eagerly awaiting her call he also called all of her friends trying to find any information about his wife’s whereabouts despite Chris’s eagerness to find Lynette he divorced her a year after her disappearance and the next year he married Joanne Curtis his former student and lover who had moved in with him on January 10 1982 a day after Lynette went missing Joanne became the stepmother of
Lynette’s daughters and Chris not wanting to traumatize the children of the stories of their mother’s disappearance told them that Joanne was their real mother Lynette’s relatives were not happy about what was happening but they couldn’t do anything about it they stopped relying on the police as they had long ago stopped investigating due to the complete lack of leads moreover they didn’t even try to question all of her relatives and friends and the case was abandoned almost immediately without a proper investigation
Chris and Joanne moved to Queensland with the children selling their old house Chris almost completely cut ties with his former wife’s relatives only occasionally calling her mother later Chris and Joanne had a daughter six years past and during that time Lynette never contacted anyone this continued until 1990 when something unexpected happened Chris and Joanne divorced and soon after that Joanne contacted Lynette’s relatives to pass on shocking information she said that she had suspected her husband of murdering his ex-wife all
this time according to her a month before Lynette’s disappearance Chris had talked about hiring a Hitman to get rid of her on the very day she disappeared he told Joanne that Lynette had left forever and would never return she also advised the police to search the backyard of the house where Lynette and Chris lived in 1991 the police questioned Chris he said that his ex-wife was just trying to tarnish his name and that he had nothing to do with Lynette’s disappearance he admitted that the woman was intentionally doing this to get custody
of their daughter after the divorce at that time the court was deciding who would have custody of their child and Chris’s arrest would have been beneficial to Joanne police seized phones from Chris and his brother but nothing suspicious was found so investigators once again abandoned the case considering Joanne’s words dubious the case remained dormant for another nine years until 2000 when police decided to excavate the backyard of Chris’s old home but there was a catch due to insufficient funding they only dug around the pool area this area was
chosen after police talked to the new homeowners according to them during the sale Chris persistently asked if they planned to change anything exactly in this place the only thing that the police managed to find was a torn pink cardigan investigators admitted that it could have belonged to Lynette and contained some evidence but DNA analysis found no matches with Lynette a year later the case was once again brought to attention this time the deputy State prosecutor concluded that Lynette was killed by someone she knew police resumed the
investigation questioning her friends and relatives but they failed to find any leads only in 2003 two years later investigators publicly announced that they considered Chris a suspect they wanted to charge him with murder but it never happened due to the complete lack of evidence the man could not be convicted but investigators managed to find many witnesses who reported that Chris and his brother regularly had intimate relationships with their school students however no charges were brought on this matter and as a result the case
stalled again in 2006 Chris claimed that he saw his wife among the extras of a series filmed in England but no one could find any evidence to support his words in 2010 police announced a 100 000 reward for information about Lynette’s disappearance and four years later they doubled the amount despite the large number of appeals this did not bring any results and they failed to find any reliable leads in cases where a monetary reward is promised there are always many people who want to earn some extra money they
are ready to make up any information just to get the money in 2015 police dug up a section of Chris’s former home trying to find his wife’s body but they were unsuccessful the turning point in this case came in 2018 when a podcast about Lynette’s disappearance was released and gained massive popularity in Australia arguments were presented in favor of Lynette’s husband being responsible for her murder the podcast was listened to by several million people which led to a wave of public outrage Australians accused the police of negligence and
demanded that the culprit be punished the podcast author Hadley Thomas spoke to Lynette’s relatives and tried to find New Leads although he was unable to find any new evidence against Chris the public outcry was enough to initiate a new investigation as a result on December 5th of that year detectives arrested Chris for the first time on charges of murder he continued to insist on his innocence and was released on bail before the start of the trial the way dragged on for several years in 2019 he appeared before a judge and
claimed that he did not kill his wife and that the trial should have started in 2020 but Chris’s lawyers consistently delayed the process they insisted that due to the widespread coverage of the case in the media their client had a biased attitude towards him so they demanded that they abandoned the jury and conduct a trial where the judge would make the decision in May 2022 this demand was approved and the trial finally began Chris’s lawyers insisted that there was not a single piece of evidence against their clients and all the charges were
based on societal bias due to the podcast according to them the author presented his opinion in such a way that many believed in Chris’s guilt and refused to adequately evaluate the situation despite the lack of direct evidence on the prosecution side they built their case on a multitude of indirect factors relatives and acquaintances of Lynette who had repeatedly seen signs of abuse on her body testified in court and Lynette had admitted to them that Chris was responsible their neighbors who witnessed the man
beating her also testified in court they recounted that the day before Lynette’s disappearance when she returned to family therapy she had bruises on her neck one of the key Witnesses was Joanne who revealed that as she Grew Older she realized how unhealthy her relationship with Chris was he became obsessed with her when she was only 15 years old he would leave notes in her backpack at school and ask her out on days he was persistent and didn’t take no for an answer so the young woman felt like she had nowhere to turn
according to Joanne Chris completely controlled her life he told her what to wear who to talk to and what to do he monitored her every move and couldn’t stand it when things didn’t go according to his plan as a result the woman concluded that the man could have easily killed his wife according to the prosecution Chris had wanted to end the marriage for a long time but he would have lost part of his property and custody of the children in the divorce so he decided to kill Lynette and Stage her disappearance in addition he wanted to get rid of her
so that she wouldn’t interfere with his relationship with Joanne Chris’s lawyers on the other hand insisted that Joanne had made all of this up to intentionally slander her ex-husband they also called several witnesses who claimed to have seen Lynette years after her disappearance these testimonies became the Mainstay of the defense but there was no evidence to support their claims the prosecution believed that these testimonies were simply fabricated and that if Lynette was alive she would have contacted her relatives and daughters
over the years as for the phone calls that Chris allegedly received in the first month of her disappearance no evidence of their existence could be found the prosecution argued that the woman was already dead at that time and the man made it all up to convince Lynette’s relatives that she was okay in their view Chris killed the woman on January 9.
drove her body in an unknown Direction and hid it because the police were negligent in their work in those years no proper investigation was conducted although the Killer’s motives were always obvious trial lasted for 10 weeks and on August 30th 2022 the judge found Chris guilty a few months later in early December the sentence was announced 24 years in prison with the possibility of applying for early release after 18 years of imprisonment considering that he will be 92 years old by then Chris May simply not live to see that time after the sentence was handed down
Lynette’s relatives including her eldest daughter spoke she no longer doubted that her father had killed her mother and said that his actions had destroyed her life the woman demanded that her father confess where he had hidden Lynette’s body so the family could finally bury her but Chris remained silent and looked at the floor while his daughter spoke despite the fact that almost 41 years have passed since Lynette’s murder her relatives still hoped to find her remains Chris who is now 74 years old continues to insist on his innocence but
even his own children do not believe him thus one of Australia’s most high-profile cases was solved in large part thanks to a podcast that Drew the attention of millions of people to this unjust story if the police had conducted a proper investigation from the beginning the killer could have been punished immediately after the crime not after four decades share your opinion in the comments and don’t forget to like this video If you enjoyed it thank you for watching
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