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Search for Bronwyn Winfield dives deep · The Front

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A warning before we start. This episode contains serious allegations
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of physical assault and murder from The Australian. Here's what's
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: on the front. I'm Christinamiot. It's Friday, July twelve. A
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: woman whose visa was canceled by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: under the flawed Direction ninety nine will appeal the decision
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: in the Federal Court. It could be a huge legal
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: headache for the government if more foreign criminals caught up
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: in the immigration bungle take their cases to court. That
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  Speaker 1: exclusive story by Brihannon Down is live right now at
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: The Australian dot com dot a U. A twenty eight
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  Speaker 1: year old man was charged with three counts of domestic
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  Speaker 1: violence related murder on Thursday after a fire at his
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  Speaker 1: home in Western Sydney killed two boys aged six and
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  Speaker 1: two and a five month old baby. The man was
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  Speaker 1: also charged with five counts of attempted murder relating to
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  Speaker 1: his partner and four other children, who escaped the inferno
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  Speaker 1: with the help of a neighbor. The ex wife of
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  Speaker 1: John Winfield told police the Lenox Head bricklayer choked and
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  Speaker 1: threatened to kill her. That's a stunning allegation made In
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  Speaker 1: the latest installment of an investigation into the disappearance of
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  Speaker 1: Winfield's third wife, Bronwyn in nineteen ninety three, John Winfield
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  Speaker 1: has denied all wrongdoing. We'll have more on that later.
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  Speaker 1: In the episode first up, the podcast series by National
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  Speaker 1: Chief correspondent Headley Thomas dives deep in search of the
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  Speaker 1: missing lennox Head Mum Lake Ainsworth on the New South
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  Speaker 1: Wales North coast. The Tea Tree Lake is a literal
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  Speaker 1: stones throw from Lennox Head's famed seven Mile Beach on
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  Speaker 1: its eastern edge. It's here that the road ends, and
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  Speaker 1: passage between the two is only possible on foot. It's
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  Speaker 1: twelve hectares or about twenty football fields of deep, dark
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  Speaker 1: fresh water, stained by tannets from the paper bark trees
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  Speaker 1: that hug its perimeter. In the warmer months, locals and
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  Speaker 1: tourists pull up stumps, swimming and barbecuing their way through
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  Speaker 1: long summer days. And it's here, in this deep still
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  Speaker 1: water that some friends and family believe Bronwyn Winfield's body
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  Speaker 1: has been hidden for thirty one years. Bronwyn Winfield vanished
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  Speaker 1: from her home on Sandstone Cresset in lennox Head on
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  Speaker 1: the evening of May sixteenth, nineteen ninety three. On that night,
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  Speaker 1: she tucked her two little girls into bed and kissed
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  Speaker 1: them good night. Her husband, John Winfield says she was
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  Speaker 1: feeling overwhelmed by the disintegration of their relationship and caring
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  Speaker 1: for the two little girls on her own, and he
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  Speaker 1: says she'd relayed her intentions to take a break from
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  Speaker 1: it all for a couple of days. Then, he says,
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  Speaker 1: she made a phone call, got into a car at
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  Speaker 1: the front and left their Sandstone Crescent house around nine
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  Speaker 1: thirty pm. Bronwin hasn't been seen or heard from since.
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  Speaker 1: John Winfield has denied all wrongdoing. Bron Win Winfield's mysterious
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  Speaker 1: disappearance is the subject of an investigative podcast by The
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  Speaker 1: Australian's National Chief correspondent Headley Thomas. In that series, Bronwin's
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  Speaker 1: loved ones have voiced their grave concerns about what they
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  Speaker 1: believe happened on the night she disappeared three decades ago.
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  Speaker 2: With the shortest route if you're looking for a body
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  Speaker 2: of water is Lake Ainsworth.
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  Speaker 1: That's Bronwyn Winfield's brother, Andy Reid. He was joined by
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  Speaker 1: his wife Michelle. In episode nine of the Bronwyn podcast.
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  Speaker 3: The street on the right hand side of the lake,
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  Speaker 3: and if you go up there you can nearly at
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  Speaker 3: some point back your car or path right beside the
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  Speaker 3: edge of the road, and the water is right next
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  Speaker 3: to you.
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  Speaker 4: What's the function of the surfboard.
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  Speaker 2: To be able to take there out to the center
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  Speaker 2: of the lake where it's quite deep way down, drop
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  Speaker 2: her off the board, paddle back in, come on, pick
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  Speaker 2: up the girls file out to Sydney.
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  Speaker 1: Lake Ainsworth is about seven minutes drive from Sandstone Crescent,
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  Speaker 1: potentially faster at night when there are less cars on
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  Speaker 1: the road and fewer pedestrians milling about. Andy Reid and
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  Speaker 1: others believe it's plausible Bronwin Winfield met with foul play
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  Speaker 1: sometime after her children went to bed, and that her
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  Speaker 1: husband bundled her body into the family car, paddled out
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  Speaker 1: on Lake Ainsworth and submerged Bronwin's body into that dark water.
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  Speaker 2: Swim all the way out out to the middle. She
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  Speaker 2: could jump back on paddlebacking. Job done ten minutes flat.
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  Speaker 2: It's a terrible thing to be thinking of. That makes sense.
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  Speaker 1: Ronman's cousin, Madison Walsh, has just completed a degree in
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  Speaker 1: forensic science and believes searching the lake is a worthwhile exercise.
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  Speaker 1: She's been assisting Heady with this investigation into the disappearance
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  Speaker 1: of the cousin who vanished before she was born.
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  Speaker 5: I think we need to get a sona a side
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  Speaker 5: scan sona because they have found so many people. Ill
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  Speaker 5: happily die if we find something and the police aren't
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  Speaker 5: doing anything, so might just have to be asked.
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  Speaker 1: And so off they went. On a windy weekend in
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  Speaker 1: early July, Headley, Maddie and a contingent of search and
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  Speaker 1: rescue experts, including a former Australian Navy captain, traveled to
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  Speaker 1: Lake Ainsworth where they probed its murky depths for signs
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  Speaker 1: of Bronwyn Winfield.
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  Speaker 2: Of interest.
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  Speaker 6: So I'll get this the view ready, We'll get the
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  Speaker 6: battery ready.
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  Speaker 1: In some intriguing discoveries were made, like a brick pulled
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  Speaker 1: from the lake's depths.
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  Speaker 6: Rapairs is potentially something I'd like to larger than than
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  Speaker 6: what I've been seeing, so I'd love to get the
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  Speaker 6: diver down to investigate what it could potentially be. It's
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  Speaker 6: in the far northwest corner of the lake, which correlates
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  Speaker 6: the potentially attract of it.
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  Speaker 4: Well, this was a very different type of search because
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  Speaker 4: the police had no connection to this.
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  Speaker 1: Headley Thomas is the Australian's National Chief correspondent and the
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  Speaker 1: creator of the investigative podcast Bronwyn.
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  Speaker 4: It was really conducted by volunteers, Solely volunteers who had
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  Speaker 4: specialized training. We had Ash mc donald, a very highly
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  Speaker 4: trained scuba diver, former Australian Navy captain, and Chris Darcy
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  Speaker 4: who has a lot of experience and doing searches of
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  Speaker 4: terrain and underwater. He has site Scancena and he also
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  Speaker 4: has cadaverdocs and they gave their time, their equipment. They
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  Speaker 4: traveled from Sydney and Newcastle respectively, and we're very grateful.
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  Speaker 4: And this is the lake that is very close to
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  Speaker 4: the beach north of Lenox. It's loved by the locals
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  Speaker 4: and it was a popular place for Bromwin and John
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  Speaker 4: two when they lived together in Lenox. It must have
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  Speaker 4: been a really difficult time for Andy. He'd come up
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  Speaker 4: with his daughter Caitlin and they were very apprehensive, but
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  Speaker 4: also I think joining in what was a really positive
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  Speaker 4: community spirit. People came down to see what we were doing.
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  Speaker 4: Friends of Bromwin, people who have been featured in the podcast,
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  Speaker 4: who have helped me with the investigation. They also came
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  Speaker 4: down to the shore and you know there was a
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  Speaker 4: nice atmosphere, but everybody knew that. You know, we were
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  Speaker 4: looking for Bromman's body. That's what Andy wanted to find.
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  Speaker 4: And he said at one point, you know, wouldn't it
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  Speaker 4: just be remarkable if I went out on the boat
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  Speaker 4: with Chris and found my own sister's body.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up? What's next for this remarkable investigation. Subscribers to
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  Speaker 1: The Australian here episodes of bronwin First episode ten is
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  Speaker 1: live right now at bronwanpodcast dot com. A subscription also
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  Speaker 1: includes all of the australians world class journalism and commentary,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: as well as breaking news alerts, newsletters and special events.
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  Speaker 1: Join us at the Australian dot com dot au and
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  Speaker 1: we'll be back after this break.
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  Speaker 7: There's been a development in a suspected murder of New
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  Speaker 7: South Wales mother bronwyn Winfield more than three decades ago.
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  Speaker 7: A witness account which was previously dismissed, is now being
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  Speaker 7: considered by detectives.
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  Speaker 1: Headley Thomas's investigative podcast series into the disappearance of Lennox
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  Speaker 1: head mother Bronwin Winfield has advanced her case in leaps
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  Speaker 1: and bounds since it first aired in late May. It
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  Speaker 1: brought to the extraordinary account of Judy Singh, who was
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  Speaker 1: ignored by New South Wales police assigned to the investigation
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  Speaker 1: in those early days when Bronwyn Winfield was being treated
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  Speaker 1: as a missing person not a potential homicide victim.
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  Speaker 8: I could see directly into the car and I saw
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  Speaker 8: what looked to be like a mummy in the back
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  Speaker 8: of the car, and I thought, what it be going
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  Speaker 8: late at night with you know something that looked like
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  Speaker 8: I just called it a mummy and I thought, well,
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  Speaker 8: ign if he was taking out belongings, you wouldn't make
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  Speaker 8: it look like a body, do you know?
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  Speaker 7: Men.
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  Speaker 1: In the weeks since that episode was released, police have
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  Speaker 1: interviewed Judy sEH at length and visited her old stomping
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  Speaker 1: ground near Sandstone Crescent in order to finally understand what
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  Speaker 1: she says she saw on the evening of May sixteenth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, the last time Bronwyn Winfield was seen alive,
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  Speaker 1: and still the revelations are coming. Episode ten of Bronwyn
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  Speaker 1: released for the Australian subscribers on Thursday revealed disturbing allegations
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  Speaker 1: made by John Winfield's ex wife about their relationship. Jennifer
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  Speaker 1: Mason married John Winfield when she was a teenager, after
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  Speaker 1: falling pregnant with his child in early nineteen seventy four.
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  Speaker 1: In a statement to police made in nineteen ninety eight,
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  Speaker 1: when the detective Glenn Taylor finally conducted a thorough investigation
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  Speaker 1: into Bronwin Winfield's disappearance, Jenny Mason claimed she was scared
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  Speaker 1: of Winfield's temper and alleges he choked and threatened to
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  Speaker 1: kill her. A voice actor is reading part of that statement.
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  Speaker 9: I recall on one occasion when he pushed me back
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  Speaker 9: onto the bed because answers back to him. On that time,
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  Speaker 9: he scared me a great deal. He said to me,
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  Speaker 9: I'll kill you if you say that again. And at
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  Speaker 9: the time he had his hands around my throat and
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  Speaker 9: was squeezing. I remember I managed to say go ahead.
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  Speaker 9: Into my surprise, he kept squeezing me around the throat.
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  Speaker 9: I managed to kick him in the groin and I
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  Speaker 9: got away from him and hit in the outside laundry.
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  Speaker 1: When Headley first began work on Bronwin he believed the
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  Speaker 1: series would comprise six, maybe eight episodes, but now there
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  Speaker 1: are ten, running at about an hour apiece. If you
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  Speaker 1: ran all the scripts back to back, you'd have enough
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  Speaker 1: for a pretty chunky book. And that's to say nothing
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  Speaker 1: of the many drafts and edits that don't make the
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  Speaker 1: final cut. Now the podcast will take a break.
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  Speaker 4: Something remarkable has happened. During the eight weeks we've been
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  Speaker 4: releasing weekly episodes. We've been deluged with information from members
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  Speaker 4: of the public. Friends and acquaintances of Bronwyn and John
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  Speaker 4: have been sharing a lot too. Hundreds of listeners have
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  Speaker 4: contacted me via Bronwyn at the Australian dot com dot
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  Speaker 4: au with information, and some of it is we believe
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  Speaker 4: very significant. Our Facebook group, the Bromwyn Podcast Official Discussion Group,
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  Speaker 4: has become a lively exercise in crowdsolving, with listeners constructively
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  Speaker 4: putting together maps and timelines to try to work out
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  Speaker 4: what might have happened. As a result, the narrative arc
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  Speaker 4: of the Bromwyn series has changed fundamentally. One of the
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  Speaker 4: key reasons this investigative podcast began was because I believe
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  Speaker 4: Bromwyn's disappearance and alleged murder could still be old This
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  Speaker 4: belief has only grown stronger as the series has unfolded.
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  Speaker 1: Headley Thomas is The Australian's National Chief correspondent and the
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  Speaker 1: creator of the investigative podcast bron Win. Thanks for joining
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  Speaker 1: us on the front this week. Our team is Claire Harvey,
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  Speaker 1: Jasper leik Leat Sammagloo, Josh Burton, Matthew Condon, Tiffany Dimmack
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  Speaker 1: and me Kristen amiet