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Pain and hope for Bronwyn’s family · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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  Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play
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  Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, Here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Thursday, September five.
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  Speaker 1: Jim Chalmer says the government is keeping Australia out of
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  Speaker 1: recession after the economy recorded its weakest growth since nineteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety one. The Treasurer says the Reserve Bank is wrong
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  Speaker 1: to say the economy is running hot. It's all part
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  Speaker 1: of a barney between the Bank and the government about
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  Speaker 1: who's to blame for the rising cost of living. Talk
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  Speaker 1: of a family curse and an audacious scam. Those are
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  Speaker 1: the new twists in our blockbuster podcast investigation Bronwyn, led
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  Speaker 1: by Hedley Thomas. Journalism can help solve crime, but it
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  Speaker 1: can also expose the pain and grief buried within families.
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  Speaker 1: Today we meet a remarkable young woman walking both sides
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  Speaker 1: of this story. How does the stack of gold bullion
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  Speaker 1: become a box of cement? That's not a joke or
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  Speaker 1: a riddle, it's the reality. For Crystal Winfield Neil, a
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  Speaker 1: single mum living in Sydney, Crystal is the eldest daughter
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  Speaker 1: of Bronwyn Winfield, who disappeared from Lennox Head on the
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  Speaker 1: New South Wales North Coast just over three decades ago.
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  Speaker 1: The bungled initial police investigation and Bromwyn's suspected murder of
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  Speaker 1: the subject of The Australian's investigative podcast series Bronwyn, created
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  Speaker 1: by our national Chief correspondent Hedley Thomas. Growing up without
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  Speaker 1: her mum has been hard on Crystal. Recently, she turned
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  Speaker 1: to a spiritual teacher, a self described soul doctor for guidance.
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  Speaker 2: Crystal has been searching for a way to bring permanent
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  Speaker 2: positivity into her thinking and into her daily life.
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  Speaker 1: That's Crystal's aunt and Bromwin's half sister, Kim Marshall.
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  Speaker 2: She was approached by a strange person unknown to her
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  Speaker 2: in the street a number of months ago, and she
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  Speaker 2: has this understanding that this person who sat down with
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  Speaker 2: her understored and knew what she was going through.
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  Speaker 1: Kim's talking in one of two special new episodes of Bromwyn,
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  Speaker 1: which are available now exclusively for the Australian subscribers at
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  Speaker 1: bromwynpodcast dot com.
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  Speaker 2: And she thought meeting these people which were in numbers
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  Speaker 2: and different types of people that they would help her
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  Speaker 2: on a spiritual path to actually no longer having this
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  Speaker 2: weighted burden.
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  Speaker 1: At first, Crystal's financial contribution to the Soul Doctor's cause
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  Speaker 1: was modest, just a couple of hundred dollars. They told
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  Speaker 1: her they provided charitable assistance to people in India. But
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  Speaker 1: fast forward a couple of months and Crystal has been
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  Speaker 1: scammed out of more than three hundred thousand dollars, her
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  Speaker 1: entire life savings.
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  Speaker 2: She believes that by her giving them the seventy thousand dollars,
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  Speaker 2: they were going to take it away and bless it
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  Speaker 2: and then they would return it to her, But apparently
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  Speaker 2: that is no longer the case. But then there's the
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  Speaker 2: other act of kindness that she did is where she
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  Speaker 2: was asked to purchase a large.
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  Speaker 1: Number of gold.
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  Speaker 2: And that gold bullion is no longer gold bullion. It
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  Speaker 2: is now actually a container full of cement.
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  Speaker 1: At some point, the gold bullion Crystal purchase to be
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  Speaker 1: blessed by the Soul Doctors was switched with an identical
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  Speaker 1: container full of cement. Crystal recently opened up about being
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  Speaker 1: scammed in the podcast's official discussion group. A voice actor
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  Speaker 1: is reading her posts.
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  Speaker 3: Honestly, our family has been through a lot. Both Mum
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  Speaker 3: and I were very trusting people, and as a result,
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  Speaker 3: I was recently scammed my entire life savings by strangers.
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  Speaker 1: It's the first time we've heard directly from Crystal in
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  Speaker 1: this podcast series. She declined to be interviewed when Headley
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  Speaker 1: first started investigating, but she's recently found her voice in
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  Speaker 1: our lively Facebook group, where nearly twenty thousand listeners are
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  Speaker 1: chatting and crowdsolving as the investigation unfolds.
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  Speaker 3: And wouldn't prised me if she trusted the wrong person,
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  Speaker 3: someone she has just met, and they were responsible for
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  Speaker 3: her disappearance. I also have other theories, but this seems
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  Speaker 3: likely to me as I know she never would have
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  Speaker 3: left us for long.
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  Speaker 1: In episode eleven, which is live now exclusively for Ours subscribers,
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  Speaker 1: Headley Thomas and Cristel's cousin Mattie Walsh, who's been working
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  Speaker 1: with Heavily on the podcast, discuss these developments. In episode twelve,
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  Speaker 1: also live now for subscribers, Heavily answers some of our
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  Speaker 1: listeners burning questions. Crystal Winfield Neil trusted the Soul Doctors
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  Speaker 1: because of an old bit of family law.
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  Speaker 2: I heard about this curse when I actually went to
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  Speaker 2: Sydney last year, and I may not be fully accurate
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  Speaker 2: on it, but apparently there is what is known as
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  Speaker 2: a read curse.
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  Speaker 1: Members of Crystal's extended family, like her Auntie Kim and
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  Speaker 1: uncle Andy Bromwin, Winfield's brother, say the curse is just
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  Speaker 1: a bit of a joke, but the told Bromwin's unsolved
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  Speaker 1: disappearance has taken on her extended family is no laughing matter.
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  Speaker 4: Well, it's been like opening up old wounds. Before the podcast,
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  Speaker 4: I didn't really understand the depths of a lot of
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  Speaker 4: these family issues and what Bromwin's disappearance did.
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  Speaker 1: Madison Walsh is Bromwin's cousin on the Reed side. She
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  Speaker 1: was born a decade after Bronwyn disappeared and has been
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  Speaker 1: working with Headley on the podcast investigation.
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  Speaker 4: And it's also a really tough subject because someone so
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  Speaker 4: close to them has gone missing. Watching it unfold, you
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  Speaker 4: have to keep in mind that this is the furthest
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  Speaker 4: we've ever gone with Bronwin's case. This is the furthest
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  Speaker 4: of the investigation has ever gone, So you, in a
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  Speaker 4: way have to sacrifice a little bit of your personal
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  Speaker 4: information and let it out there so that people can
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  Speaker 4: feel something towards the case, so they feel more connected
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  Speaker 4: to it, so they know that we're not always a
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  Speaker 4: joint family unit, and we all have good days and
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  Speaker 4: bad days, and not everyone agrees with each other's opinions,
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  Speaker 4: and there's moments where family members aren't communicating because it's
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  Speaker 4: just too hard, and it causes more arguments and it
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  Speaker 4: does good discussions. It's tough. It is tough to be
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  Speaker 4: in the middle of that, and things like the curse
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  Speaker 4: come up, and most family members think, oh, it's just
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  Speaker 4: tongue in cheek, it's just a funny thing that we
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  Speaker 4: like to bring up every now and then as a joke.
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  Speaker 4: But then other family members take it a bit more
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  Speaker 4: seriously and maybe do think, hang on, is there a curse?
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  Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, it's all based
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  Speaker 4: on opinion. It's all based on how you feel, and
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  Speaker 4: everyone has a right to have their own opinions and
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  Speaker 4: feel how they want, and at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 4: not everyone's going to agree with you. And that's basically
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  Speaker 4: been the biggest lesson to learn.
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  Speaker 1: Mattie's connection to bromwin Winfield inspired her to pursue a
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  Speaker 1: career in forensic science when she graduated in May. She
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  Speaker 1: never expected her first gig out of UNI to be
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  Speaker 1: a true crime podcast investigation.
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  Speaker 4: It was about a year ago and my aunt was
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  Speaker 4: being interviewed by Hedley at her home not far from mine,
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  Speaker 4: and she said that Hedley was coming over to interview
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  Speaker 4: her and asked if I wanted to come and join,
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  Speaker 4: because she knew of my forensics background and knew of
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  Speaker 4: my interest.
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  Speaker 1: And I went.
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  Speaker 4: I just sat there, and at certain points he asked
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  Speaker 4: for my iPort, and he discovered that I at that
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  Speaker 4: point was still studying forensic science, and he asked me
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  Speaker 4: if I wanted to help him out and work with
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  Speaker 4: him on the podcast. And I was quite shocked that
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  Speaker 4: he was asking me because I was twenty And it's
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  Speaker 4: been going really well ever since.
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  Speaker 1: Maddie had heard of Headley. Of course, he's the creator
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  Speaker 1: of the global Juggernaut podcast The Teacher's Pet, which resulted
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  Speaker 1: in the arrest of Christopher Michael Dawson over the nineteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty two disappearance of his wife, Lynn Simms. Dawson has
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  Speaker 1: now been convicted of murder and child sex offending, and
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  Speaker 1: he's in prison thanks to Hedley's work. One of the
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  Speaker 1: interesting developments in true crime of journalism is the advent
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  Speaker 1: of audio. These big, long form podcast investigations, and they
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  Speaker 1: really are form of entertainment journalism packaged up in this
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  Speaker 1: very easy to consume form. Has been the subject of
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  Speaker 1: a podcast like this changed your perspective on how serious
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  Speaker 1: all of this is.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely seeing the inner workings of a podcast and
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  Speaker 4: seeing how much work goes into it and how many
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  Speaker 4: conversations and how many interviews don't make it to the
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  Speaker 4: final cut is in because there's so much work that
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  Speaker 4: goes into creating a condensed episode that everyone will find
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  Speaker 4: entertaining and want to listen to. It's definitely interesting to witness.
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  Speaker 4: And now when I listen to podcasts and I hear
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  Speaker 4: family members speaking and hearing certain opinions and certain ideas,
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  Speaker 4: you have to also keep the perspective that that's not everything.
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  Speaker 4: That's just one opinion and one thought, but there's still
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  Speaker 4: more to the.
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  Speaker 1: Story coming up. What it's like when highly invested true
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  Speaker 1: crime fans start obsessing about your family. Romwin is an
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  Speaker 1: investigation that's only possible thanks to the subscribers of the
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  Speaker 1: Australian who get to hear episodes first and to read
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  Speaker 1: all our amazing stories about this cold case. Join us
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  Speaker 1: at Romwan podcast dot com. We have a very lively
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  Speaker 1: Facebook group with nearly twenty thousand people in it who
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  Speaker 1: are discussing this podcast every day. They're very frank with
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  Speaker 1: their opinions and they can be posh. How have you
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  Speaker 1: felt watching them discuss this very real life story in
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  Speaker 1: that way?
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  Speaker 4: Look as a family member. It's interesting to witness because
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  Speaker 4: with a Facebook group, everyone is sitting behind a screen.
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  Speaker 4: They can say what they want, and some opinions are
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  Speaker 4: harsh and some are just the truth, and you can't
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  Speaker 4: really delete every comment you don't like and criticize people
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  Speaker 4: for saying what they think. They are so invested in
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  Speaker 4: this podcast, it's almost like I feel some people are
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  Speaker 4: searching for the perfect murder in a way. So often
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  Speaker 4: they ask questions or they have opinions that really will
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  Speaker 4: never know the answers to. So it's often hard to
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  Speaker 4: look at that and go, why are we being criticized
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  Speaker 4: when we will never know that? Why are we being
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  Speaker 4: criticized when in hindsight everything is twenty twenty vision. In hindsight,
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  Speaker 4: everything is different. You have to look at it and
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  Speaker 4: take it with a grain of salt, and they can
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  Speaker 4: share their opinion and it's a discussion group. It's open
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  Speaker 4: to people to say what they think and give their
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  Speaker 4: perspectives on the episodes and give their perspectives on what
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  Speaker 4: they think of certain characters within the podcasts. At first,
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  Speaker 4: it was very like I was like, Oh my gosh,
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  Speaker 4: they're very honest. They don't care that you're sitting there
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  Speaker 4: also looking at this Facebook group and you read everything
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  Speaker 4: that they say. It's been challenging to step back a
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  Speaker 4: little bit and understand that they're not as connected as
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  Speaker 4: I am. They really are just looking for entertainment.
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  Speaker 1: You can hear episodes eleven and twelve of From and
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  Speaker 1: Now by subscribing at brom one podcast dot com.