Detectives who spent years poring over Lynette Dawson’s murder case have revealed the most likely spot she is buried, believing her body could be somewhere on NSW‘s Central Coast.
After a five-hour long judgment in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice Ian Harrison found Chris Dawson, 74, guilty of murdering his wife and hiding her body between January 8 and 9, 1982.
Lynette’s family has pleaded for Dawson to ‘find it in himself’ to reveal the location of the mother-of-two’s body so they can properly lay her to rest after 40 years.
Investigators working the case have established two solid theories – the first was that Lynette was buried in the backyard of the family home the couple shared with their young daughters on Sydney‘s northern beaches.
Chris Dawson arrives at the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday to hear the verdict from Justice Harrison on his trial for the murder of his wife Lyn in 1982
Lynette Dawson with her daughter doted on her two children to Chris Dawson, who were four and two when she vanished in 1982
Police excavations of the yard over the years and ground penetrating technology failed to provide any significant clues, save for a tattered cardigan with what appeared to be knife marks that experts were unable to link to Lynette.
‘There was the (other) theory that he travelled to the Central Coast on January 9,’ a police source told The Daily Telegraph.
‘The challenge with that is that there is no physical evidence to point in any direction… there is a lot of regional bush area… there is no possible way to search it, it’s so vast.’
Prosecutors in the trial argued Dawson gave the couple’s two daughters to a friend to look after on January 9 to give him the opportunity to hide the body.
Justice Harrison said no evidence had been presented at trial to show Dawson’s whereabouts on that night.
With no mobile phones, CCTV or dashcam available 40 years ago to track his movements, investigators are now relying on someone with information to speak up.
Dawson has been found guilty of murdering his wife Lyn (pictured)
Outside court, Lynette’s family said they still had hope she would be located.
‘This is a milestone in our journey, however she is still missing,’ Ms Dawson’s brother Greg Simms said.
‘We would ask Chris Dawson to find it in himself to do the decent thing and allow us to put Lyn to rest.
‘We’d like to remember those who loved Lyn but who were not here to see the judgment.’
Lyn’s brother Greg Simms and his wife Merilyn are seen outside court on Tuesday
The family also thanked journalist Hedley Thomas, creator of the award-winning Teacher’s Pet podcast, for investigating Ms Dawson’s disappearance.
The podcast featured heavily in Tuesday’s judgment, with the judge ultimately dismissing evidence from a number of witnesses involved in the audio story.
In reference to evidence provided by Paul Dawson’s former babysitter, the judge said he was ‘unable with any confidence to know what part of her evidence comes from what Hedley Thomas told her and what comes from what she remembers’.
Thomas told reporters the outcome was ‘one of the great things about journalism, it can give a voice to people who feel powerless’.
He also said it was ‘disgraceful’ that Dawson had enjoyed 40 years of freedom.
‘That’s on the system that existed in the 1980s,’ he said.
Chris Dawson’s twin Paul and other brother Peter did not comment on the verdict as they scuffled with and swore at reporters outside court.