Family hopes for cold case closure
A FORMER teacher kept a low profile on the Gold Coast as police searched his former Sydney home looking for clues into the disappearance of his wife 36 years ago.
NSW police began a large forensic search, including excavation, at the former Sydney home of Chris Dawson.
The house was owned by Mr Dawson, who now lives on the Coast, and his former wife Lynette Dawson when she went missing in 1982.
Two coroners have found that Mr Dawson most likely killed his wife, but he has always maintained his innocence and has never been charged.
Police said more than $500,000 will be spent on the six-day search of the Bayview home.
It’s believed Mr Dawson and his brother, Paul Dawson, were on the Gold Coast yesterday when police arrived at the Sydney home with concrete cutting tools and digging machines.
It was a day of high emotion for Mrs Dawson’s family.
“We can only hope,” said brother Greg Simms, a former policeman.
“If they find Lyn, that’s a double whammy for us – we’ve got him (Lyn’s killer) and we’ve got her so we can put her to rest.
“If they find something, it will vindicate everything we have been doing.
“We just hope a very extensive check is done on the whole block and we hope they find something. It needed to be done.”
Days after his wife went missing, Mr Dawson moved a teenage student, Joanne Curtis, into his family home with him and his two children, Shanelle, 4, and Sherryn, 2.
In 1985 the Dawson brothers and their families moved to the Gold Coast, where they remain.
Speaking to the Bulletin, a source, who wished to remain anonymous, said the family believed everything Mr Dawson and his brother said.
“Something has to come to a head,” the source said.
“These are very different people who believe everything they’re told.”
Detective Superintendent Scott Cook said police would use machines and dig by hand in some areas.
He said laser mapping had identified “anomalies” in rock formations, which suggested the site had been disturbed in an unnatural manner.
The entire backyard will be mapped and plotted digitally and submitted to the DPP.
Det Supt Cook said it was all about “doing justice for Lyn”.
He said he would dig as far as they had to, including to the bottom of the pool, and in “other areas we will go down until we hit rock”.
The family who now lives in the home have agreed to let police conduct the search.