HUSBAND’S LAST HOPE: WHO KILLED LYNETTE?
HEARTBROKEN HUSBAND PAUL WHITE FEARS TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR ANSWERS INTO THE 1973 UNSOLVED MURDER OF HIS WIFE LYNETTE
Only a few years ago, Paul White had a million good reasons to believe the mystery about who killed his wife Lynette back in 1973 might finally be solved.
In 2018, NSW Police announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the conviction of persons responsible for the brutal death of Lynette, 26, in an apartment in Sydney’s beachside Coogee on June 8, 1973.
On that terrible day, Paul had just returned from work when he discovered her body. She had been stabbed numerous times and her throat slit. Only metres away in a cot was their 11-week old son Shane, who had not been touched.
Paul, now 75, expected the 2018 reward would finally flush out details about who killed his beloved wife.
Despite the many years of investigations into the brutal slaying, including a raft of recent leads, no-one has ever been charged. Paul now fears time is running out on the nightmare case and he might never know the truth.
“I felt this reward was my last hope,” he says. “I have never given up hope that police will one day find the killer, but I have a feeling if they have not come up with any new evidence at this point, it will probably be closed down completely.
“I am now 75 and want to be able to go to my grave knowing who’s responsible for killing my wife. But as it stands, I am still swinging in the air, looking for the truth.”
In the early 1970s, Paul and Lynette were a happy young couple with a busy social life. He was a pastry chef and beach lifesaver, while she was a hairdresser and worked in
a troupe of Hawaiian dancers.
However, Lynette’s dancing work had attracted some obsessed fans, including one stalker who had followed her home, and another who turned up at their front door and exposed himself. She had also received obscene phone calls.
The murder scene suggested the killer had forced his way into the apartment and attacked Lynette, who valiantly fought back but was ultimately stabbed to death. A man was allegedly later seen racing from the building, described as a “young, ginger-headed man with a thick beard and skinny legs”.
The main police theory was that the culprit had seen Lynette dancing and may have become obsessed. Even so, there were no leads, no-one was charged and the case went cold.
Meanwhile, Paul brought up his son Shane with the help of Lynette’s parents Beryl and Sid.
“Shane is fantastic and we have always been the best of mates,” Paul says. “He is a true reflection of his mother, who was the most beautiful woman. Through the worst of those years, I always knew I had to hold it together for him. If I didn’t have Shane, I don’t think I would be here today.”
Paul later became a father to two daughters, and has been in a relationship with his partner Wendy for many years. Shane is now a grown man with a wife and two children of his own.
In 2016, Lynette’s murder case took a major turn when a new investigation, Strike Force Tourmaline, was launched.
It was soon revealed key people were never interviewed in the initial investigation, and crucial forensic evidence, including the murder weapon, had been lost. Within months, however, a major breakthrough was made when police found bloodstains soaked into the floor in the Whites’ old unit. The DNA belonged to Lynette and two unknown males.
New suspects emerged in the case; other residents in the area, particularly a group of young men from the UK. “There was one backpacker who apparently lived in the block behind us and the police were pushing to find answers about him, but it seems he died a few years ago,” Paul says. “I still feel there might have been answers there we just don’t know about.”
At the same time, Paul’s long-time friend, former ABC reporter Bob Wurth, wrote a book about the ongoing saga, Life’s a Beach: The True Horror of Home Invasion.
In 2017, Paul launched a last-ditch effort to assist in uncovering details, lobbying NSW Corrective Services for the introduction into prisons of playing cards featuring details of unsolved murder cases. It’s hoped that images such as Lynette’s on the playing cards will help trigger new leads. The scheme has been in operation in South Australia since 2015, and has already led to convictions.
“This could spark prison inmates to talk among themselves about what they know, and it also mentions the reward,” Paul says.
“That could lead to one piece of information being shared with police that makes everything else come together.
“Someone out there knows what happened to Lyn.
“If we can prick the conscience that makes one person come forward and gets this solved, that’s all I want.”
• Anyone with information that may assist Strike Force Tourmaline investigators is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
The first thing that strikes you about mum-of-two René Michele is her abundant positivity. But behind the 44-year-old Queenslander’s beaming smile lies a past so painful, many wouldn’t have survived it.
“As a child I was abused sexually, physically and psychologically, which caused my life to spiral out of control for the next 26 years,” she reveals to New Idea in an exclusive interview.
“My reality became ongoing violence, further sexual assaults, addictions to drugs and alcohol, self-harm and multiple suicide attempts. For years I felt broken and ashamed.”
At her lowest ebb, René says she was drinking a bottle of scotch a night and was taking ecstasy, speed and acid.
“That’s a lot for a 17, 18-year-old girl. I wouldn’t remember getting to bed most nights,” she says.
However, giving birth to her daughter Cassidy Faith, now 18 – followed by son Jacob, now 15 – was a pivotal moment for René.
“I sought out the help I needed to heal.
“I knew I had to make drastic changes across every area of life to give my [children] the life I always wanted and never had.”
But the ath to René’s recovery was long and winding. Being a mum meant the world to her, and after getting a job mentoring vulnerable young women, she realised that nurturing others was her calling.
However, when one of those young girls who René had grown particularly fond of, killed herself, it sent her reeling.
After clashing with her partner at the time, René went out and had too much to drink in what she describes as a “rebellious” act.
René blacked out and in a devastating turn of events, woke up in the back of a taxi being raped by the driver.
“I was crying, I was confused, I was in pain all over,” she says.
The rapist sped off and, still in a daze, René didn’t catch the licence plate number.
“I didn’t see the colour of the car because it was dark. I didn’t see his face. I could smell him and I could feel him but there was no identifiable factors.”
With so few details, René felt she couldn’t report the incident to the police.
“I was in such inner turmoil and anguish and anxiety about it. I was sickened by it. I was so deeply ashamed, I felt dirty and disgusting,” she says.