Relative went missing in eerily similar circumstances

ONE of Chris Dawson’s close relatives went missing in eerily similar circumstances to his wife Lynette.

His older brother Peter Dawson has told News Corp that his former mother-in-law walked out on her three children in Sydney 60 years ago.

He said his ex-wife had re- cently discovered her mother Marcia fled to New Zealand, remarried and died in 2002.

NSW homicide detectives, who formed a strike force in 2015 to reinvestigate the cold case of the alleged murder of Lynette Dawson, last week interviewed the woman, who asked not to be named.

The bizarre coincidences emerged as Chris Dawson, 70, appeared at Sydney’s Central Local Court after being charged yesterday morning with the murder of Lynette.

Mr Walsh said the fact that Peter Dawson’s former mother-in-law disappeared for all that time showed that “it does happen”. There is no suggestion that Chris Dawson had anything to do with Marcia’s disappearance.

Peter Dawson, 72, said the story of his first wife’s mother was well known in their family and that his first wife and Lynette had been close.

Mr Dawson said his first wife’s parents had split up and she along with her brother and sister used to visit their mother Marcia who was living in a boarding house at Narwee.

About 1960, when she was aged nine, his first wife knocked on the door of the boarding house and was told her mother had gone.

“She never heard from her again,” he said. “She did not contact her family, did not contact the kids, did not contact her husband.”

He said a missing persons report was lodged but 60 years ago passports nor visas were needed for New Zealand.

He said his first wife was still coming to terms with the fact her mother had deserted them and that she wanted to go to New Zealand to find out what she could about her. He said that his former mother-inlaw’s husband had obtained a divorce from her because of “abandonment” because she had been missing for so long.