Over two decades, while producing three separate Australian Story episodes, producer Wendy Page spent many hours filming with the family of Lynette Dawson — her sister, Pat Jenkins, brother Greg Simms and his wife, Merilyn.
Page built trust and rapport and saw up close the toll the 40-year mystery of what happened to their beloved Lyn had taken on them, particularly in the pressure-packed days leading up to the verdict handed down against Chris Dawson, who was found guilty of murdering his wife.
"When we were interviewing Lyn's brother, Greg, [for this latest program] he had a panic attack," recalls Wendy Page.
"It was just all the stress of building up to the verdict — it was huge for the family. Everybody was very concerned that it would be very difficult to get a conviction when there was no body, no forensic evidence, nothing to physically connect Chris Dawson to the crime.
"I could feel the apprehension, tension, and emotion for the family, and I'd spoken with them about it. They've lived with this for 40 years, it's hung over their family, all their children and that's really, really hard. They were pretty fragile leading up to the verdict so, as a journalist, you tread very carefully."
Wendy Page first started investigating the case in 2003 and came out of retirement to produce, with colleague Jennifer Feller, last week's story, Lyn Dawson: Vanished, which followed family and friends through the trial, the anticipation and aftermath of the verdict.
The case against Chris Dawson was circumstantial but in a marathon five-hour hearing, Justice Harrison laid out in painstaking detail the evidence persuading him that Chris Dawson, the 74-year-old former rugby league star and high school teacher, had killed Lynette in January 1982 to have "unfettered" access to his teen lover, known in court as JC.
The first Australian Story program, Looking for Lyn, came about after a journalist from The Australian, Hedley Thomas, whose fascination with the case later inspired the award-winning hit podcast The Teacher's Pet, called then-executive producer of Australian Story Deb Fleming and urged her to feature it on the program.
At that point, Lyn had been missing for 20 years and there had been two coronial inquests, in 2001 and 2003, recommending charges against a "known person".
Over two decades, Page has spoken on or off camera to a wide range of people connected to the case – including Chris Dawson and JC.
"When researching our first program, I spoke to Chris Dawson and asked if he would be willing to be interviewed on camera. He was very guarded, and he said no, he wouldn't," says Page.
"He was charming, but he didn't persuade me that he was completely innocent. He politely declined to be interviewed and referred me to his brother, Peter, who is a solicitor. Peter told me in no uncertain terms that they would not be speaking and that was it. I met and had a long conversation with the babysitter [and later Chris Dawson's wife], known as JC in court. Clearly, it was totally inappropriate for her to be interviewed for the program given the coroner had recommended murder charges and she would be a key witness. I found her completely credible, as it seems Justice Harrison, in the trial, did too."
Wendy Page has investigated several murder cases and miscarriages of justice over the years and says she approached the Lyn Dawson story with an open mind.
"Once I started looking into it and talking to people, I realised that this was a pretty big story," says Page.
"Having reported on various murder cases that resulted in wrongful convictions, I, of all people, understand how easy it is to get the story wrong. Sometimes circumstances can make people look guilty, I know that circumstantial evidence can convict people wrongfully. So, when investigating a story, I always ask myself what other possibilities are there? But with the Lyn Dawson case, the evidence of her workmates, in particular, along with all the circumstances relating to JC, was so compelling.
"It struck me that a terrible injustice had been dished up to Lyn Dawson. She had been accused of deserting her children, which people who knew her well knew there was absolutely no way in the world she would have done. Her work colleagues were adamant that Chris Dawson was somehow involved in her disappearance, and they were waiting for the police to come and ask them about it.
"Looking back, that is the thing that really distressed me – that Lyn's disappearance was never properly investigated and that the police didn't take it seriously. If only they had properly investigated at the time, they could have found telephone records or bank card records. They would have learned of Dawson's relationship with JC and they might have decided Lyn did not voluntarily disappear, there might have been a different result back then. There were so many red flags in this story."
Lyn's family was devastated when, on the day the first Australian Story program was scheduled to go to air in 2003, the office of the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions advised it had decided not to proceed with charges. Page says there was an "enormous" public response after the episode went to air and a police officer investigating the case told her that it brought people out of the woodwork with new information, as the podcast did to an even greater extent 15 years later, but she felt too much time had passed for there to be a prosecution.
"I thought it would never be solved," she says.
"I thought once the DPP had declined on two occasions to proceed with charges that unless they stumbled on a body somewhere and found some physical evidence, it would never get to trial."
The case has triggered debate about the pros and cons of true crime podcasts and media coverage of police investigations and legal proceedings. The Teacher's Pet podcast clocked up millions of downloads worldwide and Chris Dawson's conviction has been seen as a vindication of journalist Hedley Thomas's investigation, but prosecutors insist it had no influence on their decision to prosecute. There's criticism, including from the presiding judge, that the podcast compromised witnesses and that media reporting, which in the Dawson case forced it to be heard by a judge rather than a jury, can undermine the administration of justice.
"It's such a vexed issue," says Page, who was at the centre of a similar controversy over an Australian Story investigation into the murder convictions of three men over the death of Perth man Philip Walsham which were ultimately overturned.
"But I can't accept that the media doesn't have a role to play. Of course, the DPP would say he's completely independent and not affected by any media coverage, and he shouldn't be affected, but I think the big thing that The Teacher's Pet podcast did was bring out so many people contributing to the weight of suspicion, people were ringing in, giving information that they might have given 20 or 40 years ago if they'd been given an opportunity. They'd known there was something odd about Lyn's disappearance and felt it was hushed up and it created a groundswell, a huge groundswell, and public expectation that something should be done. Lyn's family and friends said to me, categorically, that they would accept the verdict, no matter which way it went — the most important thing to them was that, at last, it had been thoroughly investigated and thoroughly aired at a trial.
"I copped a lot of flak over the Walsham case. We were accused of undermining faith in the justice system. The system righted this case, eventually, but if the system gets it wrong, as it often does, then we as journalists have a duty to expose it. It's not our responsibility to maintain faith in the justice system."
After 20 years of wondering if there'd ever be a resolution in the Lyn Dawson case, Wendy Page watched the verdict being handed down via a video stream into an overflow courtroom. There was such intense public interest in this case that there was not enough room in the main court.
"The court that we were in erupted into cheers and claps when Chris Dawson was pronounced guilty, but I didn't cheer or clap. I felt it was inappropriate," she says.
"In the main court, it was so silent that we could hear via the video stream the click of the handcuffs being put on, it was a really sombre moment. I just felt profound relief for the family, tear-jerking relief. A story like this is deeply affecting because you're dealing with families who are in extreme grief, and it has an impact on you, I'd be lying if I said it didn't.
"But it is a very satisfying thing as a journalist when you have worked on a story on and off over 20 years to see a profoundly important result for people who've been aggrieved for so long, feeling that nobody cared about their sister, that she'd just been besmirched as a dreadful woman who deserted her husband and, worst of all, abandoned her children. I think in the end the family felt very supported by the public, which was really important to them. It made a big difference to them to feel that people cared about Lyn."
Watch Lyn Dawson: Vanished on Australian Story on iview
