To the outsider, identical twin Chris Dawson looked just like a Ken doll — a charming, handsome and gifted sportsman who was irresistible to the opposite sex. But behind his perfect appearance lay a dark secret and a murder that’s mystified police for 25 years.
Now, using advanced DNA testing, police hope they can finally say who killed Chris’s wife Lynette.
For 25 years, her siblings have been tormented by the unexplained disappearance of their sister. One minute Lynette seemed to be living the ultimate happy-ever-after fairytale. Married to a football star with model looks, and living in a dream house raising two longed-for little girls, she appeared to have it all.
But in January 1982, the 33-year-old failed to show at a lunch with her mum and her hunky first-grade rugby league player husband Chris Dawson. Strangely, Dawson, then also 33, waited six weeks before reporting his wife “missing”.
On the day of their arranged meeting, he claimed Lyn had phoned him, saying she was “going away, needing time out to think” about the problems that were plaguing their marriage.
The main problem was that Dawson, who worked as a high-school PE teacher, was having an affair with their babysitter, his student, 16-year-old Joanne Curtis.
Now, with new clues emerging about her disappearance and murder, Lynette’s heartbroken siblings Pat Jenkins and Greg and Phil Simms, have no doubt that Chris Dawson knows a lot more than he’s ever let on. Their opinion is supported by Damian Loone, the detective who can’t let the case go.
“The family needs answers,” says Det Loone. “We want people who know anything to come forward. Every piece of information brings us closer to bringing Lynette Dawson’s killer to justice.”
Detective Loone and Lynette’s family are keenly awaiting the results of DNA testing on a jumper found buried on the Dawsons’ former property. It’s believed the garment belonged to Lyn. Psychics assisting in the case believe Lynette is buried in the backyard.
Bizarrely, Chris Dawson returned to his former home on three occasions, asking the new owners if he could look in the backyard as it “meant a lot to him”…
For the full story, see this week’s issue of Woman’s Day (on sale April 9)
