The full story of Lynette Dawson’s disappearance will be shown the true-crime series The Murder of Lyn Dawson, when it premieres Sunday at 8pm on Channel Nine and 9Now.
In January 1982, when Lynette Dawson, a loving mother and wife, vanished, her husband, Christopher Dawson, claimed that she had called him and told him she needed time away. While almost everyone, including the police, believed his story, those closest to Lynette knew it didn’t add up and that she would have never abandoned her two little girls.
Over two Sunday nights, the program will present revelations about the 40-year fight for justice by those who never wavered in their belief that Lynette didn’t walk out on her family.
The Murder of Lyn Dawson is told through Chris and Lyn’s daughter Shanelle, the detective who helped bring Dawson to justice, Damian Loone, and the reporter who put the case in the spotlight with his viral podcast The Teacher’s Pet, Hedley Thomas.
A mixture of archival imagery, recreations, news sources, and interviews piece together the case from the time Lynette went missing to the remaining unanswered question: where is her body? And will Dawson ever admit to his crimes?
In August last year, Chris Dawson was found guilty of murdering Lynette. Chris had been accused of grooming the family babysitter, a then sixteen-year-old schoolgirl. The state made the case that the motive for Lynette’s murder was to replace her with the schoolgirl, and to avoid the financial devastation that a divorce would bring.
One of Australia’s most high-profile trials came to an end after a five hour ruling on Tuesday. Justice Ian Harrison said that he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Lynette had not voluntarily abandoned her family to start a new life in secret.
Justice Harrison concluded that he believes Lynette to be dead, and that the only explanation for her disappearance was a “conscious and voluntary act committed by Mr Dawson with the intention of causing her death.”