Australian man arrested after podcast on 36-yr-old cold case

An Australian man was arrested Wednesday over the suspected murder of his wife who disappeared from their home 36 years ago in a case recently highlighted in a popular podcast.

Chris Dawson, 70, was arrested on the Gold Coast in Queensland on Wednesday morning in relation to the 1982 disappearance of his wife Lynette Joy Dawson, New South Wales (NSW) Police said in a statement. 

He appeared at Southport Magistrates Court, where an application for bail was refused. NSW detectives applied for and were granted his extradition to Sydney. 

Lynette Dawson was 33 when she went missing from Sydney's northern beaches, leaving behind two young daughters. In September, police began digging at the home the couple had shared in the Sydney suburb of Bayview but did not find remains or items of interest. 

Her case was recently the subject of "The Teacher's Pet" podcast, which explored why police failed to launch a proper investigation.  

The court was told Chris Dawson had cooperated with investigators, was not a flight risk and was willing to surrender his passport. He will face court in Sydney's west Thursday. 

Two coronial inquests, in 2001 and 2003, ruled that Lynette Dawson had been murdered by her husband but prosecutors declined to charge him, citing insufficient evidence. 

Police said detectives from the homicide squad’s unsolved homicide unit established a strike force in 2015 to re-investigate the circumstances surrounding her disappearance and suspected murder. 

After an extensive investigation, the detectives submitted their brief of evidence in April to the public prosecutor's office, which provided advice to the police earlier this week.

Chris Dawson, a former professional rugby league player and high school teacher, has long been a suspect in the case but denies any involvement in his wife's disappearance. 

The podcast noted he was having an affair with a teen schoolgirl, and moved her into the family home two days after his wife was last seen in January 1982.

He did not report his wife missing for six weeks and suggested she may have gone off with a religious cult.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said Wednesday that fresh statements from at least two witnesses led to the arrest, with additional evidence helping to "tie pieces of the puzzle together." 

Fuller also said some of the additional material surfaced as a result of the podcast. 

He said Chris Dawson was "calm and a little bit taken aback" when arrested. 

Fuller added that police has informed Lynette Dawson's family, "who were certainly relieved to hear this result." 

Her body has never been found, but police said investigators are confident in their case. 

"There are other examples in policing history and history of the courts where people have been convicted of murder without a body," Detective Superintendent Scott Cook told reporters Wednesday.