The Chilling Cold Case Behind Australia’s Most Downloaded Podcast
In 2018, after three years of investigation and visits, an Australian reporter produced a series of crime podcasts called “Teacher’s Pet”, which talked about a missing case 36 years ago, which attracted widespread attention. The podcast has been downloaded more than 100 million times and has topped the podcast charts in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and other countries, making it a global sensation.
What kind of case is this? After the podcast received a huge response, the police were forced to re-investigate the case again, and finally brought the suspect to court in 2022, revealing the horrifying truth.
The sweet marriage is gradually falling apart.
Paul Dawson and Chris Dawson are twin brothers who were born in 1948 in a middle-class family in Sydney, Australia. They showed amazing athletic talent since childhood, became obsessed with rugby, and became the main force of the school rugby team.
As they grew older, the brothers became taller, stronger, more handsome, and had many admirers. Although the two look almost identical, their personalities are very different. The elder brother Paul is more introverted, while the younger brother Chris is more dazzling because of his extroverted and lively leadership skills.
At the age of 16, Chris participated in the District High School Prefects Dance as the prefect of his junior year. At the dance, Chris fell in love with a girl named Lynn at first sight. Lin En was kind-hearted and good at sports. The two had many topics in common and soon became lovers.
After graduating from high school, Chris and Paul entered the rugby club and became professional rugby players. Lynn continued her education and, after graduating from college, became a pediatric nurse.
Chris’s skills are maturing day by day and his career is developing very smoothly. At the age of 22, Chris held a grand wedding after proposing to his beloved Lynn. Later, Chris bought a piece of land in Sydney’s northern beaches area and built a villa as a love nest for him and his wife. Paul also chose to settle here, and his home is less than 500 meters away from Chris’ home.
After his marriage, Chris’ career took a step further, often winning championship honors in competitions and increasing his income. Due to their outstanding appearance and many fans, the brothers were invited to be models, shoot fashion ads, and appeared in many movies and TV series, becoming world-famous stars.
The brothers were invited to shoot a documentary, and the director curiously interviewed Lynn: “Your husband goes to school with another man, works together, lives in the same area, and drives the same car. They have a close relationship and have the same hobbies. Doesn’t it bother you? ?” Seeing Lin En shaking his head, the director asked another interesting question: “If you met your brother Paul first, would you also fall in love with him?” Lin En tilted his head and thought about it, then smiled shyly: “Maybe Let’s go!”
In fact, what really troubled Linn was that she had been unable to get pregnant after marriage. It was not until 1977, after the two had been married for 7 years, that Lynn finally gave birth to their eldest daughter. Two years later, she gave birth to a younger daughter. At that time, she felt that her life was complete.
Lynn takes care of her daughter and works as a part-time nurse, leading a busy and fulfilling life. After Chris retired, in order not to stay away from football completely, he was invited to be a star physical education teacher in a high school. At the same time, he will also participate in the filming of some TV series.
The couple were both busy at work, so they discussed hiring a nanny to help take care of the children at home. They found that some girls in the high school where Chris taught lived in poverty and were relatively simple, so they looked for part-time nannies at the school. The couple hired two high school sophomores, Bev and Joanne.
Life goes on, and Lynn’s mother Helena often interacts with her daughter’s family. By 1981, Helena felt that the sweet marriage between her daughter and her son-in-law was gradually falling apart. Once, when Helena and Lynn were shopping in the mall, Lynn suddenly said: “I think there is a man in the world who is more suitable to be a husband than Chris!” Helena felt that
Lynn seemed to want to give up on marriage. When he was about to ask in detail, Lin En refused to say anything. On the other hand, Chris faces marital problems more actively. He said to Helena: “Mom, maybe Lynn doesn’t love me as much as before, but I’m trying to persuade her to consult a marriage counselor with me regularly.” After nearly a year of marriage counseling,
Chris and Lynn got together. Good as ever. Helena couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
On the evening of January 8, 1982, Helena called Lynn’s house and wanted to invite her family to the North Bridge Bathhouse the next afternoon. It was Chris who answered the phone, and he readily agreed. Then, Helena said that she wanted to say a few words to Lynn.
Unexpectedly, Lin En was a little slurred when speaking. Helena frowned and asked, “Are you drunk?” As a result, Linn smiled and said, “I’m not drunk, I just drank a cocktail of love. Everything is fine, don’t worry.” Helena still felt a little bit Displeased and worried, because Chris has never had the bad habit of smoking or drinking, and Lynn rarely drinks. She is worried that Lynn will become an alcoholic and make Chris dissatisfied.
Sure enough, Chris said to Helena a little helplessly: “Drinking can make her happier, let her go. I will watch her.” After hanging up the phone, Helena thought, after seeing
Lynn the next day , you must communicate with her carefully and understand why she falls in love with drinking, so as not to get into the bad habit of alcoholism.
But Helena never expected that this would be the last time she heard her daughter’s voice!
After the mysterious disappearance, numerous investigations yielded no results.
The next day, Helena was the first to arrive at the North Bridge Bathhouse. Not long after, Chris arrived with his two daughters. Chris was a little surprised to see Helena here alone: ”Isn’t Lynn here yet?”
It turned out that Lynn had said that she would go to the shopping mall to return goods and make purchases first, and then go directly to the North Bridge Bathhouse to meet them. Hearing what Chris said, Helena looked around subconsciously: “No, I didn’t see her.”
At this moment, the waiter at the bathhouse came over and said to Chris: “Sir, I have your phone number. The lady is calling.”
Ten minutes later, Chris walked back dejectedly and sat on the floor in frustration. He confessed to Helena that he had blamed Lynn on the phone for buying too many things and spending too much. After hearing this, Lin En left home angrily, saying that she would go out alone for a few days to collect her thoughts. Chris advised her not to do this, Helena would be worried about her, but Lynn was adamant, saying that she was just going to the Central Coast with friends to relax and call Helena three days later.
Three days passed, and Helena did not receive a call from Lynn. She couldn’t help but call Chris and ask if Lynn was back. Chris said frustratedly: “She called home yesterday and said she needed more time and wouldn’t be back for the time being.” A
few days later, Helena left for Chris’s house. When she entered, she saw Chris listening to the phone, and the person on the other end of the phone seemed to be Lynn. I only heard Chris say: “Honey, would you like to come back? What do you want? Do you want to leave our family…” Before Chris got a reply, the other party hung up.
Helena felt strange that with Lynn’s personality, she shouldn’t have run away from home for so long just because of Chris’s few words of blame, so she asked Chris what problems he and Lynn had before. Chris lowered his head, implicitly expressing that he felt that Lynn had another man in his heart. Because, she said more than once, Chris is not as good as Paul or other men.
Helena was frightened when she heard this. Could it be that Lin En had eloped with another man?
After that, Chris told Helena, he never got any more calls from Lynn. More than a month later, out of concern for his wife’s personal safety, he went to the police station to report the incident, saying that his wife had run away from home and has not returned yet. The police put Lynn on the missing persons book.
After reporting the crime, Chris did not stop looking for his beloved wife. On their wedding anniversary, he published a missing person notice: “Lynn, I love you! We all miss you very much. Please call us. We hope you come home.” Chris and Lynn’s natal
family Continuous calls were made to police departments in various states, women’s shelters, children’s hospitals, etc. and letters were sent with photos of Lynn, but nothing came of it. Occasionally, I hear people say that they saw a woman who looked like Lynn somewhere. As it turns out, none of that was Lynn herself.
Two years after Lynn’s mysterious disappearance, Chris finally became disheartened and sold his love nest with Lynn, moved to Queensland, married a new wife, and started a new life.
A year later, Linn’s friend Su took the initiative to walk into the police station. She was the first person to suspect that Linn had disappeared from the world. Su said: “After Lin En disappeared, I went to her house and found that she didn’t bring her passport, credit card and nursing certificate when she went out. How does she make a living? Unless she has been killed.” The police said impatiently: ” If she has taken refuge with someone and someone is taking care of her, then she doesn’t need these things at all. If you don’t find new evidence, don’t jump to conclusions.” Su had no choice but to leave angrily.
In the blink of an eye, in 1990, Chris and his second wife broke up and announced their divorce. Their daughter was raised by Chris. Shortly after the divorce, Chris entered into his third marriage.
No one expected that at this time, Chris’ second wife would return to Sydney and report to the police station. She said emotionally that Chris was responsible for Lynn’s disappearance and that Chris might have even murdered Lynn. Lynn’s disappearance case was uncovered again, and the police had to summon Chris. Unexpectedly, Chris was also very excited and denied the accusation, thinking it was a lie made up by his ex-wife to fight for property and custody rights. Lynn’s disappearance has always been a thorn in his heart, and he has never given up looking for her.
Since Chris’ second wife could not produce substantial evidence, the matter was dropped.
Eight years later, a new police officer named Damien was transferred to the police station. When looking through old cases, he became very interested in Lynn’s disappearance and decided to restart the investigation. He quietly installed bugs in Chris and Paul’s home, but heard no valuable clues.
Next, Officer Damien sent people to search and dig near the villa where Lynn and Chris had lived. They dug up a tattered pink sweater and tested Lynn’s DNA. But this doesn’t mean anything. Lynn’s disappearance case has been closed again.
After repeated investigations to no avail, in 2003, Lin’s parents died of illness one after another, and they could no longer wait for Lin’s return.
Until 2015, reporter Hedley suddenly found Lynn’s younger siblings and talked about Lynn’s disappearance. Relying on his reporter’s intuition, he felt that he could dig out more evidence, then make it into a podcast, present it to the public, and then promote the reopening of the investigation of the case. He hoped to get the approval of Lynn’s family, and Lynn’s younger siblings agreed without hesitation. They had always wanted to know the answer.
The shocking truth slowly emerged.
Headley quickly invested in interviews and investigations, spending almost three years interviewing Lynn’s friends and colleagues. Officer Damien learns that Headley is investigating Lynn’s disappearance and joins him to help him sort out his testimony.
As the investigation deepens, the shocking truth slowly emerges.
Bev, the first nanny Lynn hired to take care of the children, told Headley that the seemingly gentle Chris actually had violent tendencies. She had witnessed Chris beating Lynn because he accidentally soiled his tea cup. Lynn. In addition, Lin En’s colleagues also noticed that Lin En had many bruises on her body. Lin En himself admitted that he had suffered domestic violence many times and did not dare to complain to his family for fear of worrying his parents.
The famous Australian artist Christine Hardiman also crossed paths with Lynn. Before she became famous, she painted portraits on the street. One month before her disappearance, Lynn noticed Christine’s paintings on the street and gave her photos of her two daughters and asked her to paint their portraits. When the painting was almost finished, Kristen called Lynn and told her that the painting would be delivered to the villa. Lynn said excitedly: “That’s great, I can’t wait to see the painting.”
But she didn’t expect that a few days later, when she called again, it was Chris who answered the phone. His voice sounded cold and unforgettable. Profound: “Lynn has left, I don’t need these paintings.” Kristen said: “Can you look at these paintings first before making a decision?” Chris said impatiently: “No, I don’t want to see them!” Kristen felt that Chris was cold, while Lynn loved children very much and would take the children with her even if she ran away from home.
The most explosive thing was the testimony of Chris’ second wife and former neighbor. They fully proved that in Chris and Lynn’s marriage, it was Chris who really had an affair. Because Chris’s second wife was the second nanny he hired back then, Joanne!
It turns out that a year before Lynn disappeared, Chris used his position and star aura at school to seduce young Joanne. He took advantage of Lynn’s sympathy and invited Joanne, who was from a poor family, to come to his home as a nanny. Whenever Lynn was not at home, Joanne would go topless and play with Chris, which was witnessed by neighbor Julianne.
At first, Joanne didn’t spend the night at Lynn’s house. Later, Chris let Joanne stay overnight on weekends on the pretext of reducing the couple’s childcare tasks. Later, he went even further and allowed Joanne to live fully in his home. Lynn complained to Julianne that sometimes when she saw Joanne and Chris playing with the children, she felt that they were more like a family and she seemed redundant. Julianne hints to Lynn that Chris and Joanne were having an affair, but Lynn can’t believe it.
It wasn’t until one day that Lynn suddenly came back from outside and saw Chris and Joanne having an affair on the sofa that she completely exploded. Since then, their marriage has turned red. After Joanne was kicked out by Lynn, she moved into a nearby apartment under Chris’s arrangement.
Chris and Lynn had constant quarrels, and he often engaged in domestic violence against Lynn. Lynn talked to Julianne and she did think Paul was better than Chris because although Paul looked exactly the same as Chris, he would not be violent and was single-minded.
The reason why Lynn and Chris gave outsiders signs of reconciliation was because Chris thought of a solution and stopped arguing with Lynn. He made a cocktail for Lynn with sleeping pills every night. After Lin En fell asleep, he went to Joanne to have sex.
However, this matter was eventually discovered by Lynn. She and Chris started crying, and Chris was so annoyed that he decided to divorce. But Lynn couldn’t bear to part with this marriage, even if she was abused by Chris again. Moreover, Joanne felt that after they had quarreled for a while, they seemed to have reconciled.
Suddenly one day, Joanne heard Chris say to her: “Lynn has left and will never come back.” Two years later, Chris and Joanne moved to Queensland, got married and had a daughter.
This time, Joanne was willing to confess everything and accuse Chris because she found that even after so many years, she still hated Chris. It was Chris who turned the young woman into a third party. After she married Chris, Chris completely regarded her as a free nanny and sex slave and controlled her life.
In order to obtain more evidence and information, Hedley invited a hypnotist to hypnotize Lynn’s eldest daughter to obtain her memories when she was 4 years old. After hypnosis, she remembered a key moment. Not long after Lynn disappeared, she saw Chris digging in the back garden for a long time with a shovel.
In addition, the buyer who bought Chris and Lynn’s love nest said in an interview: “After Chris sold the villa to me, he asked three times to enter the back garden of the villa. He said that this back garden was very important to him. It’s of great significance.”
All these testimonies, taken together, seem to indicate that in order to get a smooth divorce and marry another woman, Chris killed Lynn, dumped her body in the back garden, pretended that his beloved wife was missing, and made the mistake of searching for her for many years. look like.
In May 2018, after the podcast “Teacher’s Pet” was broadcast, it caused a huge response and was downloaded more than 100 million times. It ranked first on the podcast rankings in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and other countries, making it a global sensation. Under pressure from public opinion, the police were forced to re-investigate the case.
In December 2018, the police arrested Chris on suspicion of murder. However, the police never found Lynn’s body or physical evidence. Chris insisted that he was innocent and was successfully released on bail.
In October 2022, the Lynn murder case officially opened, and the venue was packed with people. The rest of the people were watching the live broadcast at home. The trial lasted for more than two months, and more than 50 witnesses appeared in court to testify. The defense attorney admitted that Chris had cheated during the marriage, but he made it clear that there was no evidence that Lynn was dead. In addition, the defense also called three witnesses. Two of them claimed to have seen Linn in the fruit shop and the bus station after her disappearance. The third witness said that not only did he meet Lynn after her disappearance, but he also heard Lynn telling him that she was trying to make Chris her murderer in revenge for his cheating and divorce!
As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked.
However, after careful identification, Judge Harrison determined that the testimony of the three defense witnesses was invalid. In January 2023, the judge spent 5 hours explaining the reasons for the verdict in this case: “There is no direct evidence in this case to prove that the defendant murdered Lynn, and there is no body, so it is impossible to prove Lynn’s death. All the existing evidence is marginal. . However, existing technology has found that all the calls Chris said that Lynn made to him after his disappearance did not exist at all. And an innocent person would not fabricate such lies. Furthermore, after Lynn disappeared, The only person who claimed to hear her voice was the defendant. Lynn’s parents, brother, sister, and daughter never received calls from her, which is extremely unreasonable given her close relationship with her family. Also, Lynn loved her children and family and had no reason to voluntarily disappear. On the contrary, Chris wanted Lynn to disappear and had a very clear motive for divorce and marriage. The defendant was the only person who could profit from Lynn’s death.
” When the public thought that the judge was going to convict Chris of murder, he suddenly said: “But none of this means that the defendant is guilty of murder.” Amid the anxious expectations of the public, the judge continued: “Out of reasonable doubt , only one person had the motive to intentionally murder Lynn after January 8, 1982. Chris, I think you are guilty and you did kill Lynn.” Amid the cheers of the crowd, Chris
Dawson He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole unless he revealed the whereabouts of Lynn’s body. At this time, it has been 40 years since Linn disappeared!
