A 74-year-old Australian was sentenced on Friday to 24 years in prison in Sydney for the 1982 murder of his wife. Thanks to new evidence presented in a popular crime podcast, the case was reopened several years ago.
The body of Chris Dawson’s wife disappeared when she was 33 and has never been found. Dawson still claims today that his wife Lynette left him and their two children to join a religious group. After his wife’s “departure”, the man began a relationship with his nanny, a teenager.
In 2018 the much listened to podcast The teacher’s pet pay attention to the matter. This led to the case being reopened.
In August of this year, Dawson, who continues to deny, was found guilty of murdering his wife. The judge on Friday said the killing was “a self-indulgent act of brutality”. The Australian won’t be eligible for parole for another eighteen years and “so she’ll most likely die in his cell,” the judge said. The session lasted less than half an hour.
The nanny, JC, was a student at the school where Dawson worked and was labeled by the judge as Lynette’s “substitute”. JC testified in Dawson’s criminal trial. The two married in 1984, but separated in 1990.
Lynette’s brother thanked the reporter who recorded the podcast following the judge’s ruling and expressed hope that the media and police will work together more often to solve cases in the future.
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