The daughter of convicted murderer Chris Dawson said she recalls seeing her father “digging” near the house pool and her mother “slumped” in the front seat of a vehicle on the night Lynette Dawson died.
When police put Shanelle Dawson under hypnosis in a last-ditch effort to piece together what happened to her mother on the night she disappeared back in January 1982, Shanelle Dawson claims her memories as a young child came back.
She told 60 Minutes that she observed her father removing shovels from the trunk of the vehicle and that she also saw an area near the pool where car headlights were flashing.
Shanelle thinks her mother was laid to rest that evening by the pool before Dawson transferred her remains the next day when he was by himself.
According to Shanelle, who spoke to 60 Minutes, she was able to recall her emotions as a youngster and her moms when hypnotized.
It was really rather deep, She claimed, “I think I saw my mother slumped in the front and my sister and I in the rear of a vehicle.
When dad didn’t have us kids with him the next day, I think I observed him relocate her to a different location after having dug there for that particular night.
“And I suppose people could wonder how much of it is created?” How much of that recollection is actual?
Shanelle was questioned by Steinfort whether she thought the images she experienced while under hypnosis were real memories, and she said, “I think they are, definitely.”
The information was made public after Dawson was convicted of killing his wife Lynette in an August judge-only trial at the NSW Supreme Court.
The amount of evidence against her father convinced Shanelle that he was guilty, but she said that it still came as a surprise when Justice Ian Harrison determined that Dawson had killed her mother in January 1982.
I heard them say, “Chris Dawson, I find you guilty,” and I was absolutely in disbelief, she added.
I just couldn’t understand it. This Dad, who I adore, did it in fact, and our legal system now acknowledges it.
Shanelle said that leaving Canada for nine years allowed her to get away from Dawson and his “toxic” and “abusive” behaviors.
He was constantly gaslighting us, I could see it. That connection altered significantly when I returned to the family, she claimed.
The phrase “f*** everyone else to obtain what you want” is embodied by my father. I am furious and angry with him for acting that way, but I am also sympathetic and saddened by his behavior.
Three months prior to his arrest in Queensland, Shanelle said that she had last texted Dawson on Father’s Day of 2018.
She pleaded with her father to accept responsibility for the suffering the family through when he “selfishly” tore Lynette, who was 33 at the time, from their life.
Shanelle may have been lonely and despondent because she had a kid and no spouse based on Dawson’s “breathtaking” reaction.
He requested that Shanelle not bring up his own “bad decisions,” saying that everyone had to regrettably live with them.
She said, “That’s how he accepts responsibility, by shifting it on other people.
I was really having a very good time until my father killed my mother, which was a major event in my life.
Because he believes his own falsehoods, Shanelle said she didn’t think her father would ever admit what occurred the night he murdered Lynette.
“Not anytime soon,” he said. For me, the truth is what provides serenity,’ she said.
Shanelle said that she would apologize to her mother, tell her how much she loved her, and express her gratitude for raising her for the first four and a half years of her life.
She broke down in tears and lamented that people take family life for granted and wished she could see her mother read to her daughter.
She remarked, “I’ve always wished I had one of them.”
“I hope everyone who is hearing will go and appreciate their mothers just that little bit more and tell them what they love about them and all the things they do,” the speaker said.
Tom Steinfort, a correspondent for 60 Minutes, too broke down in tears.
He wiped his tears away and added, “You got me there.
Following testimony at Dawson’s trial that police got ‘a lot’ of anonymous phone calls from individuals claiming Lynette’s corpse was buried beneath the swimming pool at the family home in Bayview, Shanelle’s hypnosis revelation arrives.
Due of the calls and the fact that the pool had been paved soon after Lyn disappeared, former investigator Damian Loone testified during the trial that police had given this possibility some thought.
When asked how this concept came to be during cross-examination, Mr. Loone said that it was during a conversation with JC, the teenage babysitter who had taken Lynette’s position as Chis Dawson’s companion and eventually his wife.
Before Lyn vanished, JC was babysitting the couple’s two young girls while residing at the Dawson home on Gillwinga Drive in Sydney’s northern beaches, according to evidence shown earlier in the trial.
He stated, “She was swimming in the pool, and when she wanted to get out, she placed her hands on the pool to get out, and it was dirt, and then later it was paved.”
Police excavated a sizable area in the Bayview residence in 2000 and found remnants of a pink cardigan with slash marks.
Nevertheless, forensic investigation was unable to connect the evidence to Lynette.
At order to appeal his conviction for the murder of his first wife, Dawson filed the necessary papers last week. He is now being held in Sydney’s Silverwater Jail awaiting sentence.
The 74-year-old ex-rugby league player for the Newtown Jets has always maintained his innocence in relation to any participation in Lynette’s abduction.