This is episode four of the teacher's pet. Listeners are advised that this episode contains course language and adult themes. This podcast series is brought to you by the Australian.

Lynette Dawson was reported missing by her husband former Newtown Jets, Rubbie Lee, Stark, Chris Dawson.

I was going to get a hitman to kill Lynette and he wrote me and said Lynette's gone, she's a come back.

I just want justice and I'd love her little girls to know she didn't leave them.

To refresh your memory, would you like me to bring some of the material I've got?

Yeah, big son of a lung, although there's one particular aspect that I'll be talking about that you may or may not have already known anyway.

Why?

I've been trying to talk to magistrate Jeff Linden for some time because he once knew Chris Dawson.

When he called me back, he had only about 10 minutes before he was due to reside over a busy courtroom in regional New South Wales.

Jeff played rugby for Eastern suburbs with Chris and Paul Dawson before the twins switched codes to rugby league and the Newtown Jets.

And Jeff knew Lynne Dawson. He enjoyed her company and he recalled her easygoing and likable personality.

Lynne vanished from her home at Bayview on Sydney's Northern beaches in January 1982.

The conversation that Jeff is describing to me occurred five years later in 1987 before his appointment as a magistrate.

It's important that we line up these dates carefully.

In 1987, Jeff was working on the Northern beaches as a solicitor and the house that Chris and Lynne Dawson had built at Gilwinger Drive Bayview was then owned by another couple, Sue and Neville Johnston.

They had only just moved in. Jeff recalled that the new owner of the Dawson home came to see him about an unrelated legal matter.

I mentioned that I knew Chris Dawson who used to own that place and he said what do you know about it?

I went on and told him the story about Lynne and my personal feelings that she didn't walk out.

I saw the blood drain out of his face and I said why do you ask that?

We're going to hear about it later in this episode.

Has Joe said to you that she's absolutely sure she can be that Lynne is on the Bayview property?

Yes, she's absolutely adamant. No doubts for her. She just says things like she's on that walk. I know that's where she is.

...