Former Detective Damian Loone on the Disappearance of Cheryl Grimmer *Re-Issue*
Australian True Crime
Meshel Laurie
4.6 • 979 Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Some of you may recognise the name and voice of this episode’s guest, It’s retired NSW Police Detective Sergeant Damian Loone who featured on Hedley Thomas’s extraordinary podcast The Teacher’s Pet. Damian investigated the 1982 disappearance of Sydney mum Lynnette Dawson for years, bringing the case to two coronial inquests. Lynette’s former husband Chris Dawson was charged with her murder in 2018 and is awaiting trial.
Damian features again in another major podcast that’s gripped listeners' attention worldwide. It’s the excellent BBC Sounds multi-episode podcast Fairy Meadow about 3-year-old Cheryl Grimmer’s haunting disappearance from Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong in 1970.
Damian and Detective Frank Sanvitale, were the detectives tasked with having another look at Cheryl’s disappearance. The case had basically gone nowhere for more than 45 years until the file was passed to them.
If you'd like to assist the Grimmer family, you can also sign this petition - addressed to Attorney General Speakman - to help in the fight to find justice for Cheryl.
The BBC Sounds podcast Fairy Meadow, hosted by Jon Kay, can be found here.
There is a $1 Million dollar reward from NSW Police for information about Cheryl’s abduction and murder.
CREDITS:
Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram here
Guest: Damian Loone
Producer/Editor: Lachie Flannigan
Executive Producer: Jacqueline Tonks
GET IN TOUCH:
Follow the show on Instagram @australiantruecrimepodcast
Email the show at [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before we begin today's episode of Australian true crime, I want to tell you about a new project |
| 0:04.5 | we've been working on behind the scenes. It's called She Matters. It's a new podcast from |
| 0:10.2 | award-winning journalist and femicide researcher Shirel Moody. Each week, Shirel speaks with |
| 0:15.3 | families of women and children killed in Australia, sharing who they were, the joy they brought, |
| 0:21.9 | and the love they left behind. She Matters isn't a true crime podcast. It's about lives lived, lives loved and lives |
| 0:28.7 | lost. She Matters is produced by Dashmade podcasts in association with bravecasting media. |
| 0:35.7 | She Matters is available wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:39.4 | It's one of those rare cases where you have a three-year-old girl that disappears on the 12th of January |
| 0:45.6 | 1970 and 16 and a half months later, a young person comes forward, states that he's responsible |
| 0:51.9 | for her disappearance and subsequent homicide and we take |
| 0:57.6 | it to the court. |
| 0:58.4 | There's an argument in relation to the legality of the confession and that's overruled |
| 1:04.0 | by Justice Hume in the Supreme Court and that we couldn't progress any further. |
| 1:20.8 | In 2022, legendary former New South Wales homicide detective Damien Loon joined us to discuss the 1970 abduction of three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer from a Wollongong Beach. |
| 1:29.7 | As we await the findings of a new investigation, we reflect on Damien's observations of the case. This is Australian true crime. |
| 1:36.8 | We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundri |
| 1:42.0 | Woi Wurang people of the Koolan Nation. |
| 1:45.1 | And a warning, this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence. |
| 1:58.0 | A lot of our listeners will know your name very well, as do we, from the Teachers Pet |
| 2:03.2 | podcast and the Lynn Dawson case. Can you believe it? |
| 2:08.6 | Yeah, well, look, it's one of those things that I've always said, never, never, not answer |
| 2:12.4 | a telephone because you never know what the next day is going to bring. But that was an old job |
... |
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