The Schoolgirl, her teacher and his wife. Rebecca Hazel. 2023.

Teacher and former rugby league player Chris Dawson appeared to have it all - a loving family and a beautiful home in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. But in the summer of 1982 his wife Lynette disappeared and not long afterwards Dawson married a former student.

Less than a decade later this young woman escaped the marriage and went to the police to record her suspicions that Dawson had been involved in Lynette’s disappearance. A homicide investigation followed but got nowhere  until 1998, when Detective Sergeant Damian Loone was handed Lynette’s file. For nearly two decades he made it his business to honour Lynette and to find out what had happened to her. His work led to two coronial investigations, but no charges.

Around this time Rebecca Hazel was working in a women’s refuge when a colleague shared her story of enduring coercive control at the hands of Dawson, when she was his student and then his wife. She also shared her suspicions about Lynette’s fate. These revelations affected Rebecca, and she decided to investigate.

Over years, coroners, police and journalists all shared with Rebecca their knowledge of the case, and disappointments that it remained unsolved. Until, in May 2018, Henley Thomas launched The Teacher’s Pet podcast, and in December  2018 Chris Dawson was charged with murder. He was convicted in August 2022.

Rebecca Hazel has spent ten years working to ensure that the stories of two women who were misused by Chris Dawson are heard, that their perpetrator was brought to justice and that Lynette’s family can properly honour their much-loved sister, aunt, cousin and mother.