A Teacher Started Dating His Student After Wife's Strange Disappearance — Did He Kill Her?

Just two days after Lynette Dawson mysteriously disappeared, her husband moved his teenage mistress into their Bayview, Sydney home. 

Despite the highly suspicious move, for years, Christopher Dawson, a teacher and former Rugby player, insisted his wife just chose to walk away from the family — until the popular podcast Teacher’s Pet thrust the case back into the spotlight in 2018, more than three decades after Lynette disappeared.

That same year, Christopher was arrested for killing his wife and was found guilty four years later, finally bringing Lynette’s family the justice they deserved.

“This verdict is for Lyn. Today her name has been cleared — she loved her family and would have never left them of her own accord. Instead, her trust was betrayed by a man she loved,” her brother Greg Simms told The Guardian.

Here’s everything to know about the sensational case and the long road to justice: 

When did Lynette Dawson disappear?

Lynette Dawson — a mother of two and nurse at a local childcare center — was just 33 years old when she mysteriously vanished around January 8, 1982. 

Two days later, her husband, Christopher, a former professional rugby player with the Newtown Jets, moved his one-time student and the children’s babysitter, a 16-year-old girl known in court only as “JC,” into the home the couple had shared together, according to the news.com.au. 

For years, Christopher insisted his wife just walked away from her old life, even suggesting she had run off to join a cult. He also claimed to have been in sporadic contact with her over the phone, although Lynette suspiciously never reached out to any of her other family members.

Who was Christopher Dawson having an affair with?

Christopher had become infatuated with one of his young students while working as a physical education teacher at Cromer High School. The married father even went as far as fixing the class roster in JC’s junior year so that she would be in his class, according to the news outlet. Soon, JC, who came from a broken home, had become a regular babysitter for the family and was carrying on a secret affair with Christopher.

Chris Dawson and team arrive at NSW Supreme Court on August 30, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. Photo: Getty Images

JC would later testify in court that during her final conversation with Lynette, she had confronted her, saying “You’ve been taking liberties with my husband.” 

“I didn’t know what to say,” JC said.

In Lynette’s absence, the teen quickly assumed the role of stepmother, helping to parent the children. Two years later, she and Christopher got married using one of Lynette’s rings, according to the outlet. They had a daughter together, but divorced in 1990.

“I didn’t want to be in a relationship with him. I wanted to get away … because I was just a kid,” she once said in court. 

What role did The Teacher’s Pet podcast play?

With no sign of Lynette, the case eventually went cold. Investigators held two coronial inquests in 2001 and 2003, which each concluded that charges should be filed against a known person in the case, but prosecutors declined to pursue the case, citing a lack of evidence, according to the Australian Broadcasting Company.

To this day, Lynette’s body has never been found, leaving authorities at the time with no solid proof that she met a dark end.

The case came roaring back into the public’s consciousness in May 2018 when journalist Hedley Thomas launched the podcast The Teacher’s Pet, offering new evidence and interviews. As of 2022, The Guardian reported the podcast has been downloaded a reported 60 million times around the world. 

Was Christopher Dawson convicted of killing his wife Lynette?

Christopher was arrested in 2018 and charged with murder. He was convicted four years later in a trial determined by New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison. 

“None of the circumstances considered alone can establish Mr Dawson’s guilt,” Harrison said while announcing his decision, according to The Guardian. “But when regard is had to their combined force, I am left in no doubt. The only rational inference [is that] Lynette Dawson died on or about 8 January 1982 as a result of a conscious or voluntary act committed by Christopher Dawson.”

He concluded Christopher killed his wife “for the selfish and cynical purpose of eliminating the inconvenient obstruction she presented” after he had become obsessed with his teen lover, The Sydney Morning Herald reported at the time.

Harrison called Christopher’s claims that he had spoken to his wife after she disappeared, including a phone call he said he received on Jan. 9, 1982 saying she needed some time to herself, as nothing but “lies.”

He added that it was “simply absurd” to believe that Lynette would have only stayed in contact with the person “who was the reason for her departure,” rather than reaching out to her own family members.

How do Lynette and Christopher Dawson’s children feel today?

When Lynette Dawson disappeared, she left behind two young daughters. Christopher told the girls that their mother just chose to leave the family, but now more than 40 years later, the couple’s oldest daughter, Shanelle, has accepted a more grim reality.

"It was years and years of processing and trying to come to terms with it, and still not wanting to believe it, actually, for a long time," Shanelle , who was just 4 years old when her mom disappeared, told the Australian Broadcasting Company. "Especially because I remained in my father's life for quite a few years afterwards."

She noted that growing up there had always been “red flags,” like her father’s insistence they never talk about her mother, a lack of photos of her around the house, and a “misogynistic” response he gave about their mother.

"He said, 'It's a shame your mum let herself go. She had such a pretty face,'" Shanelle remembered.

While Shanelle admitted that she still cares for her father today, she also believes he did a “horrible thing” and mourns for the mom she lost.

"The fact that he did it is still [causing] just so much grief and heartbreak for me," she told the outlet.

Where is Christopher Dawson today?

Today, Christopher is behind bars where he’s serving out a prison term of a maximum of 24 years, according to The Australian Associated Press. He won’t be eligible for parole until August 2041. 

He could be forced to serve out his entire sentence,  however, due to laws in the country that prevent the release of convicted murderers unless they share the location of their victims.

Christopher is in the process of appealing the verdict.