A notorious Australian cold case made famous by a true-crime podcast ended in a murder conviction Tuesday after going unsolved for 40 years. Former school teacher Chris Dawson, 74, was found guilty of murdering his wife, Lynette, in 1982 in order to begin a new life with a 16-year-old student. Dawson denied all wrongdoing after Lynette disappeared, saying his wife had left him and their two young children, with the case receiving a widespread audience with the 2018 release of the Teacher’s Pet podcast. The series, created by Aussie journalist Hedley Thomas, gathered new evidence in the 40-year cold case, including that Dawson was having sex with his student—known only as JC—at the time of Lynette’s disappearance. On Tuesday, Justice Ian Harrison convicted Dawson of being responsible for Lynette’s death, ruling that subsequent sightings of Lynette were false or mistaken. Harrison said that while there was no direct evidence supporting the verdict, he was “satisfied beyond reasonable doubt” that Dawson had been infatuated with JC, and saw no way of being with her other than by killing Lynette.
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