A podcast just helped solve a 40-year-old murder case in Australia

A former school teacher and rugby league star from Sydney, Chris Dawson, has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for murdering his wife 40 years ago after a popular podcast triggered a new police investigation and ended a decades-long fight for justice. Dawson, 74, told the judge he will "probably die in jail" as he will be 92 when he is first eligible for parole after 18 years in prison, in August 2040.

Affair with a 16-year-old: In 1982, Lynette Dawson, wife of Chris Dawson, suddenly disappeared when she was 33 years old. Her body has still not been discovered. 

• Mrs Dawson was a high school teacher and a mother of two and had married her high school sweetheart, as both met when they were 16 years old. Ironically enough, according to the given verdict, Chris killed Lynette for a 16-year-old with whom he was having an affair. 

• According to reports, the 16-year-old, known as just JC for legal reasons, was the babysitter of Lynette and Dawson's children. 
• Justice Harrison said in August that the evidence against Dawson was "persuasive and compelling", as he was obsessed with JC. She was also a student at the school where Dawson taught and he wanted her as a "replacement" for his wife, the judge said.
• The judge said that Dawson had become increasingly desperate as his previous plans to leave his marriage failed and JC had wanted to end their relationship.

In an earlier hearing, Dawson's daughter, Shanelle Dawson, who was just 4 when her mother disappeared, begged him to reveal the location of her mother's body, saying: "Please tell us where she is."
 

How did the podcast help? The Teacher's Pet is an Australian podcast with more than 28 million downloads. It was started by Journalist Hedley Thomas and producer Slade Gibson to investigate this particular case and tell people more about it. The podcast has received worldwide attention and has won the 2018 Gold Walkley Award. 

• This podcast commenced in May 2018 and the core podcast concluded in April 2019 after 17 episodes. Thomas conducted a significant amount of investigation and talked about Lynette Dawson's disappearance in his podcast.
• Due to this podcast, Lynette became a household name in Australia. The podcast even topped the charts in the UK, Canada and New Zealand. 
• According to BBC, Thomas found that Lynette had left with just a few clothes - no suitcase, no jewellery, not even her contact lenses. 

The podcast created enough pressure from the newfound evidence which prompted the police to open the then-closed case. 

However, Dawson's lawyers still claim that their client is innocent, and the podcast actually hindered in between the case.