In an emotional interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly,
Chris Dawson’s daughter tells her heartbreaking story for the first time.
The daughter of Teacher’s Pet murderer Chris Dawson has bravely revealed how the devastating loss of her mother still haunts her over 40 years later, while also speaking of the conflicted feelings she holds for her father and her hope that one day she will be able to forgive him.
In an exclusive interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly, Shanelle Dawson recounts how, through hypnosis, she saw “my father’s hands around my mother’s neck” and her mother “slumped in the front seat” of the car. Later she saw her father retrieve “a shovel from the boot of the car” and begin digging.
She also exposes the cruel lies her father told her about her mother’s disappearance, how she finally realised he was guilty of her murder and the heartbreaking day she had to tell her daughter the truth about his terrible crime.
Shanelle says she watched last year’s guilty verdict with “mixed feelings of despair and relief. There was no rejoicing; it’s heartbreaking for me to know he will likely die behind bars”. Though the conviction of her father, a former schoolteacher and footballer, brought “more healing than I realised it would.”
In the interview, published in The Weekly’s November issue, which goes on sale today,
Shanelle also reveals for the first time:
- How a psychic helped her believe her father was guilty.
- The last text message he sent her.
- Why she’s been ostracised by her family. “I feel like I’m the scapegoat,” she says. “Why am I the one being cut out? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
- She believes her father may not even remember the killing.
“Once I became a mother, things shifted internally for me,” she says. “What had been taken away from me now extended to my child … There’s a part of me that’s broken, I haven’t really, fully trusted people again.”
But it is not too late to find healing. In speaking out, Shanelle says, “I am … reclaiming my mother’s story and my story as our own.”
Please include a link to Shanelle Dawson exclusive interview here featured in the November issue of the Australian Woman’s Weekly, on sale October 5. Shanelle Dawson’s book, My Mother’s Eyes, is available from October 11.
-ENDS-
For more information:
Marlene Richardson | GasbagPR
0409 888 218
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