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- [00:00]
A
Jason Lawrence has been searching for answers over what happened to his mother when she suddenly vanished.
- [00:07]
B
It upsets me knowing she has missed the celebration and being the grandparents of her five grandchildren.
- [00:13]
A
Pauline Sowry went missing three decades ago in Wollongong, aged just 49. Her family stood united today as a $500,000 reward for information was announced.
- [00:25]
B
We have received recent information that supports our ongoing investigation and that has helped us to determine that may just be the last thing we need.
- [00:34]
A
Jason described Pauline as a kind and loving mother, but believes she may have met with foul play. Pauline Soury was last seen by family in 1993, with a coronial inquest finding she likely died a year later. Police are still investigating what happened the day of her disappearance and hope the reward will lead to a breakthrough.
- [00:55]
B
Someone has heard something, someone has been told something, or someone has information that could help find out what happened to my mother.
- [01:11]
C
This is Australian True Crime with Michelle Laurie. Jason Lawrence has spent most of the last three decades searching for answers about what happened to his mother, Pauline Sowery, who vanished from Wollongong's northern suburbs in December 1993 at the age of 49. An inquest in 2008 concluded she likely died after a reported sighting the following year, yet her body has never been found. The case has continued to evolve with a dedicated police force launched in 2022, a substantial government reward announced in 2024, and a brief charge laid and later withdrawn in 2025. Today, Jason joins us to share who his mother was and the toll her disappearance has taken on their family. This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung. People of the Kulin Nation and a warning. This episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.
- [02:18]
B
Yeah, I was brought up in Balgowni. That's when my mum and dad migrated from England. They met in Fairy Meadow in the hostel, and then they had my first eldest brother, Paul, and then myself three years later, and then five years after that, Adam.
- [02:41]
C
So they were 10 pound palms, your parents?
- [02:43]
B
Yeah, pretty much, yeah.
- [02:45]
C
Wonderful. I've met a few people, actually, with similar background to yours in that respect, and a lot of them settled in Wollongong. So it must have been a really nice community of, you know, in this beautiful setting. Very, very Australian setting. Everything you imagine when you think about moving to Australia, but still with some, you know, English people around the place, it was normal.
- [03:07]
B
Normal kids, tough. Mum chases around the backyard with a spoon.
- [03:14]
C
Yep.
- [03:15]
B
Always had meal on the table, chocolate every Thursday night. Dad worked hard. They did have a bit of out of character behavior on a Saturday night. Sometimes they'd go to the club and come home and fight. So we visualize that. Witness some events, submission. But that just embraces me not to demonstrate the same behaviors my kids.
- [03:38]
C
Yeah.
- [03:39]
B
So it's maybe stronger.
- [03:42]
C
Did your parents stay married? I guess what I'm asking is by 1993, what was the situation?
- [03:49]
B
93, mum and dad were divorced. Mum had met a person of interest and he took his life. He introduced her to Heron and things went a bit sour. So I was just newly married and we were visiting my mum in Barrack Heights. And when we were visiting there, we saw black spoons and needles and discovered that there was some form of addiction. I left, went to England. Then received a call from her dad saying that mum's partner had hung himself. And then I went home and supported mum and got her off to Heron. And then after she and my youngest brother were having issues and she moved out and then started hanging out with a different range of people.
- [05:11]
C
Her addiction must have been pretty heavy by the time you realised if she didn't even clean up the paraphernalia before you came to visit.
- [05:19]
B
Yeah. So Mum was pretty strong willed. She always said to me if I was to touch a bong, she would make me smoke it that much that I would turn green. So it was hard to hear and see that she had an addiction.
- [05:36]
C
Yeah, she's. I, I guess what you're saying, she was a pretty unlikely person. I don't know who's a likely person to develop an addiction, but must have felt to you bizarre.
- [05:47]
B
Yeah, it was very bizarre. She was a strong will woman had her back. She as a mother always was strong. I mean, it's the right thing for us and make sure we made the right choices. So it was difficult to take.
- [06:09]
C
How long was that period of time that she was using?
- [06:14]
B
Probably 18 months.
- [06:16]
C
Yeah. Okay. Doesn't take long, does it? For everything to fall apart?
- [06:21]
B
No, I think she just become very vulnerable and met the wrong people and she had nowhere else to go. She had a large sum of money. She had something around about 80,000 after the sale of the property. And these parasites took advantage of a vulnerability and wanted that money.
- [06:47]
C
You assisted her. You helped her to get clean. After the death of her. The first partner in this period of time, did she start using again when she met the new partner?
- [06:58]
B
The new partner wasn't actually a partner. He was just a friend.
- [07:03]
C
Right. And Were they using? Was addiction part of this friendship? Yes, she was back in that circle.
- [07:10]
B
Yep. Yep.
- [07:12]
C
So where Were you in 1993? Were you in Australia? Were you back in England? How much did you know about what was going on?
- [07:20]
B
So beginning of 93 I was in England and then I came back and then got married in August to my ex wife. And mum and I were around at Christmas time. That was the last Christmas we had together as a family. And then leading into early 94 is when mum was coming into trouble again. So she was just jumping from house to house on drugs with my youngest brother. As I learned out of the investigation, hanging with the wrong people, not doing the right behaviours, not demonstrating what she brought us up is lonely, vulnerable, weakness and not the woman that she was. Her behaviors were completely out of character. I saw a strong woman go to the weakest point of her life. Someone who had the highest values and respect and lost it all. After Christmas, early March, April, we were visiting mum in Warren and met a gentleman and another lady with my mum at a pub, had lunch, all seemed normal and then mum was jumping from house to house. We visited different houses from time to time and started to work out. Things weren't right. Then I got a call three weeks later around May where a gentleman asked me to come and pick up all of mum's belongings. I went to a house in Greenville and everything was on his front porch. I asked a gentleman, which wasn't the owner of the property, why is all my mum's belongings on a balcony? And I'm talking records, jewellery, clothing, all her personal stuff, bags, everything. I was there with my ex wife, two cars. I told her to wait in the car because if there was anything wrong to call the police. I met with a young gentleman that didn't own the property, live in it, and I said, where is my mum? He said, I don't know. He said, I don't live here. I said, let me into your house, I want to go and see if my mum's there. He said, she's not there. I said, where is she? He said, I don't know. I last saw her in a Y com at all three weeks ago. I then left. So how I felt was I believed it. I felt that she didn't want to be in Wollongong and had moved on.
- [10:31]
C
Unfortunately. I gather that her behaviour had become erratic in the last couple of years and unpredictable to you. Like you, there must have been many times where you were shocked by her behaviour. So this was shocking but seemed believable.
- [10:45]
B
Right, Correct. I was working a few years later and I was told by someone that she was seen in Cabramatta with the wrong crowd.
- [10:59]
C
Big heroin neighborhood. Cabramatta in Sydney.
- [11:01]
B
Yeah.
- [11:02]
C
Yep.
- [11:03]
B
And that she may have been killed.
- [11:07]
C
She may have been killed, yeah. Wow. So this is a couple of years after this day with her things on the balcony.
- [11:14]
B
97.
- [11:15]
C
97. So for that three year period, were you like, obviously worried because you don't know where your mum is and you don't know what she's up to, but. Yeah. What were you thinking during that period of time?
- [11:27]
B
Many things. Where was she? What was she doing? Did she want to be part of us? Did she still love us? Had I done everything right in the interim of that? Adam, my youngest brother, was in and out of crime. Stealing, breaking in and a poor. My oldest brother was living in Queensland.
- [11:54]
C
Where was your dad?
- [11:55]
B
My dad lives in Wollongong.
- [11:57]
C
Okay. So was he supportive? Was he still there for you boys?
- [12:00]
B
Yeah. Where he could be.
- [12:03]
C
So at any time, did you think she was no longer alive? I suppose under the circumstances of her lifestyle, you. You would have to worry about that, wouldn't you?
- [12:13]
B
Yeah. You think if she OD as someone killed her for the money and then
- [12:18]
C
you spend the next couple of years not knowing where she is or what she's doing and then someone pops up in 97 and says, yeah, I saw her. Saw her in Cabra Matta. Which sounds plausible.
- [12:28]
B
That's when we reported a missing.
- [12:30]
C
I see. Oftentimes when we hear, oh, that someone wasn't reported missing for a period of time, people are baffled, aren't they? And they can be judgmental. What sort of response have you had to that?
- [12:41]
B
To anyone that's listening to this, it's okay to form that opinion. I expect it, understand it, but you're not in my shoes. We didn't know what to believe. That's probably my only biggest regret.
- [12:57]
C
Yeah. But as we were saying, her lifestyle at that point had been so erratic that it was not beyond the realms of possibility that she had left with a bloke in a Y Commodore and moved to Cabramatta.
- [13:10]
B
Yep.
- [13:11]
C
So when you reported her missing in 97, was your hope that they'll go to Cabramatta and find her? You know we've got a lead.
- [13:19]
B
Yes. There was a detective, burglars that was involved. They did an investigation and nothing came from it.
- [13:27]
C
They didn't even find anyone there who, who said they knew her, that they'd seen her. Yeah, we know her from around the traps.
- [13:33]
B
The only Thing that came to light, that someone was drawing from the bank account because she was on disability pension.
- [13:41]
C
Yep.
- [13:42]
B
And you don't need to renew that till every five years, so it's easy money. But they could never trace it.
- [13:49]
C
So still, in 97, someone was drawing.
- [13:51]
B
Yep.
- [13:52]
C
Yeah. Okay. Cause this is three years after.
- [13:54]
B
But she had two separate bank accounts. She had one for a pension and one for a savings. The savings account was never touched.
- [14:03]
C
But the disability's withdrawn every two weeks or whenever it goes in.
- [14:07]
B
Yeah, something like that.
- [14:10]
C
So were they able to trace? Like what in those days? It's been withdrawn at an atm, I'm assuming. There's no digital online transactions. So could they see what ATM they were using or.
- [14:21]
B
I was never led to believe which one are where.
- [14:24]
C
Okay.
- [14:25]
B
I was just made aware that it was happening probably from that date. I probably thought that someone else was doing it. I thought she was killed for her
- [14:38]
C
money as far back as 97.
- [14:40]
B
Yep. That was my cart feeling.
- [14:43]
C
I mean, it's really heartbreaking that you said earlier that you found yourself wondering, does she love us? Did we do something? Was there part of you that thought she must be dead because she would never be away from us this long? I mean, it sounds as though you were pretty close. You had a good relationship.
- [15:00]
B
Yeah, Mum and I hang out together. When dad first got divorced, we went clubbing. We worked at the City Pacific Hotel together. We were very close. Yeah, we shared a lot of memories, a lot of good times. She loved her sons, Paul and Adam. She wanted nothing to the best for us. Yes. It's a bit sus for her to disappear.
- [15:26]
C
Yeah.
- [15:27]
B
And not have any contact. But you don't know what to believe in those times.
- [15:42]
C
If you'd like to talk to someone about abuse that's taken place in your life, no matter how long ago it happened, your GP is always a good place to start. If that's not going to work for you, you can contact 1-800-Respect on 1-800-737-732 or via their website, 1-800respect.org au or you can call Lifeline's 24 hour phone counselling service on 13, 11, 14. What have you now learned about your mum's movements after the last time you saw her? At Christmas 1993.
- [16:25]
B
So the next events. I was in Darwin, 2015. I got a call from Detective Regulus saying that a witness had come forward saying that Mum may have been seen in wa. In the Claremont murders. Her witness come forward and had identified Mum and said that they were sending Detectives to wa to investigate further.
- [16:57]
C
So they thought she was another victim of the Claremont serial killer?
- [17:01]
B
Yep. So I was in a work meeting, pulled out and took that call, went home, hope of closure. They flew over and nothing came up. Was mistaken identity. So another dead end. And then we had to declare a deceased because money finders contacted me and there was a sum of money, 70,000 plus, in a bank account which belonged to Mum. So then we had to declare her deceased.
- [17:40]
C
So how do you do that? I thought you needed a coroner to do that.
- [17:44]
B
Correct.
- [17:44]
C
Oh, right, okay. Right, yeah.
- [17:46]
B
So we went to coroner's court, involved a solicitor and then got that money.
- [17:51]
C
But then your mum's officially dead and you don't know anything around how, where, why? Where her remains are. It's just a piece of paper that says she's dead.
- [18:03]
B
Yep. But the case is always left open as a missing persons and a cold case, so it's always open for investigation.
- [18:12]
C
But is anyone investigating it? I think that's a question a lot of us have, and certainly we've spoken to a lot of people who have talked about great detectives and cold cases being closed and all of those things. Did you feel as though someone was investigating your mum's whereabouts all these years after you'd seen her?
- [18:29]
B
After the coroner's court? No, it was closed. The family has to come to conclusion that she's gone and deceased. No closure. But in that time between 94 and that time, I lost my eldest brother to suicide. Adam continued on a journey of crime, in and out of jail, and he also took his life ten years ago.
- [19:05]
C
Jason. Oh, you poor man. One of the consequences of that is it's left to you. You're the only person who's advocating for your mum now.
- [19:18]
B
Yep. But that's what she'd want.
- [19:22]
C
I think that's what we'd all want, isn't it? I think we would all hope that people, our loved ones, would look for us no matter what.
- [19:31]
B
100%. So three and a half years ago, the investigation reopened. A young fellow came forward and contact the Crime Stoppers and he witnessed an event back in 94.
- [19:48]
C
Oh, my goodness.
- [19:50]
B
So he held a secret for 30 years with his sister and her boyfriend. The three of them were in the bush in a particular area in Wollongong, and they saw Mum and a male fighting in a car with a handbag. Mum us away because she feared they were in danger. And they could see the pig and they hid in the bush. What they saw later was him leaving the bush with a machete. Her handbag and their mum, they stayed, went back to the car. It was a white Commodore. They could not see him. There's a period of about 45 minutes that they hid and it was getting dark. The main witness can identify the bag and the machete in detail. That bag I describe in one of my statements. The description is on point to my description to the man I met in Warawam with my mother. So they took that statement, walked away. They looked up missing persons again and then put two together and then contacted me and then confirmed my statements about
- [21:21]
C
the bag and those sort of identifying things.
- [21:24]
B
Yep.
- [21:24]
C
Was this young man able to lead detectives to the spot?
- [21:29]
B
Yep. So the investigation went for about three months and I was asked to come home and go to the search site and was advised that they were going to be looking for a body. They nailed it down to an area in meters and time and I went there and it was a massive operation, really overwhelming. I spent the day there and at the end, a gentleman by the name of Scotty Nicholson, leading detective, took me to an area where Garba dogs had gone and found clothing. I was there, watched it get put out of the ground and I said, that's not Mum's, really only reason I didn't think it would last that long because it was wrapped around a tree, buried in clay and it was sort of a water runoff and it'd been there for years. So as they slowly unravelled it and pulled it from the tree, you could see the roots for all the pans. And Scotty replied and said, it can be because clay preserves clothing.
- [22:46]
C
Was it just clothing or was it remains as well?
- [22:49]
B
No remains. So we had one search site, another one, and then another one. And out of all those three, they found bits of clothing at different times. A jacket, shirt, pants, socks and a blouse. All women's clothing. No rubbish, nothing around, just clothing buried.
- [23:16]
C
So do you think it was your mum's now?
- [23:18]
B
Yep. Mum used to sew our buttons, or if the button couldn't go into the pocket, she would sew it and that clothing had it. Clothing matches what I remember.
- [23:34]
C
I can't imagine finding a piece of clothing with such a personal detail on it, knowing that your mum sewed that button on there.
- [23:41]
B
Yep.
- [23:42]
C
How did it feel to see such a large operation dedicated to looking for your mum? Because, you know, you've been by this stage, been three years of feeling like nobody's looking for mum and I'm sure her lifestyle in adverted commas was raised with you many times as a sort of reason why they maybe weren't looking for her. So how did it feel to see so many people dedicated at that time?
- [24:10]
B
I formed a connection with Stoney and he has been unbelievable.
- [24:17]
C
He's a detective.
- [24:19]
B
Yep. He's invested in it. He is not giving up. He's 100% across everything. He contacts me, emails me, he'll call me after this to see how it went. He's been my backbone.
- [24:36]
C
So we're at the site that the young man who's a witness, he has directed detectives to this site and they have found clothing that you have identified as your mother's clothing at this site. So a case is really building. We've got the white Commodore, A story that you've told from 1994 is now matching up with this witness witness's account 30 years later. So, yeah, we're definitely building a case here. What happens then? Did you know the name of the man that you had met with your mum?
- [25:10]
B
Yep.
- [25:10]
C
Okay, so you knew who you were looking at.
- [25:13]
B
Yep.
- [25:14]
C
And then police go, no doubt. And check out did he own a Commodore in this time? And they do their staff in the background. So what happens next from your perspective?
- [25:24]
B
So we went through the free searches and then there was a serious events of the investigation behind the scenes, which I can't disclose. And it kept going for a number of years. So I had to be patient. I couldn't talk, I couldn't share anything. But I knew a lot of valuable information. I knew that pieces were joining, the puzzle was coming together. In the middle of that, I formed a great relationship with the witness and we have a great connection. Now he struggles mentally because he held his secret for so long.
- [26:04]
C
Why did he. Did he mention to you, has he talked to you about why he did?
- [26:08]
B
Because what the story was, they went back to their parents, told their mum and dad and their mum and dad advised him to never go back and never say a word to anyone. But was having nightmares and dreaming about my mum for 30 years. So he came forward and decided to disclose everything he knew. His sister and her boyfriend at the time had been interviewed as well and have confirmed his. Everything has taken place.
- [26:39]
C
And again, it's easy to be judgmental, but I think about what I would advise if my kids came home and told me that story. There's a machete, there's a terrified woman who then sort of disappears out there in the bush. And it's hard. That would be so frightening, that story to hear. It's hard to know how any of us would respond and what we would advise our kids after that.
- [27:04]
B
Yeah. Especially in the 90s.
- [27:05]
C
Yeah.
- [27:06]
B
I don't hold any judgment. I understand. I do get a little bit angry, frustrated about it all. If the parents had taken a different direction to call the police. Yeah, we probably know where she is.
- [27:23]
C
Yeah.
- [27:24]
B
But my mum would not want me to hold on to that. She would want me to keep the journey I'm on, keep telling the story, staying strong and forgive. Around nine months ago, a gentleman was arrested. He was charged with accessory to murder and concealing information. Tornado.
- [27:56]
C
For more than 30 years, a family has been searching for answers. Today, finally, a breakthrough in the disappearance of Illawarra mother of three Pauline Sowry. A man in his 60s tonight behind bars.
- [28:10]
B
A 64 year old man marched out in handcuffs from his Wollongong flat accused of being behind the disappearance of a mother of three. He was held through the last seven months. I was contacted by the Department of Prosecution and I went to a court hearing in December for bail application. I flew from Bendigo to Wollongong, I went to court and sitting in a hearing, I saw him face to face by video link. He couldn't see me and I recognised him straight away. Sitting in that courtroom was the hardest thing I ever did. Knowing what I knew.
- [28:54]
C
It's a little bit confusing because you're saying that this person was charged with accessory to murder. So was this the individual that owned the white Commodore that you believe was present when your mum died?
- [29:07]
B
The investigation points to he was the one owned the white Commodore.
- [29:11]
C
Right, okay.
- [29:11]
B
And he was sitting with my mum last.
- [29:15]
C
Yeah. By the witnesses, the kids that we've talked about. So, okay, can you tell us why he's charged with an accessory to murder? Is there a suggestion there's another individual
- [29:24]
B
involved or the reason was information come forward that there was two other people involved. They were investigated, interviewed and nothing came of it.
- [29:38]
C
So it must seem like the police still sort of don't really have a handle on the last minutes of your mum's life.
- [29:46]
B
Yeah. So I went to court and when I was sitting in the courtroom, I could hear the judge questioning the credibility of the charges. And I was sitting there looking at the judge and I put my head in my hands and went, oh my God, this is over. This guy's going to walk. I felt my heart dropped to the ground. I looked at Scotty, he looked at me and wrote down he hasn't read the full brief. So then I hear the Crown prosecution defending and the judge is questioning whether it's warrant that charge should be Held. His bail was denied because of threats made to police and witnesses and was on recording so he couldn't get bail. At that time, it was 40 minutes, longest 40 minutes of my life. I walked out of the courtroom. Scotty, the prosecution and Victim Support Homicide were next to me. I looked at all three of them with disbelief, anger, fear. I said, I need to debrief. I walked to the left. I broke. I bored my eyes out. Scotty ran over, wrapped me, held me and told me to breathe because I couldn't stop crying. I then knew that the prosecution case was weak. I got a call from the Crown Prosecution four weeks later to have a brief on our phone conference hookup. I was told that there may not be a case and they can't take it any further. I had to do a statement, a letter of appeal to why I feel that he should not be released and get out of jail. All of that, I said, there's too many unknowns, too much information, too many pieces that leads to him. Then I got a call two weeks later to say the prosecution was not going to go any further and dropping all charges. With all the information that's there, there's enough to go before a jury and it should have been led up to the jury, but the Crown Prosecution, Department of public prosecution, are 2 piss weak.
- [32:25]
C
The fact that he didn't receive bail, his bail application was denied because of threats he had made toward police and other individuals, suggests to me that he is a potentially dangerous human being.
- [32:39]
B
Still, very much so.
- [32:41]
C
So that's part of the frustration too, isn't it?
- [32:44]
B
Yeah. Well, he's in the public now. He's living his life as if nothing's ever happened.
- [32:49]
C
Yeah.
- [32:49]
B
Walking the streets.
- [32:51]
C
So this must have collapsed recently, did it? If the. If he was arrested nine months ago, when did all this happen?
- [32:57]
B
In January.
- [32:58]
C
Yeah. Wow. Around the anniversary of last time. You saw your mum, too? Yes, probably her death. When do you think she died?
- [33:07]
B
May, June 94th. I know she's there. All the evidence leads to it. And I'll give you one big piece of the jigsaw. When he arrested and Machete was found matches the description of the witness.
- [33:28]
C
Really? Look, there's a lot of things, you know, I think, apart from the devastation of your situation, this story does demonstrate the difficulty of getting a case to court, let alone a conviction. It does demonstrate that the DPP, Department of Public Prosecutions won't go forward with a case unless they're very, very, very confident of getting a conviction. It also demonstrates to me people often will Talk about circumstantial cases. As if they're useless, they're weak by. By their nature, you know, like everyone wants a witness, but you've got a witness. You don't have a witness to your mother's death, but you have a witness to the circumstances surrounding it, it seems. And still it's not enough.
- [34:18]
B
Yeah. So you have a witness, then two others that can confirm the events. They have the car manual, they have bits and pieces of the Commodore. Apparently there's plenty of evidence to be put forward and if I put in perspective, New South Wales police are exceptional. Extremely frustrated.
- [34:43]
C
Yeah.
- [34:43]
B
That it hasn't gone any further.
- [34:45]
C
Yeah. Because the work that goes into putting a brief of evidence together is massive and obviously they don't present it to the DPP unless they're confident that they've got what they need. So, you know, again, we have to take our hat off to police, you know, detectives who work at this level, the work that they've put in.
- [35:05]
B
Yep. Scotty Nicholson and the Assistant State Police Commissioner done an outstanding job. I even remember going home for the half a million dollar reward and speaking in media, they treat me with dignity, respect and with very sympathetic. They've done an outstanding job.
- [35:28]
C
Is that reward still current, by the way?
- [35:31]
B
Yes. Half a million.
- [35:32]
C
Half a million dollars for information leading to an arrest and conviction of persons responsible for the death of your mum. Pauline Sowery.
- [35:41]
B
Yep.
- [35:43]
C
Is a great example again of how witnesses can come forward after a really, really long time for whatever reason, whatever circum change in their lives. That really important information can come out a long time later.
- [35:58]
B
Yeah. He's been a very valuable member and a witness to the investigation. He can roadmap everything out, the place, time, events, actual date.
- [36:11]
C
Yeah. Wow.
- [36:12]
B
Of it happen. And he even sent me a picture of a calendar from his mum's fridge and it had a little star with a date. And she would have only done that for a special event.
- [36:25]
C
Well, I suppose this also makes me think back to their decision to tell their kids, don't say anything. And their decision not to call police. Perhaps they thought there hasn't been a crime because they hadn't heard about it in the news. Perhaps they thought, oh well, you know, days goes by two days, three days. They think, okay, well it mustn't have been anything. Kids must have been talking it up, mustn't they? Because they didn't hear about a lady being murdered.
- [36:53]
B
Yeah. It could have been fiction.
- [36:55]
C
Yeah. How old were these kids?
- [36:58]
B
Thirteen.
- [36:58]
C
Yeah. How did hear about it? Like what Prompted him to come forward. I know what you're saying about his, you know, guilt and his bad dreams and stuff, but did you. Was there a campaign about Mrs.
- [37:10]
B
Persons Week?
- [37:11]
C
Missing Persons Week?
- [37:12]
B
Yep. So that was in the media.
- [37:14]
C
Yeah.
- [37:15]
B
And he had a bit of a dream nightmare and the next day he rang Crime Stoppers again.
- [37:22]
C
It just goes to show how worth it these things are, doesn't it?
- [37:25]
B
Yeah.
- [37:27]
C
So now you, Jason, after all these years, everything you've been through, do you obsess over it? Over these years, do you find yourself just obsessing over what happened when, where? Who? Does anger take over your life? How do you cope all these years with this?
- [37:45]
B
It's a roller coaster ride. Up, down, up, down. How I cope. I have a very good, strong family. I've got a beautiful wife, four beautiful children. I've got a great job, I've got good people around me. I work hard and I'm comfortable in life.
- [38:04]
C
Which, again, as a mother, you're a parent. As a parent, you know that there's nothing more you want for your child than everything you've just listed.
- [38:12]
B
Yep.
- [38:13]
C
So, I mean, that's a tribute to your mum.
- [38:15]
B
Yep, 100%. So how I get about it, I fight for Mum. I'm doing this for Mum. I get angry, I get emotional, as you can see. I get frustrated. But I'm not going to give up. I just want Mum to be found. She should be able to put to rest, buried like everybody else and people to say goodbye, not to be in this situation. She deserves more dignity and respect than this. And someone needs to be held to account. Someone has to go to jail. It's not fair. I don't care if she was in drugs, what life she was living. No one deserves this.
- [39:01]
C
No, absolutely not.
- [39:03]
B
And what I know at the investigation, it's not right.
- [39:09]
C
No, absolutely not. And I hope times have changed and I hope that this story demonstrates that the commitment that detectives have had to solving this case for you and your mum demonstrates a different. A shift in attitudes towards people's lifestyles and how culpable that makes them in their own violent death.
- [39:29]
B
Yeah, don't judge. No, it's easy to judge, but you can't judge unless you've been in my shoes.
- [39:35]
C
Look, honestly, I can't help but judge your mum by your early childhood, you know, like the way you've described that, it makes the whole scenario that much more tragic. But I feel like if you're gonna judge her by anything, judge her by beautiful suburban Wollongong mum chasing the boys around the backyard for fighting or whatever she was up here for. And that again, is a demonstration of how life can change, like things can happen to any of us.
- [40:09]
B
She was a beautiful woman. She took care of herself. Loved her makeup. Pretty. Always wanted us to be look our best when we went out. If we were going to the shops, we had to be dressed to care. Yeah. She was very proud woman and a mum.
- [40:29]
C
Well, she'd be very proud of you, Jason.
- [40:31]
B
I hope so.
- [40:33]
C
If anyone has information about the disappearance of Pauline Sowery. She disappeared from Wollongong.
- [40:39]
B
Yep.
- [40:39]
C
We don't think she ever moved to Sydney, do we?
- [40:41]
B
No, never.
- [40:42]
C
So from Wollongong in sort of around mid 94.
- [40:47]
B
Yep. So what's her name is Lawrence.
- [40:49]
C
Oh, she was also known as Pauline Lawrence.
- [40:52]
B
Yep.
- [40:52]
C
Right. Okay.
- [40:53]
B
Yeah. My key words are someone's seen something, someone knows something or someone's told someone.
- [41:06]
C
Thank you to Jason Lawrence. If you have any information about the disappearance of of Pauline Sowery, please contact Crime Stoppers. There's a link in the show notes to do so. Next week on Australian True Crime, we're joined again by former homicide detective Charlie Bazzina. If you need support after listening to this podcast, you can call Lifeline on 131114 or contact 1-800-Respect on 1-800-737-732 or 1-800respect.org Indigenous Australians can contact 13 YARN on 139276 or 13 yarn.org au.
- [41:52]
B
The producers of this podcast recognise the traditional owners of the land on which it's recorded. They pay revenue respect to the Aboriginal elders past, present and those emerging.