'Antiques Roadshow' viewer claims he spotted his wife who went missing 28 years ago in the crowd

Heirlooms and objects with a connection to the past that makes them valuable are commonplace on "Antiques Roadshow." But once a man spotted something on the show that had a connection to his life and was worth more to him than any artifact. Back in 2010, an Australian man whose wife went missing in 1982 claimed to have spotted her on the show. Chris Dawson, who was arrested on charges of murdering his wife Lynette Dawson, claimed there was evidence of her being alive.

Mother-of-two Lynette Dawson went missing from Sydney, Australia in 1982. After the initial investigation, she was presumed dead by the police, although her body was never recovered. Chris was suspected of killing Lynette as two days after her disappearance, the former professional rugby player moved in with his one-time student, a 16-year-old girl, news.com.au, reported.

For years, Chris insisted that his wife had just walked away from her old life, even suggesting he had contacted her over the phone, evidence of which was never found.

About 28 years later, Chris claimed to have seen her alive and on TV. He claimed that in a 2006 episode of Antiques Roadshow filmed in Padstow, Cornwall, U.K., Lynette was standing in the background. Chris claimed at the time that a woman in the background of one of the shots resembled his wife. At the time, he was being accused of killing Lynette, thus, he emailed his daughter about the incident, writing, “The show was filmed in Padstow, Cornwall, in England, and the likeness to your mum is uncanny. It has given us a strong sense of hope that at last her whereabouts may be known.”

However since the email was published in Australia, Chris refused to talk further, and very little of it was mentioned by his lawyers in court after he was arrested in 2018. Lynette's sister, Patricia Jenkins, also refuted the claim saying the woman wasn't her missing sibling. “There is no way this is Lyn. Just the clothes tell me it’s not her. She would never wear anything frilly or lacy," she said at the time as per the Daily Mail.

Four years after his arrest, Chris was found guilty of murdering his former wife four decades ago on Sydney’s northern beaches. While he maintained his innocence, New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison found Dawson guilty, concluding that he killed his wife “for the selfish and cynical purpose of eliminating the inconvenient obstruction she presented” in his relationship with the teen lover, The Sydney Morning Herald reported at the time.

He was ultimately sentenced to 24 years in prison and in 2024, he appealed the conviction. However, his appeal was denied and Chris was additionally sentenced to three more years in prison for having unlawful sex with the 16-year-old student. The judge found that he had taken advantage of the young girl's vulnerability due to her troubles at home.

After losing the appeal, Chris is now eligible for parole only in August 2041. Lynette’s body still hasn't been found, and her disappearance was documented in the Teacher’s Pet podcast, which brought the case to the limelight in 2018.