A mother vanished while awaiting trial for killing her husband. Her daughter saw it coming
EXCLUSIVE: Dawn Renee Wynn disappeared this week while on bond on charges for killing her husband. Her daughter, Savannah, tells Andrea Blanco the news didn’t come as a surprise - as the family had warned the court she was a flight risk
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Savannah Wynn wasn’t surprised when she heard that her mother had disappeared while awaiting trial on charges for killing her husband.
Three months earlier, she’d urged the Missouri Supreme Court not to release her mother, Dawn Renee Wynn, on bond because she posed a flight risk.
Two days after McDonald County authorities announced Ms Wynn’s disappearance on Monday, Savannah recounted the day her father died on 16 November 2021 to The Independent.
Savannah, 24, was three months into her pregnancy and living with her boyfriend on a property she shared with her parents and siblings when her two teen brothers knocked on their door to announce that their father, 51-year-old Harold Lee Wynn, had been shot in the back of the head.
“[My boyfriend] got up around 6am and when he opened the door my two younger brothers were outside,” Savannah told The Independent on Wednesday. “They were sort of panicky and kept telling me that I needed to go to the camper.”
Outside, Savannah found her 49-year-old mother telling 911 operators not to send paramedics because her husband and father of her five children was gone. Soon, the family’s backyard was filled with crime scene investigators.
Ms Wynn claimed the .40 caliber pistol found next to her husband’s pillow had accidentally gone off after falling from a bookcase at the head of the bed. She told deputies that her two youngest children, 15-year-old Jesse and 12-year-old Ian were sleeping in the living room of the fifth-wheel camper.
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Ms Wynn was arrested that same day by McDonald County Sheriff deputies who concluded that given the position of Harold Wynn’s body, there were no indications of “anything that would cause the weapon’s trigger system to be activated,” the Joplin Globe reported.
She was released on $100,000 bond on April 29, online court records show. She last appeared in court on June 6, when Judge John LePage ordered the case to go to trial.
Two months later, the McDonald County Sherriff’s Office revealed on Monday that Ms Wynn vanished from her mother’s house in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, where she had been ordered to stay while awaiting her murder trial, according to a police statement.
Savannah said her mother left behind several suicide notes to her and her siblings saying she was going to drown herself. Lieutenant Michael Hall with the McDonald County Sheriff’s Office told 4029News it was an attempt by Ms Wynn to run from the charges.
The news didn’t come as a shock for Savannah and the other adult Wynn children, Braedon 22, and Ethan, 19, who had pleaded with the Missouri Supreme Court not to release their mother and warned the authorities she was flight risk.
“We were not happy about it at all. We were calling the victim’s advocate, telling them not to let her out on bond, trying to fight it,” Savannah told The Independent.
“Once they finally [ordered her release], all of us were pretty upset about it,” she added. “Even the prosecutor said he didn’t think it was a good idea. Every time we called in trying to fight it, we would tell them she was going to run.”
Savannah said she and her siblings are estranged from their mother and that she was ordered not to have any contact with them when she was granted bond. She said she was suspicious of her mother’s role in her father’s killing from day one.
“After seeing her reaction to it all, and her not having any real emotion and just being really fake with the way she acted, all of us thought it was not an accident,” Savannah said.
The Wynn siblings, still reeling from the grief of losing their father, are now frustrated that fears that their mother would flee have become a reality. The younger children, Ian and Jesse, have since relocated to Arkansas with Braedon, who is caring for them.
“They’re doing okay, or about as okay as anybody can do with the situation,” Savannah told The Independent. “Losing our dad had the most impact on us. None of us had a close relationship with her, she wasn’t very affectionate with us. She was just always kind of very volatile.”
Savannah said that their parents were on the verge of divorce after decades of jealousy, arguments, and psychological and verbal l abuse from her mother.
“Their marriage has always been a disaster,” she said. “My mom was manipulative, controlling, and toxic. She would constantly try to start things ... Her abuse was psychological, verbal, and mental.”
The one thing that helped her hold onto life in the aftermath of her father’s killing, Savannah said, was her son.
“I miss [my father] a lot. He was a … big part of my life. Summer time was a big thing for us,” she recalled. “We always fished, camped and swam and this summer he wasn’t here. He left a huge hole in all of our lives.”
Ms Wynn is facing second-degree murder and armed criminal action charges for the killing of Harold Wynn. She was scheduled for a hearing on 15 September and failed to check in with authorities on the phone over the weekend as she was required under her release conditions.
She is described as 5ft and 2in in height and between 150 and 170 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes.
The McDonald County Sheriff’s Office has urged anyone with information about her whereabouts to call (417) 223-4318, or the Benton County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas at (479) 273-5532. Caution is advised when approaching Ms Wynn as she is considered armed and dangerous, authorities said.