It’s a case which has gripped not just Australia but the world.

On Thursday in Sydney 70-year-old Chris Dawson was charged with the murder of his former wife, Lynette Dawson, almost four decades after her disappearance in January of 1982.

His arrest followed the case’s re-examination in the global podcast phenomenon, the Teacher’s Pet. The podcast, which was created by the News Corp-owned Australian newspaper and which has been downloaded more than 25 million times around the world, uncovered fresh witnesses which police say helped lead to his arrest.

Lyn Dawson was 33 when she went missing in 1982 leaving behind two young daughters. Her body has never been found.

Chris Dawson, a former rugby league player, has long been a suspect in the case but denies any involvement in his wife’s disappearance.

Fresh statements from at least two witnesses led to Dawson’s arrest on Queensland’s Gold Coast on Wednesday in connection with the disappearance of his wife. The new evidence helped police “tie pieces of the puzzle together”, according to the NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller.

It is believed the evidence was provided by Dawson’s teenage lover at the time, Joanne Curtis – who moved into the family home in Sydney’s northern beaches days after Lyn Dawson disappeared – and a former student of the school he once taught at.

Dawson, who intends to plead not guilty, will spend at least a week behind bars before applying for bail after he faced Sydney Central Local Court via video link on Thursday.

His barrister, Greg Walsh, told the court the matter was “quite big” and asked that a bail application be set down for 14 December.

Walsh told reporters outside court his client, who is “anxious and stressed about the situation”, planned to plead not guilty.

He said though rare for a wife and mother to go missing of their own accord it had happened.

“After the disappearance of Lynette Dawson, there was evidence that she was observed by a number of people,” the lawyer said on Thursday.

“There were also two very important bank card transactions some weeks after ... her disappearance.”

Intense public interest in the case was a concern, Dawson’s lawyer added.

“(Some media reporting) is coming from an ideological perspective that he must be guilty.

“That is a worry because it can distort people’s memories and there have been significant delays in this case and inadequacies in the investigation by the police.”

Detectives from the NSW homicide squad began reinvestigating her suspected murder in 2015 and sent a brief of evidence to the Director of Public Prosecutions in April this year.

“There was additional evidence that was identified and that has seen the DPP make a positive decision in prosecuting an individual for the murder of Lynette Dawson,” Fuller said. “Statements from witnesses helped us tie pieces of the puzzle together.”

Detectives in September dug up the backyard at the Bayview home the couple shared in the early 1980s, but did not find Lyn’s remains or items of interest.

The former school teacher appeared in Southport magistrates court on Wednesday, where his application for bail was refused.

He touched down in Sydney about 9.30am on a Qantas flight from the Gold Coast, where he had spent the night in a watch-house.

Dressed in a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops, the 70-year-old was led off the plane by detectives and driven from the tarmac straight to Sydney Police Centre in Surry Hills, where he was charged.

Dawson’s family said they had no doubt he would be found innocent. “We are disappointed at the decision of the DPP as there is clear and uncontested evidence that Lyn Dawson was alive long after she left Chris and his daughters,” his brother Peter Dawson said, according to the Seven Network.

Fuller said detectives had spoken to Lynette Dawson’s family on Wednesday and they “were certainly relieved to hear this result”.

In September detectives dug up the backyard at the Bayview home the couple shared in the early 1980s but did not find her remains or items of interest. Fuller declared: “We certainly won’t give up on that search.”