KERRY WHELAN

On Tuesday the 6^th of May,1997, dressed in her new Trent Nathan suit and Jewellery to match, Kerry Whelan went for a morning appointment at 9.30 am at her beautician at Parramatta in the outer western suburbs of Sydney. She parked her car at the Park Royal car park, jumped out after double parking and left the keys with the attendant who she obviously knew and jumped into a green Mitsubishi four wheel drive that was waiting outside the hotel entrance. This was recorded on security cameras and it was to be the last time anyone would see Kerry again.

Her husband Bernie Whelan was due to go on a business trip to Adelaide and he was taking Kerry along with him to see the winery region of the Barossa valley. His flight was due out at 5.30 pm and he had asked Kerry to meet him at his place of employment, Crown Forklifts at Smithfield at 4pm, ready to go.

When she didn’t arrive, he started to worry with all sorts of things rushing through his mind and after rebooking his flight, he went over to the Park Royal at Parramatta to see if he could find out what had happened to her. The car was still there with the keys still in the ignition and the hotel staff had not seen her return. Something was really wrong here as Kerry had been real anxious to go and had planned the trip very carefully.

He rang the hotline emergency number and after telling the operator his problem they said it would be best if he went straight to the police station and reported it so they could start the ball rolling right away. He raced down the police station, ran in panting for breath and said “My wife is missing. Her car is at the Park royal car park and I have looked every where and I can’t find her”.

After filling in a missing person report, Bernie Whelan limped home a broken man. Nothing had happened like this to him before and not only was he worried about his wife but also his children who were at the time being looked after by a nanny who lived and worked at his farm at the foot of the Blue Mountains. He could not work it out and because he was finiacally well off, he thought there might be sinister reasons behind the disappearance.

Bernie Whelan was frantic. He had already contacted the police about the disappearance of his wife and had also told his loved ones about the horrible circumstances that had taken place the day before. He searched his house up and down for any clue as to why his wife would suddenly just up and go, especially when they were going on a holiday the same day. He found nothing.

The mail arrived and amongst the general letterbox junk stood a letter and when it was opened he found it to be a ransom note for $1, 000000. 00 and with a heap of conditions that were all ending with leaving Kerry dead if he didn’t follow instructions. He had already called the police and an investigation was taking place at the very moment into Kerry’s disappearance so all he could do was to call the police once again.

The detective in charge, Dennis Bray upon hearing from a very frantic Bernie, tried to calm him down but Bernie was worried that the kidnappers were watching the house and if they saw the police there his wife would definitely die.

The police wanted to know whether Bernie was having an affair or if he suspected his wife of having one but he insisted that this wasn’t the case. He loved his wife and his wife loved him. The police with the help of Crown Equipment put together the One million dollars and waited for instructions to arrive. Nothing happened.

In the weeks previously, it was found that a man called Bruce William Burrell had visited Kerry on their property at Kurrajong and had talked about old times and the prospect of getting his job back with Crown Equipment and Bernie found this unbelievable because he thought Bruce would rather talk to him if he was to get a job.

The police decided to follow this lead up.

From this moment on begins the baffling mystery into Bruce William Burrell, did he kidnap Kerry Whelan or not?

After reading the book titled LADY KILLER by Candace Sutton and Ellen Connolly which is a very good account of what happened , I believe that Burrell is guilty of Murder, not only Kerry Whelan whose body has never been found, but also guilty of the Murder of Dorothy Davis who had disappeared some years before the kidnapping of Kerry. Dorothy, like Kerry was never seen again and although the two women had never met they had one common denominator, they both were approached by Bruce Burrell AND NEVER SEEN AGAIN.

The kidnap ransom was never picked up and the search for Kerry and Dorothy’s bodies goes on to this very day. The main place that police think they are hidden is Bruce Burrell’s property at Bungonia in the New South Wales southern highlands. It totaled 550 acres of complete bush adjoining a state national park and is full of holes and caves in the ground.

After a coronial inquest, a committal hearing and three murder trials, Bruce Burrell was found guilty and in 2008 committed to Lithgow Maximum Security for life. The total costs of his trials were paid by the NSW GOVERNMENT and were in excess of Ten million dollars.

Bernie Whelan has since married again , his family grown up but after a eleven years of horrible tension, he is still fighting to put all this behind him.

One day some one will come across his wifes body and until that moment he will be waiting for closure, a closure that is a long time coming.

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