In 1995, a wealthy widow vanished after lending a large loan. Two years later, a Sydney mother was held ransom for $1 million. Although the women didn’t know each other, they both knew a man named Bruce Burrell.
Former police officer Paul Grech worked on the case as a junior detective, and said it was one minute detail that connected the two cases.
Former detective Paul Grech shares how they unmasked the double murderer on the Crime Insiders podcast:
Sydney mother Kerry Whelan, aged 39, was last seen in the carpark of the Parramatta Park Royal Hotel in 1997. The day after Whelan vanished, her husband received a ransom note that sparked one of Australia’s greatest police manhunts.
“That ransom note was for the sum of $1 million, and there was some really stringent conditions as to the safe return of his wife,” Grech said.
Grech said Bruce Burrell was quickly identified as a person of interest. Burrell was an employee of Whelan’s husband and a family friend.
Shortly after, NSW detectives uncovered a crucial link that escalated the case to a double homicide investigation. Two years before Whelan was kidnapped, wealthy widow Dorothy Davis had disappeared after lending Burrell a large loan.
“There was some strong similarities between the two people that had been missing and the fact that the common player, of course, was Bruce Burrell,” Grech said.
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