The Big Read: Double killer Bruce Burrell took secrets to grave

Bruce Burrell leaving Glebe Coroner's Court in 2002. Photo / News Corp Australia

In sharp contrast to the inquest of his two murder victims held in the same courthouse 15 years ago, no-one was there to lament the death of their killer Bruce Burrell.

Glebe Coroner's Court in Sydney's inner-city suburbs was virtually deserted yesterday as the official curtain was brought down on the psychopathic killer's life.

No relative was there to weep for Burrell, who went to his grave on August 4 last year taking the secrets of where he buried the bodies of the women he murdered with him, news.com reports.

The contrast could not be greater from the sad and emotionally charged scenes in June 2002, at the joint inquest of Kerry Whelan and Dorothy "Dottie" Davis.

At that hearing, a confident Burrell had refused to answer questions about the disappearance of two wealthy women who didn't know each other.

Kerry Whelan's body was never found after she went missing in 1997. Photo / News Corp

The fact that he just happened to know both women had been dismissed by Burrell, a portly convicted thief, as "freakish coincidence".

Yesterday, the final moments of Bruce Allan Burrell's miserable life were wrapped up in 20 minutes.

The NSW Coroner's Court was told that Burrell had been serving life plus 28 years for killing Dottie Davis in 1995 and the sensational abduction murder of Kerry Whelan two years later.

Burrell, a former advertising executive for Kerry Whelan's husband Bernie and a Whelan family friend, had spent most of his prison time incarcerated at Lithgow Correctional Centre.

A one-time heavy smoker and VB beer drinker, Burrell had been treated for ischaemic heart disease which has symptoms including hypertension.

But on June 11 last year, the 63-year-old inmate was taken to Lithgow Hospital and diagnosed with advanced liver cancer.

The following month, Burrell was taken to the Secure Unit at Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, Sydney to be given chemotherapy, and then end-of-life care.

Dorothy Davis was killed in 1995. Photo / News Corp

It was in this unit, which is gazetted as prison custody for inmates requiring medical treatment, that Burrell, like many criminals before him, was to spend his last days.

On August 3 last year, following "discussions with his senior next of kin", a "not for resuscitation direction" was placed upon him.

The following day, a Friday, Burrell was "found with no signs of life".

As is mandatory for all prisoners who die in custody, a post-mortem examination was held and the results delivered at an inquest.

Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee told yesterday's inquest that Burrell had died from a metastatic small cell lung carcinoma, with ischaemic heart disease as a significant contributor.

Burrell's family, which includes two sisters, had been informed and had "no concerns" about the medical treatment their brother received.

Burrell, who reportedly spent jail time sewing funeral shrouds in Lithgow Prison west of Sydney, insisted he was innocent of both murders to the end.

Police leave Bruce Burrell's property after a search for the remains of Kerry Whelan. Photo / News Corp

Kerry Whelan's husband Bernie died in late 2015, aged 77, without finding his wife's body.
His son Matthew, who had met Burrell at family gatherings, later said that not being able to lay Kerry to rest had "weighed on" his father.

"As Dad and I spoke about many times ... if we could have a choice of keeping Bruce in jail or finding a body," Matthew Whelan told Fairfax, "we'd say finding a body."

"The uncertainty will always be a burden."

It was the case in May 2002, when the Whelan and Davis families gathered at Glebe Coroner's Court for a highly anticipated inquest.

Both women had vanished in the month of May, two years apart.

Dottie Davis, a close family friend of Burrell's then-wife Dallas, had leant him $100,000 in 1994.

Burrell, who had been sacked from a series of advertising jobs because of his laziness, couldn't pay Dottie back.

The much-loved and generous grandmother vanished on May 30, 1995 after walking from her home in Sydney's eastern suburbs to visit "a friend".

In 2002, police search the Bungonia State Recreational Area for the bodies of Kerry Whelan and Dorothy Davis. Photo / News Corp

Police did not treat Ms Davis's disappearance as suspicious.

Kerry Whelan, a 39-year-old mother of three and the wife of wealthy industrialist and Crown Equipment chief executive Bernie, vanished on May 6, 1997 after being seen getting into a Mitsubishi Pajero 4WD.

Weeks earlier Burrell - who had been retrenched by Bernie Whelan in 1990 - had visited the Whelan home in his Pajero.

Bernie Whelan received a ransom note demanding US$1 million "or your wife will die".

Within days, a strike force led by Detective Inspector Dennis Bray had identified Burrell as a suspect.

A convoy of police trucks turned up to search Burrell's farm Hillydale, near Goulburn, for traces of Kerry Whelan.

When the media approached Hillydale's owner, an outwardly unruffled Burrell played country squire, oblivious to any wrongdoing.

When Dottie Davis's daughter, Maree Dawes, watching TV at home, saw that it was Bruce Burrell who was being investigated for another woman's disappearance, her knees buckled from beneath her.

Strike Force Bellaire questioned Burrell repeatedly about Kerry Whelan, but he denied any involvement.

Burrell was jailed for two-and-a-half years in 1998 for stealing three luxury cars.

While in prison, he was charged with Kerry Whelan's murder, but released from prison when the Director for Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, QC, dropped the charges.

Bruce Burrell carrying a case of his favourite beer after charges against him were dropped. Photo / News Corp

Burrell released a statement saying he was "very pleased" with the decision, and "I am innocent of the charges".

He announced he was going to sue the state of NSW for malicious prosecution, and claimed a Sydney underworld figure linked to US mobsters had killed Mrs Whelan.

In May 2002, an inquest into Mrs Whelan's and Mrs Davis's disappearance began. Bruce Burrell was one of 50 witnesses.

Dallas Burrell told the inquest her former husband was a "volatile control freak" who threatened her following the breakdown of their marriage.

Tearful evidence was given by the families of both women.

When Burrell entered the witness box and refused to answer questions, Counsel Assisting Mark Hobart told him: "You sir are a conman and a predator".

Mr Hobart said that Burrell lured women and killed them for their money.

NSW State Coroner concluded the inquest by saying that there was a reasonable chance of convicting Burrell for the murders of each woman.

Burrell went to trial for Kerry Whelan's murder and was jailed for life in August 2006.

Maree Dawes, daughter of Dorothy Davis, celebrates the conviction of Bruce Burrell as she leaves court with her brother Lessel and his wife Tanna. Photo / News Corp

The following year he was found guilty of murdering Dottie Davis.

Neither of the trial juries were told that police had found a near-empty bottle of chloroform at Burrell's home.

Nor were they told he had boasted of being able to hide a body in bushland where "no one would ever find it".

NSW Police made several searches of Burrell's farm, which abutted the Bungonia state forest.

The Bungonia Forest and Recreation Area covered almost 4000ha, and that bordered the vast Morton National Park, which is 162,000ha.

Police would end up scouring vast tracts of bush, abseiling down ravines and old mine shafts, and diving freezing dams.

But the bush did not give up Burrell's secret.