Two years later, he was sentenced to 28 years for the murder of rich widow Dorothy Davis, 74. Murderer Bruce Burrell has taken his secrets to the grave. Credit:Nick Moir Neither woman's body has been found. Mrs Whelan's abduction and murder was one of the country's most infamous crimes that ended after a decade-long fight for justice. A day after Mrs Whelan disappeared from the Parramatta ParkRoyal Hotel in May 1997, her husband, Bernie Whelan, received a ransom note for $US1 million for her safe return.

"Any sign of outside involvement or interference and your wife will die," the note warned. Murdered: Sydney mother Kerry Whelan. Charges against Burrell, a friend and former employee of the family, were laid in 1999, dropped, then reinstated after an inquest in 2002. The first trial ended with a hung jury and, after a second trial, he was convicted in mid 2006. Dorothy Davis was last seen in May 1995.

"Bruce Burrell was my friend. He was an employee first, then became a friend. He was welcomed into my home. He met my children, cuddled my children," Mr Whelan said on the day of Burrell's conviction. "Then he betrayed me in the worst way imaginable: killing their mum," Bernie Whelan said on the day his one-time friend had been convicted." Police searching the Bungonia State Recreation Area in 2002 for the bodies of Kerry Whelan and Dorothy Davis. Credit:Sean Davey Mr Whelan died late last year aged 77 without finding his wife's body. At the time of Mr Whelan's death, his family told Fairfax Media that they would have preferred to see Burrell walk out of jail if it meant finding a body.

Bernie Whelan died in November 2015 without ever knowing the whereabouts of his wife's body. "The uncertainty will always be a bit of a burden," son Matthew said in March. "As dad and I spoke about many times ... if we could have a choice of keeping Bruce in jail or finding a body, we'd say finding a body. It was definitely something that weighed on him." Burrell also never disclosed the whereabouts of Mrs Davis who "disappeared from the face of the earth" on May 30, 1995. Bruce Burrell during the inquests into the deaths of Kerry Whelan and Dorothy Davis. Credit:Dallas Kilponen The grandmother was last seen when she set out on foot from her home in Lurline Bay, in Sydney's east, to visit a friend.

At the time, Mrs Davis had been pressing Burrell to repay a $100,000 loan. His trial was told she was probably killed at Burrell's Lurline Bay home. During that trial, the court was told that Mrs Davis was a close family friend of Burrell's wife, Dallas Burrell. She was also wealthy, managing her own financial affairs, and generous. She often helped relatives without expecting them to repay the money. Burrell secretly approached Mrs Davis for a loan in mid-1994, saying he wanted to buy another property that had a backyard for his dog. She ultimately handed over a cheque for $100,000 for a bridging loan, but when he told his wife about it months later, he lied to her.

Burrell said Mrs Davis had wanted to keep the money away from her children, got him to "launder" it through his account and gave him the money for his trouble. Police extensively searched Burrell's farm near the tiny town of Bungonia, south-west of Goulburn, and the state recreation area that backs on the property but have found no trace of either woman.