Happy, healthy, mature, middle-class women rarely go missing for more than a few days, and they are hardly ever among the ranks of those who are never found. Dorothy Davis and Kerry Whelan were not hitchhikers, or associates of drug dealers, or unhappy with their lives, or suffering from mental health issues. In fact, they fell well outside any of the conventional categories of people at risk of permanently disappearing.
Dorothy Davis was a 74-year-old widow who lived in a house in the quiet, upmarket, seaside suburb of Lurline Bay in south-eastern Sydney. She was financially comfortable and led a peaceful, predictable life centred around her children, grandchildren and many friends. Kerry Whelan was an active and healthy 39-year-old with an affluent, family-based lifestyle. She lived with her husband, Bernie Whelan, the CEO of the Australian arm of Crown Equipment, a large multinational company that made forklifts, and their three children on an expansive rural property at Kurrajong on the north-western outskirts of Sydney, where they ran horses and enjoyed country life.
Dorothy Davis and Kerry Whelan came from different parts of Sydney, mixed in quite different circles and led completely different lives. They never met each other, and if they had, would have had little in common. In fact, Dorothy Davis and Kerry Whelan had only one thing in common - they both knew Bruce Allan Burrell.
Dorothy Davis left her home on foot on Tuesday 30 May, 1995, a few days after an angry confrontation with Bruce Burrell about an outstanding loan of $100,000 that she had secretly made to assist him to buy a new house for himself and his wife, Dallas, whom Dorothy had known since Dallas' childhood and whom she dearly loved.
This story is from the April 2022 edition of Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the April 2022 edition of Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
PRETTY WOMAN
Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
The unseen Rovals
Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.
Great read
In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.
Winter dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.
