Casefile True Crime - Case 31: The Killer Couple

Episode Date: August 28, 2016

Over a five-week period in 1986, four young women went missing from around Perth in Western Australia. 22-year-old Mary Neilson, 15-year-old Susannah Candy, 31-year-old Noelene Patterson and 21-year-old Denise Brown all disappeared without a trace, but police were sceptical that some were runaways and no links were drawn between the missing women. That was until November 10 1986, when a man standing outside a vacuum cleaner store was suddenly approached by a hysterical, barefoot young woman. Narration – Anonymous Host Research – Victoria Dieffenbacher Writing - Victoria Dieffenbacher & the Anonymous Host Production and music – Mike Migas For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-31-killer-couple

Hey friends, Kaylin here from Teach Me How to Adult and we talk a lot on our show about how to live your best life while also balancing being a financially responsible human. So if you've been dreaming of that epic vacation or you want to explore a new city while still keeping your bills at bay, listen up because we've teamed up with Airbnb to share some ways on how you can easily become an Airbnb host. So when we took the big leap into adulthood and bought our first home, we purposely looked for a place that we could Airbnb whenever we're on vacation or just if we want to try working out of a different city because we both work from home and we love traveling.

And it's honestly the perfect way to have the freedom and flexibility to travel or just go wherever you want while giving you that second stream of income and covering your cost while you're away. And you don't need a mansion or an entire floor of your home. It could honestly be as simple as just renting out a spare room or just occasionally doing it if you are traveling for a little bit. You could honestly be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. So whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little

more fun, your home or spare room might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca forward slash host. Ten years before the Clermont serial killings, the disappearance of four women from around Perth. Some from the same highway the Clermont victims were abducted from. Hardly raised any media attention. It was thought they were probably just runaways. There was no task force, no press conferences, no billboards, and no rewards.

David Burney was born on the 16th of February 1951. David was the eldest of six children to parents John and Margaret Burney. They lived in a semi-rural area in Wattle Grove, located 13 kilometres east of Perth. His father John had a physical disability consisting of an arched back caused by a genetic defect. His mother Margaret was an alcoholic, described as a dirty, unkempt woman. A dog dressed in women's clothes is one description I came across of Margaret. An example of Margaret Burney's parenting skills is one time while travelling on the local bus she passed on her screaming starving baby who also had a wet nappy to one of the

other bus passengers. Margaret then pulled out a comic book, lit a cigarette, and completely ignored her baby until it was time to get off. That wasn't a one-off event. The Burney household was anything but a loving, caring place. Margaret constantly screamed at her children. She expected her older kids to look after the younger kids. If one of the kids did something wrong, she would beat them with a broomstick.

There were also rumours of incest in the family. John and Margaret found it hard to raise their children on their low income and at times the authorities would come in and take the children away, but it never lasted for long. The Burney family moved to the city of Perth in the early 1960s and it was in this new household that a 12-year-old David Burney would strike up an unbreakable bond with his next-door neighbour. A girl only three months younger than him. Catherine Harrison was born on the 21st of May, 1951.

She was only two years old when her mother, Doreen, died whilst giving birth to Catherine's younger brother. Two days later, her younger brother died. After their deaths, Catherine moved to South Africa with her father, Harold. Harold found it hard to raise his daughter and sent her back to Perth to live with her maternal grandparents. After only a year of living with them, she was sent to live with an aunt and uncle. Nobody seemed to want Catherine, this bouncing around between different relatives lasted

for years. This led Catherine to an unhappy and lonely childhood. She was a sad child who rarely smiled and had very few friends. She ended up back with the grandparents who wouldn't allow other children around at the house to play with Catherine. People who knew the family claimed that most parents wouldn't allow their children to associate with Catherine anyway. David and Catherine met when they were 12 years old.

By the time they were 14, they were in a sexual relationship. David's parents soon divorced and neither of them wanted custody of him, so he became a ward of the state. When he was 15, David left school to become an apprentice jockey. He was given accommodation at a local boarding house as part of his employment. There were claims from his workmates about him harming the horses and being an exhibitionist. Six months into his employment, he broke into his landlady's apartment. David was naked, wearing a stocking mask over his head.

He attempted to rape his landlady, but he ran off prior to anything happening. David's employer found out and he was sacked. After this, David teamed back up with Catherine and for years they led a life of petty crime. It's thought they started their crime spree long before they were ever charged with anything. The first time they were caught was 11 June 1969. They were charged with 11 counts of theft and breaking and entering. David was sentenced to nine months in prison and Catherine, who was pregnant at the time, only received probation.

The following month, both David and Catherine appeared before the Supreme Court and were charged with another eight counts of theft. David had three more years of imprisonment added to his sentence and Catherine had four more years of probation. In early July 1970, David escaped from prison, where he was serving his three years and nine month sentence. He met straight back up with Catherine and they went on another crime spree. They were arrested soon after on the 10th of July 1970.

They were charged with 53 counts of theft, breaking and entering, trespassing and a legal operation of a motor vehicle. In their possession, police found wigs, radios, dynamite, detonators and diffusers. David was sentenced to another two and a half years in prison and Catherine for the first time got sentenced to six months in prison. In her defense, Catherine admitted she knew her actions were wrong, but she claimed she loved David and would do anything for him. When her baby was born, welfare services stepped in and removed it from her custody straight

away. During Catherine's time in prison, a parole officer talked to her about how different and much better her life would be if she stayed away from David. The parole officer managed to get through to her. When she was released, Catherine found a job as a domestic servant for the McLaughlin family. She became romantically involved with Donald McLaughlin, their youngest son. They were married on Catherine's 21st birthday. They had six children together.

Tragically, their seven month old son Donnie was run over in the driveway of their home. Catherine witnessed his death. David too was able to move on. Once he was released from prison, he met another woman, Kerry, and he soon married her. They had a daughter together, Tanya. Life was apparently pretty good for the new family. But all that changed six years later. David suffered a head injury whilst at work.

It was here that his ex-wife Kerry noticed the definite change in David's behavior. His mood and demeanour changed and he started treating her poorly. David had many affairs that Kerry put up with. However, the final straw was at the 10-year mark of their marriage. David brought home a 16-year-old girlfriend. He moved his daughter Tanya into his bedroom to sleep with his wife Kerry. And David moved into what was Tanya's bedroom with his 16-year-old girlfriend. That was the final straw for Kerry.

She moved out with Tanya. In early 1984, Catherine and her husband Donald were living with Harold, Catherine's father, and their five children, in near Poverty in Victoria Park, a suburb separated from Perth's centre by the Swan River. Four weeks after the birth of her youngest baby, Catherine went to the hospital to have a hysterectomy. When Donald went to visit her after the operation, he saw David holding her hand. According to some people, Catherine and David had been back seeing each other for at least

two years prior to that. Once Catherine was released from hospital, she went to visit David. She soon phoned Donald to let him know she wouldn't be coming back home. Catherine moved in with David into No. 3 Morehouse Street in Willigey, a suburb 15 kilometres south-west from the centre of Perth. And soon changed to her last name, becoming Catherine Burnie. During December 1984, David's youngest brother James moved into the house with them. He'd come out of prison after serving five months for interfering indecently with his

six-year-old niece, who in his words had led him on. When asked about his brother, James said David had few friends, was heavily into kinky sex, and had a large pornographic collection. He described David's insatiable sexual appetite, and a present that he was given for his 21st birthday. He can't seem to live without having sex with females. He needs it. If he can't get it, he just seems to go emotional and he just cracks up, just calls into a ball

and closes up. I was living with him in 1984. I used to sleep in the lounge when I fell down the lounge, what was turned into a bed. I used to sleep on that, he used to have a mattress on the floor beside me, and he used to have sex with a female on a mattress on the floor beside me. December 1984, since he needed to have sex every night, he didn't get it, so it was about Wednesday, so three days up, three nights later, he asked if he could do it with me. I refused, and he kept on asking, I kept on refusing, and I eventually thought I won over

him, and I went to bed, but when I went to sleep he came into my room and started doing it when I was asleep. I didn't have sex at all until my 21st birthday, and as a birthday present, I was allowed to have sex with Cathy. Mary Nielsen was a 22-year-old psychology student at the University of Western Australia. She was planning to work as a counsellor with the Department of Community Welfare. She had a part-time job through uni working at a local deli. In October 1986, her parents went away on an overseas holiday.

On Monday, the 6th of October 1986, Mary went to work at the deli. After work she had some late lectures at university, but had time to spare until they started. So Mary decided to get the tyres on her car changed. She stopped in at a car wrecker in the Southern Perth suburb of Myree. She was served by David Booney. He showed her several different tyres, but then said he had a better offer for her. If she came round to his house, he would be able to cut her a much better deal. He lived less than five minutes away.

Eager to save some cash, Mary agreed. She drove to David and Catherine's house at Three Morehouse Street, Willergy, and knocked on the door. David and Catherine opened the door. David was holding a knife. They dragged Mary into a bedroom, gagged her, and chained her to the bed. Mary was raped repeatedly by David, while Catherine watched and encouraged. She also took pictures.

That night Mary was dragged into David and Catherine's car. They drove her to Glen Eagle Forest, located 54km away, or 33 miles, south of where they lived. They arrived at the forest in the middle of the night. Mary was raped again. She was then strangled. David also stabbed her in the heart. They dug a shallow grave for Mary, and then drove back to Perth.

When they arrived home, David drove Mary's car to a riverside car park, which was located opposite to Western Australian police headquarters. The car got found six days later. Mary was reported as a missing person, but there wasn't too much of an investigation. David and Catherine Burney were free to strike again. They posted an ad in the local newspaper that read, Urgent, looking for a lonely young person. Prefer female, 19 to 24 years, to share a single room flat. It's unknown if any girl actually responded.

On Monday the 20th of October 1986, two weeks to the day after Mary's murder, David and Catherine spent hours driving around the streets of Perth, looking for the right girl. They both shared a sort of code. A line they told to one another if they saw someone they liked. Catherine would say, I've got the munchies. If David liked the look of their potential victim, he would say, I've got the munchies too darling. And they would both laugh.

They weren't drawn to any particular physical characteristic, age group or interest. Their victims simply had to be female, alone and vulnerable. That night they found Susanna Candy hitchhiking along the Stirling Highway in Claremont. The same location where 10 years later the Claremont serial killer would strike. Susanna Candy was a 15 year old outstanding student at Hollywood High School, a public high school in the suburb of Shenton Park in Perth. Susanna's father, Dr. Douglas Candy, worked at St. John of God Hospital and was one of Perth's most respected eye surgeons.

Susanna lived at home with her parents, two brothers and one sister. Susanna's father was a protective man and when she started a part-time job working nights in a local restaurant, he would meet her after work and walk her home. He actually asked her to leave her job as he didn't like her being out at night, but Susanna enjoyed what she did and wanted to stay on. It was that Monday night when she walked out of work, her father wasn't there waiting for her, instead David and Catherine Burnie were. They pulled up alongside her and asked if she wanted to lift home.

David and Catherine didn't look threatening, they looked like a harmless married couple. Having Catherine in the car put Susanna at ease and she accepted the offer for a lift. David and Catherine drove her to their house at 3 Morehouse Street. They changed Susanna up and repeatedly raped her. During her captivity, Susanna was forced to write two letters to her parents. In those letters she told them she was okay and that she needed some time to herself. When they were done, David tried to strangle her, but Susanna became hysterical and was able to put up a hill of a fight.

So David and Catherine forced sleeping pills down her throat. When she went to sleep, David looked at Catherine and said, Prove you love me. Catherine strangled her. They drove Susanna's body to the Glen Eagle Forest and buried her close by the Mary's body. The Burnies sent the letters they forced Susanna to write two weeks apart from each other. The first letter was posted in Perth and the second one in Freemian. The Burnies believed the letters would help with Susanna's family at ease and make them

believe she was okay. They actually had the opposite effect. After reading the letters, Susanna's family became even more worried that something bad happened and they reported her as a missing person. The police told them that their daughter had probably got mixed up with the wrong crowd, got addicted to drugs and had simply run away. 11 days after Susanna's murder, Nolene Patterson was driving home from work when her car ran out of petrol.

Nolene was 31 years old. She was elegant, beautiful and popular. She worked for nine years as an airline hostess for ANSET, which was a major Australian airline no longer in operation. Nolene then worked for two years in Allen Bond's private airline. In 1986, she was working at the Netherlands Golf Club and living with her mother in the Riverside suburb of Bicton, 10km southwest of Perth. That Saturday night when she ran out of petrol, David and Catherine Burnie pulled up alongside

her and offered to take her to the nearest service station. Nolene accepted the offer. As soon as she got in their car, a knife was held to her throat and she was taken to three Morehouse Street. Nolene was chained to the bed, gagged, repeatedly raped and tortured. Like their previous victims, the intention was to kill Nolene that night, but David ended up changing his mind. He developed an emotional attachment to Nolene and he kept putting off her murder.

After three days, Catherine, who had become increasingly jealous, couldn't no longer stand it. She went into a rage and gave David an ultimatum. She held a knife to herself threatening suicide and screamed, her or me, you choose. David chose Catherine. He forced Nolene to take a massive dose of sleeping pills. When she went to sleep, he strangled her. They drove her body to the Glen Eagle Forest and buried her close to Mary and Susanna. As they buried Nolene, Catherine was still in a rage and started screaming and cursing

at her body. Denise Brown was 21 years old, fun-loving, warm and friendly. She worked as a part-time computer operator and loved to go clubbing and dancing. She lived with her boyfriend and another couple in the Netherlands. It was Wednesday, the 5th of November, 1986, four days after the Bernys had abducted Nolene and only the day after they had murdered her. Denise Brown had been out with a friend and was now waiting for a bus outside the Stoned Crow One House in Fremantle.

Fremantle is about a 30 minute drive south of Perth. Before a bus arrived, the Bernys pulled up and offered Denise a lift. Denise accepted. As soon as Denise got in the car, a knife was held to her throat. The Bernys drove her back to their House of Horrors at 3 Morehouse Street, Willigie. Denise was tied up, gagged, raped and tortured. During her captivity, David and Catherine forced her to make phone calls to her friends to say that she was okay.

They kept her for one night and the next day, Thursday the 6th of November, they forced her to swallow sleeping pills. When she fell asleep, they dragged her to their car. This time they changed the burial location. Instead of going south, they went north and drove more than 60km, 37 miles, to a forest in the suburb of Wanderoo on Perth's northern outskirts. Once they arrived there, David raped Denise again and then cut her throat. Whilst there was some talk around Perth and in the local media about the missing girls,

there was certainly no outcry or saturation coverage of their cases. Definitely no talk or suggestion of a serial killer on the loose. It was just seen as a few missing girls. It was thought by those outside of the families that they had probably just run away. Just four days after the murder of Denise Brown, a 17 year old girl, Kim, which isn't her real name, was walking along the sterling highway in Nedlands. Only a 3 minute drive west from Claremont, where Susanna was abducted. David and Catherine pulled up next to Kim and asked her for directions.

This time they didn't talk their victim into the car. David got out with a knife and forced her to get in. They drove her to three Morehouse Street. She was tied up, gagged and raped. The Bernys then forced Kim to phone her parents and tell them she was okay. Whilst she was being held, Kim managed to leave a pack of cigarettes in the ceiling of the room she was being held in. She took this step in order to prove that she had been at the house, in case she was

able to escape. The next day David left for work. Kim convinced Catherine she needed to use the bathroom. Catherine initially told her no, but eventually she relented and untied Kim. While Kim was using the bathroom, somebody knocked on the door. It was the Bernys drug dealer. While Catherine answered the door, Kim was able to escape through an unlocked window. Kim ran semi-naked through the streets of Willergy until she ended up entering a nearby

supermarket in a small shopping centre. Kim was hysterical, and the shopkeeper called the police. The two detectives who responded to the call were Vince Cadich and Paul Ferguson. Paul Ferguson you will remember as being the first officer in charge of the macro task force, investigating the claim on serial killings. Paul Ferguson had been following the reports of the previous missing girls. When Denise Brown went missing on November 5th, Ferguson believed there could be a serial killer operating.

However, upon checking the backgrounds of the missing girls, he couldn't link them. There was almost nothing in common between any of them. Plus some had actually made calls home or written letters. Those little details were what held back a major serial killing investigation getting underway. When the two detectives met Kim, she was able to tell them the address and phone number of the house she had been kept in. She told them about being tied up, raped and photographed.

And she also told them about being forced to call home. It was at this moment that both detectives realised there was a link between these missing girls. Ferguson and Cadich then paid a visit to three Morehouse Street, Willergy. No one was home, so they sat off the house and waited. Catherine Burnie turned up soon after. They approached her and she acted tense and cold and denied any knowledge of abducting Kim and holding her in the house.

Catherine did tell them where they could find David. He was at work at the car wreckers. They paid David a visit and took him and Catherine to Freemanal Police Station. They separated the couple and started questioning them. They both gave the story that Kim had visited their house of her own free will and she had actually been partying with them. According to them, Kim had visited the previous night to share some marijuana. Then one thing led to another and David and Kim had consensual sex.

They were questioned about the four missing women and they denied any knowledge. At the same time they were being questioned, other police were searching their home. They found a handbag and the packet of cigarettes Kim had hidden in the ceiling. This proved Kim had been at the house, but the Burnies weren't denying that. It didn't prove rape or a connection to the other missing women. The police needed one of the Burnies to start talking. That unexpectedly happened at 7pm that night. Detective Cadditch was half joking when he said to David,

Come on, it's getting dark. Best we take the shovel and dig them up. To Cadditch's surprise, David replied, Okay, there's four of them. Police informed Catherine about David's confession and as soon as they did, Catherine started talking as well. They both agreed to show the detectives where they had buried the victims. They went north first.

400 meters into the forest, David pointed at a spot and said, Dig there. They found Denise Brown's body, who had been buried five days earlier. The detectives left police officers to guard Denise's grave and then they headed south to the Glen Eagle Forest. David guided the police into the forest and along a narrow track. On a sliding climb, about 40 meters from the track was where they'd buried Mary Nielsen. They followed the same track for about one kilometer and that's where they found Susanna Candy.

When the time came to look for Nolene Patterson's burial site, Catherine spoke up. She said she wanted to be the one to show where her body was. On the way there, she went to great lengths to describe how much she disliked Nolene and stated she was glad Nolene was dead. When they got to the burial site, Catherine spat on it. On the 12th of November 1986, David and Catherine appeared before Freemantle Magistrates Court, where they were charged with four counts of murder. The couple attracted a hostile crowd and everyone who went to the courtroom that day had their

bags checked. While waiting in the holding cells, they were also heavily guarded, but they didn't stop David copping a beating from other inmates. As the charges were read to them, they stood together. Neither of them had legal representation and they didn't enter a plea. Bale was refused. The magistrate asked Catherine whether she'd prefer eight or thirty days to prepare for her next court appearance.

Her answer was to look over at David and say, I'll go when he goes. Their next appearance was on the 10th of February 1987, where they attracted an even bigger crowd outside Perth's Supreme Court. David pleaded guilty to four counts of murder, one count of abduction and one count of rape. Through his lawyer, he stated he wanted to plead guilty in order to spare the families of the victims the long agony of a trial. He later said to a detective, that was the least I could do. Throughout this court appearance, Catherine held David's hand.

She was not required to enter a plea as her barrister was waiting on the results of a psychiatric report. They wanted to see if she was fit to stand trial. When analysed, David fit the bill of a serial killer, but Catherine didn't. The experts simply couldn't understand what gain Catherine got out of the murders other than following David. She was found fit to stand trial with a psychiatrist saying, it's the worst case of personality dependence I've seen in my career.

On the 9th of March 1987, Catherine's turn came to standing court and confessed to her part in the murders. The judge who sentenced both of them was Justice Wallace. This is what he had to say to David. Each of these horrible crimes was premeditated, planned and carried out cruelly and relentlessly over a comparatively short period. The law is not strong enough to express the community's horror at this sadistic killer who tortured, raped and murdered four women.

In my opinion, David John Bernie is such a danger to society that he should never be released from prison. And to Catherine, Justice Wallace said this, In my opinion, you should never be released to be with David Bernie. You should never be allowed to see him again. They both received four life sentences, but they were served concurrently, meaning they could technically be eligible for parole in 20 years, despite the judge saying they should never be released.

David started his sentence at Fremantle Prison, but when that closed down in 1991, he was moved to Casurina Prison. He spent time in solitary confinement for his own protection, as he suffered several beatings from other inmates. While in prison, he continued communication with Catherine. They exchanged 2,600 letters. In the early 90s, David began to bargain with authorities for access to Catherine. In July 1992, David said both he and Catherine had committed other murders, and it would

be in the public's interest for him to give this information. Catherine was then approached to cooperate and start a negotiation, but she refused. She stated she wanted no consideration given to possible visits or phone calls from David. She was through with him. When David found out what Catherine said, he told authorities there was nothing they could offer him. Still, detectives took David out of prison and drove him around Perth for about five hours one day to see if he'd point out any new burial sites.

But he didn't. One particular case police thought might be linked was that of Lisa Mott. Lisa was a 12-year-old girl. In 1980, she went to a basketball game in the country town of Collie. After the game, she was waiting for her lift home in the main street of town. About 8.30pm, someone saw her talking to the driver of a yellow panel van, and then she was never seen again. David was working as a crane driver in the town of Collie at the time.

When detectives asked him if he knew anything about Lisa's disappearance, he said he didn't. Despite Catherine cutting off all contact with David, he continued to write her letters. She never responded, but they didn't stop him. He only stopped a few months before his death, which was on Friday 7th October 2005. David hung himself in his cell. Prior to his death, he expressed the desire to meet Kim, the girl who survived David and Catherine. He wanted her to visit him at Casurina Prison, but there was no way that was ever happening. And when he died, he was under investigation for the rape of a fellow inmate.

David's body went unclaimed, and he was given a cremation. Catherine was sent to bandy up women's prison. When she first got there, she was also attacked by other inmates. During the first years, she maintained correspondence both with her children and with David. One letter she wrote in 1987 to her children said, By now you would have heard that I've been charged with murder and other things. Please try to understand that what I did was never meant to hurt anybody, but that what I did was because I love David.

Love is a very powerful thing, and I found out that it can make you do things that you wouldn't do normally. It was because of my love for David that those things happened, and went on happening. Be careful of who you love, and to what extent you love that person. The letter continued saying that Catherine would go on loving David no matter what, and she asked for her children not to be ashamed, because she felt shame enough for all of them already. It was the early 90s when Catherine seized her correspondence with David. When asked why, she replied, It felt like he was weak, and I was stronger than him.

I didn't need him anymore, and I didn't want to stay in contact with him. It was because of this reason that when David wanted to share information in exchange for access to Catherine, she wasn't interested. And when Catherine was asked if there were any other victims, she just smirked. As years passed, Catherine also commented on the crimes and her own persona. When the couple were first arrested, police asked Catherine why she killed Susanna. She told them, Because I wanted to see how strong I was within my inner self, I didn't feel a thing.

It was like I expected. I was prepared to follow him to the end of the earth, and do anything to see his desires were satisfied. She was a female. Females hurt and destroy males. Later on though, in prison, when asked the same question, her response was very different. She said, It's about power. You don't know what power is.

Nobody knows what power is until you hold somebody's life in their hands, look into their eyes, and to take it all away from them. Catherine even bragged about the fact she lied on forms she was asked to fill out in order to help draw a profile on her. She said, I filled out those forms, the profile ones. Even the FBI has tried to profile me, and I told them exactly what they wanted to hear. You know, bad childhood, dead mother, stuff they were after. After Mary's body was found, people theorized that this first murder by the couple was unplanned

and improvised. Many believe David simply took advantage of the fact that Mary had turned up at his workplace and was an easy target. However, Catherine denied this and deemed those theories as not true. She said both her and David have been talking about and planning the murder for over a year. Her exact words were, We looked into everything before we started, every little detail, right down to how long you could leave a car in a certain place before anyone would notice it. We bought this book that was called Perfect Murder or something like that, and we learned

a lot from that about what to do. When pushed further about Mary's murder, Catherine said, She saw our faces, didn't she? She saw where we lived. Catherine became the head librarian at Bandit Art Prison, and she became known for enjoying the notoriety she had. She exchanged the letters with serial killers Mara Hindley and Eileen Warnos. She said the three of them were the only ones who would understand each other. In 1996, after Sarah Spears disappeared from Claremont, Catherine said straight away that

it was the work of a serial killer and that another girl would be abducted soon. Five months later, Jane Grimmer went missing. Everyone went as far as to tell people that the Claremont murders were copycats of her and David. And of course, David Burney made the approach to Paul Ferguson, who was now heading the Claremont investigation. He told Ferguson to interview him so he could give a serial killer's perspective of the Claremont case.

Ferguson did visit with him and he says David provided useful information. In 2005, when David committed suicide, Catherine didn't request permission to attend the funeral. She did ask for permission to attend her former husband, Donald's funeral, when he passed away in 2000. This request was denied. Perth's House of Horrors at 3 Morehouse Street, Willoughby, still stands to this day. After the murders, the public asked for it to be bulldozed, but it never was. Nobody lived in it until 12 years later, and that didn't last long.

Nobody has lived in it since. Ownership of the house has changed hands four times since 1998, and it has recently undergone a full renovation. In 2007, 20 years had passed since the conviction, and Catherine's case was up for parole. The Attorney General said he didn't care what the recommendation of the Prisoner's Review Board was. He would never sign off on Catherine's release. Catherine still applied for parole, but it was denied.

Since then, every three years, her case gets reviewed automatically. Her latest parole review was earlier this year, and she had at least one lawyer on her side, Tom Percy. A judge said she should be eligible for a lease after 20 years. That's the law. Now, barring any good reason to keep her in, and revenge I don't consider is a good reason. She should be released. From everything I've heard within the prison system is that she's a very frail old lady

who is unlikely to be a problem to anyone at any level. Are we a society that is based on revenge? And keeping her in really is just bastardry. It's just an exercise in pure revenge and hatred. Paul Ferguson couldn't disagree more. I didn't give a damn about the victims. Kathy and David Burney did not and have never given the victims one ounce of thought. This one was terrifying, absolutely terrifying because the victims were just toys.

We're just instruments. Kathy Burney, you forfeit your right to walk out that door because those poor girls didn't deserve it, didn't deserve it. Catherine was denied parole. Her next review will be in three years. This is what Kim, who survived the Burney's attack, had to say. They have been sensationalized, glorified, and even cultified. But they were sad and ordinary.

They were nobodies who became somebodies. It is time for them to be nobodies again. Catherine Burney is never getting out. Let's give her an ignominious end and a truly celebratory farewell.