June 16, 2024 • 26 mins
Months before Robert Whitwell was killed by his own granddaughter, she attempted to break into his home with a friend.
In this episode, hear why she attempted the break-in and how that eventually turned into murder.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Apoge production. Robert Whitwell was stabbed to death in his
own home in Adelaide in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The Court her Dwire was motivated by money and was
inspired by a horror television show.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
His granddaughter, Britney, was convicted of his murder.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Lost my dad and I've lost my daughter.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
In this episode, we'll find out why she did it.
Let's talk about your granddad.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I mean, the first word that came to mind just
now when you said that was regal. He was a
very eloquent man, very kind. After he passed away. For example,
we were doing a we're raising funds to get a
chair in the potanical gardens. He loved, loved photography and
he loved the potanical gardens. And when I was raising
(00:55):
funds for that, we had all these random people donate money,
which was so nice. And it was like Shirley at
the local. Ita would talk about how he was so
sweet and would like bring her flowers, and you know,
Bob down the road, he would check in and see
how you know, his wife was doing. And just all
these complete random people that he just went amongst his
(01:20):
day and just spoke to, which I think really shows
the character that he was. You know, he used to
he used to donate blood to the Red Cross. He
donated so much blood they actually told him he can't
do it anymore.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
He got his like two hundredth certificate.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
He was just he was a community man, he really was.
And I think that really comes from him growing up
with he had four brothers in total, going through the
scarcity of World War two, and you know, even for Adelaide,
you know, they had underground bunkers and they were rationed
on food and his dad worked at the local butchery.
(02:03):
So just that sort of up bringing I think really
made him a bit of a fixture with how he
went about his life. You know, something I learned actually
through him was South Australia was the only state in
Australia that you weren't allowed to be a convict to
come from England to go to South Australia, you actually
had to be someone notable, like a labor or a
(02:27):
landowner or something like that. And so that's actually how
our family got here. They bought land and set up
in South Australia.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You didn't call him Granddad, you call him another name.
What was the name he used to call him popa Poppa?
What's that about?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
It's funny, really, I think he wanted that name from
from get go, and I think the best person to
speak about it would probably be my mother. But that
was the name. That's what we were calling him, and
I think it was to maybe be a little cool,
you know, be a little bit different, instead of granddad
or something like something you have readge. It was just
(03:01):
to it was going to be Popper.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Why did we call Popper Popper? Where did that name
come from?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
He asked for that name because his dad was called Popperoper.
We used to call him proper with but.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I sort of figured you must have called your grandfather Popper.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Yeah, he was my Propper. And then that that's just
what dad wanted to be called.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
And he was.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I think that goes back to his thing about family lineage, right,
like he was always so passionate about especially I feel
like with his grandkids about knowing all the history and
photos of your Popper and his Popper and weel all
the way back and it was amazing that he had
(03:48):
all that stuff and.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
He was putting all his He even had some program
that allowed him to put the slide onto the laptop,
so he had the Minion photo.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
He did love digitalizing, like he thought he was so cool.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
He wouldn't the viruses on the internet.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Oh yeah, they freaked him out.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
And you know what he used to do with my photos.
I'd send them to dad, the digital ones. I'd send
them to Popper and he would edit my photos and
then send them back to me. So he would crop
them and do this and this and this and send
them back to me. He was a very patient photographer.
(04:35):
I remember we would be in the botanical gardens or
something and he wanted to take a photo of a
specific flower and he would wait for the sun to
be in the right position and no one in the photo.
And he had so much.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So your pop up was your mom's dad. What was
their relationship like?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Very close because her mom walked out her words when
she was seven and she has a young brother justin
you know, my grandfather was a single dad, single parent
through from when my mom was you know, seven all
the way onwards, and my mom was a bit of
a bit of a rebel, you know, trying to wrangle
(05:19):
her and all of that. I think they got really close.
My grandfather and my mom would even you know, states apart,
would talk to each other every single week and and
that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
What did your papa do for a living?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Growing up? He also, like all the other brothers, worked
in the butchery, which was actually on where the main
airfield is now in Adelaide. It doesn't exist anymore, but
there was a butchery there and they would they'd all
work in there. But then he got into the government
and he worked for the Department of Land. Okay, years
(05:55):
and years and years it.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Was said that he was he was wealthy. What did
that look like?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
He was wealthy? Do you know? It's funny because of
the type of guy he is. You know, he got
around in a kia and then he might upgrade to
like as Azuki Billino, and you know, he certainly was
not flashy. Lived in a very modest house all the
way in Craigmoar in South Australia, where he could have
(06:21):
lived in the penthouse in Adelaide, but that's just that
wasn't his jam. That's not what he wanted to do.
So we didn't know at the time, well I didn't.
My mother might have, but I have a feeling she
did not how wealthy actually was We knew he did
all right, and he was very clever with money, and
(06:41):
we knew that he made sure he instilled the value
of a dollar and what that dollar can do to
all of us. But no, we didn't realize how wealthy
he was.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
You said that you could call your granddad for anything.
But if Brittany had have called your granddad to ask
for a loan, she might have got a talking too.
But I'm guessing he's the sort of man that would
have given her that line ndred percent.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And I, you know, take it back to my own experience.
You know, I did the wrong thing. And you know,
I was struggling a little bit earning money and whatnot.
I wasn't making enough to live the lifestyle I wanted
to live, essentially, and I was using toll roads and
not paying for them, and it all caught up with me.
(07:25):
And I think it was about five thousand dollars worth
of tolls. Yeah, but I called him and I said,
I've done this, and you know, yeah, he gave me
a lecture for sure, But ten thousand dollars turned up
in my bank account, you know, And is that a
gift or is that a payback or you know, he
(07:46):
is very much like, you need to pay this back,
you know, set up a plan put ten dollars a
week in my bank account. But as long as you
start doing that in about three months, he goes just
forget it, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
He wants to see that you made the commitment, yes,
and that you're willing to pay off your debt. The responsibility, yeah, absolutely,
which sort of brings me back to you what you
did with your own sister. You know, it was actually
about the responsibility of this is our life works.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know, even growing up with mom
and dad again, that responsibility from my grandfather really came through.
We had chores that we had to do every single Saturday,
and my parents gave us an allowance, and if we
didn't do the chores correctly, the allowance got deducted, and
if we didn't do a great job, five dollars would
(08:37):
come out, ten dollars would come out, and then when
we got our allowance, we had the taxman, and the
taxman would take his share. We always knew the value
of a dollar and how to get it, how to
work for it.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I guess it's now been revealed that your granddad probably
didn't really believe in banking his money.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I think that really comes from you know, there's certainly
a lot of money still in the bank and in
shares and bonds and stocks, but I think it was
more around. You know, he paid his taxes his whole life,
and his wife was actually a nurse in World War Two,
so there was pensions and that sort of thing, and
(09:22):
obviously if you have too much money, you don't get it.
And you know, he really thought that was quite unfair
after paying one hundreds and thousands of dollars attacks throughout
the years, so you know, to keep that account a
little bit lower so that they qualify. He would, yeah,
he would keep his money out of the bank.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And where would he stash it?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
All over the house?
Speaker 1 (09:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
It was funny. I remember this time I was there
for Christmas again, one of those trips that I did
on school holidays. My nana was going to get money
because we were going out somewhere and my grandfather was like, ah, Joyce,
don't just pull out it in and all the money like,
and I think at that time, I just remember seeing
(10:08):
all the greens. I just went well, and it was
probably only a thousand or two thousand dollars in a
tin in the back of the laundry. You know, as
we got older, there was obviously trust and so we
started finding like my grandfather would say, year or you know,
if anything was to happen to me, there's some here,
And so we knew there was some in the shap
(10:29):
there was.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
It wasn't a secret to the family, obviously trusts the
family that he had money stashed everywhere.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I think the immediate family.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, absolutely, So who immediate family were talking your mum, mum,
myself and my sister. Did you ever talk about your
granddad's stash with your sister?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
No, not really. It was never relevant, you know, like, no,
it never really came up.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
How much money are we talking that you at the time,
not now, but believe was maybe in the shed?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Well then I thought probably ten twenty thousand dollars probably,
I was, you know, why would you have any more
stash in the shed? But you know, since everything happened, it, yeah,
turned out to be well over one hundred thousand dollars
in the shed, and there was other money in there
(11:23):
as well.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
This is a bit of a strange question, but I
wanted to know from Ryan if his pop had died
of natural causes, then would it be likely that his
inheritance would be shared with the family, including of course
his mom Tanya. And like when most of us inherent
money from a loved one, there's a high chance that
your own family might share that inheritance with you. So
(11:44):
I pose the question, if Robert had died of natural causes,
it's likely that Brittany might have benefited from his millions
in inheritance.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, I think, And again with that lineage thing, and
my mother still says it even to this day. You know,
it's really about what you do in your life, was
about setting up for your children as well. So absolutely
the point of it was always to give something to
the next generation, and so that would obviously flow down
(12:15):
from my mum as well. And yeah, there were gifts.
I was able to buy my grandfather's house because my
mother gifted me the deposit. You still learn his house
now I do, Yeah, So being able to to essentially
that's inheritance. You know that money came from my grandfather.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Brittany killed your granddad, she did, for one hundred thousand
dollars thereabouts, and it's highly likely she probably would have
got that if he died of his own.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, eventually absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Ryan's granddad wasn't flippant about having money stashed all over
his house, although it was in lots of nooks and crannies.
Ryan's popper knew exactly how much was stashed and where
it was.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Her book next to the money, and he would talk
about the moment money went in, money went out, who
went to, wyatt went out.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
So it wasn't willing neary. He one percent knew where
his money was and what it was there.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And that goes for anything. Medication. He would keep the
leftover medication containers so that he knew or somebody else
knew exactly where he was up to with his medication.
He was very particulous.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I've seen pictures of Ryan's granddad's house. It's a single story,
bricantile house with Federation green gutters. He had some very
manicured hedges out front. The sort of house that you
could walk past and not really admire a house, but
you can see that someone that lived there took great
pride in the garden. Robert looked like he was security conscious.
(13:53):
He didn't have cameras or anything like that, but he
did have security lights, a security screen on the front door,
and security roller shutters on all the windows.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I mean, the garden was always immaculate. It's immaculate. It
was one of those houses that again modest, but very charming.
You know, it had great street appeal. You drive up.
The lawn was always manicured. You had those big hedge
and it made it look beautiful. Roses he loved. Never
(14:22):
a weed in sight. So it was always very manicured,
very security conscious. So you know, there was roller shutters
on the outside, but you could always tell when he
was awake and when he was home or what if
the case might be, because they would have always been
up down.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
So there the roller shutters, the automatic ones you push
a button and yeah, it's for light, but it's also
for security. Yeah, so you can totally black out the
house if you want.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And they were on every window, every door. As you
walk up the driveway onto the path, there's like a
patio area at the front which is tiled. You go
through the front door and immediately as you come up
to this big brown door walk in. You have his
bedroom on the right, which is the front of the house,
(15:09):
and you have the formal lounge which you were never
really allowed to go in on the left hand side.
Beautiful pink carpet, those old school green drapes, you know,
those really heavy with the doily looking sheet behind it.
But yeah, as you would walk in, there was quite
a long corridor you'd walk through, and you had the
dining room. There was quite a large kitchen, another living area,
(15:34):
and then down another hallway and you had two other
bedrooms in a bathroom.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Have you renovated since your granddad passed?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
There is parts that I have renovated. Yes, there's parts
that I sort of can't, you know, because I knew
how much you know, it meant to hit him. Should
I actually pay for a gardener to go there all
the time, just to keep the lawns and the gardens
intact so that they sort of preserve a memory?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
What are you remember about the smells in that house?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Comfort? But yes, it smelled, you know, like your grandparents home.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, you know, I think they're all.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Obsessed with those mothball things to keep the moths away.
But yeah, it was warm.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, there's something warm and comforting about being in your grandparents' house.
There is, absolutely I still have memories of mine.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
You know, the house was always very tidy, very organized,
but heavily cluttered, you know, if that makes sense. He
was very into photography, and he thought he was very
up with technology, like he would love this setup today.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
He had one of those massive TVs that had, you know,
the DVD player, the VCR player, and he can move
things from a tape to a DVD and he just
thought that was so cool. You know. He wouldn't dare
get the internet, but he had a laptop. You know,
we'd move all of his photos that he physically took,
(17:09):
scan them to digitalize them.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Brittany had two friends that are connected with this story
of her granddad. One of those so called friends is
a woman called Bernadette Burns. We'll go into details about
the role she played in the murder of Ryan's granddad.
The other is Shelby Holmes. Now, Shelby didn't play a
role in Robert's death, but she was charged and convicted
(17:33):
and pleaded guilty to serious aggravated criminal trespass and was
handed a seventeen month suspended sentence. He's a snippet from
the paper on the day.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Shelby pleaded guilty to aggravated serious criminal trespass and was
today handed a seventeen month suspended sentence. Just as Kevin
Nicholson said he found good reason to suspend the sentence
on a three year, one thousand dollars good behavior bond.
The court heard Homes said she committed the offense out
(18:05):
of friendship and on the basis we did everything together.
She told the court that Brittany had been a strong
and demanding influence. Her lawyer told the court that Holmes
regarded Dwyer as her only friend. His client intended to
steal thousands of dollars from mister Whitwell, but believed no
one would notice because of the large amount of cash
(18:28):
that was in the shed.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
My client did a monumentally stupid thing, but what happened
some months later was nothing to do with my client
or this offending.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
The maximum penalty for aggravated serious criminal trespass is life imprisonment.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So in April of twenty sixteen, Shelby and your sister
are living together at Shelby's parents house. They pack a
bag together. Do you know what was in that bag?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah? Bolt cutters and tape and a knife. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Reading from the police report, there were bolt cutters and
knife gloves, a hammer in snips and cable tires. Seems
fairly clear what they were going to do. Do you
know if they had their mobile phones with them when
they where they did so on the thirtieth of April
(19:22):
twenty sixteen, they leave Brisbane and they drove to Adelaide
just before Mother's Day. What do you know about what
happened next?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I know that. So they obviously went down and they
were obviously going to try and take the money from
the ship. Brittany knew her way around into the backyard. Essentially,
he lived in a bit of a coulder sack and
then there was like this alley way leading into the
(19:56):
next street, and so you could actually park your car
in that backstreet and just sort of walk through. And
that's what they did.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And they were chasing the house for a day or two.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, to the lead up. This is in April. They
were looking at the house trying to figure out what
was going on. A car kept driving past, and actually
my grandfather brought it up with my mum. So this
car keeps like driving up a street. It seems a
little weird, and he was very security coptures.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Did he have cameras or anything, not.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Cameras, but the security shutters quite a large fence. The
garage door was always shut. He would never leave it open.
What they actually did was they brought a milk create
with them and pushed it up against the fence, jumped
over the fence, and because the garage was sort of
(20:51):
open at the back, but it was all close up
at the front. Once you're in the backyard, you could
just walk straight to the garage and it was automatic
and you could just push a button and it elevate it.
And that's how Shelby.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Got in Granddad's home at the stage. Yeah, yeah, what
time is this? I think this was early evening. Okay, yeah,
that they actually decided to do it. Do you think
he would have heard that garage door opening.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Possibly, I mean he didn't have the best hearing towards
the end, but he definitely would have been in that
lounge room, which is pretty close by.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
So your sisters jump the fence using a milk crate.
She's opened the garage door for Shelby to crawl under. Yep.
They're both then inside the property. Yeah, from what we understand,
they're planning on going to the shed yep, and trying
to find that one hundred grand that your grandad's got
meticulously stored yep, in the shed. They don't get that
(21:48):
farther do that, They don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
I think they get to the shed and there was
a dog the next house that started barking, and then
there was security lights that had turned on, and that
sort of spook them a bit, and I think he
started to make his way out to check it out.
He just sees them slip underneath the garage door. It
(22:15):
was only open a fraction and yeah, by the time
he sort of got over there, they were gone.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I'm guessing he didn't recognize your sister, not at all. No,
she was dressed inconspicuously for a robbery, I guess.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yeah. I think at that time as well, they hadn't
seen each other for a little while, and so my
sister had put on way her hair was always a mess,
So I dare say even if he had seen her,
he wouldn't have known who that was.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So they run to the car.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
What do they do next, as far as I understand,
is they ran to the car, jumped in the car,
and then they went away and either they stayed at
a hotel which they paid cash for or they drove
all the way through the and actually came to Mother's
Day breakfast.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
The next morning, after Brittany and Shelby tried to rob
her granddad and drove overnight back to Brisbane. Brittany turns
up at a Mother's Day breakfast at the Married Hotel
on the Brisbane River. How was your sister that morning?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
She looked like she hadn't slapped, and she did look disheveled.
Her hair again a mess. She had very bushy, puffy hair,
I guess you can say generally, but she never took
a brush to it ever, And yeah, it looked like
she hadn't hadn't even had a shower. And obviously, to
(23:47):
my mum's dismay, we're going to breakfast at a five
star hotel and she can't even brush her hair, So
obviously there was already words tension for breakfast. Was Shelby
with her No, not at the breakfast, her demeanor that
morning withdrawn it almost like like bored with the situation,
(24:10):
like being there.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Was the attempted robbery brought up. For instance, I'm guessing
your granddad called your mum.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
He did, but not instantly, No, like a few weeks later,
it sort of came up and and my my grandfather
said to my mum, I think somebody was trying to
break in, And Mom's like, like, where where were they?
And it's in the in the shed trying to get
to the shed, I think, and he noticed the milk
crpe and realized, and I think my mom said, like,
(24:43):
you need to move that money, like you should not
be there if that's the case.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Do you know if he did move the money. He did.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Yeah, he did move it into a different location. He's
still in the shed. But he had this like work
bench that he had made himself in manual arts in
like high school. So it was years and years old,
and it actually had like this trapdoor situation underneath it,
(25:14):
and he had it in there.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
So to find it you would need to know about
that that or be a really good detective.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
In the next episode of My Sister the Murderer.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
They met through gum Tree, of all places. What came
out in the court case was a substantial amount of
two Mum, I am so sorry that it has been
so long since I wrote you. The last letter Ryan
(25:49):
mentioned that you needed time and that you hadn't read
any of my.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Dad wouldn't want me to be said, And you know
you had those days we couldn't get out of bed,
you couldn't face the world. And I know that Dad's
looking down on me. And Dad wouldn't want me to
be he's said he will. He be wanting me to
live my life.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Money was being made through prostitution, dealing drugs on behalf
of people you know, to then get I guess free
stock
Apoge production. Robert Whitwell was stabbed to death in his
own home in Adelaide in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The Court her Dwire was motivated by money and was
inspired by a horror television show.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
His granddaughter, Britney, was convicted of his murder.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Lost my dad and I've lost my daughter.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
In this episode, we'll find out why she did it.
Let's talk about your granddad.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I mean, the first word that came to mind just
now when you said that was regal. He was a
very eloquent man, very kind. After he passed away. For example,
we were doing a we're raising funds to get a
chair in the potanical gardens. He loved, loved photography and
he loved the potanical gardens. And when I was raising
(00:55):
funds for that, we had all these random people donate money,
which was so nice. And it was like Shirley at
the local. Ita would talk about how he was so
sweet and would like bring her flowers, and you know,
Bob down the road, he would check in and see
how you know, his wife was doing. And just all
these complete random people that he just went amongst his
(01:20):
day and just spoke to, which I think really shows
the character that he was. You know, he used to
he used to donate blood to the Red Cross. He
donated so much blood they actually told him he can't
do it anymore.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
He got his like two hundredth certificate.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
He was just he was a community man, he really was.
And I think that really comes from him growing up
with he had four brothers in total, going through the
scarcity of World War two, and you know, even for Adelaide,
you know, they had underground bunkers and they were rationed
on food and his dad worked at the local butchery.
(02:03):
So just that sort of up bringing I think really
made him a bit of a fixture with how he
went about his life. You know, something I learned actually
through him was South Australia was the only state in
Australia that you weren't allowed to be a convict to
come from England to go to South Australia, you actually
had to be someone notable, like a labor or a
(02:27):
landowner or something like that. And so that's actually how
our family got here. They bought land and set up
in South Australia.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You didn't call him Granddad, you call him another name.
What was the name he used to call him popa Poppa?
What's that about?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
It's funny, really, I think he wanted that name from
from get go, and I think the best person to
speak about it would probably be my mother. But that
was the name. That's what we were calling him, and
I think it was to maybe be a little cool,
you know, be a little bit different, instead of granddad
or something like something you have readge. It was just
(03:01):
to it was going to be Popper.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Why did we call Popper Popper? Where did that name
come from?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
He asked for that name because his dad was called Popperoper.
We used to call him proper with but.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I sort of figured you must have called your grandfather Popper.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Yeah, he was my Propper. And then that that's just
what dad wanted to be called.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
And he was.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I think that goes back to his thing about family lineage, right,
like he was always so passionate about especially I feel
like with his grandkids about knowing all the history and
photos of your Popper and his Popper and weel all
the way back and it was amazing that he had
(03:48):
all that stuff and.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
He was putting all his He even had some program
that allowed him to put the slide onto the laptop,
so he had the Minion photo.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
He did love digitalizing, like he thought he was so cool.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
He wouldn't the viruses on the internet.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Oh yeah, they freaked him out.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
And you know what he used to do with my photos.
I'd send them to dad, the digital ones. I'd send
them to Popper and he would edit my photos and
then send them back to me. So he would crop
them and do this and this and this and send
them back to me. He was a very patient photographer.
(04:35):
I remember we would be in the botanical gardens or
something and he wanted to take a photo of a
specific flower and he would wait for the sun to
be in the right position and no one in the photo.
And he had so much.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So your pop up was your mom's dad. What was
their relationship like?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Very close because her mom walked out her words when
she was seven and she has a young brother justin
you know, my grandfather was a single dad, single parent
through from when my mom was you know, seven all
the way onwards, and my mom was a bit of
a bit of a rebel, you know, trying to wrangle
(05:19):
her and all of that. I think they got really close.
My grandfather and my mom would even you know, states apart,
would talk to each other every single week and and
that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
What did your papa do for a living?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Growing up? He also, like all the other brothers, worked
in the butchery, which was actually on where the main
airfield is now in Adelaide. It doesn't exist anymore, but
there was a butchery there and they would they'd all
work in there. But then he got into the government
and he worked for the Department of Land. Okay, years
(05:55):
and years and years it.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Was said that he was he was wealthy. What did
that look like?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
He was wealthy? Do you know? It's funny because of
the type of guy he is. You know, he got
around in a kia and then he might upgrade to
like as Azuki Billino, and you know, he certainly was
not flashy. Lived in a very modest house all the
way in Craigmoar in South Australia, where he could have
(06:21):
lived in the penthouse in Adelaide, but that's just that
wasn't his jam. That's not what he wanted to do.
So we didn't know at the time, well I didn't.
My mother might have, but I have a feeling she
did not how wealthy actually was We knew he did
all right, and he was very clever with money, and
(06:41):
we knew that he made sure he instilled the value
of a dollar and what that dollar can do to
all of us. But no, we didn't realize how wealthy
he was.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
You said that you could call your granddad for anything.
But if Brittany had have called your granddad to ask
for a loan, she might have got a talking too.
But I'm guessing he's the sort of man that would
have given her that line ndred percent.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And I, you know, take it back to my own experience.
You know, I did the wrong thing. And you know,
I was struggling a little bit earning money and whatnot.
I wasn't making enough to live the lifestyle I wanted
to live, essentially, and I was using toll roads and
not paying for them, and it all caught up with me.
(07:25):
And I think it was about five thousand dollars worth
of tolls. Yeah, but I called him and I said,
I've done this, and you know, yeah, he gave me
a lecture for sure, But ten thousand dollars turned up
in my bank account, you know, And is that a
gift or is that a payback or you know, he
(07:46):
is very much like, you need to pay this back,
you know, set up a plan put ten dollars a
week in my bank account. But as long as you
start doing that in about three months, he goes just
forget it, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
He wants to see that you made the commitment, yes,
and that you're willing to pay off your debt. The responsibility, yeah, absolutely,
which sort of brings me back to you what you
did with your own sister. You know, it was actually
about the responsibility of this is our life works.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know, even growing up with mom
and dad again, that responsibility from my grandfather really came through.
We had chores that we had to do every single Saturday,
and my parents gave us an allowance, and if we
didn't do the chores correctly, the allowance got deducted, and
if we didn't do a great job, five dollars would
(08:37):
come out, ten dollars would come out, and then when
we got our allowance, we had the taxman, and the
taxman would take his share. We always knew the value
of a dollar and how to get it, how to
work for it.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I guess it's now been revealed that your granddad probably
didn't really believe in banking his money.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I think that really comes from you know, there's certainly
a lot of money still in the bank and in
shares and bonds and stocks, but I think it was
more around. You know, he paid his taxes his whole life,
and his wife was actually a nurse in World War Two,
so there was pensions and that sort of thing, and
(09:22):
obviously if you have too much money, you don't get it.
And you know, he really thought that was quite unfair
after paying one hundreds and thousands of dollars attacks throughout
the years, so you know, to keep that account a
little bit lower so that they qualify. He would, yeah,
he would keep his money out of the bank.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And where would he stash it?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
All over the house?
Speaker 1 (09:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
It was funny. I remember this time I was there
for Christmas again, one of those trips that I did
on school holidays. My nana was going to get money
because we were going out somewhere and my grandfather was like, ah, Joyce,
don't just pull out it in and all the money like,
and I think at that time, I just remember seeing
(10:08):
all the greens. I just went well, and it was
probably only a thousand or two thousand dollars in a
tin in the back of the laundry. You know, as
we got older, there was obviously trust and so we
started finding like my grandfather would say, year or you know,
if anything was to happen to me, there's some here,
And so we knew there was some in the shap
(10:29):
there was.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
It wasn't a secret to the family, obviously trusts the
family that he had money stashed everywhere.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I think the immediate family.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, absolutely, So who immediate family were talking your mum, mum,
myself and my sister. Did you ever talk about your
granddad's stash with your sister?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
No, not really. It was never relevant, you know, like, no,
it never really came up.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
How much money are we talking that you at the time,
not now, but believe was maybe in the shed?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Well then I thought probably ten twenty thousand dollars probably,
I was, you know, why would you have any more
stash in the shed? But you know, since everything happened, it, yeah,
turned out to be well over one hundred thousand dollars
in the shed, and there was other money in there
(11:23):
as well.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
This is a bit of a strange question, but I
wanted to know from Ryan if his pop had died
of natural causes, then would it be likely that his
inheritance would be shared with the family, including of course
his mom Tanya. And like when most of us inherent
money from a loved one, there's a high chance that
your own family might share that inheritance with you. So
(11:44):
I pose the question, if Robert had died of natural causes,
it's likely that Brittany might have benefited from his millions
in inheritance.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, I think, And again with that lineage thing, and
my mother still says it even to this day. You know,
it's really about what you do in your life, was
about setting up for your children as well. So absolutely
the point of it was always to give something to
the next generation, and so that would obviously flow down
(12:15):
from my mum as well. And yeah, there were gifts.
I was able to buy my grandfather's house because my
mother gifted me the deposit. You still learn his house
now I do, Yeah, So being able to to essentially
that's inheritance. You know that money came from my grandfather.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Brittany killed your granddad, she did, for one hundred thousand
dollars thereabouts, and it's highly likely she probably would have
got that if he died of his own.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, eventually absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Ryan's granddad wasn't flippant about having money stashed all over
his house, although it was in lots of nooks and crannies.
Ryan's popper knew exactly how much was stashed and where
it was.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Her book next to the money, and he would talk
about the moment money went in, money went out, who
went to, wyatt went out.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
So it wasn't willing neary. He one percent knew where
his money was and what it was there.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And that goes for anything. Medication. He would keep the
leftover medication containers so that he knew or somebody else
knew exactly where he was up to with his medication.
He was very particulous.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I've seen pictures of Ryan's granddad's house. It's a single story,
bricantile house with Federation green gutters. He had some very
manicured hedges out front. The sort of house that you
could walk past and not really admire a house, but
you can see that someone that lived there took great
pride in the garden. Robert looked like he was security conscious.
(13:53):
He didn't have cameras or anything like that, but he
did have security lights, a security screen on the front door,
and security roller shutters on all the windows.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I mean, the garden was always immaculate. It's immaculate. It
was one of those houses that again modest, but very charming.
You know, it had great street appeal. You drive up.
The lawn was always manicured. You had those big hedge
and it made it look beautiful. Roses he loved. Never
(14:22):
a weed in sight. So it was always very manicured,
very security conscious. So you know, there was roller shutters
on the outside, but you could always tell when he
was awake and when he was home or what if
the case might be, because they would have always been
up down.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
So there the roller shutters, the automatic ones you push
a button and yeah, it's for light, but it's also
for security. Yeah, so you can totally black out the
house if you want.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And they were on every window, every door. As you
walk up the driveway onto the path, there's like a
patio area at the front which is tiled. You go
through the front door and immediately as you come up
to this big brown door walk in. You have his
bedroom on the right, which is the front of the house,
(15:09):
and you have the formal lounge which you were never
really allowed to go in on the left hand side.
Beautiful pink carpet, those old school green drapes, you know,
those really heavy with the doily looking sheet behind it.
But yeah, as you would walk in, there was quite
a long corridor you'd walk through, and you had the
dining room. There was quite a large kitchen, another living area,
(15:34):
and then down another hallway and you had two other
bedrooms in a bathroom.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Have you renovated since your granddad passed?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
There is parts that I have renovated. Yes, there's parts
that I sort of can't, you know, because I knew
how much you know, it meant to hit him. Should
I actually pay for a gardener to go there all
the time, just to keep the lawns and the gardens
intact so that they sort of preserve a memory?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
What are you remember about the smells in that house?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Comfort? But yes, it smelled, you know, like your grandparents home.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, you know, I think they're all.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Obsessed with those mothball things to keep the moths away.
But yeah, it was warm.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, there's something warm and comforting about being in your grandparents' house.
There is, absolutely I still have memories of mine.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
You know, the house was always very tidy, very organized,
but heavily cluttered, you know, if that makes sense. He
was very into photography, and he thought he was very
up with technology, like he would love this setup today.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
He had one of those massive TVs that had, you know,
the DVD player, the VCR player, and he can move
things from a tape to a DVD and he just
thought that was so cool. You know. He wouldn't dare
get the internet, but he had a laptop. You know,
we'd move all of his photos that he physically took,
(17:09):
scan them to digitalize them.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Brittany had two friends that are connected with this story
of her granddad. One of those so called friends is
a woman called Bernadette Burns. We'll go into details about
the role she played in the murder of Ryan's granddad.
The other is Shelby Holmes. Now, Shelby didn't play a
role in Robert's death, but she was charged and convicted
(17:33):
and pleaded guilty to serious aggravated criminal trespass and was
handed a seventeen month suspended sentence. He's a snippet from
the paper on the day.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Shelby pleaded guilty to aggravated serious criminal trespass and was
today handed a seventeen month suspended sentence. Just as Kevin
Nicholson said he found good reason to suspend the sentence
on a three year, one thousand dollars good behavior bond.
The court heard Homes said she committed the offense out
(18:05):
of friendship and on the basis we did everything together.
She told the court that Brittany had been a strong
and demanding influence. Her lawyer told the court that Holmes
regarded Dwyer as her only friend. His client intended to
steal thousands of dollars from mister Whitwell, but believed no
one would notice because of the large amount of cash
(18:28):
that was in the shed.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
My client did a monumentally stupid thing, but what happened
some months later was nothing to do with my client
or this offending.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
The maximum penalty for aggravated serious criminal trespass is life imprisonment.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So in April of twenty sixteen, Shelby and your sister
are living together at Shelby's parents house. They pack a
bag together. Do you know what was in that bag?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah? Bolt cutters and tape and a knife. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Reading from the police report, there were bolt cutters and
knife gloves, a hammer in snips and cable tires. Seems
fairly clear what they were going to do. Do you
know if they had their mobile phones with them when
they where they did so on the thirtieth of April
(19:22):
twenty sixteen, they leave Brisbane and they drove to Adelaide
just before Mother's Day. What do you know about what
happened next?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I know that. So they obviously went down and they
were obviously going to try and take the money from
the ship. Brittany knew her way around into the backyard. Essentially,
he lived in a bit of a coulder sack and
then there was like this alley way leading into the
(19:56):
next street, and so you could actually park your car
in that backstreet and just sort of walk through. And
that's what they did.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And they were chasing the house for a day or two.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, to the lead up. This is in April. They
were looking at the house trying to figure out what
was going on. A car kept driving past, and actually
my grandfather brought it up with my mum. So this
car keeps like driving up a street. It seems a
little weird, and he was very security coptures.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Did he have cameras or anything, not.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Cameras, but the security shutters quite a large fence. The
garage door was always shut. He would never leave it open.
What they actually did was they brought a milk create
with them and pushed it up against the fence, jumped
over the fence, and because the garage was sort of
(20:51):
open at the back, but it was all close up
at the front. Once you're in the backyard, you could
just walk straight to the garage and it was automatic
and you could just push a button and it elevate it.
And that's how Shelby.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Got in Granddad's home at the stage. Yeah, yeah, what
time is this? I think this was early evening. Okay, yeah,
that they actually decided to do it. Do you think
he would have heard that garage door opening.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Possibly, I mean he didn't have the best hearing towards
the end, but he definitely would have been in that
lounge room, which is pretty close by.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
So your sisters jump the fence using a milk crate.
She's opened the garage door for Shelby to crawl under. Yep.
They're both then inside the property. Yeah, from what we understand,
they're planning on going to the shed yep, and trying
to find that one hundred grand that your grandad's got
meticulously stored yep, in the shed. They don't get that
(21:48):
farther do that, They don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
I think they get to the shed and there was
a dog the next house that started barking, and then
there was security lights that had turned on, and that
sort of spook them a bit, and I think he
started to make his way out to check it out.
He just sees them slip underneath the garage door. It
(22:15):
was only open a fraction and yeah, by the time
he sort of got over there, they were gone.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I'm guessing he didn't recognize your sister, not at all. No,
she was dressed inconspicuously for a robbery, I guess.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yeah. I think at that time as well, they hadn't
seen each other for a little while, and so my
sister had put on way her hair was always a mess,
So I dare say even if he had seen her,
he wouldn't have known who that was.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So they run to the car.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
What do they do next, as far as I understand,
is they ran to the car, jumped in the car,
and then they went away and either they stayed at
a hotel which they paid cash for or they drove
all the way through the and actually came to Mother's
Day breakfast.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
The next morning, after Brittany and Shelby tried to rob
her granddad and drove overnight back to Brisbane. Brittany turns
up at a Mother's Day breakfast at the Married Hotel
on the Brisbane River. How was your sister that morning?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
She looked like she hadn't slapped, and she did look disheveled.
Her hair again a mess. She had very bushy, puffy hair,
I guess you can say generally, but she never took
a brush to it ever, And yeah, it looked like
she hadn't hadn't even had a shower. And obviously, to
(23:47):
my mum's dismay, we're going to breakfast at a five
star hotel and she can't even brush her hair, So
obviously there was already words tension for breakfast. Was Shelby
with her No, not at the breakfast, her demeanor that
morning withdrawn it almost like like bored with the situation,
(24:10):
like being there.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Was the attempted robbery brought up. For instance, I'm guessing
your granddad called your mum.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
He did, but not instantly, No, like a few weeks later,
it sort of came up and and my my grandfather
said to my mum, I think somebody was trying to
break in, And Mom's like, like, where where were they?
And it's in the in the shed trying to get
to the shed, I think, and he noticed the milk
crpe and realized, and I think my mom said, like,
(24:43):
you need to move that money, like you should not
be there if that's the case.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Do you know if he did move the money. He did.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Yeah, he did move it into a different location. He's
still in the shed. But he had this like work
bench that he had made himself in manual arts in
like high school. So it was years and years old,
and it actually had like this trapdoor situation underneath it,
(25:14):
and he had it in there.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
So to find it you would need to know about
that that or be a really good detective.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
In the next episode of My Sister the Murderer.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
They met through gum Tree, of all places. What came
out in the court case was a substantial amount of
two Mum, I am so sorry that it has been
so long since I wrote you. The last letter Ryan
(25:49):
mentioned that you needed time and that you hadn't read
any of my.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Dad wouldn't want me to be said, And you know
you had those days we couldn't get out of bed,
you couldn't face the world. And I know that Dad's
looking down on me. And Dad wouldn't want me to
be he's said he will. He be wanting me to
live my life.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Money was being made through prostitution, dealing drugs on behalf
of people you know, to then get I guess free
stock
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