3. Just Harden Up and Do It

Apogee production. Ryan Whitwell Dwyer's sister murdered their granddad. She's currently serving twenty years for his murder, all to try and steal one hundred thousand dollars in cash that he'd stashed in his house. In the last episode, we heard how Brittany and another friend, Shelby, drove to Adelaide from Brisbane. They unsuccessfully tried to jump the fence and find cash hid in Robert shed. They left Adelaide empty handed.

He really jumped into security mode and he actually had all of his the color bond defences heightened. He actually had them all redone.

So that was my last conversation with Dad. He was talking about someone jumping into the backyard and that he had noticed this car. He was saying it was like a suv, like a bigger piner car, but it was parked in this little lane way that Dad had near his brightney, his house, or the lane way that went through to the next brod. This car had actually parked in the lane way and he was saying, I've never seen a car park in there before, and it had

So did that and then also relocated the money?

Did he tell anyone that he was doing that?

He told us about the fences, Okay, didn't tell anyone about the money.

Yeah, so I'm guessing if he's told you about the fences, you've possibly mentioned it to your sister.

Yeah, maybe someone, I think, because she wasn't living with us at that time, I actually don't think she knew that the fences had been done. Yea, it could have come up in conversation. I don't remember, but yeah, I obviously knew about it.

This point is important because it now makes sense that when Brittany went back to Adelaide with Bernadette, this time to kill her granddad, she wouldn't climb a fence. She would ring the doorbell and a granddad would let her in. He'd be excited to see his granddaughter, and although surprised, he would invite her in and offer a breakfast. The person that accompanied Brittany down to Adelaide this second time was Bernadette Burns. She was twenty two. In Facebook pictures,

They met through gumdry of all places.

How do you meet someone a gum tree.

I think they were either there to buy something or it was like a rental advertisement, and that's how they sort of connect. It is my understanding.

What else do you know about Bernadette has.

Had some trouble in the past. She's a single, She was a single mum, didn't really work or anything like that, had some troubles with her ex partner, cust the issues, that sort of thing.

Your sister and Bernadette. Were they in a relationship?

We believed, so, Yeah, there was a lot that sort of came out in the letters that I that I communicated with Brittany with through when she was in jail. And again from what Brittany had said to me, it's it seemed like the story to change.

A fair bit.

It was yes, they were, No, they weren't. They were just friends. The time when she was living with me, there was conversations around moving and moving into like a better house and up in the North side of Brisbane. You know, She's like, oh, you know, we can rent this four bedroom, double story house. It's only eight hundred a week and all of this, and I think they

They were using drugs.

They were using a lot of drugs. Apparently what sort of drugs what came out in the court case was a substantial amount of cocaine. There was references to ice as well.

Which is okay, not a cheap drug, not a cheap drug at all. No, how were they acquiring you know, those sort of Class A drugs that are reasonably expensive.

There was a lot that sort of came out in the letters that I that I communicated with Brittany with through when she was in jail, and money was being made through prostitution and dealing drugs on behalf of people, you know, to then get I guess free stock.

Let's just go to that. The prostitution piece. This is something that was revealed in court, and I guess this now makes sense or made sense to you at the time when it was revealed. Although it was a revelation, this was essentially Brittany's domino's job and you're picking her up from strip clubs. What was she using the strip clubs for? Do you think, I think.

To potentially meet people to then go and do it. I don't think it really ever happened at the strip clubs, but you were sort of able to wiazle your way in and then sort of go a, you know, we can do this, and then off we go.

She got a captive audience, right, yeah, yeah, prime target. How did you feel when you heard that about your sister?

Disappointed? Just some people have said to me. Or did you feel ashamed or did you feel embarrassed? No? Not really. It was more just I felt so sad that at any time she could have come and spoke to any of us, any of us, you know, and talk about how to get out of this or money or whatever the case might have been, and she didn't feel like she could for some reason, and to have to go down that path is just so awful, just troubling. In the letters, we spoke about this and it seemed like

This prostitution at what age in high school.

I can't pinpointed exactly. That she does talk about in the letters about you know, meeting with people and that sort of thing, and you sort of have to read in between the lines a little bit with that.

I think that all the drugs that they were using, or she was using, and the prostitution, she wasn't living at home, but she would tell me that that Shelby worked in the strip club and that's why they went to the strip club a lot. Either she was picking Shelby up from work or dropping her off or whatever. Not that I would mind that they go to places like that, but she just had to lie to me all the time. I think.

Across the years Brittany has been in jail, Ryan has communicated with his sister. He told me that part of it is trying to find out what happened and part of it is trying to understand why she did it. Ryan's mom, Tanya, hasn't spoken to her daughter Brittany since she murdered Robert.

So this letter was actually sent to my mom via me on the eighteenth of December of twenty nineteen. So it says to Mum, I am so sorry that it has been so long since I wrote you. The last letter Ryan mentioned that you needed time and that you hadn't read any of the last letters that I had sent. I'm so sorry that I couldn't be the daughter you and Dad deserved to have. I did not mean to live this life, or to continue lying to both of you about having a job, a house, and committing a

Brittany, how did you feel reading that for the first time?

Oh, it actually makes me want to cry. To be fair, it's you know, I it's I didn't realize. You know, I haven't read that letter for a long time, and actually that was the first time I physically read it in years, since twenty nineteen. And to be fair, I think I blocked a lot of that out because in my communication with her, I didn't ever really feel like

There was a portion in the letter that felt a little like victim blaming where she said she didn't use these words, but I'm paraphrasing, and you know, the standards for her were so high because of you and Ryan. How did that make you feel? I sort of went, oh, wow, that sounds like she's going, hey, listen, I did this, and really it's a bit of your fault too.

Yeah, I certainly feel that as well reading that.

Have you read any of her letters?

Don't I did.

I think Ryan kept them from me for a while, knowing that I couldn't handle them back in the day. But there came a time when I just said to Ryan, can I have those letters? I want to read those and you know, you just know that you're going to cry for a few days because you know that's my daughter and it is but I did. I cut through. There was a pair few letters and cards. There was Mother's Day card and birthday cards, and then it was probably a year after I read those letters that I

Bernadette Burns is Britney's co accused. As we heard, they met on gum Try and lived together in a sharehouse. It's unclear if they were romantically together. The story seems to differ across a few different people. Bernadette had a child at seventeen that she battled for custody on She told Brittany that's why she needed the money.

Honestly, that part I sort of have not thought about a great deal. There's a lot of anger for me with her, and I think she got off way too lightly, saying with Shelby when all of that stuff was coming out about having a hard life, I didn't care because I think you can either be the victim and play the victim, or be a survivor and change her own path. And for me that was a bit of a similar thing.

But she was a New Zealand citizen. Yeah, and so her parents were over from New Zealand. I'm guessing.

Yeah.

The judge took into account her obviously early plea, her guilty lee liking that they did. Your sister. She talked about to a psychologist that she'd had difficulties at school, being bullied. She left in year eleven. Apparently the family was devastated by floods and they moved, and then she gave birth to her child when she was seventeen, amid a volatile relationship with her father. She apparently had unemployment, homelessness, and significant drug use, and she had attempted suicide. So

Yeah. I think it goes back to Shelby. Brittany needed somebody to support her through doing this, and I think if it wasn't Bernadette, it STI would have been someone else. I don't think that makes me think anything differently of Bernadette. I think think she had the ability to say something and stop all of this, and as did Shelby. They didn't, So there is much to blame. But if those two had never met Bernadette and Brittany, Brittany would have found someone else or did it by herself.

In August of twenty sixteen, Bernadette and your sister Brittany leave Brisbane for Adelaide by car again. They took the same bag that Brittany had taken with Shelby in the April of that same year. Do you know what happened on the way down in that drive with Bernadette.

A lot of conversations between them. I know that they were pretty much rushing to get down. They weren't doing a lot of stopping. There was indications that they were certainly on something to get there.

You made drugs, yeah, keep them alert, speed or something.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I would have thought. And then again it was all very clear her intention. You know, they paid for cash for the petrol stations, and they you know, they paid cash at the They did stay at a motel. You know, they knew that they didn't want to be tracked, except they did have one thing that was very much their undoing.

But what was that thing? Their phone, both of their mobile phones.

Yeah, ping to their locations, and they weren't shy of sending text messages, so.

They were sending text messages while traveling from Brisbane to Adelaide.

They were obviously very clear about what they need to do to stay off the radar, but then to have the phone on them was little little ridiculous.

You mentioned there were lots of conversations from the court docks. We learned that one of those conversations was a lot of stations around having second thoughts about it.

I think, particularly when Brittany was in the house, was the most shocking one where she said I don't think I can go through with this, and then the return text message saying, you know, just harden up and do it.

That text message is from Bernadare.

Yeah in reply.

What we do know is that this time your sister hadn't planned just to rob your granddad. She had planned this time to kill him, yeah, and make it look like a robbery, like she'd told numerous people before she got there. In court, it was also said that Bernadette didn't think your sister would kill your granddad. She thought that maybe they could get the money and get out and not have a problem. There was a lenience in Bernadette's sentence because of that. Yeah, how do you feel about that?

Angry? Because like outside of looking in anybody could see that, you get a message like the one Britney saying I can't and you reply do it. I don't care what anybody says. Clearly she knew what was going to happen, and she was egging Brittany on. The plan was set from the time that they left and to go. Oh, I don't think she went actually went through it load of ship.

Who do you think was the controlling force in the relationship between Brittany and Bernadette.

You know, it's funny. I've really gone back and forth in my head about this, and obviously, with the love of true crimes, people love to make up their own narratives and sort of play detective. I think a lot of people will tend to say it's Brittany, that she was the controlling one, but I actually don't think that's the case. I think maybe at the beginning, sure, but I think Bernadette had it, saw an opportunity and ran with it, and I think she was really controlling the narrative.

So they arrive at your granddad's house in the morning after a really long drive from Brisbane straight through. They've obviously had some sort of drugs to keep them awake. Tell me what happens next.

She and Bernadette were talking about how they'll go about this. So they pull up at the at my grandfather's house.

And whose car are they in?

Their housemates the silver Captiva. So Brittany drove her hold an Astra and yeah, that was still in Brisbane.

And the silver Captaver, I'm guessing has Queensland plates.

On it it does. They pull up and they park out the front or in the side street. I actually think it was still in the side street. They were talking about how it's going to happen, and Bernadette said that she would like to come in and watch my grandfather be killed, and Brittany said no, and that you were to wait in the car. And so Bernadette did stay in the car doing a makeup and weird stuff

They hadn't arranged it. No, like your granddad had no idea, and I obviously knew your sister lived in.

And so you know, mid morning, mid morning, and it was a bit odd for her to obviously do that. But like myself, I've done that in the past. I traveled a lot for work and so I happened to be in Adelaide and I'd go and surprise him. So, you know, for her to do that, whilst she didn't really ever travel to Adelaide, it's not totally crazy that that would have happened. And so my grandfather was surprised but really happy about it, invited her in.

He doesn't realize at the time that she's wearing gloves. No, and she's also got a knife with her. No, she's hidden that from his view up personally. Yeah, so she's holding the knife in her jacket. Hidden't but she's wearing gloves as well. What sort of gloves were they.

I think they were just normal gloves. I don't think they were. I think it was just so that would look into gloves that might look a bit weird. But we're talking August in.

Adelaide, Yeah, which is cold cold, right, So so like nothing.

Not crazy and she wore a lot of normally, she wore a lot of very baggy, oversized sweaters, hoodies, that sort of thing. So again, not totally uncommon. You know, if I had opened the door and saw her and gloves, yeah, probably a bit strange. But to my grandfather again because he didn't see a lot of each other, you know, not uncommon.

So they walked down that long corridor past the front room into the kitchen. In the kitchen there's a dining table and your granddad's cooking brecky, cooking breakfast.

I think prior to him starting to cook breakfast, he went and got photo a photo album as he would always and start flicking through photos while he was cooking breakfast. Brittany would go through the photos of like our family growing up and whatnot. And then yeah, they he finished having cooking breakfast, and they sat down and they ate it together and then back on the couch and flicking through photos for quite some time.

So this seems very normal. This seems like a granddaughter going to see her poppaea sitting in the kitchen. Grandad's making brecky. After a long drive for Brittany reminiscing about photos of great times together, probably remembering, as you said earlier, the lineage of your family and how important that was to your granddad. Yeah, and then what happens.

That's when she sends the text message to Bernadade to say, like, I can't go through with this. And that's when Bernadette replied and said, you know, harden up and just get it done. So Brittany says, I've got to go, and he's said okay, and he was walking her out down past the dining table, you know, down past the long hallway. Just as they get to the front door, she realizes that she's got to She's got to do it now or ever, and she she stabs him.

In the next episode of My Sister the Murderer.

She then takes him into the kitchen where the dining table is at and pulls up a chair and like sits him down. But she couldn't she couldn't sort of bear to watch, so she turned around and while he was bleeding out the detectives. At the time, we didn't realize. I look back now and it sort of makes sense. But they really, I use the analogy, treated us like mushrooms, kept us in the dark and fed ours shit like just really didn't want to tell us a lot, and