The sister of Bennylyn Burke has spoken of the chilling messages and video call she shared with evil killer Andrew Innes, and how she even encouraged her sibling to go to Dundee.
Shela Aquino said her sister “took pity” on the man after he made the long journey south, and was “curious” about Scotland. In an interview with the BBC, Shela added: “I told her to give it a try, that perhaps she will be happy this time.”
The pair had been in consistent contact since Bennylyn had left the Philippines in 2019 and spoke every day, despite an eight-hour time difference. During a video chat in the car as Bennylyn travelled to Dundee, Shela asked her sister if she could see “the foreigner”.
She said: “So she showed me the guy - I had the chance to greet him. I said: ‘Hello sir’.
“They were already on the road. We started chatting, I even joked with him.”
The man in the driver's seat was Innes, whom Bennylyn had met on a dating website just weeks before. She told her sister she was travelling with Innes, as well as Jellica, to Scotland to spend the weekend.
During the conversation on camera, Innes told Shela that he previously lived in Japan with his wife and their children, but was deported in 2019 after the marriage broke down.
He had joined 34 dating sites, including one called Filipino Cupid where he met Bennylyn, who had also registered to seek companionship.
It was later discovered by officers that Innes had compiled a spreadsheet of data he had taken from the site. It gave grades to women which featured details such as their age, height, weight, and if they had children.
The women he gave “top scores” were in their mid to late 20s with young children. This is how he came across Bennylyn.
Shela and Bennylyn spoke the day after the video chat in the car, but it would prove to be the last time.
"Bennylyn showed me his house. She showed me this white thing that was like a veranda," Shela said.
She lost contact with her sister over the next two days but then received a message from Innes.
The twisted killer told her Bennylyn and Jellica were now in Glasgow with another man she met online, who he claimed to be a teacher.
But Shela pleaded with him to speak to her sister, and Innes replied: "I expect she will get in touch with you once she gets settled down."
Shela eventually asked: "Sir can you tell me my sister is alive?"
Innes replied: "Scotland is a very peaceful country, we don't have much crime at all.
"Please try not to worry, I'm sure your sister is perfectly safe."
After four more days went by, Shela contacted Innes again pleading to speak to her sister.
He replied saying that the "other gentleman" in Glasgow had messaged him to say that Bennylyn and Jellica were "settling in to their new routine very well".
Innes insisted Bennylyn would be in contact "when she feels safe to do so".
He added: "She's happy to have found someone nice and desperately relieved that her baby won't be taken away from her."
Innes then claimed he needed to "draw a line under this" and get on with his life.
However, he went onto say that he will delete everything from his phone and computer "not just to protect myself, but also to protect her, so the police can't find her if they search my house".
Shela asked Innes to record a video of Bennylyn, but he sent an old video of her instead.
She told Innes: "I hope we chat again sir." He replied: "Maybe one day we can, once the dust has all settled."
On March 1, two weeks after they left Bristol, Bennylyn and Jellica were reported missing.
Police launched a search two days later but Shela says her brother had a saddening premonition.
She said: "Our older brother had a dream. He was looking at photos of Bennylyn and Jellica.
"He saw some faces clearly, but others were blurred. That was when we felt something was wrong."
Police Scotland visited Innes' home in Troon Avenue Dundee on Friday March 5 where they interviewed Innes and he admitted to killing Bennylyn and Jellica.
Detective Chief Inspector Graham Smith, of Police Scotland’s Major Investigation Team, then contacted Shela with the news she had been dreaded.
Shela added: "He said that Bennylyn was found in a black bag, a black garbage bag. Baby Jellica was also there."
Bennylyn's father, Benedicto Aquino, said he was "crushed and gutted" after being given the news.
"I asked why she was killed in Dundee," he said.
"My daughter doesn't pick fights, she was kind, God-fearing, friendly.
"Why do that to her? What an abomination that he murdered an innocent child."
Bennylyn's family want her to be remembered as a good and caring mother, who came to the UK to seek the best for her family.
Shela says: "She was kind, there was nothing bad we could say about her."
DCI Smith added: said: “The murders of Bennylyn Burke and her two-year-old daughter Jellica have shocked and appalled us all. Today, our thoughts are very much with their family and friends, including those relatives who travelled from the Philippines for this trial.
“This was a harrowing investigation which deeply affected everyone involved. In almost 30 years of policing, the depravity shown by Andrew Innes was beyond anything I, or colleagues, had witnessed before.
“Not only did he callously take the lives of a young mother and an innocent child, he then set out to escape justice by burying their bodies beneath his kitchen floor. His actions showed no regard for human life, or for the suffering and anguish he brought to their loved ones.
“I want to end by thanking Bennylyn and Jellica’s family for the courage they have shown throughout what has been an unimaginable ordeal and I hope that this conviction helps to bring them some degree of closure.”
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