Claremont Serial Killings

The Claremont serial killings is the name given by the media to a case involving the disappearance of an Australian woman, aged 18, and the killings of two others, aged 23 and 27, in 1996-1997. After attending night spots in Claremont, a wealthy western suburb of Perth, Western Australia, all three women disappeared in similar circumstances leading police to suspect that an unidentified serial killer was the offender. The case, described as the state's biggest, longest-running, and most expensive investigation, remains unsolved.  However, in 2016, a suspect, Bradley Robert Edwards, was arrested. His trial began in November 2019.

Background

The case began with the disappearance of Sarah Spiers (18) on 27 January 1996, after she left Club Bayview in the center of Claremont at around 2:00 am.  At 2:06 am, Spiers called Swan Taxis from a public telephone booth.  Although she was living in South Perth with her older sister at the time, she had requested to be taken to the nearby suburb of Mosman Park.  She was then sighted waiting alone near the corner of Stirling Road and Stirling Highway by three eyewitnesses, who also mentioned seeing an unidentified car stopping where she was waiting.  However, she was not at the site when the responding taxi arrived at 2:09 and, in the dark, could have been missed by the driver. Her disappearance soon attracted massive publicity and her fate remains unknown.

In the early hours of Sunday 9 June 1996, Jane Rimmer from Shenton Park also disappeared from the same part of Claremont.  Similar to Spiers, she had been out socializing with friends the night before. Rimmer's friends explained how they had moved from the Ocean Beach Hotel to the Continental Hotel and then Club Bayview.  Noting the long line at the club, her friends then caught a taxi home, but Rimmer opted to stay, and she was last seen on security footage waiting outside the Continental at 12:04 am.  Fifty-five days later, on Saturday, 3 August 1996, her naked body was found 40 km south in bush-land near Woolcoot Road, Wellard by a family picking wildflowers.

Nine months later, in the early hours of Saturday 15 March 1997, Ciara Glennon, a 27-year-old lawyer from Mosman Park, also disappeared from the Claremont area.  Like the others, she was with friends at the Continental and had decided to make her own way home. Three men at a bus stop saw Glennon walking south along Stirling Highway at approximately 12:30 am and observed her interacting with an unidentified light a colored vehicle that had stopped by her.  Nineteen days later, on 3 April, her the semi-clothed body was found by a bushwalker, 40 km north, near a track in scrub off Pipidinny Road in Eglinton.

Investigation

Within 48 hours of the disappearance of Spiers, the case was taken over by the Major Crimes Squad.  After the disappearance of Rimmer, the WA Police set up a special task-force called Macro to investigate the two similar cases.  After the disappearance of Glennon, police confirmed that they were searching for a serial killer and the WA government offered a $250,000 reward, the largest ever offered in the state at that time.

Initial suspicion centered on the unidentified vehicles seen at two of the locations, and on an unidentified man seen in the video footage.  Suspicion then focused on Perth's taxi-drivers were given that the women were last seen in circumstances where they may have used taxis. This included a taxi-driver who claimed to have transported Spiers the night before her disappearance.  A massive fingerprint and DNA-testing exercise was then carried out on the thousands of taxi drivers licensed in Western Australia.   Given the evidence of a number of unlicensed operators, examining standards for eligibility were raised, and 78 drivers with a significant criminal history were de-licensed.  Stricter standards were also applied to verifying that decommissioned taxis were stripped of insignia and equipment.  In December 2015, investigators finally revealed that fibers taken from Rimmer were identified as coming from a VS Series 1 Holden Commodore.

Macro attracted both praise and criticism for their handling of the case.  At its peak, it had over 100 members across 10 teams. To avoid leaks, strict confidentiality protocols were implemented, and details of the nature of the deaths and injuries were suppressed.  One of the tactics used by Macro was the controversial distribution of questionnaires to 110 "persons of interest", including various confrontational inquiries such as "Are you the killer?"  Another was its reliance on international experts and the use of an imported lie detector machine.  Further, one of its officers accepted an offer by David Birnie to assist the investigation.  Criticism was also laid on its overly narrow focus on the initial prime suspect despite the lack of direct evidence (as occurred in the cases of Andrew Mallard and Lloyd Rayney).  Over its lifetime, Macro was subject to 11 police reviews, including one in August 2004 led by Paul Schramm, the officer who led the Snowtown investigation.  It was finally wound down in September 2005 and the investigation moved to the Special Crimes Squad.

Suspects

As with similar cases, experts suggested that the suspect was probably a single white male, aged 25–35, who had a residence in the area, who appeared trustworthy, was organized, social, and probably well educated.  Local sex workers were also questioned for signs of unusual behavior in clients.

In April 1998, a public servant from Cottesloe, Lance Williams (41), was identified by police as the prime suspect after his behavior attracted their attention (e.g. driving around after midnight and circling the Claremont area up to 30 times) during a decoy operation.  Subjected to a high level of surveillance and police pressure over several years, he continued to maintain his innocence. After interviewing him six times at length, police declared in late 2008 that he was "no longer a person of interest".  He died in 2018.

It was reported that police also investigated whether Bradley Murdoch may have been involved,  although Murdoch was serving a custodial sentence from November 1995 until February 1997. In October 2006, it was also announced that Mark Dixie was a prime suspect in the killings and that Macro had requested DNA samples.  However, WA Police Deputy Commissioner Murray Lampard was later quoted as saying: "Dixie was closely investigated at the time and eventually ruled out as a suspect."

Trial

On 22 December 2016, Bradley Robert Edwards (48) was arrested at his Kewdale house in relation to the deaths of both Rimmer and Glennon.  According to ABC News, he is believed to have had no previous link to the case. The next day, Edwards was charged with both murders.  He has also been charged in relation to two other alleged attacks: a housebreak and enter and unlawful detention of an 18-year-old woman in Huntingdale on 15 February 1988, and the unlawful detention and two counts of aggravated sexual penetration without consent of a 17-year-old girl in Claremont on 12 February 1995,  On 22 February 2018, Edwards was also charged with the wilful murder of the third victim, Spiers.

In all, Edwards was charged with the following offenses:

·         Charged on 15 February 1988 at Huntingdale, broke and entered without consent at night into the dwelling house of xxxxxxxxxx , with the intent to commit an offense therein.

·         Charged on 15 February 1988 at Huntingdale, unlawfully detained xxxxxxxxxx. .

·         Charged on 12 February 1995 at Claremont, unlawfully detained xxxxxxxxxx. .

·         Charged on 12 February 1995 at Claremont, sexually penetrated one xxxxxxxxxx without her consent in circumstances of aggravation, namely by doing an act which substantially degraded and humiliated the victim.

·          Charged on 12 February 1995 at Claremont, sexually penetrated one xxxxxxxxxx without her consent in circumstances of aggravation, namely by doing an act which substantially degraded and humiliated the victim.

·         Charged that on 27 January 1996 murdered Sarah Spiers.

·         Charged that, between 9 June 1996 and 3 August 1996 at Wellard, willfully murdered Jane Louise Rimmer.

·         Also charged that between 15 March 1997 and 3 April 1997 at Eglinton, wilfully murdered Ciara Eilish Glennon.

On 22 October 2019, Edwards pleaded guilty to charges 1-5.

The trial began on 25 November and will resume on 6 January 2020.  One of the main pieces of evidence in the trial will be Telstra work vehicles. Edwards was working for the company as a technician at the time, and it will be claimed that he used company vehicles after hours to execute the crimes. This is corroborated by a witness who recalled seeing a Telstra van parked on multiple occasions at the Karrakatta Cemetery "for no apparent reason", both after that attack and before Spiers' disappearance.  According to the prosecutor, Carmel Barbagallo, the state intends to present this evidence as part of a case called "Telstra Living Witness project", where between 1995 and 1997 a man with a Telstra station wagon stopped to look at women and offer them rides.

During the Trial a witness Brandon Gray from the group of men dubbed "Burger Boys" identified a Series 1 VS Commodore as cruising past them shortly after Ciara Glennon walked past. The vehicle had distinctive tear-drop hubcaps which were present on some Series 1 VS commodores.

Possible related cases

It has been suggested by journalist Liam Bartlett that Spiers was not the first victim.  He wrote that police have told the father of a fourth missing woman, 22-year-old Julie Cutler, that his daughter was probably a victim of the Claremont killer. Cutler, a university student from Fremantle, vanished after leaving a staff function at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel in Perth at 9:00 pm on 20 June 1988.  Her car was found in the surf near the groyne at Cottesloe Beach two days later, and her fate remains unknown.

Other possible causes include that of Lisa Brown (19), a a prostitute who disappeared on 10 November 1998, and Sara McMahon (20), who disappeared on 8 November 2000.

Media

The End of Innocence, Estelle Blackburn, published in 2007

Australian Story, ABC, November 2007.

Hunt for a Killer: The Claremont Murders, Crime Investigation Australia, 2008.

The Claremont Serial Killer, Casefile True Crime Podcast, 20 August 2016.

Claremont Serial killings podcast, The West Australian, 2019.