Claremont serial killings

The case began with the disappearance of Sarah Spiers (aged 18) on 27 January 1996, after she left Club Bayview in the centre 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. and her fate remains unknown. In the early hours of Sunday 9 June 1996, Jane Rimmer (aged 23) from Shenton Park, also disappeared from the same part of Claremont. Similar to Spiers, she had been out socialising 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. Nine months later, in the early hours of Saturday 15 March 1997, Ciara Glennon (aged 27), a 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-coloured vehicle which had stopped by her. ==Investigation==

Within 48 hours of the disappearance of Spiers, the case was taken over by the Major Crimes Squad. to investigate the two similar cases. Macro was headed at first by Paul Ferguson, then David Caporn. After the disappearance of Glennon, police confirmed that they were searching for a serial killer, and the Government of Western Australia offered a $250,000 reward, the largest ever offered in the state at that time. A massive fingerprint and DNA-testing exercise was then carried out on the thousands of taxi drivers licensed in Western Australia. Given evidence of a number of unlicensed operators, examining standards for eligibility were raised, and 78 drivers with significant criminal history were de-licensed. Stricter standards were also applied to verifying that decommissioned taxis were stripped of insignia and equipment. The taskforce was also censured for its overly narrow focus, under Caporn, on Lance Williams. He remained the prime suspect for many years despite a lack of direct evidence (as occurred in the cases of Andrew Mallard and Lloyd Rayney). Over its lifetime, Macro had 11 police reviews, including one in August 2004 led by Paul Schramm, the officer who had led the Snowtown investigation. It was finally wound down in September 2005 and the investigation moved to the Special Crimes Squad. == Suspect ==

In April 1998, a public servant from Cottesloe, Lance Williams (aged 41), was identified by police as the prime suspect, after his behaviour attracted their attention (e.g. driving around after midnight and circling the Claremont area up to 30 times) during a decoy operation. Williams died in 2018. although Murdoch was serving a custodial sentence from November 1995 until February 1997. In October 2006, it was also announced that British murderer Mark Dixie was a prime suspect in the killings, and that Macro had requested DNA samples. However, Western Australia Police Deputy Commissioner Murray Lampard was later quoted as saying: "Dixie was closely investigated at the time and eventually ruled out as a suspect." On 22 December 2016, Bradley Robert Edwards was arrested at his Kewdale house in relation to the deaths of both Jane and Ciara. The next day, he was charged with both murders. According to ABC News, he is believed to have had no previous link to the case, though he had pleaded guilty to the aggravated assault of a social worker at Hollywood Private Hospital on 7 May 1990. He was also charged in relation to two other attacks: the house break-and-enter and unlawful detention of an 18-year-old woman in Huntingdale on 15 February 1988 (where a stolen kimono with his DNA was dropped as the attacker fled), 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 first victim, Sarah Spiers. In all, Edwards was charged with eight offences, and on 21 October 2019, Edwards pleaded guilty to the five non-murder charges (at Huntingdale and at Karrakatta Cemetery). Trial Before the trial, the prosecution applied for Edwards to be tried by judge alone without a jury. The application was granted due to the publicity surrounding the case and the graphic nature of the evidence. The murder trial began on 25 November 2019, before Supreme Court Justice Stephen Hall. During the trial, the court was told that two of the victims had defensive wounds. Edwards' DNA was also found under Glennon's fingernails (and matched to the kimono) although the defence argued this evidence was contaminated in the laboratory. Between April 1996 and December 1998, Edwards drove a white VS Series wagon with Telstra logos. The vehicle was tracked down and impounded on the same day as his arrest. During the hearing, it was revealed that fibres matching carpet in the rear of Edwards' vehicle matched fibres found on the bodies of both Rimmer and Glennon On 23 December 2020, Edwards was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of a parole after 40 years. Hall said there was a "high likelihood" that Edwards would die in prison. ==Possible related cases==

In April 2008 journalist Liam Bartlett reported that police 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 cases include that of Lisa Brown (aged 19), a sex worker who disappeared on 10 November 1998, and Sara McMahon (aged 20), who disappeared on 8 November 2000. ==Media and popular culture==

• 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: The Trial podcast, The West Australian, 2019–2020. • The Claremont Murders, Seven Network, 2023. ==See also==