Claremont Killer

The Claremont Killer possibly also referred to as The Huntingdale Prowler was an infamous serial killer active in Claremont, a wealthy suburb in Perth, Western Australia in the late 1990s who is responsible for the murder of two women and the disappearance of a third.

Case History
The case began with the disappearance of Sarah Spiers (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. Unusually, 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 am and, in the dark, could have been missed by the driver. Her disappearance soon attracted massive publicity and her fate remains unknown.

On 9 June 1996, Jane Rimmer (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. 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. 55 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, on 14 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 11:15 pm, and observed her interacting with an unidentified light coloured vehicle which had stopped by her. 19 days later, her semi-clothed body was found by a worker on 3 April, 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 setup 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 centred 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 given that the women were last seen in circumstances where they may 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 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. In December 2015, investigators finally revealed that fibres 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 enquiries such as "Are you the killer?" Another was its reliance on international experts and 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.

Profile
The killer would have, throughout adolescence been considered socially awkward, introverted, he would not have had a girlfriend or intimate relationship and would have had a fetish for wearing and stealing women’s underwear. 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 organised, social, and probably well educated. It is believed he way have begun as the “Huntingdale Prowler”, who targeted houses on nine occasions from January to October 1988. The prowler was seen creeping around houses, tried to break into houses and stole women’s clothing or underwear off clotheslines including a white satin kimono. On one occasion, he was disturbed in a spare room rifling through drawers. In another instance, a woman was disturbed and allegedly assaulted when the prowler burst out of her toilet. Some of the alleged reports claim the prowler was wearing nighties, dressing gowns, kimonos and in one case underwear on his head. In February 1988, the prowler allegedly attacked a woman for the first time. He allegedly broke into a Huntingdale home where an 18-year-old girl was sleeping, with her parents and two brothers in other rooms.

The perpetrator allegedly got in through an unlocked back door, closed the parents’ door and unplugged the telephone line before straddling the sleeping girl’s back, forcing a cloth in her mouth and attacking her.

The teenage fought back and the attacker, who the young woman described as tall and wearing a nightie, fled, but in his haste left behind two items — black knotted stockings and a white kimono. Decades later, that kimono was forensically tested in a cold case review and was allegedly found to contain DNA matching prime suspect Bradley Edwards.

Modus Operandi
The Claremont Killer had a specific modus operandi. He most likely targeted women he didn’t know or barely knew who were vulnerable by their circumstances, attacking them from behind without provocation or warning with a sexual motivation, he eventually escalated to luring women into his car where he would drive them to secluded locations. Once he has his victim alone and secluded he would proceed to bind and rape them multiple times, before slitting their throats. Other instances where victims bodies were never found mean this cant be confirmed for every victim in the series however a consistent modus operandi is suspected.

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 organised, social, and probably well educated. Local sex workers were also questioned for signs of unusual behaviour in clients.

In April 1998, a public servant from Cottesloe, Lance Williams (41), was identified by police as the prime suspect, after his behaviour attracted their attention (i.e., 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" and 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."

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 house break-in and rape of an 18-year-old woman in Huntingdale on 15 February 1988, and the abduction and rape 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. Edwards is expected to face trial starting on 18 November 2019.

One of the main pieces of evidence in the trial will be a Telstra van: Edwards was working for the company as a technician at the time, and it will be claimed that he used the vehicle 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 van stopped to look at women and offer them rides.

Bradley Robert Edwards - Prime Suspect
The prosecutor alleged Mr Edwards was the “Huntingdale Prowler”, who targeted houses on nine occasions from January to October 1988 within a 1km radius of his family’s Gay Street home, which he shared with his parents and younger brother and sister. The prowler was seen creeping around houses, tried to break into houses and stole women’s clothing or underwear off clotheslines including a white satin kimono. On one occasion, he was disturbed in a spare room rifling through drawers. In another instance, a woman was disturbed and allegedly assaulted when the prowler burst out of her toilet. Some of the alleged reports claim the prowler was wearing nighties, dressing gowns, kimonos and in one case underwear on his head. Four fingerprints were left on a rear sliding door at one house the prowler scoped — which would become crucial to the case against Mr Edwards. The Huntingdale prowler stopped around the same time Mr Edwards met his first wife, the court was told. Mr Edwards’ defence lawyer Paul Yovich said by many accounts, his client as a 19-year-old did not show a great deal of interest in girls, but disagreed that he had never had a girlfriend or been in an intimate relationship. But Ms Barbagallo claimed these were the first steps in an escalating pattern of offending that within less than a decade, would culminate in the State’s most notorious serial killings. At 21, Mr Edwards had moved in with his girlfriend and future first wife in Noranda. One night in May 1990 she confessed to being unfaithful earlier in the relationship, which “deeply distressed” him, the court heard. The next day, while working as a Telstra technician at Hollywood Hospital, Mr Edwards pounced on an unsuspecting social worker in a back office, grabbing her from behind, covered her mouth and nose with a piece of material and tried to drag her into a toilet cubicle before the woman kicked him and broke free. He apologised to her after the attack ended.

While not saying it caused his alleged offending, Ms Barbagallo claims it is “significant” that the timeline of the crimes and conduct mirror periods of emotional turmoil Mr Edwards was experiencing in his personal life.

As set out in court, the alleged timeline is: While the prosecution says his offending stopped in 1997, they say his sexual deviance did not.
 * Hollywood Hospital attack: occurs the day after Mr Edwards finds out his then-girlfriend has cheated.
 * Mr Edwards’ first wife begins affair in 1994 after Mr Edwards apparently became distant and spent too much time on his computer.
 * Her lover moves into their marital home in January/February 1995 (it is not exactly clear when Mr Edwards became aware of the affair).
 * Karrakatta rape: February 1995.
 * Mr Edwards’ wife leaves him in January 1996.
 * Sarah Spiers vanishes in January 1996.
 * In May 1996, Mr Edwards finds out his estranged wife is pregnant to the man she left him for.
 * Jane Rimmer is murdered in June 1996
 * Mr Edwards enters into a relationship with a woman 20 years his senior in the second half of 1996. It ends in March 1997. Ms Barbagallo said Mr Edwards told detectives he was not upset over the end of that affair, as it was “just a sex thing”.
 * Ciara Glennon is murdered in March 1997. Mr Edwards is living on his own during the period of his alleged murder spree.
 * In April 1997 Mr Edwards meets his second wife and the prosecution alleges there is no further offending.

When he was arrested at his Kewdale home in December 2016, police found a “plethora” of pornography on his electronic devices, the court was told this week.

Ms Barbagallo alleged among them were extreme BDSM images, a controversial hard-core porn film called  Forced Entry  (which was a deleted file, recovered by police tech experts), a “meticulously” maintained catalogue of porn websites Mr Edwards visited totalling almost 4000 and a series of first-person “violent erotica” stories he wrote, edited or downloaded. One of those stories, called the Chloe story in court, bears striking parallels to the Karrakatta rape, Ms Barbagallo argued. The opening line reads: “They say you always remember your first. In my case, I consider my first is Chloe.”

The stories involve the abduction and degrading sexual assault of women, with some involving “the implication that the women won’t be leaving”, the prosecutor said. Only one of the stories found involved consensual sex, the court was told.

Ms Barbagallo described Mr Edwards’ porn obsession as “extreme, abnormal and depraved”. “The accused had or has an obsessive sexual interest in the abduction, imprisonment and forcible rape of women,” she said.

Mr Yovich said any similarities between the stories and real life could be explained away by coincidence. Only 8 per cent of the overall porn found on his client’s devices was in the extreme BDSM category, he alleged.

A recorded prison phone call is said to discuss who wrote the stories, the court was told.

Another courtroom revelation was that police allegedly found a box in Mr Edwards’ home containing homemade sex toys, women’s underwear with holes cut in them for male genitalia that contained Mr Edwards’ DNA, and sandwich bags which Ms Barbagallo told the court Mr Edwards used to masturbate into and tie with hair ties.

Confirmed
''All of the following were killed in Michigan. Dates refer to when the victims were last seen alive.''
 * 1996
 * January 27: Sarah Spiers, 18 (abducted and presumably; her body was never found)
 * June 9: Jane Rimmer, 23  (her body was found 55 days later, cause of death could not be determined due to the bad decomposition of the body)
 * 1997:
 * March 14: Ciara Glennon, 27  (throat was slit and she was sexually assaulted; her body was found 19 days later)

Possible

 * 1988:
 * February 15: Unnamed 18 year old girl  (attacked in her home and raped, attack attributed to the Huntington Prowler)
 * June 20: Julie Cutler, 22  (car was found at Cottlesloe Beach two days later and her fate remains unknown)
 * 1995:
 * February 12: Unnamed 17 year old girl (abducted and raped in Karrakatta cemetery, intended to kill but fled)
 * 1998:
 * November 10: Lisa Brown, 19 ( sex worker who disappeared and her fate remains unknown)
 * 2000:
 * November 8: Sarah McMahon, 20 ( disappeared without a trace and her fate remains unknown)