Man being questioned over serial killings including death of Irish woman Ciara Glennon

             Ciara, whose parents are both Irish emigrants, vanished after celebrating St Patrick’s Day in her home city of Perth in 1997

                                                                          http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/man-being-questioned-over-serial-9503567

                                                                          BY KATHY ARMSTRONG

                                                                                     22 DEC 2016

                                                                           
                                                                                                     Ciara Glennon

A man is reportedly being questioned about the murder of a “lovely, fun-loving” Irish woman and two other high profile serial killings in Australia.

The man, in his 50 was arrested at a house in Kewdale, in the province of Perth on Thursday over the deaths of Ciara Glennon and two other women, which were dubbed the Claremont serial killings.

Ciara, whose parents are both Irish emigrants, vanished after celebrating St Patrick’s Day in her home city of Perth in 1997.

The 27-year-old lawyer’s body was found in bushland in Perth just weeks later.

Her heartbroken father Michael, from Westport in Co Mayo, and her mum Una, from Monaghan, had to identify her remains.

Ciara’s murder was linked to the disappearances of two other women from the same area in just 15 months and sparked a high profile police hunt for a possible serial killer.

The Glennon family leave St Marys Cathedral after service for their daughter Ciara Eilish Glennon a 28 year old solicitor who may have been abducted from the Claremont, a suburb of Perth in Western Australia

Sarah Spiers, 18, went missing from a nightclub in January 1996 and her body was never found.

Five months later Jane Rimmer, 23, also disappeared after leaving a venue and her remains were found in Perth bushland in August 1996, she had been strangled.

Following Australia’s longest police probe, detectives stormed the man’s house on Thursday and arrested him.

They cordoned off the property as part of the cold case inquiry and removed several large bags, according to ABC News.

Neighbours claimed they heard screams coming from the hour just an hour before the police arrived.

Jim Sheffield, who lives nearby, told ABC News: “I was out the back ... doing some gardening, that was about half past 6 and I heard a real loud yell and it sounded like a scream.

“Obviously I just thought ‘well something’s going on’ because you don’t normally see those sort of police officers around.” 
It is understood that the man has not been investigated as part of the case before and is believed to have lived at the house with his daughter for several years.

Ciara’s relatives have previously paid tribute to her and spoke fondly of her regular visits to Ireland with her younger sister Denise.

Her uncle Gerry Murphy, from Waterford, said she was a “lovely fun-loving girl.”

He added: “She was full of life, loved the outdoor life and was very into sports.”

The Post Newspaper also reported last year that detectives suspect that the person or people behind the three women’s deaths might have also raped a teenage girl in 1995.

Family deals with its loss as serial killer still roams free

Sat, Feb 6, 1999,

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/family-deals-with-its-loss-as-serial-killer-still-roams-free-1.149685

Ciara Glennon was born in a bush hospital in Zambia 29 years ago when her Irish parents, Denis and Una, moved to Africa to take up teaching posts in the region. Two years ago next month she went missing from her home in Perth, Western Australia and three weeks later her body was found in bush land, 50 km north of the country's third largest city.

Her murder, at the hands of a serial killer who is believed to have murdered three young women, stunned the local community and the whole state of Western Australia mourned her death.

The Glennons went to Africa from Mayo and Monaghan and settled in Australia when Ciara was five years old. She was a bright, fun-loving, adventurous child. She gained a law degree, mastered Japanese at the University of Western Australia and had no problem securing a job with a successful local law firm.

Irrepressibly free-spirited, at the age of 26 she took a one-year career break to travel the world. During this time she visited Israel, Greece and Turkey and spent six weeks, longer than she had intended, with relatives in Ireland. In late February 1997 she returned to Perth for the wedding of her sister Denise. Her wanderlust sated, she got her old job back as a solicitor and was put in charge of a case that would have taken up most of the following two years.

She was wearing a claddagh brooch on the single-breasted jacket of her black suit when she went with colleagues for drinks at the Continental Hotel in the upmarket suburb of Claremont on the evening of Friday, March 14th. She was slim and brighteyed, with dark brown curly hair that fell past her shoulders. There was only one week until her sister's wedding, and the night was something of an early St Patrick's Day celebration. At around midnight, she left the hotel to get a taxi, anxious not to miss an early appointment the next morning. She was 10 minutes from her home.

Denis Glennon sits in the boardroom of Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) where he has just finished a board meeting. As managing director of Environmental Solutions International, a waste processing and disposal company, he was recently appointed to the board of the EPA. In fact, but for this interruption to his schedule he would be next door with his fellow board-members, talking shop over a glass of wine.

He seems uncomfortable and understandably wary of talking to the media. His treatment at the hands of some Irish newspapers (not The Irish Times) at the time of Ciara's disappearance resulted in a written apology to him and his family.

He is well spoken, impeccably dressed. He carries a compact mobile phone and wears a wider than usual marriage band on his wedding finger. Behind him the Swan River sparkles soothingly under a clear Perth sky as he waits for the interview to begin.

When he speaks it is in the carefully measured tones of those who have suffered too much to bother wasting words. Instead of choosing to assert Ciara's personality, her talents, her essence, he phones his secretary and instructs her gently, in his still distinctly Irish accent, to fax over the eulogy he wrote for her funeral Mass. It talks more eloquently than perhaps he ever could again about who his daughter was.

Instead of answering questions about how the investigation into his daughter's death is progressing he punches numbers into his phone and calls the head of the police task force set up to catch the Claremont serial killer. He knows that without his say-so the police are unlikely to co-operate with an out-of-town journalist. "You should be fine now," he says and waits for the next question.

Ciara Glennon's story hangs heavily in the air-conditioned room. You want to ask this strong, silent Irishman how life has been over the last two years since his daughter went missing; to describe the torment they endured when her partially clothed body was found under some scrub by a passer-by three weeks later. How he and his family have coped when the man who police are 99.9 per cent sure perpetrated this atrocity is living a short drive away from their home.

"When it hits you first you are totally numb with shock. Then you go through a stage of absolute anger, a stage of questioning your faith, disbelief. You start to question the abilities of the police, and then there are periods, weeks and weeks without sleep, total exhaustion," he says.

Ciara was probably not thinking about it as she made her way along Stirling Highway in search of a taxi that night, but in the 18 months before two young women had disappeared from almost the exact same spot. Police had already highlighted the possibility of a serial killer after 18-year-old Sarah Ellen Spiers and, eight months later, 23-year-old Jane Louise Rimmer went missing. Like Ciara, both women were petite, young, attractive and well-dressed.

Sarah Ellen Spiers's body has never been found, but they found Jane Louise eight weeks after she went missing. It was 50 km south of Claremont, about four metres in from the road in dense vegetation. The Macro Taskforce was quickly established by Perth police, as it became clear that a serial killer was at large in the area.

The search for Ciara got under way immediately. By late Saturday afternoon the task force was making inquiries into her movements and by the end of the week they were imploring people to come forward with any useful information. Denise Glennon was married as planned that weekend - the bridesmaid's dress supposed to be worn by her best friend and sister left hanging in the wardrobe.

"It was a very difficult decision to go ahead with the wedding," says Denis Glennon. "But stripped of all the usual materialistic elements it was so much more meaningful and special."

Three weeks after she went missing, Ciara's body was found at a remote fishing location near Perth. The pain of this time has never left Denis Glennon's eyes but what also remains for him is the way a whole country, his business friends, the media, ordinary people took their awful family tragedy to their hearts.

Almost immediately afterwards the Secure Community Foundation was set up by Denis Glennon's colleagues to raise money for extra resources to help the police investigation. The funds paid for a DNA analyser to scan the oral swabs given by the hundreds interviewed after the murder. They paid for a retired FBI polygrapher (lie detector expert), Ron Homer, to travel to Western Australia for a month, allowing police to eliminate a large number of suspects and focus on the remaining group who had refused the test or who had failed it.

They also paid for an FBI psychological profiler to visit for a month to give police a better understanding as to the identity of the offender, his likely traits, his background, his lifestyle. The last time the funds donated by the SCF were tallied they came to A$850,000 (£390,000). It is the largest homicide investigation conducted in Australia.

In late October 1997 police in Perth identified the person they still suspect of being the Claremont serial killer. He was kept for 10 months under covert surveillance until April last year, 12 months after Ciara was found, when he was observed driving alone through Claremont's business district, stalking a girl who looked very like Ciara and the two other victims. He was interviewed at length that evening and has been under overt surveillance ever since.

A member of the Macro Taskforce said last week that the suspect, a 42-year-old civil servant, was driving home from work to his parents' house as we spoke. "He is a quiet, introverted, insignificant member of the community and the person we strongly believe is the Claremont serial killer," he said. The vital evidence they need for a conviction is proving elusive, however.

People tell you that Perth has grown up since Ciara Glennon's murder as women grow wary of going out alone, but inevitably as time goes by complacency is creeping in. The Glennon family has been dramatically altered, priorities shifted, perspectives changed.

"Previous to Ciara's murder I was no different than any other reasonably successful business man," says Denis Glennon, adding that "now life is much more about caring for our family. There has been a huge renewal in the meaning of faith amongst us."

The everyday ways in which the bitter grief has changed them are informative. Una Glennon used to watch "a reasonable amount of TV, partly crime-related stuff. Now she doesn't watch any," says Denis. Constantly travelling, he himself used to go through up to three novels a week. "Now I don't. It seems frivolous."

He does not view the apprehension of Ciara's killer in a vengeful way but "justice must prevail". "Finding the perpetrator will be like closing a chapter but it also means that the whole horror of what happened to Ciara will be revealed and I am not looking forward to that for any of our sakes," he says.

The Glennons realise that each of them must go through it in their own way. They haven't sought counselling and will not. Denis Glennon knows the statistics - that 80 per cent of marriages simply don't survive this kind of devastation - but his has come through the worst.

"You have to find the strength from somewhere," he says. "Everything is more meaningful now. We pray for Ciara all the time. When Una and I see a young woman of Ciara's age we think of her. Sometimes we choose to speak about it, sometimes we choose not to".

He chose to speak about it now for two reasons. He wanted to thank the Irish people for their support over the last two years. He also wanted to show how the tragedy has deepened the faith of the family, in the hope that it might have a positive impact on others. Faith helped them to choose between the way of hope and the way of madness. They chose hope.

"We really miss her but if we had a choice to bring her back from where she is now we wouldn't . . . we have to learn to live beyond it."

Channel 7 Report presented this picture of what the boot look like of the car that police found when they searched a car in an undercover oeration of Nothbridge, Perth...
The former head of WA's prostitution taskforce Con Bayens thought that what was in this man's boot was all that is need for an abduction and the boot was lined with blue plastic,.
the reported started on the TV Investigation that the car looked like and unmarked police car...



Above: Retired police officer that passed on the information of what he found in a man's car as above in an undercover police opperatio, which made him feel this man could be the Calremont Serial Killer, however he was shocked to realise that the Macro Task Force that was in charge of Investigating the Claremont Serial Murders did not follow the information up that he gave them about this man and the fact that he found the following in the boot that was lines with blue plastic:
Pliers, tape and wore ties , which aere all items that could be used in an abduction

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/claremont-serial-killings-police-piecing-together-the-life-of-bradley-robert-edwards/news-story/557f281e68cdf76d572843291ea9cef7

'Don't worry about it, we've got our man': Is this the moment police let the Claremont Killer

walk free because they were too focused on tying another man to the crime?

• The Claremont Killer serial murders is a notorious Australian cold case
• Three women were abducted in 1996 and 1997 from the Perth suburb
• The cases were all strikingly similar, yet the killer has never been found
• A former detective speaks out about a potential suspect who walked
• Says investigators were fixed on one man, rejected all other possibilities
• Con Bayens recalls a chilling incident which set off alarm bells
• Case is Australia's longest running and most expensive investigation 

By Lucy Thackray for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 17:41, 31 May 2015

The Claremont killer, who abducted and murdered three young blonde women, was never captured and could still be walking the streets almost 20 years on – and it's suggested police may have let the culprit go.

Taskforce Macro have been investigaing the Perth serial murders in what has become Australia's longest running and most expensive active man hunt

The FBI, Nassar and a former Mossad agent have been called on to assist - yet the person or people responsible remain at large.

The bodies of Jane Rimmer, 23, and Ciara Glennon, 27, were found dumped in bushland in 1996 and 1997 respectively.

Scroll down for video 

Despite ongoing investigation Taskforce Macro the mass murderer who killed three women in affluent Perth suburb Claremont hasn't been found

However, the body of the first victim, 18-year-old Sarah Spiers is yet to be found after she disappeared from a pub in the affluent Perth suburb of Claremont on Australia Day in 1996.

Police officers have now spoken out to allege the investigations were bungled, with potential suspects allowed to walk and key pieces of evidence disregarded.

A terrifying encounter with a sinister man in a car equipped with 'abduction tools' has been pinpointed as a potential moment the police allowed a prime suspect to walk away without inquiry, as they were too focused on a man they believed to be the killer.

'It seems to me the Macro taskforce was a situation where the cops really mucked up and now we've got a cover up. And that's the saddest part, that they've never said 'we made a mistake', said former West Australian officer Con Bayens.

The former head of WA's prostitution taskforce says police looking for the Claremont serial killer in the 1990s and 2000s were dismissive of a suspect because they were too focused on trying to tie another man to the crime.

In 2008 the man, public servant Lance Williams, was finally dismissed as a suspect after years of round-the-clock surveillance.

Mr Bayens fears investigators failed to adequately probe potential suspects he encountered while running his taskforce between July 2000 and August 2002.

One particularly harrowing night has 'haunted' him 'for years' and Mr Bayens is adamant the disturbing man he found was never properly investigated by the taskforce.

Mr Bayens recalls the chilling night he pulled over a man during an undercover operation in Highgate in 2002 - 11 kilometres away from Claremont.

The boot was lined with blue plastic and there was a pair of pliers and masking tape – disturbing equipment which he believed appeared to be for an abduction.

The driver was questioned but Mr Bayens does not know why he was cleared in inquiries by officers on Task Force Macro, which was set up to investigate the killings.

Mr Bayens said the head investigator into the killings had rejected his offer to pass on information from the undercover operation, which was uncovering people every night 'and every one of them had the potential to be the Claremont serial killer.'

However, his offer was rejected by the chief investigator, to his astonishment.

'He said, 'Don't worry about it, Con, we've got our man.' And those words will stick with me forever,' he said.

'That just hit about 10 on my weird s***-o-meter.'

WA Police insist they looked into the sinister man Mr Bayens encountered, but the former constable insists the enquiry never took place.

12 years after her disappearance, CCTV footage of Jane Rimmer outside Claremont's Continental Hotel was finally released. She ran into a man she seemed to recgonise just minutes before she disappeared

'What happened? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I'd love to see the proof,' he said.

Police still believe they will find the killer, who abducted and murdered the women after they partied at nightspots in the affluent suburb of Claremont.

The three disappearances were extremely similar – as former Ferguson puts it 'they each got into the wrong car and it cost them their lives.'

Investigators believe the women trusted the drivers of the vehicles so focussed their attention on taxi drivers –taking DNA samples from thousands of registered cab drivers in the city.

+9

The three disappearances were extremely similar – as former Ferguson puts it 'they each got into the wrong car and it cost them their lives' (the taskforce pictured in the 1990s)

The women disappeared in 1996 and 1997 in the ritzy western Perth suburb, Claremont in an area that was a hub of activity.

Sarah Spiers was just 18 years old when she became the first victim in the Claremont serial murders.

She left a nightclub in Claremont, Club Bayview, on Australia Day 1996 and called for a cab from a payphone at 2.06. By the time the taxi arrived at 2.14am, she had disappeared. Her body has never been found.

On June 6 of that year childcare worker Jane Rimmer, 23, disappeared from the same Claremont pub – Club Bayview after declining a lift with friends.

Her body was found two months later August 3 in dense bushland south of Perth. She was found naked, partially decomposed and covered with leaves and twigs.

The third incident occurred early the following year on March 15, 1997. Ciara Glennon, a 27-year-old lawyer, disappeared from Claremont's Continental Hotel, just 200 metres from Club Bayview in the same party precinct.

She wandered out onto the Sterling Highway, potentially in search of a taxi. A witness told police they saw her talking to someone in a car. When the witness looked back a moment later, Ciara and the car were both gone.

Living In The Shadow Of The Claremont Killings

                                                                               We've all been waiting more than twenty years for a breakthrough.           23/12/2016

                                                                                   http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/12/22/living-in-the-shadow-of-the-claremont-killings/

                                                                                 Libby-Jane Charleston HuffPost Australia

                                                                                          Ciara Glennon

A dreadful cloud of fear settled over the city of Perth when three young women were killed, one by one. And despite the passage of 20 years, it has never quite lifted.

The Claremont murders are some of Australia's most enduring cold case files, and now reports suggest a man has been arrested in connection with them, some 20 years later.

Regardless of this latest development, these killings changed Perth forever.

Ciara Glennon, aged 27, Jane Rimmer, 23 and Sarah Spiers, 18 disappeared from Claremont in 1996 and 1997. The bodies of Ciara and Jane were later found but Sarah's body has never been recovered.

What made it so frightening is that it happened in a 'safe suburb.' It happened to girls who could have been anybody's daughter, sister or best friend.

The murders changed people's social habits and it made people feel unsafe. As young women, we were told not to go out in pairs, only go out in a group of at least three. Do not catch a taxi. Do not hitchhike. Women were scared to go to pubs and nightclubs. The fear was quite palpable. And what made it even worse is that nearly 20 years later the killer hadn't been caught.

How could it be that even with CCTV cameras and DNA, a killer had seemingly gotten away with the crime of snuffing out the lives of three beautiful young women?

All three girls had been socialising in the 'nice, safe suburb' of affluent Claremont. Yet the killer found a way to kidnap them, kill them and leave two of their bodies in bushland, without a trace of evidence. It was like the killer vanished into thin air. Along with the body of victim Sarah Spiers, which is yet to be found.

There are few West Australians who don't immediately recognise the girls' faces, which have been plastered on posters and across newspapers and TV reports for the last twenty years. The phrase 'Claremont Serial Killer' was a constant on everybody's lips. Even today, many in Perth who had been teenagers at the time the girls went missing have a story to tell.

Urban myths are stones that still gather moss, no matter how many years have rolled passed.

                                                                                                                     Jane Rimmer

Even this journalist, (who hails from Perth), has a connection; my friend's boyfriend had dated one of the victims. And the father of my family friend had worked with a victim's father. She told of the unspeakable horror of the girl's parents when police broke the news that that their beloved daughter's body had been discovered.

My friends and I had walked home from the Claremont pub many times. Sometimes we would stupidly hitch-hike. But never again. Task Force Macro, Australia's longest-running murder investigation, has investigated more than 3,000 people over the years. That's why a breakthrough, for the people of Perth, is a long time coming.

Journalist Ros Thomas was working as a reporter for the Seven Network's Today Tonight at the time of the killings and she was invited to spend a night with Taskforce Macro.

"All of a sudden, one of the cops turned to me and said, 'You'd be the killer's perfect victim. You're a size 12, fair-haired and curvy,'" Thomas told The Huffington Post Australia.

(Another journalist told me, when I repeated what Thomas had said; "That's something only a Perth cop would say.")

                                                                                                                     Ciara Glennon

"It was a strange night following the taskforce around at night. They'd sit in cars, waiting outside the Claremont pub and making sure any women leaving would be safely getting in cars with friends. But most people stayed well away from Claremont. And, of course nobody dared to catch a taxi," Thomas said.

The first suspect in the killings was a taxi driver. That's because Jane, Ciara and Sarah had told friends they were catching a taxi home. The phrase, "Don't get a taxi!" was thrown at anybody going out for a drink in the affluent western suburbs.

"We all had our theories. There was a well-known local politician I interviewed on an unrelated story and he had an employee who was a taxi driver. There were stories going around about the politician's possible connection with the crimes. One theory is that the politician used the taxi driver to get his victims, then he could have his way with them," Thomas told The Huffington Post Australia.

"That's another thing the cops told me. That most serial killers practice a lot before they get their 'perfect murder' and there were a string of crimes that had similarities to the Claremont killings. Then the killer got good at what he was doing and that the three Claremont murders were finally his perfect murders.

"On a personal note: the photograph the police used of Jane Rimmer showed her in a dress that was identical to a dress I'd recently worn to a friend's wedding. That always freaked me out -- that Jane and I had the same dress and that dress was all over the news. Also there was so many stories swirling around Perth: stories that a man was driving around Claremont with an axe, masking tape and black plastic. Stories that a 13-year-old girl who was murdered years ago was his first victim."

As recently as 2008, police released previously unseen CCTV footage, showing Jane Rimmer exchanging a greeting with an unidentified man outside the Continental Hotel in Claremont at midnight on June 9, the night she disappeared.

  







 CCTV footage showing Jane Rimmer outside the Continental Hotel in Claremont in 1996. This footage wasn't released until 2008.

The hotel had closed for the night and a man approaches Jane; she seems to acknowledge him. Then he walks out of view while Jane remains on the footpath for several minutes. When the rotating camera moves away from Jane, then returns -- she is gone.

For now, the people of Perth are desperately waiting for closure. And, of course, the family of Sarah Spiers, will be living in hope that they might finally be able to bury their beloved daughter.

                            Sarah Spiers

The Claremont serial killings_Your explainer on the murder mystery that paralysed Perth.

http://www.mamamia.com.au/claremont-serial-killing/

Belinda Jepsen

It was the case that paralysed Perth. Three young women vanished from the same affluent suburb within the space of just 14 months; the remains of two later discovered dumped outside the city, the other never found.

For more than 19 years, police have been on the hunt for the person responsible for the so-called ‘Claremont killings’, in what has become one of the longest-running and most expensive police investigations in Australian history.

Then, this morning, a breakthrough.

A 48-year-old man named Bradley Robert Edwards was taken into custody  with the murder of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, after officers from the Tactical Response Group stormed his Kewdale home about 7am.

Irena Ceranic 

✔ @Irena_Ceranic

BREAKING: Kewdale man taken into custody, it's believed in relation to Claremont serial killer investigation

10:32 AM - 22 Dec 2016

The arrest has thrust the case back into the headlines, where it has appeared numerous times since the late ’90s, solidifying its place in Australian cold-case folklore.

It began with disappearance of 18-year-old Sarah Spiers.

Just after 2am on January 27, 1996, the secretary called for a taxi outside Claremont’s Club Bayview nightclub, after enjoying an evening out with friends.

She told the dispatcher she would be waiting at the corner of Stirling Highway and Stirling Road, but by the time the cab arrived eight minutes later, Sarah had vanished

The arrest has thrust the case back into the headlines, where it has appeared numerous times since the late ’90s, solidifying its place in Australian cold-case folklore.

It began with disappearance of 18-year-old Sarah Spiers.

Just after 2am on January 27, 1996, the secretary called for a taxi outside Claremont’s Club Bayview nightclub, after enjoying an evening out with friends.

She told the dispatcher she would be waiting at the corner of Stirling Highway and Stirling Road, but by the time the cab arrived eight minutes later, Sarah had vanished.

Her body has never been found.

Just six months later, the next tragedy would befall Claremont - the disappearance of childcare worker Jane Rimmer.

The 23-year-old was last seen alive at the Continental Hotel, where she reportedly declined her friends' offer to share a cab ride home.

Unlike Spiers, Rimmer's body was discovered a month later in Wellard, south of Perth, leading police to establish The Macro Taskforce.

Tragically, the horrific discovery was followed by that of the remains of missing lawyer Ciara Glennon in April 1997, the month after she too disappeared following a night out at the Continental.

Glennon's body was found in bushland at Eglington in the city's north.

What had begun as missing person's case, had become a suspected serial killing.

The investigation was stepped up, public appeals issued and suspects targeted - one public servant was tailed by police around the clock for several years before being struck off as a person of interest, according to the ABC.

Just last year DNA evidence reportedly linked Ciara Glennon's killer to an unknown man who had sexually assaulted a teenage girl in 1995. The 17-year-old had been abducted from a Claremont street and driven to Karrakatta Cemetery where she was raped

What had begun as missing person's case, had become a suspected serial killing.

The investigation was stepped up, public appeals issued and suspects targeted - one public servant was tailed by police around the clock for several years before being struck off as a person of interest, according to the ABC.

It's unclear whether he was ever identified

.

Prior to that, among the key pieces of evidence in the case was CCTV footage, released to the public in 2008, showing a man approaching Jane Rimmer as she waited outside the Continental Hotel on the night of her disappearance.

Jane Rimmer

Posted 16 Oct 2015, 1:42am

Jane Rimmer's body was the first to be found, in bush in Perth's southern suburbs.

ABC

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/01/08/murder-perth-claremont_n_8936806.html

The Claremont Killings: One Of Australia's Greatest Unsolved Crimes

 16/01/2016 

• Libby-Jane Charleston Associate Editor, HuffPost Australia

A cloud of fear hung across the city of Perth, WA, when news broke in 1996-97 that three young women had been murdered, one by one. It happened in a safe suburb. It happened to girls that could have been anybody's daughter, sister or best friend. It changed Perth forever.

It changed how people went out at night, it changed social habits and it made people feel unsafe. The fear was quite palpable. And what made it even worse is that nearly 20 years later -- nobody has ever been caught.

How incredible is it that with CCTV cameras and DNA, a monster managed to get away with the crime of snuffing out the lives of three beautiful young women? The girls had been socialising in a ‘nice, safe suburb’ and he was able to abduct them, kill them, leave two of their bodies in bushland and not leave a trace. It was like the killer vanished into thin air. Along with Sarah, whose body still has not been found.

There are few West Australians who do not know the names Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmer. There are few West Australians who don’t immediately recognise the girls faces, which have been plastered on posters and across newspapers and TV reports for the last twenty years.

Jane Rimmer.

The girls all had one thing in in common: they’d all been out socialising in the upmarket suburb of Claremont. The phrase ‘Claremont Serial Killer’ was a constant on everybody’s lips. Even today, many in Perth who had been teenagers at the time the girls went missing have a story to tell.

Urban myths are stones that still gather moss, no matter how many years have rolled passed.

Even this journalist, (who hails from Perth), has a connection -- my friend’s ex-boyfriend once dated one of the victims. And the father of my family friend had worked with a victim’s father. She told of the unspeakable horror of the girl’s parents when police broke the news that that their beloved daughter’s body had been discovered. My friends and I had walked home from the Claremont pub many times. Sometimes we'd stupidly hitch-hiked. But never again.

It is still one of Australia’s most horrific unsolved mysteries. Task Force Macro is the nation’s longest-running and most expensive murder investigation in history. More than 3,000 people have been investigated and yet it remains an unsolved crime.

Sarah Spiers. Picture Supplied

While the bodies of Ciara and Jane were found in bushland, Sarah’s body was never found.

Timeline:

18 year old Sarah Spiers went missing from outside a Claremont bar in January 1996. Her body has never been found.

Jane Rimmer, aged 23, was abducted from Claremont in June 1996 and her body found in bushland south of Perth that August.

Ciara Glennon, aged 27, disappeared in March 1997. Her body was found in bushland north of Perth, 19 days after she was last seen in Claremont.

Ciara Glennon. Picture Supplied

Journalist Ros Thomas was working as a reporter for the Seven Network's Today Tonight at the time of the killings and she was invited to spend a night with Taskforce Macro.

“All of a sudden, one of the cops turned to me and said, ‘You’d be the killer’s perfect victim. You’re a size 12, fair-haired and curvy,’” Thomas said.

(Another journalist told me this week, when I repeated what Thomas had told me; "That's something only a Perth cop would say.")

“It was a strange night following the taskforce around at night. They’d sit in cars, waiting outside the Claremont pub and making sure any women leaving would be safely getting in cars with friends. But most people stayed well away from Claremont. And, of course nobody dared to catch a taxi.”

The first suspect in the killings was a taxi driver. That’s because Jane, Ciara and Sarah had let friends know they were catching a taxi home. The phrase, "Don't get a taxi!" was thrown at anybody going out for a drink in the affluent western suburbs.

Police have been relentless with their investigation, despite the passage of time. As recently as 2008, police released previously unseen CCTV footage, showing Jane Rimmer exchanging a greeting with an unidentified man outside the Continental Hotel in Claremont at midnight on June 9, the night she disappeared.

The hotel had closed for the night and a man approaches Jane; she seems to acknowledge him. Then he walks out of view while Jane remains on the footpath for several minutes. When the rotating camera moves away from Jane, then returns -- she is gone.

“We all had our theories. There was a well-known local politician I interviewed on an unrelated story and he had an employee who was a taxi driver. There were stories going around about the politician's possible connection with the crimes. One theory is that the politician used the taxi driver to get his victims, then he could have his way with them. There were other things about that man that made me very suspicious. He was once caught sleeping in his car near the Claremont social district but, when cops questioned him, he told them that he was looking out for any girls to make sure they were safe,” Thomas told Huffington Post Australia.

“On a personal note: the photograph the police used of Jane Rimmer showed her in a dress that was identical to a dress I’d recently worn to a friend’s wedding. That always freaked me out -- that Jane and I had the same dress and that dress was all over the news. Also there was so many stories swirling around Perth: stories that a man was driving around Claremont with an axe, masking tape and black plastic. Stories that a 13-year-old girl who was murdered years ago was his first victim.”

“That’s another thing the cops told me. That most serial killers practice a lot before they get their 'perfect murder’ and there were a string of crimes that had similarities to the Claremont killings. Then the killer got good at what he was doing and that the three Claremont murders were finally his perfect murders.”

Advertising executive Rebecca Nadal lived and worked in Claremont at the time of the killings and, to this day, is amazed that the crime is still unsolved.

“I recently attended a talk about the psychological profile of the Claremont Serial Killer at Murdoch University, where the criminologist said someone from the SAS or armed forces would have the balls, stealth, strength and skills to carry it off,” Nadal said.

“That was the first I’d heard of that angle. Given that Campbell Barracks is right next to Claremont, and the Claremont is their local pub, I wondered why this hadn’t been explored more in the press.”

Nadal also recalls a time when people were afraid to go out at night and that Claremont, once the playground for the younger generation, abandoned the trendy suburb and flocked to nearby Subiaco,

“The killings were great for business for Subiaco but Claremont was like a ghost town at night. I remember there were cops everywhere. The only people in Claremont at night were all the cops. After the first girl went missing, nobody would let a girl walk to her car alone -- even if the car park was next to the pub. And if a friend walked you to your car, you would then drive her to her car.”

“I remember hitchhiking down Stirling Highway in the middle of the night during the Burnie period. (Previous serial killers who terrorised Perth girls) However, you wouldn’t dream of walking down Bayview Terrace alone after Sarah Spiers went missing. Everybody was afraid.”

Bret Christian, the editor of the Post Newspapers, recently broke a story that police have forensic evidence linking Ciara Glennon's killer with a rapist who abducted a 17-year-old woman from a Claremont street then raped her in nearby Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995.

According to the Post, the young woman had left a Claremont nightclub, Club Bay View, shortly after midnight and was walking to a friend's house when she was abducted, taken to the cemetery, raped and released.

WA Police issued a statement in response to the report.

"For operational reasons the macro taskforce is not commented on similar media reports about possible links to other crimes," a spokesperson said.

But Christian is confident the Post's information is correct.

“I wouldn't have published it otherwise. The police haven’t denied it and people are pleasantly surprised to hear that the cops are still actively investigating the murders and they’re making progress,” Christian said.

“There’s also been new information coming forward from members of the public: that a woman was kidnapped near Claremont, but never reported it. Another woman was lured into a car in central Claremont, but never reported it until now.”

Christian told The Huffington Post Australia that there had been some unfortunate blunders, early in the investigation.

“The Perth cops hired a man who said he was an FBI profiler, who told the public to let cops know if you see anybody behaving oddly, such as washing their car frantically, or any suspicious behaviour. All that achieved is thousands of people called the police hotline, dobbing in ex-husbands, or neighbours they were feuding with... and they just swamped the cops with useless information.”

“It’s so easy to be an armchair expert and it seems everybody has a theory. But the good news is that Macro Taskforce has not given up. We're all hoping that one day everybody has closure."

Hunt For A Killer - The Claremont Murders

Published on Oct 6, 2016

This chilling CIA episode details the long and difficult investigation which began with the disappearance of 18-year-old secretary Sarah Spiers from a night club in the up-market Perth suburb of Claremont on Australia Day, 1996. The new information has been kept secret by police until now for fear its release could jeopardise the investigation. Now, for the first time, it's being shown to the public and viewers will be asked to look closely and to call Crimestoppers if they believe they can help.

b1LL1eMc1 month ago (edited)

48 year old man charged with murders of 2 girls. http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/claremont-serial-killer-man-appears-in-court-charged-with-claremont-murders-20161223-gth517.html

Fleurs Sv3 weeks ago

They found the evil bastard! Congratulations to WA police. �� Incredible. My heart goes out the victims and families. ❤️

Amanda Temme2 weeks ago

Alleged killer. Police took the unusual step of warning members of the public to be wary of posting about the case on social media and to let the natural course of justice take place.https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/man-charged-with-murders-of-ciara-glennon-jane-rimmer-ng-b88337901z

OctopusVolcano2 months ago

Wtf is up with that dudes facial hair...

Margot1 month ago

Very Sad

Ebenezer Geezer1 day ago

Yes DNA caught the Evil Bastard after 20 years!!

Paul Neiland1 day ago

It's great when you hear that these scumbags are caught,

jemorrismmorris1 month ago

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-22/claremont-serial-killer-breakthrough-arrest/8143174

His Dudeness2 months ago

@35:51 His eyes & listening to the way he says: ""That's correct" he clearly believes this mystery man is the killer. This documentary is old, though. Did he come forwards or not? Talk about the case... 

BrainScratch: Claremont Killer Caught?

Published on Jan 13, 2017

If you have any info pertaining to this case, Please contact Crime Stoppers (Australia) on 1800 333 000, where all calls are strictly confidential and rewards are offered.

BrainScratch: The Claremont Murders:
https://youtu.be/qHrouA7-yr8
*Thanks to Babelfroggy for researching the original BrainScrach episode!

Man Charged:
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/weste...

Silk Kimono.. vital clue?
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/weste...

Who is Bradley Edwards?
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/weste...

Wikipedia on Telstra:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstra

Spiers family comments:
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/weste...

Car found:
http://www.news.com.au/national/weste...

Wikipedia Claremont Serial Murders:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claremo...

Please support BrainScratch with Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/LordanArts

Comments:

Dayse Batista1 week ago

Hey, John, did you see this about D. B. Cooper? http://video.foxnews.com/v/5283040660001/?#sp=show-clip

Dayse Batista1 week ago

Yes, and look at this (I hope John gives it a look): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4121146/Did-D-B-Cooper-work-BOEING-New-analysis-hijacker-s-necktie-reveals-super-rare-particles-used-plane-manufacturer-thrilling-discovery-reopen-one-America-s-mystifying-cases.html

LordanARTS1 week ago

Thanks for the link Dayse!

Anthony Silbert1 week ago (edited)

I wasted years of my life investigating this case. They guy was a total wildcard, no one had any idea.

Australia Claremont Serial Killer, 1996 - 1997, Perth, Western Australia - #9 *ARREST

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?325435-Australia-Claremont-Serial-Killer-1996-1997-Perth-Western-Australia-9-*ARREST/page22

Accused 'Claremont serial killer' appears in court charged with two murders

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/claremont-serial-killer-man-appears-in-court-charged-with-claremont-murders-20161223-gth517.html

DECEMBER 23 2016

The man accused of being the Claremont serial killer, Bradley Robert Edwards, appeared in a Perth court on Friday morning charged with murder, abduction and sexual assault.

The 48-year-old Kewdale man remained silent during the brief appearance and was remanded in custody until his next appearance at Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court on January 25.

He was arrested on Thursday and charged overnight with the abduction and murders of Jane Rimmer, 23, and Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1996 and 1997.

He has also been charged with the rape of a 17-year-old girl in Claremont in 1995, and the indecent assault of an 18-year-old woman in a Huntingdale home in 1988.

Accused: Bradley Robert Edwards. Photo: Facebook

He has not been charged in relation to the suspected murder of Sarah Spiers after she disappeared from a nightclub in Claremont in 1996. Her body has never been found.

Mr Edwards' home, which he bought in July 2000 - three years after Ms Glennon's body was found - was raided by police on Thursday morning, with several bags of evidence taken away.

He was charged overnight with a series of alleged crimes over a nine-year period.

He was 29 when Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon were found dead.

Claremont victims Sarah Spiers  (left), Ciara Glennon (middle)
 and Jane Rimmer (right). 
Investigation into the disappearance of Sarah Spiers in ongoing

It is understood he lives in his Kewdale home with his adult step-daughter and is the former president of a Perth little athletics club.

In 2013, Mr Edwards and his wife at the time were awarded life memberships at Kewdale Little Athletics Club and Mr Edwards has held several positions with the sporting faculty, including president at the Belmont Little Athletics Centre in 2008.

Bradley Edwards shaking hands with former WA Labor leader Eric Ripper during a presentation for his 10 years' service at Kewdale Little Athletics Club in 2013.  Photo: Facebook

He currently volunteers for the Belmont club as a timekeeper, photographer and website administrator.

WAtoday understands he works for Telstra in an electrical field and may have previously been contracted to major mining companies in WA.

Bradley Edwards was the former president of the Belmont Little Athletics Club. Photo: Facebook

Laura Woollett

Published on Jan 18, 2014

A documentary about serial-killing couple David and Catherine Birnie, originally aired on the Nine Network (2010). Hosted by Vince Colosimo.

Crime Investigation Australia - The Devil Inside

Re: Serial Murderer John Cribb
https://youtu.be/iPIakaFaTog

hayleyjane1985

Published on Dec 11, 2013.

Crime Investigation Australia - The Night Caller Eric Edgar Cookec

hayleyjane1985

Published on Dec 16, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-25/claremont-serial-killer-accused-bradley-robert-edwards-in-court/8210792

Claremont serial killings: Accused man Bradley Edwards in second court appearance

By Joanna Menagh  25^th January, 2017

The man charged over the infamous Claremont serial killings has made his second court appearance in Perth, with the case adjourned for eight weeks.

Bradley Robert Edwards, 48, is accused of murdering Jane Rimmer in 1996 and Ciara Glennon in 1997 — two of the three women who disappeared during separate nights out in Claremont. Edwards is also accused of the rape of a 17-year-old girl in 1995 and the indecent assault of another woman in 1988. Bradley Robert Edwards is not facing any charges relating to Sarah Spiers, who disappeared from Claremont in January 1996.

Edwards appeared in the Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court this morning, in front of Magistrate Jan Whitbread via video link from Hakea prison. He sat quietly, showing no emotion, but often twitched his fingers. Edwards was wearing a green shirt and glasses.

There were more than 30 people in the public gallery, some there simply out of interest for the case that shocked the community.

Edwards did not enter pleas to the charges against him.

State prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo said there had been discussions with Edwards' lawyer and an adjournment was requested so that documents could be provided to the defence. Ms Barbagallo also said the defence needed to take further instructions from their client.

He was remanded in custody until his next court appearance on March 29.

Richard Edward Dorrough before shooting himself, at a shooting range, admitted to murdering three woman but did not name his victims

Richard Edward Dorrough looks very much like the Mystery Man that last spoke to Jane Rimmer and is a very good looking man whom a girl would really like

Nationwide police appeal for information on former Navy sailor with links to murder case

By David Weber -  10 Oct 2015

PHOTO: Richard Edward Dorrough has been linked to a number of serious crimes across the country.(Supplied: WA Police)

RELATED STORY: New evidence emerges in murder case

RELATED STORY: Prostitute stabbed to death after struggle, court hears

RELATED STORY: Man facing extradition over sex worker's murder

PHOTO: A court artist sketch of Richard Dorrough.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-10/appeal-for-info-on-former-navy-sailor-linked-to-murder-case/6843802

A nationwide appeal for information about a former Navy sailor linked to the murder of one woman and the disappearance of another has been issued by Western Australia's special police crime squad.

Richard Edward Dorrough took his own life in Perth last year. WA Police are not commenting on reports he left behind a suicide note containing admissions.

Dorrough had been convicted of attempted murder in one state, cleared of murder in another, and had been questioned over the disappearance of a Kimberley woman.

It was in 2010 that Dorrough was acquitted of the 1998 murder of Rachael Campbell in Sydney and in 1997 he was the last person known to have seen Sara-Lee Davey in Broome.

WA Police will not make any official comment on the specifics of the Dorrough's note, but they are appealing for assistance regarding his movements around Australia and New Zealand.

State Crime Assistant Commissioner Michelle Fyfe said someone somewhere may have crucial information.

"There is information out there that we don't hold whether that be here in Western Australia, whether that be on the eastern seaboard or in New Zealand," she said.

"There are members of the public who knew Mr Dorrough, who associated with him, who may very well recognise him and they may hold the key to us solving an unsolved crime."

Dorrough was a crew member of the patrol boat HMAS Geelong and spent time in different locations around Australia.

Sara-Lee Davey inquest set down for 2016

In 1997, police interviewed Dorrough in Darwin over the disappearance of 21-year-old Ms Davey.

Assistant Commissioner Fyfe said police were restricted in what they could say about the Davey case because a coronial inquest was set down for April next year.

She said that at the time of the disappearance, the investigation was carried out by local officers.

After about two weeks, they were joined by members of the homicide squad.

ssistant Commissioner Fyfe said it was recognised that practices and technologies change and evolve over time.

"The investigation into the disappearance of Ms Davey that took place in 1997 was conducted in line with policy and practice for 1997," she said.

"Any contemporary review of an historical investigation will often find deficiencies. We have reviewed the investigation in regards to Ms Davey and that will form part of the file that goes before the Coroner.

"The Special Crime Squad was set up for exactly this reason, to review historical homicides and historical long term missing persons."

A taxi driver had told police he had taken Dorrough and Ms Davey to the Broome port early on January 14, 1997.

While there were reported sightings of Ms Davey after that, Assistant Commissioner Fyfe said those witnesses were mistaken.

"The investigation in 1997 was directed based upon statements given by four witnesses," she said.

"Now these are witnesses who knew Sara-Lee personally, or knew the family all of whom said they saw her alive after 14th of January, 1997."

Rachael Campbell's body found in Sydney car-park

PHOTO: West Australian Police are looking for information on Richard Edwards Dorrough's whereabouts over a 20 year period.(Supplied: WA Police)

On November 7, 1998, the body of 29-year-old Rachael Campbell was found in the car park of St Joseph's Church in the Sydney suburb of Rosebery.

The sex worker had been stabbed several times in the neck and there were bite marks on her arms.

Dorrough was extradited from WA to NSW in 2009 after a DNA match was made.

He admitted biting Ms Campbell, but pleaded not guilty to her murder.

Dorrough argued her ex-boyfriend was probably the killer and he was acquitted by a jury.

In 2012, Sydney police said they had new information that an orange coloured Volkswagen Kombi Van may have been used to dump Ms Campbell's body in the church grounds.

At the time, Chief Inspector John Lehmann renewed an appeal for information from the public in relation to Ms Campbell's murder.

It was a violent incident in Queensland which led to Dorrough being put on trial for the murder of Ms Campbell.

In 2000 Dorrough was charged with attempted murder after deliberately running down a pedestrian with his vehicle.

He was convicted of performing an act intended to do grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to five years in prison with a 12 month minimum. He was released in 2001.

It was as a result of that charge that Dorrough's DNA was taken and placed on the National Database.

When officers from the NSW Cold Case Squad reviewed the 1998 murder of Ms Campbell in 2008, they got a hit on Dorrough's profile.

Search for clues continues

The Special Crime Squad is appealing to the public for assistance regarding Dorrough's movements across Australia and New Zealand over the past 20 years.

The squad has been in contact with cold case teams in other jurisdictions where Dorrough lived or visited, but has so far been unable to establish links with any unsolved crimes.

Assistant Commissioner Fyfe said the abductions and murders of two women from the Perth suburb of Claremont in the 1990s, and the disappearance of a third had been checked for links to Dorrough.

"We've reviewed all of our files - Mr Dorrough's whereabouts has been cross-matched with all of the files that we have on hand and we are unable to find any links at this time," she said.

Members of the public with any relevant information about Dorrough are being asked to contact Crime Stoppers.

Richard Edward Dorrough before shooting himself, at a shooting range, 
admitted to murdering three woman but did not name his victims

Richard Edward Dorrough looks very much like the Mystery Man that last spoke to Jane Rimmer and is a very good looking man whom a girl would really like

Richard Edward Dorrough havs been reported by the ABC to have lived in the following areas  in the following times:

Queeensland prior to 1984

Darwin in May 1996 to July 1997

And October 1997 to November 1997

Broome in 1997

Melbourne January 1995 to May 1999

Queensland: July 1999 to 2007

Perth: 2008 to 2010

However Richard Edward Dorrough  could have driven or flown to Perth during 1996 and 1997

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/former-australian-navy-mechanic-richard-dorrough-confesses-to-three-murders-before-death/news-story/5db2ff7d9fb88ad450c7711d90050452

THE former head of the WA Police homicide squad which investigated a navy sailor – now linked to three killings – has admitted his “strong suspicions”.

Former detective Paul Ferguson, whose team investigated the disappearance of a Broome woman 20 years ago, said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Richard Edward Dorrough.

Explosive allegations have now emerged that Dorrough, 37, confessed in a suicide note to killing three unnamed people, believed to be 21-year-old Broome woman Sara-Lee Davey, an unknown victim, and Sydney prostitute Rachael Campbell, 29 – the murder case Dorrough stood trial over but was acquitted.

Dorrough, originally from Queensland, killed himself at Belmont’s Lone Ranges Shooting Gallery in August last year.

Ms Davey disappeared on January 14, 1997 after it’s believed she met Dorrough, a navy mechanic on shore leave from the HMAS Geelong, at a Broome night spot.

Mr Ferguson yesterday stood by his homicide squad’s “thorough” investigation.

State Crime Assistant Commissioner Michelle Fyfe said the investigation was “in line with policy and practice for 1997” and was directed by four witness statements from people known to Ms Davey and her family claiming they saw her after January 14.

Mr Ferguson sent two detectives to Darwin to interview Dorrough a few months later, but couldn’t strengthen their case against him.

“We were relatively confident that he was the killer, but you don’t convict people on gut feelings, you convict them on evidence,” he said.

“In that particular case, there was no body, there was no admissions and you had not strangers, but members of (Ms Davey’s) family saying they’d seen her after the time of the incident.

“I was satisfied with the calibre of the investigation and I’d be more than satisfied to go before the coroner and answer any questions relating to what was done and why it was done at that particular point in time.”

A coronial inquest into Ms Davey’s disappearance will be held in Broome in April next year. WA Police have reviewed all cold cases and continue to work with other jurisdictions cross-matching Dorrough’s known whereabouts with unsolved crime files.

“We are unable to find any link with any unsolved serious crimes that we’re aware of,” Ms Fyfe said, adding any connection with the Claremont serial killer case had been ruled out as Dorrough was not living in Perth at the time. “There are members of the public who knew Mr Dorrough, who associated with him or who may very well recognise him. They may hold the key to us solving an unsolved crime.”

Dorrough’s criminal history includes being charged with attempted murder after he deliberately ran down a pedestrian in Queensland in 2000. He was convicted of a lesser charge and sentenced to five years, serving just a year.

NSW Police yesterday said its unsolved homicide team would “continue to review new evidentiary information”.

Former Australian Navy mechanic Richard Dorrough confesses to three murders before death

KATE CAMPBELL, PerthNow - October 10, 2015

Nationwide police appeal for information on former Navy sailor with links to murder case

By David Weber -  10 Oct 2015

PHOTO: Richard Edward Dorrough has been linked to a number of serious crimes across the country.(Supplied: WA Police)

RELATED STORY: New evidence emerges in murder case

RELATED STORY: Prostitute stabbed to death after struggle, court hears

RELATED STORY: Man facing extradition over sex worker's murder

PHOTO: A court artist sketch of Richard Dorrough.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-10/appeal-for-info-on-former-navy-sailor-linked-to-murder-case/6843802

A nationwide appeal for information about a former Navy sailor linked to the murder of one woman and the disappearance of another has been issued by Western Australia's special police crime squad.

Richard Edward Dorrough took his own life in Perth last year. WA Police are not commenting on reports he left behind a suicide note containing admissions.

Dorrough had been convicted of attempted murder in one state, cleared of murder in another, and had been questioned over the disappearance of a Kimberley woman.

It was in 2010 that Dorrough was acquitted of the 1998 murder of Rachael Campbell in Sydney and in 1997 he was the last person known to have seen Sara-Lee Davey in Broome.

WA Police will not make any official comment on the specifics of the Dorrough's note, but they are appealing for assistance regarding his movements around Australia and New Zealand.

State Crime Assistant Commissioner Michelle Fyfe said someone somewhere may have crucial information.

"There is information out there that we don't hold whether that be here in Western Australia, whether that be on the eastern seaboard or in New Zealand," she said.

"There are members of the public who knew Mr Dorrough, who associated with him, who may very well recognise him and they may hold the key to us solving an unsolved crime."

Dorrough was a crew member of the patrol boat HMAS Geelong and spent time in different locations around Australia.

Sara-Lee Davey inquest set down for 2016

In 1997, police interviewed Dorrough in Darwin over the disappearance of 21-year-old Ms Davey.

Assistant Commissioner Fyfe said police were restricted in what they could say about the Davey case because a coronial inquest was set down for April next year.

She said that at the time of the disappearance, the investigation was carried out by local officers.

After about two weeks, they were joined by members of the homicide squad.

ssistant Commissioner Fyfe said it was recognised that practices and technologies change and evolve over time.

"The investigation into the disappearance of Ms Davey that took place in 1997 was conducted in line with policy and practice for 1997," she said.

"Any contemporary review of an historical investigation will often find deficiencies. We have reviewed the investigation in regards to Ms Davey and that will form part of the file that goes before the Coroner.

"The Special Crime Squad was set up for exactly this reason, to review historical homicides and historical long term missing persons."

A taxi driver had told police he had taken Dorrough and Ms Davey to the Broome port early on January 14, 1997.

While there were reported sightings of Ms Davey after that, Assistant Commissioner Fyfe said those witnesses were mistaken.

"The investigation in 1997 was directed based upon statements given by four witnesses," she said.

"Now these are witnesses who knew Sara-Lee personally, or knew the family all of whom said they saw her alive after 14th of January, 1997."

Rachael Campbell's body found in Sydney car-park

PHOTO: West Australian Police are looking for information on Richard Edwards Dorrough's whereabouts over a 20 year period.(Supplied: WA Police)


Mystery Man last person known top have talked to Jane Rimmer before she disappeared

On November 7, 1998, the body of 29-year-old Rachael Campbell was found in the car park of St Joseph's Church in the Sydney suburb of Rosebery.

The sex worker had been stabbed several times in the neck and there were bite marks on her arms.

Dorrough was extradited from WA to NSW in 2009 after a DNA match was made.

He admitted biting Ms Campbell, but pleaded not guilty to her murder.

Dorrough argued her ex-boyfriend was probably the killer and he was acquitted by a jury.

In 2012, Sydney police said they had new information that an orange coloured Volkswagen Kombi Van may have been used to dump Ms Campbell's body in the church grounds.

At the time, Chief Inspector John Lehmann renewed an appeal for information from the public in relation to Ms Campbell's murder.

It was a violent incident in Queensland which led to Dorrough being put on trial for the murder of Ms Campbell.

In 2000 Dorrough was charged with attempted murder after deliberately running down a pedestrian with his vehicle.

He was convicted of performing an act intended to do grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to five years in prison with a 12 month minimum. He was released in 2001.

It was as a result of that charge that Dorrough's DNA was taken and placed on the National Database.

When officers from the NSW Cold Case Squad reviewed the 1998 murder of Ms Campbell in 2008, they got a hit on Dorrough's profile.

Search for clues continues

The Special Crime Squad is appealing to the public for assistance regarding Dorrough's movements across Australia and New Zealand over the past 20 years.

The squad has been in contact with cold case teams in other jurisdictions where Dorrough lived or visited, but has so far been unable to establish links with any unsolved crimes.

Assistant Commissioner Fyfe said the abductions and murders of two women from the Perth suburb of Claremont in the 1990s, and the disappearance of a third had been checked for links to Dorrough.

"We've reviewed all of our files - Mr Dorrough's whereabouts has been cross-matched with all of the files that we have on hand and we are unable to find any links at this time," she said.

Members of the public with any relevant information about Dorrough are being asked to contact Crime Stoppers.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/dna-from-condoms-found-near-rachael-campbellls-body-lead-to-richard-edward-dorrough-on-murder-charge/news-story/0eb2ea9df12afb9b8c1c4f0624f24174

DNA from condoms found near Rachael Campbell's body lead to Richard Edward Dorrough on murder charge

 class=tcog-pixel v:shapes="_x0000_i1029">

AAP March 24, 2010 

A MAN accused of the murder of a sex worker in 1998 was arrested more than a decade later after a DNA match, a Sydney jury has been told.

DNA from two used condoms and other items near the body matched the DNA profile of Richard Edward Dorrough, prosecutor John Bowers said.

In his opening address today in the NSW Supreme Court, Mr Bowers said Dorrough's DNA profile had been entered into a national database in 2001 for a traffic matter.

Dorrough, 32, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Rachael Campbell, 29.

Ms Campbell's naked body, covered with two blankets and a sheet, was found in the car park of St Joseph's Church at Rosebery in Sydney on November 7, 1998.

"She was killed during a violent struggle in which her attacker tried to strangle her and then stabbed her repeatedly in the neck with a sharp object, probably a knife," Mr Bowers said.

The location where Ms Campbell was killed has never been established, but Mr Bowers said her killer dumped the body in the car park.

He said the investigation into the murder had stalled until 2008 when police were able to match the previously unidentified DNA with that of Dorrough.

He said RTA records showed that Dorrough had been living in 1998 at addresses only a few kilometres from where Ms Campbell's body was found.

The trial is continuing before Justice David Kirby.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-06/police-believe-sailor-richard-dorrough-behind-broome-womans-disa/7304038

Police believe sailor Richard Dorrough behind Broome woman's death, inquest told

By Natalie Jones-  6 Apr 2016

Police believe former Navy sailor Richard Dorrough was responsible for the death of 21-year-old Sara-Lee Davey in the Kimberley town of Broome 19 years ago, a coronial inquest into her suspected death has been told.

The one-day inquest looking into the circumstances of Ms Davey's suspected death was held in Broome on Wednesday.

Ms Davey was drinking at a bar with friends in Broome in January 1997 when she met Mr Dorrough, 19, who was on shore leave.

The inquest heard the pair caught a taxi to the wharf where HMAS Geelong was moored and Mr Dorrough tried to bring Ms Davey on board.

The pair were stopped by Able Seaman Dean Mildenhall, who was on security duties and has since changed his name to Dean Fraser.

The court heard Mr Dorrough then said he was going to take Ms Davey to the end of the wharf to have sex with her and the pair walked out of sight behind a building.

This was the last time Ms Davey was seen by a credible witness.

Her body has never been found.

Fisherman David Jones told the inquest he heard a woman screaming.

"She was saying 'what the hell are you doing?' and 'get off me'," Mr Jones said.

He also recalled hearing a splash which sounded like someone throwing a stone in the water and then saw a man pacing up and down the wharf.

Mr Fraser told the hearing when Mr Dorrough returned to the ship, he questioned him about scratches on his face which were not there before.

Mr Dorrough replied that Ms Davey would not have sex with him and she was gone.

Mr Fraser also said Mr Dorrough, who was nicknamed Bambi by crew members, was not well liked, considered himself a ladies' man and was an impulsive liar.

In April that year, Mr Dorrough was questioned about Ms Davey's disappearance, but there was not enough evidence to charge him with any offences.

At the time he was questioned, police had received reports of several sightings of Ms Davey after the night at the wharf and they believed she may still have been alive.

Suicide note confession

In January last year, police received new information that Mr Dorrough had died and had confessed to killing three people in a suicide note.

The inquest heard that in August 2014 Mr Dorrough mailed his partner a parcel containing his computer, phone and an exercise book with the suicide note, which read: "I did kill three times ... it's the hardest thing to live with."

This led to the review of the Davey case, headed up by Detective Sergeant Darren Bethell.

Detective Bethell told the hearing the review revealed four witnesses who claimed they saw Ms Davey after January 14 were uncorroborated and one was falsified.

He said he could not go so far as to say there were shortcomings in the original investigation, but said in hindsight there were aspects of the case he would have done differently.

Detective Bethell said if Mr Dorrough was alive today there may have been enough evidence to charge him with an offence, but possibly not enough to convict him.

Inquiry may bring 'closure' but no 'justice' for family

Coroner Barry King deferred his findings until later this year.

He said it was likely he would find that Ms Davey died on January 14, 1997, but unlikely he would be able to say Mr Dorrough killed her. Outside the court Ms Davey's brother Jeffrey Hunter said after a long wait, the inquest brought the family some relief.

"In our hearts and our minds we know she's left us and we know who's responsible," he said. Mr Hunter said the process had not brought justice, but may lead to closure.

Richard Edward Dorrough - 6 Apr 2016, 12:31pm

Richard Dorrough left a suicide note in which he admitted killing three people, the inquiry heard.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-06/head-shot-of-richard-edward-dorrough/7304090

Supplied: WA Police

PHOTO: Richard Dorrough left a suicide note in which he admitted killing three people, the inquiry heard.(Supplied: WA Police)

RELATED STORY: Police appeal for information on former Navy sailor linked to murder case

RELATED STORY: Mother of missing Broome woman appeals for help

MAP: Broome 6725

Police believe former Navy sailor Richard Dorrough was responsible for the death of 21-year-old Sara-Lee Davey in the Kimberley town of Broome 19 years ago, a coronial inquest into her suspected death has been told.

suicide note serial killer: Richard Dorrough confesses to three murders ...

http://www.couriermail.com.au/subscribe/news/1/index.html?sourceCode=CMWEB_WRE170_a&mode=premium&dest=http:%2F%2Fwww.couriermail.com.au%2Fnews%2Fqueensland%2Fqueenslander-richard-dorrough-confesses-to-three-murders-in-suicide-note-but-gives-no-names%2Fnews-story%2Ffa33dfe4b8b0672194fb712b6004d549%3Fnk=495d52fb7a189a57f8562f66b759ff3f-1485533724&memtype=anonymous

Oct 10, 2015 - Richard Edward Dorrough, who grew up in the Bundaberg area before leaving to join the Royal Australian Navy, confessed to murdering three women …

Has Rachael Campbell’s killer finally been unmasked?

http://www.news.com.au/national/crime/has-rachael-campbells-killer-finally-be-unmasked/news-story/b0a8224f7cbdb4eeaa944fc3f906a6b0

OCTOBER 13, 2015

Andrew Koubaridis news.com.au

STABBED, strangled, bitten and raped, Rachael Campbell’s final moments were brutal and painful.

The 29-year-old prostitute from Sydney had been violently attacked before her body was dumped in a church courtyard. It took 10 years before a lucky break meant police were able to make an arrest and bring the alleged killer to court.

But that wasn’t the end for the accused, Richard Edward Dorrough. The 37-year-old West Australian man was found not guilty by a Supreme Court jury and allowed to return to his Perth home.

Many remained convinced that he was in fact the killer, but without a conviction, the case became another unexplained homicide — until, in an unexpected twist, Dorrough confessed to three murders in a note he left before committing suicide.

Details of what was written in the note have just surfaced with The West Australianreporting police were in “no doubt’ the murders Dorrough refers to are Ms Campbell’s and that of Broome woman Sara-Lee Davey and one other, unidentified, person.

Dorrough, a former sailor with the Australian Navy, shot himself in August last year. His handwritten note will form part of a coronial inquest, to be held next year, into Ms Davey’s death.

Richard Edward Dorrough. Picture: WA PoliceSource:Supplied

Detectives investigating Ms Campbell’s death believed they had cracked the case in 2009 when they matched DNA from the man they believed killed Ms Campbell with DNA Dorrough provided to the national database in 2000 after a minor traffic matter.

Until then the mystery DNA had frustrated investigators who believed they had the killer’s identity almost staring them in the face.

Their angst was summed up by Coroner John Abernethy at an inquest in 2000 when he said: “What we need is to find the person with the DNA that matches the DNA that we have. That may never occur. It could occur tomorrow.”

Rachel Campbell with her daughter Dana.Source:News Corp Australia

Prostitute Rachel Campbell was found murdered, wrapped in blankets in a church carpark.Source:News Corp Australia

He determined that Ms Campbell had probably been killed by a client who had refused to use a condom and was killed shortly after she was raped. She was then dumped at St Joseph’s Church at Rosebery covered in two blankets.

When he was finally brought to trial, the court heard two used condoms and other items matched the DNA profile of Dorrough.

It was the prosecution case that she died a violent death.

“She was killed during a violent struggle in which her attacker tried to strangle her and then stabbed her repeatedly in the neck with a sharp object, probably a knife,” Prosecutor John Bowers said as he opened the Crown case.

There were holes in the police case, such as the place she was actually killed. And Dorrough himself never denied he had been with Ms Campbell.

He admitted having sex with her and even biting her but rejected that he killed her. In court his legal team advanced a theory Ms Campbell’s estranged boyfriend was the killer.

In April 2010 the jury handed down their verdict. Not guilty of murder. Dorrough was a free man.

Dorrough’s criminal history includes being charged with attempted murder after he deliberately ran down a pedestrian in Queensland in 2000. He was convicted of a lesser charge and sentenced to five years, serving just a year.

In a statement, NSW Police said its unsolved homicide team would “continue to review new evidentiary information”.

andrew.koubaridis@news.com.au

Traffic offence led to cold case prostitute killer, court told

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/traffic-offence-led-to-cold-case-prostitute-killer-court-told-20100324-qvo3.html

A man accused of the murder of a sex worker in 1998 was arrested more than a decade later after a DNA match, a Sydney jury has been told.

DNA from two used condoms and other items near the body matched the DNA profile of Richard Edward Dorrough, prosecutor John Bowers said.

In his opening address today in the NSW Supreme Court, Mr Bowers said Dorrough's DNA profile had been entered into a national database in 2001 for a traffic matter.

Dorrough, 32, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Rachael Campbell, 29.

Ms Campbell's naked body, covered with two blankets and a sheet, was found in the car park of St Joseph's Church at Rosebery in Sydney on November 7, 1998.

"She was killed during a violent struggle in which her attacker tried to strangle her and then stabbed her repeatedly in the neck with a sharp object, probably a knife," Mr Bowers said.

The location where Ms Campbell was killed has never been established, but Mr Bowers said her killer dumped the body in the car park.

He said the investigation into the murder had stalled until 2008 when police were able to match the previously unidentified DNA with that of Dorrough.

He said RTA records showed that Dorrough had been living in 1998 at addresses only a few kilometres from where Ms Campbell's body was found.

The trial is continuing before Justice David Kirby.

AAP

http://www.news.com.au/national/crime/has-rachael-campbells-killer-finally-be-unmasked/news-story/b0a8224f7cbdb4eeaa944fc3f906a6b0

Former navy sailor who took his own life 'wrote a suicide note claiming he MURDERED three people' - as police appeal for help tracking his movements

Former navy mechanic Richard Dorrough committed suicide in 2014 

It is alleged he left behind a suicide note admitting to three murders 

Dorrough was charged with the murder of Sara-Lee Davey, 21, in 1997 - but the charge was dropped after a jury deemed him not guilty in 2009

Police across Australia have been unable to link him to any unsolved crimes, but are asking the public for information on his movements 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267456/Former-navy-seal-took-life-wrote-suicide-note-claiming-MURDERED-three-people-police-appeal-help-tracking-movements.html

By Daniel Peters For Daily Mail Australia and Australian Associated Press

PUBLISHED: 14:03, 10 October 2015

A former Australian Navy sailor reportedly confessed to three murders in a suicide note written before his death, sparking a nationwide appeal for information by West Australian police.  

Richard Edward Dorrough, a former HMAS Geelong crew member, left behind the shocking admission after his August 2014 death, the West Australian reported on Saturday.

'We are seeking public assistance regarding Dorrough's movements across Australia and even in New Zealand over the past 20 years,' WA State Crime Assistant Commissioner Michelle Fyfe said in a statement on Saturday. 

Scroll down for video 

Comments:

Trish Delaney, Geelong, Australia, 1 year ago

I recognise him and he might have left the area due to a drug habit.

dbunk, Australia, Australia, 1 year ago

D M junior writers have no idea at all. And they don't have to care because they still get 12 million readers even with errors, spelling mistakes and garbage headlines.

oseph_212, Perth, Australia, 1 year ago

Congratulations to Australias first navy seal.

TweetyBird, DC, United States, 1 year ago

Get your headline right DM!!

Mirrorinyourface, Downumderland, Australia, 1 year ago

We don't have navy seals. Stupid, because a few sentences later he is referred to as a mechanic. Does anyone proofread at DM?; unlikely .

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267456/Former-navy-seal-took-life-wrote-suicide-note-claiming-MURDERED-three-people-police-appeal-help-tracking-movements.html#ixzz4WypJwXZL 
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Richard Borrough, a former Navy mechanic, reportedly admitted to three murders in his suicide note last year

One of those women is reported to be Rachael Campbell, a 29-year-old prostitute who was stabbed to death in 1998. Dorrough was initially charged with her murder, but was acquitted after the jury found him not guilty

Before Dorrough took his own life in August 2014 at age 37, he reportedly wrote a handwritten note admitting to murdering three people - one case of which police were not aware of.

The note was found at his Byford home and did not identify the victims.

Police said the state Coroner had directed them not to reveal, or confirm, the contents of the note.

It has been reported that two of the alleged murders were of young women in the late 1990's, both of which he was questioned over at the time of the murders.

Dorrough was initially charged with the 1998 murder of 29-year-old prostitute Rachael Campbell in Sydney, but was acquitted at trial.

Ms Campbell was found in the car park of St Joseph's Church, just south of Sydney's CBD, with several stab wounds on her neck, and bite marks on her arm, according to the ABC.

Dorrough was extradited to NSW in 2009 after a breakthrough in DNA evidence, and whilst he admitted to sleeping with and biting Ms Campbell, the jury found him not guilty of her murder. 

The former navy mechanic was also a suspect in the 1997 disappearance of 21-year-old Kimberley woman Sara-Lee Davey from Broome.

Another murder allegedly mentioned in the suicide note was of Sara-Lee Davey - who has been on the national missing persons list since she vanished in 1997. Dorrough was questioned over her disappearance at the time

Dorrough was extradited from WA to NSW after police found DNA evidence that linked him to murdered Sydney woman Rachel Campbell. He admitted to sleeping with and biting her, but denied the murder claims

The grieving family of Ms Davey have spent the past 18 years living in uncertainty over the fate of their beloved Sarah, who up until recently, they still believed was a missing persons.

Sara-Lee's mother, Irene, told the West Australian that the latest information regarding her daughter's status provided little closure or comfort.

'I am angry...Sara did not do anything wrong,' Mrs Davey said. 'She was always smiling and a friendly girl and who has the right to take that away from you?'

She also expressed her empathy for the families of the other alleged murders.

'There are two other mothers out there now...no one ever really knows what a mother feels,' she said. 

Sara-Lee remains on the Australian Federal Police's national missing person's list. 

A post in June of this year - on a Facebook page dedicated to finding her - wished her a happy birthday and urged it's followers to re-read details of her last sighting.

An inquest into Sara-Lee Davey's death is due to be held in April next year.

Assistant Commissioner Fyfe said the WA special crime squad had contacted police in other jurisdictions where Dorrough lived or visited.

So far they have been unable to link him to any unsolved serious crimes.

'It may well be that members of the public who associated with Dorrough have the information we seek, and we urge them to come forward now,' she said.

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467 

Western Australia police are searching for anybody who may have come into contact with Richard Dorrough in the past twenty years

Read more:

• Serial killer’s confession - The West Australian
• Mother angry at lost hope for justice - The West Australian
• Nationwide police appeal for information on former Navy sailor with links to murder case - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267456/Former-navy-seal-took-life-wrote-suicide-note-claiming-MURDERED-three-people-police-appeal-help-tracking-movements.html#ixzz4Wyp7k9u4 
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267456/Former-navy-seal-took-life-wrote-suicide-note-claiming-MURDERED-three-people-police-appeal-help-tracking-movements.html#ixzz4Wyp0upPJ 
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267456/Former-navy-seal-took-life-wrote-suicide-note-claiming-MURDERED-three-people-police-appeal-help-tracking-movements.html#ixzz4WyoqfkVA 
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267456/Former-navy-seal-took-life-wrote-suicide-note-claiming-MURDERED-three-people-police-appeal-help-tracking-movements.html#ixzz4WyofgMsf 
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