Case Closed: The Claremont Serial Killer

Two decades ago in Claremont, the hub of the western suburbs of Perth, South Australia was rocked with the disappearance of three young women. Just last month on the 24th September 2020 Justice Stephen Hall delivered his long-awaited verdict in the conviction of 51-year-old Bradley Robert Edwards. The former Telstra worker was found guilty for the murders of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon but acquitted of the murder of Sarah Spiers in the Claremont serial killings case, Australia’s longest-running, and most expensive criminal investigation.

Sarah Spiers

Sarah Spiers was just 18 years old when she went missing on Australia Day 1996. Sarah was brought up in rural Western Australia, and like many country children went to boarding school in Perth in high school. Sarah attended the prestigious Iona Presentation College, near the banks of the Swan River in Mosman Park. After graduating, she attended secretarial school before getting a receptionist job with an engineering consultancy.

Sarah's friends remember her as "an amazing person who was full of life and laughter".

On the night of 26th January 1996, Australia Day, Sarah's sister Amanda dropped Sarah and her friends at Club Bayview in Claremont just after midnight. According to Amanda, "she was happy, gave me a hug, kiss, 'thanks for dropping me off' … that's the last time I saw her,"

It was at Club Bayview that Sarah decided she had enough and wanted to head home. She said goodbye to her friends at the club and called a taxi from a phone booth in nearby Stirling Street. After that, she was never seen again.

Unlike the Claremont Serial Killers other 2 victims, Sarah Spier's body has never been found.

Jane Rimmer

The 23-year-old childcare worker Jane Rimmer, came from a close-knit family and had an extremely tight bond, keeping regular contact with her parents. Although no longer living at home, Jane would regularly return to her parents' house on Saturdays with an armful of laundry and often visiting during the week on her way home after work. "Bubbly" is the term her father used to describe her in interviews.

Jane would often hang out at Club Bayview with friends and her entire friendship circle was "absolutely devastated" when she disappeared.

Jane was last seen on CCTV standing outside The Continental in the early hours of Sunday 9th June 1996.

55 days later, a family made the grim discovery after a rooster ran out in front of their car while they were driving down a semi-rural road in Wellard, 40 kilometers south of Perth. While the children played and chased the rooster, their mother walked down a bush path to admire some bush flowers. There she noticed a pair of feet and followed the body up to find Jane Rimmer lying naked, concealed under branches.

Police descended upon the area and less than a kilometer from the crime scene a Telecom (now known as Telstra) pocketknife was found.

After Jane Rimmer's death, Western Australian Police launched Macro Taskforce to investigate her disappearance and that of Sarah Spiers.

Ciara Glennon

The Claremont Serial Killer's last victim was 27-year-old lawyer, Ciara Glennon. The young Irish woman had recently returned to Australia to attend her sister’s wedding, after spending a year abroad working. Ciara was last seen on 15th March 1997 after celebrating St Patrick’s Day with friends at the Continental Hotel. The same location in which Jane Rimmer had last visited. Almost a month later on 3rd April, Ciara’s body was found semi-buried in bushland, off a narrow limestone track near Pipidinny Road in Eglinton, north of Perth.

When Ciara was still deemed a missing person, her father explained during an appeal that Ciara “would fight for her life because of the way she was brought up. She would fight for her life.” Little did he know at the time how prophetic his words would be. Ciara had fought her attacker. A defensive wound was discovered on her arm from trying to fight, and Ciara had managed to claw him with her nails before he slashed her neck with a sharp weapon. His DNA was discovered under her nails and it was the crucial piece of evidence that would eventually seal his fate.

Catching a Killer

After the disappearance of Jane Rimmer, Perth police set up the Macro Task Force. Police investigated over 3000 people and became Australia’s longest and most expensive manhunt in history.

In 2008, samples that had been taken from Ciara Glennon’s fingernails which were originally deemed too small were sent to the UK for specialist testing. A DNA match was found to an unsolved rape that occurred at the Karrakatta Cemetery, a year before Sarah Spiers disappeared. Unfortunately, police still did not have a name for their suspect. Until in 2014 South Australian police began opening unsolved sex offenses and, in a box, lay a Kimono from the attack in 1988.

In 1988 a young 18-year-old woman, living in the suburb of Huntingdale, awoke to find a man wearing the kimono in her bedroom. He assaulted her and she fought back, the perpetrator then fled leaving the kimono behind. Further investigation by police found that there had also been a number of reported break and enters in the area involving the theft of women’s clothing. The unknown perpetrator had left fingerprints, which police were able to match. The perpetrator’s name was Bradley Robert Edwards.

In 1990, Edwards was charged with the assault of a social worker at the Hollywood Hospital. He had grabbed from behind, stuffed something in her mouth, and began dragging her into the bathroom. Edwards was later found to have had cable ties in his pocket. Bradley Edwards pled guilty to the assault, he received two years’ probation and was instructed to attend a sex-offenders rehabilitation program. Now, police had a name, all they need was the final evidence to close the case and put Edwards away.

By the end of 2016 police had placed surveillance on Edwards. During a visit to the cinema with his daughter. Edwards drank from a bottle of Sprite which he discarded as they left. A DNA test of the bottle threw up a match to the Karrakatta DNA and to DNA under Ciara Glennon’s fingernails.

Days after that, police arrested Bradley Edwards, but it would take almost four years and a complex seven-month trial to convict him. Edwards was initially charged with eight offenses, including the murders of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon and charges relating to Karrakatta and Huntingdale. They included two counts of deprivation of liberty, two of aggravated sexual penetration without consent, one break and enter with intent, and one of indecent assault. Police later added a charge against him of murdering Sarah Spiers for which he has not been convicted.

On Thursday, the 24th September 2020 Bradley Robert Edwards now 51, was found guilty of murdering Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon but was acquitted of killing Sarah Spiers, 18, whose remains have never been found.

Justice Stephen Hall stated there was no forensic evidence in Sarah Spiers’ case, but there were some general similarities between her disappearance and the other two victims.

“The prosecution has failed to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused killed Ms. Spiers…the evidence of his propensity to kill may make him a likely suspect, or even the probable killer, but it does not exclude the real possibility that some other person killed her.”

Sarah Spiers' case will remain open and police will continue to question Edwards. Bradley Robert Edwards will face a sentencing hearing on the 23rd December and prosecutors are most likely to seek an order that he never be released.