Missing and murdered girls in and around Perth and Western Australia from the 1970’s to around 2003

It  is interesting to note that Donald Morey was convicted of attemopting to murder a girl in Perth in 2005 and received a 13 years prison term in the year 2005

17^th April, 1974 the disappearance and suspected murder of

Raelene Eaton and

Yvonne Waters   last seen in Scarbourgh Beach, Western Australia.

June 1975 Shirley Finn 1975 - The 19th Hole. In June 1975, Shirley Finn was found at the Royal Perth Golf Club slumped over the steering wheel of her car with four bullets in the back of her head.

January 10, 1979.  On January 10, 1979, Orelia resident Felicia Wilson’s battered, mutilated body was found behind a shopping centre at Kwinana on January 10, 1979.

June 1980. PAULINE WALTER, 22

Pauline Walter was last seen at a Perth backpacker hostel in June 1980.

Her headless body was found in a Forrestdale ditch six years later.

October 30, 1980- LISA MOTT, 12

Lisa Mott vanished on October 30, 1980. She was last seen getting into a panel van on Forrest St, Collie, after a basketball game. Her body has never been found.

February 19, 1983-SHARON MASON, 14

Perth schoolgirl Sharon Mason vanished on February 19, 1983

June 26, 1986- BARBARA WESTERN, 38

Barbara was last seen drinking at a pub on the Albany Highway on June 26, 1986.

Her skeletal remains were eventually found in bush near Karragullen 

1986. Cheryl Renwick  and Barbara Western  both vanished from Perth in 1986


February 1888
Sexual assault of an 18-year-old girl at her home in   
Huntingdale.


Disappearnce and suspected murder of Julie Cutler in Perth, Claremont, Cottesloe area.

 Kerry Turner Missing
 John and Sue Turner, Parents of missing Kerry Turner

30^th June, 1991 the disappearance and suspected murder of Kerry Turner

Rape of girl in Karrakatta Cemetery after walking home from the Club Bayview in Claremont

Ce

January 14, 1997. Sara Lee Davey was last seen alive on January 14, 1997 from Broome, Western Australia, Endangered and missing.



Ciara Glennon, Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer. 

January 1996. Ms Sarah Spiers went missing from outside a Claremont nightclub in January 1996.


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



March 1997. Ms Ciara Glennon, 27, disappeared in March 1997. Her body was found in bushland north of Perth 19 days after she was last seen in Claremont.
1997 - Ciara Glennon- Abducted Claremont, Found dead, cause of death unknown (Foreign articles suggest major knife wounds- maybe I’m wrong and only one victims was identified in the foreign media as having major knife wounds throughout the body,If So it would be Ciara only where we know the cause of death?)

Nov. 1998 - Lisa Brown, missing (sex worker, last seen on Palmerston St.)

1999, Jennifer Wilby vanished ...

28 April 1999. Petronella Albert (Broome 1999)

Petronella ALBERT left her address in the Broome area at 8:30 pm on 28 April 1999, but failed to return home. All efforts by her family and the police have failed to locate her. There are concerns for her safety and welfare. Last seen: Wednesday, 28 April 1999 Year of birth: 1978 Height: 160 cm Build: Solid Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Complexion: Dark Gender: Female

Age: 22 Height: 160cm Hair: Black Eyes: Brown


Petronella ALBERT left her address in Broome area at 2030 hours 28/04/99, but failed to return home. All efforts by her family and the Police have failed to locate her. Last seen:Blue Dress, No Shoes
If anyone has seen Petronella ALBERT , or has information regarding this persons whereabouts, please contact 1800 333 000

Petronella ALBERT

DESCRIPTION: (at time of disappearance):

AGE:  22 years 
HEIGHT:  153cm
BUILD:  Medium
EYES:  Brown
HAIR:  Brown 
COMPLEXION:  Tanned

The disappearance of 22 year old Petronella ALBERT from Broome on the 28^th of April, 1999 has left many unanswered questions.

Petronella lived with her defacto husband at 4b Placanica Place in Broome.   

On the 28^th of April, 1999, Petronella left her home around 8.30pm to visit friends (which she did from time to time) but on this occasion she never returned, sparking concerns with both her husband and her mother.  

Although eleven years have past, family and friends of Petronella are still desperate for answers surrounding her disappearance but to date there has been no further information leading to her whereabouts.

If you have any information about Petronella’s disappearance, make a report online or call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, where all calls are strictly confidential, and rewards are offered. Please quote Reference Number 5305.

http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightAustralia/ar/t127.htm

 https://www.facebook.com/AustralianMissingPersons

October 8, 1999. Lisa Govan then 28, vanished in Kalgoorlie, where Lisa Govan had  been living and working for a few years. She had been living with her partner in a home on Cassidy St at the time.


Ian and Pat Govan hope that someone’s memory is jogged about the disappearance of Lisa

Ms Govan was last seen about 7.30am near the Foundry Hotel bottle shop.

At the time, the hotel was also used as a clubhouse by the Club Deroes bikie gang.

The clubhouse was raided in the days after Ms Govan’s disappearance.

Property and clothing were reportedly seized from the clubhouse, but it was later determined not to belong to the missing woman.

Despite a $50,000 reward being posted, extensive inquiries by police and her family, Lisa’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Nobody has ever been charged in connection with her suspected murder.

Ms Govan’s stoic parents Ian and Pat, her sister Ginette Jackson and her aunt Pauline Leighton spoke to The Sunday Times in the hope somebody’s conscience might be nudged or their memory jogged.

 If you know anything about Missing Person Lisa Govan please contact Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000 or The National Missing Persons Coordination Centre 1800 000 634 Original Poster and info found here http://www.missingpersons.gov.au/missing-persons/profiles/profiles/a/l/albert%20petronella%20-%20wa.aspx

Nov. 2000 - Sarah McMahon, missing (last seen in Claremont, knew Morey)

Apr. 2002 - Survivor (attacked on Palmerston St.)

Mar. 2003 -  Darylyn Meridith Ugle …murdered (sex worker, body found near Mundaring Weir)

Dec. 2003 - Survivor (sex worker, escaped near Mundaring Weir)

To the media, the murder of most of these women seemed worthy of little more than a salacious headline: ‘Sports Star Kills Prostitute’, ‘Sex Worker Dies in Hotel’. Why is it that the public care about the death of some women and not others?

 In Perth between 1996 and 1997 there was a cluster of disappearances and murders thought to have been committed by the Claremont Serial Killer. Three young women disappeared, and two of them were later found murdered. The prevailing view amongst women all over Perth at the time was, ‘It could have been me.’ Women responded with gut-clenching fear, and changed their own behaviour – and sometimes their appearance – to avoid drawing the attention of a monster. It was the most talked about crime in Perth for decades.

The victims were middle-class and respectable and they all disappeared while enjoying a night out with friends. The city was horrified, terrified – and the public pressure to track down the Claremont Serial Killer was unprecedented.

While the cases remain unsolved, they are still talked about with emotion and anxiety in Western Australia.

In 1998, Lisa Brown disappeared from the streets of Perth.

In 1999, Jennifer Wilby vanished.

Then in 2003, Darylyn Ugle was murdered.

All three women were sex workers.

When Lisa disappeared, some people worried that the Claremont Killer had changed his modus operandi, because Jennifer Wilby died soon after. Police rushed to reassure the public that this was different, and there was nothing to be alarmed about.

Then Darylyn Ugle was murdered, but police and media reinforced their message to the public: there was no link.

Many people took the view that Lisa was a drug-addicted prostitute who put herself at risk. Sympathy for her plight and the deaths of Jennifer and Darylyn was difficult to find. This kind of victim-blaming is misleading and naive.

In Australia, the majority of sex workers choose to work as escorts or in brothels, rather than as street workers. However, there are pockets in every major city that are known places for kerb crawlers to go in search of quick, anonymous sex. Currently it is estimated that between 1 and 2 per cent of sex workers are streetbased.1 This is in contrast to the rest of the world where more than 80 per cent of sexual services are transacted from the streets. Of course the risks are greater. The very nature of the work requires these women to get into cars with strangers, or to go into dark alleys and engage in some form of sex. Once they are alone with a customer they are at his mercy, and it is not uncommon for the customer to take more than he has paid for. Although it is diffi cult to fi nd accurate fi gures, some studies have shown that 80 per cent of street-based sex workers have experienced some form of violence in the last six months of working.

 This violence can take many forms: refusal to use a condom, slapping, beating, assaulting, raping, abducting, stealing money and refusing to pay. Sometimes the violence leaves a woman so badly injured she is unable to work for days or weeks. Women are abducted for days at a time and held as sex slaves before being released. Crimes against sex workers are rarely reported. A major reason for this is the legal status of their job. Depending on what kind of sex work they engage in, or where they operate from, they are often working outside the law. The law varies in the different states of Australia, but street-based sex work is not legal anywhere. When sex workers are raped or beaten they are often too afraid of the consequences of reporting the crime, and of being on the radar of the local police, to do anything about it. Another reason for the reluctance to report is that workers do not believe police will take them seriously. There are numerous historical cases where police have treated sex workers as more criminal than victim.

Street-based sex workers accept these increased risks, or simply feel there is no alternative. It would be simplistic to think we can understand the reasons, but for those who are out there it is preferable to working in brothels because the hours are more fl exible, the pay is better and they get to be their own boss.

Another factor is that the majority of street-based sex workers are addicted to illicit drugs. Sex work is a quick, easy way to make the money they need to feed their addictions.

It’s a moot point: did they turn to the streets because they needed to fund a heroin addiction, or were they on the streets for other reasons, and began to take heroin as a coping tool?

There is no clear cut answer, but it is generally accepted that almost all streetbased sex workers are addicted to drugs. Addiction is a terrible disease that is given neither the respect nor the compassion by law makers and enforcers that it needs. *** It’s not possible to ignore the feeling, the sense, that among the faceless men are the lonely, the ones who are scanning for a quick exchange of sex for cash, the curious, the judgemental, the overstimulated clans of teenagers.

And the predators. There are men who are opportunistic; men who see themselves as ordinary, yet when they are with a sex worker, somehow they see themselves as entitled. She is offering a service for payment, but he decides he’s paid for her and can use her in any way he sees fit. The other type of predator, thankfully more rare, is habitual, sadistic, and totally without remorse. You can’t tell by looking if a man is a hunter.

More often than not he masquerades as normal; he makes sure you can’t see him because he has planned the hunt, prepared for it. He has fantasised about it for so long that it is truth in his head, long before it turns into behaviour. It may surprise people to know that a predator doesn’t pick up sex workers because they’re prostitutes. While it’s true they are more likely to be a target for violence than other women, it’s not because they’re sex workers . . . it’s because they’re there.

They are accessible, and they are perceived to be less likely to have someone to go home to at the end of the day – they may not be missed as quickly as a woman who might be abducted in a shopping centre car park. To the collective conscience it began with Jack the Ripper in London. To this day the images remain strong: a mystery man materialised from the fog in Whitechapel, restrained and sadistically murdered a woman, then simply vanished . . . until the next time.

Even though these murders took place almost 130 years ago, people remain fascinated with ‘Jack’. Can those same people recall the name of even one of his victims?

Street-based sex workers remain an obvious target for some predators.

American serial killer Gary Ridgeway was the Green River Killer who, during the 1980s and 1990s, murdered at least 49 women and girls in Washington State. Most of his victims were sex workers or women in vulnerable situations, including underage runaways. When DNA caught up with him he confessed to double that number. When asked why he chose sex workers as his victims, his answer was illuminating: ‘I picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught.’

Australia has its share of predators who have targeted sex workers.

Men like Donald Morey who is languishing in a Western Australian prison. He was convicted in 2005 for the attempted murder of a sex worker in Perth, and is the prime suspect in the murder of another sex worker and in the disappearance of a woman who had no connection to the sex industry.

http://infoblog41.blogspot.ie/2012/03/wa-police-suspect-bones-were-massage.html

WA: Police suspect the bones found were Jennifer Wilby who was a massage parlour worker

WA: Police suspect bones were massage parlour worker's

By Tom Wald

http://infoblog41.blogspot.ie/2012/03/wa-police-suspect-bones-were-massage.html

PERTH, Aug 6 AAP - Human remains uncovered in a forest south of Perth at the weekendare believed to be those of missing massage parlour worker Jennifer Wilby.

Police said forensics officers suspected that the skull and bones, found by a bushwalkerand his girlfriend on Sunday in forest at Karragullen, 40km from Perth, were those of23-year-old Ms Wilby.

Ms Wilby was last seen outside an inner city nightclub about 1.30am (WST) on May 17, 1999.

Detective Senior Sergeant Garry Annetts, heading the murder investigation, said policewere still trying to confirm today the remains were that of the young mother.

"Whilst we are not in a position to say conclusively who the person is, we are sayingthat, in all probability based on forensic advice, and the examination of some items atthe scene, it would appear to be the remains of Jennifer Wilby," he said.

"We are looking to confirm as soon as possible for the sake of the families."

Det Sen Sgt Annetts said the discovery would help kickstart the murder investigation.

"The crime scene or the dump site are always a crucial part of our investigations," he said.

"The fact we now have that will certainly advance the investigations a long way."

Det Sen Sgt Annetts said police will scour the immediate area of the remote forestfor other remains.

Since the find, police are understood to have contacted the families of several peoplewho have gone missing under suspicious circumstances in recent years.

Police yesterday said that among cases they would look at would be 18-year-old SarahSpiers, believed to have been a victim of the so-called Claremont serial killer.

Ms Spiers is presumed to have been killed by a man also responsible for the abductionand deaths of two other women from the exclusive Perth suburb of Claremont in 1996 and1997.

Her body has never been found.

AAP tdw/sd/cjh/bwl

Then in 2003, Darylyn Ugle was murdered.

All three women were sex workers.

When Lisa disappeared, some people worried that the Claremont Killer had changed his modus operandi, because Jennifer Wilby died soon after. Police rushed to reassure the public that this was different, and there was nothing to be alarmed about.

Then Darylyn Ugle was murdered, but police and media reinforced their message to the public: there was no link

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.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?284695-Claremont-Serial-Killer-1996-1997-Perth-Western-Australia-2/page40

Claremont Serial Killer, 1996 - 1997, Perth, Western Australia - #2 P.40

Family of murdered sex worker speak of anguish as they await verdict

https://www.ecr.co.za/.../family-murdered-sex-worker-speak-anguish-they-await-verdi...

1. 

Jan 18, 2017 - Family of murdered sex worker speak of anguish as they await verdict ... Desiree Murugan's headless body was found by municipal workers at ...

Missing: mar ‎2003 ‎darylyn ‎mundaring ‎weir

Family of murdered sex worker speak of anguish as they await verdict

 Updated Jan. 18, 2017

https://www.ecr.co.za/news/news/family-murdered-sex-worker-speak-anguish-they-await-verdict/?fb_comment_id=1315365211819952_1315410641815409#f2c281e81465bf

https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/violent-attacker-is-suspect-in-murders-ng-ya-141907 

Australia Claremont Serial Killer, 1996 - 1997, Perth, Western Australia - #11

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?326587-Australia-Claremont-Serial-Killer-1996-1997-Perth-Western-Australia-11/page23

P.23

Who was responsible for the abduction of Ciara Glennon,Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer and many other Western

 Australian girls in the 50 odd years from the 1970's to the 2015

The Sunday Times reported “Lost in the Devil's Garden”

http://netk.net.au/MarshallDebi/DebiMarshall5.asp

Networked Knowledge - Book Reports

The book is The Devil’s Garden and it recalls the rising panic Perth people felt in January 1996 when 18-year-old Sarah Spiers vanished off a street near Club Bayview after an evening out with friends. A few months later Jane Rimmer, 23, went missing from the same area late at night. Then in March 1997, 27-year-old Ciara Glennon disappeared from the same place. The naked body of Jane Rimmer was found in bushland south of Perth. Ciara Glennon’s body was discovered in scrub at Eglinton to the north. Sarah has not been found.

One exception to this was Paul Ferguson, head of Major Crime at the time of the Claremont murders who, Marshall says, tells it like it is. Others were open but not prepared to be identified.。。。Dave Caporn, as the face of the investigation during its most critical period, he is the one Macro officer I am most hoping to speak with 。。 however David Caporn in the end completely refused to talk with Ms Marshall about his and the Macro Task Force’s investigation into the Claremont Serial Killings and Adbuctions…

Marshall also includes the cases of Hayley Dodd and Sarah McMahon who disappeared in 1999 and 2000. She believes the police have not exhausted the possibility that they – Sarah, in particular – could also be victims of the Claremont killer. “I do think she could be a victim, yes, I do. There is no way you can wipe it out,” she says. But Mr Lampard dismisses this allegation out of hand. “Ms Marshall speculates often about how many other victims of the Claremont serial killer there are 。。。。

.。。Ms Marshall speculates often about how many other victims of the Claremont serial killer there are, yet the world-renowned Schramm review panel of experts found no evidence of any links with 24 other cases of murdered or missing women in WA,” he says. “The book devotes many pages to rehashing the handful of well-documented miscarriage of justice cases in WA over the past four decades or so.

Marshall believes there are other assaults and murders that could be linked to the Claremont killer and there were other people – and one in particular – who also warranted further serious investigation. “I was gobsmacked at some of the leads that weren’t chased,” she says. “It was really disturbing for me.” While the police investigation also left the reputations of a few men in tatters, she herself was unable to include some of the information because of legal constraints. But in her efforts to discover just who and what the police had looked into, she ran into a blue wall of silence. While the WA police verbally agreed to talk to her, they refused once she arrived in Perth last year researching the book, claiming there was nothing to be gained by talking about an ongoing investigation.

Just weeks before her deadline late last year, they switched again and Marshall was allowed to speak to some of the senior investigators who had worked on the case. But not Dave Caporn, the high-profile head of the Macro taskforce for several years. Part of the reason given for this was the ongoing Corruption and Crime Commission investigation into the wrongful conviction of Andrew Mallard for the murder of Mosman Park jewellery shop owner Pamela Lawrence in 1994, a case in which Caporn was also closely involved. “And the police culture was like a real boys’ club. - they would almost pat me on the head and say, run along, your boyfriend’s waiting,” she says. “I think this sort of attitude really hindered the investigation, a terrible arrogance, a blind arrogance.

 Marshall believes another reason for this investigation’s lack of accountability is the small pool of journalists in Perth who rely on having cordial relations with police to get stories. “The reality is that they need to go out and deal with the police on a day-to-day basis.

It has been a long, sultry and emotional day. My understanding is that the next morning Lee will facilitate interviews with other officers who had worked on Macro and furnish material to me that I had requested. It isn’t to be. Instead, I am afforded only a telephone call.

“You’re not going to like this, Debi,” Lee begins with a hint of genuine apology. “No police officers are allowed to speak to you.” I am stunned. “Why not?” “Sorry, I can’t tell you that. I am not at liberty to discuss it with you any further.” “Why wasn’t I told this before I came to Perth?”

“Sorry.” I sense that he is. Younger, less entrenched in the patronising attitude often afforded the media by older officers, Lee can see the benefits of a healthy relationship with the press. But his hands are tied. “I can only advise you to put your grievance in writing to the commissioner, Karl O’Callaghan.”

Bewildered, I take his advice.

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

Debi Marshall homepage

See also
Go here: for lectures and articles on forensic issues
Bob Moles: A state of Injustice - book now online
Bob Moles: Losing Their Grip - The Case of Henry Keogh - book now online

On 26 May 2007 the Sunday Times reported “Lost in the Devil's Garden” [Debi Marshall talks to Danielle Benda].

Under attack by WA Police for her yet-to-be-released book on the Claremont serial killings, true crime writer and journalist Debi Marshall talked to Danielle Benda:

The usually hard-bitten police officer let his sensitivities show only occasionally as he took Debi Marshall around the significant sites in the Claremont serial killings. “Once having seen, you can’t unsee,” he says. “You can’t get rid of the visions from your head. They hang around and haunt you. Forever.”  It’s a sentiment that resonated deeply with Marshall who, as a Queensland-based journalist and author, has built her career writing about some of the most awful crimes in Australia. Having just finished books about the Snowtown killings in South Australia and the abduction and murder of Queensland baby Deirdre Kennedy, Marshall, 48, says she already felt drenched in blood last year when she turned her attention to Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon who disappeared from the streets of Claremont in 1996 and 1997. “You can’t unsee what you have seen – I really related to that,” she says. “At the end of Snowtown I was having these really horrendous nightmares. We are all pretty tough as journalists, you know, we are trained for it, but some things we are not trained for. After that I thought ‘Enough. No more of these tales’.”

But the Claremont murders had been on her mind since she first heard about a killer stalking Perth’s beautiful young women in the heart of one of its most comfortable suburbs when she was crime writer at a national weekly magazine. “I had been thinking about the story for ages,” she says. “I think the fact that my daughter was the same age (18) as one of the victims ... I kept looking at her and thinking ‘I wonder who took those girls in the West?’,” she says. “It’s a scary thought to think that if we ignore these things, they just go under the carpet.” And there was the old pull of crime. “I like writing about crime – it has a real fascination for me,” she says. “And I kept thinking about the parents, what they were going through. What it would be like to live with it?”

And once more she found herself immersed in a tale of searing horror and bottomless sorrow. She was moved to tears, frustrated, scared and shaken to the core by her experiences researching this story. “I didn’t realise how hard it was going to be. It was complicated, heartbreaking and very, very scary,” she says. In the end it was her experiences with the parents of the missing women, torn apart by grief and not knowing, that made her most determined to follow the story through. “They get into your soul, the parents and the girls, you walk with them in the end,” Marshall says.“Jenny Rimmer said to me ‘I thought you may have given up. - it’s good you haven’t’. “I just really hope something comes of this book.”

The book is The Devil’s Garden and it recalls the rising panic Perth people felt in January 1996 when 18-year-old Sarah Spiers vanished off a street near Club Bayview after an evening out with friends. A few months later Jane Rimmer, 23, went missing from the same area late at night. Then in March 1997, 27-year-old Ciara Glennon disappeared from the same place. The naked body of Jane Rimmer was found in bushland south of Perth. Ciara Glennon’s body was discovered in scrub at Eglinton to the north. Sarah has not been found. In the book, Marshall pulls together all the information she can find about the women, their personalities, their families and their last movements. She evokes the carefree party atmosphere of the area’s nightspots and the sickening shock of the women’s disappearances.

Then she casts her gaze over the massive police operation that followed and the formation of the Macro taskforce to investigate the murders. And it is this aspect of her story that she found perhaps most disturbing of all. Marshall describes a police force which is highly secretive and defensive and which focused so much attention on one man – public servant Lance Williams – that it did not follow up leads and allegations about other possible suspects. “I believe there is a hell of a lot more that could be done. Should be done,” she says. “They (the police) seemed to become fixated with Lance Williams and I was unnerved about that. If they have the evidence they should charge him.” And further, Marshall believes that by releasing Williams’s details and constantly – and often overtly – tailing him, Perth people were given false assurances, believing that even if they could not charge Williams, the police had prevented further killings. “They led the public to think, ‘We’re OK, we’ve got our man’ and everything was geared to that end. I came out with a great sense of disquiet,” she says. “Someone is out there who is a serial killer. Where is he? Perth women can’t afford to be complacent. “He may have died, he may have gone to another city, but he could just as easily come back.”

Marshall believes there are other assaults and murders that could be linked to the Claremont killer and there were other people – and one in particular – who also warranted further serious investigation. “I was gobsmacked at some of the leads that weren’t chased,” she says. “It was really disturbing for me.” While the police investigation also left the reputations of a few men in tatters, she herself was unable to include some of the information because of legal constraints. But in her efforts to discover just who and what the police had looked into, she ran into a blue wall of silence. While the WA police verbally agreed to talk to her, they refused once she arrived in Perth last year researching the book, claiming there was nothing to be gained by talking about an ongoing investigation.

Just weeks before her deadline late last year, they switched again and Marshall was allowed to speak to some of the senior investigators who had worked on the case. But not Dave Caporn, the high-profile head of the Macro taskforce for several years. Part of the reason given for this was the ongoing Corruption and Crime Commission investigation into the wrongful conviction of Andrew Mallard for the murder of Mosman Park jewellery shop owner Pamela Lawrence in 1994, a case in which Caporn was also closely involved. “And the police culture was like a real boys’ club. - they would almost pat me on the head and say, run along, your boyfriend’s waiting,” she says. “I think this sort of attitude really hindered the investigation, a terrible arrogance, a blind arrogance. “I don’t believe there was any corruption, I think they suffered from tunnel vision and this arrogant attitude of ‘We know what we’re doing and we’re not going to share it with you’ – ‘you’ being anyone outside the taskforce. “And then they would say, ‘Well, how does she know what we did?’. It was a merry-go-round. There was one name (that) when I mentioned it, they would smirk at me enigmatically and say, ‘It’s an ongoing investigation, we can’t tell you that, we are not going to admit that’.”

One exception to this was Paul Ferguson, head of Major Crime at the time of the Claremont murders who, Marshall says, tells it like it is. Others were open but not prepared to be identified. But Deputy Commissioner Murray Lampard defends the WA Police’s position with Marshall, confirming that they refused to let her inside the Macro investigation. “Does she truly believe that investigators of any major case, never mind serial killings, should be talking about sensitive information and operational tactics in public and in the media?” he asks. “We don’t believe the public, nor the victims’ families, want that.” He says WA police wear the “blue wall of silence” tag surrounding Macro as a badge of honour: “It is a practice used widely by law enforcement agencies throughout the world.”

Mr Lampard also accuses Marshall of being insensitive towards the victims of the Claremont serial killer and their families. “WA Police have endeavoured over the years to protect the sensitivity and integrity of the families involved,” he says. “This book really is a crass attempt to cash in one of WA’s biggest tragedies.” Mr Lampard says he believes Marshall has unfairly targeted Dave Caporn, one of four officers who headed the Macro taskforce. “The personal attacks on Dave Caporn are quite frankly shameful,” he says. And he strongly denies that the investigation ever got tunnel vision: “The Macro investigation is not, and has never been, focused on one line of inquiry or one individual.”

But Marshall says she is not the only one unimpressed with the police attitude. While she says Don Spiers and Denis Glennon would not tolerate criticism of the police, in whom they had placed their trust to find their daughters’ killer, Jane Rimmer’s parents were not so convinced. “They were not happy,” Marshall says. “Trevor Rimmer said ‘Where is my daughter and what are they doing?’. They (the police) forget that the taxpayers are funding them. We’re paying these guys and we have a right to ask, we have a right to know, what has actually been done.” Marshall also believes the investigation into the Claremont killings was a casualty of a changing police culture where career police officers were promoted over old-school coppers. “The overriding problems were two-fold. First, it was so secretive, and still is, and they were not inviting the feedback that you need to get. And that was combined with all that change in policy where administration was to the forefront,” Marshall says.

Mr Lampard points out that Macro has been reviewed 11 times, making it the most reviewed investigation in WA history. None has identified any errors or oversights, he says. Each review made recommendations which were accepted and implemented. Those recommendations sought to enhance investigative and forensic work already done. Mr Lampard says Marshall writes about Macro as “a catalogue of disasters” yet the review team (which was made up of forensic, profiling and homicide experts from the UK, the US and Australia and headed by Superintendent Paul Schramm) found there were no problems with the taskforce work. But Marshall says most of the reviews were conducted internally. “There were so many reviews and so much money spent, but you have got to ask ‘Who is marking the report card?’. That struck me, who’s doing it? They are not very independent – you are getting coppers looking at coppers,” she says.

Marshall believes another reason for this investigation’s lack of accountability is the small pool of journalists in Perth who rely on having cordial relations with police to get stories. “The reality is that they need to go out and deal with the police on a day-to-day basis. I’m not attacking journalists. That’s not what I wanted to do. They are probably not in the position I’m in. I can fly in, kick up a bit of dust and fly out again,” she says. “But I did have the situation where people would say ‘No one’s ever asked us these questions before’, which used to alarm me a little bit.” Marshall says it is impossible to look into the Claremont investigation without taking a wider look at police culture in WA and the large number of miscarriage of justice cases going back as far as the 1960s. Key parts of the book are set against the backdrop of the Andrew Mallard case and the Kennedy Royal Commission into police corruption. “It was a very complex tale,” she says. “It was like working on a big jigsaw puzzle – the more I got into it, there were just layers and layers and layers. There were tentacles going out into other stories everywhere.”

Marshall also includes the cases of Hayley Dodd and Sarah McMahon who disappeared in 1999 and 2000. She believes the police have not exhausted the possibility that they – Sarah, in particular – could also be victims of the Claremont killer. “I do think she could be a victim, yes, I do. There is no way you can wipe it out,” she says. But Mr Lampard dismisses this allegation out of hand. “Ms Marshall speculates often about how many other victims of the Claremont serial killer there are, yet the world-renowned Schramm review panel of experts found no evidence of any links with 24 other cases of murdered or missing women in WA,” he says. “The book devotes many pages to rehashing the handful of well-documented miscarriage of justice cases in WA over the past four decades or so. To even hint that there is any connection between those cases and Macro is misleading and dishonest.”

Marshall believes the police are unwilling to admit there could be more victims because it would expose the shortcomings of their investigations. “My opinion is that there are more than three victims," she says. "The police are doing a good job of keeping that as tightly wrapped as possible. But, say there is a best-case scenario where someone puts their hand up and the case is solved but they say ‘I did eight’, it’s not going to look real good is it? “I know it sounds alarmist, but if people in Perth aren’t feeling unnerved, they should be. I was unnerved. I talked to young people at Claremont and asked them if they knew about Sarah Spiers, but it was like she was a ghost – not real any more. They think it’s not going to happen to them, but there have been cases where they (serial killers) have been lying low for up to 20 years and then suddenly - bang. “I hope people in WA will read (this book) because I think they need to. It needs to be read and talked about by the public and the police as well. I would like to think there is a broader readership across Australia as well. It is an Australian story.

“When I first said I was going to write this story people would look at me astounded and say ‘You can’t do that, it hasn’t got an ending. It’s unsolved, the readers are going to want to have a resolution’. Well, they can’t have one. We can’t have one. That’s the point. “It needs to be remembered how hideous this is. It could be our daughters. That is the reality. I do think he is out there.”

MURDER MOST FOUL

In February 2006, Debi Marshall was told that police involved in the Claremont serial killings investigation would finally talk to her for her book, and she was taken to the sites where the bodies of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon were found. Here is an edited extract of that first emotional day: Detective Senior-Sergeant Anthony Lee and Senior-Sergeant Ken Sanderson, a forensic specialist, meet me near where I am staying. Forty-year-old Lee, with rugby player shoulders, is imposingly tall and wears a slightly arrogant air. Sanderson – older, ginger-haired and with a gentler attitude – does not appear as hard-bitten. Forensic investigation is a less abrasive field than working the mean streets as a detective.

Sanderson swings the unmarked police car out of South Perth and heads toward Stirling Highway. It will be a long day, starting with the disposal site of Jane Rimmer, moving to Claremont and on to where Ciara Glennon’s body was found. There is a tacit camaraderie between Lee and Sanderson. That’s not surprising: police work is tough, the reason why camaraderie is so entrenched in the force. They protect each other and protect themselves, as soldiers did in the trenches; part of their mateship ethos. Police work their way up through the ranks, coming into daily contact with the sordid side of life. But it’s this that bedevils them most, the murder of innocents and the girls who never came home. The despair on their parents’ faces when they knock on the door with the news. “I’m sorry to tell you, we believe we have found your daughter.”

Lee is only too acutely aware of it all, and it is in talking about this that his sensitivities show. “Once having seen, you can’t unsee,” he says. “You can’t get rid of the visions from your head. They hang around and haunt you. Forever.” We cruise along Stirling Highway. With Lee free to talk, it’s a good time to start the taped interview.“Why is this investigation so secretive?” I ask him. He turns from the front seat. “If we open up the case to journalists, how does that help the investigation? It doesn’t. It just means the paper has got a good story. If they are critical of the police, we’re not interested. That’s not arrogance – it’s just that we’ve consulted with all the people we should be consulting with. “The fact is, with unsolved cases we’re always going to reach a level of controversy. That’s the nature of the beast.” It seems a reasonable point. “And you’ve reached it, have you?”

“We’ve well and truly reached it. We probably reached it after two years in the Claremont case. People are asking ‘Are we competent? Are we good enough to do the job anyway? Are we big enough to handle this?’. And my answer is I’m confident that police have been innovative in their approach and looked at the case as broadly as we can. And the review came out and said the things we are doing are world best practice. Designed and innovated here in Western Australia.”

DM: “What sort of things?” 
AL: “I’ll leave that for Dave Caporn to talk to you about.”

Dave Caporn. As the face of the investigation during its most critical period, he is the one Macro officer I am most hoping to speak with.

DM: “Macro has copped a lot of criticism, not least over the fact that these crimes are still unsolved. What is your reaction to that?” 
AL: “I think I’ve just given you an insight into that. The reviews weren’t critical.”

Those reviews. They rear their heads at every opportunity.

DM: “But isn’t that part of the criticism? That the police have been too insular, in waiting too long to look outside Western Australia? Isn’t that intrinsic to the criticism?”

He leans around from the front seat of the car again. “How long’s too long?”

DM: “Ten years, probably.” 
AL: “It hasn’t been 10 years!”

It is February 2006. The first known disappearance was January 1996. The murders have been unsolved for 10 years; the first complete and independent review in 2004 – eight years. He is splitting straws. I let it go.

DM: “I would like to know what has been done, and by whom and when.”

Lee nods. “It is the public’s fundamental right to ask, are they getting the service they pay for from the state?”

“That’s right.” I agree. “Certainly the people I’ve spoken to in the short time I’ve been in Perth – general members of the public say they feel discouraged, ripped off. The attitude is ‘Why don’t the cops do something?’. They seem to deeply resent the lack of transparency.”

Lee noticeably bristles. “Why should we lay bare the facts if it’s going to compromise the investigation? Why should we?”

DM: “Because people are saying they feel they have a false sense of security, they are blindly walking around in the dark and that no one, least of all the police, knows who this serial killer is. They want the investigation back on track.” 
AL: “How do you know it’s not on track already?”

He has taken his sunglasses off and is in a half-turn, staring at me. “How do you know it’s not on track already?”

DM: “But it isn’t, is it.”

“Does the perception of the community outweigh the needs of investigation?” Lee asks. He doesn’t wait for my response. “If we did release information, what purpose would it serve and will it help our case? The simple answer, I believe, is no.”

I ask “(Why) would you stay on overt surveillance of Lance Williams for years and years? The community knows you’re looking at him, he knows you’re looking at him.”

AL: “Yep.” 
DM: “He’s never charged...” 
AL: “Yep.” 
DM: “Bucketloads of money have gone into it.” 
AL: “Yep. Relatively large amounts of money.” 
DM: “Which the taxpayer is funding.” 
AL: “Yep. Fair enough.” 
DM: “So the community has a right, doesn’t it, to demand to know why you did that. Where their money has gone? To ask what has it achieved?” 
AL: “Yep.” 
DM: “So what has it achieved? Anything?” 
AL: “I don’t know.”

He smiles. “There hasn’t been a murder since then.” His smile turns to outright laughter and now I’m finally getting what he is saying without him articulating it.

DM: “Right. So there apparently hasn’t been a murder for 10 years. If you take that by extension then it could be Lance Williams, but you just don’t have enough to charge him with?”

Now I’m laughing. “It does sound a little like ‘We let John Button go, but we still know we had the right bloke’.”

“How do you know we don’t with Claremont?” he asks, before turning back to look out the front window.

We move to another topic. “Why won’t the police release modus operandi?”

The modus operandi, he says, needs to be kept secret so that in the event of someone coming forward and making admissions about a murder, police can validate that admission. “And as for suspects: a number of people in Perth, by virtue of their odd behaviour, have been extensively investigated, in effect creating a database of information about their activities,” he says.

I ask if they have investigated a particular individual, whom I name.

“No comment,” he says. “You’ll have to talk to Dave Caporn about that.”

Caporn. I am starting to feel as if I am shadow-boxing with a silent partner, a phantom. Lee concedes the individual I have named is known as a character in Perth, that he is a possibility. But he wants to return to discussing miscarriage of justice cases in Western Australia; he can’t understand their relevance to the Claremont story. I can’t understand why he needs to even query why.

“Because,” I remind him, “people are scared. If police can get it wrong in other cases – and there is no doubt they have – what does that say about how they have handled Claremont?”

We come upon it, suddenly, a white cross on the verge of this overgrown rural track. No lilies now in the scorching heat of this summer day, but trees that grow wild, their branches entangled as if united in prayer. A freight railway line is close, rusted iron sheeting abandoned on nearby slips and horses graze in paddocks high with brambles. Woolcoot Rd at Wellard is still and quiet, even in the prime of the day. Still and quiet, even as the softest breeze whispers that we should step carefully, here in front of the cross that marks Jane Rimmer’s disposal site.

I close my eyes and try to imagine what had happened 10 years earlier. A car creeping along this track under cover of darkness and crawling to a halt, just here. The driver checking there are no signs of headlights from an approaching vehicle, no one watching his furtive movements as he drags Jane’s lifeless body out of the vehicle and down into this lonely verge. He would be hurried, perhaps now slightly panicked, as he covers her with light foliage.

It is obscene to imagine that the Rimmers’ beloved daughter and adored sister was picked up and tossed away. This awful place doesn’t fit the smiling young woman whose photos adorn her family home, whose spirit lingers over all her parents’ conversations.

The highway leading to Eglinton is ringed with houses now, but it wasn’t always so. In 1997, when Ciara Glennon was in the vehicle in which she travelled to this place, it was a long, lonely stretch of emptiness.

To travel through the city traffic from Claremont, stop at red lights, cruise through the suburbs and head out to the bush, would then have been a one-hour drive. A high-risk drive, with a young woman in the car who was either scared for her life, or already dead. One mistake and a police car could have pulled the driver over. Just one error of judgment, the smallest slip. Or was her killer so confident, so psychopathic, that nothing bothered him?

The police car turns off Pipidinny Rd and turns left into a rough dirt track before it comes to a stop. From this vantage point, the killer could have seen headlights approaching; fishermen or sporting enthusiasts on their way to the sea.

It is an uncomfortably hot day and Lee advises I take care as I follow him and Ken Sanderson through the scrub to the site. The area, he warns, is teeming with ticks that latch on like leeches and which can cause a nasty infection if not carefully dislodged. I gingerly pick up my feet as I follow Lee of the track and into deeper scrub. Then, suddenly, there it is.

A white cross, placed by the police as a sign of respect and as a marker for future officers who need to find the site. A terrible reminder of a life cut short. I stare down at the cross and feel a roiling somersault in my gut. Ciara Glennon – brilliant, young, vibrant – dumped here where she would lie for 19 days before she was discovered in this godforsaken, remote place. God only knows what happened to her before her killer wrenched the claddagh brooch from her as a trophy, a memento.

Crows wheel overhead, their harsh caw piercing the still air and the cloudless sky offers no protection from a fierce sun. It feels like we are in Hades. Anthony Lee, privy to the terrible facts of Ciara’s murder, has set his jaw hard, and grimaces. Sanderson shakes his head, staring down at the cross.

I realise I am crying, and turn from the desolate place before they notice, and stumble back to the car. There is a bleak silence before any of us speak again, nothing to say of any consequence: nothing, except to speak of the futility of it all; the terrible, tragic futility.

Ken pulls the police car off the track, gripping the steering wheel hard. When he speaks, his voice is barely audible. “It could have been anyone’s daughter,” he says. “Anyone’s daughter.”

It has been a long, sultry and emotional day. My understanding is that the next morning Lee will facilitate interviews with other officers who had worked on Macro and furnish material to me that I had requested. It isn’t to be. Instead, I am afforded only a telephone call.

“You’re not going to like this, Debi,” Lee begins with a hint of genuine apology. “No police officers are allowed to speak to you.”

I am stunned. “Why not?”

“Sorry, I can’t tell you that. I am not at liberty to discuss it with you any further.”

“Why wasn’t I told this before I came to Perth?”

“Sorry.”

I sense that he is. Younger, less entrenched in the patronising attitude often afforded the media by older officers, Lee can see the benefits of a healthy relationship with the press. But his hands are tied.

“I can only advise you to put your grievance in writing to the commissioner, Karl O’Callaghan.”

Bewildered, I take his advice.

Claremont serial killer case: WA Police investigate 1995 rape lead
Emma Young -OCTOBER 16 2015

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/claremont-serial-killer-case-wa-police-investigate-1995-rape-lead-20151016-gkaq8i.html

Police have reportedly linked the Claremont serial killer case to an unsolved rape in 1995. 



Ciara Glennon, Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer. 

The Post has reported 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 Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995.
The young woman had left 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, The Post reported. 
Sarah Spiers disappeared the following year and her body was never found. Jane Rimmer then Ms Glennon disappeared in turn and their bodies were later found in Perth.
The Post reported that police, who said at the time the Karrakatta attack was not linked, had now changed their view after finding a forensic link in 2009 and a 12-member squad was working on the case
There was a "definite forensic link" found between the rape and the murder of Ms Glennon, editor Bret Christian told Radio 6PR on Friday.
"The young woman, the 17-year-old, she was walking to a friend's place in Gugeri Street near the Claremont Showgrounds and she never made it," he said. 
"She made it as far as the Showgrounds subway and a man grabbed her, put something over her head, tied her, up - she said with telephone cable - and bundled her into the back of what she said was a commercial vehicle, and drove her deep into the cemetery, where she was sexually assaulted.
"She told police she didn't see the man, didn't have a description of him and was let go, with no clothes, and ran to Hollywood Hospital, which was on the other side of the cemetery.
"They now know that the person who committed that sexual assault is the Claremont serial killer and if they solve that earlier crime, they will have solved the other three."
"I understand they don't know [who it is yet] but they've looked damn hard and long and they've re-tested, re-interviewed literally thousands of people since they made that link and of course gone into databases and turned over every rock they can think of.
"When they began this cold case review in 2004 they announced they would be examining 16 disappearances of women so who knows how active and for how long this guy has been before this, or [how he] escalated behaviour afterwards. And of course if they'd caught him
at the time of the first sexual assault the rest would never have happened.
"I think they really thoroughly investigated it, but maybe with what is known today, or maybe if they'd thrown the resources into that that they'd thrown into the other three disappearances they may have come up with a different result at the time before everything went cold.
"When the Claremont series began we went to an FBI profiler in the states and put the four crimes to him and he said 'I would be looking thoroughly at that first sexual assault, because I think that's your bloke.'
"And we got criticised roundly and publicly for publishing this opinion which turns out to be right."
Perth lawyer Terry Dobson, once a detective who had worked on the Claremont cases, told Radio 6PR the revelation was not a surprise.
He said the Karrakatta matter was looked at "very early on" when a local Claremont detective, an experienced officer, had called in and nominated that crime as being worthy of following up. "A number of officers" had shared his opinion that Karrakatta was "the start of it".
"That wasn't unusual," he said.
"It was happening a lot, experienced detectives and officers nominating similar crimes and suspects."
In fairness, he said, investigative techniques were now different and police had much better technology and scientific knowledge to work with and it was just as well because this lead could be "incredibly important".
"I would be surprised if they weren't throwing the kitchen sink at this," he said.
"There are brand new investigators in ... [and] they won't rest until they solve this, or they certainly won't stop trying. They will never stop trying to solve this one."
On the relative lack of forensic evidence, he said it could be the case that the killer had gone beyond the stage of leaving evidence behind before his crimes escalated to murder.
"Often serial killers will start off with an interest in hurting animals, they like to light fires, they like to watch fires," he said.
"Usually there is some sort of deviant behaviour leading up to it before they get the attention of the police. It may be that whatever he did the relevant samples weren't taken prior to this. It could be that he's just left stuff at a crime scene as opposed to having it taken from him
by investigators or in the alternative, he's from another jurisdiction in Australia, or [even] from outside Australia.
"That's something that's always bothered me. If you look at the way the three murders were committed you've got a killing machine. You've got a superb killer. They don't just fall out of the sky. They develop. They learn their craft. [And they don't stop]. He's either dead or he's in another jurisdiction."
WA Police has 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. 
"Maintaining the operational integrity of this investigation is paramount if we are to bring the offender or offenders to justice. Therefore operational outcomes must be prioritised over media reports or public interest. Media reports on an active investigation
can seriously jeopardise an investigation or negatively impact future prosecutions."

Ms Spiers went missing from outside a Claremont nightclub in January 1996.

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

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

Task Force Macro is Australia's longest-running and most expensive murder investigation.
It has investigated well over 3000 people and interviewed more than 500 people who were in Claremont on the night Ms Rimmer disappeared.
In 2008, detectives released previously unseen CCTV footage to media showing Ms 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 has closed and as Ms Rimmer leans against a pole a man approaches her, and she appears to acknowledge him. He then walks out of view, the grainy footage showing only his back. 
She remains on the footpath for many minutes after that, with many people milling around her. The rotating camera pans away from Ms Rimmer and when it returns, she is gone.
The poor quality footage had been sent to US space agency NASA for enhancement years before its release but NASA had been unable to improve it.
Police at the same time revealed more information about Ms Spiers and Ms Glennon.

Ms Spiers had called a taxi on January 27, 1996 after 2am, when she left Club Bayview. A witness reported seeing headlights nearby on Stirling Road, where Ms Spiers was reportedly waiting for the taxi. But the witness had lost sight of the headlights after turning onto Stirling Highway.
Witnesses had described seeing Ms Glennon talking to the occupant or occupants of a light-coloured vehicle that stopped on Stirling Highway before she disappeared on March 15, 1997.


They saw her leaning over with her hands on her knees by witnesses. They said when they looked back, the car and her were both gone and other potential sightings of her on the highway that day made it impossible to determine if she had got into the car or not.
Rumours swelled in 2014 that detectives in Perth were close to an arrest but police swiftly quashed these. 

 Police deny talk of Claremont arrest
JANUARY 22 2014


http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/police-deny-talk-of-claremont-arrest-20140122-31909.html

Detectives in Perth have taken the unusual step of denying rumours that they are close to an arrest in the notorious unsolved Claremont serial killings.
Police are still hunting for the killer of Jane Rimmer, 23, Ciara Glennon, 27, abducted from the well-to-do western suburb of Claremont and murdered in 1996 and 1997. Sarah Spiers, 18, disappeared from the suburb in 1996.
Ciara Glennon, Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer. 
The former two women were found dead, but no trace has been found of Ms Spiers.
On Wednesday, a statement from police said rumours that a significant announcement was pending in relation to the investigation were not correct.
Detective Superintendent Anthony Lee of the Major Crime Division said there was no substance to the rumours suggesting an arrest was imminent or that a significant announcement regarding the investigation was to be made.
"This type of rumour does not serve to assist the investigation and causes unnecessary distress to the families," Det Supt Lee said.
"We know the investigation generates significant interest and for this reason WA Police are clarifying the situation with the public."
Task Force Macro, set up to probe the killings, is Australia's longest-running and most expensive murder investigation.
Ms Spiers went missing from outside a Claremont nightclub in January 1996. She is presumed dead.
Ms Rimmer's body was found in bushland south of Perth in August 1996.
Ms Glennon was found murdered on April 3, 1997 - 19 days after she was last seen in Claremont.
AAP
New footage of Claremont victim Jane Rimmer released
Andrea Hayward and Chris Thomson
AUGUST 28 2008
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/new-footage-of-claremont-victim-jane-rimmer-released-20080828-44it.html
Haunting footage of one of the victims of Perth's most notorious serial killer has been released by the WA Police.


The footage shows Jane Rimmer outside the Continental Hotel just after midnight on June 9, 1996 - the night she disappeared.


WA Police originally released the footage to local media this morning, only to re-release a better quality version of the CCTV footage late this afternoon, ahead of it screening on Foxtel at 5.30pm.


Ms Rimmer was one of three women who fell victim to the Claremont serial killer in 1996 and 1997.


The VHS CCTV footage released today shows a brief interaction between Ms Rimmer and an unidentified man, who police hope to identify.


The rotating camera shows Ms Rimmer waiting near a pole outside the popular nightspot. She acknowledges the man, before the camera pans away.


When it returns, she is gone.


What to look for in the footage - click here



Inline: Jane Rimmer footage released

The enhanced Jane Rimmer footage

Detective Superintendent Jeff Byleveld from the major crime division also revealed information about the killer's other victims - Sarah Spiers and Ciara Glennon - during a police briefing today.


The bodies of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon were found in bushland on Perth's outskirts shortly after they went missing, but Ms Spiers has never been found.


Superintendent Byleveld said it was difficult to tell if Ms Rimmer was acquainted with the man seen in the video that was released today.


More than 700 people were shown the footage at the time and have been identified.


"We want to close that line of inquiry," Superintendent Byleveld said.


He said there were sightings of the third victim, Ciara Glennon, on Stirling Highway before she disappeared on Saturday March 15, 1997.


Witnesses described seeing Ms Glennon talking to the occupant or occupants of a vehicle that stopped on the highway.


"The only certainty is that the vehicle was light-coloured and the make and model can't be confirmed from witness accounts," Superintendent Byleveld said.


Ms Glennon was seen leaning over with her hands on her knees by witnesses. They said when they looked back, the car and her were both gone.


"There are other possible sightings of Ciara further along Stirling Highway, so it can't be confirmed if she did, or did not, get into this vehicle."


Ms Spiers had called a taxi on January 27, 1996 after 2am, when she left Club Bayview.


A witness reported seeing headlights nearby on Stirling Road, where Ms Spiers was reportedly waiting for the taxi. But the witness had lost sight of the headlights after turning onto Stirling Highway, Superintendent Byleveld said.


The Macro taskforce at the centre Australia's longest and most expensive murder investigation was the most scrutinised of any investigation team, Superintendent Byleveld said.


Investigators today defended their decision not to release the 12-year-old footage.


"They stood by that decision - they still do," Superintendent Byleveld said.
A cold case review of the three murders had made no recommendation on whether or not the footage should have been released.
The original footage was "underwhelming" and the enhanced footage distorted height and colour, Superintendent Byleveld said.
He said investigators did not want to risk narrowing the focus of the investigation by releasing the grainy footage at the time, in a town where one whisper could change public perceptions.
The new footage was first released to a pay TV documentary series, which enhanced the original material, but not to the general media.
Superintendent Byleveld said police had used the pay TV documentary as a vehicle for national coverage and hoped the coverage could help them solve the mystery of the Claremont serial killings.
"That's what we hold in our heart - that we can do that," Superintendent Byleveld said.

What to look for in the footage by Andrea Hayward

AUGUST 28 2008

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/what-to-look-for-in-the-footage-20080828-44l4.html


Mystery ... police want to identify the man talking to Jane Rimmer.


Jane Rimmer is shown in the bottom left hand corner of the screen outside the Continental Hotel on Bayview Terrace, just after midnight on Sunday June 9, 1996.
Ms Rimmer is leaning against the pole where she is seen to be waiting.
Police are trying to identify the man who walks into the frame at the 17-second mark of the footage.
The rotating footage then pans away to another angle.

New footage of Claremont victim Jane Rimmer released
Andrea Hayward and Chris Thomson

AUGUST 28 2008

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/new-footage-of-claremont-victim-jane-rimmer-released-20080828-44it.html

Haunting footage of one of the victims of Perth's most notorious serial killer has been released by the WA Police.
The footage shows Jane Rimmer outside the Continental Hotel just after midnight on June 9, 1996 - the night she disappeared.
WA Police originally released the footage to local media this morning, only to re-release a better quality version of the CCTV footage late this afternoon, ahead of it screening on Foxtel at 5.30pm.
Ms Rimmer was one of three women who fell victim to the Claremont serial killer in 1996 and 1997.
The VHS CCTV footage released today shows a brief interaction between Ms Rimmer and an unidentified man, who police hope to identify.
The rotating camera shows Ms Rimmer waiting near a pole outside the popular nightspot. She acknowledges the man, before the camera pans away.
When it returns, she is gone.
Detective Superintendent Jeff Byleveld from the major crime division also revealed information about the killer's other victims - Sarah Spiers and Ciara Glennon - during a police briefing today.
The bodies of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon were found in bushland on Perth's outskirts shortly after they went missing, but Ms Spiers has never been found.
Superintendent Byleveld said it was difficult to tell if Ms Rimmer was acquainted with the man seen in the video that was released today.
More than 700 people were shown the footage at the time and have been identified.
"We want to close that line of inquiry," Superintendent Byleveld said.
He said there were sightings of the third victim, Ciara Glennon, on Stirling Highway before she disappeared on Saturday March 15, 1997.
Witnesses described seeing Ms Glennon talking to the occupant or occupants of a vehicle that stopped on the highway.
"The only certainty is that the vehicle was light-coloured and the make and model can't be confirmed from witness accounts," Superintendent Byleveld said.
Ms Glennon was seen leaning over with her hands on her knees by witnesses. They said when they looked back, the car and her were both gone.
"There are other possible sightings of Ciara further along Stirling Highway, so it can't be confirmed if she did, or did not, get into this vehicle."
Ms Spiers had called a taxi on January 27, 1996 after 2am, when she left Club Bayview.
A witness reported seeing headlights nearby on Stirling Road, where Ms Spiers was reportedly waiting for the taxi. But the witness had lost sight of the headlights after turning onto Stirling Highway, Superintendent Byleveld said.
The Macro taskforce at the centre Australia's longest and most expensive murder investigation was the most scrutinised of any investigation team, Superintendent Byleveld said.
Investigators today defended their decision not to release the 12-year-old footage.
"They stood by that decision - they still do," Superintendent Byleveld said.
A cold case review of the three murders had made no recommendation on whether or not the footage should have been released.
The original footage was "underwhelming" and the enhanced footage distorted height and colour, Superintendent Byleveld said.
He said investigators did not want to risk narrowing the focus of the investigation by releasing the grainy footage at the time, in a town where one whisper could change public perceptions.
The new footage was first released to a pay TV documentary series, which enhanced the original material, but not to the general media.
Superintendent Byleveld said police had used the pay TV documentary as a vehicle for national coverage and hoped the coverage could help them solve the mystery of the Claremont serial killings.
"That's what we hold in our heart - that we can do that," Superintendent Byleveld said.
Police bungle as wrong Claremont footage released


The police badly bungled when the wrong footage of Claremont serial killer victim Jane Rimmer was released yesterday, 
writes Andrea Hayward.
AUGUST 30 2008


http://www.watoday.com.au/federal-politics/police-bungle-as-wrong-claremont-footage-released-20080828-4569.html

A police bungle which saw nationwide media outlets receive and release the wrong footage of a potential serial killer talking to his victim yesterday smacks of keystone cops behaviour.
Local media outlets were narky when news broke that the footage had been released by police for a pay-TV documentary. That is neither here nor there.
There are lots of egos in the media and they don't deserve the God-given right to be spoon-fed when the police can get more attention by releasing the footage nationally - but I digress because that's another story...
After the news of the unseen footage broke a couple of weeks ago Deputy Commissioner of Police Chris Dawson said the enhanced version would be released to local media before the documentary aired.
That ended up being yesterday morning and as the footage was played to journalists anxious to see the vision at police headquarters it was, as Mr Dawson and Detective Superintendent Jeff Byleveld observed, "underwhelming."
It was haunting seeing what was almost certainly the last time Jane Rimmer was seen alive by anyone other than her killer who remains at large. But the footage was grainy, jumpy and perhaps distorted in terms of height, weight and its depiction of colours, according to police.
The question was asked whether the vision played at the police press conference was the original. Superintendent Byleveld said it was the enhanced vision.
In fact it was not. So Police Media busily set about distributing the footage everyone thought they had delivered yesterday morning, late yesterday afternoon.
It had already appeared on Fairfax Digital websites in WA, Victoria and Queensland.
Police media's head honcho assures us there were no swifties being pulled, but a mistake could have been made and the wrong video dubbed and distributed to media.
If this is the case then it is a poor reflection on the organisation. The enhanced footage may not yield any clues to the identity of the man seen to approach Jane Rimmer before the footage cuts to another angle.
Whether it would have 12 years ago, if released to the public, we will never know. But the reaction on Ms Rimmer's face when she was approached by the man seems to tell another story.
It would be misguided to suggest she knew the man or that it was the Claremont serial killer himself. But the fact the wrong footage has been viewed by thousands of online media viewers nationwide is a stuff-up and it is of concern that the police could bungle such a simple task.
The only other explanation is that the police bowed to the documentary makers and purposefully did not release the right footage to give the pay-TV channel on which it aired exclusivity right to the end. 
Mr Dawson and senior officers in charge of the investigation have admitted the footage was being stage managed for maximum impact. But any move to deliberately bungle the release of the footage would shoot the police in the foot because tens of thousands
 of people in the prime time online medium have viewed the wrong footage on their PCs and are unlikely to revisit it again.
Don't even start an already cynical journo down that path...
But either way - keystone cops or stage management orchestrated to perfection - it was imperative the police maintain their credibility

RELATED CONTENT
http://media.watoday.com.au/?rid=41150
http://www.watoday.com.au/video


New footage of Claremont victim Jane Rimmer released

The camera returns to the spot where Ms Rimmer was standing and she has simply vanished.
Assumptions aplenty in new Claremont footage



 Police bungle as wrong Claremont footage released

  

Claremont serial killings suspect cleared
NOVEMBER 26 2008

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/claremont-serial-killings-suspect-cleared-20081126-6iui.html

The prime suspect in the Claremont serial killings has reportedly been eliminated from the police probe.
Channel 9 last night reported the Cottesloe public servant’s family had been informed by detectives he was no longer a person of interest.


(from left) Ciara Glennon, Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer. 
The middle-aged man had been subjected to surveillance by detectives on the case for almost seven years.
Police are still investigating the unsolved murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon in 1996 and 1997 in what has become Australia’s longest-running active police investigation.


Police bungle as wrong Claremont footage released

Assumptions aplenty in new Claremont footage


The Cottesloe man lived with his parents at the time and came to police attention after he was caught driving around Claremont late at night.
He had always maintained his innocence and claimed he was driving through the area because he was concerned for the welfare of women at the time.
Covert surveillance of the suspect became public after a series of police bungles while tracking the man. At one stage, the ceiling above his desk at work caved in under the weight of surveillance equipment.
A major documentary on the murders that features much-publicised CCTV footage of Ms Rimmer outside the Claremont Hotel screens tonight.
Police said they wished to distance themselves from the television report and had no further comment.

Assumptions aplenty in new Claremont footage
Andrea Hayward - AUGUST 28 2008

http://www.watoday.com.au/federal-politics/assumptions-aplenty-in-new-claremont-footage-20080828-44mt.html

Police say it is dangerous to draw assumptions from the newly released footage of Claremont serial killer victim Jane Rimmer talking with an unidentified man shortly before her disappearance.
But it is difficult not to.
The grainy CCTV vision that shows Ms Rimmer outside the Continental Hotel in the well-heeled western suburb of Claremont on the night of her disappearance is haunting.
But more chilling is what the footage does not show.
Police showed journalists an extended form of the footage today, which shows Ms Rimmer waiting near a pole outside the Conti, as it was known back then.
Unfortunately the footage pans away just after the man approaches her, robbing police of vital clues it could have proffered in their long running investigation.
When the footage cuts back to the spot where Ms Rimmer was standing, she is simply gone.
It was the last time she was seen before her body was discovered in a lonely stretch of bushland on Perth's outskirts.
The extended footage sends goose bumps down your spine and must haunt the team investigating the murders of Ms Rimmer and the other Claremont victims, Sarah Spiers and Ciara Glennon.
Detective Superintendent Jeff Byleveld of the Major Crime Squad said today the footage was no secret and was shown to 700 people during exhaustive investigations to identify people inside and outside of the hotel that night.
Everyone in the footage, except for the man who interacts with Ms Rimmer, had been identified.
It begs the question - why hasn't that man come forward if he has nothing to hide?
What was exchanged in that interaction between Ms Rimmer and the unidentified man we may never know.
But is difficult not to assume Ms Rimmer is waiting for someone at that spot outside the Conti. She is seen facing the direction from which the man enters the frame, and later in the footage she is seen to be looking in the direction of the oncoming traffic on that side of the road.
Police say they did not want to narrow the focus of the investigation on this man in the early stages, but have released the footage now to close off this line of inquiry.
The question of why the footage was not released earlier and the police's justification that it was of poor quality really doesn't matter at this point. What's been done has been done.
Let's just hope it leads the police closer to the culprit of these crimes, which struck fear into the community and has left three families with a lifetime of grief.

The Orstrahyun
Readership - 2.5 million (April 2014) www.twitter.com/darrylmason
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Is A Serial Killer Posting Comments About A Murder Investigation On An Australian Crime Blog? 
By Darryl Mason

http://theorstrahyun.blogspot.ie/2007/06/is-serial-killer-posting-comments-about.html?m=1


The Orstrahyun
Readership - 2.5 million (April 2014) www.twitter.com/darrylmason
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Is A Serial Killer Posting Comments About A Murder Investigation On An Australian Crime Blog? 
By Darryl Mason
This is pretty weird. Gary Hughes writes an excellent crime blog for 'The Australian' newspaper. He has written a number of stories about the 'Claremont Murders', a series of unsolved slayings of young women, back in 1996 and 1997, that are believed to be the work of a serial killer.
Somebody calling themselves 'Dr Phibes' has been posting comments about the case on Hughes' blog, and the person appears to be either providing clues as to where the bodies of two other missing girls can be found, or trying to taunt the apparently baffled Perth police 'Zodiac' style.
Gary Hughes explains :
Has WA’s Claremont serial killer been contributing to this blog while police continue their unsuccessful hunt for him? According to a new book on the long-running saga by crime author Debi Marshall, it’s possible. She quotes Robin Napper, a lecturer at Perth’s Centre for Forensic Science and a former police detective, as describing the contributions to Gotcha from a mysterious figure using the name “Dr Phibes” as “seriously spooky”. “Whoever this blogger is, he has more than a passing interest in the subject and is teasing us with his knowledge of all three victims,” says Mr Napper.
Dr Phibes started contributing his detailed knowledge about the Claremont killings after we posted on the saga in October last year. In one comment he revealed how he had met one of the victims, Sarah McMahon, and claimed police had bugged his phone and flown a helicopter over his property with heat-seeking ground radar in the search for her body.
Dr Phibes has continued contributing to the blog, along with others for the past eight months. His most recent comment was just 10 days ago.


'Dr Phibes' also appears to have a deep interest in what he calls the "satanic" involvement and influence of Freemasonry in Perth,
and the various pyramids that can be found in the city :

There is a recurring theme with Compass bearings etc with the bodies etc. Sarah Mc Mahon, Claremont girls, Freemasons involvement & satanic circles reaching into High Govt. in Western Australia. You can see that by the Pyramid shaped water feature at perth`s Belltower, as well as the Pyramid conservatory nearby. Even a former Perth premier has been involved in the Satanic,lay lines/come Secret circle Buildings about the place.
'Dr Phibes' is, probably, just be a true-crime enthusiast who pretends to know more about the case than he/she actually does.
In any event, and as numerous commenters to Gary Hughes' blog have pointed, there is something uniquely creepy and unnerving about the comments 'Dr Phibes' is leaving.
'Dr Phibes' also has the curious ability to be able to post comments in completely different writing styles, as though there were more than one person leaving comments under this moniker (see quotes below).
And this person is not just posting comments at Hughes' blog. A 'Dr Phibes' has been posting cryptic comments all over Australian news websites when the 'Claremont Murders' case comes up for discussion.
Some examples of 'Dr Phibes' comments at Gary Hughes' blog :
I believe Sarah Spiers is in water either in Ankatel (south)or north of Wanneroo.And Sarah Mc Mahon is near Mundaring Wier.Just a feeling i get.
I met Sarah Mc Mahon in early nov 2000. She came to my place for a visit with 2 friends on a Friday.I saw her on the Sunday afterwards. She disappeared on the day after Melbourne Cup in Nov 2000. The Police flew their chopper (Polair 61) over my 1/2 acre place near the Swan Valley, as cause i had met her. They bugged my phone for a while. I have had a woman giving me probs for ages. Don`t ya hate that, ppl accusing ya of bopping sum 1 off then annoying ya to hell thinking they can do that & sleep ok
Some more comments at PerthNow by somebody posting as 'Dr Phibes' :
you said Julie Cutler`s car was found in Swan View,It wasn`t !!; it was found in cottesloe in the surf. Sarah Mc Mahons car was found in Swan Districts Hosp near here. I met her twice in the w.end b4 she disappeared.I know the aunt of Deborah Anderson. I have been working on both cases albeit coincidental linkages re myself in both cases...

this lance character is way too stupid to be the Claremont Serial Killer. Any 1 who drives past a woman 20 to 30 times is definately asking to be caught. He needs some excitement in his life. The young woman attacked in Karrakatta Cemetry, the woman attacked at coles loading dock, another in Davies Rd on the other side of the Railway stn... these could all be by the same person.

And another one here :
The Claremont Serial Killer is not able to abduct women for some time due to illness. The position of the bodies was deliberate to within 10 to 15 metres.They indicate to where Sarah Spiers can be found.
The lovers of crime fiction would naturally conclude that as 'Claremont Murders' took place in 1996 and 1997, the uncaught killer would be both bored and surprised to find the police still can't track him/her down, and would presume that this 'Dr Phibes' is the person responsible and is now trying to revive interest in the case, and themselves, by coming over all cryptic and mysterious.
Or 'Dr Phibes' could be a private investigator or undercover detective trying to flush out some more facts from the public by purposely stirring up comment.
Anyway, the WA police claim they are still investigating the murders, and plenty of Perth locals cry out "what investigation", while other locals say they have tried to give police information that might be helpful and gotten no response at all.

The 'Claremont Murders' remains unsolved a decade later, and police still refuse to release information about how two of the victims were killed.
Note : A 'Dr Phibes' showed up in May on a Vogue discussion board, under the topic 'Perth Girls : Where Do You Go Out?' That Dr Phibes provided some advice to Perth women about how to get into a nightclub for free, and appears to have an interest in women's jewelry.
Interview With The Author Of A New Book On The Claremont Murders
Darryl Mason is the author of the free, online novel ED Day : Dead Sydney. You can read it here

Claremont Serial Killings- The Big Footy
Discussion in 'Crime' started by bunsen burner, Dec 6, 2012.
https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/claremont-serial-killings.985161/
Claremont Serial Killer. Where he at?
 I heard a rumour that it was a cop who died in a car accident in Kalamunda. Possible but don't subscribe to the theory that the police covered it up because it was one of their own and would have exposed how incompetent they were in the investigation.
bunsen burner, Dec 6, 2012 #2Reply
 Kram
I'll brik u
Fremantle
Other teams: Chicago Bears, Warriors
Joined: May 07
Posts:39,061
Location: WA
Pretty bloody brazen to snatch 3 people from the street all so close to each other..
Kram, Dec 6, 2012 #3Reply
 bunsen burner
Hall of Famer
West Coast
Location: Sydney
And then disappear for 15 years.
Serial killers generally don't stop. So where did he go?
- He died?
- He went to jail?
- He moved interstate (he would have turned up somewhere)
- He moved overseas?
- He stopped (didn't a US serial killer stop for years and then start again?)
bunsen burner, Dec 6, 2012 #4Reply
Rainfall and FreoGirl like this.
 Kram
I'll brik u
Fremantle
Other teams: Chicago Bears, Warriors
Joined: May 07
Posts:39,061
Location: WA
bunsen burner said: ↑
- He stopped (didn't a US serial killer stop for years and then start again?)
Might be the Grim Sleeper or although he didn't start again BTK stopped for about 15 years before he got caught when resuming communications with the police, I think the reason he gave was that he wasn't in good enough shape any more and didn't have enough free time to commit the crimes with raising a family of all things..
Who knows whatever happened to the CSK..
Kram, Dec 6, 2012 #5Reply
 grizzlym
Admin
Hawthorn
Other teams: ōllamaliztli
Joined: Sep 08
Posts:80,158
Location: Witness Protection
bunsen burner said: ↑
And then disappear for 15 years.
Serial killers generally don't stop. So where did he go?
- He died?
- He went to jail?
- He moved interstate (he would have turned up somewhere)
- He moved overseas?
- He stopped (didn't a US serial killer stop for years and then start again?)
Click to expand...
Yeah, BTK stopped for more than 15 years before resuming again
grizzlym, Dec 6, 2012 #6Reply
Admi     
Hawthorn
Location: Witness Protection
Hahaha... caught napping while typing.
Were there many solid leads on the CSK?
grizzlym, Dec 6, 2012 #7Reply
 QS
Brownlow Medallist        
West Coast
Location: between the big sticks
grizzlym said: ↑
Hahaha... caught napping while typing.
Were there many solid leads on the CSK?
From memory, just the one guy the police followed, harrassed, mimiced, adopted his footy team etc, then there was not really any evidence of note to prefer a murder charge.
I don't think this will ever get solved; hell, they haven't even found the remains of Sarah Spiers (the first in 1995) yet (if in fact she was a victim)
QS, Dec 7, 2012 #8Reply
 vast
Brownlow Medallist
Essendon
Location: Nowhere
I recently read up on this case and those familiar with the case probably now there was public servant who was a suspect. The police put surveillance equipment just above his work desk in the ceiling and it crashed through because of the weight, which would have been bloody embarrassing for them. Also there was some dude that commented on an internet news article about the case and he apparently knew alot of details which were not released publicly including possible locations of one of the bodies but, nothing further came of it though as far as I can see, Im sure the cops would have investigated though.
vast, Dec 7, 2012 #9Reply
 Beerfish
Moderator
Essendon
Other teams:
Joined: Jan 08
Posts:29,219
Last I heard the authorities were trying to pin it on this geezer Mark Dixie.
That was a while ago though.
Beerfish, Dec 7, 2012 #10Reply
 bunsen burner
Hall of Famer
West Coast
Location: Sydney
Beerfish said: ↑
Last I heard the authorities were trying to pin it on this geezer Mark Dixie
That was a while ago though.
I think they ascertained it wasn't him. I'm unclear if the police have DNA of the killer?
bunsen burner, Dec 7, 2012 #11Reply
 Kram
I'll brik u
Fremantle
 Chicago Bears, Warriors
Location: WA
Could be wrong but I think that the police haven't disclosed whether they retrieved usable DNA from the crime scenes or not.
Kram, Dec 7, 2012 #12Reply
 Beerfish
Moderator 
Essendon
bunsen burner said: ↑
I think they ascertained it wasn't him. I'm unclear if the police have DNA of the killer?
They've probably got all sorts of DNA.. any of which may or may not belong to the killer. I wasn't sure if they'd ruled him out. I guess they must have (or can't prove anything) if we haven't heard anything else.
I'm not sure they ever officially ruled the public servant out either. I don't think I ever heard about him again after the Today Tonight bits on how his life had been made hell by their 24/7 surveillance.
I think the very last thing I heard was when they brought out some MI5 type expert profiler dude from the UK.. maybe two or three years ago? Again nothing obviously.
Beerfish, Dec 7, 2012 #13Reply
 bunsen burner
Hall of Famer
West Coast
Location: Sydney
The public servant guy. Used to give me a lift a lot in the late 80s when I was a teenager. I'd go out in Claremont, get pissed, and walk home along the highway. I'd always see him driving up and down Stirling Hwy in his yellow Toyota Corona. He'd often drive to near where I lived. He was essentially just a lonely dude with no mates and the only way he could get conversation was picking up kids along the highway.
I'm pretty sure he's been completely ruled out.
bunsen burner, Dec 7, 2012 #14Reply
 Beerfish
Moderator     
Essendon
bunsen burner said: ↑
The public servant guy. Used to give me a lift a lot in the late 80s when I was a teenager. I'd go out in Claremont, get pissed, and walk home along the highway. I'd always see him driving up and down Stirling Hwy in his yellow Toyota Corona. He'd often drive to near where I lived. He was essentially just a lonely dude with no mates and the only way he could get conversation was picking up kids along the highway.
I'm pretty sure he's been completely ruled out.
Interesting. What kind of conversations did you have?
Beerfish, Dec 7, 2012 #15Reply
 bunsen burner
Hall of Famer
West Coast
Location: Sydney
Beerfish said: ↑
Interesting. What kind of conversations did you have?
Can't remember. Was a quarter a century ago and I was always pissed in his presence. I suspect it was more the "yeah, weather's been good", "where you been?" sort of stuff. He was a quiet unassuming bloke who was socially awkward and had no mates. He would have been 25-ish at the time. It stuck out like dogs balls the reason he was picking me up was because he had no mates.
bunsen burner, Dec 7, 2012 #16Reply
 Beerfish
Moderator 
Essendon
bunsen burner said: ↑
Can't remember. Was a quarter a century ago and I was always pissed in his presence. I suspect it was more the "yeah, weather's been good", "where you been?" sort of stuff. He was a quiet unassuming bloke who was socially awkward and had no mates. He would have been 25-ish at the time. It stuck out like dogs balls the reason he was picking me up was because he had no mates.
Think it was a different guy then. The CSK public servant was 45. His name was (and probably still is) Lance Williams.
Which begs the question.. who was your guy?
Beerfish, Dec 7, 2012 #17Reply
 bunsen burner
Hall of Fame
West Coast
Location: Sydney
Beerfish said: ↑
Think it was a different guy then. The CSK public servant was 45. His name was (and probably still is) Lance Williams.
Which begs the question.. who was your guy?
Definitely this Lance Williams character. Would have been older than I thought when I "knew" him.
I remember when the story came out and they showed him at his house in Eric Street. Definitely him.
Talking of freaky. When I was about 10 or 11 a women tried to convince me and my mate to get in her husband's car. Her ruse that she wanted us to check out some books she had. Our response was we couldn't because we would have to ask our parents and they were at home. She then suggested she and her husband were drive us to our parents house to ask. No thanks, we have to go. 
Very very dodgy. We both told our parents and neither sets of parents called the cops. That's how shit rolled back then.
bunsen burner, Dec 7, 2012 #18Reply
 Beerfish
bunsen burner said: ↑
Talking of freaky. When I was about 10 or 11 a women tried to convince me and my mate to get in her husband's car. Her ruse that she wanted us to check out some books she had. Our response was we couldn't because we would have to ask our parents and they were at home. She then suggested she and her husband were drive us to our parents house to ask. No thanks, we have to go.
Very very dodgy. We both told our parents and neither sets of parents called the cops. That's how shit rolled back then.
Whereabouts and when was that? Kinda sounds like what the Birnies used to do..
Beerfish, Dec 7, 2012 #19Reply
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 vast
Brownlow Medallist
Essendon
Location: Nowhere
Well no wonder they looked into Lance Williams if he was picking up random people giving them lifts. But it sounds like a fair few locals would have known about him anyway as the local weirdo im guessing.
vast, Dec 8, 2012 #20Reply
 RU486
Club Legend
Brisbane Lions
Location: West
bunsen burner said: ↑
The public servant guy. Used to give me a lift a lot in the late 80s when I was a teenager. I'd go out in Claremont, get pissed, and walk home along the highway. I'd always see him driving up and down Stirling Hwy in his yellow Toyota Corona. He'd often drive to near where I lived. He was essentially just a lonely dude with no mates and the only way he could get conversation was picking up kids along the highway.
I'm pretty sure he's been completely ruled out.
I think the reason he became one of the prime suspects was due to the fact he was picked up in a police sting in the late 1990's which involved an undercover female police officer posing as a lone late night clubber trying to pick up a lift by the side of the road. He picked her up late one night, thus enabling police to conduct raids on his properties. I believe he was also found to be hiding a high powered rifle under the drivers seat, he claimed he was actually trying to protect the girls and would drive around late at night in some sort of attempt to ensure public safety and to try catch the killer himself.
This resulted in him becoming the focus of police investigations, was placed under 24/7 surveillance until a couple of years ago when the courts said there was no sort of burden of proof that could warrant such an intrustion into his life. I can understand why he was a strong suspect but I think the police no longer believe it was him.
RU486, Dec 8, 2012 #21Reply
 bunsen burne
Hall of Famer
West Coast↑
Whereabouts and when was that? Kinda sounds like what the Birnies used to do..
80/81 ish at Cottesloe Oval. I often wondered if it was the Birnies afterwards as the woman didn't completely look unlike Catherine Birnie. The "husband" drove a white van but was a good 100m away at the time of conversation as we were in the middle of the oval and he was parked on Broome St. I didn't see what he looked like
The Birnies went for girls so that pretty much rules them out in my mind. I just wonder what they were intending and did they abduct anyone else?
bunsen burner, Dec 9, 2012 #22Reply
 badgrill
Club Legend
Hawthorn
Location: Melbourne
bunsen burner said: ↑
80/81 ish at Cottesloe Oval. I often wondered if it was the Birnies afterwards as the woman didn't completely look unlike Catherine Birnie. The "husband" drove a white van but was a good 100m away at the time of conversation as we were in the middle of the oval and he was parked on Broome St. I didn't see what he looked like
The Birnies went for girls so that pretty much rules them out in my mind. I just wonder what they were intending and did they abduct anyone else?
This is an interesting take on it...
http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2007/s2089795.htm
badgrill, Dec 9, 2012 #23Reply
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 Silent Alarm
Is your bed made? Is your sweater on?
Fremantle
bunsen burner said: ↑
The public servant guy. Used to give me a lift a lot in the late 80s when I was a teenager. I'd go out in Claremont, get pissed, and walk home along the highway. I'd always see him driving up and down Stirling Hwy in his yellow Toyota Corona. He'd often drive to near where I lived. He was essentially just a lonely dude with no mates and the only way he could get conversation was picking up kids along the highway.
I'm pretty sure he's been completely ruled out.
Fuark. Pretty interesting and pretty surreal for you, I guess. What made you even get in his car, to be honest? I mean, was this just the result of living in a decade where the whole stranger danger thing isn't peppered into you as a kid?
Silent Alarm, Dec 9, 2012 #24Reply
 bunsen burne
Hall of Famer
West Coast
Location: Sydney
Silent Alarm said: ↑
Fuark. Pretty interesting and pretty surreal for you, I guess. What made you even get in his car, to be honest? I mean, was this just the result of living in a decade where the whole stranger danger thing isn't peppered into you as a kid?
I just wanted a ride home. I was 17/18 and male. Not usually the demographic that serial killers and rapists go for. He was harmless. There was no indication he was doing it for any other reason than having someone to talk to. And certainly wasn't trying to really pick me up. Just a dude with no mates who had nothing better to do than give people a lift.

This case has always fascinated me. My other used to work with one of the victims. From what I gathered the police have botched this one.



https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/claremont-serial-killings.985161/page-2

This case has always fascinated me. My other used to work with one of the victims. From what I gathered the police have botched this one.

Jane Doe, Dec 31, 2012 #26Reply
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 bunsen burner
Hall of Famer
West Coast
Other teams:
Joined: Sep 01
Posts:32,664
Location: Sydney
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/csk-claremont-serial-killer.982813/
bunsen burner, Jan 2, 2013 #27Reply
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 Ghostwriter
Brownlow Medallist            
North Melbourne
Other teams:
Joined: Aug 02
Posts:17,042
Location: Petrie Motlop sponsor '03
The 'Family' in Adelaide apparently used the mo of using a woman to entice young men into the car then ply them with a drink laced with drugs.
 
Ghostwriter, Jan 2, 2013 #28Reply
bunsen burner
Hall of Famer
West Coast
Other teams:
Joined: Sep 01
Posts:32,664
Location: Sydney
Is it possible the guy who killed Jill Meagher was in Perth during the mid 90s? A long shot but;
1. Bayley's MO was to tell women they were being followed and he'd take them to safety. It's still a mystery how the CSK managed to abduct the girls. Taxi driver? Cop? Someone masquerading as a cop? Someone using Bayley's line? Someone using Bayley's line with a fake police badge?
2. He abducted Jill Meagher after a night out when she was drunk, murdered her, and dumped her body 50-100kms out of the city. Same with the Claremont girls.
3. Jill Meagher, like the Claremont girls was good looking and sophisticated.
If I was Task Force <can't remember> I'd be making a quick inquiry to find out Bayley's whereabouts on those dates. Eliminate or follow up.
bunsen burner, Apr 2, 2013 #29Reply
 Illinois Nazi
Brownlow Medallist
West Coast
Location: Why? You stalking me?
bunsen burner said: ↑
If I was Task Force <can't remember> I'd be making a quick inquiry to find out Bayley's whereabouts on those dates. Eliminate or follow up.
Macro.
IIRC they know who it was, they just can't prove it.
Illinois Nazi, Apr 2, 2013 #30Reply
 bunsen burner
Hall of Famer
West Coast
Location: Sydney
Illinois Nazi said: ↑
Macro.
IIRC they know who it was, they just can't prove it.
who?
bunsen burner, Apr 2, 2013 #31Reply
 Illinois Nazi
Brownlow Medallist
West Coast
Other teams: Whoever's winning
Joined: Jul 02
Posts:14,428
Location: Why? You stalking me?
bunsen burner said: ↑
who?
Some bloke they were following around, they watched him as he went to pick up another victim but jumped in too early (probably from fear of jumping in too late) and could never prove anything. I don't remember all the details, was years ago.
Illinois Nazi, Apr 2, 2013 #32Reply
 footy75
footy75
Club Legend
Carlton
Other teams: Norwood, Melbourne Storm
Joined: Jun 08
Posts:1,881
Location: Adelaide
Illinois Nazi said: ↑
Some bloke they were following around, they watched him as he went to pick up another victim but jumped in too early (probably from fear of jumping in too late) and could never prove anything. I don't remember all the details, was years ago.
mmmm really? surely we would of heard more
footy75, Apr 2, 2013 #33Reply
 Silent Alarm
Is your bed made? Is your sweater on?
Fremantle
Other teams: Dial Square
Joined: Jul 10
Posts:17,882
Location: Under The Westway
Illinois Nazi said: ↑
Macro.
IIRC they know who it was, they just can't prove it.
That's been the general consensus around Perth for years.
Apparently they've had surveillance on a guy for years. But they're just missing a few shards of evidence. So it's either really thorough and dedicated police work, like digging a tunnel rather than going straight down, or they've botched it completely.
But everyone will say they know someone who could've done it. Who knows? 
The thing I find interesting is that the Claremont Serial Killer almost defies criminal psychology logic. Even someone spending a few hours on the internet realises that killers have a pretty specific MO, and it carries on until they're caught. He either completely changed his methods, stop killing completely, moved, or died – but how many serial killers move?

The idea that he's strolling around Perth and asking you "can I just get through, mate?" at Woolies is a pretty fucked up one.
 
Silent Alarm, Apr 3, 2013 #34Reply
 bunsen burner
Hall of Famer
West Coast
Location: Sydney
Silent Alarm said: ↑
That's been the general consensus around Perth for years.
Apparently they've had surveillance on a guy for years. But they're just missing a few shards of evidence. So it's either really thorough and dedicated police work, like digging a tunnel rather than going straight down, or they've botched it completely.
The police conceded he was no longer a suspect. Whether this can be taken at face value or whether they were legally forced to say it and still strongly believe it's him, is yet to be known.
My understanding is the vast majority of the public don't think it's him.
Personally I find it hard to believe they had him and couldn't find evidence. I think if it was him they'd find some sort of evidence. I don't even think they charged him. Found nothing in his car, house, no dna matches, no tyre print matches etc. Nothing except finding him stalking chicks one night.
The general consensus is the police put all their eggs in this basket and were blindsided to other options. I tend to agree with this, but would completely rule out the "no mates guy from Eric Street".
bunsen burner, Apr 3, 2013 #35Reply
 RU486
Club Legend
Location: West
bunsen burner said: ↑
Is it possible the guy who killed Jill Meagher was in Perth during the mid 90s? A long shot but;
1. Bayley's MO was to tell women they were being followed and he'd take them to safety. It's still a mystery how the CSK managed to abduct the girls. Taxi driver? Cop? Someone masquerading as a cop? Someone using Bayley's line? Someone using Bayley's line with a fake police badge?
2. He abducted Jill Meagher after a night out when she was drunk, murdered her, and dumped her body 50-100kms out of the city. Same with the Claremont girls.
3. Jill Meagher, like the Claremont girls was good looking and sophisticated.
If I was Task Force <can't remember> I'd be making a quick inquiry to find out Bayley's whereabouts on those dates. Eliminate or follow up.
As someone who has done a fair bit of research on the CSK there is no way this a possiblity (studied crim at uni). There MO's are completely different, Bayley's attack was spontaneous and unplanned. The CSK exclusively set out to murder young females fitting his criteria, the execution of his crimes was with military like precision. There was talk on some crime blog when the Meagher case first emerged that he was in Perth at one point in his life and that there was a possibility that he commited those murders, however from my understandings of the CSK there is an extremely low chance of this, two completely different murder cases.
Wtf at the comments in this blog though (nutcase or genius?) - Just googled something along the lines of 'police apoligize claremorent serial killer' then this crap came up:
http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/business/media-2/jill-meagher-and-alan-jones/
Edit: Looks like typical CT talk
RU486, Apr 4, 2013 #36Reply
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 northmelbournefc
Premiership Player
North Melbourne
Location: Melbourne
Did the guy in the footage that was released a few years ago ever come forward ?
northmelbournefc, May 21, 2013 #37Reply
 basashi
Club Legend
Fremantle
northmelbournefc said: ↑
Did the guy in the footage that was released a few years ago ever come forward ?
I don't think they got anything from that.
Just watching the whole thing is frustrating. To think the person could be out there somewhere?
basashi, May 28, 2013 #38Reply
 northmelbournefc
Premiership Player
North Melbourne
Location: Melbourne
basashi said: ↑
I don't think they got anything from that.
Just watching the whole thing is frustrating. To think the person could be out there somewhere?
They spoke with everyone who was there that night except him. I think he might be involved, but who knows. The killer could be anywhere
northmelbournefc, May 28, 2013 #39Reply
 Silent Alarm
Is your bed made? Is your sweater on?
Fremantle
Location: Under The Westway
northmelbournefc said: ↑
They spoke with everyone who was there that night except him. I think he might be involved, but who knows. The killer could be anywhere
Even... you!
Silent Alarm, May 28, 2013 #40Reply
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 northmelbournefc
Premiership Player
North Melbourne
Location: Melbourne
Silent Alarm said: ↑
Even... you!
How many 3 year olds do you know who can drive ?
northmelbournefc, May 28, 2013 #41Reply
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Total_Juddshanks
Premiership Player
Other teams: The good ones
One of the requirements for Western Australian residency is you have to be able to produce upon demand a plausible 'inside story about what happened to the police investigation of the Claremont Serial Killings' theory, based on a friend of a friend source.
In justice circles, the 'know who he is, can't prove it' story is told by a lot of different people, and I'm inclined to believe it.
If its not true, basically the possibilities are he stopped, died, went interstate, or got pinched for something else serious enough to put him behind bars for 15-20.
Total_Juddshanks, May 29, 2013 #42Reply
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FreoGirl
 Smith Medallist
Fremantle
Location: Perth
I can't believe that, with all the DNA technology they have today, they haven't ever arrested someone
FreoGirl, Jun 28, 2013 #43Reply
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 Squibo
Senior List
Essendon
Other teams: FC Barcelona
Location: Melbourne
Always found it odd that nothing came of that CCTV footage of the suspect that was released to the public. While the individual in the footage didn't exactly stand out from the crowd with his appearance, one would like to think that if he was a local or even a resident of WA, that somebody would recognise him. The fact that the individual in question has refused to come forward when apparently? everyone else captured in the footage has come forward to clear their name shouts guilty. One of the graver cases in recent Australian criminal records.
Squibo, Jun 28, 2013 #44Reply
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 Illinois Nazi
Brownlow Medallist
West Coast
Location: Why? You stalking me?
FreoGirl said: ↑
I can't believe that, with all the DNA technology they have today, they haven't ever arrested someone
Hard to get DNA off a body you never find.
Illinois Nazi, Jun 28, 2013 #45Reply
 The Abbotsford Anglers
Location: Perth
but they did find their bodies
The case began with the disappearance of Sarah Spiers, 18, on 26 January 1996, after she left a nightclub in the centre of Claremont. Her disappearance was described by her friends and family as out of character and attracted massive publicity. Spiers had apparently called a taxi from a phone booth but was not present when the responding vehicle arrived. Her fate remains uncertain.
Some months later, on 9 June 1996, Jane Rimmer, 23, disappeared from the same part of Claremont. Her body was found in bushland near Woolcoot Road, Wellard, in August 1996.[1]
On 14 March 1997, Ciara Glennon, a 27-year-old lawyer, disappeared from the Claremont area. Her body was found on 3 April, near a track in scrub off Pipidinny Road in Eglinton, a northern suburb of Perth.[2] After this murder police confirmed that they were searching for a serial killer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claremont_serial_murders
FreoGirl, Jun 28, 2013 #46Reply
 Illinois Nazi
Brownlow Medallist
West Coast
Location: Why? You stalking me?
FreoGirl said: ↑
but they did find their bodies
Not all of them, and not very quickly. DNA isn't the magic wand TV crime shows make it out to be.
Even if they have managed to get some (which they probably have), if the person who did it has never had his DNA taken in relation to some other crime then they have nothing to match it to.
Illinois Nazi, Jun 28, 2013 #47Reply
 FreoGirl
Norm Smith Medallist
Fremantle
Other teams: East Freo, The Abbotsford Anglers
Location: Perth
well some say Spiers might have been a victim of the Birnies
You would think they would find something on two victims now that forensics has progressed so much
FreoGirl, Jun 28, 2013 #48Reply
 Illinois Nazi
Brownlow Medallist
West Coasts
Location: Why? You stalking me?
FreoGirl said: ↑
well some say Spiers might have been a victim of the Birnies
Given that the Birnies had been in prison nearly a decade before Sarah Spiers went missing, I say "some" are full of shit.
You would think they would find something on two victims now that forensics has progressed so much
Probably have, but if it doesn't match a known sample what do you suggest they do with it? Unless mandatory DNA sampling of the entire population is introduced, they may not ever find the person it came from.
Illinois Nazi, Jun 28, 2013 #49Reply
 Squibo
Senior List
Essendon
 FC Barcelona
Location: Melbourne
Given that the two bodies found weren't discovered until a good month after the murders, the elements would've more than likely done their bit to pretty much destroy any form of DNA that the perp may have initially left at the scene. The next step would be the decomposition state of the bodies. If the bodies were too badly decomposed - to the point that dental records are required to identify the victims - it becomes an enormous task to obtain any DNA
Personally, I've got doubts that any DNA was ever obtained as probably 99% of serial killers have a previous criminal record of petty crimes for which they've probably had to provide DNA (assuming they were apprehended) for future cross referencing.
Squibo, Jun 28, 2013

Missing and murdered girls in and around Perth and Western Australia from the 1970’s to around 2003.

17^th April, 1974 the disappearance and suspected murder of Raelene Eaton and Yvonne Waters   last seen in Scarbourgh Beach, Western Australia.

Shirley Finn 1975 - The 19th Hole

Orelia resident Felicia Wilson’s battered, mutilated body was found behind a shopping centre at Kwinana on January 10, 1979.

June 1980. PAULINE WALTER, 22

Pauline Walter was last seen at a Perth backpacker hostel in June 1980.

Her headless body was found in a Forrestdale ditch six years later.

October 30, 1980- LISA MOTT, 12

Lisa Mott vanished on October 30, 1980. She was last seen getting into a panel van on Forrest St, Collie, after a basketball game. Her body has never been found.

February 19, 1983-SHARON MASON, 14

Perth schoolgirl Sharon Mason vanished on February 19, 1983

June 26, 1986- BARBARA WESTERN, 38

Barbara was last seen drinking at a pub on the Albany Highway on June 26, 1986.

Her skeletal remains were eventually found in bush near Karragullen 

Cheryl Renwick (left) and Barbara Western (right) both vanished from Perth in 1986

1988- The disappearance and suspected murder of Julie Cutler in Perth, Claremont, Cottesloe area

30^th June, 1991 the disappearance and suspected murder of Kerry Turner

Sara-Lee Davey was last seen alive on January 14, 1997

1997 - Ciara Glennon- Abducted Claremont, Found dead, cause of death unknown (Foreign articles suggest major knife wounds- maybe I’m wrong and only one victims was identified in the foreign media as having major knife wounds throughout the body,If So it would be Ciara only where we know the cause of death?)

Nov. 1998 - Lisa Brown, missing (sex worker, last seen on Palmerston St.)

Nov. 2000 - Sarah McMahon, missing (last seen in Claremont, knew Morey)

Apr. 2002 - Survivor (attacked on Palmerston St.)

Mar. 2003 -  Darylyn Meridith Ugle,, murdered (sex worker, body found near Mundaring Weir)

Dec. 2003 - Survivor (sex worker, escaped near Mundaring Weir)

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.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?284695-Claremont-Serial-Killer-1996-1997-Perth-Western-Australia-2/page40

Claremont Serial Killer, 1996 - 1997, Perth, Western Australia - #2 P.40

Family of murdered sex worker speak of anguish as they await verdict

https://www.ecr.co.za/.../family-murdered-sex-worker-speak-anguish-they-await-verdi...

1.  

Jan 18, 2017 - Family of murdered sex worker speak of anguish as they await verdict ... Desiree Murugan's headless body was found by municipal workers at ...

Missing: mar ‎2003 ‎darylyn ‎mundaring ‎weir

Family of murdered sex worker speak of anguish as they await verdict

 Updated Jan. 18, 2017

https://www.ecr.co.za/news/news/family-murdered-sex-worker-speak-anguish-they-await-verdict/?fb_comment_id=1315365211819952_1315410641815409#f2c281e81465bf

https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/violent-attacker-is-suspect-in-murders-ng-ya-141907

Violent attacker is suspect in murders

LUKE ELIOT

Monday, November 07, 2011

Donald Morey

A street prostitute who narrowly survived a brutal bashing at the hands of a sexual deviant who is suspected of being involved in two unsolved suspected murders says she is still haunted by the chilling attack and believes her assailant may have killed other women.

In her first media interview since the December 2003 attack, the woman, who did not want her name published, described crawling through a swamp and scaling a 2.4m high concrete wall in a bid to escape.

"I know there are other girls who aren't as lucky as I was," the woman said.

In September 2005, career criminal Donald Victor Morey was convicted after trial of attempted murder.

In handing down a 13-year jail term, Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Miller accepted the prosecutor's submission that there was no sexual motive to Morey's crime as he was impotent at the time.

"This woman was a random target and . . . it was predatory conduct on your part," Justice Miller said. "It was a premeditated offence, that you planned to take her to a remote area and it was not the case that you voluntarily desisted from what you were doing."

Morey's appeals were dismissed and he remains behind bars.

He is a suspect in the murder of Darylyn Meridith Ugle, a prostitute who was last seen alive while soliciting for sex in March 2003, and to the disappearance of Sarah McMahon, a 20-year-old Parkerville woman who has not been seen leaving her Claremont workplace exactly 11 years ago today. Her vehicle was found at Swan District Hospital. Morey denies involvement in both cases but admits he knew Ms McMahon.

Ms Ugle's body was found in April 2003 near Mundaring Weir - a short distance from Morey's Chidlow home and from the Helena Valley street where he took his December 2003 victim. The two prostitutes knew each other.

"We don't think it is going to happen to us but I didn't put two and two together," the prostitute who escaped said.

"I'm not a dumb girl. I have good instincts and he was good enough to make me go against my instincts."

She said she felt uneasy getting into Morey's car that night in December 2003 but accepted $900 to have sex with him.

"I think he might have panicked because I realised he was going around in circles," she said.

"He calmly pulled his car over to the side of the road and he already had rope wrapped around his hand when he turned his car off."

Morey tried to place the rope over the woman's neck but she put her back against the passenger door and repeatedly kicked him.

"I fell out backwards and hit the kerb with my back," she said.

"He dived out over the top of me and I got him in the face with my feet. I think that dazed him a little bit. I crawled to the back of the car and he followed me.

"He was punching into me for about 15 minutes and I was screaming. I climbed on to the back of his car . . . to try not to let him get me back into the car again."

The woman managed to climb a high wall and stumble through a swampy area.

"I was screaming," she said. Morey eventually got back in his car and drove off.

The woman said the attack changed her life.

"I couldn't walk out in the street at night," she said.

"If I see someone who looks like him I jump a little, even though I know he is in jail."

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/how-many-of-perths-missing-and-murdered-women-fell-prey-to-serial-killers/news-story/0c2ef54e364745c7c0582b4e60685a91

How many of Perth’s missing and murdered women fell prey to serial killers? JANUARY 17, 2017

IT’S one of the most remote cities on earth, yet no less than four serial killers and suspected serial killers have chosen Perth as their hunting ground since the 1980s.

The arrest of a man in connection with the most notorious of them all — the Claremont murders — has renewed interest in Western Australia’s other unsolved cases. And there are many.

Over the past four decades, dozens of women and girls have disappeared from the Perth area. A handful have turned out to be murdered but the vast majority have never been found.

Some of these cold cases are being rexamined for possible links to other unsolved cases, while others bear the hallmarks of solved murders and notoriously violent criminals.

The waters have been muddied thanks to some major screw ups by the Western Australian Police, who have developed a reputation for collaring the wrong man (Andrew Mallard, the Mickelburg brothers and John Button to name a few) while the real killers roamed free, and in some cases struck again.

The town of Claremont has feared there may be a serial killer in their midst since the deaths of Jane Rimmer, 23, and Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1996 and 1997.

Speculation about other serial killers has been rife for years as police, amateur sleuths and journalists chip away at WA’s growing list of unsolved crimes.

Two cases which have come up again and again are those of Julie Cutler and Kerry Turner, who vanished in 1988 and 1991 respectively.

Ms Turner’s decomposed remains were found near Canning Dam four weeks after she disappeared. Ms Cutler’s upturned car was found in the surf off Cottesloe Beach two days after she was last seen but her body has never been recovered.

The parents of both Ms Cutler and Ms Turner believe their daughters may have fallen prey a serial killer and have appealed to detectives to investigate possible links.

Just before Christmas, police charged Bradley Robert Edwards with the abduction and murders of Ms Glennon and Ms Rimmer.

The 48-year-old Telstra technician and amateur photographer was arrested after cold case detectives allegedly linked DNA from Ms Glennon to a 1995 rape at Perth’s Karrakatta Cemetery and a kimono linked to the scene of a 1988 assault on a sleeping teenager in Huntingdale.

Mr Edwards faces two counts of deprivation of liberty, two counts of aggravated sexual penetration without consent, one count of breaking and entering and one count of indecent assault with respect to the earlier cases.

The investigation regarding 18-year-old Sarah Spiers, who also disappeared from Claremont in 1996 but whose body has never been found, remains open. Mr. Edwards has not been charged with any offences in relation to Ms Spiers.

Former Telstra technician Bradley Robert Edwards, 48, with ex-wife Catherine Geneste. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

IN an unrelated case, police are investigating the disappearance and suspected murder of 20-year-old Sarah McMahon in 2000, the murder of street worker Darylyn Ugle, 25, in 2003 and to numerous missing persons cases involving prostitutes.

Ms McMahon was not a prostitute. A 2013 inquest into her death heard that one man was a person of interest in both Ms McMahon’s disappearance and Ms Ugle’s murder and heard evidence that at least one of his associates feared he was a “serial killer”.

Serial killers David and Catherine Birnie murdered four of the five women they abducted over a period of just five weeks in 1986.

Their murder victims were Mary Neilson, 22, Noelene Patterson, 31, Denise Brown, 21 and Susannah Candy.

It is feared, however, that many more women and girls fell prey to the twisted couple.

They include 12-year-old Lisa Mott, who vanished in 1980, 33-year-old Cheryl Renwick, who was last seen in May 1986 and Barbara Western, 38, who vanished a month later.

Serial killer Catherine Birnie (above) and husband David murdered four women near Perth in a murderous six week frenzy in 1986 but police suspect the couple had many more victims. Picture: Newsltd.Source:News Corp Australia

Serial killer David Birnie (above) and wife Catherine were convicted of the murders of four women in 1986 but are suspected to have killed many more. Picture: NewsltdSource:News Corp Australia

Self-described serial killer Richard Edward Dorrough left a note confessing to the murders of three people before killing himself in Perth in 2014.

The 37-year-old navy mechanic is believed to have named 21-year-old Broome woman Sara-Lee Davey, Sydney prostitute Rachael Campbell, 29 and an unknown person in the note.

The confession came four years after Dorrough was acquitted of Ms Campbell’s 1998 murder, despite DNA evidence linking him to the crime.

At his 2010 trial, he admitted having sex with her and even biting her but denied killing her. His legal team successfully advanced a theory Ms Campbell’s estranged boyfriend was the killer and the jury handed down a not-guilty verdict.

Years earlier he had served just 12 months of a five-year sentence for attempted murder after being convicted of deliberately running down a pedestrian in Queensland in 2000.

Ms Davey vanished in January 1997 after hooking up with Dorrough at a Broome nightclub while he was on shore leave from the HMAS Geelong.

Despite testimony from witnesses who claimed to have seen the pair wander down a pier together and heard “screams” and a “splash” shortly afterwards, investigators found there was “insufficient evidence” to charge Dorrough with any crime.

Since his shocking confession, Dorrough, who was born in Queensland but lived all over the country thanks to his line of work, has been posthumously investigated in connection with hundreds of cold cases.

Ex-Australian Navy mechanic Richard Dorrough left a suicide note confessing to the murders of three people before killing himself in Perth in 2014. Picture: WA PoliceSource:Supplied

Police released this graphic of all the places self-confessed serial killer Richard Dorrough lived in before his 2014 suicide in Perth in the hope of solving some of the nation’s cold cases.Source:Supplied

HOW MANY OF THESE WOMEN ARE SERIAL KILLER VICTIMS?

FELICIA MARIE WILSON, 19

Orelia resident Felicia Wilson’s battered, mutilated body was found behind a shopping centre at Kwinana on January 10, 1979.

Felicia Wilson was found dead in 1979.Source:Supplied

KERRYN MARY TATE, 19

Kerryn Tate disappeared from the Perth metropolitan area on the 28th of December 1979. Her remains were found draped over a burnt tree stump off the Brookton Hwy at Boulder Rock two days later.

A pendant found at the site was used to help identify her.

ANNETTE DEVERELL, 19

Annette Deverell was last seen heading to Mandurah to buy cigarettes on September 13, 1980.

Two years later, her burnt, skeletal remains were found in bush at Pinjarra. A shotgun was found nearby and a post mortem examination revealed her skull had been fractured.

LISA MOTT, 12

Lisa Mott vanished on October 30, 1980. She was last seen getting into a panel van on Forrest St, Collie, after a basketball game. Her body has never been found.

Serial killers David and Catherine Birnie are considered suspects in her case.

Lisa Mott’s father Brian at his Busselton home with a painting of his daughter, who disappeared in 1980 at the age of just 12. Picture: Gary MerrinSource:News Limited

PAULINE WALTER, 22

Pauline Walter was last seen at a Perth backpacker hostel in June 1980.

Her headless body was found in a Forrestdale ditch six years later.

SHARON MASON, 14

Perth schoolgirl Sharon Mason vanished on February 19, 1983. Her butchered body was found by workman under a shed behind a shop run by Arthur Greer later that year.

Greer was convicted of Sharon’s murder in 1994 and received a life sentence.

However, there is a widely held belief that Greer did not kill Sharon and the WA Innocence Project have conducted a long-running campaign to appeal his conviction but his requests for parole have continually been knocked back.

His pro bono lawyer Jonathan Davies has applied to the board to allow Greer parole in light of the new evidence, which may explain his longstanding refusal to accept responsibility for the schoolgirl’s murder.

The evidence uncovered by John Button, who was also wrongly convicted over a murder committed by serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke, was presented to the Innocence Project in WA and Edith Cowan University law students, as well as criminologists and psychologists.

His years as a builder meant he was able to find a discrepancy about where the plumbing was on the Mosman Park site where Ms Mason’s remains were found.

It is now suggested that the remains were above pipes that were installed after the girl’s disappearance in 1983, and were not located under a shed then belonging to Greer, which was thought to have concealed the burial spot.

Many believe Arthur Greer was wrongly convicted of the murder of Sharon Mason, 14 (above) and that her real killer remains uncaught.Source:Supplied

CHERYL RENWICK, 33

The last time Cheryl was known to have had contact with anyone was when she answered a phone call from a friend on May 25, 1986.

Her car was found abandoned at Perth Airport three days later but investigators do not believe she took a flight.

Serial killers David and Catherine Birnie remains the prime suspects in her case.

Cheryl Renwick (left) and Barbara Western (right) both vanished from Perth in 1986 and may have been victims of serial killers David and Catherine BirnieSource:News Corp Australia

BARBARA WESTERN, 38

Barbara was last seen drinking at a pub on the Albany Highway on June 26, 1986.

Her skeletal remains were eventually found in bush near Karragullen and suspicion also fell on

the Birnies, who are considered suspects in this case.

JULIE CUTLER, 20

Julie Cutler disappeared on June 22, 1988 after leaving a staff party at the Parmelia Hilton in Perth. Two days later, her upturned car was found in the surf at Cottesloe but her body has never been found.

Shortly before she went missing, she told her family somebody unknown to her had tried to run her car off the road.

Julie Cutler.Source:Supplied

LISA GOVAN, 28

Lisa Govan was last seen near the bottle shop of the Foundry Hotel in Kalgoorlie on October 8, 1999.

At the time, the hotel was also used as a clubhouse by the Club Deroes outlaw motorcycle gang.

Her body was never found and despite a $50,000 reward and two anonymous calls made to her parents in connection with her suspected murder, the case remains unsolved.

SARAH MCMAHON, 20

Sarah McMahon was last seen leaving work at Claremont on November 11, 2000.

Her car was later found abandoned and unlocked at a hospital carpark.

Missing, presumed murdered: Claremont woman Sarah McMahon.Source:Supplied

KERRY TURNER, 18

Kerry Turner vanished while hitchhiking from Victoria Park to Armadale on June 29, 1991 after a night out.

Her badly decomposed body was found four weeks later near Canning Dam.

SARA-LEE DAVEY, 21

Sara-Lee Davey was last seen alive on January 14, 1997, when she picked up a handbag from a house in Saville Street, Broome, where she had been staying for a few days, telling relatives she would return later. The car she was driving has never been found.

The police’s strongest lead was that Ms Davey was murdered by a sailor — suspected to be Perth-based, self-confessed serial killer Richard Dorrough, who confessed to her murder in a 2014 suicide note.

Richard Dorrough confessed to the murder of missing Broome woman Sara-Lee Davey, 21, in a 2014 suicide note. Picture: GWN7Source:Supplied

LISA BROWN, 19

Lisa Brown was a street worker and mother-of-two who vanished on October 11, 1998 and is believed to have been murdered.

She was last seen looking for clients in the Lake Street area of Perth.

Sex worker and mum-of-two Lisa Brown, 21, is believed to have been murdered by a serial killerSource:Supplied

 

DARYLYN UGLE, 25

Ms Ugle vanished on March 25, 2003, from Highgate.

Her badly decomposed body was found in bush near Mundaring Weir about two weeks later.

 

 

Powerful and Disturbing Stories of Murdered Sex Workers

http://www.fivemile.com.au/sites/default/files/extracts/Invisible%20Women_Extract.pdf

 

By Kylie Fox and Ruth Wykes - Echo Publishing www.echopublishing.com.au

 

For the forgotten, fallen women whose lives mattered more than they knew.

Alongside the higher-profile cases featured in this book the authors have included a series of shorter pieces about whom little is known – these are the real invisible women of the title. The stories are presented in chronological order, with one obvious exception.

The death of Tracy Connelly, and Wendy Squires’ subsequent blog post, was the catalyst behind the writing of this book. It seems only fitting the book starts here.

 

When news of a murdered woman hits the headlines in Australia, people sit up and take notice. Unless that woman happens to be a sex worker. Invisible Women tells the stories of 65 murdered sex workers – all of whom are somebody’s mother, daughter, wife or sister – whose identities have been erased. Why do we see some lives as less valuable than others, and what price do we all pay for this disgraceful lack of care? These stories of incredible women are both deeply moving and shocking in their insight and clarity. And definitely way overdue.

Kylie Fox is a writer, editor, transcriptionist and mother-of-fi ve. Her short crime fi ction stories have won awards, including the Dorothy Porter Award, part of Sisters in Crime’s annual Scarlett Stiletto Awards, and are published in anthologies. Kylie is currently undertaking a degree in criminal justice and looks forward to studying further in the fi eld of criminal psychology. Invisible Women is Kylie’s fi rst true crime book. Ruth Wykes has worked in a range of jobs that have brought her in contact with people in vulnerable social circumstances, including prisons, and maintains an active interest in justice and human rights. Ruth’s previous book, Women Who Kill, was published by The Five Mile Press in 2011

Echo Publishing A division of The Five Mile Press 12 Northumberland Street, South Melbourne Victoria 3205 Australia www.echopublishing.com.au Part of the Bonnier Publishing Group www.bonnierpublishing.com Text copyright © Ruth Wykes and Kylie Fox, 2016 All rights reserved. Echo Publishing thank you for buying an authorised edition of this book. In doing so, you are supporting writers and enabling Echo Publishing to publish more books and foster new talent. Thank you for complying with copyright laws by not using any part of this book without our prior written permission, including reproducing, storing in a retrieval system, transmitting in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or distributing. First published 2016 Edited by Kyla Petrilli Cover design by Luke Causby, Blue Cork Front cover photograph © Joseph Dennis Page design and typesetting by Shaun Jury Typeset in Janson Text, Trixie and Univers Condensed Printed in Australia at Griffi n Press. Only wood grown from sustainable regrowth forests is used in the manufacture of paper found in this book. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Creator: Wykes, Ruth, author. Title: Invisible women : powerful and disturbing stories of murdered sex workers / Ruth Wykes and Kylie Fox. ISBN: 9781760067472 (ebook : mobi) ISBN: 9781760067465 (ebook : epub) ISBN: 9781760067472 (ebook : mobi) Subjects: Murder victims–Australia. Prostitutes–Australia–Social conditions. Prostitution–Social aspects–Australia. Other Creators/Contributors: Fox, Kylie, author. Dewey Number: 364.15230994 Twitter/Instagram: @echo_publishing Facebook: facebook.com/echopublishingAU

CONTENTS

Introduction 1

Her Name Was Tracy Tracy Connelly 2013 21

Shirley Brifman 1972 35

Margaret Ward 1973 37

One Pub-Crawl Too Many Elaine King 1974 39

The 19th Hole Shirley Finn 1975 47

Simone Vogel 1977 57

Adele Bailey 1978 59

Colleen Moore 1978 61

Marion Sandford 1980 63

The Woman Who Knew Too Much

 Sallie-Anne Huckstepp 1986 65

Lillian Lorenz 1986 77

Cheryl Burchell 1987 79

Jodie Larcombe 1987 81

Cary-Jane Pierce 1988 83

Roslyn Hayward 1990 85

Sharon Taylor 1990 87

Amanda Byrnes 1991 89

Suzanne Grant 1991 91

Mail-Order Aside Pia Navida 1992 93

Melissa Ryan 1993 101

Michelle Copping 1994 103

Kerrie Pang 1994 105

Samantha Mizzi 1994 107

She’s a Beautiful Dancer Revelle Balmain 1994 109

Forgotten Victims Donna Hicks 1995 & Kristy Harty 1997 121

Grace Heathcote 1995 135

Colleen Jefferies 1996 137

Rebecca Bernauer 1997 139

Nobody Noticed Margaret Maher 1997 141

Karen-Ann Redmile 1998 149

Elizabeth Henry 1998 151

Clare Garabedian 1998 153

Tracy Holmes 1998 155

Rachael Campbell 1998 157

Lisa Brown 1998 159

Jennifer Wilby 1999 161

Erin Smith 1999 163

Rebecca Schloss 1999 165

‘Bambi’ 2000 167 From Paramedic to Predator Jasmin Crathern 2002 & Julie McColl 2003 169

Maria Scott 2003 185

Darylyn Ugle 2003 187

Discarded in a Ditch Kelly Hodge 2003 189

The Slow-Flowing River Phuangsri Kroksamrang & Somjai Insamnan 2004 199

Run For Your Life Sandra Cawthorne 2004 207

Punch-Drunk and Dangerous Grace Ilardi 2004 213

Mayuree Kaewee 2004 223

Lisa Moy 2005 227

Zanita Green 2005 229

Jo-Anne Bowen 2006 231 The Lost Child Leanne Thompson 2006 233

Cracks in the Pavement Emma King 2008 247

‘Jenny’ & ‘Susan’ 2008 257

She’s Over There Rebecca Apps 2010 259

Shuxia Yuan 2010 265

Valmai Birch 2011 267

The Lies That Men Tell Johanna Martin 2011 269

The Blood-Soaked Sofa Debara Martin 2012 279

A Dream Cut Short Mayang Prasetyo 2014 289

Ting Fang 2015 295 Tiffany Taylor 2015 297

Not Forgotten Index of Victims: Missing and Murdered Since 1970 299

Acknowledgements 303

Notes 305

INTRODUCTION

 One woman dies while walking home at night and her murder sparks a national outpouring of grief, and a manhunt on a scale that is rarely seen in this country. Another woman is murdered at work, by a client, and barely a ripple is raised. Why is one murder deemed a national tragedy, and the other doesn’t seem to matter at all? It’s a familiar story. A small article appears in the paper about a murder and it piques our interest for a moment. As we read on, and the circumstances reveal themselves, we realise it was just a sex worker and we look away. Serves her right for putting herself in danger, we think. She asked for it. We don’t care. What if that same story was about your sister or your best friend and her job wasn’t mentioned? What if the media told you that a young mother went to work in an offi ce, and that afternoon her boss told her to go outside and wash his car. She said no. He got angry and punched her in the face. These might seem like absurd comparisons. But are they? A woman who engages in sex work is just doing her job. If she consents to give a particular service to a client, it doesn’t give them the right to brutalise her or take her life. When we began to research this book, the lack of information.

about murdered sex workers almost overwhelmed us. It seems that the more labels that are attached to a woman, the less human she becomes to other people. So a street-based, drug-addicted, homeless sex worker could disappear and it appears that nobody pays much attention. The premise of this book is not to paint sex work in any light other than what it is. It is work. It is the transaction of some form of sexual service in exchange for money. But the women we have written about are among the most vulnerable in society. Most of the cases involve street-based sex workers. On a daily or weekly basis they go to work in a job that doesn’t afford them the same protection the rest of us take for granted. There are few rules, no job description, no sick leave, no holiday pay, no minimum wage . . . and very little protection. *** Sex work has been present in Australia at least since European settlement. Whether it’s brothels, escorts or so-called red light districts, these services have existed for two basic reasons: they offer clients a vehicle for safe, relatively anonymous sex, and also sometimes a way to experience things their partners are unwilling to engage in. Women who work in the sex industry do so for one basic reason: to earn money. It is important to acknowledge that for many Australian women in the commercial sex industry it is a conscious choice they are happy to make, and they work in the business to help them achieve other life goals – to put themselves through university, to pay off a mortgage more quickly, or because the money is great and the friends they make give them a real sense of community. For some Australian women it is much more complex. The road to St Kilda (Melbourne), and to other streets throughout the country that have become the workplaces of street-based sex workers, isn’t straight. Neither is it a road many women know they are travelling until they arrive there. This is a road for women who may have fallen through the cracks of our society. Women who, as children, found themselves in the confusing world of foster care; a world where, far too often, paedophiles are circling, ready to groom, persuade and abuse those least equipped to tell, or to fi ght back. Women who don’t remember the fi rst time they were sexually assaulted. They were too young. And it happened so often, accompanied by words of love – or threats of punishment and pain. Those women know sex means nothing now; it’s a tool, a weapon, a way to get what they need to survive. Other women who were so young when they fell in love. They made excuses the fi rst time their partner hit them, when he controlled their money, when he isolated them from their friends, from their family. Women who, as children, lost a parent, a sibling, a friend and who stayed too quiet, bottling up their sadness until one day they were introduced to a drug that – for the fi rst time in their young lives – took their pain away. Rebellious teenagers who, in an act of youthful defi ance, said yes to a friend who offered them speed . . . it felt incredible. Women with no money, no networks of family or friends, very poor job prospects – for whom the taste of an opiate would take away their pain, or the buzz of amphetamine would make them feel amazing for a while. Sometimes it is about mental illness and the scarcity of support. The need for survival may lead women to this place. Mental health services in Australia are under-resourced, and completely inadequate to meet the needs of our burgeoning  population. The trend towards de-stigmatising mental health has led to an enormous increase in homelessness. They are among the most vulnerable people in Australian society – and the most ignored. It is these women: the homeless, mentally ill, abused, assaulted, drug-dependent members of society who are most at risk of having to become street-based sex workers. They are the women society has discarded, de-funded, disowned. It beggars belief that when they are injured or killed, people proclaim that it is their own fault, that they put themselves at risk. When people think about street-based sex workers, they have preconceived ideas. Media reporting and pop culture haven’t helped because they reinforce the stereotype of a desperate junkie, someone who hasn’t found a way to fi t in with our society, who leads a high-risk lifestyle. Someone they simply don’t understand. In reality no little girl, while she is growing up and fi nding her way in the world, harbours a dream to stand on a street corner in the middle of a freezing cold night and exchange sex with strangers for money. No little girl imagines that sex will be the one skill she will have to exchange for her survival as an adult. The average age of starting out as a street-based sex worker is 13 – barely even a teenager. Thirteen. It doesn’t matter whether people want to keep their heads in the sand or not; the truth is that there are paedophiles in Australia, they’re organised and they’re active. When children who have endured their abuse grow too old for them, they are discarded. Already damaged, distrustful of authority, believing there is no place in society where they fi t, they look for ways to survive. They often fi nd those ways on the streets among people who will accept them, support them and not judge them.

In Australia, the majority of sex workers choose to work as escorts or in brothels, rather than as street workers. However, there are pockets in every major city that are known places for kerb crawlers to go in search of quick, anonymous sex. Currently it is estimated that between 1 and 2 per cent of sex workers are streetbased.1 This is in contrast to the rest of the world where more than 80 per cent of sexual services are transacted from the streets. Of course the risks are greater. The very nature of the work requires these women to get into cars with strangers, or to go into dark alleys and engage in some form of sex. Once they are alone with a customer they are at his mercy, and it is not uncommon for the customer to take more than he has paid for. Although it is diffi cult to fi nd accurate fi gures, some studies have shown that 80 per cent of street-based sex workers have experienced some form of violence in the last six months of working. 2 This violence can take many forms: refusal to use a condom, slapping, beating, assaulting, raping, abducting, stealing money and refusing to pay. Sometimes the violence leaves a woman so badly injured she is unable to work for days or weeks. Women are abducted for days at a time and held as sex slaves before being released. Crimes against sex workers are rarely reported. A major reason for this is the legal status of their job. Depending on what kind of sex work they engage in, or where they operate from, they are often working outside the law. The law varies in the different states of Australia, but street-based sex work is not legal anywhere. When sex workers are raped or beaten they are often too afraid of the consequences of reporting the crime, and of being on the radar of the local police, to do anything about it. Another reason for the reluctance to report is that workers do not believe police will take them seriously. There are numerous historical cases where police have treated sex workers as more criminal than victim.

Street-based sex workers accept these increased risks, or simply feel there is no alternative. It would be simplistic to think we can understand the reasons, but for those who are out there it is preferable to working in brothels because the hours are more fl exible, the pay is better and they get to be their own boss. Another factor is that the majority of street-based sex workers are addicted to illicit drugs. Sex work is a quick, easy way to make the money they need to feed their addictions. It’s a moot point: did they turn to the streets because they needed to fund a heroin addiction, or were they on the streets for other reasons, and began to take heroin as a coping tool? There is no clear cut answer, but it is generally accepted that almost all streetbased sex workers are addicted to drugs. Addiction is a terrible disease that is given neither the respect nor the compassion by law makers and enforcers that it needs. *** It’s not possible to ignore the feeling, the sense, that among the faceless men are the lonely, the ones who are scanning for a quick exchange of sex for cash, the curious, the judgemental, the overstimulated clans of teenagers. And the predators. There are men who are opportunistic; men who see themselves as ordinary, yet when they are with a sex worker, somehow they see themselves as entitled. She is offering a service for payment, but he decides he’s paid for her and can use her in any way he sees fi t. The other type of predator, thankfully more rare, is habitual, sadistic, and totally without remorse. You can’t tell by looking if a man is a hunter. More often than not he masquerades as normal; he makes sure you can’t see him because he has planned the hunt, prepared for it. He has fantasised about it for so long that it is truth in his head, long before it turns into behaviour. It may surprise people to know that a predator doesn’t pick up sex workers because they’re prostitutes. While it’s true they are more likely to be a target for violence than other women, it’s not because they’re sex workers . . . it’s because they’re there.3 They are accessible, and they are perceived to be less likely to have someone to go home to at the end of the day – they may not be missed as quickly as a woman who might be abducted in a shopping centre car park. To the collective conscience it began with Jack the Ripper in London. To this day the images remain strong: a mystery man materialised from the fog in Whitechapel, restrained and sadistically murdered a woman, then simply vanished . . . until the next time. Even though these murders took place almost 130 years ago, people remain fascinated with ‘Jack’. Can those same people recall the name of even one of his victims? Street-based sex workers remain an obvious target for some predators. American serial killer Gary Ridgeway was the Green River Killer who, during the 1980s and 1990s, murdered at least 49 women and girls in Washington State. Most of his victims were sex workers or women in vulnerable situations, including underage runaways. When DNA caught up with him he confessed to double that number. When asked why he chose sex workers as his victims, his answer was illuminating: ‘I picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught.’4 Australia has its share of predators who have targeted sex workers. Men like Donald Morey who is languishing in a Western Australian prison. He was convicted in 2005 for the attempted murder of a sex worker in Perth, and is the prime suspect in the murder of another sex worker and in the disappearance of a woman who had no connection to the sex industry. Bandali Debs, better known to the Australian public for murdering two police offi cers in 1998, also killed two young sex workers a couple of years before. Gregory Brazel is often described as one of Australia’s most violent prisoners. He is perhaps best known for stabbing Chopper Read, but Brazel murdered two sex workers in 1990 and the female owner of a hardware store earlier in 1982. Former paramedic, Francis Fahey, wore his ambulanceissue boots when he murdered two sex workers in Queensland in 2002 and 2003. As previously discussed, violent crime against sex workers is not uncommon. Many of the perpetrators may see women as less than human – particularly if they are women who sell sex to survive. Sometimes these crimes against women are impetuous, and with the increasing scourge of methamphetamines in society, behaviours are becoming even more aggressive and less predictable. However, there are many times where the assault is fantasised about, thoroughly planned, and then acted out. There might not be a better example of this than Adrian Ernest Bayley, the man who became the target of a manhunt when he raped and murdered Jill Meagher in 2012, while on parole for previous violent assaults against women. It is impossible to know the extent of Bayley’s crimes in the early 2000s when he trawled St Kilda in search of victims. It is a matter of public record that when he was caught at that time, he was charged with having raped and brutalised fi ve sex workers, yet there were at least 10 other women who were assaulted, held against their will and raped by Bayley, but who refused to press charges or even report him to the police. Adrian Bayley had perfected a trap that made it impossible Introduction  for his victim to escape until he had taken everything he wanted. He would pick up his victim, after negotiating a service with her, and then drive into a nearby laneway in Elwood. He would park his car so close to a wall that it was impossible for the woman to open the door and escape. Court judge Anthony Duckett was horrifi ed by Bayley’s crimes and told him, ‘Your response to pleading, cries of pain and tears was to force these women into further sex acts.’5 Despite his revulsion at Bayley’s behaviour, the judge handed down a relatively light sentence. Bayley served only eight years in prison. Even Tom Meagher, the husband of Bayley’s murder victim, Jill, later said that Bayley had exposed an inequity in how the justice system treated those attacks. Bayley only came to the national consciousness when he attacked a different kind of woman. Jill Meagher was just as accessible to Bayley as any of the sex workers from his earlier attacks. Jill could have been anyone but she just happened to be there. The difference this time, the reason the sex workers were horrifi cally attacked but survived and Jill was murdered, was that this time Bayley knew he had picked the ‘wrong kind’ of victim. Jill would report her attack. Jill would believe police would track her rapist down. Bayley wasn’t going to stand for that. He was determined to remain free so he could continue his predatory and sadistic attacks on women. *** Violent crimes against sex workers are less frequently experienced in legal brothels, although they still happen from time to time. Brothels have rules, accountability, people on the premises and varying levels of security. This begs the question: if street work is so much more dangerous than working in a brothel, why don’t the women get safer jobs? The answer is multilayered, but the easiest way to understand it is to realise that brothels keep up to 60 per cent of the takings, and they have rules that some streetbased workers would fi nd impossible to adhere to. Rules such as no drugs while working, no drug addicts, working to a roster, monthly health checks, but mostly a lot less money for doing the same thing they do on the street. The question also presumes that all sex workers are equal, and have the same needs and aspirations as each other. It assumes that brothel owners/managers don’t share the mainstream community’s contempt or pity for their street-based sisters. The reality is that brothels have a fairly low opinion of street-based workers and will not employ them. Words like ‘dirty junkies’, ‘unreliable’, ‘thieves’ all came from the mouth of one madam who didn’t hold back when explaining her disinterest in employing street-based workers. There is a hierarchy in the sex industry. At the top are the high-class escorts who command hundreds of dollars an hour. And the bottom? Those people who have the least resources, who are most at risk, or as one hysterical journalist described them when writing about murdered street-based sex workers from Queensland’s Fortitude Valley, ‘the bottom feeders of the Queensland sex industry’.6 *** The Asian sex trade is an issue that nobody wants to talk about. Or if they do, they whisper about sex slaves, human traffi cking, underworld crime or women who come to Australia to undercut the locals: better prices, more options, higher-risk sex. It’s diffi cult to separate the truth from the various myths that exist. Many Asian women work out of illegal brothels and escort agencies, language barriers are real and cultural differences play a part. Does human traffi cking happen in Australia? Absolutely. There are documented cases of women from countries such as China, Thailand and Malaysia being recruited. Typically they and their families are in poverty and would be lucky to earn the equivalent of $100 a month back home. The promises sound enticing. Go to Australia and go to school, or work in a karaoke bar. You’ll make lots of money; you’ll be able to support your family. We will pay your airfare and accommodation and you can pay us back out of your wages. There’ll be plenty of money left for you to send your family, and to be able to spend yourself. It’s enticing. Of course the reality for some women is very different. Once they’re through Australian immigration with their sponsor they are whisked off to a small, cramped, overcrowded apartment where the truth of their situation is explained to them. Coercion, violence and drugs are often used to enforce their new reality. They will service men, and they will like it – or they won’t get paid. Rarely do these women ever pay off their loans. Creative bookkeeping ensures that they will continue to owe their sponsor money, long after they have repaid their ‘debt’. There are many other Asian women who come to Australia with their new western husband. It all goes well until it doesn’t, and when the marriage ends, a number of women fi nd themselves adrift in a strange land. They are often unskilled, have poor English, and work is hard to come by. They often end up engaged in sex work for survival. Many other women make conscious choices to come to Australia to engage in sex work. Immigration law makes it almost impossible for single Asian women to come to Australia, so they fi nd sponsors in their home country. They come here to make money, to be able to support their families back home.

For every legal brothel in Melbourne there are four illegal ones. Often working from shopfronts that offer therapeutic massage, or from temporary dwellings that are easy to shut down, they have sprung up all over Australia. And they appeal to their customers. They offer services at cheaper rates than the legal brothels and escort services, and are sometimes willing to engage in riskier behaviours. Because illegal brothels operate outside the law, they are not compelled to honour any of the safe work practices that are rigorously applied to their legal counterparts. Distress buttons, security, regular health checks and the mandatory use of condoms may or may not be adopted. Very few people know the real names of the workers, or anything about them, so how would anyone know if they go missing? The truth is that unless someone discovers a body, nobody does know. When Chinese escort Ting Fang was murdered in Adelaide on New Year’s Day 2015, it took days to formally identify her and notify her relatives in China. When the badly decomposing bodies of ‘Jenny’ and ‘Susan’ were discovered in a bedroom in a Sydney apartment in 2008, nobody knew them or anything about their murders. This was despite the fact that the women had died horrifi cally in an apartment they shared with 11 other people. In 2000, a woman known as ‘Bambi’ was shot in an illegal brothel in Queensland and her 12-year-old daughter was abducted and raped. Yet nobody seemed to know anything about it. *** The Australian justice system has come under well-deserved fi re in recent years for weighing up the relative value of victims, and imposing lighter sentences when the victim has been perceived to be ‘high risk’. The murder of Grace Ilardi highlighted this. Grace was 39 years old when she was murdered in Elwood in 2004. Her killer fl ed not only the scene but the country. He eventually came back to face justice. Quincy Detenamo was an Olympic weightlifter from the small Pacifi c nation of Nauru. He said he was sorry, he didn’t mean to kill her . . . things just got out of hand. Newspapers denounced Grace as ‘just a prostitute’ and described Detenamo as a ‘fallen hero’. The weight given to one life over another was too great. He was acquitted of murder and found guilty of manslaughter. Detenamo was sentenced to serve less than 10 years in prison. Police have often been guilty of not treating crimes against sex workers as seriously as they should. Perhaps an insight into their attitudes is a cartoon that used to hang on a wall in an interview room in one Australian police station. It depicted a sex worker who was up before a judge who said, ‘How do you know it was rape?’ to which she replied, ‘Because the cheque bounced.’ The sign has been removed, along with some of the preconceived ideas that police have had about sex workers. Although attitudes among police have shifted in the last decade, women are still reluctant to report. They are also wary of having a profi le with police as they are fully aware that both their sex work and drug use are viewed as criminal behaviour. *** When the bodies of two women were found fl oating in the Adelaide River, a muddy crocodile-infested river just south of Darwin, Northern Territory police braced themselves for the media onslaught. This was going to be a pressure cooker. It had all the ingredients of a case that would bring the national media spotlight to the Territory: sex, drugs, bodies thrown to the crocs, a double murder, teenage suspects and interstate pursuit. And this was one part of Australia where the police force understood how intensely the press would scrutinise their every move. Experience had taught them this years ago when a couple claimed that a dingo had taken their baby from their campsite at Uluru. Nothing happened. Once it became apparent that the victims were only prostitutes – and foreign ones at that – the media seemed to make a collective judgement that this wasn’t a story worthy of the nation’s attention. Besides, both the media and the public remained preoccupied with another Territory case that had happened almost three years previously – the disappearance of British backpacker Peter Falconio, somewhere in the outback. Why did the media feed the Australian public an almost daily diet of the mysterious disappearance of a young tourist and pursue his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, halfway around the world yet practically ignore the murder of two women and the callous way their bodies were disposed of? It is a question which, in one form or another, raised its ugly head numerous times during the research for this book. It became such a predictable, recurring theme – lack of media interest, lack of public information. To the media, the murder of most of these women seemed worthy of little more than a salacious headline: ‘Sports Star Kills Prostitute’, ‘Sex Worker Dies in Hotel’. Why is it that the public care about the death of some women and not others? In Perth between 1996 and 1997 there was a cluster of disappearances and murders thought to have been committed by the Claremont Serial Killer. Three young women disappeared, and two of them were later found murdered. The prevailing view amongst women all over Perth at the time was, ‘It could have been me.’ Women responded with gut-clenching fear, and changed their own behaviour – and sometimes their appearance – to avoid drawing the attention of a monster. It was the most talked about crime in Perth for decades. The victims were middle-class and respectable and they all disappeared while enjoying a night out with friends. The city was horrifi ed, terrifi ed – and the public pressure to track down the Claremont Serial Killer was unprecedented. While the cases remain unsolved, they are still talked about with emotion and anxiety in Western Australia. In 1998, Lisa Brown disappeared from the streets of Perth. In 1999, Jennifer Wilby vanished. Then in 2003, Darylyn Ugle was murdered. All three women were sex workers. When Lisa disappeared, some people worried that the Claremont Killer had changed his modus operandi, because Jennifer Wilby died soon after. Police rushed to reassure the public that this was different, and there was nothing to be alarmed about. Then Darylyn Ugle was murdered, but police and media reinforced their message to the public: there was no link. Many people took the view that Lisa was a drug-addicted prostitute who put herself at risk. Sympathy for her plight and the deaths of Jennifer and Darylyn was difficult to find. This kind of victim-blaming is misleading and naive. In September 2012, a beautiful young woman disappeared from Brunswick: Jill Meagher. For a week, Melburnians were fixated on the story. When an arrest was made and her body subsequently discovered, the details of the crime horrifi ed people. The depth of public feeling could be measured in the march to honour Jill Meagher that attracted more than 30 000 people. In July 2013, the papers ran a story that a sex worker had been murdered in her van in St Kilda. Her name was Tracy Connelly but it took the media almost a week to reveal that.

Tracy was part of the St Kilda landscape; she had been on the scene for a long time and was loved by many people. She was addicted to heroin, and so was her partner, Tony. He would sit and spot for her, carefully copying down registration numbers of vehicles Tracy left in. She was a hard worker, and supportive and caring to other sex workers. It was on the one night that she and Tony were separated, while he was in hospital, that Tracy was brutally killed. Despite the fact that both women lost their lives in circumstances that were horrific, and two sets of families and friends were shattered, the general community embraced Jill as if she were one of their own, yet treated Tracy’s murder with collective indifference. Was it because ordinary people could relate to Jill, and the circumstances of her murder suggested it could have happened to any of us?

CCTV footage was released to the public in both cases. Police were overwhelmed by information they received about the man seen talking to Jill. No viable suspects resulted from the CCTV images near the scene of Tracy’s murder. Was it that people genuinely didn’t care, or did they believe that a woman they perceived as leading a high-risk lifestyle had brought something like this upon herself? Jill’s killer is in prison, while Tracy’s remains free. *** Invisible Women is by no means a definitive book on the different cases of missing and murdered sex workers in Australia. When we began to research the stories we were astounded. It was always our intention to highlight these crimes against women – the ones nobody seemed to want to talk about. We wanted to contribute to the discussion about why some women’s lives seem more valuable, in the eyes of the community, than others; why some murders touch us deeply, and leave us feeling diminished, while others don’t even register.

When we began to research this book we had no idea how difficult it would be to find people willing to talk, or information about the victims of these crimes.

There are paper mountains of information about the perpetrators of the crimes, but almost nothing about the victims. Is the media to blame? Is it their fault that they only give weight to murder when it has an ‘angle’ that might affect all of us, or when the victim seems especially innocent or the killer likely to strike again? Or do the media merely reflect back to us the society that we have demanded and shaped for ourselves? Is it TV or the movies that, for years, have created stereotypes and shaped our thinking and learning? Do we really only have sympathy for a sex worker when she is Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, and to our vast relief she is rescued from that life by her knight in shining armour?

 Do we really believe the other side of the media portrayal of sex workers as dirty, risky, naughty women? Is it the justice system that historically gives criminals lighter sentences when they have only raped a prostitute? Is it religion that – across all faiths – reinforces that sex workers are moral outcasts to be condemned or cured?

Or is it us?

Do our own personal values and attitudes prevent us from seeing that different isn’t necessarily wrong? Who taught us to think that sex workers are second-class citizens? And why did we choose to believe them? Religion has long influenced people in their views about sex workers. Governments throughout the history of Australia have legislated against sex work. The justice system has punished it, and society has mocked and derided it. Misogyny plays a strong part in the bias against sex workers.

Although our country has come a long way in terms of the status of women in Australian society, there still exist strong double standards about the role of women in this country. If a ‘nice girl’ is still judged by the number of sexual partners she has had, a sex worker carries the weight of condemnation even more heavily on her shoulders. It took us a long time, and some robust discussion, to decide on who we would highlight in this book. Every woman’s story is worth telling, and our eventual decisions were no reflection on the value of the women we haven’t been able to include in Invisible Women. It was our hope to bring these women to life in a way that might show readers who they really were beyond the headlines: mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, colleagues. Women who loved animals and children, who did the crossword in the newspaper, played Trivial Pursuit and laughed with unbridled joy. That task was naive, and in many cases insurmountable. For every woman in Australia who has been murdered, they have left behind a network of family and friends whose lives have been shattered by their loss. Yet these living victims of crime don’t have access to the same levels of support as people whose loved ones were more ‘innocent’ victims. The system needs to change. The cracks in the road need to be paved over. It isn’t the sex work or the drug use that creates the dangerous cracks, but the reasons these women are forced to walk that road in the first place. Change requires compassionate and visionary government across all states and territories of Australia; change that understands there is a place for sex workers in contemporary society, and that legislation needs to be passed to decriminalise sex work. It requires an honest appraisal of the reasons why women find themselves standing on the street at 3 a.m. – the poverty, homelessness, addiction, mental health issues, domestic violence and criminality that keep street-based sex workers enslaved to a lifestyle they don’t want, but can’t find a way out of. 

WA- Police suspect the bones found were Jennifer Wilby who was a massage parlour worker

WA: Police suspect bones were massage parlour worker's

By Tom Wald

http://infoblog41.blogspot.ie/2012/03/wa-police-suspect-bones-were-massage.html

PERTH, Aug 6 AAP - Human remains uncovered in a forest south of Perth at the weekendare believed to be those of missing massage parlour worker Jennifer Wilby.

Police said forensics officers suspected that the skull and bones, found by a bushwalkerand his girlfriend on Sunday in forest at Karragullen, 40km from Perth, were those of23-year-old Ms Wilby.

Ms Wilby was last seen outside an inner city nightclub about 1.30am (WST) on May 17, 1999.

Detective Senior Sergeant Garry Annetts, heading the murder investigation, said policewere still trying to confirm today the remains were that of the young mother.

"Whilst we are not in a position to say conclusively who the person is, we are sayingthat, in all probability based on forensic advice, and the examination of some items atthe scene, it would appear to be the remains of Jennifer Wilby," he said.

"We are looking to confirm as soon as possible for the sake of the families."

Det Sen Sgt Annetts said the discovery would help kickstart the murder investigation.

"The crime scene or the dump site are always a crucial part of our investigations," he said.

"The fact we now have that will certainly advance the investigations a long way."

Det Sen Sgt Annetts said police will scour the immediate area of the remote forestfor other remains.

Since the find, police are understood to have contacted the families of several peoplewho have gone missing under suspicious circumstances in recent years.

Police yesterday said that among cases they would look at would be 18-year-old SarahSpiers, believed to have been a victim of the so-called Claremont serial killer.

Ms Spiers is presumed to have been killed by a man also responsible for the abductionand deaths of two other women from the exclusive Perth suburb of Claremont in 1996 and1997.

Her body has never been found.

AAP tdw/sd/cjh/bwl

May 1999, Jennifer Wilby, Perth Massage Parlour worker vanished.

23-year-old JENNIFER WILBY, who disappeared in May 1999 and was murdered

http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightAustralia/ar/t127.htm

 https://www.facebook.com/AustralianMissingPersons

WA: Police suspect bones were massage parlour worker's

 

http://infoblog41.blogspot.ie/2012/03/wa-police-suspect-bones-were-massage.html

 

WA: Police suspect bones were massage parlour worker's

By Tom Wald

PERTH, Aug 6 AAP - Human remains uncovered in a forest south of Perth at the weekendare believed to be those of missing massage parlour worker Jennifer Wilby.

Police said forensics officers suspected that the skull and bones, found by a bushwalkerand his girlfriend on Sunday in forest at Karragullen, 40km from Perth, were those of23-year-old Ms Wilby.

Ms Wilby was last seen outside an inner city nightclub about 1.30am (WST) on May 17, 1999.

Detective Senior Sergeant Garry Annetts, heading the murder investigation, said policewere still trying to confirm today the remains were that of the young mother.

"Whilst we are not in a position to say conclusively who the person is, we are sayingthat, in all probability based on forensic advice, and the examination of some items atthe scene, it would appear to be the remains of Jennifer Wilby," he said.

"We are looking to confirm as soon as possible for the sake of the families."

Det Sen Sgt Annetts said the discovery would help kickstart the murder investigation.

"The crime scene or the dump site are always a crucial part of our investigations," he said.

"The fact we now have that will certainly advance the investigations a long way."

Det Sen Sgt Annetts said police will scour the immediate area of the remote forestfor other remains.

Since the find, police are understood to have contacted the families of several peoplewho have gone missing under suspicious circumstances in recent years.

Police yesterday said that among cases they would look at would be 18-year-old SarahSpiers, believed to have been a victim of the so-called Claremont serial killer.

Ms Spiers is presumed to have been killed by a man also responsible for the abductionand deaths of two other women from the exclusive Perth suburb of Claremont in 1996 and1997.

Her body has never been found.

AAP tdw/sd/cjh/bwl

KEYWORD: REMAINS聽

DARYLYN UGLE, 25

Ms Ugle vanished on March 25, 2003, from Highgate.

Her badly decomposed body was found in bush near Mundaring Weir about two weeks later.

28 April 1999. Petronella Albert (Broome 1999)

Petronella ALBERT left her address in the Broome area at 8:30 pm on 28 April 1999, but failed to return home. All efforts by her family and the police have failed to locate her. There are concerns for her safety and welfare. Last seen: Wednesday, 28 April 1999 Year of birth: 1978 Height: 160 cm Build: Solid Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Complexion: Dark Gender: Female.

http://wa.crimestoppers.com.au/missing_persons.htm?id=11


Petronella ALBERT

Age: 21 
Height: 160cm 
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown

Petronella ALBERT left her address in Broome area at 2030 hours 28/04/99, but failed to return home. All efforts by her family and the Police have failed to locate her.

Last seen: Blue Dress, No Shoes

If anyone has seen Petronella ALBERT , or has information regarding this persons whereabouts, please contact 1800 333 000

Police investigate Murdoch over missing girls
Monday Jul 23 05:00 AEST
By ninemsn staff

Police suspect convicted killer Bradley John Murdoch may have murdered two young women who went missing in Western Australia in the late 90s. 

Broome locals also believe that Murdoch, who is serving life for murdering British backpacker Peter Falconio, may have been involved in the disappearance of Sara Davey and Petronella Albert . 

Northern Territory journalist Paul Toohey visited Broome � where Murdoch lived for many years � as research for his new book about the Falconio case called The Killer Within.


RELATED LINKS
The Bulletin: Men behaving madly 
Image search: Bradley John Murdoch
Both girls disappeared in Broome, with Davey reported missing in 1997, and Albert in 1999. 




Toohey said many locals approached him suggesting that Murdoch could have been involved. 

"Western Australia police haven't ruled out Murdoch as a suspect, but that doesn't mean he was involved," he told the NT News.

"It is speculation � he remains a suspect, nothing more." 

Territory police reportedly profiled Murdoch as a "cleanskin" � a first time, one-off killer. 

Toohey said Broome locals are baffled by the disappearances, and the only explanation they can come up with is the Murdoch theory. 

"They just disappeared," he said. 

"No one in Broome knows what happened to them." 

Anyone with information about the disappearance of the women can call police on 1800 333 000. 

Sara Lee Davey is described as 175cm tall with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen driving a four-wheel-drive in Saville St, Broome, on January 14, 1997. 

Petronella Albert is described as 160cm tall with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen in Broome on April 28, 1999. 

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=280065

http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightAustralia/ar/t127.htm

Lisa Joanne Govan was last seen at approximately 7.30am on the morning of Friday 8 October 1999 in the vicinity of the Foundry Hotel bottle shop, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
Despite extensive inquiries by police and family her whereabouts are not known.
If you have information that may assist police to locate Lisa please call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000

Mi     Lisa Govan then 28, vanished in Kalgoorlie, where Lisa Govan had  been living and working for a few years
 M      Missing since: Friday, October 8, 1999,  Last seen: Kalgoorlie WA. Year  of birth:1971

Ag     In the year 2016: 45 years old, Female, Height: 155cm, Build: Slim, Hair Colour: Brown. Complexion: Olive Eye Colour:  Blue

    

October 8, 1999. Lisa Govan then 28, vanished in Kalgoorlie, where Lisa Govan had  been living and working for a few years. She had been living with her partner in a home on Cassidy St at the time.

Ms Govan was last seen about 7.30am near the Foundry Hotel bottle shop.

At the time, the hotel was also used as a clubhouse by the Club Deroes bikie gang.

The clubhouse was raided in the days after Ms Govan’s disappearance.

Property and clothing were reportedly seized from the clubhouse, but it was later determined not to belong to the missing woman.

Despite a $50,000 reward being posted, extensive inquiries by police and her family, Lisa’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Nobody has ever been charged in connection with her suspected murder.

Ms Govan’s stoic parents Ian and Pat, her sister Ginette Jackson and her aunt Pauline Leighton spoke to The Sunday Times in the hope somebody’s conscience might be nudged or their memory jogged.

 If you know anything about Missing Person Lisa Govan please contact Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000 or The National Missing Persons Coordination Centre 1800 000 634 Original Poster and info found here

http://www.missingpersons.gov.au/missing-persons/profiles/profiles/a/l/albert%20petronella%20-%20wa.aspx

WA: Man in court over murder of massage parlour worker

http://formyassetmanagement.blogspot.ie/2012/03/wa-man-in-court-over-murder-of-massage.html

WA: Man in court over murder of massage parlour worker

A 24-year-old man has appeared in a Perth court charged with the murder of a massageparlour worker who disappeared three years ago.

DENNIS IAN BELL was not required to enter a plea in the Perth magistrate's Court over the murder of 23-year-old JENNIFER WILBY, who disappeared in May 1999.

The charge against BELL followed the discovery of Ms WILBY's remains in a shallow bushgrave at Karragullen, 40km south-east of Perth, on August 4.

BELL was arrested early last Friday in the inner Melbourne suburb of South Yarra.

He was charged with the murder in Melbourne and extradited to Perth to appear in court today.

BELL's been remanded in custody to reappear on September 6.

AAP RTV lk/alm/sd/rp

KEYWORD: BELL (PERTH)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-25/shirley-finn-ccc-rules-out-examining-madam-brothels-murder/6496380

Shirley Finn: CCC rules out examining brothel madam's murder unless allegations of police misconduct arise

By Stephanie Dalzell - 25 May 2015.

PHOTO: Shirley Finn was found in her car after being shot in the back of the head. (AAP: WA police)

RELATED STORY: Royal commission 'misse

Western Australia's corruption watchdog has ruled out examining the cold case murder of brothel madam Shirley Finn unless allegations of police misconduct arise.

Ms Finn was found slumped in a car with four bullets in the back of her head at the Royal Perth Golf Club in 1975.

At the time, she was being investigated by the taxation office and had threatened to blow the whistle on the payment of kickbacks to various groups to keep her business operating.

A former police officer came forward with claims detectives threatened to kill him if he spoke up about seeing Ms Finn drinking with police on the night of her murder.

There were calls for the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) to conduct its own investigation into WA Police's handling of the incident, but in a statement, the watchdog's commissioner John McKechnie said the investigation of a murder was a task for police.

"The remit of the CCC relates to police misconduct, or misconduct by other public officers, either now or in the past," he said.

"Commission officers will meet with WA Police to discuss progress and whether the current investigation has identified any alleged police misconduct and/or reviewable police action.

"I have written to the Commissioner of Police asking for any information that may be relevant to our function.

"If allegations of police misconduct come to light, then we will assess them in the normal way."

'Incredible' earlier royal commission did not investigate

The statement comes after the Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said it was "incredible" a 2002 royal commission into police corruption in the state did not investigate the murder.

Mr O'Callaghan said the Kennedy Royal Commission - set up by Labor premier Geoff Gallop - missed the opportunity to uncover the truth about the Finn case.

"The 2002 royal commission was suppose to draw a line through police corruption and alleged police criminal activity," he said.

"Now I can't understand why nobody lobbied the premier at the time to actually go back further and look at the Finn case."

Mr O'Callaghan said he was also surprised that Labor politician John Quigley and a former police officer with vital information about the case did not come forward at the time.

Mr Quigley, who was working as a lawyer for the police union before becoming a Labor MP, revealed last week that a senior officer told him the bullets retrieved from Ms Finn matched those from a gun stored in the WA police firearms branch.

Mr O'Callaghan said that vital information should have been revealed sooner.

"As time goes by this [40-year-old murder] becomes more and more difficult to resolve and people associated with it have either died or are very ill," he said.

"If people had come forward in 2002 or they come forward in 2005 when I called for a cold case review we would have had 10 years on what we've got now."

Mr O'Callaghan said a cold case review which began last year would be completed in a couple of months, and he would decide then if he should call for another coronial inquiry into Ms Finn's murder.

"I would like nothing better than to be the commissioner who has resolved this 40-year-old crime," he said.

"So again if anybody has any information, come forward now, because in another five years it will simply be too late.

"There has been a lot of Chinese whispers and rumours over the years that have been distorted, so getting to the truth and getting to the evidence is going to be extremely difficult."

Commission 'not justified', Attorney-General says

WA Attorney-General Michael Mischin said a new royal commission into Ms Finn's murder was not justified.

"So far as a royal commission is concerned, there have been a number of royal commissions over time [and] a number of other inquiries," he said.

"I would have thought if any worthwhile information was available it would have been revealed long before now."

He acknowledged Police Commissioner O'Callaghan's concern that the 2002 Kennedy Royal Commission into police corruption did not examine the Finn case.

But Mr Mischin questioned the value of a fresh royal commission into the matter.

"It may have been worthwhile something like over 10 years ago but we're looking at a case from 1975. I was still in high school in 1975," he said.

"The police service has changed enormously over the intervening years.

"Many of those who knew anything about the case at the time are probably dead, if they can be found at all."

Police Minister Liza Harvey said she believed police had both the resources and the desire to attempt to solve the case.

She urged anyone with information to come forward.

"We have detectives working on it," she said.

"And if there's anyone with any information on it, could they please bring that to police."

Shirley Finn death: Daughter of murdered madam pleads for inquest

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-06/daughter-of-murdered-madam-shirley-finn-in-plea-for-inquest/7392400

PHOTO: Shirley Finn's 1975 murder has never been solved.

"How can it be that without doubt, the number one suspects, even acknowledged by police, the number one suspects are police," she said.

"They hold the file and don't actually have to answer a question to anyone?"

She said she doubted those responsible would ever be brought to justice, but Ms Shewring deserved answers.

"Imagine if it was your mother, any of our mothers," she said. "Justice is equal for all in this country, we'd like to think."

Perth's Famous Brothell Madame Shirley Finn who it is widely beleived was muerdered by the Late Bernie Johnson, former senior Western Ausralian Police Officer

RELATED STORY: CCC rules out examining Shirley Finn's murder

RELATED STORY: Push for corruption probe into brothel madam Shirley Finn killing

RELATED STORY: Royal commission 'missed chance' to probe Shirley Finn murder

MAP: Perth 6000

The daughter of a Perth brothel madam murdered in the 1970s has made an emotional plea for a coronial inquest on the eve of the 40th Mother's Day since her death.

In June 1975, Shirley Finn was found at the Royal Perth Golf Club slumped over the steering wheel of her car with four bullets in the back of her head.

At the time, she was being investigated by the taxation office, and had threatened to blow the whistle on the payment of kickbacks to various groups to keep her business operating.

Rumours have since circulated about police involvement or a cover-up, but both the initial investigation and a subsequent cold case review failed to find the killer.

Last year, WA Police officially handed the murder inquiry to the state coroner to determine whether a public inquest could help shed new light on the 40-year-old mystery.

As the coroner considers whether to hold an inquest, Ms Finn's daughter Bridget Shewring said she feared many of the key witnesses and suspects would take secrets to their graves.

"They're just trying to keep it quiet for as long as they can until everybody's dead, I know that," she said.

As she prepares to mark the 40th Mother's Day since the murder, Ms Shewring has renewed calls for an inquest to be held.

"It would mean everything to me. I mean it wouldn't make me feel, it's not like it's going to go away if someone gets convicted, it's always going to be there, but I'd just feel much better."

But she admitted she was doubtful she would ever have answers about who killed her mother.

"I'm hoping so but I'm not getting my hopes up that high, just to be let down again," she said.

Daughter deserves to know: author

Author Juliet Wills has spent more than a decade researching the mystery that captivated a state, has cast a long shadow over police and haunted a family.

She agreed an inquest needed to be held quickly.

"How can it be that without doubt, the number one suspects, even acknowledged by police, the number one suspects are police," she said.

"They hold the file and don't actually have to answer a question to anyone?"

She said she doubted those responsible would ever be brought to justice, but Ms Shewring deserved answers.

"Imagine if it was your mother, any of our mothers," she said. "Justice is equal for all in this country, we'd like to think."

Last year, WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said it was "incredible" a 2002 royal commission into police corruption in Western Australia did not investigate Ms Finn murder.

He also said he "would like nothing better than to be the commissioner who resolved this 40-year-old crime".

INLNews Investigation group have informed that it si well know amongst the criminal underworld of Perth, Western Australia that Brothell Madame Shirley Finn was shopt by former Western Australian Police Officer, the late Bernie Johnson, because the then very powerful and well connected Brothell Madame Shirley Finn was threatened to expose all the corrupt Western Australian Police Officer, many whome were very senior of the Western Australian Police Force, for taking regular large bribes from  Brothell Madame Shirley Finn, for the right to operate he rmany brothells, which were technically all illgelaly run, but allowed to be operated under what the Western Australian Police called “The Green Light Containment Policy” which was only given to  Brothell Madame Shirley Finn. The information provided to AWN.bz is that the reality andf truth of the situation was that  Brothell Madame Shirley Finn  was earning a fortune in 1950’s amd 1960’s financial adf metary standard through the large amount of yearly cash that  Brothell Madame Shirley Finn  received through her illegal brothells running in Western Australia. However, out of the large amount of yealy cash flow income:

 one thrird had to be paid to the girls that worked in  Brothell Madame Shirley Finn’s brothells,

one third had to be paid to  the corrupt Western Australian Police, as a regular bribe for the Western Australian Policve to allow  Brothell Madame Shirley Finn  to continue to run her brothells, and

around one third had to the paid to the Australian Tax Department (ATO) for tax on the ATO’s estimate  of  Brothell Madame Shirley Finn’s estimated yearly income. Because the corrupt Western Australian Police Officers who received their large monthly cash bribes from Brothell Madame Shirley Finn, di not and could not declare this extra illegal cash income, they never had to report this extra income to the ATO Thus, Brothell Madame Shirley Finn, had to end up paying all the Western Australian Police Officer’s tax, because Brothell Madame Shirley Finn could not claim a tax deduction for the cash expenses she had to pay the Western Australian Police each month.

So there is very little if anything left over for  Brothell Madame Shirley Finn  out of the massive yearly cash flow from all her brothells. So in the end, Shirley Finn who was always invited to the yearly Western Australian Police Ball, and thought she could make the rules agaist the corrupt police such as Bernie Johnson and others that she regularly bribed, but saying that unless you all agree to take a less a monthy percedntage from by brothell earnings I will expose the lot of you for corruption and all the bribes you I have paid you al over any years, which has made oyu aoll quitre rich.

The answer these corrupt Western Australian Police gave to Brothell Madame Shirley Finn, was senior Police Officer Bernie Johnson ….

…. who was considered the effective head of the gang, and the most toughest cop around, who had no hesitation of threaning anyone with a gun, if they looked like getting out of line … and the later Bernie Johnson, certainly had no hesitation of pulling the trigger at anytime if needed …
 if the perosn did not get the message and offer that was too good to refuse … play ball of get shot wil a bullet …. right through the head…

Was a bullet right through the head of Shirley Finn …. because Bernie John and the rest of his corrrupt Western Australian Police Officer in the Berneu Johnson Gang, all knew full well that “A Dead Brothell Madame Can Tell No Tales”….

Shirley June Finn, née Shewring (1941 – 23 June 1975) was a prostitute and, at the time of her murder, a brothel keeper of Perth, Western Australia. She was shot dead with four bullets in the head at about midnight on 22-23 June 1975. Her body, dressed in an elaborate ball gown and expensive jewellery, was found at dawn in her car which was parked on a golf course next to a busy freeway. The murder is notable because of Finn's close relationship with police detectives who, in that era, controlled and regulated Perth's prostitution and gambling activities. As of October 2016, the crime remained unsolved despite the fact that Finn was recorded in the company of police officers at a police station less than one hour before her murder.:ch12

Early Life and Career of Shirley Finn

A wartime baby, Finn was the eldest child of a bomber pilot, and of necessity was brought up by her mother during her early years. After the war, the family lived in comfortable surroundings in the affluent riverside suburb of Mt Pleasant, where she became a teenager before the birth of her three younger siblings. Though successful at her schoolwork, she was sexually active by age 14, which caused her parents to place her in a notoriously cruel Catholic Church welfare home and eventually to totally disown her.:ch2

Her biographer Juliet Wills recounts that Finn left school at 15 and found work at a city frock shop, where she met her husband-to-be Des Finn, a 22-year-old air-force mechanic. They married in Perth and went to live in Melbourne, where he continued with the RAAF and she worked as a sales assistant at Buckley & Nunn. Her sons Steven and Shane were born in 1959 and 1960 respectively. They transferred back to Perth, where daughter Bridget was born in 1961.:ch1 (Bridget later adopted her mother's maiden name of Shewring). When the husband suffered a serious injury and subsequent mental instability, Shirley Finn was aged 21 and chose sex-oriented activities as a means of supporting her three children, including strip-dancing and body-painting. She also joined a witchcraft coven which conducted "black magic and sex" activities in Kings Park.:ch2 From this she advanced to a career of topless dancing and body painting in association with a travelling fairground boxing troupe. In 1969 Finn was conducting an escort agency which was raided by police, and she was charged and convicted with "keeping premises for the purpose of prostitution.":ch2

The Murder of Shirly Finn

Finn's body was found in her parked car near the 9th fairway of the Royal Perth Golf Club, South Perth.

At the time, various rumours regarding the murder attributed it to specific issues relating to prostitution and the way it was being handled by police and government in Perth, but no evidence of this was discovered.

The murder, and the implied connections with issues relating to policing of the sex industry, resulted in a Royal Commission being held.

Continued interest in Finn's murder, and the lack of evidence, led to periodic speculation as to the murderer's identity, and has been the subject of numerous articles and television pieces and two books - Juliet Wills' 'Dirty Girl' and David Whish-Wilson's crime novel 'Line of Sight'.

On the thirtieth anniversary of the murder—23 June 2005—a cold-case review of the case was announced. An opinion was canvassed that no solution of the case was likely.

Over time, a range of interpretations as to who the murderer was have been speculated upon.

In 2014, another cold-case review was launched by WA Police. The following year, the Corruption and Crime Commission confirmed it had received new information about the murder. News reports said a former policeman had spoken about seeing
Shirley Finn with detectives in the bar of the old central police station, in East Perth, on the night she was killed.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-06/murdered-brothel-madam-shirley-finn/7392526

Murdered brothel madam Shirley Finn 

Shirley Finn was being investigated by the tax office at the time of her death.

6 May 2016,

Shirley Finn was being investigated by the tax office at the time of her death.

Powerful and Disturbing Stories of Murdered Sex Workers

http://www.fivemile.com.au/sites/default/files/extracts/Invisible%20Women_Extract.pdf

By Kylie Fox and Ruth Wykes - Echo Publishing www.echopublishing.com.au

For the forgotten, fallen women whose lives mattered more than they knew.

Alongside the higher-profile cases featured in this book the authors have included a series of shorter pieces about whom little is known – these are the real invisible women of the title. The stories are presented in chronological order, with one obvious exception.

The death of Tracy Connelly, and Wendy Squires’ subsequent blog post, was the catalyst behind the writing of this book. It seems only fitting the book starts here.

When news of a murdered woman hits the headlines in Australia, people sit up and take notice. Unless that woman happens to be a sex worker. Invisible Women tells the stories of 65 murdered sex workers – all of whom are somebody’s mother, daughter, wife or sister – whose identities have been erased. Why do we see some lives as less valuable than others, and what price do we all pay for this disgraceful lack of care? These stories of incredible women are both deeply moving and shocking in their insight and clarity. And definitely way overdue.

Kylie Fox is a writer, editor, transcriptionist and mother-of-fi ve. Her short crime fi ction stories have won awards, including the Dorothy Porter Award, part of Sisters in Crime’s annual Scarlett Stiletto Awards, and are published in anthologies. Kylie is currently undertaking a degree in criminal justice and looks forward to studying further in the fi eld of criminal psychology. Invisible Women is Kylie’s fi rst true crime book. Ruth Wykes has worked in a range of jobs that have brought her in contact with people in vulnerable social circumstances, including prisons, and maintains an active interest in justice and human rights. Ruth’s previous book, Women Who Kill, was published by The Five Mile Press in 2011

Echo Publishing A division of The Five Mile Press 12 Northumberland Street, South Melbourne Victoria 3205 Australia www.echopublishing.com.au Part of the Bonnier Publishing Group www.bonnierpublishing.com Text copyright © Ruth Wykes and Kylie Fox, 2016 All rights reserved. Echo Publishing thank you for buying an authorised edition of this book. In doing so, you are supporting writers and enabling Echo Publishing to publish more books and foster new talent. Thank you for complying with copyright laws by not using any part of this book without our prior written permission, including reproducing, storing in a retrieval system, transmitting in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or distributing. First published 2016 Edited by Kyla Petrilli Cover design by Luke Causby, Blue Cork Front cover photograph © Joseph Dennis Page design and typesetting by Shaun Jury Typeset in Janson Text, Trixie and Univers Condensed Printed in Australia at Griffi n Press. Only wood grown from sustainable regrowth forests is used in the manufacture of paper found in this book. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Creator: Wykes, Ruth, author. Title: Invisible women : powerful and disturbing stories of murdered sex workers / Ruth Wykes and Kylie Fox. ISBN: 9781760067472 (ebook : mobi) ISBN: 9781760067465 (ebook : epub) ISBN: 9781760067472 (ebook : mobi) Subjects: Murder victims–Australia. Prostitutes–Australia–Social conditions. Prostitution–Social aspects–Australia. Other Creators/Contributors: Fox, Kylie, author. Dewey Number: 364.15230994 Twitter/Instagram: @echo_publishing Facebook: facebook.com/echopublishingAU

CONTENTS

Introduction 1

Her Name Was Tracy Tracy Connelly 2013 21

Shirley Brifman 1972 35

Margaret Ward 1973 37

One Pub-Crawl Too Many Elaine King 1974 39

The 19th Hole Shirley Finn 1975 47

Simone Vogel 1977 57

Adele Bailey 1978 59

Colleen Moore 1978 61

Marion Sandford 1980 63

The Woman Who Knew Too Much

 Sallie-Anne Huckstepp 1986 65

Lillian Lorenz 1986 77

Cheryl Burchell 1987 79

Jodie Larcombe 1987 81

Cary-Jane Pierce 1988 83

Roslyn Hayward 1990 85

Sharon Taylor 1990 87

Amanda Byrnes 1991 89

Suzanne Grant 1991 91

Mail-Order Aside Pia Navida 1992 93

Melissa Ryan 1993 101

Michelle Copping 1994 103

Kerrie Pang 1994 105

Samantha Mizzi 1994 107

She’s a Beautiful Dancer Revelle Balmain 1994 109

Forgotten Victims Donna Hicks 1995 & Kristy Harty 1997 121

Grace Heathcote 1995 135

Colleen Jefferies 1996 137

Rebecca Bernauer 1997 139

Nobody Noticed Margaret Maher 1997 141

Karen-Ann Redmile 1998 149

Elizabeth Henry 1998 151

Clare Garabedian 1998 153

Tracy Holmes 1998 155

Rachael Campbell 1998 157

Lisa Brown 1998 159

Jennifer Wilby 1999 161

Erin Smith 1999 163

Rebecca Schloss 1999 165

‘Bambi’ 2000 167 From Paramedic to Predator Jasmin Crathern 2002 & Julie McColl 2003 169

Maria Scott 2003 185

Darylyn Ugle 2003 187

Discarded in a Ditch Kelly Hodge 2003 189

The Slow-Flowing River Phuangsri Kroksamrang & Somjai Insamnan 2004 199

Run For Your Life Sandra Cawthorne 2004 207

Punch-Drunk and Dangerous Grace Ilardi 2004 213

Mayuree Kaewee 2004 223

Lisa Moy 2005 227

Zanita Green 2005 229

Jo-Anne Bowen 2006 231 The Lost Child Leanne Thompson 2006 233

Cracks in the Pavement Emma King 2008 247

‘Jenny’ & ‘Susan’ 2008 257

She’s Over There Rebecca Apps 2010 259

Shuxia Yuan 2010 265

Valmai Birch 2011 267

The Lies That Men Tell Johanna Martin 2011 269

The Blood-Soaked Sofa Debara Martin 2012 279

A Dream Cut Short Mayang Prasetyo 2014 289

Ting Fang 2015 295 Tiffany Taylor 2015 297

Not Forgotten Index of Victims: Missing and Murdered Since 1970 299

Acknowledgements 303

Notes 305

INTRODUCTION

 One woman dies while walking home at night and her murder sparks a national outpouring of grief, and a manhunt on a scale that is rarely seen in this country. Another woman is murdered at work, by a client, and barely a ripple is raised. Why is one murder deemed a national tragedy, and the other doesn’t seem to matter at all? It’s a familiar story. A small article appears in the paper about a murder and it piques our interest for a moment. As we read on, and the circumstances reveal themselves, we realise it was just a sex worker and we look away. Serves her right for putting herself in danger, we think. She asked for it. We don’t care. What if that same story was about your sister or your best friend and her job wasn’t mentioned? What if the media told you that a young mother went to work in an offi ce, and that afternoon her boss told her to go outside and wash his car. She said no. He got angry and punched her in the face. These might seem like absurd comparisons. But are they? A woman who engages in sex work is just doing her job. If she consents to give a particular service to a client, it doesn’t give them the right to brutalise her or take her life. When we began to research this book, the lack of information about murdered sex workers almost overwhelmed us. It seems that the more labels that are attached to a woman, the less human she becomes to other people. So a street-based, drug-addicted, homeless sex worker could disappear and it appears that nobody pays much attention. The premise of this book is not to paint sex work in any light other than what it is. It is work. It is the transaction of some form of sexual service in exchange for money. But the women we have written about are among the most vulnerable in society. Most of the cases involve street-based sex workers.

On a daily or weekly basis they go to work in a job that doesn’t afford them the same protection the rest of us take for granted. There are few rules, no job description, no sick leave, no holiday pay, no minimum wage . . . and very little protection. *** Sex work has been present in Australia at least since European settlement. Whether it’s brothels, escorts or so-called red light districts, these services have existed for two basic reasons: they offer clients a vehicle for safe, relatively anonymous sex, and also sometimes a way to experience things their partners are unwilling to engage in. Women who work in the sex industry do so for one basic reason: to earn money. It is important to acknowledge that for many Australian women in the commercial sex industry it is a conscious choice they are happy to make, and they work in the business to help them achieve other life goals – to put themselves through university, to pay off a mortgage more quickly, or because the money is great and the friends they make give them a real sense of community. For some Australian women it is much more complex. The road to St Kilda (Melbourne), and to other streets throughout the country that have become the workplaces of street-based sex workers, isn’t straight. Neither is it a road many women know they are travelling until they arrive there. This is a road for women who may have fallen through the cracks of our society. Women who, as children, found themselves in the confusing world of foster care; a world where, far too often, paedophiles are circling, ready to groom, persuade and abuse those least equipped to tell, or to fi ght back. Women who don’t remember the fi rst time they were sexually assaulted. They were too young. And it happened so often, accompanied by words of love – or threats of punishment and pain. Those women know sex means nothing now; it’s a tool, a weapon, a way to get what they need to survive. Other women who were so young when they fell in love. They made excuses the fi rst time their partner hit them, when he controlled their money, when he isolated them from their friends, from their family. Women who, as children, lost a parent, a sibling, a friend and who stayed too quiet, bottling up their sadness until one day they were introduced to a drug that – for the fi rst time in their young lives – took their pain away. Rebellious teenagers who, in an act of youthful defi ance, said yes to a friend who offered them speed . . . it felt incredible. Women with no money, no networks of family or friends, very poor job prospects – for whom the taste of an opiate would take away their pain, or the buzz of amphetamine would make them feel amazing for a while. Sometimes it is about mental illness and the scarcity of support. The need for survival may lead women to this place. Mental health services in Australia are under-resourced, and completely inadequate to meet the needs of our burgeoning  population. The trend towards de-stigmatising mental health has led to an enormous increase in homelessness. They are among the most vulnerable people in Australian society – and the most ignored. It is these women: the homeless, mentally ill, abused, assaulted, drug-dependent members of society who are most at risk of having to become street-based sex workers. They are the women society has discarded, de-funded, disowned. It beggars belief that when they are injured or killed, people proclaim that it is their own fault, that they put themselves at risk. When people think about street-based sex workers, they have preconceived ideas. Media reporting and pop culture haven’t helped because they reinforce the stereotype of a desperate junkie, someone who hasn’t found a way to fi t in with our society, who leads a high-risk lifestyle. Someone they simply don’t understand. In reality no little girl, while she is growing up and fi nding her way in the world, harbours a dream to stand on a street corner in the middle of a freezing cold night and exchange sex with strangers for money. No little girl imagines that sex will be the one skill she will have to exchange for her survival as an adult. The average age of starting out as a street-based sex worker is 13 – barely even a teenager. Thirteen. It doesn’t matter whether people want to keep their heads in the sand or not; the truth is that there are paedophiles in Australia, they’re organised and they’re active. When children who have endured their abuse grow too old for them, they are discarded. Already damaged, distrustful of authority, believing there is no place in society where they fi t, they look for ways to survive. They often fi nd those ways on the streets among people who will accept them, support them and not judge them.

In Australia, the majority of sex workers choose to work as escorts or in brothels, rather than as street workers. However, there are pockets in every major city that are known places for kerb crawlers to go in search of quick, anonymous sex. Currently it is estimated that between 1 and 2 per cent of sex workers are streetbased.1 This is in contrast to the rest of the world where more than 80 per cent of sexual services are transacted from the streets. Of course the risks are greater. The very nature of the work requires these women to get into cars with strangers, or to go into dark alleys and engage in some form of sex. Once they are alone with a customer they are at his mercy, and it is not uncommon for the customer to take more than he has paid for. Although it is diffi cult to fi nd accurate fi gures, some studies have shown that 80 per cent of street-based sex workers have experienced some form of violence in the last six months of working.

 This violence can take many forms: refusal to use a condom, slapping, beating, assaulting, raping, abducting, stealing money and refusing to pay. Sometimes the violence leaves a woman so badly injured she is unable to work for days or weeks. Women are abducted for days at a time and held as sex slaves before being released. Crimes against sex workers are rarely reported. A major reason for this is the legal status of their job. Depending on what kind of sex work they engage in, or where they operate from, they are often working outside the law. The law varies in the different states of Australia, but street-based sex work is not legal anywhere. When sex workers are raped or beaten they are often too afraid of the consequences of reporting the crime, and of being on the radar of the local police, to do anything about it. Another reason for the reluctance to report is that workers do not believe police will take them seriously. There are numerous historical cases where police have treated sex workers as more criminal than victim.

Street-based sex workers accept these increased risks, or simply feel there is no alternative. It would be simplistic to think we can understand the reasons, but for those who are out there it is preferable to working in brothels because the hours are more fl exible, the pay is better and they get to be their own boss.

Another factor is that the majority of street-based sex workers are addicted to illicit drugs. Sex work is a quick, easy way to make the money they need to feed their addictions.

It’s a moot point: did they turn to the streets because they needed to fund a heroin addiction, or were they on the streets for other reasons, and began to take heroin as a coping tool?

There is no clear cut answer, but it is generally accepted that almost all streetbased sex workers are addicted to drugs. Addiction is a terrible disease that is given neither the respect nor the compassion by law makers and enforcers that it needs. *** It’s not possible to ignore the feeling, the sense, that among the faceless men are the lonely, the ones who are scanning for a quick exchange of sex for cash, the curious, the judgemental, the overstimulated clans of teenagers.

And the predators. There are men who are opportunistic; men who see themselves as ordinary, yet when they are with a sex worker, somehow they see themselves as entitled. She is offering a service for payment, but he decides he’s paid for her and can use her in any way he sees fit. The other type of predator, thankfully more rare, is habitual, sadistic, and totally without remorse. You can’t tell by looking if a man is a hunter.

More often than not he masquerades as normal; he makes sure you can’t see him because he has planned the hunt, prepared for it. He has fantasised about it for so long that it is truth in his head, long before it turns into behaviour. It may surprise people to know that a predator doesn’t pick up sex workers because they’re prostitutes. While it’s true they are more likely to be a target for violence than other women, it’s not because they’re sex workers . . . it’s because they’re there.

They are accessible, and they are perceived to be less likely to have someone to go home to at the end of the day – they may not be missed as quickly as a woman who might be abducted in a shopping centre car park. To the collective conscience it began with Jack the Ripper in London. To this day the images remain strong: a mystery man materialised from the fog in Whitechapel, restrained and sadistically murdered a woman, then simply vanished . . . until the next time.

Even though these murders took place almost 130 years ago, people remain fascinated with ‘Jack’. Can those same people recall the name of even one of his victims?

Street-based sex workers remain an obvious target for some predators.

American serial killer Gary Ridgeway was the Green River Killer who, during the 1980s and 1990s, murdered at least 49 women and girls in Washington State. Most of his victims were sex workers or women in vulnerable situations, including underage runaways. When DNA caught up with him he confessed to double that number. When asked why he chose sex workers as his victims, his answer was illuminating: ‘I picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught.’

Australia has its share of predators who have targeted sex workers.

Men like Donald Morey who is languishing in a Western Australian prison. He was convicted in 2005 for the attempted murder of a sex worker in Perth, and is the prime suspect in the murder of another sex worker and in the disappearance of a woman who had no connection to the sex industry.

Bandali Debs, better known to the Australian public for murdering two police offi cers in 1998, also killed two young sex workers a couple of years before. Gregory Brazel is often described as one of Australia’s most violent prisoners. He is perhaps best known for stabbing Chopper Read, but Brazel murdered two sex workers in 1990 and the female owner of a hardware store earlier in 1982. Former paramedic, Francis Fahey, wore his ambulanceissue boots when he murdered two sex workers in Queensland in 2002 and 2003. As previously discussed, violent crime against sex workers is not uncommon. Many of the perpetrators may see women as less than human – particularly if they are women who sell sex to survive. Sometimes these crimes against women are impetuous, and with the increasing scourge of methamphetamines in society, behaviours are becoming even more aggressive and less predictable. However, there are many times where the assault is fantasised about, thoroughly planned, and then acted out. There might not be a better example of this than Adrian Ernest Bayley, the man who became the target of a manhunt when he raped and murdered Jill Meagher in 2012, while on parole for previous violent assaults against women. It is impossible to know the extent of Bayley’s crimes in the early 2000s when he trawled St Kilda in search of victims. It is a matter of public record that when he was caught at that time, he was charged with having raped and brutalised fi ve sex workers, yet there were at least 10 other women who were assaulted, held against their will and raped by Bayley, but who refused to press charges or even report him to the police. Adrian Bayley had perfected a trap that made it impossible Introduction  for his victim to escape until he had taken everything he wanted. He would pick up his victim, after negotiating a service with her, and then drive into a nearby laneway in Elwood. He would park his car so close to a wall that it was impossible for the woman to open the door and escape. Court judge Anthony Duckett was horrifi ed by Bayley’s crimes and told him, ‘Your response to pleading, cries of pain and tears was to force these women into further sex acts.’5 Despite his revulsion at Bayley’s behaviour, the judge handed down a relatively light sentence. Bayley served only eight years in prison. Even Tom Meagher, the husband of Bayley’s murder victim, Jill, later said that Bayley had exposed an inequity in how the justice system treated those attacks. Bayley only came to the national consciousness when he attacked a different kind of woman. Jill Meagher was just as accessible to Bayley as any of the sex workers from his earlier attacks. Jill could have been anyone but she just happened to be there. The difference this time, the reason the sex workers were horrifi cally attacked but survived and Jill was murdered, was that this time Bayley knew he had picked the ‘wrong kind’ of victim. Jill would report her attack. Jill would believe police would track her rapist down. Bayley wasn’t going to stand for that. He was determined to remain free so he could continue his predatory and sadistic attacks on women. *** Violent crimes against sex workers are less frequently experienced in legal brothels, although they still happen from time to time. Brothels have rules, accountability, people on the premises and varying levels of security. This begs the question: if street work is so much more dangerous than working in a brothel, why don’t the women get safer jobs? The answer is multilayered, but the easiest way to understand it is to realise that brothels keep up to 60 per cent of the takings, and they have rules that some streetbased workers would fi nd impossible to adhere to. Rules such as no drugs while working, no drug addicts, working to a roster, monthly health checks, but mostly a lot less money for doing the same thing they do on the street. The question also presumes that all sex workers are equal, and have the same needs and aspirations as each other. It assumes that brothel owners/managers don’t share the mainstream community’s contempt or pity for their street-based sisters. The reality is that brothels have a fairly low opinion of street-based workers and will not employ them. Words like ‘dirty junkies’, ‘unreliable’, ‘thieves’ all came from the mouth of one madam who didn’t hold back when explaining her disinterest in employing street-based workers. There is a hierarchy in the sex industry. At the top are the high-class escorts who command hundreds of dollars an hour. And the bottom? Those people who have the least resources, who are most at risk, or as one hysterical journalist described them when writing about murdered street-based sex workers from Queensland’s Fortitude Valley, ‘the bottom feeders of the Queensland sex industry’.6 *** The Asian sex trade is an issue that nobody wants to talk about. Or if they do, they whisper about sex slaves, human traffi cking, underworld crime or women who come to Australia to undercut the locals: better prices, more options, higher-risk sex. It’s diffi cult to separate the truth from the various myths that exist. Many Asian women work out of illegal brothels and escort agencies, language barriers are real and cultural differences play a part. Does human traffi cking happen in Australia? Absolutely. There are documented cases of women from countries such as China, Thailand and Malaysia being recruited. Typically they and their families are in poverty and would be lucky to earn the equivalent of $100 a month back home. The promises sound enticing. Go to Australia and go to school, or work in a karaoke bar. You’ll make lots of money; you’ll be able to support your family. We will pay your airfare and accommodation and you can pay us back out of your wages. There’ll be plenty of money left for you to send your family, and to be able to spend yourself. It’s enticing. Of course the reality for some women is very different. Once they’re through Australian immigration with their sponsor they are whisked off to a small, cramped, overcrowded apartment where the truth of their situation is explained to them. Coercion, violence and drugs are often used to enforce their new reality. They will service men, and they will like it – or they won’t get paid. Rarely do these women ever pay off their loans. Creative bookkeeping ensures that they will continue to owe their sponsor money, long after they have repaid their ‘debt’. There are many other Asian women who come to Australia with their new western husband. It all goes well until it doesn’t, and when the marriage ends, a number of women fi nd themselves adrift in a strange land. They are often unskilled, have poor English, and work is hard to come by. They often end up engaged in sex work for survival. Many other women make conscious choices to come to Australia to engage in sex work. Immigration law makes it almost impossible for single Asian women to come to Australia, so they fi nd sponsors in their home country. They come here to make money, to be able to support their families back home.

For every legal brothel in Melbourne there are four illegal ones. Often working from shopfronts that offer therapeutic massage, or from temporary dwellings that are easy to shut down, they have sprung up all over Australia. And they appeal to their customers. They offer services at cheaper rates than the legal brothels and escort services, and are sometimes willing to engage in riskier behaviours. Because illegal brothels operate outside the law, they are not compelled to honour any of the safe work practices that are rigorously applied to their legal counterparts. Distress buttons, security, regular health checks and the mandatory use of condoms may or may not be adopted. Very few people know the real names of the workers, or anything about them, so how would anyone know if they go missing? The truth is that unless someone discovers a body, nobody does know. When Chinese escort Ting Fang was murdered in Adelaide on New Year’s Day 2015, it took days to formally identify her and notify her relatives in China. When the badly decomposing bodies of ‘Jenny’ and ‘Susan’ were discovered in a bedroom in a Sydney apartment in 2008, nobody knew them or anything about their murders. This was despite the fact that the women had died horrifi cally in an apartment they shared with 11 other people. In 2000, a woman known as ‘Bambi’ was shot in an illegal brothel in Queensland and her 12-year-old daughter was abducted and raped. Yet nobody seemed to know anything about it. *** The Australian justice system has come under well-deserved fi re in recent years for weighing up the relative value of victims, and imposing lighter sentences when the victim has been perceived to be ‘high risk’. The murder of Grace Ilardi highlighted this. Grace was 39 years old when she was murdered in Elwood in 2004. Her killer fl ed not only the scene but the country. He eventually came back to face justice. Quincy Detenamo was an Olympic weightlifter from the small Pacifi c nation of Nauru. He said he was sorry, he didn’t mean to kill her . . . things just got out of hand. Newspapers denounced Grace as ‘just a prostitute’ and described Detenamo as a ‘fallen hero’. The weight given to one life over another was too great. He was acquitted of murder and found guilty of manslaughter. Detenamo was sentenced to serve less than 10 years in prison. Police have often been guilty of not treating crimes against sex workers as seriously as they should. Perhaps an insight into their attitudes is a cartoon that used to hang on a wall in an interview room in one Australian police station. It depicted a sex worker who was up before a judge who said, ‘How do you know it was rape?’ to which she replied, ‘Because the cheque bounced.’ The sign has been removed, along with some of the preconceived ideas that police have had about sex workers. Although attitudes among police have shifted in the last decade, women are still reluctant to report. They are also wary of having a profi le with police as they are fully aware that both their sex work and drug use are viewed as criminal behaviour. *** When the bodies of two women were found fl oating in the Adelaide River, a muddy crocodile-infested river just south of Darwin, Northern Territory police braced themselves for the media onslaught. This was going to be a pressure cooker. It had all the ingredients of a case that would bring the national media spotlight to the Territory: sex, drugs, bodies thrown to the crocs, a double murder, teenage suspects and interstate pursuit. And this was one part of Australia where the police force understood how intensely the press would scrutinise their every move. Experience had taught them this years ago when a couple claimed that a dingo had taken their baby from their campsite at Uluru. Nothing happened. Once it became apparent that the victims were only prostitutes – and foreign ones at that – the media seemed to make a collective judgement that this wasn’t a story worthy of the nation’s attention. Besides, both the media and the public remained preoccupied with another Territory case that had happened almost three years previously – the disappearance of British backpacker Peter Falconio, somewhere in the outback. Why did the media feed the Australian public an almost daily diet of the mysterious disappearance of a young tourist and pursue his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, halfway around the world yet practically ignore the murder of two women and the callous way their bodies were disposed of? It is a question which, in one form or another, raised its ugly head numerous times during the research for this book. It became such a predictable, recurring theme – lack of media interest, lack of public information.

To the media, the murder of most of these women seemed worthy of little more than a salacious headline: ‘Sports Star Kills Prostitute’, ‘Sex Worker Dies in Hotel’. Why is it that the public care about the death of some women and not others?

 In Perth between 1996 and 1997 there was a cluster of disappearances and murders thought to have been committed by the Claremont Serial Killer. Three young women disappeared, and two of them were later found murdered. The prevailing view amongst women all over Perth at the time was, ‘It could have been me.’ Women responded with gut-clenching fear, and changed their own behaviour – and sometimes their appearance – to avoid drawing the attention of a monster. It was the most talked about crime in Perth for decades.

The victims were middle-class and respectable and they all disappeared while enjoying a night out with friends. The city was horrified, terrified – and the public pressure to track down the Claremont Serial Killer was unprecedented.

While the cases remain unsolved, they are still talked about with emotion and anxiety in Western Australia.

In 1998, Lisa Brown disappeared from the streets of Perth.

In 1999, Jennifer Wilby vanished.

Then in 2003, Darylyn Ugle was murdered.

All three women were sex workers.

When Lisa disappeared, some people worried that the Claremont Killer had changed his modus operandi, because Jennifer Wilby died soon after. Police rushed to reassure the public that this was different, and there was nothing to be alarmed about.

Then Darylyn Ugle was murdered, but police and media reinforced their message to the public: there was no link.

Many people took the view that Lisa was a drug-addicted prostitute who put herself at risk. Sympathy for her plight and the deaths of Jennifer and Darylyn was difficult to find. This kind of victim-blaming is misleading and naive.

 In September 2012, a beautiful young woman disappeared from Brunswick: Jill Meagher. For a week, Melbournians were fixated on the story. When an arrest was made and her body subsequently discovered, the details of the crime horrified people. The depth of public feeling could be measured in the march to honour Jill Meagher that attracted more than 30 000 people. In July 2013, the papers ran a story that a sex worker had been murdered in her van in St Kilda. Her name was Tracy Connelly but it took the media almost a week to reveal that. Tracy was part of the St Kilda landscape; she had been on the scene for a long time and was loved by many people. She was addicted to heroin, and so was her partner, Tony. He would sit and spot for her, carefully copying down registration numbers of vehicles Tracy left in. She was a hard worker, and supportive and caring to other sex workers. It was on the one night that she and Tony were separated, while he was in hospital, that Tracy was brutally killed. Despite the fact that both women lost their lives in circumstances that were horrific, and two sets of families and friends were shattered, the general community embraced Jill as if she were one of their own, yet treated Tracy’s murder with collective indifference. Was it because ordinary people could relate to Jill, and the circumstances of her murder suggested it could have happened to any of us? CCTV footage was released to the public in both cases. Police were overwhelmed by information they received about the man seen talking to Jill. No viable suspects resulted from the CCTV images near the scene of Tracy’s murder. Was it that people genuinely didn’t care, or did they believe that a woman they perceived as leading a high-risk lifestyle had brought something like this upon herself? Jill’s killer is in prison, while Tracy’s remains free. *** Invisible Women is by no means a definitive book on the different cases of missing and murdered sex workers in Australia. When we began to research the stories we were astounded. It was always our intention to highlight these crimes against women – the ones nobody seemed to want to talk about. We wanted to contribute to the discussion about why some women’s lives seem more valuable, in the eyes of the community, than others; why some murders touch us deeply, and leave us feeling diminished, while others don’t even register. When we began to research this book we had no idea how diffi cult it would be to fi nd people willing to talk, or information about the victims of these crimes. There are paper mountains of information about the perpetrators of the crimes, but almost nothing about the victims. Is the media to blame? Is it their fault that they only give weight to murder when it has an ‘angle’ that might affect all of us, or when the victim seems especially innocent or the killer likely to strike again? Or do the media merely refl ect back to us the society that we have demanded and shaped for ourselves? Is it TV or the movies that, for years, have created stereotypes and shaped our thinking and learning? Do we really only have sympathy for a sex worker when she is Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, and to our vast relief she is rescued from that life by her knight in shining armour? Do we really believe the other side of the media portrayal of sex workers as dirty, risky, naughty women? Is it the justice system that historically gives criminals lighter sentences when they have only raped a prostitute? Is it religion that – across all faiths – reinforces that sex workers are moral outcasts to be condemned or cured? Or is it us? Do our own personal values and attitudes prevent us from seeing that different isn’t necessarily wrong? Who taught us to think that sex workers are second-class citizens? And why did we choose to believe them? Religion has long infl uenced people in their views about sex workers. Governments throughout the history of Australia have legislated against sex work. The justice system has punished it, and society has mocked and derided it. Misogyny plays a strong part in the bias against sex workers. Although our country has come a long way in terms of the status of women in Australian society, there still exist strong double standards about the role of women in this country. If a ‘nice girl’ is still judged by the number of sexual partners she has had, a sex worker carries the weight of condemnation even more heavily on her shoulders. It took us a long time, and some robust discussion, to decide on who we would highlight in this book. Every woman’s story is worth telling, and our eventual decisions were no refl ection on the value of the women we haven’t been able to include in Invisible Women. It was our hope to bring these women to life in a way that might show readers who they really were beyond the headlines: mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, colleagues. Women who loved animals and children, who did the crossword in the newspaper, played Trivial Pursuit and laughed with unbridled joy. That task was naive, and in many cases insurmountable. For every woman in Australia who has been murdered, they have left behind a network of family and friends whose lives have been shattered by their loss. Yet these living victims of crime don’t have access to the same levels of support as people whose loved ones were more ‘innocent’ victims. The system needs to change. The cracks in the road need to be paved over. It isn’t the sex work or the drug use that creates the dangerous cracks, but the reasons these women are forced to walk that road in the fi rst place. Change requires compassionate and visionary government across all states and territories of Australia; change that understands there is a place for sex workers in contemporary society, and that legislation needs to be passed to decriminalise sex work. It requires an honest appraisal of the reasons why women fi nd themselves standing on the street at 3 a.m. – the poverty, homelessness, addiction, mental health issues, domestic violence and criminality that keep street-based sex workers enslaved to a lifestyle they don’t want, but can’t fi nd a way out of.

It requires the funding of outreach programs and safe houses to help deal with the complex, and incredibly diffi cult task of helping to affect change in the lives of street-based sex workers. And it requires us, as ordinary people, to stop victim-blaming when we read that another sex worker has been harmed or killed. And to not look away.

Her Name Was Tracy TRACY CONNELLY 21 July 2013 Tracy Connelly’s last actions on earth were typical of the caring and compassionate woman that friends and work colleagues loved. Her partner, Tony Melissovas, the man Tracy had loved and shared her life with for nine years, had a severely infected hand. True to form, he refused to go to hospital, even when it had swollen to almost the size of a football, preferring to stay with Tracy and look after her. Tracy, however, was having none of that. She called an ambulance and when the paramedics arrived, convinced Tony to go with them. Tracy spent the afternoon with Tony in the hospital, lying on his bed and chatting cheerily to keep his mind off the pain in his hand. That night Tracy had to leave to go to work. Tony had serious misgivings though. Usually while Tracy worked, he would loiter quietly in the background keeping an eye out for her and writing down the number plates of each car she drove away in. In recent years he had accumulated more than 3000 registration numbers. Like most street-based sex workers, Tracy had her own patch of St Kilda where she worked – a place everyone knew as Tracy’s Corner. She kissed Tony goodnight and headed back to the Econovan in Greeves Street. No doubt she would have preferred to snuggle under the doona – it was cold outside – but they needed money. She emerged from the van dressed for work – no longer Tracy, she was in her working persona of ‘Kelly’ – and walked off into the long night. *** Tony was restless and anxious at the hospital. He hated not being around to protect Tracy. His concerns were abated a little when he received a text from her at around 10.30 p.m. to let him know she was safe and well. Melbourne was in the midst of a bitterly cold winter and working the streets was hard slog; one can imagine that a paying customer would be a welcome relief from the cold outside. Perhaps Tracy let her guard down a little. As the night wore on, Tony’s anxiety rose. Hours had passed and he hadn’t heard again from Tracy, though she’d promised to check in with him throughout the night. Sunday morning, 21 July 2013, dawned and Tony still hadn’t heard from Tracy. Meanwhile, the people of St Kilda went about their business, strolling down Greeves Street towards busier roads, visiting cafes for breakfast, heading to The Esplanade, Luna Park or the bay. Many walked or drove past the silent Ford Econovan, not giving its presence a second thought. The van, which had been home to Tracy and Tony for several months, was a sight locals were accustomed to, and visitors barely noticed it. Tracy’s close friend was asleep in her own van across the road. Their proximity to each other gave them a sense of safety. They had organised the previous day to bunk in together on the Saturday night after work. But there had not been an ‘after work’ for Tracy, and in any case, her friend had fallen asleep.

Tony grew increasingly worried throughout the morning and, as the morning became afternoon, he could take Tracy’s silence no longer. He discharged himself from the hospital and headed home to fi nd her. Greeves Street was quiet, save from the usual sounds of cars and people going about their business. Tony and a friend went straight to the van he and Tracy shared, hoping to fi nd her fast asleep and apologetic for having worried him unnecessarily. As he slid open the van door, the silence was shattered. Tracy’s battered body lay inside. In a panic, Tony and his friend pulled Tracy out of the van and laid her on the ground, their instinct to revive her. They couldn’t see her properly inside the van – it was dark, there was too much blood. Yet even before they managed to gently lay her on the ground, they knew in their hearts it was too late. She was dead. A neighbour saw Tony just moments later: ‘We saw him after he discovered the body and he was hysterical, uncontrollably crying. I knew straight away something had happened. His face was just . . . You could just tell he was broken.’ *** Tracy Connelly came from a loving family. At 15, like a lot of girls that age, Tracy started acting out at home, craving her independence and desperately wanting to try new things and make her own decisions. Her father later refl ected, ‘I don’t think she was totally rebellious, but certain friends had a lot more freedom than she did and then Tracy wanted to be with them of course.’7 She fell into the trappings of this newfound rebellious lifestyle, trying drugs, drinking and staying out well past curfew. One night, Tracy stayed out until three in the morning and this made her mother furious. Tracy was grounded – no more going out until she could be trusted to return at a reasonable hour. Unhappy with that, Tracy called Child Welfare who talked to her mother and told her that Tracy was old enough to do as she liked. The response ‘not under my roof’ pushed Tracy’s hand and she was found accommodation two days later. It was in that accommodation, a ‘halfway house for drug addicts who were trying to get off the drugs or whatever’ that she met a boy, Matthew who she quickly entered into a relationship with, and who then introduced her to hard drugs.8 Both Tracy and Matthew became addicted to heroin and then, to support their habit, began sex work. This was a course that was to shape the rest of Tracy’s life. When Tracy had just turned 18, she went and saw her parents to tell them that she and Matthew were expecting a baby. Their initial reaction was one of shock and horror: ‘They can’t look after themselves! How are they going to look after a baby?’9 But their fears seemed to be misguided. For a while, it seemed the baby was the best thing that could have happened. Tracy gave birth to a healthy baby boy who they named Billy, and the couple seemed to be coping well. They doted on the baby, cleaned themselves up and Matthew went back to studying at university. Then, for reasons still unclear, the couple separated and Matthew took baby Billy to Tasmania where his mother lived. Perhaps the lure of drugs and her previous lifestyle were too strong for Tracy and she thought her baby would be better off without her. A friend of Matthew’s mother was looking after Billy. News filtered through to Tracy’s parents about their grandson’s whereabouts at around the same time they learned that Matthew had committed suicide. A battle for custody ensued and Billy was eventually returned to Melbourne to live with Tracy’s parents who raised him from then on. Tracy saw Billy a few times but eventually she returned to her life of drugs and sex work and rarely spoke to her family. When Billy was around 10 years old, Tracy’s family left Melbourne and settled into a new life on Queensland’s Gold Coast. At around this time Tracy fell pregnant again. When the baby was born she gave him up for adoption. Over the years she drifted in and out of her nomadic lifestyle. And then she met Tony Melissovas. The couple were happy together, moving in with Tony’s mother and entering rehabilitation to get off heroin. Clean, Tracy even obtained employment in a cafe, working with Tony’s mother. By all accounts she loved the work, she was happy and the job lasted for several years. Things were looking up. Then, in 2009, Tony’s mother died and the pair started a downward spiral. They both returned to using heroin and before long Tracy was back on the streets of St Kilda, working as Kelly, to pay for the drugs. In late 2012 or early 2013, the Ford Econovan that Tracy and Tony called home broke down and they had it towed to Greeves Street outside the St Kilda Gatehouse, a refuge for street-based sex workers that Tracy frequented. There she felt safe and had a lot of friends. Everybody – other workers, clientele and the social workers who worked at the Gatehouse – thought highly of Tracy, describing her as friendly and cheerful and always willing to lend a helping hand. Her exotic good looks didn’t go unnoticed either. Social worker Lucy Valentino remembered, ‘I’d rock up to work and there’s the van, and there’d be these big long legs coming out of the van and even though Tracy was technically homeless, she’d come out of that bloody van looking like a model.’ Tracy spoke to her friends about getting out of the life, often while baking cupcakes or having a cup of tea at the Gatehouse.

She truly disliked the life she was leading but couldn’t see many alternatives. Nonetheless, she was a loved member of her community and many have noted that she never came across as a ‘strung out druggie’, a label that too easily stereotypes heroin users. *** When Tracy kissed her boyfriend goodnight and walked away from his hospital bed, neither of them had any clue that they would never see each other again. Tracy never took clients back to their van, preferring instead to go in the client’s car to another location. In fact, Tony always held onto the keys, removing any temptation that his partner could be talked into using it. But Tony was in hospital that Saturday night, and Tracy had the keys to the van. Perhaps, without Tony there to watch out for her, without him diligently taking down the registration numbers of each punter, Tracy felt less threatened in the relative safety of her own home, in easy view of the Gatehouse and of her friend who slept in her own vehicle only 20 metres away. Perhaps the cold of that winter night made her desperate to get indoors for a while. Whatever the reason, Tracy found herself in a van with the man who would take her life. When Tracy’s body was found, battered and with extensive injuries to her head and upper body, her handbag, mobile phone and credit card were missing. Was this a robbery gone wrong? Had somebody, presumably a client, decided to rob the few things Tracy owned? Had she fought back, enraging him so that the crime escalated into this brutal murder? Or was murder the intention all along? Perhaps the missing possessions were simply an act of staging by the perpetrator. Surprisingly, given the brutal nature of the attack, the media  remained silent for more than a day. Then came the headlines: ‘Homicide police investigate prostitute’s death in St Kilda’, ‘St Kilda prostitute brutally murdered’. The story was simple, its inference clear: a street-walking, heroin-addicted prostitute was dead. Everyone knew she must have led a high-risk life, and put herself in harm’s way. This wasn’t a crime that affected everybody, it was restricted. The public at large were safe. No newspaper space was wasted, no air time given on television. Tracy’s death didn’t matter. But it did matter. It mattered to Tony Melissovas. It mattered to Tracy’s family who had spent a lifetime afraid of that particular knock on the door, that horrifying phone call; a call, when it came, that led to Tracy’s mother suffering a heart attack. It mattered to the other girls who worked near Tracy and considered her a friend. It mattered to the workers at St Kilda Gatehouse who looked forward to their regular cuppas and a chat with Tracy. And, fortunately, it mattered to a journalist who happened to see Tracy each day on her way to work. When news of the death broke, The Age journalist Wendy Squires wrote a blog about a woman she passed each day, who she occasionally gave coffee to, who was always quick with a bright smile and a wave. Squires didn’t know the identity of the murdered sex worker, what she did know was that her friend hadn’t been on her usual corner for days. Squires appealed to the universe for the murdered woman not to be Tracy. She spent days trying to establish the identity of the victim. When her worst fears were confi rmed, her blog post was quickly updated and ‘Her name was Tracy Connelly and she was my friend’, a heartfelt and equally heartbreaking story, went viral across social media platforms. Just as people were starting to sit up and take notice, Tony Melissovas released a photo of himself and Tracy through social media. It was an image taken a few years ago, of the happy couple snuggling in the snowfi elds. Almost overnight Tracy Connelly became human in the eyes of the public: her smile was warm, her face was open, hopeful, and her eyes were kind. Suddenly Tracy wasn’t just some anonymous drug-addicted street worker; she became a real woman with hopes and dreams and a life. A week after Tracy’s murder, Melbourne radio station Joy FM ran a special tribute to Tracy during their weekly show The Vixen Hour. Friends of Tracy were asked to talk about her, and their memories made her real, well beyond the headlines that had struggled to even print her name: I knew her as a lovely lady, as a friend; helpful to everybody, always sweet, always came in and gave you a kiss g’day and said, ‘Hello darls’ to everybody. She will be very, very missed. She was a delightful person, wonderful to have a discussion with. Very well spoken. Very articulate. She was lovely. I’ve known Tracy for over 10 years. She was loved by pretty much everybody in St Kilda. She was incredibly warm, very intelligent, exceptionally beautiful – and exceptionally brown, in winter as well. And she was loved by all. Tracy, to me, represents – I suppose she’s an image of myself because she’s worked ever since I’ve been here. Like, we used to share the same corner – we’re talking nearly 20 years ago and she’s been there. She’s always been around. So just a huge shock and totally devastating. I knew Tracy for four and a half years. We saw each other daily. I really connected with her around parenting ’cause she had some boys and I’ve got a boy, and she was always interested in how my 12-year-old was doing and whether he was still being a nightmare. Always had really wise words to say, which was awesome. And also the thing about her is that she had the best posture. When I saw her I would always stand up straight. I will remember that forever. If I want a picture in my mind, it’s her standing up really straight, looking fabulous – and being an amazing person that cared more about others than she did about herself. My experience of Tracy as a friend towards me was Tracy saw me walking back to the Gatehouse late one afternoon. I was severely traumatised by some news from the doctor about myself. Her and her partner pulled over and made damn sure that I got to where I needed to go, which was back to the doctors. She would have stopped to help anybody that needed help; she was a very loving, very caring person, and I will miss her terribly. She was just the most beautiful person. She would bounce into the Gatehouse, always happy. Never want to give you any of her pain. Never showed her pain. Always interested in what everyone else was doing, and – just lovely. Beautiful, beautiful person. Defi nitely a light’s gone out at the Gatehouse now. I was lucky and privileged and honoured to know the beautiful Tracy. Not only was she exotic and beautiful to look at, she was warm, friendly, and had one of the best senses of humour. I would often see her when I was down in St Kilda, working. She had her own special corner and we’d often have conversations around her special corner because I knew police would probably charge her with loitering. But she assured me she had a lovely relationship with all the people around that particular corner. I was a very close friend of Tracy’s and she was a very beautiful person. She had a heart of gold and she’d do anything for anybody. I love Tracy, and everyone loves her – and that’s the way she’ll always be remembered. I remember Tracy as a bit of a character, but a lovely, lovely girl who has been around for a long, long time. Special little things I remember about her was her lovely manners and beautiful posture. She would trot in here on her high heeled boots, and make us all laugh. And trot in and have a drink of cordial, and go back to work. And she had to work. She worked very, very hard. She was hard to get to know but once you got under that hard exterior she was the sweetest person that you could ever fi nd . . . and she made boobs out of nothing, and she inspired me. Now I do the same thing. Tracy Connelly. She was very personable and very polite but she was also funny. Very dynamic in her way. Used to tell little stories about family and how her dad would renovate, then her mum wouldn’t like it, then he’d do it the other way. Very dedicated renovator. And little stories about people and things, incidents that had happened. Tracy was my friend, she’s really special. I know that sounds a bit cliché but Tracy really did stand out for me because she gave of herself so much. She gave me more than I could ever have given to her. She was beautiful, she was deep, she will be deeply missed.

The media at large were forced to take notice and several articles were printed about the life of Tracy Connelly. A candlelight vigil, attended by the St Kilda community, Tracy’s family and friends, as well as several well-known celebrities, was held to honour the life of Tracy and to bring emphasis to the often invisible and ignored side of Melbourne’s nightlife. What happened in those early morning hours of 21 July? Had someone been watching, someone who knew her routines, her habits? Someone who knew that for the fi rst time in years her minder was not out on the streets this night? Was it a crime of opportunity? A client who met Tracy and went back to her van with her for sex then saw a chance to rob her? Or was it someone with a more sadistic bent who stole her purse, phone and credit card to mask their real intentions? Two separate weapons were used to batter the life out of Tracy. The injuries she sustained to her head and chest were horrifi c – more than were necessary to disable someone in order to steal then fl ee the scene, more than was ‘necessary’ to end her life. Police released CCTV footage that showed Tracy at the corner of Mitchell and Carlisle Streets, St Kilda, at 11.30 p.m. on Saturday, 20 July 2013. Police said CCTV footage showed Tracy with at least one other person within 20 metres of her van between 1.30 a.m. and 2.30 a.m. on Sunday morning. Other CCTV footage of a man walking along the street wearing a jacket and white shoes was also released by police. It is possible that this man inadvertently witnessed something important to the case and police are very keen to speak to him. Yet more footage showed a dark-coloured late-model ute, the owner of which the police are especially keen to speak to. A year earlier when police released CCTV footage of another wanted man to the public, they had been swamped with tips; the blue-hoodie-clad man had been caught by the cameras of a bridal boutique in Brunswick, he had been talking to Jill Meagher, she was missing. He was identifi ed to police within hours. Police were optimistic that they would have similar success with this CCTV footage, yet no meaningful leads have come from it. The predator who took Tracy Connelly’s life remains at large. Police believe it was a robbery gone wrong. They collected DNA and, although it doesn’t match anyone in known databases, it may one day unlock the mystery. Tracy’s friends still talk about her as if she hasn’t quite left the building. They relate stories of her life with great affection and sadness. They laugh when they recall stories of her mischief, like the cupcake-making afternoon at St Kilda Gatehouse where, vanilla essence in hand, Tracy added a few drops to the mix then skulled the rest of the bottle. Or of the time she managed to fi nd that one hidden bottle of champagne. They miss that moment where she would burst into the drop-in centre, with a beaming smile on her face and a ‘Hello, darls.’ Those closest to Tracy remember her genuine love for Tony. It’s common on the streets to have a ‘partner’, but often it’s a relationship of convenience, of mutual need. Tracy and Tony, they say, had a strong connection: solid, tight and genuine. Real love. Tony, according to people who knew him, was broken and guilt-ridden when Tracy was murdered. In some ways it is amongst her peers that she has left the most yawning of chasms. In any workplace people need mentors, people who have been in the job for a while, who can teach them the ropes, the shortcuts, the tips to keep them safe. Tracy’s reputation on the streets was of a careful woman, who was aware of the risks, and who did as much as she could to minimise them. She was known to be a great support to younger workers. Someone who looked out for you. Someone who cared.

In quiet, refl ective moments she would say she hated the life. Hated it. She wanted to fi nd a way out. She would talk to people about Billy, about Tony, about what might have been, and what could still be possible. Tracy Connelly would be surprised if she knew what had happened since her death. She had been in the game for many years, and knew the public’s perceptions about her lifestyle. It was a lifestyle she had grown to despise, that she dreamed of escaping. It left her feeling like she wasn’t worth very much. She couldn’t have been more wrong,

Lisa Govan mystery: Family of Kalgoorlie woman missing 15 years reveal agony

PHIL HICKEY, PerthNow - October 5, 2014

Family of murdered sex worker speak of anguish as they await verdict

Jan. 18, 2017, By Anelisa Kubheka

Ian and Pat Govan hope that someone’s memory is jogged about the disappearance of Lisa. Picture: Theo Fakos

WERE bikies responsible for Lisa Govan’s murder or did someone else snuff out her life?

In an enduring and puzzling case, cold case detectives are reviewing all the evidence surrounding her disappearance on October 8, 1999.

And her parents have reached out again to the WA public for any morsel or snippet of information that could lead to a breakthrough.

Their beloved daughter, then 28, vanished in Kalgoorlie, where she’d been living and working for a few years.

She had been living with her partner in a home on Cassidy St at the time.

Ms Govan was last seen about 7.30am near the Foundry Hotel bottle shop.

At the time, the hotel was also used as a clubhouse by the Club Deroes bikie gang.

The clubhouse was raided in the days after Ms Govan’s disappearance.

Property and clothing were reportedly seized from the clubhouse, but it was later determined not to belong to the missing woman.

Despite a $50,000 reward being posted, extensive inquiries by police and her family, Lisa’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Nobody has ever been charged in connection with her suspected murder.

Ms Govan’s stoic parents Ian and Pat, her sister Ginette Jackson and her aunt Pauline Leighton spoke to The Sunday Times in the hope somebody’s conscience might be nudged or their memory jogged.

“There is bound to be someone out there that knows where Lisa is,” Mrs Govan said.

“I just hope that they’ll find it in their hearts to let us know where she is, so we can bring her back home ... we just want Lisa home. We can’t just give up.”

Mrs Leighton added: “Some people are going to be privy to something that was unusual that day (Lisa went missing) ... An anonymous phone call is all it could take.”

Mrs Jackson, who has three children, none of whom have met their aunt, said all her family wanted was closure.

Mr Govan recalled how in December 2000, two anonymous callers phoned Crime Stoppers with specific information about his daughter’s disappearance.

Police pleaded for the callers to phone again.

One of them did, but the information they gave couldn’t be verified.

“There is still a chance for people to come forward who might provide that final piece of the jigsaw,” Mr Govan said.

“It would be no hardship to the persons who contacted Crime Stoppers to contact them again and let us know where Lisa could be found.”

In 2000, then police minister Kevin Prince announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Ms Govan’s disappearance. The reward still stands.

For the past few years the special crime squad, which handles long-term missing person and homicide files, has been investigating the case.

Acting Detective-Inspector Rohan Ingles said yesterday: “The disappearance of Lisa Govan in 1999 is currently under investigation by detectives attached to the Special Crime Squad. Any members of the public who have information concerning her disappearance, or any knowledge as to what happened to her are urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.”

TIMELINE

February 13, 1971: Lisa Joanne Govan born in Preston, England

1988: Lisa and family migrate to Perth

1995: Lisa moves to Kalgoorlie

October 8, 1999: Reported missing by her partner. The previous evening she had been to the Safari nightclub. She caught a cab to the bikie clubhouse on Boulder Rd just before 5am. The last confirmed sighting of her is near the Foundry Hotel bottle shop about 7.30am.

October-November, 1999: Lisa’s family travel to Kalgoorlie to meet police. While there, they leave flowers outside Lisa’s Cassidy St house and across the road from the bikie clubhouse. The flowers disappear within hours

December 2000: Two anonymous callers phone Crime Stoppers with specific information about Lisa’s disappearance. Police and Lisa’s family plead for the callers to phone again. One of them does, but the information they gave couldn’t be verified

December 2000: Police Minister Kevin Prince announces a $50,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Lisa’s disappearance.

https://www.ecr.co.za/news/news/family-murdered-sex-worker-speak-anguish-they-await-verdict/?fb_comment_id=1315365211819952_1315410641815409#f2c281e81465bf

The family of a Shallcross sex worker says it's traumatic having to relive how their loved one died in a brutal murder, south of Durban.

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Desiree Murugan's headless body was found by municipal workers at the Shallcross Sports Ground near Chatsworth, in August 2014.

ALSO READ: Judgement in Durban decapitation case postponed due to admin issues

Judge Thoba Poyo-Dlwati has begun handing down her judgment in the trial - being heard in the Durban High Court.

Traditional healer Sibonakaliso Mbili, his assistant Vusumuzi Gumede, and three others who were minors at the time - are accused of murdering Murugan.

Falakhe Khumalo turned State witness - and is already serving a life sentence for his role in the attack.

ALSO READ: Sex workers deserve equal rights: advocacy group

Murugan's younger sister, Jennet, says it's difficult to go through the emotions again.

"It's traumatizing to hear all of this evidence put forward, it's disturbing to go through this again - to hear the entire story in detail. Only when the verdict is passed will we get closure," she said.

Comment from the Editor:

At least in the USA they will take on corrupt police who act illegally and make a massive clean out by charging an police officer, and if they are found guilty of criminal behaviour, send them to jail... In Perth, Western Australia, even if it becomes obvious the certain police officers are involved in serious crimes of theft, assault and even murder, then the code of silence steps in and no other  Western Australian Police officer will dare investigate another Western Australian Police Officer for criminal behaviour that is alleged against them, and will only on very rare occasions will ever charge another Western Australian Police Officer of any criminal offence.

 It seems clear that .. the more serous charge that is alleged to have been committed by a Western Australian Police Officer, such as cold bold murder, or manslaughter etc., then it is even less likely that another Western Australian Police Officer will properly investigate and/or charge another Western Australian Police officer of such serious offences..

In the case of the bikie that was shot near Kalgoorlie, from high powered long rang rifle with a telescopic lens, after he came into the the pub owned and run by the late Don Hancock, a former superintendent of the Western Australian Police Service and his family .... and insulted the late Don Hancock's daughter ..... it was obvious to all and sundry that the only person with the motive to murder the bikie was the late Don Hancock .. ... yet the Western Australian Police refused to seriously investigate the crime and refused to seriously look at charging the only person who had a motive for murder the bikie that night .. being the late Don Hancock .. in the end it seem clear that the bikie gang took the law into their own hands and demanded and carried out their own justice by arranging the late Don Hancock to be blown up in his car on the way back from the Perth races....

Then you have is fairly common knowledge that the late Bernie Johnson, a former senior Western Australian Police Officer, was the one that shot the former Brothel Madame, the late Shirley  Finn in 1975, however the Western Australian Police have decided that they would never charge the late Bernie Johnson ...either before he passed way or now he has passed away ... for murder or any other criminal offence...

Betrayed by the cop_ Hundreds of officers accused of sexual misconduct including one who forced a woman to give him oral sex during a routine stop have lost their badges

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3299081/How-hundreds-cops-accused-sexual-misconduct-lost-licenses.html

“..My God, he's going to kill me..”J.L. - a victim of former cop Daniel Holtzclaw

“..It had never occurred to me that a person who had earned a badge would do this to me or anybody else. I lost my faith in everything, everyone, even in myself…”.. Diana Guerrero, victim of former cop Michael Garcia,

Massage Parlour

Former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw was charged with sexual offenses against 13 women while on duty

 

Betrayed by the cops: Hundreds of officers accused of sexual misconduct including one who forced a woman to give him oral sex during a routine stop have lost their badges

In a year-long investigation, AP uncovered about 1,000 officers who lost their badges in a six-year period for rape, sodomy and sexual assault

The sex crimes included possession of child pornography; propositioning citizens or having consensual but prohibited on-duty intercourse

The number does not reflect the true nature of officers caught in sex scandals - just those whose lost licenses to work in law enforcement

Sex-related cases were the third-most common complaint made by citizens against police officers, research found

 

Flashing lights pierced the black of night, and the big white letters made clear it was the police. 

The woman pulled over was a daycare worker in her 50s, headed home after playing dominoes with friends. 

She felt she had nothing to hide, so when the Oklahoma City officer accused her of erratic driving, she did as directed.

She would later tell a judge she was splayed outside the patrol car for a pat-down, made to lift her shirt to prove she wasn't hiding anything, then to pull down her pants when the officer still wasn't convinced. 

He shined his flashlight between her legs, she said, then ordered her to sit in the squad car and face him as he towered above. 

His gun in sight, she said she pleaded 'No, sir' as he unzipped his fly and exposed himself with a hurried directive.

'Come on,' the woman, identified in police reports as J.L., said she was told before she began giving him oral sex. 'I don't have all night.'

The accusations are undoubtedly jolting, and yet they reflect a betrayal of the badge that has been repeated time and again across the country.

Syrita Bowen, who says she was sexually assaulted by former cop Holtzclaw, sheds tears as she recalls the experience at her attorney's office on June 10, 2015, in Oklahoma City

In a yearlong investigation of sexual misconduct by U.S. law enforcement, The Associated Press uncovered about 1,000 officers who lost their badges in a six-year period for rape, sodomy and other sexual assault; sex crimes that included possession of child pornography; or sexual misconduct such as propositioning citizens or having consensual but prohibited on-duty intercourse.

The number is unquestionably an under-count because it represents only those officers whose licenses to work in law enforcement were revoked, and not all states take such action. 

California and New York - with several of the nation's largest law enforcement agencies - offered no records because they have no statewide system to decertify officers for misconduct. 

And even among states that provided records, some reported no officers removed for sexual misdeeds even though cases were identified via news stories or court records.

'It's so under-reported and people are scared that if they call and complain about a police officer, they think every other police officer is going to be then out to get them.'

Even as cases around the country have sparked a national conversation about excessive force by police, sexual misconduct by officers has largely escaped widespread notice due to a patchwork of laws, piecemeal reporting and victims frequently reluctant to come forward because of their vulnerabilities - they often are young, poor, struggling with addiction or plagued by their own checkered pasts.

In this June 10, 2015 photo, Syrita Bowen visits 'Dead Man's Curve,' the site where she says she was sexually assaulted by Holtzclaw in Oklahoma City

Former Oklahoma City police officer Holtzclaw worked in the department's Springlake Division (file photo)

In interviews, lawyers and even police chiefs told the AP that some departments also stay quiet about improprieties to limit liability, allowing bad officers to quietly resign, keep their certification and sometimes jump to other jobs.

The officers involved in such wrongdoing represent a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands whose jobs are to serve and protect. 

But their actions have an outsized impact - miring departments in litigation that leads to costly settlements, crippling relationships with an already wary public and scarring victims with a special brand of fear.

'My God,' J.L. said she thought as she eyed the officer's holstered gun, 'he's going to kill me.'

The AP does not name alleged victims of sexual assault without their consent, and J.L. declined to be interviewed. 

She was let go after the traffic stop without any charges. She reported her accusations immediately, but it was months before the investigation was done and the breadth of the allegations known.

She is one of 13 women who say they were victimized by the officer, a former college football standout named Daniel Holtzclaw. 

The fired cop, 28, has pleaded not guilty to a host of charges, and his family posted online that 'the truth of his innocence will be shown in court.' 

Traffic and pedestrians move along NE 23rd Street in Oklahoma City (left) in a neighborhood where several women say they were sexually assaulted by Holtzclaw (pictured right in 2014)

One of the women who accused Holtzclaw of sexual assault is pictured in silhouette. A year-long Associated Press investigation illuminated the problem of rape and sexual misconduct committed by American cops 

Each of his accusers is expected to testify in the trial that begins Monday, including one who was 17 when she said the officer pulled down her pink cotton shorts and raped her on her mother's front porch.

But on a June night last year, it was J.L.'s story that unleashed a larger search for clues.

A nurse swabbed her mouth. A captain made a report. And a detective got to work. 

On a checkerboard of sessions on everything from electronic surveillance to speed enforcement, police chiefs who gathered for an annual meeting in 2007 saw a discussion on sex offenses by officers added to the agenda. 

More than 70 chiefs packed into a room, and when asked if they had dealt with an officer accused of sexual misdeeds, nearly every attendee raised a hand. A task force was formed and federal dollars were pumped into training.

Eight years later, a simple question - how many law enforcement officers are accused of sexual misconduct - has no definitive answer. 

The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, which collects police data from around the country, doesn't track officer arrests, and states aren't required to collect or share that information.

To measure the problem, the AP obtained records from 41 states on police decertification, an administrative process in which an officer's law enforcement license is revoked. 

Rex Newport, left, from the Colville Police Department in Washington state, was sentenced in 2014 to a prison term for unlawful imprisonment with sexual motivation and other charges, Christopher Stein Epperson, right, a former deputy sheriff from the Wasatch County Sheriff's Department in Utah, is serving three years probation in the sexual assaults of two inmates. Epperson pleaded guilty to two federal counts of deprivation of rights under color of law for the offenses in 2009 and 2010 while he was working in the county jail

Cases from 2009 through 2014 were then reviewed to determine whether they stemmed from misconduct meeting the Department of Justice standard for sexual assault - sexual contact that happens without consent, including intercourse, sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape.

Nine states and the District of Columbia said they either did not decertify officers for misconduct or declined to provide information.

Of those that did release records, the AP determined that some 550 officers were decertified for sexual assault, including rape and sodomy, sexual shakedowns in which citizens were extorted into performing favors to avoid arrest, or gratuitous pat-downs. 

Some 440 officers lost their badges for other sex offenses, such as possessing child pornography, or for sexual misconduct that included being a peeping Tom, sexting juveniles or having on-duty intercourse.

The law enforcement officials in these records included state and local police, sheriff's deputies, prison guards and school resource officers; no federal officers were included because the records reviewed came from state police standards commissions. 

About one-third of the officers decertified were accused of incidents involving juveniles. Because of gaps in the information provided by the states, it was impossible to discern any other distinct patterns, other than a propensity for officers to use the power of their badge to prey on the vulnerable. 

Some but not all of the decertified officers faced criminal charges; some offenders were able to avoid prosecution by agreeing to surrender their certifications.

Victims included unsuspecting motorists, schoolchildren ordered to raise their shirts in a supposed search for drugs, police interns taken advantage of, women with legal troubles who succumbed to performing sex acts for promised help, and prison inmates forced to have sex with guards.

The AP's findings, coupled with other research and interviews with experts, suggest that sexual misconduct is among the most prevalent type of complaint against law officers. 

Phil Stinson, a researcher at Bowling Green State University, analyzed news articles between 2005 and 2011 and found 6,724 arrests involving more than 5,500 officers. 

Sex-related cases were the third-most common, behind violence and profit-motivated crimes. Cato Institute reports released in 2009 and 2010 found sex misconduct the No. 2 complaint against officers, behind excessive force.

Cases from across the country in just the past year demonstrate how such incidents can occur, and the devastation they leave behind.

In Connecticut, William Ruscoe of the Trumbull Police began a 30-month prison term in January after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl he met through a program for teens interested in law enforcement. 

William Ruscoe (left) of the Trumbull Police in Connecticut (left), began a 30-month prison term in January 2015 while Jonathan Bleiweiss (right) of the Broward Sheriffís Office, was sentenced to a five-year prison term in February 2015 for bullying about 20 immigrant men into sex acts

Case records detailed advances that began with explicit texts and attempts to kiss and grope the girl. 

Then one night Ruscoe brought her back to his home, put his gun on the kitchen counter and asked her to go upstairs to his bedroom. 

The victim told investigators that despite telling him no 'what felt like 1,000 times,' he removed her clothes, fondled her and forced her to touch him - at one point cuffing her hands.

In Florida, Jonathan Bleiweiss of the Broward Sheriff's Office was sentenced to a five-year prison term in February for bullying about 20 immigrant men into sex acts. 

Because the victims wouldn't testify, Bleiwess' plea deal revolved around false imprisonment charges, allowing him to escape sex offender status. Prosecutors said he used implied threats of deportation to intimidate the men.

And in New Mexico, Michael Garcia of the Las Cruces Police was sentenced last November to nine years in federal prison for sexually assaulting a high school police intern. At the time, he was in a unit investigating child abuse and sex crimes. 

The victim, Diana Guerrero, said in court that the assault left her feeling 'like a piece of trash,' dashed her dreams of becoming an officer, and triggered depression, nightmares and flashbacks.

'It had never occurred to me that a person who had earned a badge would do this to me or anybody else,' said Guerrero, who is now 21 and agreed to her name being published. 'I lost my faith in everything, everyone, even in myself.'

Former Las Cruces Police Officer Michael Garcia (left) was sentenced in November 2014 to nine years in federal prison for sexually assaulting Diana Guerrero (right), a high school police intern

A 2011 International Association of Chiefs of Police report on sex misconduct questioned whether some conditions of the job may create opportunities for such incidents. 

Officers' power, independence, off-hours and engagement with those perceived as less credible combine to give cover to predators, it said, and otherwise admirable bonds of loyalty can lead colleagues to shield offenders.

'You see officers throughout your career that deal with that power really well, and you see officers over your career that don't,' said Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty, who fired Holtzclaw just months after the allegations surfaced and called the case a troubling reminder that police chiefs need to be careful about how they hire and train officers.

The best chance at preventing such incidents is to robustly screen applicants, said Sheriff Russell Martin in Delaware County, Ohio, who served on an IACP committee on sex misconduct. 

Those seeking to join Martin's agency are questioned about everything from pornography use to public sex acts. 

Investigators run background checks, administer polygraph exams and interview former employers and neighbors. 

Social media activity is reviewed for clues about what a candidate deems appropriate, or red flags such as objectification of women.

Still, screening procedures vary among departments, and even the most stringent standards only go so far.

'We're hiring from the human race,' Martin said, 'and once in a while, the human race is going to let us down.' 

In the predawn hours of June 18, 2014, J.L.'s report made its way to Oklahoma City sex crimes detective Kim Davis. 

By that afternoon, Miranda rights were being read to the suspect, an officer who had arrived out of the academy nearly three years earlier, a seemingly natural move for the son of a career policeman but one borne of deep disappointment.

Holtzclaw, pictured right in 2007, was a high school football star in Enid, Oklahoma, and a standout on a middling squad at Eastern Michigan University

Holtzclaw is led from a courtroom in Oklahoma City on Friday - his trial on charges alleging he sexually assaulted women while on duty is scheduled to begin on Monday

Holtzclaw was a high school football star in Enid, Oklahoma, and a standout on a middling squad at Eastern Michigan University. 

He was a six-foot-1, 246-pound leader to teammates who called him 'Claw,' and constantly focused on his ultimate goal of the NFL.

'He trained that way. He talked that way,' said fellow linebacker Cortland Selman.

But the collegiate record for tackles Holtzclaw chased went unbroken, and the draft came and went.

He found traces of life on the field in his life on the beat, telling a reporter for his hometown paper that he enjoyed high-speed chases and once charged through two fences while pursuing a suspect on foot on a snow-slicked winter day. He hoped to eventually join the police gang squad.

The Oklahoma City Police Department said Holtzclaw had not received any prior discipline that resulted in a demotion or docked paycheck, but both the department and the state declined to release his full personnel record, citing state law making it confidential.

J.L.'s accusations made Davis and a fellow detective curious about an unsolved report filed five weeks earlier in which an unidentified officer was accused of stopping a woman and coercing her into oral sex.

According to pretrial testimony, the detectives reviewed the names of women Holtzclaw had come into contact with on his 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift and interviewed each one, saying they had a tip she may have been assaulted by an officer. 

William Nulick, of the Tulare County Sheriffís Office in California, is awaiting trial after being charged with sexually assaulting four women in 2013

Most said they had not been victimized but, among those who said they were, other links to Holtzclaw were found, Davis said in court. 

The GPS device on his patrol car put him at the scene of the alleged incidents, and department records showed he called in to check all but one of the women for warrants, the detective testified.

By the time the investigation concluded, the detectives had assembled a six-month narrative of alleged sex crimes they said started December 20, 2013, with a woman taken into custody and hospitalized while high on angel dust. 

Dressed in a hospital gown, her right wrist handcuffed to the bedrail, the woman said Holtzclaw coerced her into performing oral sex, suggesting her cooperation would lead to dropped charges.

'I didn't think that no one would believe me,' she testified at a pretrial hearing. 'I feel like all police will work together.'

All told, Holtzclaw faces 36 counts including rape, sexual battery and forcible oral sodomy.

One additional accuser who came forward after Holtzclaw's arrest later was charged with making a false report. Supporters of the former officer who congregate on social media express hope that others' claims will be proven false, too, and friends wear T-shirts that say 'Free the Claw.'

Earlier this year, while out on bond, Holtzclaw answered the door of his parents' Enid home, saying of the allegations: 'I'm not going to make any comment about it.' His attorney, Scott Adams, canceled an interview and did not respond to calls, emails and a letter.

Former West Sacramento police officer Sergio Alvarez, left, was convicted last year of kidnapping and raping several female victims while he was on overnight patrol duty. This street, right, is the same one where, according to court testimony, Alvarez cruised for victims while on patrol.

Adams' line of questioning at the pretrial hearing suggests he will raise doubts about the accusers' credibility and portray investigators as having coaxed the women into saying they were attacked. Many of the women had struggled with drugs. 

Some had been prostitutes or have criminal records. Most lived in the same rundown swath of the city in sight of the state Capitol dome, and they all are women of color.

Many of their allegations are similar, with the women saying they were accused of hiding drugs, then told to lift their shirts or pull down their pants. Some claim to have been groped; others said they were forced into intercourse or oral sex.

The youngest accuser said Holtzclaw first approached her when she was with two friends who were arguing and he learned she had an outstanding warrant for trespassing. He let her go but found her again later that day, walking to her mother's house. 

Walter Nolden of the San Antonio Independent School District Police, was released from jail in 2014 after being given a yearlong sentence related to improper searches of young girls.

She said he offered her a ride and then followed her to the front porch, reminding her of her warrant, accusing her of hiding drugs and warning her not to make things more difficult than they needed to be. 

She claims he touched her breasts and slid his hand into her panties before pulling off her shorts and raping her.

When it was over, the teen said he told her he might be back to see her again.

'I didn't know what to do,' she testified at the pretrial hearing. 'Like, what am I going to do? Call the cops? He was a cop.'

Victims of sexual violence at the hands of officers know the power their attackers have, and so the trauma can carry an especially crippling fear.

Jackie Simmons said she found it too daunting to bring her accusation to another police officer after being raped by a cop in 1998 while visiting Kansas for a wedding. 

So, like most victims of rape, she never filed a report. Her notions of good and evil challenged, she became enraged whenever she saw patrol cars marked 'Protect and Serve.'

'You feel really powerless,' said Simmons, an elementary school principal in Bridgeport, Connecticut, who works with Pandora's Project, a support group for rape survivors.

Diane Wetendorf, a retired counselor who started a support group in Chicago for victims of officers, said most of the women she counseled never reported their crimes - and many who did regretted it. 

She saw women whose homes came under surveillance and whose children were intimidated by police. Fellow officers, she said, refused to turn on one another when questioned.

'It starts with the officer denying the allegations - 'she's crazy,' 'she's lying,'' Wetendorf said. 'And the other officers say they didn't see anything, they didn't hear anything.'

In its 2011 report, the IACP recommended that agencies institute policies specifically addressing sexual misconduct, saying 'tolerance at any level will invite more of the same conduct.' The report also urged stringent screening of hires. But the agency does not know how widely such recommendations have been implemented.

John Firman, the IACP's research director, said the organization also is encouraging its chiefs to hire more women and minorities as a way to improve the environment inside departments.

'What you want is a culture that's dominated by a bunch of people that reflect the community,' he said.

Experts said it isn't just threats of retaliation that deter victims from reporting the crimes, but also skepticism about the ability of officers and prosecutors to investigate their colleagues.

Milwaukee Police Officer Ladmarald Cates was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2012 for raping a woman he was dispatched to help. 

Despite screaming 'He raped me!' repeatedly to other officers present, she was accused of assaulting an officer and jailed for four days, her lawyer said. The district attorney, citing a lack of evidence, declined to prosecute Cates. Only after a federal investigation was he tried and convicted.

It's a story that doesn't surprise Penny Harrington, a former police chief in Portland, Oregon, who co-founded the National Center for Women in Policing and has served as an expert witness in officer misconduct cases. 

She said officers sometimes avoid charges or can beat a conviction because they are so steeped in the system.

Jackie Simmons said she found it too daunting to bring her accusation to another police officer after being raped by a cop in 1998 while visiting Kansas for a wedding

'They knew the DAs. They knew the judges. They knew the safe houses. They knew how to testify in court. They knew how to make her look like a nut,' she said. 

'How are you going to get anything to happen when he's part of the system and when he threatens you and when you know he has a gun and ... you know he can find you wherever you go?'

Though initially out on bond, Holtzclaw has been jailed since July after letting the battery in his ankle monitor go dead.

While he and his attorneys have remained mostly silent on the accusations, he has offered glimpses of his life in online postings. A photo montage he shared showed him flexing his muscles, Eminem playing in the background. 

He wrote of God's blessings and copied Bible verses, and offered photos of him cuddling his dog. He wrote that he had maintained faith, that winners overcome and cowards run. He portrayed himself as David fighting Goliath.

'Behind these eyes and this big heart is pain,' he wrote.

Most of Holtzclaw's accusers also have stayed silent outside of court. Most did not respond to requests from the AP to speak or cited fear or a desire for privacy, but two did agree to interviews.

One woman alleges Holtzclaw coerced her into giving him oral sex. She cried as she spoke, sitting on a dirty couch in a rundown apartment where a blanket attached to the wall with thumbtacks blocked the sunlight. 

She talked of how afraid she was to go to police, of how images of her alleged attack haunt her. Enveloped in fear, she said she slipped further into drugs.

'I was getting high, but I wasn't feeling,' she said. 'I was too upset to feel anything.'

In the Oklahoma City neighborhood that prosecutors say served as Holtzclaw's hunting ground, a narrow ribbon of road twists through a canyon of untended growth littered with black bags of stinking trash. Locals call the spot Dead Man's Curve.

It's here that Syrita Bowen contends Holtzclaw took her on May 21, 2014, and told her she could submit to oral sex and intercourse or go to jail. 

Sarasota Police Department Chief Bernadette DiPino reveals that as an officer in Ocean City she has encountered what she called a 'laissez faire' attitude about sexually inappropriate behavior

In an interview, she said she was convinced it was the cruel joke of some hidden-camera show until he insisted he was serious. 

She had been jailed many times before, and knew the math: a 15-minute ride downtown, two hours to be booked, up to a day of waiting to move to a cell, hearings drawn out over weeks or months.

She figured she could give him what he wanted in six minutes.

'God forgive me,' she said, 'that was the easiest thing for me to do.'

Bowen agreed to have her name published, and initially she offered a steely front, contending no fear or sadness lingered from her alleged encounter with Holtzclaw. But, before long, tears flowed.

She has known poverty and addiction and imprisonment, and said she was repeatedly raped by a relative as a little girl. 

The violation she alleges now doesn't even rank as the worst thing to ever happen to her. But she said she thinks about it daily. There are no nightmares, she said, but reminders come in other ways.

Patrol cars seem to pass more often than they did before. Sirens are more jarring. And when a man in uniform goes by, she wonders what might happen.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3299081/How-hundreds-cops-accused-sexual-misconduct-lost-licenses.html#ixzz4XYC7oy8M 
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