Secrets We Keep

Before Day 31’s evidence in the Claremont Serial Killings trial could be heard, Justice Stephen Hall issues a temporary suppression order on all details regarding the post mortems of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, including any injuries and the causes of death. Justice Hall said the suppression was made at the request of the victim’s families. The suppression order was put in place jus...

We’ve already been told Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon fought for their lives. But what they went through in the moments before their deaths hasn't been spoken about in great detail, until today. On day 33, that was made a little clearer by the testimony of pathologist Dr Clive Cooke. He revealed there was no evidence to suggest she was raped before she was murdered. During his third day on t...

It has been revealed for the first time that Ciara Glennon may have been struck on the back of her head in the moments before her death. The blow may have stunned, or rendered her semi-conscious. This information we can bring to you now, because late on day 32 of the Claremont Serial Killings trial, Justice Stephen Hall lifted the suppression order put in place the day before, which had banned all...

The forensic officer who was involved with the collection of what is now seen as key pieces of evidence for the prosecution has revealed one of those pieces of evidence mysteriously disappeared after it was stored for the weekend at police HQ after Ciara Glennon’s autopsy. Sgt Adam McCulloch, who was in his second day of evidence, told the court a white fibre labelled AJM23 - which was colle...

Day 29 started out unusually in court, with an officer asked to spell the words ‘maggot’ and ‘entomology’ for the court as his cross examination started. The spelling test however, wasn’t just for fun, the court was told during evidence collection, several copies of exhibit lists were made, and one officer simply couldn’t spell those two words, and could identif...

After three women went missing from the same area within less than two years of each other, police concluded they could be looking for a serial killer. So they brought in FBI-trained profilers to try and get inside the mind of the person responsible for the murders of two women, and the disappearance of another. Serial killer experts Claude Minisini and Captain David Caldwell were in Perth, after...

***WARNING: Graphic Content*** Ciara Glennon's fingernail clippings are the key pieces of evidence the prosecution have to say why they'll prove Bradley Robert Edwards is the Claremont serial killer. The reason why they're so crucial, is because DNA found under those fingernails contained the DNA of the accused, and the prosecution say it got there because of a struggle. When Ciara Glennon’s...

The defence team for the accused Claremont Serial Killer, Bradley Edwards focussed on forensic collection errors made by police when Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon’s bodies were found in 1996 and 1997. Sergeant Gary Hyde was grilled about errors in transcripts and data entry of forensic pieces from samples collected from the murdered women. On day 26, we’re joined by forensic expert Bre...

The question of who handled evidence samples from the two murdered women’s bodies, will become key in both the prosecution and defence’s arguments. On day 25, we got our first glimpse of just how in depth the witnesses will be expected to remember of their dealings with samples. Forensic police officer Gary Hyde told the court he was present during the day Ciara Glennon’s body wa...

Following Jane Rimmer’s post-mortem, the pathologist who carried it out gave one of the detectives a lock of Jane’s hair. The detective, Vicky Young then washed, brushed and placed an elastic around it and gave it to the Rimmer family. During her evidence today, she said it was an act of compassion. But she also said the hair was covered in fluids and matter when it was given to her. O...

****WARNING: Some listeners may find the content discussed in this episode distressing**** The doctor who examined the 17-year-old who was brutally raped by Bradley Edwards in 1995 has recalled the horrific injuries the teenager suffered that night. In Day 23 of the Claremont serial killings trial, Dr Amanda Barnard gave evidence saying while she had examined thousands of women during her career a...

When police arrived at the scenes where Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon’s bodies had been dumped, they didn’t have to wear gloves to prevent cross contamination. On day 22 of the Claremont Serial Killings trial, former forensic police officer Robert Hemelaar took the stand for a third day where it was revealed there wasn’t a big focus on preserving a crime scene in the mid 1990s. H...

Former forensic police officer Robert Hemelaar gave his evidence for the whole of day 21 of the Claremont serial killings trial. He narrated an hour-long video from Ciara Glennon’s burial site, revealing graphic details and forensic clues as to how police collected and stored DNA samples found on the 27-year-old’s body. Joined in the studio by forensic expert Brendan Chapman, Natalie B...

On day 20 of the Claremont serial killings trial, the court was given a glimpse into the life of Jane Rimmer through photographs taken from inside her house days after she went missing, a woman’s life frozen in time. Images from the 23-year-old child care worker’s house and belongings were shown to the court by former forensic police officer Robert Hemelaar, who searched Jane&rsqu...

Senior police officers who attended the burial sites of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennons' bodies have described the 'mayhem' and 'organised chaos' which became the crime scenes when the women's bodies were found. In particular, when the body of the third woman to go missing, Ciara Glennon's body was found in shrub land in Eglinton, both police and the media started using the term 'serial killer'. Th...

After a two-week break, the trial of the century resumed at Perth’s Supreme Court, only to be adjourned again after just half an hour. The reason? Prosecutors needed to go to a stationary store to buy projector screens to block out gruesome images of the burial sites of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon’s bodies that were set to be shown as evidence. The families of Jane Rimmer and Ciara G...

It was by pure-chance Jane Rimmer's body was found. A woman driving with her husband and children driving in Wellard stopped on the side of the road after a rooster ran out. Kids being kids, they wanted to chase it. The mother, Tammy Evans decided to pick some death lilies and out of the corner of her eye, 'the biggest death lily' she had ever seen popped into view. Before grabbing onto it, someth...

March 14, 1997 was the last time Ciara Glennon was seen alive. She’s been at a work function and by all accounts she didn’t want to go out that night, because she had her sister's hen's night the next night. But she was convinced to go out to Claremont. She’d only been back in Perth for two weeks, after travelling for six months. In this podcast, Tim Clarke and Damien Cripps ask...

On August 3, 1996 - 55 days after 23-year-old child care worker Jane Rimmer went missing, a woman picking flowers with her family found her body. She immediately told her husband who rushed for help. Jane’s body was badly decomposed, covered in leaves and small shrubs. Meanwhile a couple riding horses nearby found a knife on the ground not too far away. When they reached the woman who found...

The night Jane Rimmer disappeared, on June 9, 1996, two couples - separately - heard blood-curdling, ’traumatic’ screams. One witness recalled hearing a scream that just suddenly stopped. Then silence. The two couples lived in the then-rural area on the outskirts of Perth called Wellard. Fifty-five days later Jane’s body would be found in bushland in between their houses. As The...

Jane Rimmer disappeared in the early hours of June 9, 1996 from Claremont. Her body was found 55 days later on August 3 in bushland in Wellard. On June 9, 1996, a man was riding a horse in Wellard, when his horse spooked. He fell off and found a guess watch. That watch turned out to be Jane Rimmer's. Day 13 of the Claremont serial killings trial heard the man didn't report the watch to police unti...

The last pictures of Jane Rimmer alive were shown to a stunned court room on day 12. The images of the smiling and laughing 23-year-old was shown to the people in the court, who watched on in silence for the entire time the videos were played. Jane was last seen outside Club Bayview in Claremont at 12.04am on June 8, 1996. At the time, the security cameras recorded on a loop, only capturing 13 sec...

**WARNING: this episode contains distressing content*** The terrifying, graphic and distressing account of a regular night-turned living nightmare of a teenager, who was abducted and raped by Bradley Edwards was read to the court on day 11 of his murder trial. In February 1995, the 17-year-old was walking to a friends’ house from a night out in Claremont, when she was grabbed from behind, a...

On Valentine’s Day in 1988 in Huntingdale, a teenager went to bed alone after spending the day with her boyfriend. She was woken up by someone lying on top of her. Thinking it was her boyfriend, she said she didn’t feel scared. That was until she touched that person’s face. The person lying on top of her wasn’t her boyfriend, but was an intruder. That intruder was Bradley R...

The voice of Sarah Spiers haunted the court as her final phone call, a call to a taxi service was played during evidence on day nine. Sarah Spiers was last seen in the early hours of January 27, 1996. She was out with friends at Club Bayview, and just after 2am decided to go leave. Alone. She called a taxi to take her to Mosman Park, but she never got there. Today, we heard from one of those frien...