The Claremont Serial Killings

Between January 1996 and March 1997, three young women disappeared after socializing in Claremont, an inner-western suburb of Perth. The remains of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon were later found outside the city. Sarah Spiers has never been located. Western Australia Police created Taskforce Macro, and the investigation became the longest and most expensive in the state’s history. In 2020, Bradley Robert Edwards was convicted of murdering Rimmer and Glennon but acquitted of murdering Spiers.

A concise timeline

1. January 27, 1996
   Sarah Spiers disappears

   She calls a taxi in Claremont but is not there when the driver arrives. She remains missing.

2. June 9, 1996
   Jane Rimmer is last seen

   Security footage and witnesses place her outside the Continental Hotel.

3. August 3, 1996
   Jane is found

   Her remains are discovered in bushland south of Perth.

4. March 14, 1997
   Ciara Glennon disappears

   Witnesses last see her walking from Claremont after midnight.

5. April 3, 1997
   Ciara is found

   Biological material is preserved for later analysis.

6. December 22, 2016
   Bradley Edwards is arrested

   Police charge him after renewed forensic and investigative work.

7. September 24, 2020
   Verdicts are delivered

   Edwards is convicted of murdering Rimmer and Glennon and acquitted of murdering Spiers.

8. December 23, 2020
   Sentence

   He receives life imprisonment with a minimum term of forty years.

Three women, one public pattern

Eighteen-year-old Sarah Spiers left the Club Bayview area shortly after 2 a.m. on January 27, 1996. She called a taxi from a nearby phone box, but she was gone when it arrived. Five months later, twenty-three-year-old Jane Rimmer was last seen outside the Continental Hotel. Her remains were found in bushland at Wellard on August 3.

On March 14, 1997, twenty-seven-year-old lawyer Ciara Glennon disappeared after leaving the same entertainment district. Her remains were located in bushland at Eglington on April 3. The similarities—young women alone after nights in Claremont, short intervals and recovery locations outside Perth—sharpened fears that one offender was responsible.

Forensic evidence and the arrest

Biological material recovered in the Glennon investigation became central. Later DNA analysis linked it to Edwards. The prosecution also presented evidence connecting fibres from the victims and recovery sites with materials associated with vehicles and clothing available to him through his employment. No single fibre proved the entire case; the court evaluated the combined pattern, laboratory limitations and alternative explanations.

Investigators also revisited earlier attacks. Edwards pleaded guilty to abducting and sexually assaulting a seventeen-year-old in 1995 and assaulting a woman in her home in 1988. The court considered that evidence under legal rules governing propensity and identity. The murder verdicts rested on a large record, not one dramatic clue.

The verdicts and the unresolved count

Justice Stephen Hall found beyond reasonable doubt that Edwards murdered Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon. For Sarah Spiers, the judge found that the evidence strongly suggested his involvement but did not meet the criminal standard of proof. There was no body, no direct forensic link and no sufficiently complete chain of circumstances. He was therefore acquitted on that count.

That distinction is essential. An acquittal means the prosecution did not prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt; it is not permission to rewrite the judgment as a conviction. Sarah remains a missing person, and police have continued to seek information about where she is.

What the investigation changed

Taskforce Macro generated tens of thousands of statements and leads, extensive surveillance and repeated forensic reviews. The long delay prompted criticism of early suspect focus, information management and the treatment of some witnesses. The eventual convictions also demonstrated the value of retaining biological material and re-examining old evidence as laboratory methods improve.

The case’s lasting measure is not simply its cost or notoriety. It is whether the record continues to honor Jane, Ciara and Sarah, supports their families and preserves a truthful boundary between what a court proved and what remains unknown.