The woman who escaped the 'Bogeyman' Claremont serial killer | 60 Minutes Australia

It's further proof of what a pervert he is, but the man we now know is the Clermont

serial

killer

who used to call himself the boogeyman to people he met online on Thursday. Bradley Robert Edwards was found guilty of murdering two young women in the mid-1990s, the judge at his trial said it was likely he had also killed a third

woman

, but as her body was never found there was not enough evidence to prove it. a conviction. Despite that setback, the verdict ends more than two decades of fear in Perth, but before Edwards began his killing spree.

He attacked many other women. One of them speaks publicly for the first time tonight and asks a very uncomfortable question. If her case had been investigated more seriously, could Edward's evil have been stopped much sooner? Jane Rimmer and Kyra Glennon, two beautiful young lives ended so brutally. by

serial

killer

bradley edwards who was also accused of the murder of sarah spears and there were other female victims who somehow survived wendy davis is someone she fought for her life after edwards attacked her in 1990 wendy you are the victim of a serial killer who has lived to tell the story, how does that sit with you?

It's not easy, Liam, but I feel very, very, very blessed and very grateful to be here to tell the story. Wendy Davis now lives a world away from Perth with her husband Tim and her dog Maisie. Tonight, in a glorious part of Tasmania, she is telling her story for the first time, the story of how a killer could have been stopped in his tracks before the murders began. Why has she chosen to talk about this now to relive this terrible experience she has had? It has been an easy decision for me to do this. I'm a very private person, but I wanted the chance to tell my part in this terrible, terrible story in my own words and I know this sounds silly in a way, but you are.

One of the lucky ones, aren't you? Oh yes, yes, yes, I was very lucky, I was very lucky. Today's discovery confirms Perth's worst fears. Another young

woman

murdered a serial killer among us. It is impossible to underestimate the impact that Edward's crimes had on Perth in the 1990s. Targeting young single women in the upscale suburb of Claremont after they had gone out for the night, he would kindly offer them a lift home in his Telstra van before of murdering the girls and dumping their bodies in an isolated bush. Photographic evidence was taken of the shallow grave.

Police divers arrived to search the nearby swamp. There was a monster on the loose. The equivalent would be, I suppose, Ivan Mullatt driving, you know, Double Bay or Turret in a Telstra car, picking up, you know, single young women walking the streets. I mean, it really changed this. This area, right? It used to be a bustling place for young people to come. He was completely upset, exactly, he stiffened with fear. In this city, you could almost smell the fear when first one, then two, then three young women disappeared. brett christian is the owner and editor of the local clermont newspaper the publication where the kidnappings and murders occurred in his area no one has followed this story more forensically for the last 25 years you come here during the day and you have no idea that It was a place of horror really that became that in people's minds so really these streets here were the hunting ground for the killer that's not saying it too harshly exactly you know he was a predator, he prowled the area looking for prey and found it Bradley Edwards grew up on the other side of Perth from Clermont in the suburb of Huntingdale he and his family have long since moved but it was in this house where the teenage Edwards began his habits of prowling from here at night he became in a thief, a voyeur and on at least one occasion, a sex offender in 1988 was responsible for a series of crimes in nearby houses.

Police collected fingerprints and even DNA from clothing he had left behind, but they simply couldn't catch him and, two years later, he chose a very different location to attack. another victim in broad daylight in 1990 wendy davis worked as a senior social worker in the palliative care unit at hollywood hospital in the suburb of perth in the netherlands i thought i had found my calling i loved my job we worked with doctors and nurses to provide end-of-life care to patients who were dying. Yes, at the time of the attack. Wendy was a 40-year-old mother of three and Edwards, a 21-year-old telecommunications employee now known as Telstra, around mid-afternoon on May 7, 1990.

She was at her desk immersed in her work, I can remember what I was doing because it was my youngest daughter's 11th birthday and I was in a hurry to finish this report so I could get home at a reasonable time and a voice said is it okay if I use the bathroom, is it okay if I use the bathroom? I was in one of those swivel chairs with wheels and I turned around and saw that he was a Telstra worker, he must have had some ID or uniform and he really didn't. Look at it. I was vaguely aware of him following me to go to the bathroom when I heard the flush of the toilet.

I hadn't been there long enough to go to the bathroom, but just as I was thinking about those things, a hand came. behind me with a cloth around my face another hand came behind me and grabbed me and lifted me out of my chair and started dragging me towards the bathroom area and utility room and I was absolutely petrified, I thought there was something in the fabric and I thought I was going to die. I thought the strength with which he did it was so terrifying. He was so afraid that in the end he couldn't breathe.

I had to breathe because he was starting to choke me and the fabric was being pushed. more and more in my mouth, so I took a breath and realized that it was still okay, that no, there was nothing in the cloth, I thought that and that's when I really started to struggle, somehow I managed to turn around and I kicked him with my legs and the next minute he just stopped and everything stopped and I fell and I looked at him and it was a very strange, very strange feeling because he had this strange look in his eyes like he was completely dissociated and he shook his head and said he started to say sorry sorry sorry hospital security quickly detained edwards and along with the gag the police discovered cable ties in his pockets wendy is convinced he was planning to have sex assault her he was actually going to write me to abuse her There was no other reason I would drag myself back to the bathroom.

It really turned out to be ground zero in this case, right? Yes, that's a good description of the terrain. God knows what would have happened if she hadn't had the strength to free herself from it, he would have pinned one of her arms, you know, but she really had to give it to him and she really fought for her life, he thought. she. was going to be murdered and I think it's very possible that she would have been him, he has cable ties, that's what, and he's prepared to use a gag and, as you say, physical force, yes, and he and he had examined the bathrooms beforehand and he was dragging her towards them so what could happen to her in there?

You know, it's not about anything. It's amazing to think that all those years they were hunting this Clermont serial killer and here you are, unknowingly of course, having a first... eyewitness experience with him, yeah, it's chilling, isn't it? It's really scary to think, when you ask yourself, why wasn't he treated like a sex offender? I wonder if he thought he was bullet proof and slap on the wrist, how on earth did he manage to keep his job at Telstra? That is a great mystery. It helps create a monster if the police had properly dealt with Edward's attack on you.

Do you think he would have moved on? to become the next killer in 60

minutes

a 48 year old man is behind bars tonight charged with the murders of kyra glennon and jane rimmer

claremont

killer bradley edwards was arrested in december 2016 after the longest manhunt in the

australia

n crime story by wendy davis this The news brought back long-repressed traumatic memories and also anger. She believes Edward's attack on her in 1990 was never adequately addressed by police and, if it were, it could have saved lives. I absolutely believe that the fact that Bradley Edwards has not been charged with a more significant charge.

The crime effectively put him off the police's radar, but he would have been on her radar, Wendy, if they had done their job correctly in addressing his attack on you. That's right, yes, that's right, you were the dress rehearsal for him, right? Yes, I absolutely believe that he was practicing, Edwards attacked Wendy while she was working at the Hollywood hospital and tried to drag her into a nearby bathroom after the police took her statement and obviously discussed with him what he was accused of. He was charged with common assault, just common assault, common assault it is. a charge that could be leveled at someone cursing at someone across the street, yeah, don't try to drag him into a bathroom with a rag over his mouth and zip ties in his back pocket, that's right, why didn't they treat him Like a sex offender?

I have absolutely no idea and I didn't know until he came out at trial that he had actually been referred to a sex offender program. I didn't know he would be furious if it was her, I mean at least it was deprivation of liberty and you know potentially sexual assault and the extraordinary thing about this was that the magistrate recognized it and ordered Edwards to undergo sexual counselling. You know, in fact, he ordered a sex offender program that lasted eight months, so even the magistrate understood that it was a sexually motivated attack. Sure, Edwards pleaded guilty but only received two years of probation.

Author Brett Christian believes this slap on the wrist empowered a young offender down a deadly path without treating him like a sex offender then and there. What difference did that make to him? I think his life could have taken a very different path if that crime had been treated much more seriously at the time Edwards attacked Wendy Davis here at the Hollywood hospital. His family home was still in Huntingdale, that's the same suburb. where a series of sex-related assaults and robberies remained on the police file waiting to be solved but, inexplicably, no police officer investigated any link between Edward's brutal attack here and the unsolved crimes in his own backyard, is it melodramatic to say that if I hadn't done it? been treated as a sex offender the crime had been dealt with adequately in 1990 that kira, jane and sarah could be alive today i think it is very possible yes it can't be said for sure but this is probably a difficult question if the police I would have dealt with Edward's attack on you appropriately.

Do you think he would have become a murderer? I've thought about that many times and wondered if he could have done something else at that time that could have altered the charge, but, um, I did. to the best of my ability and the police force wasn't listening and Telstra Telecom, as it was, certainly wasn't listening to what I was saying about the attack at the time. Wendy maintains that Edward's bosses at Telstra also did not take the attack seriously. In fact, a company. The representative met with Wendy to attest to her character during that meeting where the Telstra manager was defending his employee so strongly that he actually referred to Bradley Edwards as young Bradley, young Bradley and that is always on tape In my mind, he also referred to him as young.

Bradley, the other thing he said was that he was very stressed because he was having problems in his personal relationships and he just snapped and when he attacked me he just snapped and my response was well, that's not normal behavior for someone with relationship issues. relationship. attacking a vulnerable person he doesn't even know, but if they had been listening properly, if they had done their job correctly and he had been punished appropriately and lost his job as a result, it could have changed everything, it could have changed everything, yes, how. Hell, could I keep his job at Telstra?

That is a great mystery, I cannot understand it. You know, you imagine someone attacking a client of your employer while you're at work and they're like, "Oh, by the way, keep going." your job and you get a promotion and a raise, you know, and a year or so later, but go on, go on, yeah, no wonder I thought I was bulletproof. Edwards got away virtually unpunished after his attack on Wendy Davis. For police, it was a critical stage in the creation of a monster. Edwards was a young guy with a misdemeanor assault charge, not a sexual predator on a lethal path.

If the police had investigated the attack on me a little more, they would have seen it. He lived in Huntingdale, where just 18 months earlier there had been a series of attacks in which his fingerprints were already registered, they would have seen that if they had investigated the attack on me a little more, it would have changed the situation. course of his life and dare I say kyra glennon sarah spears and jane rimmer yeah, when you look at thefacts, the cold hard facts, that's exactly the case, yes, yes, showing up, it all washed over me, reliving a nightmare, 30 years old, he just looked exactly the same only older, fatter and you admit that was a bad police criticism what criticism 18,000 suspects we have never had a case like this but the top brass defends their investigation at least you played a role in identifying him too late, although liam is next on 60

minutes

in less than 10 years, bradley edwards went from from a suburban voyeur to a rapist and then a serial killer, but during his reign of terror and the decades that followed until his arrest in 2016 he remained hidden in plain sight, had a good job got married a couple of times played local soccer and he was even president of a small athletics club a normal and civil guy but the author brett christian knows that edwards was anything, but he liked to call himself the

bogeyman

The

bogeyman

, yes, that tells us something that is Really creepy, isn't it?

Yes, that's creepy. I mean, the boogeyman is what he was after attacking Wendy Davis in 1990. The boogeyman didn't attack again for another five years and then in 1995, Edwards was kidnapped tied up. He gagged and raped a 17-year-old girl several times in the Karakata cemetery. The girl had been walking home after a night out in nearby Clermont. She survived, but soon all of Perth would be terrified. I see no reason why she wouldn't be. with us if she could be with us it must be something else first 18 year old sarah spears disappeared after a night out in Clermont on Australia Day 1996 her body was never found a mother and her two children made the gruesome discovery later in August 1996 The remains of Jane Rimmer, 23, were discovered two months after her disappearance, three and a half hours after her body was found.

Finally, in April 1997, the body of young lawyer Kira Glennon, who had traveled back to Perth for her sister's wedding, was found. found in another grave in a bush, she is only now beginning to understand the terrible trauma that Gin and Sarah's parents went through when Cara was considered a missing person. I asked for help finding her at a press conference like this one in this very place. It would take 23 excruciating years for Dennis Glennon to finally find out who killed his daughter and he has nothing but praise for the efforts of the Wa police force. The Wa Police Force. deserves special thanks.

They allowed me into their world and expressed my deep desire for justice this is an investigation that not only spanned decades but struck fear into the hearts of all Western Australians we knew we were hunting a serial killer chris dawson is the police commissioner de wa proud that his force finally delivered from a policing perspective from his side the fence what was the pressure like to find this guy? We have never had a case like this and one would hope we never have to endure something of that scale. It's a staggering number of suspects and people who were identified.

We went through eighteen. thousands of nominated people and/or suspects that the police developed and ironically well, it is more than ironic that bradley edwards was never nominated, he was never one of those 18,000 on the list, no, it never came up no, but the fact that edward evaded capture for so long For so long it raises questions not about the police effort but about the 1988 execution of this guy from 1988 for 10 years that we know he was attacking, assaulting, raping and murdering for 10 years and yet he was never even even suspicious, how is that possible and how is that even close to good police work because You are being very selective, not all crimes are solved in 1990.

Here is a guy who attacks someone in Hollywood hospital for sexual reasons . That night of his arrest he goes home to stay with mom and dad in Huntingdale, where 18 months before there was this chain. of unsolved crimes as you have acknowledged and yet no cop in the area puts two and two together and at least does a search, I don't think you realize that the systems just weren't as integrated then as they are now and However, if I mentioned that there was 27,000 pieces of evidence, if I already mentioned that there were eighteen thousand suspects, if I mentioned that there were three thousand witness statements, it is true that this was an incredibly complex and demanding case, but it is also true that the police did not He figured out most of it.

Vital clues were collecting dust on their evidence shelves matching blue polyester fibers later revealed to be Telstra work. Pants were found in the hair of Jane Rimmer and Kira Glennon. Gray seat fibers from a Commodore van were also found on both girls and it took 11 years until Kira Glennon's fingernail scrapings were properly analyzed and finally produced the killer's DNA and when they tested it again they took the example to England and when They tested it, they obtained a result that linked Cura's murderer to the unknown Karakata. rapist, so they finally had the DNA match, but still no name, seven years later in 2016, police discovered another DNA match and also fingerprints left in a sexual assault in Huntingdale in 1988 and guess who those belonged to? fingerprints.

It was the hand of the young Telstra worker. who attacked wendy davis at hollywood hospital the police had her killer bradley edwards how momentous it was that that was probably the critical moment when investigators knew they were on the path to the person who is finally now found to be the killer in Clermont serial in Tasmania Edwards' arrest sparked terrible memories of the attack and its aftermath for Wendy Davis. Even now I feel very, very, very guilty for not making more of a fuss at the time the attack occurred. Wendy, you can't feel guilty, I mean. you were the victim that's not fair but i do it i did my best but i felt helpless i felt like no one was listening to what i was saying i felt like everything had been completely taken out of my hands the attack on wendy davis In 1990, How can you explain how Edwards was treated so lightly?

Look, I'm well aware that the crime Bradley was convicted of was assault, in fact common assault, common assault, yeah, how the hell does that seem like it could happen? I have seen that I was neither the investigating officer nor the arresting officer. I think other charges might have been preferred, including depriving her of her liberty, for example, the way he did it if that crime had been sexual in nature in our systems. I have no difficulty in saying that she would have put it on the radar now that she would have done it and quite possibly could have changed the course of the entire case.

He admits it was poor policing. I'm saying if there was that. The crime characterized this person as a sex offender, a sexually motivated offender, which may well have escalated this person. It might come as a surprise to you, Liam, that there were two or three thousand very kinky criminals living in the city of Perth last December. Wendy Davis was asked to confront this pervert again. She agreed to fly back to Perth to face the much older Bradley Edwards in court. She was terrified when I walked in, but the way I handled it was not by focusing on Bradley Edwards, I just concentrated. completely about the prosecutor and I just told my story, it's something you don't forget, it was so scary when you looked at his face, Wendy, did it all come back to you?

Then, oh, absolutely everything came back to me, it just looked exactly the same. the same just older and um and you know fatter bigger just bigger but exactly the same the same hair was exactly the same I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was the murderer of miss rimmer and miss glennon three days ago the judge stephen hall found wendy's attacker bradley edwards guilty of murdering jane rimmer and kyra glennon and most likely sarah spears. This brings to an end one of the most extraordinary chapters in Australian criminal history. I think it can close a little, but it will always be the same, no one ever.

I'm bringing it back for Wendy Davis. Justice has been slow in coming and now she is writing her own book. It is a form of therapy and a way to remove the demons from her. The attack on you was really the cornerstone of this entire case. It went right. Getting back to that, wasn't that how the police discovered her identity? Because he had to plead guilty to that very superficial charge of common assault against you. Yes, yes, that's true, Wendy, at least you also played a role in identifying him in the end. Although late, Liam, too late, very, very, very sad story.

Hi, I'm Liam Bartlett, thanks for watching to stay up to date with the latest news from 60 Minutes Australia. Make sure to subscribe to our channel. You can also download the Nine Now app to watch full episodes and other exclusives. 60 minute content.