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Fingernail scrapings from Ciara Glennon were sealed in forensic evidence containers. Archive photo (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)

Above: David John Caporn-Former Assistant Western Australian Police Commissioner stated in  Television Interview that he thinks about Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and CIara Glennon everyday ... but spent years accusing the wrong people of the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings ...

David John Caporn-Former Assistant Western Australian Police Commissioner stated in  Television Interview that he thinks about Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and CIara Glennon everyday ... but spent years accusing the wrong people of the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings ...

Another murder allegedly mentioned in the suicide note was of Sara-Lee Davey - who has been on the national missing persons list since she vanished in 1997. Dorrough was questioned over her disappearance at the time

The real issue is whether Bradley Robert Edwards's DNA was deliberately added to Ciara Glennon's DNA when taken to the UK, by CIA/MI6 Assets, Laurie Webb and Detective Sergeant James Stanbury, the two people who were in charge of Ciara Glennon's DNA, who have both been publicly named as not acting in a potentially corrupt way in their job as public servants for the WA Government

Forensic expert tells Claremont trial there was no way Edwards's DNA accidentally contaminated evidence 
By Andrea Mayes  
6th Match 2020
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-05/claremont-serial-killer-trial-forensic-evidence-under-scrutiny/12025908 

Crucial DNA evidence found on fingernail samples in the Claremont serial killings case was "very unlikely" to have become accidentally contaminated with DNA from accused murderer Bradley Edwards, a senior forensic scientist has testified. 
This is despite 11 other cases of contamination of samples relating to the case being recorded, the WA Supreme Court has heard.
Former Telstra technician Edwards, 51, is on trial for the wilful murders of Sarah Spiers, 18, Jan Rimmer, 23, and Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1996 and 1997.

The young women all disappeared from the wealthy suburb of Claremont late at night after enjoying evenings out with friends.
In his fifth and final day on the witness stand, senior PathWest scientist Scott Egan, who has worked at the state-run pathology laboratory since 1996, told the trial there was no foreseeable way Edwards's DNA could have been transferred to samples of Ms Glennon's fingernails by accident.
The prosecution has argued his DNA was lodged there as she fought for her life, scratching and clawing at him in the process.
Edwards's defence team has conceded his DNA was found on samples from the fingernails, but disputed how it came to be there, suggesting that it could have been transferred while the samples were being stored at PathWest.

Two DNA samples never made contact
When Ms Glennon's fingernail samples arrived at PathWest in April 1997, the lab already had a record of Edwards's DNA — on intimate samples from the rape of a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995, a crime to which he finally admitted late last year.
But the trial has previously heard the samples were examined at the laboratory 14 months apart and were never opened at the same time.
Asked by defence counsel Paul Yovich SC whether it was impossible for Edwards's DNA from the rape victim to contaminate Ms Glennon's fingernails, Mr Egan said it was very unlikely.

"In our field of work, impossible is not a word we use very often," he told the court.
But Mr Egan said the laboratory would have been cleaned hundreds if not thousands of times in the 14-month period from February 1996 to April 1997 and PathWest had not identified any possible way for the fingernail samples to have been accidentally contaminated by the rape samples.

Pathologist's DNA found on crucial fingernail samples
This week the trial heard of 28 "quality issues", or mistakes, PathWest had recorded relating to the Claremont case, ranging from the mislabelling of samples to the contamination of samples by scientists.
Today Mr Egan told the court in two of the contamination instances, DNA from PathWest scientist Laurie Webb was found on samples relating to Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon, despite the fact that he was not involved in their processing or handling.
One of the samples — a knife examined by PathWest in connection with Ms Glennon — was examined in 1998 and Mr Egan said records from the lab could not confirm whether Mr Webb was even present at work on the day the item was processed.
He said although scientists took all precautions thought necessary at the time to prevent contamination in the lab, staff worked in close proximity to each other.
The item examination and DNA laboratories contained computers used for administration purposes, and staff using those would not have to wear protective clothing or gloves, he said.
"You might have to walk past someone to get from one end of the laboratory to another," Mr Egan said in answer to a question about how Mr Webb's DNA could have been transferred.
He agreed with Mr Yovich's suggestion that Mr Webb's DNA could have been "in the ambient environment", including on chairs, equipment and benches in the laboratory.
Mr Webb was sacked from PathWest in 2016 for unethical conduct involving breaches of testing protocols, such as failure to conduct quality control testing and failure to have his work peer reviewed.
Mr Webb's DNA was also found on Ms Rimmer's fingernail samples, which he played no part in handling, and a PathWest investigation concluded his DNA had been transferred as a result of him being "in the near vicinity" of where the samples were analysed, Mr Egan said.
Under questioning from Mr Yovich, Mr Egan conceded that coughing, sneezing, talking and even breathing on or near exhibits may result in DNA being transferred onto them.

Different victim's DNA found on Claremont sample
The court also heard more details of another instance of contamination where DNA matching the female victim of a completely unrelated crime was found on a twig taken from the area where Ms Rimmer's body was discovered in Wellard, south of Perth.
Samples from that crime, which occurred in January 2002, were processed at PathWest five days before the twig was swabbed in the same laboratory using an alco-wipe.
Parts of the alco-wipe were found to contain the crime victim's DNA, Mr Egan confirmed, but he said she was quickly ruled out as a likely suspect in Ms Rimmer's murder as she would have been 13 years old at the time.
He said PathWest had been unable to pinpoint the exact way her DNA had been transferred to the twig, but had concluded it must have been through equipment used during the processing of the samples.
This was despite the fact the tubes used to store the samples were disposed of after each use, and benches and non-disposable equipment were thoroughly cleaned.
The marathon trial has now finished its 13th week and there are just two witnesses to give evidence relating to the DNA yet to come.
One of these is the highly-anticipated testimony from Jonathan Whitaker, considered a world expert on DNA techniques involving tiny amounts of cellular material, who is flying in from the UK.

The trial will resume on Monday.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, perth-6000, wa, claremont-6010

Laurie Webb Sacked PathWest technician, 
​DNA doubt after state's leading forensic expert sacked for breaching protocol
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/dna-doubt-after-states-leading-forensic-expert-sacked-for-breaching-protocol-20170331-gvar0i.html By Heather McNeill - March 31, 2017 ​- Attorney General John Quigley told Mornings with Gareth Parker on Radio 6PR on Friday the sacking and breaches against Mr Webb were "unprecedented in Western Australia's criminal justice history".

Bradley Robert Edwards In Court

Jane Rimmer talking to the Mystery Man on the Claremont Hotel, then saw seen just after Midnight 9th June 1996 ...​ then was seen by 4 University Students  Hitchhiking on Stirling Highway, Claremont in the City of Perth Direction at around 12.30 am as reported by journalist, Author:Andrew Clennell, Date: 19 June 1996 in the  Community Times, News Chronical, Nedlands Edition.

WHO MURDERED THE CIA CHIEF?
William E. Colby: A Highly Suspicious Death
By Zalin Grant
 http://www.pythiapress.com/wartales/colby.htm  

This is the end of a branch of Rock Point road, a mile or so from Cobb Island. I followed Akers to the place where he found the canoe.

This was Saturday, April 27, 1996.  William Colby, a former director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, was alone at his weekend house across from Cobb Island, Maryland, 60 miles south of Washington, D.C. Colby, who was 76 years old, had worked all day on his sailboat at a nearby marina, putting it in shape for the coming summer.
After he got home from the marina, Colby called his wife, Sally Shelton, a high-ranking State Department official who was in Houston, Texas, visiting her mother. He told her that he had worked hard all day and was tired.  He said he was going to steam some clams, take a shower, and go to bed.
Colby made the call at 7 p.m. He was seen a few minutes later by two sets of witnesses in his yard watering a willow tree.  One of the witnesses was his gardener who dropped by to introduce his visiting sister. His two next-door neighbors saw him at the same time from their window. After he finished watering his trees, he went inside and had dinner.

The witnesses saw him at 7:15 p.m. The sun set at 7:57—42 minutes later.

When he was found dead in the water nine days later, it was said that he had gone out paddling his canoe at nightfall and drowned.  I was in Paris when I read the story in the International Herald Tribune.  I knew William Colby. And I didn’t believe that for one second.    

Friends & Enemies
I considered Colby a friend.  Not a close friend.  He didn’t have any close friends that I knew about, outside his family.  In my book, Facing the Phoenix, I described him as being a polite man who was open and approachable but without much of a sense of humor or an inclination to introspection. He communicated human interest, I wrote, rather than human warmth.  He was not very physically impressive and at bottom was a shy man, is the way I saw him. He described himself to me as someone who couldn’t easily get the attention of a waiter in a restaurant. Yet he was strong and determined in everything he did.
Colby and I went back in the Vietnam War. I met him early on but got to know him pretty well when he left his job at CIA to serve as Ambassador Robert Komer’s deputy for pacification. Later, when he replaced Komer as pacification chief and I was sent to Vietnam by Time and CBS to investigate the capture of two photographers in Cambodia, Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, he backed me when I got into a dispute with CIA about my search for the two Americans.
When I began working on Facing the Phoenix he volunteered to help set up my interviews with the major intelligence players of the war, from Edward Lansdale to Lou Conein.  The book was subtitled “The CIA and the Political Defeat of the United States in Vietnam.”  To me, Colby was the key to my being able to do the book, which got good reviews from all sides.
Edward Lansdale, who was the model for Graham Greene’s Quiet American, considered Colby to be the most effective American to serve in the Vietnam War. I did too. He listened.  He learned. Although Colby knew I was against the war, that didn’t interfere with our working relationship in the least. 

Willam Colby (left) and Ngo Dinh Diem - Saigon 1963.
Still, the fact was that Colby had more enemies than friends. In the period between September 1973 and his dismissal in November 1975 as CIA director, Colby testified before congressional committees 56 times.  When Congress asked him a question, he gave a straight answer. The Intel guys hated him for it.  They thought it was his duty to lie.  So did Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger who fired him as CIA chief for revealing what were called “the family jewels”—assassination plots and other dirty deeds.
Colby had got rid of a lot of guys in the clandestine service at CIA.  I'd talked to ex-CIA officers who hated his guts.  Even Lou Conein, one of the best-known CIA operatives in Vietnam, told me he believed Colby had destroyed the agency.  And Conein, who knew Colby for many years, liked him.  Colby had enemies coming from the Right and the Left.
Colby realized, of course, that he was in danger of being killed at any time.  But I was surprised when I went to his home in Georgetown for the first in a series of long interviews.  I thought an ex-CIA director would have the latest locks and security cameras and top-secret protection devices.
Colby had nothing.  I had a more secure lock on my door than he did.  When I asked him about it he said that if anybody wanted to get him, they could do it, and he wasn’t going to live his life in constant fear and worry.  I admired his attitude. I knew he was right. On the night they got him both doors to his house were unlocked.
Colby liked my work on the missing journalists that had gone on for years.  When I told him nothing had come of it, he said, “That doesn’t matter. You do what is necessary.  And you did it.” 

So I figured I owed it to him to look into how it happened.  I didn’t expect anything to come of it.  I knew the guys who did it would have done it right, with a minimum of mistakes.  And I knew Colby would have been a fatalist about it.  He wouldn’t have put up a fight when they came for him.
I was already scheduled to leave for Washington on another writing project several weeks after he disappeared. The timing would be good. The media frenzy would have died out.  And I could go in quietly and see what I could make of it.

The Murder Scene
Cobb Island was sixty miles south of Washington. On the way to Colby’s house, I stopped at La Plata, MD, to talk to Sheriff Fred Davis about setting up interviews.  The Charles County Sheriff’s department was responsible for the investigation of Colby’s death.
Sheriff Davis admitted that it was not an open and shut case. "There is always that window open," he said, "because there were no witnesses."
I continued on to Colby's house.  It was on Hill Road which was technically in Rock Point, Maryland, but Cobb Island, right across Neale Sound, was where Colby kept his sailboat and shopped. 
Colby's home on Hill Road, Rock Point MD. The glassed-in porch facing the front was where he took his last meal.
Colby’s home was a turn of the century oysterman's cottage.  It had two bedrooms and a small kitchen with a breakfast table.  The sunroom, which was glassed in, was originally the porch. Since it offered a spectacular view of the water, the sunroom also served as the dining room. Cobb Island and his home was pure Colby--unpretentious, tranquil, anonymous.
The house was surrounded on three sides by water. Sitting on a finger in Neale Sound, it looked out on Cobb Island and the Wicomico River, which turned into the Potomac farther up.  You could only enter or exit his unfenced grounds by driving down a narrow dirt road. 
Anyone standing on the other side of Neale Sound, using a pair of binoculars, could see practically any movement around the Colby house. 

Colby's house (right) was on a spit of land. Anyone looking with binoculars from the other side of Neale Sound could see what was going on outside his home.
Carroll Wise: Last to Talk to Colby

As I drove up I saw a workman gassing a tractor-lawn mower--Joseph "Carroll" Wise, Colby's gardener and caretaker.  Wise was the last known person to talk to Colby.  Wise, who had grizzled gray hair, tattoos on both arms, and a protruding beer belly, spoke quietly.
It was about 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, 1996, when Wise drove to Colby's home with his sister. Colby was standing at the edge of his yard, near the front pier, watering a willow tree.  Colby wore a red windbreaker, khaki slacks, and loafers.  
When Colby saw them coming, he said, "Carroll, you've got a new car."  
"No, that's my sister's van," Wise said.  "That's why I've dropped by. I'd like to introduce you."
They exchanged pleasantries for several minutes, then Wise and his sister left.  Colby continued to work in the yard. He didn’t mention to Wise that he planned to go canoeing later, something that might have come up in their small talk.
Based on what he knew about gardening at Colby's house, Wise told me that Colby probably wouldn't have got to his canoe before 8 p.m., even if he had not stopped to have dinner. He was watering his trees and that took a long time.  He was scheduled to return to Washington the next day, Sunday.

Next-Door Neighbors
Colby's next-door neighbors, Clyde Stokes and his wife Alice, saw Colby through their window when Wise and his sister were visiting. So Colby was firmly pegged for this time: 7:15 p.m., Saturday, April 27, 1996.
Sunset: 7:57 p.m. Moon: First Quarter
8:10 p.m. – Twilight 
8:15 p.m. - Street Lights
8:30 p.m. - Dark
8:35 p.m. - Pitch Black 

Bill Colby: A Meticulous Man
Carroll Wise and Clyde Stokes remarked on Bill Colby's meticulous routine. He always collected his yellow hose after watering the lawn.  He took it to a box where it was stored and neatly arranged it in a lasso-like circle.  When Colby went boating, he took an aluminum ladder out of a shed and leaned the ladder in the water against the pier to reach the canoe.  When he returned from canoeing, he removed the ladder and put it back in the shed. Colby was raised in a military family where everything had its place.
Clyde Stokes was skeptical that Colby had gone out canoeing that late.  "Colby was brave but prudent," he said. Stokes remembered that the wind was up and the water was choppy the night Colby supposedly went out.  Stokes and his wife heard nothing because they were looking at TV.
Stokes was an ex-navy man with tattoos, and I was struck by his use of the word "prudent."  There was no contradiction between taking chances and being prudent.  Colby was very brave, he’d parachuted into Europe during World War II for the OSS, and in Vietnam he was always ready to put it on the line. 
But I believed Colby was prudent, too.  Above all, he was not an impulsive man, someone who would tell his wife he was tired and headed to bed--and then decide to go canoeing an hour later at nightfall.

He Worked Hard That Day
Mark Davis worked at the Portside Marina on Cobb Island, almost directly across Neale Sound from Colby's house.  Colby kept his 37-foot sloop, Eagle Wing II, at the marina.  Davis was impressed by how hard Colby worked on his boat that Saturday.  He was at the marina from 11 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., Davis said.  Others did not agree on the time, maybe there was a half-hour’s difference either way. 
But all of them agreed on one point.  For a 76-year-old man, Colby really worked, he did not putter around.  He replaced a sail that had been shredded in a windstorm the summer before and did a spiffy clean-up job on the boat.

Witnesses agreed that Colby, 76, worked at least six hours on his boat that day.
Sunday April 28 1996
Kevin Akers lived near Rock Point, not far across the water from William Colby, although he did not know him. Akers was a wiry five-foot-two and 29 years old.  An unemployed carpenter, he was the kind of guy found in fishing villages around the world—a handyman who could do most anything connected with the sea. He wasn’t getting rich but he loved the water and the freedom that came with it.
Around noon on Sunday Kevin Akers took his boat out, with his wife and two kids.  He hadn’t gone far when he spotted a green canoe beached near the point where Neale Sound turned into the Wicomico River.  Akers wasn’t surprised.  Small boats often broke their mooring during wind storms and wound up beached somewhere on the Sound.
Akers routinely towed the boats to a nearby marina where the word would eventually reach the owners.  Then he would go back to look for paddles or life jackets, anything that would float, so he could return those to the owner.  Kevin Akers was known as a helpful guy in Rock Point and Cobb Island.
But on this Sunday Akers immediately spotted something out of the ordinary.  The canoe was turned on its side and filled with so much sand that it took him and his wife nearly an hour to empty it before he could tow it to the marina.

Colby's canoe.  It was filled with so much sand that Kevin Akers was suspicious.
Akers was out on the water the day before and had not seen the canoe. That meant it probably had been beached for only two cycles of the tide.  And there was no way, he thought, that two tide cycles could have put that much sand in the canoe.  It looked to him like somebody wanted the canoe to stay put right there.
Something else didn’t seem right. Lots of people left their life jackets in their boats and it was easy to find a floating jacket.  But when Akers searched the area he couldn’t find a life jacket or paddles anywhere.
Akers didn’t tell anyone about his suspicions.  Maybe it was just a coincidence, he thought. He had never heard of William Colby.  He dropped the boat off at the marina and left. 
But next day when the media frenzy began and the TV satellite trucks arrived, Akers believed he might be in personal danger. The first thing he had told the police when they started investigating was about the extraordinary amount of sand in the canoe.  Something was wrong, he said. Too much sand. No life jacket. No paddles. It didn’t fit. 
Now the media wanted to talk to him.  But Kevin Akers didn’t want to talk to reporters. He thought it might get him killed. So he made himself scarce. When he learned that a former CIA director was the owner of the canoe, Akers was hit by one thought.

Colby got whacked.
Alice Stokes Calls 911
On Sunday afternoon Alice Stokes, Colby's next-door neighbor, kept peering out the window. Colby's red Fiat was parked near the house.  The boat was gone.  The ladder was still in the water.  And she hadn’t seen Colby all day long.  It was the ladder that finally pushed Alice Stokes to call 911.  Colby would never leave his ladder in the water if he had returned.
Policewoman Sharon Walsh arrived at 8:18 p.m.  She and Alice checked the house.  Both doors were closed but unlocked.  The computer was on, so was the radio.  A search was made of the surrounding area.  Sharon Walsh saw no signs of foul play and reported it that way. 
It looked to her like an old guy had got himself drowned.  That had happened times before on Cobb Island.  Colby had been a practicing lawyer for the past few years.  He lived a quiet, almost anonymous life.  Neither Sharon Walsh nor anybody else connected with the police realized he was a former CIA director—and one with lots of enemies.
In a big city a mobile crime unit would have arrived, taken photos, dusted for fingerprints, looked for hairs and other small stuff that could be helpful during a later detailed investigation.  This didn’t happen.
Sharon Walsh reported: "The scene was preserved as well as possible." Later, Detective Joseph Goldsmith, the assigned investigator, corrected several errors Walsh made in her report.
If they had been aware of who Colby was and talked to someone who really knew him, their suspicions may have been aroused. Colby didn’t finish his clams, his favorite dish, and he had worked hard, must have been hungry.  It looked like he stopped somewhere near the beginning or middle of the meal.  And the cleanup was sloppy.  There was a dish on the counter and on the stove.  A glass of wine, unfinished, was also on the counter. 
An opened wine bottle, with not much missing, was found on the table in the sunroom. Colby was the kind of guy who would have capped the bottle before leaving and put it in the fridge.
There was another suspicious point. On the kitchen table was his black leather wallet.  It contained $296 (14 twenties and 16 ones), a comb, a file, and various membership and credit cards, a driver's license.  There was also a silver key ring with five keys. When Colby was found, his pockets were empty, no identification at all.
Alice Stokes phoned Sally Shelton Colby in Houston.  Policewoman Sharon Walsh asked to speak to her. Walsh reported: "Ms. Shelton was inquisitive yet calm.  She stated she was 'numb.'" 
Sally Shelton described two possible canoe routes Colby might have taken. He was known to go canoeing for a few minutes sometimes around twilight.  But on both routes he hugged the shoreline and stayed in shallow water.
Local rescue workers and divers arrived, then Coast Guard representatives.  They found nothing.  This was Sunday night.  Nothing would really start until the next morning.

Monday April 29 1996
A massive search effort began on Monday morning and went on day and night for the next few days. Over a dozen navy divers, aided by two helicopters, and volunteers in boats scoured the area.  They used drag-lines to troll the two routes Colby took when he went canoeing. All together, there were around a hundred searchers.
I talked to Lt Mark Sanders of the Maryland Natural Resources Police. He was chief of the search effort.  Drowning accidents were common around Cobb Island. The searchers were practiced and knew what they were doing. Yet even working 24 hours a day, they couldn't find his body.

Something else they didn’t find: Colby’s life jacket.
When Colby went canoeing, he took the life jacket from the shed and put it in the boat.  He didn’t wear it, but the life jacket was always with him.  When he returned, he put it back in the shed.  The life jacket had distinctive markings that made it easy to identify.
The search team found more than a dozen life jackets when they scoured the area.  But not Colby’s. People who preferred to believe Colby had drowned—even his son Paul—remarked to me on this puzzlement. It was missing from the shed.
Colby’s body was found nine days later, on a Monday morning, about 40 meters from where Kevin Akers found the canoe.  Both places were easily accessible by car and foot from a branch of Rock Point Road, which reached a dead-end at that point.  Colby’s body was found by an assistant to LT Mark Sanders, on the edge of the shore, looking like he’d just been tossed in.
Divers had searched that area numerous times.

Timeline
I was trying to develop a timeline to explain Colby’s last day.  This, I discovered, no one else had tried to do, not the police, not his family.
He had stopped by a well-known fish restaurant on Cobb Island, Captain John’s, to buy a dozen clams after he left the marina about 5:30 or 6 p.m.  He called his wife 7 p.m.  And sometime after 7:15 p.m. he had prepared his meal of clams and corn on the cob. 
Carroll Wise estimated he would have finished up in the yard around 8 p.m.  Maybe he finished a little earlier, maybe a little later, but I decided to call my wife Claude, who was considered a formidable cook, to give me her analysis.
Claude had met Colby in Saigon in 1970.  She was a French medical journalist who had been captured and held for a week by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.  I met her in connection with my investigation of the missing photographers Flynn and Stone.
Claude and I were having a drink one evening on the Continental Terrace when Colby saw us in passing and joined us.  Colby had studied in France when he was young, and he and Claude hit it off immediately. She was very interested in my research on his case.
"Claude," I said.  "The sun sets at 7:57 p.m.  Colby enters his house about that time and presumably begins to prepare dinner.  How long does it take him?"
"Oh, Colby is seventy-six," Claude said.  "He's not going to be moving around very fast. He's going to steam the clams, boil the corn, open a bottle of wine.  You say he laid down a place mat in the sunroom facing the water?"
"Yes."
"That means he is not in a hurry," Claude said.  "Otherwise he would eat at the kitchen table.  So we're talking about 20 to 30 minutes."
The timeline was looking like something close to 8:30 p.m. when Colby supposedly jumped up from his unfinished meal and left to go canoeing.  At 8:30 it was completely dark.
This drowning incident didn’t ring true.  I wanted to talk to Kevin Akers but I couldn’t find him.

The Elusive Fisherman
All the interviews I did for this story took place in May and June 1996, except for one.  I kept going back to Cobb Island in the following years and had lunch at Captain John’s, which made the trip worthwhile. But I never managed to find Kevin Akers.  I finally connected with him seven years later, on June 14, 2003. So this interview is out of sequence.
Akers had taken a job at the Portside Marina, where Colby had kept his sailboat. Bare-chested and in jeans, he was arranging crab traps when I walked up to him.  I told him I’d like to talk about the guy who died, the guy who owned the canoe he brought in.
“You mean somebody died?” he said, warily.
“Yeah, Colby, the ex-CIA director.  I talked to everybody connected to the case, including his wife. But I couldn’t find you.”
“I didn’t want to be found,” he said. “The media was hounding me.”
When he realized that I had done the research, he started to loosen up and talked freely.  He was glad to finally tell someone.  He thought the danger to him had passed.
Akers jumped into his white pickup and led me to the end of Rock Point Road, about a mile away.  We parked and stepped over the “No Trespassing” barrier, then found the path that led to the spot where he found the canoe.

This is the end of a branch of Rock Point road, a mile or so from Cobb Island. I followed Akers to the place where he found the canoe.

Kevin Akers points to where he found Colby's
canoe. On the other side of the green spit behind
him is where Colby's body was found 9 days later.
Colby's body was found at the edge of the shore near the crumbling concrete pier in the foreground, about a three-minutes’ walk from the road.
“Okay, here’s where I found the canoe,” Akers said, pointing. “To the right, around that green spit of land behind me, maybe thirty or forty meters away, is where they found Colby’s body nine days later.  It doesn’t make sense.”
“Why?”
“First, if he had really gone down near here, he would have washed up the next day or maybe two days later.  But not nine days.”
“Yes, that didn’t make any sense to me, either,” I said.  “Especially considering all the divers and people who were looking for him.”
“Second,” he said, “the canoe would have washed up at the same place they found the body, not here.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“Okay, look at the tip of that green spit,” he said. “That’s where the current suddenly shifts and turns in a clockwise motion.  All of us who live out here know these currents very well.  My house is just down the road and I’m out on the water all the time. That clockwise current would have pushed the canoe back to the right, where they found the body.  I don’t think the canoe could have made it around the spit to wash up where we are standing.”
The clockwise current was clearly visible, yes, I could see it.  It almost looked like a little whirlpool.  I felt a little prickly on the back of my neck.  This was a murder, not an accident. 
Kevin Akers believed somebody had killed Colby and brought his body back a week later, on a Sunday night after weekenders had left, and dumped it when nobody was looking.  Colby was discovered the next day, Monday, not far from Akers’ house.
I agreed with him that was probably what had happened.  But I didn’t tell him why I believed that. In 1996 I was the only journalist to see Colby’s autopsy photos.  And Colby appeared exactly as Akers was telling me seven years later.  He looked like he had been in the water for one or two days—but certainly not for nine days. 

The Maryland State Medical Examiner
John Smialek, Maryland’s chief medical examiner, was a smooth operator.  He was 53-years-old, six-foot-one, gray, handsome, and wore loafers without socks.  He spoke very carefully, sometimes hesitating in the middle of a sentence, thinking it out. 
Smialek could tell I'd talked to medical examiners before.  And he doubtless perceived what I was thinking: Medical examiners often knew only one thing for certain--that the decedent was dead.  Everything else, except for the standard toxicology tests, was informed guesswork.
I’d seen dozens of drowned bodies floating in rivers in Indochina.   A body sinks, then starts to decompose, and gases form that floats it to the surface, bloated and wasted.  It is not a pretty sight.
I’d also been in touch with a forensic expert before I set up the appointment with Smialek.  He told me that it was hard to determine a heart attack if a body had been in the water a long time.  Decomposition dissolved blood clots.  Actually, he said, it was hard to tell if someone died by drowning if the lungs were decomposed. 
The Maryland state medical examiner's office had, in effect, shut down the media circus that surrounded Colby's disappearance.  Scores of journalists had staked out his home with satellite trucks, the whole works, for the first week after he disappeared.
But after the medical examiner’s office put out the word that he had died of a heart attack the story was stopped in its tracks.  If that was all it was, old guy kicks off with a bad ticker, then ho-hum, the media wasn’t interested. The journalists packed up and left Cobb Island and nobody followed up on the case until I came along. 
Smialek and I exchanged the usual warm-up pleasantries. Then I turned on my tape recorder.  It was June 5, 1996, at his office in Baltimore.
Did they have hard proof Colby drowned after having a heart attack? I asked. 
“Cause of death is often a judgment call by the M.D. who performs the autopsy,” he said. 
Smialek did not do the autopsy.  That was performed by David R. Fowler, assistant medical examiner.  But Smialek was closely in touch with what took place, since Colby was a high-profile case. Smialek had done autopsies on hundreds of drowning victims. He was the expert.
Colby had no history of heart problems and his wife said he was in very good shape. In fact, Smialek didn’t describe to me what had happened to Colby as a heart attack or stroke.  He said it was probably a cardiovascular incident that deprived Colby of oxygen to the brain long enough to topple him out of the canoe.
"Can I see the autopsy report?"
“It's not ready yet,” he said.
"Not ready?” I said, surprised. “The Colby case is pretty famous.  You did the autopsy on May 6, 1996, exactly a month ago.  And you haven't got around to finishing the report?"
“We'll fax it to you tomorrow,” he said.
I asked to see the autopsy photos. 
Johnny D—that’s what he went by—Smialek’s assistant, returned with the photos and tossed them on the table.  Johnny D was a blond guy with a mustache, in his early fifties. He had served in Vietnam, and liked to joke around. He struck me as Smialek’s fixer.
Colby was nude in the photos, which were taken from all angles. He was five-eight, 181 pounds, blue eyes.
"Hey, something doesn't seem right," I said.  "I've seen a lot of drowning victims.  But Colby hardly looks dead.  He's not bloated a bit."
"Yes, Mr. Colby's body looked very well preserved, even though it was clear that the body was decomposed and discolored," Smialek said into my tape recorder. "He looked remarkably well."
"What do you think that means?" I asked.
"I interpret that to mean the water was of a sufficiently low temperature that prevented the body from developing the type of gas decomposition that we commonly see with drowning victims when they've been in the water for an extended period."
The water may have been cold but it wasn’t freezing, we’re talking about early May.
“How about the time of death?” I asked. Determining the time of a victim’s death based on his stomach contents was Forensics 101.  Time of death was easy to estimate within a couple of hours, and medical examiners did it all the time.
“Based on the contents of his stomach he died one to two hours after eating,” Smialek said. “The contents included corn and clams.”
It was at this point that Smialek realized what I was doing.  I had asked him if they could prove Colby died of a heart attack or stroke. He said no.  He even said they couldn’t prove he had drowned.
I told him Colby looked to me in the photos like he was hardly dead and I wondered why.  He agreed with me and said he thought it was because the water was cold. He added that Colby “looked remarkably well” based on the hundreds of drowned victims he’d seen.
Then I asked him how long they estimated he had lived after eating.  He said one to two hours.  And I think that rang his bell. He realized that I believed Colby had been murdered, and he had just given me important information for my timeline. 
Let’s say that Carroll Wise, the gardener, was wrong, and it didn’t take Colby until 8 p.m. to finish watering his trees.  Let’s say he finished 15 minutes after he saw Wise and went into his house to prepare his meal at 7:30 p.m.
It still would have taken him 20 to 30 minutes to prepare the corn and clams and sit down to eat part of it.  Let’s say he suddenly decided to go boating and hurried out of his house at 8 p.m.  Smialek said he had died between one and two hours after eating. 
That meant he would have died between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. paddling around on the water in the pitch-black darkness.
Who could believe that?

The Autopsy Report
John Smialek faxed me the autopsy report the next day. It was five pages long and dated June 6, 1996.  There were two possibilities, I thought. Either the report was written the day after our interview.  Or it was already written and then changed after our interview.  Because the report was in conflict with several important things Smialek had told me in our tape-recorded interview in front of two witnesses. 
The autopsy report said Colby appeared in surprisingly good shape for a man of his age. But the gist of the report came down to the last paragraph. The paragraph was titled: "Opinion."
"This 76-year-old white male, William E. Colby, died of drowning and hypothermia associated with arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.  He was found floating in an advanced state of decomposition nine days after being reported missing.  Identity was confirmed by dental examination.  He had severe calcified atherosclerosis which would predispose him to a stroke or heart attack.  Decomposition, however, will lyse (dissolve) clots and the fatty material in atheroma.  It is likely he suffered a complication of this atherosclerosis which precipitated him into the cold water in a debilitated state and he succumbed to the effects of hypothermia and drowned. The contents of his stomach are consistent with his last reported meal and indicate his death was shortly after his dinner.  The manner of death is ACCIDENT.  The deceased had been consuming alcoholic beverages prior to death."
First: “died of drowning and hypothermia.”  Smialek told me they couldn’t be sure he had drowned.  There was a little water in the lung area but his lungs were too decomposed to make a definitive determination, he said.
Second: “found floating in a state of advanced decomposition.”  Maybe he was in a state of advanced internal decomposition, likely for anyone who had been dead for nine days. But he certainly wasn’t in a state of advanced external decomposition.  Smialek had agreed with me, and so had Johnny D, that Colby looked in remarkably good condition.   
Third: “Identity was confirmed by dental examination.”  That makes it sound like he was in such bad shape that dental records were needed to establish who he was. 

In fact, Sally Shelton had absolutely no problem identifying Colby.  But the medical examiner’s office demanded dental records as a matter of required procedure.  She phoned CIA four times and asked for his dental records.  They ignored her calls.  When the CIA director phoned to offer his condolences, he asked if there was anything he could do for her. 
“Yes, get your guys to answer my calls,” she said. She was still steamed about this when I talked to her.  Both the CIA and FBI ignored Colby’s death and let a county sheriff’s office run the investigation. 
Fourth: “The contents of his stomach are consistent with his last reported meal and indicate his death was shortly after his dinner.”
Shortly after his dinner?  Smialek told me that he had examined hundreds of drowning victims and the contents of Colby’s stomach indicated he had died between one and two hours after eating.
It looked to me like the medical examiner’s office wanted this be seen as an accident so no one could claim that the Maryland police or anyone associated with the state had screwed up the investigation.
I wondered if their final sentence about Colby “consuming alcoholic beverages” was supposed to suggest Colby had been drunk. Why didn’t they just state his actual alcohol level (O.07), which bordered on but was not high enough to get Colby a DUI in Maryland or anywhere in the U.S.
After our interview ended Johnny D showed me around their offices.  I knew that the examiner who did the autopsy had told Sally Shelton that Colby was dead when he hit the water. 
I said, “That doesn’t square with what John Smialek just told me.
Johnny D said, “We always try to make it as easy as possible for the victim’s families.”
What he meant was that Sally Shelton, like any wife, would prefer to hear that her husband had died instantly and without pain, rather than to be told, “We really can’t say for sure how he died, this is just our opinion.”
But if Smialek and his guys wanted to fudge a bit to make Colby’s death look like an indisputable drowning accident that was okay by me.  I had a chance for another piece of evidence that might establish beyond a reasonable doubt that he was murdered. 
It was Colby’s telephone bill for April 27, 1996.

Colby’s Coded Telephone
As an ex-CIA director, Colby knew how to manipulate communications systems.  He had his phone at his weekend home routed through his Washington number. Any outside calls made from his Maryland home appeared on his Washington telephone bill.  To make an outside call you first had to tap in a code known only to Colby and his wife Sally. This way visiting guests couldn’t run up long-distance charges on his phone.  A local call could be dialed normally.
My question was this: How about if Colby made an outside call to someone while he was cooking, maybe around 8:30 or 8:45 p.m., maybe even later.  Could anyone then believe he had decided to go canoeing in total darkness?
Detective Captain J.C. Montminy, Jr
There were plenty of police agencies like the Charles County (MD) Sheriff’s Department all over America, covering sleepy counties. They were pretty good at what they did.  But they didn’t often investigate anything out of the ordinary.  Colby’s murder occurred on a weekend.  Nobody knew who he was.  They assumed from the first minute that this was a routine boating accident.
Detective Captain J.C. Montminy, Jr, of the Charles County Sheriff's Department, was the overall commander of the Colby investigation. Our conversation at his office, tape recorded June 10, 1996:

ZG
Did you check the telephone records to see when was the last time Colby made an outside call?
Detective Montminy
No.  Apparently the family did. Apparently they had some type of phone system where any long distance calls are billed back to their regular Washington phone.  In fact, they used a code so you couldn't even call out unless you knew the code.  Some of the family members who weren't familiar with that, when they got down here, had difficulty using the set-up.
Did you follow it up with Mrs. Colby?

Detective Montminy
After that time period, seven or seven fifteen, there were no calls made out [from 301-259-2905] that we are aware of.  Of course there is no guarantee.  Somebody could have used that line and made a local call and we don't know about it.
ZG: Did you ask Mrs. Colby to verify the time of her call?
Detective Montminy: Uh-huh.
ZG: What time was it?
Detective Montminy: I don't have that down.
ZG: When you went out, did you reach the conclusion it was a boating accident?
Detective Montminy: Yes and no.  Of course none of the police officers there knew who Colby was.

The police did not ask Sally Shelton for Colby’s telephone bill which included that Saturday’s outside calls.

Colby’s Wife Speaks
I interviewed Sally Shelton Colby, 52, in her office at the State Department.  She was a petite blonde, 24 years younger than her husband, his second wife. Sally Shelton was an accomplished woman. From Missouri, she was a Phi Beta Kappa who had done graduate study as a Fulbright Scholar in Paris. She was the assistant administrator for global programs at the Agency for International Development, and a former ambassador to Grenada and Barbados.  Our conversation, tape recorded in front of a witness June 25, 1996:
ZG:  I know you've gone over your conversation with your husband, and I hate to ask you to go over it again.  But would you?
Shelton-Colby: Well, he called, he uh—
ZG:  He called?  Or you called?
Shelton-Colby: 
He called, uh-huh.  We spoke everyday, at least once a day.  Both of us were traveling a lot.  He said he had just--normally it takes two days to get the Eagle Wing ready for the summer.  But he'd compressed it into one day, so he'd worked very hard.  And he'd had a wonderful time, and he said he was tired.  He had stopped and picked up some clams and he said he was going to have the clams, which was his favorite dish.  Then he was going to take a hot shower and go to bed.
ZG:  Do you recall whether he said he was going to have dinner?  Or whether he had already had dinner?
Shelton-Colby: He said he was going to have dinner.
ZG:  Since the Maryland phone records show up at your Washington house, is there any way you can check so I can develop a chronology?
Shelton-Colby:  If it's important.  I can tell you it was right at six o'clock [Houston time—7 p.m. Washington] when he called me.  My mother had just walked in and I was looking at the news.
ZG:  Well, could you check to see if he made any calls after that?
Shelton-Colby:  I can check if you'd like.  I don't have time to do it before I leave on Friday.
ZG:  Then I would appreciate if you would check.  So I can see if there were any other calls and I can put together a chronology.
Shelton-Colby:  Sure, I'll do it.
ZG:  Would you?
Shelton-Colby:  Uh-huh, sure, I'll do it.

How the Killers Got Away With It
Just as I’d thought, the killers didn’t make many mistakes. The first was unavoidable—Kevin Akers--but with luck they got away with it.  I’d say there were from three to five of them.  Two on a boat, maybe two or three who went to his house in a car around 8:30 p.m., at nightfall.  The two in the car made Colby empty his pockets so if they were stopped he would have no ID to back up his claim that he was an ex-CIA director and these thugs were officers he’d fired. One of the men put the ladder in the water and took the life jacket.  Then they drove to the end of Rock Point Road to rendezvous with the boat.
Meanwhile the boat backed up to Colby’s canoe, which was pointed outward and tied to the pier by a small rope at the rear. They hooked their tow rope to the front and jerked the canoe so hard in taking off that the tie-up rope frayed and released. They towed the canoe to the place where Akers found it.  One guy from the boat pulled the canoe to shore and another guy from the car joined him in helping fill the canoe with sand. The boat took off immediately. The second guy from the boat climbed into the car with the other two guys and Colby.

Why did they want to make sure the canoe didn’t move?
They wanted everybody to think that Colby had drowned in this specific area.  That was because they were coming back by car with Colby’s body the next weekend and would dump him in the water not far from where the canoe was found.  This was the only place on Neale Sound where they would have unobserved access to the water from a dead-end road only 40 meters away.
In Kevin Akers’ opinion, the canoe could not have washed up at the place it did unless someone towed it against the clockwise current.  It would have washed up on the same side of the spit as Colby’s body. But the killers had to tow the canoe there because it was the only place in the area that had enough sand to anchor the boat so it wouldn’t move.  The place where Colby’s body was found, on the other side of the spit, had little sand, as is apparent in the photos I took with Akers.

Why didn’t they just kill him there and dump him into the water?
Because it wouldn’t be easy to drown Colby and to make it look like an accident.  But if they killed him and let his internal organs decompose for a week the medical examiner couldn’t tell how he had died.  And they were betting the examiner would call it a drowning accident.  

What errors did they make?
1.  Kevin Akers – This wasn’t an error but a coincidence.  They pulled the operation off within five hundred meters of his house.  He knew better than anyone the water and the currents around Rock Point.  He became immediately suspicious when he saw the canoe.  He told the police about the excessive sand and they wrote it in their report.  But his information was ignored. He was just a fishing village guy with not a lot of education, and it looked to the police like a routine boating accident.
2.  The Missing Life Jacket – The killers didn’t know whether or not Colby always wore his life jacket. If it turned out he did, and they just threw the life jacket in the water, then where was his body?  They decided to take the jacket with them and hoped that nobody noticed.  In fact, everybody did notice the missing life jacket and talked about it, including his son Paul, who brought it up with me.  But most people did not want to connect the missing jacket to possible foul play.
3.  The Unexplained Tow Rope – In their haste the killers left their tow rope attached to the front of Colby’s canoe.  No one had ever seen a tow rope on Colby’s canoe.  Why would he need it?  Again, that was a point people talked about but nobody wanted to connect it to possible foul play.

My Investigation Ends
I thought there was a good chance that Colby had made an outside call on Saturday night at 8:30 or later and it would show up on his telephone bill.  I felt this would be serious proof that somebody had killed him.
Sally Shelton assured me she would find the telephone bill that would include any outside calls made on Saturday, April 27, 1996, and let me know.  Since I knew how meticulous Colby was—he paid the bills—I was sure the bill was there.
But I did not get to see the phone bill, despite my repeated requests. I drew no conclusions or inferences then or now concerning Sally Shelton Colby’s refusal to help me obtain the telephone record. She was a wife who had lost her husband two months before and still in that state of grief that happens to all of us when we lose a loved one.
On my last call to Mrs. Colby, when I asked about the telephone bill, she said to me, with exasperation: “I think you are on a fishing expedition.”
She was right. 
I was fishing to find out who murdered her husband, William Egan Colby, a former CIA director, and the man I considered the most capable and effective American to serve in the Vietnam War.
_______________________________________

ZALIN GRANT served as an Army Intelligence Officer in Vietnam. A former journalist for Time and The New Republic, he is the author of six books, including FACING THE PHOENIX: The CIA and the Political Defeat of the United States in Vietnam, which was also translated and published without permission in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. For further bio, see: www.pythiapress.com/letters/war.htm
(Photo by Claude Boutillon - August 9, 2010)

Claremont serial killings trial: WA cop admits report errors in crucial forensic examinations
By AAP - Jan 22, 2020

https://www.9news.com.au/national/claremont-serial-killer-trial-wa-police-statement-errors-forensic-investigation/fca6d95a-8c01-4d11-9691-300f74ca97e8

A forensic officer has described collecting nail clippings allegedly containing critical DNA evidence in the Claremont serial killings case, but admits he made an error in a subsequent police statement about another key exhibit.
Ex-Telstra technician Bradley Robert Edwards is on trial in the WA Supreme Court accused of murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, childcare worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and solicitor Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1996 and 1997, as the defence continues to suggest contamination is a possibility.
Sergeant Adam McCulloch testified he had some independent recollection but also relied on documents to prepare his seven police statements.
"I have faith in my own documents and my own note-taking," he said on Wednesday.
But defence counsel Paul Yovich noted there were some errors in the statements, including one in 2015 when the officer incorrectly stated he used evidence tape to seal exhibits from the Karrakatta Cemetery rape in 1995, which Edwards has admitted.

One item was a pair of shorts taken from the 17-year-old rape victim that prosecutors allege has fibres linked to Edwards.
Sgt McCulloch said in 2015 evidence tape was used and he assumed it was what he had done.
The officer was also involved in Ms Glennon's post-mortem in 1997 and said he wore gloves when he "touched and handled" her left hand, as her 10 fingernail clippings were collected.
Sgt McCulloch said he held containers under each fingernail while mortuary technician Robert Macdermid cut them as much as he could.
"The fingernail dropped directly into the container ... I then screwed the yellow top," he said.
Sgt McCulloch explained he touched Ms Glennon's hand after her thumb, index and middle fingernails were collected, in preparation for the next nail on the ring finger and to ensure there was no mix-up.
DNA found under Ms Glennon's left thumbnail and middle finger allegedly matches Edwards.

Prosecutors say his DNA was also found on the Karrakatta rape victim and on a silk kimono he left behind at a Huntingdale home where he attacked a sleeping 18-year-old woman in 1988.
The court heard Ms Glennon's "sodden, soiled and moist" shirt was placed in a paper bag without evidence tape to seal it and was instead repeatedly folded over.
Sgt McCulloch said the shirt was later removed from the paper bag and placed on a stainless steel rack in the drying room with a drop sheet at the base.
It remained there for a weekend, then was returned to the bag and transferred to the state health lab with other exhibits.
Prosecutors allege 11 fibres recovered from the shirt match Edwards' Telstra-issued work clothes.
Asked about his knowledge of contamination in the mid-1990s, Sgt McCulloch said: "Without wearing gloves, there was a big chance of contamination."
He also referred to Locard's exchange principle, which says when two objects come into contact there is a transfer of physical material.
But he said his knowledge of DNA and microscopic fibres at the time was limited.
Sgt McCulloch was also questioned about a fibre that was collected in a container during Ms Glennon's post mortem, but then went missing.
He said the fibre was minute and difficult to see, so a polilight and tweezers had been used to collect it.

'Not viable' that DNA from Claremont serial killer accused's rape victim contaminated other evidence
 By Andrea Mayes
4th March 2020
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-03/claremont-serial-killer-trial-no-chance-for-dna-contamination/12022502 

There was no viable opportunity for exhibits held at Western Australia's state-run pathology laboratory and containing DNA matching accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards to be contaminated, a senior PathWest scientist has told a Perth court. 
Edwards, 51, a former Telstra technician, is standing trial in the WA Supreme Court for the wilful murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon in 1996 and 1997.

He has pleaded not guilty.
DNA matching Edwards was found underneath the fingernails of murdered lawyer Ms Glennon, and it is the defence case it could have got there through cross-contamination of samples held at PathWest.
Forensic scientist Scott Egan, who has worked at PathWest for 25 years, told the court on Tuesday four items containing Edwards's DNA had been held at the laboratories at various times prior to the discovery of Ms Glennon's body in April 1997.
A kimono found to have Edwards's DNA on it was examined at the lab over a three-day period in 1988 and then returned to police.
The silk garment had been left behind at the Huntingdale home of an 18-year-old woman Edwards attacked in her bed in 1988, a crime he admitted to on the eve of his murder trial.
Intimate samples taken from a 17-year-old girl raped by Edwards in February 1995 and containing his DNA were also held at PathWest, as was a pair of hospital pants worn by the teenager after her brutal ordeal at Karrakatta Cemetery and also found to contain Edwards's DNA.
Mr Egan said by the time Ms Glennon's fingernail samples were received in the lab on April 4, 1997, only the samples from the rape were still at PathWest.
Asked by State prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC whether there was any "real as opposed to fanciful opportunity" for the rape samples to contaminate the fingernail samples, Mr Egan said there was not.
"I can't see any viable mechanism for that contamination to occur," he said.
He said the rape samples were held in lidded tubes, sealed inside boxes which also had lids on them, and kept in the PathWest freezer, while Ms Glennon's fingernail samples were held in yellow-topped sterile containers, in a separate lidded box, in a different part of the freezer.
The samples were examined by PathWest scientists "months if not years" apart in time, Mr Egan said.

Mr Egan, who was the lead reporting scientist for the Claremont investigation, reiterated that PathWest took every precaution to avoid contamination, and investigated every instance where contamination had been shown to have occurred.
However, he conceded there were 28 occasions when mistakes had been made in the 25 years that PathWest had dealt with samples relating to the case, ranging from minor typographical errors to the contamination of samples.
This was out of approximately 17,000 separate interactions staff had had with exhibits relating to the case.
The error rate of 0.16 per cent compared favourably with the 0.3 to 0.4 per cent error rate of a laboratory in the Netherlands that performed similar work, Mr Egan said.
Edwards's DNA was only found on the crucial fingernail samples, known as AJM 40 and 42, after they were sent to the UK for more sophisticated testing in 2008 and combined.
The yellow-topped container containing AJM 40 was never opened or tested at PathWest before it was sent to the UK, while AJM 42 was only opened twice — once in April 1997 for DNA testing, and again in March 2004 so that its contents could be repackaged and sent to New Zealand for further testing.

PathWest found no DNA on these exhibits or any other samples that came from Ms Glennon's body, including her clothes and underwear — neither Ms Glennon's DNA nor anyone else's.
Mr Egan said the reason DNA was only detected on the fingernail samples and not anywhere else was probably because they would have provided some "protection" for the genetic material.

Ms Glennon's clothing on the other hand, would have been exposed to "light, moisture and time" that all promoted bacterial activity that likely destroyed the DNA, he said.
Edwards's defence lawyer Paul Yovich SC will begin cross-examining Mr Egan on Wednesday.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, perth-6000, wa, claremont-6010

Left Photo: Jane Rimmer at around 11.50 PM 8th June 1996 talking to the Mystery Man at the Claremont Hotel
Right Photo: Appears to show the same mystery man with a long lens camera taking a photo of Jane Rimmer.
This makes one tend to believe that Jane Rimmer was specifically selected by the mystery man and his associates whom the mystery man most likely gave the photo of Jane Rimmer to.
Because the last known public sighting of ​Jane Rimmer, a 23 year old,  was by four university students at around 12.30 am Sunday 9 June 1996 walking down Stirling Highway, Claremont towards the direction of the City of Perth, near the corner of Loch Street, trying to hitch a lift .... it seems likely that Jane Rimmer was picked up by someone as she staggered down Stirling Highway, towards the City of Perth.
​The most scandalous thing is the police and the Western Australian mainstream media conspired for the last over 20 years to present a false and fraudulent impression to the Western Australian Public that the last known sighting of Jane Rimer was at around 12pm on the 8th June 1996 at the Claremont Hotel in the video footage that these above photos were taken from.... when it was reported in the new article
Titled : We Saw Jane Rimmer Hitchhiking - Student, Author:Andrew Clennellm Date: 19 June 1996, Publisher: Community Times, News Chronical, Nedlands Edition.
If the correct last sighting of Jane Rimmer provided to the public by all the Western Australian main stream media over the past 20 plus years, then other witnesses may have come forward to say they saw Jane Rimmer along Stirling Highway or even is the City of Perth, if Jane Rimmer made it that far ... that early morning of the 9th of June, 1996. .. the question that the Western Australian Police and the Western Australian Mainstream Media have to provide an answer to the families and friends of Jane Rimmer and the general public is ...
Why did the Western Australian Police and the Western Australian Mainstream Media deliberately fabricate the last known sighting of Jane Rimmer ,,,,, by falsely constantly up to and even during the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards  ......... stating an untruth ... by falsely stating that the last known sighting of Jane Rimmer was at around 12pm on the 8th June, 1996 talking to the Mystery Man ... as per the above photo......?

Claremont killer trial LIVE: Defence cross-examining Pathwest witness over contamination theory
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/claremont-killer-trial-live-defence-cross-examining-pathwest-witness-over-contamination-theory-20200305-p5475q.html

9.41am on Mar 5, 2020
Day 57 of trial to commence at 10am
Welcome to WAtoday's live coverage of day 57 of the Claremont serial killer trial in the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
Today, defence lawyer Paul Yovich will continue his cross-examination of Pathwest forensic scientist Scott Egan, who will take the witness stand for a fifth day.
Accused man Bradley Edwards has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
Mr Yovich is seeking to uncover a culture of sloppy lab practices in the Pathwest lab that could have led to Mr Edwards' DNA profile being found underneath Ciara's torn fingernail.
So far, of the 17,000-odd Macro-related exhibits tested in the lab, there has been one recorded example of secondary transfer of DNA occurring - which is the method Mr Yovich argues is the most likely explanation of Mr Edwards' DNA being linked to the murders.
The example relates to the DNA of an unrelated victim being detected on branches from Jane's crime scene.
The victim's exhibits were tested in the days prior to the branches, and after an investigation, Pathwest determined it was likely some of her DNA got on a batch of tubes later used for testing the Macro exhibit.
For a full catalogue of WAtoday's coverage of the trial, click here.
A sketch of Bradley Edwards on day two of the Claremont serial killer case.CREDIT:NINE NEWS

9.47am on Mar 5, 2020
A recap of the recorded contamination events within the Pathwest lab

Summary of DNA contamination events in Pathwest lab

Exhibit
DNA recovered
Involvement in case
Branch from crime scene - RH9
Pathwest scientist Louise King
Tested sample for DNA in 2003
Ciara Glennon – intimate swab - AJM30
Pathwest scientist Scott Egan
Prepared sample for testing in 1997
Ciara Glennon - knife
Pathwest scientist Laurie Webb
Knife examined in 1998. No record of being directly involved in testing, but would likely have been in the vicinity
Ciara Glennon - shaver from Glennon family home - AW23
Pathwest scientist Laurie Webb
Tested item for DNA reference sample in 1997
Earring from crime scene
Pathwest scientist David Fegado
Tested item for DNA in 2004
Jane Rimmer – Intimate swab 2
Pathwest scientist Laurie Webb
Tested sample for DNA in 1996
Jane Rimmer – twig from crime scene RH21
Female victim of an unrelated crime
Victim's exhibits examined in the lab in 2002 in the days prior to the Macro exhibit
Jane Rimmer – twig from crime scene – RH22
Mixed profile, Pathwest scientists Aleksander Bagdonavicius and Louise King
Mr Bagdonavicius examined exhibit, Ms King tested it for DNA in 2003
Jane Rimmer - fingernails - RH33 & RH34
Pathwest scientist Laurie Webb
No record of being directly involved in testing, but was present in lab
Jane Rimmer - hair sample
Unnamed female Pathwest scientist
Examined item in 2009
Jane Rimmer - Intimate swab 1
Low level mixture from at least two contributors. No profile recovered. Jane Rimmer: 10 matching alleles. Steven Daventhoren: 9 matching alleles. Bradley Edwards: 6 matching alleles.
Mr Daventhoren was the caretaker of the horse riding school near where Jane's body was found. He handed the Telecom knife to detectives and had his DNA reference sample taken.
Source: Supreme Court of Western Australia

10.43am on Mar 5, 2020
Defence highlights paperwork error relating to Ciara's hair mass

Mr Yovich has begun his cross-examination of Mr Egan today by asking about a time when he inspected Ciara's hair mass.
The examination notes are undated, and Mr Egan wrongly wrote in his notes that the hair was exhibit AJM63, when it was actually AJM54 - one of the state's critical fibre exhibits in this trial.
Within his notes Mr Egan said the bag was unlabelled, and that the hair mass was in a plastic bag, within a paper bag.
Mr Egan has told Mr Yovich he can't remember why he wrote AJM63 on the notes, but that it must have been a mistake or reference to other documentation at the time.
Prvious evidence about Ciara's hair mass was that it was received by the Pathwest lab from Ciara's post-mortem in a plastic bag, without reference to a paper bag.
At some stage later, it gets stored in a sealed billy bucket in the mortuary.
Mr Yovich has asked whether it's possible a Pathwest employee re-packaged the plastic bag into a paper bag, and labelled it incorrectly, which he has agreed is possible.
Mr Yovich: The work you did was very poorly documented in this instance wasn't it?
Mr Egan: I agree it could have been done better, yes.

11.11am on Mar 5, 2020
Court has adjourned for morning tea

It will resume at 11.30am.

12.27pm on Mar 5, 2020
Defence questioning two occasions when scientist's DNA appeared on items he didn't test
Mr Yovich has been taking Mr Egan through the staff contamination events involving the Macro-related exhibits. The list of the events is in the second post within today's blog.
Mr Egan said, in relation to the contamination events detected by CellMark in 2017 and 2018, there were no corrective actions taken by Pathwest to reduce the risk of contamination, as most of the incidents likely took place prior to 2000, when lab practices did not require staff to wear face masks or hair nets.
Another contamination event detected by Pathwest was of a knife tested in 1998 in relation to Ciara's case.
Around ten years after it was tested, Pathwest scientist Laurie Webb's DNA profile was detected.
A review of the documentation for the exhibit showed Mr Webb had not been directly involved in its examination or testing, but may have been in the vicinity.
Mr Yovich: Was it possible his DNA came to be in the ambient environment?
Mr Egan: Yes, that's a possibility, yes ... If there was a sneeze or a cough where you have the opportunity to distribute a high yielding source of DNA, then it was certainly an opportunity in that era.
Mr Webb's DNA profile was also detected on another Macro-related item he did not test, the other exhibit being Jane's fingernails RH33 and RH34
Former Pathwest forensic scientist, Laurie WebbCREDIT:ABC PERTH

 

12.58pm on Mar 5, 2020
Pathwest scientist says contamination of Ciara's fingernails 'very unlikely, and not foreseeable'

The final contamination event Mr Yovich is questioning Mr Egan about relates to a twig recovered from Jane's crime scene, known as exhibit RH21.
Female DNA from a victim of an unrelated crime was detected during DNA testing of the twig in 2002.
An investigation into the incident found the unrelated 19-year-old victim's intimate swab exhibits were tested five days prior to the twig being tested, with a weekend falling in between.
It concluded the contamination likely occurred as both examinations took tubes from the same batch when preparing the samples of DNA extraction.
Mr Egan has agreed with Mr Yovich that the method of contamination is a highly unlikely one.
The type of contamination, known as secondary transfer, is the most likely contamination method the defence says resulted in Mr Edwards' DNA being found underneath Ciara's fingernails.
Mr Edwards' DNA was being held in the Pathwest lab in relation to the 1995 Karrakatta rape he committed.
Mr Yovich is now wrapping up his cross-examination of Mr Egan.
Mr Yovich: Do you say the transfer of biological material from the [Karrakatta rape victim intimate swab] into the environment of the lab was impossible?
Mr Egan: Like just floating around? ... It's probably unlikely because we haven't seen that DNA profile come up.
Mr Yovich: But you cannot say it's impossible?
Mr Egan: In our field of work, impossible is not a word we used very often.
Mr Egan agreed the likelihood that Ciara's fingernail exhibit AJM42 was contaminated with trace DNA when opened was again not impossible, but also not foreseeable and highly unlikely.


Paul YovichCREDIT:SDS

1.01pm on Mar 5, 2020
Court has wrapped up for the week
In re-examination, Ms Barbagallo has only asked Mr Egan one question - how often the Pathwest lab was cleaned in the 15 months between the Karrakatta rape victim's swabs being tested and Ciara's fingernails being tested.
He has replied hundreds, if not thousands of times.

Court has adjourned for the week.

It will resume on Monday when the state will call its DNA expert, Jonathan Whitaker.

"Fanciful" Contamination Claims Rubbished by Top Scientist

Claremont Serial Killer Trial Podast
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-ejhpk-834b969?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share 

Only one sample of Bradley Edwards’ DNA was created from the Karrakatta rape victim’s intimate swab, and it was revealed that sample sat in an evidence box from 1999 to 2008.
The prosecution argues this means there was no way Bradley Edwards’ DNA and and Ciara Glennon’s fingernail samples could have come into contact with each other.
Previously the court had been told Bradley Edwards DNA was initially extracted in 1995, and tested in 1996 and 1997, then placed into storage. The Forensic scientist Anna-Marie Ashley, who tested Ciara Glennon's fingernails previously told the court the closest time frame the fingernails and the Karrakatta rape samples ever came to each other was two weeks.

Forensic scientist, Scott Egan, who was on his fourth day on the stand said:
“The DNA would have had to get out of the tube with the lid on it, out of the box, which has the lid on it, though the box with the lid on it, and then into the tube (of the other sample) with the lid on it.”
While the defence proved more contamination events which happened on Claremont exhibits at PathWest, they have said they don’t have an exact contamination event that they can point to, but instead are showing ‘sloppy practices’ at PathWest to show, if those contaminations could happen, why can’t it happen on the exhibits now seen as crucial to the case?
As Damien Cripps explains in tis episode of Claremont in Conversation, the prosecution and defence will both be hammering down on their arguments as we get to the end of the DNA portion of the trial. Can the prosecution protect the evidence they have? Or does the defence have enough attack to provide reasonable doubt?

Find out what our legal expert thinks on day 56 of WA’s trial of the century.
Don’t forget to send in your questions to 

claremontpodcast@wanews.com.au

Former navy sailor who took his own life 'wrote a suicide note claiming he MURDERED three people' - as police appeal for help tracking his movements
·Former navy mechanic Richard Dorrough committed suicide in 2014 
It is alleged he left behind a suicide note admitting to three murders 
Dorrough was charged with the murder of Sara-Lee Davey, 21, in 1997 - but the charge was dropped after a jury deemed him not guilty in 2009
Police across Australia have been unable to link him to any unsolved crimes, but are asking the public for information on his movements 
By DANIEL PETERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS - 11 October 2015
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267456/Former-navy-seal-took-life-wrote-suicide-note-claiming-MURDERED-three-people-police-appeal-help-tracking-movements.html

A former Australian Navy sailor reportedly confessed to three murders in a suicide note written before his death, sparking a nationwide appeal for information by West Australian police.  

Richard Edward Dorrough, a former HMAS Geelong crew member, left behind the shocking admission after his August 2014 death, the West Australian reported on Saturday.

'We are seeking public assistance regarding Dorrough's movements across Australia and even in New Zealand over the past 20 years,' WA State Crime Assistant Commissioner Michelle Fyfe said in a statement on Saturday. 

Before Dorrough took his own life in August 2014 at age 37, he reportedly wrote a handwritten note admitting to murdering three people - one case of which police were not aware of.

The note was found at his Byford home and did not identify the victims.
Police said the state Coroner had directed them not to reveal, or confirm, the contents of the note.
It has been reported that two of the alleged murders were of young women in the late 1990's, both of which he was questioned over at the time of the murders.
Dorrough was initially charged with the 1998 murder of 29-year-old prostitute Rachael Campbell in Sydney, but was acquitted at trial.
Ms Campbell was found in the car park of St Joseph's Church, just south of Sydney's CBD, with several stab wounds on her neck, and bite marks on her arm, according to the ABC.
Dorrough was extradited to NSW in 2009 after a breakthrough in DNA evidence, and whilst he admitted to sleeping with and biting Ms Campbell, the jury found him not guilty of her murder. 
The former navy mechanic was also a suspect in the 1997 disappearance of 21-year-old Kimberley woman Sara-Lee Davey from Broome.
The grieving family of Ms Davey have spent the past 18 years living in uncertainty over the fate of their beloved Sarah, who up until recently, they still believed was a missing persons.
Sara-Lee's mother, Irene, told the West Australian that the latest information regarding her daughter's status provided little closure or comfort.
'I am angry...Sara did not do anything wrong,' Mrs Davey said. 'She was always smiling and a friendly girl and who has the right to take that away from you?'
She also expressed her empathy for the families of the other alleged murders.
'There are two other mothers out there now...no one ever really knows what a mother feels,' she said. 
Sara-Lee remains on the Australian Federal Police's national missing person's list. 
A post in June of this year - on a Facebook page dedicated to finding her - wished her a happy birthday and urged it's followers to re-read details of her last sighting.
An inquest into Sara-Lee Davey's death is due to be held in April next year.
Assistant Commissioner Fyfe said the WA special crime squad had contacted police in other jurisdictions where Dorrough lived or visited.
So far they have been unable to link him to any unsolved serious crimes.
'It may well be that members of the public who associated with Dorrough have the information we seek, and we urge them to come forward now,' she said.

The late Len Buckeridge, senior well respected Red Lodge Freemason and Chinese Trial member, who helped David John Caporn's quick rise to being Assistant Police Commissioner of the Western Australian Police Service,  and Robert Falconer to being appointed the Police Commissioner of the Western Australian Police Service ......  in return for favours that Former Assistant Western Australian Police Commissioner David John Caporn, and former  Police Commissioner of the Western Australian Robert Falconer covered up crimes that Len Buckeridge and his associated was involved with.

The late Len Buckeridge, loved becoming a billionaire building magnate with the help of the CIA/MI6 and the Triads who laundered billions of dollars of their illicit gains through his BGC Group of Building Companie .... however the Late Len Buckeridge  was more turned on and craved power over everyone .. and enjoyed spending much of his life proving he was Above The Law .. and in many respects, Len Buckeridge "was the Law in Perth, Western Australia" ..... Len Buckeridge had more power than the various Commissioners of Police, Premier and Attorney General for Western Australia .. who had the what is called "The Green Light" to be able to order, commit and/or be involved with any criminal offences without fear of investigation and/or arrest  ..... When Len Buckeridge committed various crimes that could be easily proved against him .....  such as assault and perjury .... ..... a senior Claremont Detective told the victims of the crimes committed against them by Len Buckeridge ..... that no police officer was allowed to arrest Len Buckeridge for any crimes whatsoever .....because he has too many strong connections and power at the top of the Western Australian Police and Western Australian Government, which partly came from being a protected CIA/MI6 Asset ..... Len Buckeridge was described as a Criminal Psychopath by a retired Colonel of Intelligence who was Len Buckeridge's next-door neighbour in Glyde Street, Mosman Park in the 1960's and 1970's ..... Len Buckeridge lost his temper and tried to kill the next-door neighbour in 1959 by hitting the neighbour on the back of the head with a large piece of Jarrah wood .. after the retired Colonel of Intelligence quietly told Len Buckeridge off for building his mother's house above the legal height limit set by the council  ...... which blocked some of the neighbour's legal protected views of the Swan River River ..... when the retired Colonel of Intelligence neighbour luckily recovered from being knocked unconscious by Len Buckeridge .... when the retired Colonel of Intelligence neighbour was asked if he was going to have Len Buckridge arrested for attempted murder ..... or at least for a serious assault ..... the answer was this....... "...Len Buckeridge is as a Criminal Psychopath .... and he will obtain a top lawyer and end up with only a rap over the knuckles for trying to kill me ... and I can not watch my back 24 hours a day ... because Len Buckeridge is a Criminal Psychopath .... he will patiently wait for the right time when I am coming home one night late .. hide behind a tree in the dark and hit me with a piece four by two jarrah wood and Len will make sure he does a good job this time .. and I will be dead for sure and certain .... Criminal Psychopaths such as Len Buckeridge will always get their own back if you have them punished for their bad deeds ...... that is their inherent nature ....." ....  around 40 years later Len Buckeridge .. at around 12am in front of four witnesses ..... hit a process server over the back of the head with a hot rake as the process server walked away on the driveway of 135 Glyde Street, Mosman Park .. after serving a witness summons of Len Buckeridge which would force Len Buckeridge to appear before a magistrate to be cross-examined over perjury Len Buckeridge had committed in the magistrate's court to obtain an illegal restraining order to stop a life tenant of 135 Glyde Street, Mosman Park, entering and being on the property .... there was ample evidence for the police to charge Len Buckeridge on assault and perjury charges.... however, because Len Buckeridge was so powerful and had "The Green Light" from the Western Police to be able to commit, order and/or be involved in any criminal offences without fear of arrest .... Len Buckeridge was never charged for any criminal offences during his lifetime ...... 

Bradley Robert Edwards and Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo.

Why did the Macro Task Force Police deliberately  omitted the mention of seeing this man standing behind a white car on Dean Street. from her first statement to police about the incident, made in April 1997 ?

​Why did  Detective Sergeant James Stanbury-CIA-MI6_Asset, who  has been accused of being derelict in his duties by ignoring scraping noises from the cell of a prisoner being questioned over another murder, despite the fact the man was a suicide risk, deliberately lie to the public about the last sightings of Ciara Glennon on Stirling Highway, Claremont?

Key Points:

Witnesses stated at the Bradley Edwards Trial that they saw Ciara Glennon on Stirling Highway, Claremont, after the Burger Boys claimed to have seen Ciara Glennon, talking to a man in a white car, but the police did not want to make this information public which would have hindered the ability of the general public to help in coming forward with extra information of the last sightings of Ciara Glennon on Stirling Highway, Claremont, as she walked in the direction of her to parents home.

The account of Ms Mabbott of the apparent sighting of Ms Glennon was at odds with that of the "burger boys" — three young men who told police they had seen a woman resembling Ms Glennon on the southern side of the highway, also around midnight, about 300 metres from where Ms Mabbott said she saw the woman.

Police created Identity Images of two suspicious men that could have been involved in the abduction of Ciara Glennon ... with witnesses stating that they saw Ciara Glennon  climbing into the back of a white Ford Falcon XG ute with a canopy on the back, which is at odds to the public claim by the police  for 20 odd years that the last sighting of Ciara Glennon was the alleged sighting by the Burger Boys ......who claim that they saw a car white car stop and that they saw Ciara Glennon leaning over talking tot he driver of the white car.

A person who goes under the name Frankie on the WebSleuths.com website stated on that website that it was not true that they all saw the white car stop and that Ciara Glennon was leaning over talking to the drive of the white car....

​“Ciara Glennon was not talking to anyone and no car stoped”
TwistMember
Frankie1972 said: ↑
I know why the driver did not come forward. Because it did not happen like that. CG was not talking to anyone and no car stop
apoptosisfutzMember
Frankie1972 said: ↑
Well if you go back and read the thread you will see what I said about that.
Hi Frankie1972. I looked back and found the post below, might save some comments to and fro...... many thanks for the info you have provided on here.
Ok that night about 12.00am the three of us left the conti and walked to hungry jacks. Then we got our food and sit down at the bus stop. Then the opposite side of the road CG about 12.20 was walking down Stirling Hwy when my friend yelled out to her your crazy for hitchiking (I do not think she was hitchhiking) She just waved her hand in the air and kept on walking down the road. Now when we reported it to the police on the Monday....  one of my friends talking to the police about a car stopping and maybe talking to her.( Now you would think if he did see a car talking to her he would of said hay guys look at that girl talking to someone in a car) My other friend and me did not see a car stop that night (IMO no car stopped to talk to her that night.<br />

The previously unknown sighting was made by Karen Mabbott, who was driving along Stirling Highway around midnight on March 14–15, 1997, when she saw the man, who she described as being of Mediterranean appearance, standing behind a white car on Dean Street.

"There didn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason for anyone to be standing there," she told the court.
The man was about 175 centimetres tall, although "he could have been taller" she said, with short dark brown or black hair and of slim-to-medium build.
Just metres away, walking along the western side of Stirling Highway, she saw the young woman, who she described as being about 157 centimetres tall, of small-to-medium build and with curly shoulder-length light hair.
"She didn't look like she was in a particular hurry or that she was scared of anything, just trying to get home," Ms Mabbott said.
Her description of the woman's clothing also matched what the 27-year-old lawyer was wearing at the time — a dark jacket and white t-shirt-style top with a black skirt.
She initially assumed the man was a taxi driver and that the woman had just got out of his cab .
"My initial impression was that she had been picked up in the taxi, she had got out of the taxi and she was walking towards her house," Ms Mabbott said.
But she did not see any taxi plates or signs on the man's car, which she described as a light-coloured sedan.
Edwards was known to be driving a white Telstra-issued Holden Commodore station wagon at the time.

Man missing from first statement
Under cross-examination from defence counsel Paul Yovich SC, Ms Mabbott admitted the man had been omitted from her first statement to police about the incident, made in April 1997.

But was adamant that she had told detectives about it and they had chosen not to include it in the statement they prepared on her behalf.

Her account of the apparent sighting of Ms Glennon was at odds with that of the "burger boys" — three young men who told police they had seen a woman resembling Ms Glennon on the southern side of the highway, also around midnight, about 300 metres from where Ms Mabbott said she saw the woman.

The men said they saw the woman lean down and talk to the driver of a Holden Commodore station wagon, but when they next turned to look back, both she and the car were gone.

Click here for 9 news video on Claremont serial killings trial hears details of possible last sighting of Ciara Glennon
The Claremont serial killings trial has heard details of a possible final sighting of Ciara Glennon with a man lurking nearby.
9 News - Dec 13th, 2019
https://www.9news.com.au/videos/claremont-serial-killings-trial-hears-details-of-possible-last-sighting-of-ciara-glennon/ck440h1sb003c0hl99jxzzthx

Claremont Serial Killer Trial Podcast -JUMP IN NOW
 Part 2  
2020-03-07
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-nxpm7-83b948a?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share  


Welcome to part two of this recap series of Claremont in Conversation.
In the last episode, we took you through the fear that swept through Perth as police realised a serial killer was at loose in their city after the disappearances of three women.
In the trial, we heard from the people who knew the women, the people who last saw them alive and watched in stunned silence as CCTV and final phone calls were played.
In this episode, we hear from the people who were woken by distressing screams that have stayed with them for more than 20 years.
We also hear from the people who found two bodies - the bodies of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
Then, the trial moves into a new phase - the investigation.
The court heard of the massive police response to the discovery of Jane and Ciara’s bodies, then the unprecedented event in court, which saw WA’s top lawyers being sent to Officeworks. Find out why in this episode.
The DNA portion of the trial is complicated and lengthy, so in this special episode, we run you through the DNA samples which are crucial to the prosecution case.
If you’re interested in DNA and DNA testing, our resident forensic expert Brendan Chapman takes us through the process on episode 35, called A Lesson in DNA.
If you’ve enjoyed this catch up series and want to know more, you can start from Season 2, Episode 1. Or follow the trial at

www.thewest.com.au.

 An Identikit of suspicious man seen in Claremont the night Ciara Glennon went missing.

Click here for Claremont Serial Killings Trial Updates _WAToday

https://www.watoday.com.au/topic/claremont-serial-killer-trial-1mh2

https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings

Claremont serial killings trial: DNA expert Jonathan Whitaker batters Claremont defence contamination claims[Headshot of Tim Clarke]
Tim ClarkeThe West Australian - Tuesday, 10 March 2020

https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-dna-expert-jonathan-whitaker-batters-claremont-defence-contamination-claims-ng-b881485304z
​

Colby's canoe.  It was filled with so much sand that Kevin Akers was suspicious.

ZALIN GRANT served as an Army Intelligence Officer in Vietnam. A former journalist for Time and The New Republic, he is the author of six books, including FACING THE PHOENIX: The CIA and the Political Defeat of the United States in Vietnam, which was also translated and published without permission in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. For further bio, see: www.pythiapress.com/letters/war.htm

Last sighting of Ciara Glennon climbing into the back of a white Ford Falcon XG ute with a canopy on the back,

" The Claremont Serial Killings ... The Dark Sinister Untold Story "

The 1960's 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's in Perth Western Australia was a time when senior Western Australian Police in what was known as "The Purple Circle" effectively ran most of the major crime in Western Australia ...with the police and their criminal networks were involved in running illegal brothels, bank and other armed robberies, stealing and selling stolen cars and other items, .. as well as murder ..... the late Bernie Johnson and Don Hancock, both former senior Western Australian Police Officers were named in the Inquest into the brutal Murder of Brothel Madam Shirley Finn..... as being two of the people involved in the shooting of Shirley Finn ..,, senior corrupt police were promoted for setting up people on false trumped-up charges, who powerful peopled wanted out of the way for various reasons such as stealing their businesses and properties ... other senior corrupt police were promoted for making sure that certain well-connected people were not investigated and/or charged for crimes they have committed... .. such people were known as having "The Green Light" be able to commit and/or order and/or be involved in any criminal offenses they liked ... even murder .... the whole sordid story is being shown in a new filmed being made called .... " The Claremont Serial Killings ... The Dark Sinister Untold Story "

Claremont Serial Killer Podcast: Contamination Not Likely, But Not ‘Impossible’
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-t6yfb-8371de7?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share 

Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimer who were all abducted and believed to have been murdered  in 1996 and 1997

Claremont Killings - Channel Nine Feature  CCTV Footage Released in 2009

​The Claremont Murders | Crime Investigation Australia | Murders Documentary | True Crime

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nN2TK51Jt0​

Julie Cutler. Kerry Turner, Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon, Jane Rimmer, Sarah Anne McMahon and Sally Bowman were all abducted and thought to have been murdered from 1988 to 2008. The below men all became suspects in the abduction and murder of these seven women.  Mark Philp Dixie also known as Shane Turner while he was in Australia, has admitted murdering and raping 18-year-old  model Sally Bowman, whose body was found next to a skip in Croydon in September 2005........ 

Sally Anne Bowman killer Mark Philip Dixie admits other attacks
BBC News- 26 July 2017
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-40728210
A man serving a life sentence for raping and murdering teenage model Sally Anne Bowman has admitted attacks on two other women previously.
Mark Dixie, 46, was jailed in 2008 for repeatedly stabbing Miss Bowman then raping her as she lay dead or dying in Croydon, south London in 2005.
Dixie now admits raping a woman in her car in Croydon when he was 16.
The former chef also molested another woman near a railway bridge in 2002 and will be sentenced on 22 September.
'He got what he deserved', model's family say
The secret history of Sally Anne Bowman's killer
A previous hearing was told he ambushed a woman in an isolated car park in 1987 then raped her.
Following the sex attack, he tied her to the back seat of her car then set fire to the front seat.
"He later told police he had set fire to a Tampax," prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told Southwark Crown Court earlier.
She managed to escape and raised the alarm.
Dixie has also admitted charges of indecent assault and GBH after hitting another woman on the head several times with a chef's steel - used to sharpen kitchen blades.
He attacked her near a railway bridge in Croydon and told his victim "I'm going to kill you".
Dragging her up the stairs he proceeded to assault her but was interrupted by another woman who heard the commotion.
"When she asked what was going on, Dixie said 'nothing, nothing, it's just a row with my girlfriend,'" the prosecutor said.
Dixie fled after the victim said: "help, help, he's attacking me".
Killer reveals 'the truth'
Mr Aylett QC told the court Dixie had revealed the attacks to police after finally admitting in January 2015 that he had killed Miss Bowman.
Miss Bowman's murder was something Dixie had previously denied.
"He wrote to police indicating he wanted to tell them the truth of what had happened to Sally Anne, because at the trial he said that he was not responsible for her murder," Mr Aylett said.
During the original three-week murder trial Dixie claimed to have found Miss Bowman dead and proceeded to have sex with her lifeless body after he had been on a drink and drugs binge.
The 18-year-old's body was found next to a skip in Croydon in September 2005.

Paul Yovich SC, is representing Bradley Robert Edwards in court.

 Paul Yovich SC stated at the beginning of the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards ... that his client's simple defense is that his client is not guilty of the murders of  Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, and that the prosecution have to produce the evidence that proves beyond reasonable doubt that Bradley Robert Edwards is guilty of the murders of  Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ... and can not just try and fit the evidence to a theory ...

"..... the only alleged evidence that it seems the prosecution have to rely on to try and convict Bradley Robert Edwards, .....  is the alleged DNA of Bradley Robert Edwards found in an alleged DNA test made in the United Kingdom of Ciara Glennon's DNA .... after DNA tests of Ciara Glennon's DNA in Perth, Western Australia and New Zealand did not find the DNA of Bradley Robert Edwards with Ciara Glennon's DNA ..... with all the claimed evidence that no one could have interfered with Ciara Glennon's DNA at PathWest and/or at the New Zealand Testing Place ..... there was every opportunity for Ciara Glennon's DNA to be interfered with by the two people who were made responsible for taking Ciara Glennon's DNA to the UK for testing ... these two people are:

(a) Laurie Webb CIA-MI6_Asset .... who was sacked by PathWest for not following the right procedures for DNA Tests the correct way

and 

(b) Detective Sergeant James Stanbury-CIA-MI6_Asset ....  who  has been accused of being derelict in his duties by ignoring scraping noises from the cell of a prisoner being questioned over another murder, despite the fact the man was a suicide risk.

So what the Western Australian Police did was give the possession of the most important material evidence in the murder investigation of Ciara Glennon being 

​Ciara Glennon's DNA .... to two people who have shown that they could well be corrupt .. who one would have no trouble believing that they would accept a large bribe and/or some other benefits .. or even just to protect the system by satisfying the families of the victims and the general public, the police, and other powerful people in their same network they mix in, to solve the problem that they need to find a way to charge someone with the murders of  Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ....  it would be extremely easy for a senior ex-PathWest Scientist to use some of Bradley Robert Edwards's DNA to add to Ciara Glennon's DNA before it was tested in the UK ..... there are many other features of the evidence presented by prosecution at the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards that in fact help prove the possible innocence of Bradley Robert Edwards of the murders of  Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ...... there is material evidence and material witnesses that seem to have deliberately not been presented at the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards ...... and misleading evidence at the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards ..... it seems that the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards and the evidence and information presented at the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards is more of an inquest into the disappearance and/or murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, rather than a trial ....... which is creating many more questions than answers....... with a lot of material information, evidence and witnesses deliberately not presented by Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo. for acts for the Western Australian Police Service, Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia and the State of Western Australia at the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards ... which seems the way the trial has proceeded has been partly done to help protect the powerful people that Sarah Anne McMahon stated were involved in the murders of  Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon .. and not only is wasting millions of dollars of money provided by the people of Western Australia ..... it is also a serious criminal contempt of court for Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo. for acts for the Western Australian Police Service, Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia and the State of Western Australia at the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards ... not to present all possible material information, evidence and witnesses at the trial of  Bradley Robert Edwards ....".... NYT CSK Investigation Team 

​

The Claremont Serial Killer Trial The Podcast- Bonus Episode: Day in the Life of a Court Reporter
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-idznu-82f12ce?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share
Between them, veteran 7NEWS journalist and The West’s legal affairs editor Tim Clarke have decades of court reporting experience behind them. They’ve covered everything from murder, dodgy politicians, bikies and everything in between. But this case is as big as they come. Tim Clarke has followed the case in the courts since Bradley Edwards was arrested three years ago, and Alison Fan has followed the case since the very beginning, and even helped search for the Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, now she’s seeing it through to the end, whatever that will be. The two experienced court reporters reveal what it’s like doing their job, from the good and bad exciting and dull.
In this bonus episode, join Natalie Bonjolo, Tim Clarke and Alison Fan as they give you a behind the scenes look into a day in the life of a court reporter.

Click here to view the Podcast List for the CLAREMONT Serial Killer Trial of Bradley Robert Edwards
https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/3patm-872d9/CLAREMONT-The-Claremont-Serial-Killings-Podcast

Willam Colby (left) and Ngo Dinh Diem - Saigon 1963.

The last known sighting of Ciara Glennon on Stirling Highway 

Different make and model given by other witnesses who saw Ciara Glennon getting into the back of a Ford Falcon XG ute with a canopy on the back

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-17/claremont-serial-killer-ciara-glennon-seen-talking-to-car-driver/11804108  


Different make and model given by other witnesses
Earlier, witness Ian Stanford described a young woman loosely matching Ms Glennon's description getting into the back of a different car on Stirling Highway on the same night.

Mr Stanford said he was in the front passenger seat of a car being driven by his then-wife Lisa Mighall along the highway when he noticed a car stopped on the highway with its headlights on.

The car was a white Ford Falcon XG ute with a canopy on the back, Mr Stanford said, and the young woman, who was wearing a black skirt and white shirt or blouse, had one leg up and was climbing into the back.

The woman was young and had long hair that went down her back, he said.

"And I remember saying to Lisa, 'After what's gone on this area, I can't understand why anyone would do that'," he told the court. 

Mr Stanford said he was confident about the make and model of the car as he worked for Ford at the time.

His description of the vehicle differed from other witnesses including Ms Mighall, who described Ms Glennon talking to a man in a what looked like a white Commodore sedan.
Another witness, Susan Robinson, also recalled a white sedan.
Ms Robinson had been to see the film The English Patient with her husband in Perth's CBD on the evening of Ms Glennon's disappearance.
She was driving along the highway towards their Fremantle home when she noticed a white car stopped on the left hand lane on Stirling Highway travelling south.
She said a young woman matching Ms Glennon's description was leaning down talking to the male driver, who had "brownish hair".
"In my mind at the time I thought he was quite handsome," Ms Robinson told the court.

'Burger boys' warned Ciara Glennon off hitchhiking
The court earlier heard how a man watched a young woman who resembled Ms Glennon talking to the driver of a white Holden Commodore VS — the same make and model driven by the man accused of her murder — on the night she disappeared.
Troy Bond, who was one of three young men dubbed the "burger boys" by the prosecution because they were eating takeaway food from Hungry Jack's on the night of March 14, 1997, watched the woman as she stood opposite them on the highway as they sat in a bus stop.
Mr Bond said his friend, Brandon Gray, called out to the her because he thought she was hitchhiking.
"Brandon said to her, 'You're stupid for hitchhiking'," he said.
"She stuck her finger up at him."
Mr Gray said the woman was intoxicated and "walked like someone you probably wouldn't let walk like that by themselves".
The woman kept walking along the highway and the men went back to eating their burgers, but when Mr Bond looked up again, he saw the woman talking to the driver of the Commodore that had stopped about 50 to 100 metres down the road.
"I seen her leaning over a car … bending over a car talking to someone," he said.
He said she was leaning through the passenger-side window, but he could not give a good description of the woman other than she was between 20 and 30 years old, about 167 centimetres tall and wearing a white blouse.

Edwards was driving a white Telstra-issued Holden Commodore VS station wagon at the time.

Glennon had come home for sister's wedding
Ms Glennon had returned to Perth a fortnight earlier from a year-long trip around the world and had been due to be a bridesmaid at her sister's wedding the following weekend when she vanished.
She had resumed working for a law firm and had enjoyed after-work drinks with colleagues the night she vanished at the company's premises in Perth's CBD to celebrate St Patrick's Day.
Afterwards, her boss Neil Fearis had driven Ms Glennon and three other workmates to Claremont, where they had drinks at the Continental Hotel.
She was last seen by a number of witnesses, 12 of whom are being called by the prosecution, on Stirling Highway in Claremont apparently seeking a taxi to take her home.
Her body was found in Eglinton on April 3, about 45 kilometres from Claremont on the city's northern outskirts.
Edwards has pleaded not guilty to murdering the three women and the trial, before Justice Stephen Hall, will resume in January.

 An Identikit of suspicious man seen in Claremont the night Ciara Glennon went missing.

Claremont Serial Killer Trial Podcast- DNA finale 
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-9hsia-843948b?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share 

The DNA portion of the trial has officially come to an end, and as tonight’s guest on the Claremont in Conversation, Alison Fan puts it, “It was fitting that the man who started it all, ended it all.”
Dr Jonathan Whitaker dismissed the defence’s two DNA contamination theories, by saying it was ‘highly improbable’ that Bradley Edwards’ DNA was found with Ciara Glennon’s samples because of any type of contamination.
In this episode, Alison Fan says that comment is the closest a scientist - who never say never - will come to say an event is ‘impossible’.
In his own opinion, Dr Whitaker told the court it was ‘highly likely’ Bradley Edwards’ DNA was found with Ciara’s samples ‘because she scratched him’.

The prosecution say Ciara scratched Edwards while fighting for her life.
The last DNA expert took the stand, she told how the male DNA profile was 80 million times more likely to belong Bradley Edwards than any other Australian Caucasian man he’s not related to. She also told the court Edwards was 20 billion times more likely to be the perpetrator of the Karrakatta rape.
The defence put into question a lot of DNA testing practices in WA, but did they do enough to place reasonable doubt into the mind of Justice Hall?

We’ll find out as the trial continues after a 12-day adjournment, when fibre evidence begins.

Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo. for acts for the Western Australian Police Service, Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia and the State of Western Australia who have who it is understood to be prepared to spend over $100 million dollars in a no expense spared public trial with the help of the Western Australian Media to convince the families of the victims Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon and the general public in Western Australia, Australia and the whole world, and Justice Stephen Hall ....  that Bradley Robert Edwards is the sole person the abducted and murdered  Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ...... and completely ignore the fact that Sarah McMahon made a statement that a senior police officer and a very well connected  and rich Perth Businessman and other powerful well connected people were involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders ........ before she disappeared ........ believed by the coroner who heard the Inquest into the disappearance of Sarah McMahon to have been murdered ....  with a witness originally stating that she saw the dead body of Sarah McMahon in the bedroom of Donald Morey ...... the day Sarah McMahon is believed to have arranged to meet with Donald Morey and definitely spoke to Donald Morey ion the phone not long before she disappeared ,,,,, on the 8th of November, 2000 ...... there was evidence provided the Donald Morey was supplying $10,000 lots of Chrystal Meth  to Sarah McMahon for Sarah McMahon to sell ..... there is ample evidence and information on public record that Western Australia police have been involved for a long time in illegal drug distribution and other criminal activities  and other information together it appears that Donald Morey who was convicted for trying to murder a female and suspected to be involved in the murder of other females, who is alleged to have said to his  boss's wife that he had killed before and could kill her husband for her ..... that Donald Morey has been working with corrupt Western Australian Po;lice. It has been publicly stated in the media that Donald Morey is police suspect in the disappearance and possible murder of Sarah McMahon .... if the statement made by Sarah Anne McMahon is correct when she stated that a senior police officer and a very well connected  and rich Perth Businessman and other powerful well connected people were involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders .... then it would make logical sense why these powerful people would want to employ someone to murder Sarah Anne McMahon to make sure Sarah Anne McMahon could not be a witness to the authorities as to what she stated she knew who was involved in  the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders .... When Sarah Anne McMahon was asked after she made her statement as to who she stated she knew were involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders .... why doesn't she make a formal statement to the authorities about what she knew about who was  involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders .... Sarah Anne McMahon's chilling answer was ....

" ...If I made such a formal statement to the authorities ,,,, about the fact that I know that a senior police officer and a very well connected  and rich Perth Businessman and other powerful well connected people were involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders .... I would be dead in a week .. because these people are simply too powerful ...... I can not take these people on and I can not try to expose them .. because I would not live to officially and publicly tell my story ...""

Besides that the power of the people that Sarah Anne McMahon has stated were involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders ..... who have the power to cover their involvement up in various ways including people being too scared for their own lives and the lives of their families if they made any moves to expose and/or arrest them .... the system protects itself in this situation because it would be far to horrific to families of the victims and the general public to be told that police and other powerful people in Perth, Western Australia were  involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders ...... letters written to the Government of Western Australia and the Director of Public Prosecutions offering the information as to what Sarah Anne McMahon made in her statement before she disappeared, likely to have been murdered on the 8th of November, 2000 as to who Sarah Anne McMahon stated were involved  in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders .. however  the Government of Western Australia and the Director of Public Prosecutions  have never responded with a letter wanting to know who  Sarah Anne McMahon has stated were involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders ..... and why such abductions and murders took place ..... as a result of the statement made by Sarah Anne McMahon as who she stated were involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Murders ..... regardless of whether Bradley Robert Edwards was involved in some way with the abductions and/or murders of  Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ......  and whether Justice Stephen Hall rules that there is no reasonable doubt that Bradley Robert Edwards was involved in some way with the abductions and/or murders of  Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ..... at the end of the trial of Bradley Robert Edwards ..... there are much more powerful people in Perth, Western Australia who were also involved in the abductions and/or murders of  Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon ..

​

Witnesses agreed that Colby, 76, worked at least six hours on his boat that day.

Colby's home on Hill Road, Rock Point MD. The glassed-in porch facing the front was where he took his last meal.

Vicky Young Former homicide squad detective

Money, happiness and eternal life - Greed (director's cut) | DW Documentary
DW Documentary
Can money and power ever make us happy? How much is enough? Our constant desire for more is part of our human nature. Some call it a useful dowry of evolution, others a fault in the human genetic make-up: The old mortal sin Greed seems to be more ubiquitous than ever. Why can't people ever get enough, where is this self-indulgence leading - and are there any ways out of this vicious circle of gratification? "People like to have a lot of stuff because it makes them the feeling of living forever," says American social psychologist Sheldon Solomon, who believes today's materialism and consumerism will have disastrous consequences. Anyone who fails to satisfy his or her desires in this age of the Ego is deemed a loser. But with more than 7 billion people on the Earth, the ramifications of this excessive consumption of resources are already clear. Isn’t the deplorable state of our planet proof enough that "The Greed Program," which has made us crave possessions, status and power, is coming to an end? Or is the frenzied search for more and more still an indispensable part of our nature? We set off to look for the essence of greed. And we tell the stories of people who - whether as perpetrators or victims or even just as willing consumers - have become accomplices in a sea change in values. Check out our web special: http://www.dw.com/en/tv/greed/s-32898 _______ Exciting, powerful and informative – DW Documentary is always close to current affairs and international events. Our eclectic mix of award-winning films and reports take you straight to the heart of the story. Dive into different cultures, journey across distant lands, and discover the inner workings of modern-day life. Subscribe and explore the world around you – every day, one DW Documentary at a time. Subscribe to DW Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW39... For more information visit: https://www.dw.com/documentaries Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dw.stories
Category: Education

David John Caporn-Former Assistant Western Australian Police Commissioner stated in  Television Interview that he thinks about Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and CIara Glennon everyday ... but spent years accusing the wrong people of the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings ...

EPISODESERIAL KILLER SERIAL KILLER: 
The Claremont Killer 
by Ashley FlowersJ
June 18, 2018

Click here to listen to The Claremont Killer Podcast
https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/serial-killer-claremont/  

Since 1996, people in Claremont had been looking over their shoulders when they go out for a night on the town. Over the span of a few years, three girls were taken from the same place in nearly identical fashion. Many years later, those crimes would be connected to other attacks dating back to 1988. Somehow, in 2016, a man was arrested for these crimes, but we still don’t know exactly how police got his name.

Bradley Robert Edwards was arrested in 2016 for the murders of Jane and Kira. At that time he was also connected to an attack and rape of a women in 1988 and an attempted assault on another woman in 1995. It wasn’t until 2018 that he was finally charged with the willful murder of Sarah. His trial is set to begin in July of 2018.  

Episode Sources
Hunt for a Killer: The Claremont Murders, Crime Investigation Australia, 2008
Claremont Serial Killings: Sarah Spiers murder charge for Bradley Robert Edwards
The night Sarah Spiers disappeared from a Claremont street corner
New footage of Perth serial killer’s victim released
Almost 20 years on police have yet to catch the Calremont serial killer
HOSTED BY

Ashley Flowers
My name is Ashley Flowers and I'm a Junkie, too.
I've been crime-obsessed since birth and the only thing I love more than true crime is my dog, Charlie. I'm also on the board of directors for Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana. My work with Crime Stoppers has led me to do this podcast, and I am so excited to be your new true crime dealer.

Donald Morey, aka Matusevich

News article _ Police nearby when Ciara Went Missing

Police nearby went Ciara went missing
Interesting old newspaper clipping - by Spinnaker with awesome research skills.
Post Newspaper, March 22-23, 1997:
"Ciara Glennon vanished in between tight patrols of two police cars early Saturday morning"
"When Ciara supposedly went missing, we had two cars in the block for the half hour when she was last seen," said Claremont station's acting sergeant Mike Starkey.
Sergeant Starkey was speaking at a meeting of Claremont's safety and security committee omn Thursday.
Claremont's mayor Peter Weygers suggested to the meeting that s shopfront police presence be estbalished in central Claremont until the crimes were solved.
Peter Weygers suggested that a vacant shop be used as a temporary police station.
Sergeant Starkey said that a mobile force was far more effective.
A stagnant presence was easily observed by an offender.
 Sergeant Starkey said there was no substitute for police patrols.
"We're there to catch this man. On a local level, we are doing everything possible."     Sergeant Starkey said.
There were unconfirmed reports on Friday that police were looking for a man and a woman or two men with one of them dressed as a woman.

CLAREMONT: The Trial
CLAREMONT: The Trial - Blood Everywhere…But No DNA

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-2u4r9-8322fa6?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share

Ciara Glennon’s body was found 19 days after she went missing, in bushland 40 kms north of Perth on April 3, 1997.

She was found fully clothed, her shirt covered in blood.
After her post-mortem, her shirt was sent off for DNA testing, but what scientists found was unusual. They found nothing, not even Ciara’s own DNA.
This was explained by senior forensic scientist Scott Egan, who told the court it was likely exposure to the elements destroyed all DNA, even Ciara’s.
But when asked how DNA was found under her fingernails, that’s because, according to the forensic scientist, they were somewhat protected.
It was the testing of the DNA of Ciara’s fingernails which came under questioning again today, this time by the prosecution, and as Tim Clarke and Alison Fan explain in this episode, they managed to get some ground back after an embarrassing end to the week for PathWest, with seven contamination events found on Claremont exhibits.
Mr Egan told the court, however, in total, PathWest counted 28 ‘quality issues’ in their more than 17,000 tests of Claremont exhibits over 25 years, an average error rate of around 0.16%, which he said was lower than the global average.
He also defended his lab practices, saying he couldn’t see any opportunities of how Bradley Edwards’ DNA could have come into contact with the Karrakatta rape victim’s samples to contaminate it - as the defence has suggested.
The prosecution today even called that theory ‘fanciful’.
Join Natalie Bonjolo, Tim Clarke and Alison Fan as they take you through the details of day 55.

Bradley Robert Edwards

Two samples from separate crimes in the Claremont serial killings case were never tested at the same time in the lab
By AAP- Feb 4, 2020
https://www.9news.com.au/national/claremont-killings-trial-two-week-gap-between-testing-dna/8f50cb26-c100-4353-a278-94f8e020dd86

Pathwest scientist Anna-Marie Ashley testified.

Bradley Robert Edwards denies murdering Jane Rimmer, 23, in 1996. (Supplied)
 
There was a two-week gap between lab testing on a murder victim's fingernail sample and a swab from a rape victim, the Claremont serial killings trial has heard, as the defence seeks to establish possible contamination.

Bradley Robert Edwards, 51, admits raping a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995 and attacking an 18-year-old woman in Huntingdale in 1988 but denies murdering Sarah Spiers, 18, and Jane Rimmer, 23, in 1996, and Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1997.
The epic WA Supreme Court trial last week heard when Ms Glennon's left middle fingernail was initially tested, only her DNA came up - not Edwards'.
But in a combined sample with Ms Glennon's torn left thumbnail in 2008, Edwards' DNA was detected by UK scientists, although the ex-Telstra technician was not identified until 2016.
Yesterday, the court heard there were three possible explanations: the clipping never contained Edwards' DNA; it was always there but not detected by the technology used at the time; or it was present but not in the extracts initially analysed.
There were several tests conducted on various samples and sub-samples in WA over the years.
Pathwest scientist Anna-Marie Ashley testified the rape exhibits were not tested on the same day as Ms Glennon's nail samples.

In fact, Ms Glennon's samples were tested two weeks earlier in May 1997 and that was the closest they ever got to each other, Ms Ashley said.
The defence claims the rape swabs contaminated Ms Glennon's fingernail exhibits via secondary transfer in the lab.

Asked under cross-examination whether it was ever communicated to her that police were under pressure for results in the case, Ms Ashley replied: "I can't recall that being communicated to me."
Ms Ashley said improvements were later made to reduce the chance of contamination in labs, including masks, hair nets and double gloves.
Defence counsel Paul Yovich also asked Ms Ashley if she recalled anyone working on phone lines in the lab but she said no.
During re-examination, prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo asked Ms Ashley if she was aware of any contamination in relation to the two cases and again, she replied no.
WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson sat in court yesterday morning and spoke with Ms Glennon's father, Denis, and detectives.
"The purpose of me visiting today is just to encourage the prosecution and the police teams who are working very, very hard in a very difficult and challenging trial," Mr Dawson said outside court.

Kerry Turner 

Kerry Turner- UNSOLVED - The Kerry Turner Case - AUSTRALIAN TRUE CRIME
May 19, 2019, Samantha M
In 1991, 18 year old Perth local Kerry Turner went out for a night of clubbing with her friend Kylie. However, she lost Kylie in the Saturday night crowds, and had to make her way home alone, without any money to get her there. Kerry was last seen getting into a mystery car outside of Cafe Affair in Victoria Park. This would be the last time Kerry Turner would be seen alive. To this day, her case remains a mystery. Kerry Turner's body was found under a log near the Canning Dam ....​

DNA found on Joanne Lees was crucial in convicting the murderer of English backpacker Peter Falconio. (AAP)

Richard Edward Dorrough

Richard Borrough, a former Navy mechanic, reportedly admitted to three murders in his suicide note last year

JUMP IN NOW: Claremont the Trial Catch Up Part 1

CLAREMONT Serial Killer Trial Podcast

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-cb3cp-83960ad?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share

Welcome to this special catch up episode of Claremont in Conversation.

We’re at the half-way mark in WA’s trial of the century.
If you’ve never listened before, this is your perfect chance to get up to speed on everything that’s happened in WA’s trial of the century, without having to listen to 57 episodes.
If you’ve been following the trial since day one, this is your perfect chance to recap the last three months before the trial moves into fibre evidence.
It’s been the trial WA has waited more than two decades for. Between 1996 and 1997 in the affluent, beautiful and safe suburb of Claremont, the disappearance of three women struck fear into the lives of the people of Perth, Western Australia.
Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon are names most people in WA know. They’re known because they’re the three victims of the Claremont Serial Killer.
Sarah was the first to go missing, in the early hours of January 27, 1996. She called a taxi from a Telstra phone box in Claremont just after 2am. Three minutes later the taxi arrived but she wasn’t there. She’s never been seen since.

Five months later, Jane went missing in almost identical circumstances to Sarah. She had been out in Claremont with friends, except when they decided to go home, she stayed. The last time she was seen was on CCTV vision. It took 32 seconds for Jane to never be seen alive again.
Then in March 1997, Ciara, who had been travelling around the world, had just returned home. Friends convinced her to go out, she reluctantly agreed. The 27-year-old spent just 15 minutes in the Continental Hotel in Claremont and decided to walk home. The last time she was ever seen alive, she was leaning into a white Commodore Station Wagon.
These killings went unsolved for 23 years. Now, the man police and the state say is the man who murdered Sarah, Jane and Ciara is on trial. His name is Bradley Robert Edwards.
Join the Claremont in Conversation team, Natalie Bonjolo and The West Australian Newspaper’s legal affairs editor Tim Clarke as they take you through the first part of the Claremont Serial Killings trial, known as the “civilian witnesses”.
Hear from the people who knew the victims, some of the last people to see them alive and hear from the people involved in the accused man’s life - his wives, friends and colleagues as the prosecution try to paint a picture of what would drive a man to kill three lone, vulnerable women.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode and want to know more, start from season 2.
Part 2 - The Forensics can be found on your favourite podcast app on Saturday.​​

Western Australia police are searching for anybody who may have come into contact with Richard Dorrough in the past twenty years

The Claremont Serial Trial Podcast 
JUMP IN NOW: Claremont the Trial Catch Up
 Part 1 
 2020-03-06

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-cb3cp-83960ad?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share  


Welcome to this special catch up episode of Claremont in Conversation.
We’re at the half-way mark in WA’s trial of the century.
If you’ve never listened before, this is your perfect chance to get up to speed on everything that’s happened in WA’s trial of the century, without having to listen to 57 episodes.
If you’ve been following the trial since day one, this is your perfect chance to recap the last three months before the trial moves into fibre evidence.
It’s been the trial WA has waited more than two decades for. Between 1996 and 1997 in the affluent, beautiful and safe suburb of Claremont, the disappearance of three women struck fear into the lives of the people of Perth, Western Australia.

Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon are names most people in WA know. They’re known because they’re the three victims of the Claremont Serial Killer.
Sarah was the first to go missing, in the early hours of January 27, 1996. She called a taxi from a Telstra phone box in Claremont just after 2am. Three minutes later the taxi arrived but she wasn’t there. She’s never been seen since.

Five months later, Jane went missing in almost identical circumstances to Sarah. She had been out in Claremont with friends, except when they decided to go home, she stayed. The last time she was seen was on CCTV vision. It took 32 seconds for Jane to never be seen alive again.
Then in March 1997, Ciara, who had been travelling around the world, had just returned home. Friends convinced her to go out, she reluctantly agreed. The 27-year-old spent just 15 minutes in the Continental Hotel in Claremont and decided to walk home. The last time she was ever seen alive, she was leaning into a white Commodore Station Wagon.
These killings went unsolved for 23 years. Now, the man police and the state say is the man who murdered Sarah, Jane and Ciara is on trial. His name is Bradley Robert Edwards.
Join the Claremont in Conversation team, Natalie Bonjolo and The West Australian Newspaper’s legal affairs editor Tim Clarke as they take you through the first part of the Claremont Serial Killings trial, known as the “civilian witnesses”.
Hear from the people who knew the victims, some of the last people to see them alive and hear from the people involved in the accused man’s life - his wives, friends and colleagues as the prosecution try to paint a picture of what would drive a man to kill three lone, vulnerable women.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode and want to know more, start from season 2.
Part 2 - The Forensics can be found on your favourite podcast app on Saturday.

Adam McCulloch WA -Sergeant-has told the Claremont serial killings trial an error was made in relation to a crucial piece of forensic evidence

WikiLeaks – public enemy Julian Assange | DW Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgw6FoFPhjo
DW Documentary
The Wikileaks revelations shocked the world, and co-founder Julian Assange shot to fame. WikiLeaks exposed U.S. army war crimes, the secret emails of top international politicians and controversial secret service surveillance methods. Assange’s relentless pursuit of total transparency has changed the face of journalism and given rise to much imitation, as well as fierce criticism. But it seems the spell has broken. After spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Julian Assange is now in a cell at Belmarsh, a maximum-security prison in London. In many ways, he is being treated as a terrorist. His health has suffered. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer has even referred to a "murderous system” designed to make an example of Assange. Assange took on a very powerful opponent. The U.S.A. is pressing charges for obtaining and disclosing classified information. Now, the extradition hearing is about to begin in London. If Assange is extradited from England to the U.S.A., he faces up to 175 years in jail for espionage. Experts are expecting one of the most significant trials of its kind to date. "WikiLeaks - Public Enemy Julian Assange” is a detailed depiction of the rise and fall of Julian Assange. The film reveals some personal glimpses into different aspects of the story: meetings with Assange’s worried father, talks with high-ranking U.S. officials, an exclusive interview with whistleblower Edward Snowden. And every time the key question re-emerges: Is Julian Assange a journalist or a spy? -------------------------------------------------------------------- DW Documentary gives you knowledge beyond the headlines. Watch high-class documentaries from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events. Subscribe and explore the world around you with DW Documentary. Subscribe to: DW Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW39... DW Documental (Spanish): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocumental DW Documentary وثائقية دي دبليو: (Arabic): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocarabia For more visit: http://www.dw.com/en/tv/docfilm/s-3610 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwdocumentary/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dw.stories DW netiquette policy: https://p.dw.com/p/MF1G
Category
Education

Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmer

Ms Cutler vanished in June 1988 after leaving a staff party at the Parmelia Hilton. Her unoccupied car was found overturned 50m off Cottesloe beach two days later. Her body has never been found. She said there had been calls to police since the $250,000 reward was announced in June and the information had been helpful.
Julie Cutler disappearance: Police reveal purse found in 1996 may have belonged to missing woman
Gabrielle KnowlesPerthNow, November 27, 2018
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/julie-cutler-disappearance-police-reveal-purse-found-in-1996-belonged-to-missing-woman-ng-b881033349z

Kevin Akers points to where he found Colby's canoe. On the other side of the green spit behind him is where Colby's body was found 9 days later.

Scientists Say This Is What Happens To The Human Body After Death
BIOLOGY By Staff Writer
Scientists Say This Is What Happens To The Human Body After Death

MAGELLAN TIMES
https://magellantimes.com/science/biology/scientists-what-happens-body-after-death/

Rest in peace – it’s a wish many of us have made when a loved one passes away. However, an Australian researcher has found that the human body doesn’t necessarily meet death with the serenity we’d like to think of. Instead, this is what really happens to a body when life ends – and it’s surprising to say the least.

You see, Alyson Wilson made her discovery while working at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research, also known as AFTER. The organization has its own “human body farm” facility, where researchers study human remains in various conditions outdoors. And this scientific research helps bolster areas of crime investigation, especially concerning deceased human victims.

So for 17 months Wilson used time-lapse cameras to record a body as it decomposed on AFTER’s grounds. And the resulting footage revealed the truth about how remains break down over time. Strikingly, it’s not as straightforward as it once seemed – and the truth could change the way experts investigate deaths from here on out.

For many years, the United States had the world’s only facilities for studying human decomposition. Of course, these institutions provided plenty of valuable research into the way that bodies break down after death. But researchers also recognized that Australia’s unique climate could yield variations or new results in this specialist area. These, in turn, could be better suited for Australian police to draw upon.

Now, ecological and geological conditions in Australia differ from those in the States. Plus, the island continent has its own unique climate, as mentioned. So, researchers in that corner of the world knew that they had to open their own research facility to study decomposition as it happens in their environment.

And that’s precisely what AFTER came to be. You see, the donated space allows researchers to learn more about forensic taphonomy, the study of postmortem decomposition and remains. There, experts have been working on the grounds since 2016, when AFTER opened its doors. In fact, they’ve brought together forensics experts, academics and police officers, as all entities are involved in death investigations.

Furthermore, the experts there use the facilities to better understand human decomposition through a variety of lenses – archaeological, historical and forensic. As such, their findings help criminal justice professionals, as well as those in science and medicine, to better understand their field. In any case, it might surprise you just how big this research site is.

Indeed, studies there take place over 12 acres of bushland in a remote area outside Sydney. And maximum-security fencing borders and protects the grounds where experts conduct their research. While the land in this area doesn’t represent all of the country’s unique climate zones, tests can be applied nationally and internationally to places with similar weather patterns.

So far, experts have focused on fine-tuning their ways of estimating a person’s time of death, from the bones left behind. To do so, they have studied a slew of factors, from bacterial activity to weight loss to surface changes. And taking these different factors into account, help give a more accurate picture of what’s happened to a victim.

According to AFTER’s website, the “likely outcomes of the research are an improved understanding of time-dependent factors involved in the deterioration of human skeletal remains and teeth.” That information would take into consideration the ways that different types of tissue break down in Australian-specific conditions, too.

All of this combined would be a huge contribution to the international taphonomic community. And yet, this hasn’t been the only experiment undertaken at the Australian facility since its grounds have opened. No, for you see one could have an impact in the investigation of war crimes on a particularly large scale.

Yes, because an AFTER team, this time led by Dr. Soren Blau and Jon Sterenberg, will look into the effects of decomposition in mass graves. More specifically, the research will look into the environmental changes brought about by decomposition, and how they can help experts find graves of any size.

Similar research has already taken place abroad, at the University of Tennessee’s Forensic Anthropology Centre. But AFTER’s study will mark the first time such research has taken place in the southern hemisphere using human bodies. And having data from both sides of the globe can make them simpler to apply in real-world scenarios.

Another interesting task will be the study of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released into the air as bodies decompose. These VOCs vary from place to place, so an Australian study will help pinpoint which ones emerge from human remains in the Sydney area. And such knowledge would have a very practical implementation, especially for police investigators.

That’s right, because understanding which VOCs appear in Australia would greatly improve the training of cadaver dogs which are taught to sniff out these important elements. Specifically, officers would be able to train their canines with geographically specific smells, helping the pooches to pinpoint the location of a decomposing body.

Of course, the team at AFTER couldn’t do any of this research without the proper materials. And this doesn’t just include the protected fields on which they work. No, the experts also need human bodies to study and examine, which they get through donations. This comes either from a deceased person’s next of kin, or from someone before they die who agrees to it in principle.

As of September 2019, AFTER had a total of 70 donor bodies on hand to help with its research. And associate professor Jodie Ward highlighted the pivotal role that donations played in their studies. She told ABC News, “This research and training is only possible because of the generous and invaluable contribution our donors and their families have chosen to make to forensic science.”

Indeed, those donations allowed researcher Alyson Wilson to perform a study which revealed some fascinating truths about bodies after death. Firstly, she used a donated corpse and time lapse cameras to check the accuracy of a formula used to calculate decomposition. Of course, the equation came from the northern hemisphere, so she wanted to see if it worked accurately in Australia, too.

And Wilson’s work was vital, considering just how different the northern and southern hemispheres can be. She explained, “Until we had AFTER, most of the science on how bodies decomposed was based on the northern hemisphere, where the climate is different, the weather is different and even the insects can be different.”

To check the decomposition equation worked on both sides of the world, Wilson used the time-lapse cameras to capture the process in real time. And furthermore, her work marked the first time that such technology has ever recorded decomposition. With the videos logged, the researcher did confirm that the original formula worked on her side of the globe, too.

Yet Wilson’s footage did more than just confirm the merits of the equation calculated in the northern hemisphere. Indeed, the medical science undergraduate noticed something else surprising in the time-lapse recordings of the decomposing body. As the human remains broke down, they moved – and they weren’t just slight changes of position, either.

Wilson described the footage, saying, “What we found was that the arms were significantly moving, so that arms that started off down beside the body ended up out to the side of the body. One arm went out and then came back in to nearly touching the side of the body again.”

What made the footage even more shocking was the time span over which the corpse continued to move. Yes, Wilson said that she knew the body would shift as decomposition began. However, it continued to change its position over the 17 months’ research, a much longer time than expected.

And Wilson had her theories as to why the cadaver moved so drastically over the nearly 1.5-year period. She said that it likely contracted as the ligaments dried out over time. And knowing that corpses behave this way post-mortem could be a huge insight for police investigators, the researcher continued.

As Wilson told ABC News, “This research is very important to help law enforcement to solve crime and it also assists in disaster investigations. It’s important for victims and victims’ families, and in a lot of cases it gives the victim a voice to tell their last story.” Others in the field couldn’t help but agree – and elaborate further.

Dr. Xanthe Mallett, a U.K. based expert for example, said that Wilson’s recordings really excited her. You see, the University of Newcastle lecturer also works with AFTER and supervised the undergraduate’s work. And she noted that many investigators had previously assumed that a discovered body was found as it was left.

In fact, detectives until recently might have blamed a body’s changed position on another person or, perhaps, even an animal. However, they now have to contend with Wilson’s findings – that bodies might just move on their own. Such a possibility was news to everyone in the field, as Mallett explained.

Specifically, Dr. Mallett told ABC News, “What isn’t known is that the body moves as part of the decomposition process, and it’s the first time that it’s been captured, as far as I know.” Although deputy AFTER director, Dr. Maiken Ueland, agreed, she did point out some reasons why bodies have already been known to shift.

Paul Yovich SC is trying to cast reasonable doubt in the DNA evidence. (ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)

David John Caporn-Former Assistant Western Australian Police Commissioner stated in  Television Interview that he thinks about Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and CIara Glennon everyday ... but spent years accusing the wrong people of the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings ...

 Claremont killer trial LIVE: Ciara's and accused's DNA were 'exposed to same environmental conditions'
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/claremont-killer-trial-live-international-dna-expert-who-made-breakthrough-discovery-to-take-stand-20200309-p5488a.html
 
9th March, 2020 10.49am
DNA expert who helped developed low copy number testing takes witness stand
Dr. Jonathan Whitaker. CREDIT:LINKEDIN


Dr Jonathan Whitaker has been called to the stand.
He has been a forensic scientist in the UK for 30 years and holds a doctorate in philosophy and molecular genetics.
His former lab, the Forensic Science Service, was the first to develop low copy number DNA testing, which allowed for DNA profiles to be extracted from smaller amounts of biological material.
The technology was first used in a court case in 1999.
The testing was carried out on a number of Macro-related exhibits in 2008, including Ciara's fingernail samples, being a combined sample of her left thumbnail and middle fingernail (AJM40/42) and a combined sample of her right index and ring fingernails (AJM46/48).
Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo is going through how low copy number testing works, Dr Whitaker's qualifications in the field, and the "hundreds" of court cases he has given evidence in.
"I've previously given evidence in [the UK], Australia, Sweden, Ireland, various countries," he said.

9th March 2020 - 11.07am
'There needs to be an opportunity and mechanism for contamination to occur': DNA expert
Ms Barbagallo is now asking Dr Whitaker about his definition of contamination.
He has said contamination is the introduction of DNA into a sample in the post-crime forensic process.
"There needs to be a source of DNA ... there needs to be an opportunity to get that DNA into another place ... and there needs to be some sort of mechanism, some way the DNA has been taken from one place to another," he said.
Defence lawyer, Paul Yovich, in his opening address, said he had been unable to identify a specific event when Mr Edwards' DNA - which was being stored in the Pathwest lab within the Karrakatta rape exhibits - could have contamination Ciara's fingernails.
"As to the DNA evidence and its provenance, the defence does not put forward a specific alternative scenario," he said on November 27, 2019.
"The accused man does not know how DNA matching his profile came to be part of this sample and no breaches or failures of lab protocol or procedure have been documented that directly explain it."

9th March 2020 - 11.17am
Court has adjourned for morning tea
It will resume at 11.40am.

12.24pm
Ciara's and accused's DNA 'were exposed to same environmental conditions': DNA expert
Ms Barbagallo has now moved on to asking Dr Whitaker about his involvement in the testing and review of Ciara's fingernail samples AJM40/42 (left thumbnail and middle fingernail) and AJM46/48 (right index and ring fingernails) in 2008.
Mr Edwards' DNA profile was detected in the AJM40/42 sample.
Dr Whitaker said he was one of the scientists who decided to combine the samples from each hand.
"The nature of such was they were just appearing as debris with no understanding of what, if any, biological material was on them at that time so the strategy going forward was about trying to maximise any DNA that was there in order to try get a DNA profile at the end of the process," he said.
He agreed with Ms Barbagallo that combining the two meant, if a result were returned, it would not be known if the DNA had been recovered from one, or both fingernails.
Ciara's left thumbnail was torn from when she allegedly scratched Mr Edwards in a fight for her life in March 1997.
Dr Whitaker is now being taken through the test results from AJM40/42.
He has explained that the DNA test carried out analysed 10 loci (or DNA strand sites), and gender.
Each person has a maximum of two alleles at each loci - one inherited from their mother, and one inherited from their father.
On review of Ciara's fingernail results, four alleles were noted at some loci sites, meaning it was a mix of two people's DNA profiles - Ciara's and Mr Edwards'.
Dr Whitaker noted the DNA profiles were degraded in a similar way, meaning "they'd been exposed to the same environmental conditions which effected the DNA in a similar way".
"DNA will gradually breakdown overtime, so it might be effected by UV light, it might be effected by humidity, by bacterial action, by chemicals produced if something decayed in that way."
Ciara's body was found in bushland in Eglinton on April 3, 1997 - 19 days after she appeared.
Mr Edwards' DNA taken from his Karrakatta rape victim was taken within hours of the attack through intimate swabs, and was stored in the lab freezer when not undergoing testing.

12.59pm
Court has broken for lunch
Dr Whitaker is now reviewing the DNA low copy number test results for AJM46/48, which he concluded came from one source, being Ciara.
He said the sample showed the same degree of degradation as AJM40/42.
Dr Whitaker has taken around 30 minutes to go through the scientific detail of the results.

Court has adjourned for lunch and will resume at 2.15pm.

9th March 2020 - 1.12pm
Catch up on all the witnesses to take the stand this year

 9th March 2020 - 2.54pm

DNA expert dives into detail of DNA test results as Edwards' victims attend court

Court has resumed and Ms Barbagallo is continuing to take Dr Whitaker through the specific details of the AJM40/42 and AJM46/48 low copy number DNA test results, explaining the peak numbers at each loci - or DNA strand area.

Sitting in court to hear today's evidence are two of the women Mr Edwards admits to attacking, his Karrakatta rape victim and Huntingdale sex attack victim.

Mr Edwards is quietly listening to Dr Whitaker's evidence, which at times is quite technical. He on occasions takes notes, as he has done for most of the trial.

9th March 2020 -  3.47pm
'Our testing revealed accused's DNA profile before we knew who he was': DNA expert
Ms Barbagallo has moved onto January 2009, when Dr Whitaker informed WA Police of the male DNA profile found underneath Ciara's fingernails.
Following the correspondence, Pathwest sent a reference profile of Ciara's DNA to the UK so the FSS lab could conduct its own testing using the same test that had been used on the fingernails, to compare all the relevant alleles (different DNA tests, show different loci, or DNA strand areas).
"It was really to confirm our view that that female profile we got from AJM40/42 had indeed come from Ms Glennon, it was just to confirm our assumption or expectation," he said.
The testing confirmed Ciara's DNA profile.
Following the discovery that the unknown male DNA profile detected underneath her fingernails matched the DNA profile of an unknown rapist whose profile was already in the Pathwest database - intimate swabs from that rape victim were also sent to the UK.
Testing in the UK lab further confirmed the male DNA from each offence matched the same unknown male profile.
Following Mr Edwards' arrest in late 2016, a saliva swab taken from him was sent to New Zealand's ESR lab for testing using the same testing as used in the FSS lab in 2008 - to enable a direct comparison.
Those reference sample results were then sent to Dr Whitaker to review.

"At the time when we did our interpretation [of the male DNA found on AJM40/42] ... the reference sample which became of interest [Mr Edwards'] was never available to us," he said, adding there was no opportunity for any bias to have occurred in reading the test results in 2008.

4.01pm
Mr Edwards' DNA was a perfect match to profile found under fingernails
Dr Whitaker is now going through Mr Edwards' reference profile, and comparing it to the male DNA recovered from Ciara's fingernails.
His profile was a perfect match to every allele that did not match Ciara's DNA profile, and therefore must have come from the male contributor.
His profile was as follows: 15,18 | 16,18 | 9,13 | 17,17 | 14,15 | 30.2,31 | 16,22 | 13,15 | 6,8 | 21,23.
"The results are what I'd expect to find if the same man was the contributor to the [Karrakatta rape victim] sample as was the contributor to the fingernail sample," Dr Whitaker said.
"Those two profiles match each other."

 4.02pm
Court has wrapped up for the day

It will resume at 10am tomorrow when Dr Whitaker will continue to give evidence.

Mark Phillip Dixie Violent Past Revealed: Violent past of Sally Anne's killer - and how he may have struck before
22 February 2008
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-517552/Revealed-Violent-past-Sally-Annes-killer--struck-before.html
Mark Dixie has left a world-wide trail of shattered lives - and several possible murder victims.
In Britain, he was responsible for a series of violent sex attacks on women.
In Spain, he was suspected of battering and molesting three women within minutes.
And while he was working as a chef in Perth, Western Australia, there were three unsolved killings of attractive young women.

​Police believe Mark Dixie may have committed other serious crimes in Australia
He was also involved in several incidents of violence or perverted behaviour. But he managed to avoid leaving any crucial DNA evidence and was deported back to Britain - to murder Sally Anne Bowman.

​Mark Phillip Dixie was born in Balham, south London on September 24, 1970 to advertising manager Phillip Dixie and his wife Lesley. Eighteen months later the couple divorced and Dixie never saw his father again.
His mother remarried in 1980 and his stepfather Ronald McDonald regularly beat and abused him. Two years later, his mother dumped him on the doorstep of a children's home in Streatham and has never bothered to make contact since.
Dixie was taken into care and started his criminal career at 14 with a series of muggings in Plumstead. At 15 he was expelled from school for punching a teacher, and spent six weeks at a young offenders' unit as a punishment for vandalism.
At 16 he was referred by the children's home to a psychiatrist following concerns about his emotional problems and the effect of his heavy cannabis abuse on his mental state, which led to at least two indecent assaults on women.
At the home he met his first girlfriend, Sandra Beckhaus, and they moved in together to a flat in Plumstead where a Jehovah's Witness called one day. Dixie, then 17, punched her, fracturing her jaw, and grabbed her throat demanding sex. She managed to escape but said the attack by the 'monster' had ruined her life.
Dixie was jailed for six months for indecent assault and actual bodily harm in August 1988. Less than a year later he was given a community service order after exposing himself to two women.

Click here for Ch\nnel Nine News Claremont Serial Killings Trial Updates 

https://www.9news.com.au/national/claremont-serial-killer-trial-wa-police-statement-errors-forensic-investigation/fca6d95a-8c01-4d11-9691-300f74ca97e8

The Claremont serial killings case hinges on DNA evidence — so here's everything you need to know
Analysis
By Andrea Mayes - 8th March2020

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-08/why-dna-in-the-claremont-serial-killing-case-is-so-important/12032562?utm_source=alertme&utm_medium=email


PHOTO: Bradley Robert Edwards denies committing the crimes known as the Claremont serial killings. (ABC News: Anne Barnetson)
PHOTO: Paul Yovich SC is trying to cast reasonable doubt in the DNA evidence. (ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)
PHOTO: The DNA evidence is just one strand of the prosecution's case against Edwards. (ABC News)
PHOTO: Fingernail scrapings from Ciara Glennon were sealed in forensic evidence containers. Archive photo (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
PHOTO: This Telstra-issued knife was found near where Jane Rimmer's body was discovered in the outer Perth suburb of Wellard. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
PHOTO: Edwards admits it's his DNA on the crucial samples, but disputes how it got there. (Facebook: KLAC)


You could be forgiven for thinking the Claremont serial killing case is all but over, the evidence so unlikely to convict accused triple murderer Bradley Edwards that the trial might as well wind up early.
"DNA debacle", "Huge DNA blow to prosecution's case" and "Gobsmacking blunders" are just some of the headlines we've seen in recent weeks.
But in the context of the marathon trial, likely to span six or seven months, just how important is the DNA evidence, and the errors scientists have admitted making when handling samples from the case?
Here's a rundown.
So what's the deal with the DNA?
Lawyer Ciara Glennon, 27, was the last of three young women to disappear from the streets of Claremont over a 14-month period from January 1996 to March 1997.
It is the prosecution's case that in a desperate but ultimately futile fight for her life, Ms Glennon scratched or clawed at Edwards and in the process some of his DNA was deposited underneath at least one of the fingernails on her left hand.
Only the bodies of Ms Glennon and childcare worker Jane Rimmer have ever been found. Teenage receptionist Sarah Spiers remains missing.
Despite extensive testing of multiple samples taken from the two bodies and the surrounding areas where they were discovered — analyses that took place over 20 years — only Ms Glennon's fingernails yielded any useful DNA.
The DNA extracted from a combined sample of Ms Glennon's left thumbnail and left middle finger is the sole piece of DNA evidence connecting Edwards to the murders.
Hence the protracted amount of time spent on it.
But hasn't the DNA evidence been contaminated?
That is what the defence is trying to convince Justice Stephen Hall of.
Edwards, a former Telstra worker, admits it is his DNA found on the fingernails and he has no explanation for how it came to be there.
In his opening, defence counsel Paul Yovich SC said the chance of contamination in a laboratory was remote.
But he said the fact there had been a whole load of other instances of contamination at PathWest involving other samples from the Claremont case meant Justice Stephen Hall would "have to consider just how remote the chance was here and whether it could be safely ruled out, even if it was remote."

In most cases, DNA from a scientist working at PathWest was found on a sample, sometimes years after the event. These are:
An intimate swab taken from Jane Rimmer found with DNA from PathWest scientist Laurie Webb in it
Vegetation from Ms Rimmer's burial site that had DNA from PathWest scientists Louise King and Aleksander Bagdonavicius on it
Another piece of vegetation from the same site found to contain Ms King's DNA
A sub-sample of Ms Rimmer's hair containing a female PathWest staffer's DNA
Another intimate swab, this one from Ms Glennon, found to have scientist Scott Egan's DNA on it
A razor taken from Ms Glennon's house that had Mr Webb's DNA on it
An earring found to have been contaminated by scientist David Fegredo
But unusually, there were also a couple of samples found to contain Mr Webb's DNA despite the fact he never worked on them. These were:
A sample of Ms Rimmer's fingernails
A knife connected to Ms Glennon

How could this be?
Asked to explain what happened in those instances Mr Egan, who has been at PathWest since 1996, said Mr Webb was "in the vicinity" when the samples were processed, and his DNA could have been on equipment and furniture in the lab.
He also could have sneezed or coughed in the area, which might have transferred DNA to the items, Mr Egan said.
And significantly, the scientist agreed with defence counsel Paul Yovich that the transfer could have occurred due to the "natural movement of air".
Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo emphatically insisted in her opening address that "DNA within a particular sample did not just fly around a laboratory" — a point reinforced by PathWest scientist Martin Blooms in his testimony last month.
But if Mr Yovich can show that DNA can in fact be transferred in a laboratory where strict cross-contamination protocols were observed, he may be able to cast doubt on the integrity of the all-important Ciara Glennon fingernail samples.
There is also another documented instance of contamination of a sample by a person who had not come into contact with it.
This is another twig from Ms Rimmer's burial site which was found to contain the DNA from the teenage victim of a totally unrelated crime in 2002.
It turns out samples from that crime were processed five days before samples from the twig were examined, in the same area of PathWest and using the same batch of single-use sample tubes later used for the Rimmer samples.
Mr Egan agreed with Mr Yovich that DNA being transferred through the equipment was a "highly unlikely mechanism for the transfer of DNA", but it nonetheless happened.

What about Ciara Glennon's fingernails?
Amid all these examples of contamination, it is important to note that there has been no evidence that directly proves the crucial DNA evidence on which the state relies has been contaminated.
And there has been plenty of evidence that the chances of Edwards' DNA somehow contaminating Ms Glennon's fingernail samples is "very unlikely".
You might remember that PathWest was already holding samples of his DNA in April 1997 when the fingernail samples first came into the lab, even if they didn't know the samples were from him at the time.
These were in the form of samples related to the brutal rape of a 17-year-old girl at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995 — a crime Edwards only confessed to late last year.
Tests were done on intimate samples from the rape in February 1996, and then again in May 1997.
Between February 1996 and April 1997 — when Ms Glennon's fingernails came into PathWest's custody — the laboratory had been cleaned "hundreds if not thousands" of times, Mr Egan told the court.
Of the two critical Glennon fingernail samples, one of them — known as AJM 40 (from her left thumb) — was kept in a sterile jar in PathWest's freezer, unopened and untouched ("pristine", in Ms Barbagallo's words), and marked "debris only, not suitable for analysis".
The other one, called AJM42 — from her left middle fingernail — was opened just twice by PathWest, once on April 9, 1997, and again in 2004.
Time-wise, more than a year elapsed between the rape samples being opened and AJM42 being opened.
"Based on that time frame, I can't see any viable mechanism for that contamination to occur," Mr Egan said.

Can DNA 'jump between boxes'?
Both the rape samples and the two critical fingernail samples were stored in the PathWest freezer, although in different locations.
Could Edwards' DNA have been "jumping between boxes" in the freezer, as Ms Barbagallo put it?
The short answer is no, Mr Egan said this week.
"The DNA would have to get out of the tube with the lid on it, out of the box that has the lid on it, through the box with the lid on it and then into the tube with the lid closed on it," he said.
There is also the fact the rape samples contain what is known as "mixed-profile DNA" originating from both Edwards and his young victim — yet none of her DNA has been found on Ms Glennon's samples.

So will the mistakes sink the prosecution's case?
It is true that PathWest made a litany of errors relating to the Claremont case, some of them more serious than others.
It was Mr Egan's evidence that there had been 28 mistakes in the two decades of the case, amounting to an error rate of about 0.16 per cent out of the 17,000 times PathWest staff dealt with Claremont-related items.
This, he said, compared favourably with the error rate from a similar lab in The Netherlands of between 0.3 to 0.4 per cent.
However under cross-examination from Mr Yovich, more mistakes were revealed that had not been counted in PathWest's official statistics.
These included four "blank" samples sent to New Zealand for further DNA testing in 2004 along with AJM42 which were found to contain a staff member's DNA.
Remember, the onus is on the state to prove "beyond reasonable doubt" that Edwards murdered Ms Spiers, Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon.
Mr Yovich, on the other hand, needs to sow enough reasonable doubt in Justice Hall's mind to make any conviction unsafe.

Is there other evidence?
Yes, DNA is just one part of the prosecution's case, albeit a very important one.
There is also:
Propensity evidence — the fact Edwards carried out what the state describes as "strikingly similar" attacks on other women, including the 17-year-old girl he snatched from Claremont late at night, tied up and brutally raped.
The Telstra Living Witnesses — the string of people who testified about a Telstra vehicle acting suspiciously in the Claremont area around the time of the women's disappearances.
The "emotional upset" argument — the prosecution's case that Edwards committed crimes at times of emotional crisis in his life
Fibres found in the hair of both Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon — evidence which has yet to be heard — which the state says match fibres from Edwards's car and clothing.
With the trial not looking likely to end before June, and Justice Hall likely to take months to deliberate on such a complex case, it will be a long while before we know whether the DNA argument has been won by the prosecution or the defence.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, perth-6000, wa, claremont-6010

Who were the Claremont victims?
Sarah Spiers. Jane Rimmer. Ciara Glennon. Three women whose names were etched into Perth's consciousness more than 20 years ago.

Who were the Claremont serial killer's victims Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon?
By Andrea Mayes - 25 Nov 2019, 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-24/who-were-claremont-serial-killer-victims-spiers-glennon-rimmer/11220316

PHOTO: Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon (left to right) all disappeared from Claremont. (ABC News: Liam Phillips)

The heartbreak of the parents is shockingly apparent as they plead for information about their missing children.
Their pain is marked on their exhausted faces as they ask, trembling, for public help to find the daughters whose names have become indelibly etched in the minds of the people of Perth over the past two decades.

Sarah Spiers. Jane Rimmer. Ciara Glennon.

We think we know them, but we don't and we never will.
More than 20 years later, it is confronting to watch footage of their still-hopeful parents speaking at police media conferences, armed with the terrible knowledge that their beloved daughters are never coming home.
Denis Glennon, whose 27-year-old daughter Ciara went missing in March 1997, wipes his tears with a neatly folded hanky as he pleads for public help three days after she was last seen.
The white-haired man is ashen-faced as he faces the media at police headquarters, addressing them in his gentle Irish lilt.

"We are a strong family and I don't cry easily but … Ciara's alive, we believe that, and we are confident that the way she's been brought up she will fight on, and we are hopeful that she will be found at this stage," he says.
"We need your help and your prayers."
In the intervening years since the young women disappeared — Sarah in January 1996, Jane in June of the same year and Ciara in March 1997 — the focus of police and the media alike has been on catching the killer.
Every apparent new lead, new focus, new investigative technique, new suspect has been endlessly analysed and scrutinised by a public eager to see the culprit apprehended and punished.
In some ways the focus on the search for the perpetrator has subsumed the identities of the victims themselves, though their names remain as familiar as ever.

So who were Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon?
Part of the reason their disappearances resonated with the public so deeply is their relatability, the fact that they were young women who should have had their whole lives ahead of them.
Sarah, Jane and Ciara were like so many people of their age at a time when Perth was still emerging from its image as a sleepy and isolated backwater.
Each came from respectable, loving, middle-class families, had full-time jobs and had moved out of home. Young and fun loving, they had close friendship circles and bright futures.

Sarah Spiers
Sarah Spiers, just 18, was the youngest of the three women and the first to go missing.
Brought up in rural Western Australia, her father Don was a shearing contractor based in Darkan, in the state's Wheatbelt region.
Like many country families, the Spiers sent their children to boarding school in Perth when they reached high school age, and so Sarah became a boarder at the prestigious Iona Presentation College, near the banks of the Swan River in Mosman Park.
After graduating, she attended secretarial school before getting a receptionist job with an engineering consultancy in Subiaco called BSD.
A friend from this time remembered her as "an amazing person who was full of life and laughter".
By this time she was sharing a flat in South Perth with her older sister, Amanda, with whom she was extremely close, as she was to her parents.
"Sarah's a very caring person and she's just very attached to Amanda," her mother Carol would later tell reporters.
"Amanda's her best friend, not only her sister, and not to keep in contact with Amanda, even more than us I would say, is just so unusual."
Amanda had picked Sarah and her friends up from the Ocean Beach Hotel on the night of Australia Day 1996, before dropping them off shortly after midnight at Club Bayview in Claremont.
"She was happy, gave me a hug, kiss, 'thanks for dropping me off' … that's the last time I saw her," Amanda said.
Although still a teenager, Sarah was both thoughtful and responsible, the sort of person who would honour her commitments, her family said.
It was completely out of character for the teenager not to contact her family the next day, and unheard of for her not to be home when she had arranged to have her friends stay that Sunday night.
Despite her youth and country background, Sarah was well-versed in personal safety and her family was perplexed about why she left a nightclub alone after midnight.
"She wasn't ignorant to the dangers of the city," Don Spiers told reporters.
"It was unusual for her not to be in company at that time because we stressed to them always to keep company, never to be alone, and that was probably the most unusual thing — that she did part company with her friends."

Jane Rimmer
Jane Rimmer's family were just as troubled when she went missing from the same area.
Like Sarah, the 23-year-old childcare worker also had an extremely tight bond with her family and kept in close, regular contact.
Although she had moved out of home, she would typically return to her parents' house on Saturday mornings with a basketful of washing and would spend time chatting to them about her week.
The family usually had Sunday lunch together at the family home and Jane would also drop into see her mum on weeknights on her way back from work.
Speaking to journalists, her father Trevor admitted he was biased when it came to his daughter, whom he and his wife Jenny adored.
"Obviously, we thought the sun shined out of her," he said.
"She grew up as I guess every dad would like his little girl to grow up.
"She was a cute little thing, growing into a pretty little thing, then might I say it, I think she got into a beautiful young lass."
Jane grew up in Shenton Park and attended the local Rosalie Primary School and then Hollywood High School, while holding down a part-time job in a nearby deli.
A childhood friend who attended both primary and high school with her described her as a well-liked girl who was in with the popular crowd at high school.
"She was a real surfer chick, she was always down at Cottesloe Beach," the friend said.
"She had a boyfriend who was a bit older than her, and I always remember her writing his name with texta on the back of her hand."
Fond of children, Jane took a job at a childcare centre in Nedlands when she left school, then worked as a nanny for a family in Esperance.
When that job ended, she came back to Perth and was able to return to her old employer in Nedlands. It was to prove her last job.
The friend said Jane would often hang out at Club Bayview with friends and her entire friendship circle was "absolutely devastated" when she disappeared.
A home movie of Jane at a family wedding not long before she died provides an insight into her personality.
"Bubbly" is the term her father used to describe her in interviews, and that quality is clearly on display in the video.
Although there is no sound, a beaming Jane can be seen sitting in church, wearing a short black dress edged with white daisies, and later throwing her arms around the bride and groom in turn, congratulating them on their nuptials before sharing a laugh with them.
She is then seen on the makeshift wedding dancefloor as Abba's Dancing Queen plays in the background, happy and relaxed among family and friends.
Her open, friendly face is also seen to light up in CCTV vision released by police of her standing outside Claremont's Continental Hotel the night she disappeared.
Jane's warm smile is in evidence as a dark-haired man — the man police suspected could have been responsible for abducting and murdering her — moves toward her in the grainy, black and white vision.
Trevor Rimmer never got to see his daughter's alleged killer arrested and charged.
He died in 2008.

Ciara Glennon
At 27, Ciara Glennon had already begun establishing her professional career as a lawyer.
Having graduated from UWA in 1992 with degrees in law and Japanese, she gained a sought-after internship at law firm Blake Dawson Waldron, where she began work in early 1993.
Standing just 152 centimetres tall, Ciara was diminutive in stature but not in nature.
"Resourceful, resilient, strong-willed," was the way her father Denis described her as he appealed for public help to find his missing daughter.
Born in Zambia to Irish parents, Ciara and her family settled in Perth when she was six or seven years old, and lived in the affluent riverside suburb of Mosman Park.
A keen ballet dancer from an early age, Ciara was to retain her passion for ballet well into her teenage years and beyond.
Her beribboned pink ballet shoes adorned her coffin.
The adventurous young woman had just finished a year of travelling around the globe when she returned to Perth just two weeks before her disappearance.
She had come back to be a bridesmaid at her younger sister Denise's wedding, and had immediately reconnected with her wide circle of friends and colleagues, slotting back into her old job at Blake Dawson Waldron.
University friends contacted by the ABC, many of them lawyers who did not want to speak on the record, remembered Ciara as a passionate and spirited woman with a great sense of humour.
They spoke of happy memories of shared holidays on Rottnest Island, at parties and social gatherings where Ciara was in her element.
In his heartfelt eulogy to his treasured daughter, Denis Glennon spoke of her "hereditary free spirit" and "eagerness for life", as well as her honesty, sense of fairness and deep-held Christianity.
"You were what all parents want for our children," he told the hundreds of mourners who packed into St Mary's Cathedral in the Perth CBD for her funeral service.
"You were a bright and healthy young person with the prospects of a successful career, lots of friends, and a sunny outlook on the world."
Bradley Robert Edwards, 50, has been charged with the murders of all three women.
He has already pleaded guilty to attacking another woman in her Huntingdale home and raping a teenage girl in Karrakatta Cemetery, but is contesting the three murder charges.

Bradley Robert Edwards's trial is due to begin on November 25.

Sarah Anne McMahon, was last seen alive on the 8th November, 2000 .. when she spoke to Donald Morey on the phone as she left her work place at Hugall & Hoile in Claremon who are Irrigation & Reticulation Systems offering a range of products and services including leaky pipes and flood irrigation

Claremont serial killings trial told of mysterious man sighted on night Ciara Glennon vanished
By Andrea Mayes - 13 Dec 2019, 
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-13/claremont-serial-killings-trial-mysterious-man-ciara-glennon/11795230

PHOTO: Bradley Edwards is accused of killing Ciara Glennon after abducting her in Claremont. (Fairfax Media)
PHOTO: Bradley Edwards worked for Telstra around the time the three women disappeared. (Facebook: KLAC)
PHOTO: The deserted bush road where Jane Rimmer's body was dumped. (Supplied: Supreme Court of WA)
PHOTO: Bradley Edwards is on trial for the murder of three Perth women. (Supplied: Facebook, Supreme Court of WA)
PHOTO: Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmer were all last seen alive in the Claremont entertainment precinct. (Fairfax Media)

The men accused of the Claremont killings
A number of men were in the frame for the shocking crimes, including one who was relentlessly pursued as the prime suspect.
A suspicious man was seen lurking in a side street just metres from a woman matching the description of Ciara Glennon on the night she vanished from the Perth suburb of Claremont, the WA Supreme Court has been told.
Telstra technician Bradley Robert Edwards, 51, is on trial for Ms Glennon's murder and that of two other women — Sarah Spiers, 18 and Jane Rimmer, 23 — who were all last seen in the Claremont entertainment precinct in Perth's western suburbs between 1996 and 1997.
The previously unknown sighting was made by Karen Mabbott, who was driving along Stirling Highway around midnight on March 14–15, 1997, when she saw the man, who she described as being of Mediterranean appearance, standing behind a white car on Dean Street.
"There didn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason for anyone to be standing there," she told the court.
The man was about 175 centimetres tall, although "he could have been taller" she said, with short dark brown or black hair and of slim-to-medium build.
Just metres away, walking along the western side of Stirling Highway, she saw the young woman, who she described as being about 157 centimetres tall, of small-to-medium build and with curly shoulder-length light hair.
"She didn't look like she was in a particular hurry or that she was scared of anything, just trying to get home," Ms Mabbott said.
Her description of the woman's clothing also matched what the 27-year-old lawyer was wearing at the time — a dark jacket and white t-shirt-style top with a black skirt.
She initially assumed the man was a taxi driver and that the woman had just got out of his cab .
"My initial impression was that she had been picked up in the taxi, she had got out of the taxi and she was walking towards her house," Ms Mabbott said.
But she did not see any taxi plates or signs on the man's car, which she described as a light-coloured sedan.
Edwards was known to be driving a white Telstra-issued Holden Commodore station wagon at the time.

Man missing from first statement
Under cross-examination from defence counsel Paul Yovich SC, Ms Mabbott admitted the man had been omitted from her first statement to police about the incident, made in April 1997.
But was adamant that she had told detectives about it and they had chosen not to include it in the statement they prepared on her behalf.
When she was questioned by police in 1999, she said they had shown her photographs of a public servant they were interested in at the time and asked her to identify him as the man she had seen, which she refused to do.
Her account of the apparent sighting of Ms Glennon was at odds with that of the "burger boys" — three young men who told police they had seen a woman resembling Ms Glennon on the southern side of the highway, also around midnight, about 300 metres from where Ms Mabbott said she saw the woman.
The men said they saw the woman lean down and talk to the driver of a Holden Commodore station wagon, but when they next turned to look back, both she and the car were gone.

Glennon in a 'festive' mood
The court also heard testimony from two men who were with Ms Glennon at the Continental Hotel on the night of her disappearance.
Ms Glennon's boss at the law firm where she worked, Neil Fearis, told the court she was in a "festive and boisterous" mood, having enjoyed St Patrick's Day drinks at the office bar in Perth's CBD before they headed to Claremont with three other colleagues.
He said she had consumed a fair amount of alcohol and had greeted friends sitting at a table outside the pub as they arrived.
That was the last time he saw her.
James Connor told the court he had met up with Ms Glennon inside the hotel and at one point he had retrieved her jacket after she had thrown it onto the floor, trying it around his waist so she did not lose it.
He said Ms Glennon was tired at that point and left to head home after about 10 or 15 minutes.

Discovery of Jane Rimmer's body
Details about the discovery of Ms Rimmer's body in the semi-rural locale of Wellard, in Perth's south on August 3, 1996, were also relayed to the court.
A witness statement from Steven Daventhoren, who worked at the nearby Green Acre riding school, was read to the court in which he described finding a "brown, wooden-handled pocket knife" that day on the side of the road while he was out riding horses with a woman called Tracey Bell.
"The knife was in good condition and appeared to have only been there a short time," he said.
The knife was described in an earlier court hearing as having a Telstra insignia on it and matching several others found in a toolbox at Edwards's house after he was arrested.
Shortly afterwards, the pair came across a woman on the side of the road who indicated to them to stay back and to keep the dog they had with them away.
"It sounded like she was saying 'don't come down, don't come down here'," Ms Bell told the court.
"When I got closer … I heard her say she had found a body.
"She said she went into the bushes to pick some arum lilies and she saw a foot."
Ms Bell said the vegetation was very dense near the road, "so if there had been something lying in amongst it you wouldn't see it from the road".
The trial before Justice Stephen Hall will resume next week.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, perth-6000, wa, claremont-6010

Sarah Anne McMahon, made a statement about who was involved in the Claremont Serial Killings before she disappeared on the way to meet with career criminal Donald Morey, aka Matusevich, who has been publicly named as allegedly supplying $10,000 parcels of Crystal Meth to Sarah Anne McMahon, being a  commercial quantity, which could only be for the purpose of resale by  Sarah Anne McMahon on behalf of Donald Morey, aka Matusevich, and whoever he was obtaining these large amounts of Crystal Meth from.....
Because Sarah Ane McMahon worked in Claremont, one as to assume she was selling Crystal Meth for Donald Morey, aka Matusevich and his higher up illegal drug dealers to people in the Claremont and surrounding areas ... there is ample information that police in Western have been involved in the multi-million dollar illegal drug business in Perth, Western Australia ......  Sarah Anne McMahon made statement before she disappeared, on the 8th November, 2000 that she was heavily involved with corrupt police and a criminal network using and selling illegal drugs and was the girlfriend of a senior police officer and was trying to become drug-free and get away from the evil network that she became involved with over time .... Sarah Anne McMahon made a statement that she and Donald Morey, aka Matusevich could drive around Perth in the personal car of her senior police officer boyfriend, drunk and high on illegal drugs with large qualities of illegal drugs for sale in the car, and when the police ever pulled them over, as soon as the police realised that the car she was driving was the personal car of her senior police officer boyfriend, she was allowed to drive away,  without her or  Donald Morey, aka Matusevich, being charged with any criminal offences of being drunk and high on illegal drugs and for having commercial quanities of illegal drugs in the personal car of her senior police officer boyfriend ......

Sarah Anne McMahon in her statement named a senior police officer other police and a very rich and powerful Perth businessman as being involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings and that the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings involved the abductions of Julie Cutler, Kerry Turner .....
then after making the statement of her knowledge as to who was involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings, why they happened and who helped cover the truth and facts from coming out and stopped all those involved from criminal investigation and arrest .....  according to information presented at Sarah Anne McMahon's Inquest, that she disappeared on the way to a meeting with  Donald Morey, aka Matusevich, on the 8th of November, 2000 ......one would have to assume that Sarah Anne McMahon was abducted and likely to have been murdered on the 8th of November, 2000 as a result of what  Sarah Anne McMahon knew about who was involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings, why they happened and who helped cover the truth and facts from coming out and stopped all those involved from criminal investigation and arrest ....
It seems fairly clear on the evidence that Sarah Anne McMahon was abducted and likely murdered because she knew too much about very powerful, well-connected people in Perth, Western Australia who have been involved in the multi-billion dollar illegal drug business that operates in Western Australia and the rest of Australia  and who was  involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings, 
The chilling words of Sarah Anne McMahon will forever haunt the general public in Perth, Western Australia when  Sarah Anne McMahon  was asked why she hasn't gone to the authorities to them what she knows to help the authorities finally solve the burning question as to "who was involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings"...
" ... If I consent for my statement that I have now provided about who was involved in the Claremont Serial Abductions and Killings is handed to the authorities I would be dead in a week ... these people are simply too powerful ... one can not take them one or try to expose them ... they and their tentacles which go as high a MI6 and the CIA  are simply too powerful and even honest people in the system would also be too scared for themselves and their families to take them or try and expose them..."......Sarah Anne McMahon....
Even Donald Morey, aka Matusevich stated at the Sarah McMahon's inquest that Sarah's life was in danger if anyone knew where she was ......and thus helped Sarah leave Australia by illegal means to protect Sarah .....
..... whether Donald Morey, aka Matusevich murdered Sarah or helped her leave Australia with everyone believing Sarah was murdered .... Donald Morey, aka Matusevich was telling the truth that Sarah McMahon's life was in danger if anyone knew where she was ..... if Sarah is "...still alive and living overseas in Canada and has two children of her own"....  as claimed by Donald Morey, aka Matusevich ....
​. it also noted that a statement from Natasha Tracy-Ann Kendrick originally stated that Mr King, the owner of the house where Donald Morey, aka Matusevich was staying ..... that Don has to kill Sarah because she had broke the code of silence.....
https://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Mcmahon_finding.pdf

Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmer ) all disappeared from Claremont.

 Jonathan Whitaker was a forensic scientist in the UK involved in the breakthrough discovery of Bradley Edwards's DNA profile underneath Ciara Glennon's fingernails.
(ABC News-David Weber)

CLAREMONT Serial Killer Trial- Remembering Ciara 
https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/3patm-872d9/CLAREMONT-The-Claremont-S  

March 14, 1997 was a day like any other. 27-year-old Ciara Glennon, having only just arrived back in Australia from travelling the world, was drinking with colleagues.
The lawyer had been back at work for a week, her colleagues wanted to celebrate that, and being a Friday, they decided to have a few drinks, then hit the town.
But Ciara didn’t want to, she wanted to go home to be with her family before her sister’s hens the next day.
She was eventually convinced to go out to Claremont - a fateful decision which would see her become the third victim of a serial killer.
She disappeared that night. Several people would later say they saw someone matching her description walking along Stirling Highway just after midnight, some seeing her leaning into the passenger side window of a white station wagon.
That was the last time anyone saw her alive.
Her body was found 19 days later in bushland, 40 km north of Perth.
Today on this bonus episode of Claremont in Conversation, we remember Ciara Glennon, the loving, family-oriented, hard working lawyer.
We look into not only how much she is missed by her family, but the vital clues she left behind as she fought for her life, which could be the key to determine whether Bradley Robert Edwards is the Claremont Serial Killer.

CLAREMONT Serial Killer: The Trial 
 The Prosecution’s Star DNA Witness
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-a3pac-840cb7b?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share  

Low Copy Number Testing
He was flown in especially from the UK to give evidence at the Claremont Serial Killings trial. He’s considered the prosecution’s star witness for DNA.

Why?
Because he helped develop the Low Copy Number technique that found the male DNA profile - which the prosecution says is Bradley Edwards’ DNA - on Ciara Glennon’s fingernail samples when no one else could.
Dr Jonathan Whitaker has given evidence at some of the biggest trials around the world, including the now-famous Australian trial which convicted Bradley John Murdoch for the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio.
But part of his evidence in what could be considered one of WA’s most famous trials, did catch our DNA expert by surprise, in fact, Forensic DNA Expert Brendan Chapman said it could be controversial if left unchallenged.
Our forensic expert breaks down the complicated DNA evidence into an easy-to-understand language on day 58 of WA’s trial of the century.
As we get to the end of the DNA portion of the trial, What Tim Clarke thinks of today’s evidence, why today’s witness is so important, and what’s to come next.
Don’t forget to send in your questions to claremontpodcast@wanews.com.au

Dorrough was extradited from WA to NSW after police found DNA evidence that linked him to murdered Sydney woman Rachel Campbell. He admitted to sleeping with and biting her, but denied the murder claims

Ciara Glennon murder in 1997: court hears detail of day she died
Irishwoman, whose family is from Mayo, disappeared in Australia on St Patrick’s Day
Mon, Nov 25, 2019,
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/ciara-glennon-murder-in-1997-court-hears-detail-of-day-she-died-1.4094146
by Brendan Foster in Western Australia

An Irishwoman killed in Australia in 1997 ignored a warning not to accept a lift from a stranger the night she was murdered, a Western Australia court has heard.
One of Australia’s biggest murder trials began in a Western Australia Supreme Court on Monday, with Bradley Robert Edwards accused of the murder of Ciara Glennon (27) from the suburb of Claremont on March 14th, 1997.
Mr Edwards (51) is also accused of the murders of Jane Rimmer (23) and Sarah Spiers (18), in 1996 and 1997, around the Claremont nightlife area.

He denies the charges.
Ms Glennon, whose family are originally from Wesport, Co Mayo, was out with friends celebrating St Patricks Day when she disappeared.
In her opening address to the court, State Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo outlined in detail the last day of Ms Glennon’s life before her body was found dumped in bushland, 50km north of Perth.
Ms Barbagallo went through 12 instances where witnesses claim they saw a lone woman matching her description walking near the Continental Hotel after she left to catch a taxi.
Three men, the state dubbed the “Burger Boys”, were the last to see Ms Glennon as she walked towards her home in Mosman Park.
The court heard one of the men who spotted Ms Glennon yelled to her: “You’re crazy to hitch-hike”.
The woman gestured to the men and they later saw her leaning into the window of a car as if she was talking to the driver. It was the last known sighting of Ms Glennon.
The state has previously argued the car was the Holden Commodore Mr Edwards was driving when he was employed as a technician for Telstra at the time.
“When she reached a point ... on Stirling Highway ... a white VS Holden Commodore station wagon was seen in close proximity to her,” Ms Barbagallo said.
“It is on this stretch of highway that Ciara Glennon either accepted a lift from the perpetrator, or was abducted by the perpetrator in a blitz attack.”

Found
The state told the court Ms Glennon’s body was discovered by a 23-year-old man who was walking through bushland, three weeks after she went missing.
“His attention was drawn to a distinct smell,” Ms Barbagallo said. “He observed part of a body, the rest of the body was covered in bush which had been stripped from the local flora and placed over the body to conceal it.”
Ms Barbagallo said during an examination of the body, a large defect was discovered on her neck, and two large defects were found on her upper and lower arms.
She said the defects across her face and neck, which were around 12 to 21 centimetres long, were consistent with a “sawing type action”.
The court heard Ms Glennon’s body was found 50 metres off the road, lying face down and covered in a “strikingly similar manner” to Jane Rimmer’s body.
The defects to the forearm appeared to be cuts and “represented the classic self-defence position” similar to Ms Rimmer’s injury, albeit to the opposite arm.
“Given the positioning of the body, the staining on her T-shirt and bra ... the state’s case is that neck injury to Ms Glennon was inflicted at or very close to the location where her body was found,” Ms Barbagallo said.
The court hear two of Ms Glennon’s fingernails were broken off - the left thumb and left middle finger - while the rest were “relatively long” and well-manicured.
“The ends of Ms Glennon’s fingernails were cut off and placed into individual, pristine, sterile yellow top containers,” Ms Barbagallo said.
The state is expected to rely on DNA found underneath Ms Glennon’s fingernails, in particular her broken fingernails, as a crucial part of its case.
The state is expected to argue Ms Glennon scratched Mr Edwards’s face before he murdered her, with DNA allegedly located underneath her fingernails when her body was found.
“He observed part of a body, the rest of the body was covered in bush which had been stripped from the local flora and placed over the body to conceal it,” Ms Barbagallo said.

Studied law
Early in the proceedings, Ms Barbagallo said Ms Glennon was “a bright, happy and determined young woman” who had studied law at UWA before starting work at a law firm in Perth CBD.
“She came from a close and loving family,” she said. “Ciara took 12 months leave to travel overseas, returning on March 1st, 1997 - 14 days before she disappeared.”
Ms Barbagallo also spoke of the three “young, bright, beautiful women” who abruptly vanished from the streets of Claremont in 1996 and 1997, creating a climate of fear across Perth.

“That fear was caused by an enigma of the dark,” she said.
“Two were found dead, dumped in bushland, covered in foliage and left to rot in the killer’s hope that they would never be found ... so that any evidence that might connect the killer to the crimes would be lost forever - lost in the bush, in the dirt, in the foliage that he left them in,” she said.
“Despite the killer’s best efforts, miraculously the bodies of those two young women were found.”

Ms Glennon’s father Denis Glennon sat in front row of the packed public gallery to hear Mr Edwards plead not guilty at the start of the trial.

Dr. Xanthe Mallett, a U.K. based expert for example, said that Wilson’s recordings really excited her. You see, the University of Newcastle lecturer also works with AFTER and supervised the undergraduate’s work. And she noted that many investigators had previously assumed that a discovered body was found as it was left.

In fact, detectives until recently might have blamed a body’s changed position on another person or, perhaps, even an animal. However, they now have to contend with Wilson’s findings – that bodies might just move on their own. Such a possibility was news to everyone in the field, as Mallett explained.

Specifically, Dr. Mallett told ABC News, “What isn’t known is that the body moves as part of the decomposition process, and it’s the first time that it’s been captured, as far as I know.” Although deputy AFTER director, Dr. Maiken Ueland, agreed, she did point out some reasons why bodies have already been known to shift.

Julian Assange: The 2011 60 Minutes Interview
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RECORD OF INVESTIGATION INTO DEATH, Sarah Anne McMAHON, Alastair Neil Hope, State Coroner, Ref No: 47/2012
 Mr Hilderbrandt also claimed that on 6 November 2000 he was present when Ms McMahon received a telephone call on her mobile telephone which she had said was from Mr Morey. He claimed that at the end of the conversation she said, ‘… that she’d broken the code of silence over the phone’. He said that the reference to breaking the code of silence referred to saying his name and mentioning the drugs. According to Mr Hilderbrandt, Ms McMahon was ‘… very, very, scared’ (ts 81). There is, therefore, evidence which could explain why Mr Morey may have had reason to kill Ms McMahon.
THE ACCOUNT OF NATASHA KENDRICK: In her statement dated 11 November 2011 Ms Kendrick claimed to have seen a body at Mr Allen’s home at 2 Augustus Place, Marangaroo. On her account the body looked like Ms McMahon and it is clear from her statement that she was referring to Ms McMahon. According to her statement Mr Allen told her to come to the address at about 9.30pm on a night which must have been either 8 November 2000 or close to that date. In this account she stated that Mr Allen had said something like, ‘He’s gone and killed her’. She said she walked into Mr Morey’s room and saw a naked girl on the bed. She said that there was an ‘old fashioned rope’ around the girl’s neck. She stated that she later saw the rope on the bedroom floor and it was about a yard long.
She stated that the person looked dead to her and there was blood on her face and on her stomach. She stated that Mr Allen’s right hand was swollen and there were marks on his knuckles. She claimed that he said something like, ‘He had punched her in the head to shut her up but it didn’t’. 6 Later she stated that she cleaned the house. Ms Kendrick claimed that she saw Mr Morey carrying ‘something wrapped in a quilt over his left shoulder’.7 She said she knew it was the girl. Later she saw Mr Allen put the body in the bed of a utility and Mr Morey drove away.
​At the inquest telephone calls between Ms Kendrick and former detective Michael Bone, Ms Kendrick and her mother and the Ms Kendrick and her brother made shortly after she provided the statement were played. In these it is clear that the account which Ms Kendrick had given to police contained in this statement had been volunteered by her.  Ms Kendrick, for example, referring to her contact with the police told her brother ‘… I have done something positive’. In the telephone calls Ms Kendrick spoke at length of her interaction with police in very positive terms.

MR MOREY’S BAG: Evidence was given at the inquest by a number of witnesses that Mr Morey had a bag with sinister contents. Marta Allen, Mr Allen’s wife, claimed that at a time which appears to have been relatively shortly after Ms McMahon’s disappearance, she saw a bag which belonged to Mr Morey and which he regularly had with him. She claimed that inside the bag there were two rolls of dirty grey, used gaffer tape, four lengths of ropes with knots in the ends about two feet in length, two knives, one of which was Mr Allen’s pocket knife, two large rubber bands, one condom in a packet, two pornographic magazines, between five and seven key rings and a map. She claimed that the porn books contained pictures of men with blood on their genitals and women tied up who appeared to be dead. In evidence Mrs Allen described the pictures of these women in the following terms (ts 99): There was a magazine, a couple of them, they had pictures of women tied up. These women had red lipstick on or bright pink lipstick on, they had their mouths gagged, their eyes gagged or their eyes blindfolded. They had – they were naked and these girls looked dead. Mrs Allen said that she rang police about the bag as soon as she saw it, but it took them four days to get back to her and for someone to come to their house. In that time Mr Morey’s then partner, Lynne Bishop, had taken the bag. This account in relation to the bag was essentially supported by Mr Allen and Ms Kendrick, who claimed to have seen the bag and its contents at Mr Allen’s house.

​Ms Bishop in her evidence vaguely recalled the bag being given to her, but is confident that it was in her possession at some stage. She said she did look inside the bag and saw a magazine which contained, ‘a vision that I didn’t like so I just went straight, closed it like that’ (ts 119). She said that what she had seen was a pornographic picture. She said she thought she also saw rope and gaffer tape

CLAREMONT Serial Killer Trial Podcast

JUMP IN NOW: Claremont the Trial Catch Up Part 2

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-yph6j-83dc2d8?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share

Welcome to part two of this recap series of Claremont in Conversation.

In the last episode, we took you through the fear that swept through Perth as police realised a serial killer was at loose in their city after the disappearances of three women.
In the trial, we heard from the people who knew the women, the people who last saw them alive and watched in stunned silence as CCTV and final phone calls were played.
In this episode, we hear from the people who were woken by distressing screams that have stayed with them for more than 20 years.
We also hear from the people who found two bodies - the bodies of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
Then, the trial moves into a new phase - the investigation.
The court heard of the massive police response to the discovery of Jane and Ciara’s bodies, then the unprecedented event in court, which saw WA’s top lawyers being sent to Officeworks. Find out why in this episode.
The DNA portion of the trial is complicated and lengthy, so in this special episode, we run you through the DNA samples which are crucial to the prosecution case.

If you’re interested in DNA and DNA testing, our resident forensic expert Brendan Chapman takes us through the process on episode 35, called A Lesson in DNA.
If you’ve enjoyed this catch up series and want to know more, you can start from Season 2, Episode 1. Or follow the trial at thewest.com.au.

The identikit made with the help of Karen Mabbott, who drove down Stirling Highway the night Ciara Glennon vanished and said she saw a man standing behind a vehicle up the road from a woman who resembled Ciara 

Below is a Identikit of suspicious man seen in Claremont the night Ciara Glennon went missing.

Richard Edward Dorrough, Marke Phillip Dixie ( also known in Australia as Shane Turner, Donald Morey, aka Matusevich are all suspects in the abuction and murder of Julie Cutler. Kerry Turner, Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon, Jane Rimmer, Sarah Anne McMahon .

Former navy sailor who took his own life 'wrote a suicide note claiming he MURDERED three people' - as police appeal for help tracking his movements
·Former navy mechanic Richard Dorrough committed suicide in 2014 
It is alleged he left behind a suicide note admitting to three murders 
Dorrough was charged with the murder of Sara-Lee Davey, 21, in 1997 - but the charge was dropped after a jury deemed him not guilty in 2009
Police across Australia have been unable to link him to any unsolved crimes, but are asking the public for information on his movements 
By DANIEL PETERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS - 11 October 2015
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267456/Former-navy-seal-took-life-wrote-suicide-note-claiming-MURDERED-three-people-police-appeal-help-tracking-movements.html

Colby's house (right) was on a spit of land. Anyone looking with binoculars from the other side of Neale Sound could see what was going on outside his home.

Bradley Robert Edwards denies committing the crimes known as the Claremont serial killings. (ABC News: Anne Barnetson)

One of those women is reported to be Rachael Campbell, a 29-year-old prostitute who was stabbed to death in 1998. Dorrough was initially charged with her murder, but was acquitted after the jury found him not guilty

Anna-Marie Ashley Pathwest scientist testified.

Contamination Not Likely, But Not ‘Impossible’
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-t6yfb-8371de7?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share 
 
“Impossible” is not a word scientists like to use. But during his fifth, and last day on the stand, forensic scientist Scott Egan got as close as possible to that definite term.
He described a potential contamination of Bradley Edwards’ DNA into samples of Ciara Glennon’s fingernails as being highly unlikely, going as far as saying the two were tested 13-months apart.
Defence lawyer Damien Cripps says in this podcast, it’s looking like this is a full stop on this contamination theory, and the defence would have to start looking elsewhere for other ways they can weaken the prosecution’s case.
During re-examination, the prosecution asked just one question: In that 13-month period between the two samples being tested at PathWest, how many times would the lab have been cleaned?
He replied, with a slight smirk as Tim Clarke observed, “hundreds, if not thousands of times.”
Join Nat, Tim and Damien as they take you through day 57, and the last day for week 13, as the court takes a day off to prepare for new witnesses.

Claremont trial: Former detective gave lock of victim's hair to grieving family
By AAP- Jan 14, 2020
https://www.9news.com.au/national/claremont-trial-detective-gave-lock-of-victims-hair-to-grieving-family/33e4af7c-0683-4d9a-9bda-db2feae6f7f1

 
A lock of hair was taken from Jane Rimmer during her first post mortem to give to her grieving family, the Claremont serial killings trial has heard, as police witnesses continue to be questioned over their handling of evidence.
DNA and fibre evidence is a crucial part of the prosecution's case against Bradley Robert Edwards, who denies murdering the 23-year-old Ms Rimmer, Sarah Spiers, 18, and Ciara Glennon, 27, in 1996 and 1997.

The defence argues evidence may have been contaminated.
On Tuesday, police involved in recovering Ms Rimmer's body from bushland and the two post mortems that followed were quizzed in detail in the Western Australia Supreme Court.

Former homicide squad detective Vicky Young testified she attended them all and performed the role of continuity, taking note of the proceedings from a short distance.
At the Wellard site where Ms Rimmer was found naked and partially covered with vegetation 55 days after she vanished, only one or two forensic officers and forensic pathologist Karin Margolius took a few steps off an unsealed road to examine the scene, Ms Young said.
She was emphatic when questioned by defence counsel during cross examination, insisting she did not enter the crime scene.
"I most definitely at no time entered that bush," Ms Young said.
She said she also kept her distance at the mortuary, abiding protocol to not step over a yellow line in the theatre room unless invited to do so, and wearing hospital scrubs and wellington boots to prevent contamination.
Ms Young said Dr Margolius handed her a clump of Ms Rimmer's hair, which she took home, shampooed, wrapped with an elastic band and place in a gift box to give to the childcare worker's family "out of an act of kindness and compassion".
Defence counsel did not ask about the lock of hair.
Ms Young also gave grim testimony about Ms Rimmer's substantially decomposed body, which was missing flesh in the neck area. Some digits were also missing due to animal predation.
The dental records of Ms Spiers, whose body has never been found, were on file and accessed that night but Ms Rimmer's dentist could not be reached.

She was confirmed as the victim the following day.
"We had two families on hold that night waiting to know if their daughter had been found," Ms Young said.
The trial also heard from former sergeant Barry Mott, who said there was no written protocol at the time about personal protective equipment, but he wore disposable forensic overalls and gloves at the Wellard scene.
He admitted he may have inadvertently brushed against the body while photographing the site.
Sergeant Mark Harbridge said he held up a light and did not wear gloves but did not touch Ms Rimmer.
He said he wore gloves, a mask and overalls during Ms Rimmer's post mortems, but said he did not get closer than 40cm to her.
Former detective Robert Kays did line searches around the crime scene and said in his 23 years of policing he never had reason to touch a body.

Claremont serial killings DNA evidence matched Bradley Edwards and Ciara Glennon, expert testifies
By Andrea Mayes - 9th March 2020
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-09/claremont-dna-evidence-matched-edwards-and-glennon-expert-says/12040134

PHOTO: Bradley Edwards is accused of murdering Ciara Glennon after allegedly abducting her in Claremont. (ABC News)
PHOTO: Jonathan Whitaker was a forensic scientist in the UK involved in the breakthrough discovery of Bradley Edwards's DNA profile underneath Ciara Glennon's fingernails. (ABC News: David Weber)
PHOTO: DNA found on Joanne Lees was crucial in convicting the murderer of English backpacker Peter Falconio. (AAP)
PHOTO: Bradley Edwards paid close attention to Dr Whitaker's testimony. (ABC News)

Who were the Claremont victims?
Sarah Spiers. Jane Rimmer. Ciara Glennon. Three women whose names were etched into Perth's consciousness more than 20 years ago.

Key points:
Bradley Edwards is accused of killing three women in the 1990s
His DNA was found under the fingernails of the third alleged victim
His lawyers claim it got there through laboratory contamination

A world-renowned expert in DNA profiling has delivered a blow to accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Edwards, telling his triple-murder trial that DNA matching him was exposed to the same environmental degradation as DNA from his alleged third victim, Ciara Glennon.
The revelation has cast doubt on suggestions made by Edwards's lawyers that his DNA was found on Ms Glennon's fingernails through contamination while the forensic evidence was being examined.
Jonathan Whitaker, who flew in from the UK to testify in Edwards's trial, was a scientist at the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in England for 23 years before it closed in 2012.
Edwards, 51, is accused of murdering Ms Glennon, 27, 18-year-old receptionist Sarah Spiers and 23-year-old childcare worker Jane Rimmer in 1996 and 1997.
The women all went missing late at night after leaving friends in the Claremont entertainment precinct, in Perth's leafy western suburbs.
Scientists at FSS made a critical breakthrough in the case in 2008 when they discovered male DNA on a combined sample of two of Ms Glennon's fingernails.
The male DNA profile was later matched to Edwards and it is the only DNA evidence directly linking him with the murders.

Defence contamination claim tested
Edwards admits it is his DNA on the sample but disputes how it came to be there, with defence counsel Paul Yovich SC having suggested the fingernails could have become contaminated while they were being analysed at state pathology laboratory PathWest.
Edwards's DNA was already being held by PathWest when Ms Glennon's fingernail samples came into the lab after the discovery of her body in April 1997, in the form of samples taken from a teenager he raped in Karrakatta Cemetery two years earlier.
Mr Yovich has suggested DNA from the rape samples could have somehow been transferred to the fingernail samples while at PathWest.
Dr Whitaker said the DNA found on the fingernails was mixed-profile DNA, matching both Ms Glennon's profile and that of Edwards, and both components of the DNA had degraded in the same way, suggesting they had been exposed to the same environmental conditions.
Dr Whitaker said there was "no evidence of a third person" being present in the DNA obtained from the fingernails.
The rape samples contained Edwards's DNA as well as those of the 17-year-old victim, and a question from prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC to Dr Whitaker about whether there was a third person's DNA detected on the fingernails also appeared to be aimed at quashing the defence's argument that the rape samples could have contaminated the Glennon samples.

Same DNA test used in Falconio case
Earlier, Dr Whitaker told the court he was involved in developing a new type of DNA test in the early 1990s called Low Copy Number (LCN) testing, which enabled DNA to be extracted from even tiny samples of material.
LCN has since been used in high-profile cases around the world, including the 2001 murder of Peter Falconio by Bradley Murdoch in the Northern Territory.
In that case, Dr Whitaker detected tiny traces of DNA on the cable ties used to bind Mr Falconio's girlfriend, Joanne Lees.
Samples from Ms Glennon's fingernails were sent to the FSS for testing in 2008 using LCN — a process not available in Australia at the time — after a police cold case review of the Claremont investigation.
Dr Whitaker said he was aware of the importance of the case from the outset and FSS had tried to do "everything it could" to get a result out of the samples.
Because of the tiny size of the samples, Dr Whitaker said the decision was made to combine the two fingernail scrapings from Ms Glennon's left hand, known as AJM 40 and 42, "simply to try and increase the amount of biological material that would be available".
Pooling the two samples would make it impossible to tell which fingernail the DNA had come from, but Dr Whitaker said if they had not been combined, there might have been no result at all.
"The strategy going forward was all about trying to maximise any DNA that was there to get a result," he said.

Close attention on expert evidence
Edwards appeared to focus closely on Dr Whitaker's evidence from the dock on Monday, watching the scientist at times intently as he testified and taking notes.
A teenager raped by Edwards in 1995 — now aged in her 40s — was also in court to hear Dr Whitaker's evidence, along with another woman who as a teenager survived a 1988 attack by Edwards as she slept at her Huntingdale home.

The women sat together, flanked by detectives from the long-running case.
Ms Glennon's father Denis and sister Denise were also in the public gallery, as were Edwards's parents.
The DNA portion of the case is almost finished, with the marathon trial — now in its 14th week — set to move onto evidence relating to fibres found in the hair of both Ms Glennon and Ms Rimmer next week.
The prosecution says these fibres match fibres from Edwards's work-issued clothing and the inside of his car.
The trial, before Justice Stephen Hall, will resume on Tuesday.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, perth-6000, wa, claremont-6010

 Jonathan Whitaker was a forensic scientist in the UK involved in the breakthrough discovery of Bradley Edwards's DNA profile underneath Ciara Glennon's fingernails.

(ABC News-David Weber)

The DNA evidence is just one strand of the prosecution's case against Edwards. (ABC News

This is the end of a branch of Rock Point road, a mile or so from Cobb Island. I followed Akers to the place where he found the canoe.