Claremont serial killings: Peter Weygers, Lance Williams, Steve Ross ruled out as persons of interes

THREE young blonde women mysteriously disappeared after leaving nightclubs around Perth and no one was charged over their deaths for two decades.

The cold case was known as the Claremont serial killings and over the past 20 years, police have been hunting the killer.

During the investigation, Western Australia Police gathered a list of persons of interest, and it seems like something from a game of Cluedo.

There were three main persons of interest — the former Claremont mayor, a taxi driver and a lonely junior public service officer. But even with DNA testing and lie detectors, police hit nothing but dead ends and none of the men were ever charged with an offence. Though an arrest has now been made in relation to the killings of two of the young women, the three men say being publicly linked to the case ruined their lives.

Police charged a man over the killings last week, a suspect who was not previously connected to the crimes. Bradley Robert Edwards, 48, was arrested in his home in Kewdale in Perth on December 23 and was charged with the murders of Jane Rimmer in June 1996 and Ciara Glennon in March 1997. Both were found dead after leaving nightclubs in the Claremont area. Edwards is also accused of abducting a 17-year-old girl in February 1995 as she walked through Rowe Park in Claremont, in Perth’s west, and indecently assaulting an 18-year-old woman during a break-in at a Huntingdale home in February 1988.

He was charged with two counts of wilful murder, two counts of deprivation of liberty, two counts of aggravated sexual penetration without consent, one count of breaking and entering, and one count of indecent assault.

An investigation into a third murder, that of Sarah Spiers, is ongoing and Edwards has not been charged in relation to her disappearance.

The proprietor of The Post newspaper in Perth, Bret Christian, has been following the cold case for decades and has written a book on the deaths of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon.

He believed police spent too much time focusing on persons of interest who clearly could not have pulled off the murders.

One of the men that was under the police microscope was Lance Williams, a middle-aged WA junior public servant.

Mr Christian said he lived with his parents and was not in a relationship, and liked to drive around at night.

“He was one of the sad, lonely types,” Mr Christian told news.com.au.

Mr Williams was picked up by WA police in a sting operation, where female police officers would dress as party girls and wait to see if they would be offered a lift.

One night, in 1997, Mr Williams was stopped at traffic lights, and one of the undercover officers approached the window and asked him where the bus stop was.

“He told her ‘you’ll never get a bus this time of night’ and offered her a lift,” Mr Christian said.

“She was wired and Williams dropped her off three or four kilometres down the road and that was it, police thought ‘he’s the bloke picking girls up’ and they became more and more convinced he fit the profile of the killer, which turns out to be all complete bulls*** of course.”

Mr Christian said police kept a close eye on Mr Williams for two years, and was still interested in him for another 10 years after that.

“They never let up really, he was always on their radar,” Mr Christian said. “They just hounded him and ruined his life basically.

“Many senior officers were convinced they had the killer but this distracted them and stalled the investigation.”

Mr Williams was officially no longer a person of interest in 2008 but his mother said her son, 59, still suffered from anxiety brought on by the investigation and public scrutiny.

“He used to be in a terrible state. Even up to a few years ago he thought people were still following him around the place,” his mother told PerthNow.

She said their house was bugged, raided three times and their patio was dug up.

Mr Christian said police also turned their attention to two other men, the mayor and a taxi driver.

A complaint had been made by a passenger against taxi driver Steve Ross, which later turned out to be unjustified.

According to Mr Christian, Mr Ross was at his home with his former girlfriend, a Miss Australia runner-up, who was very ill in the 1990s.

“The cops went around because there’d been a complaint against him and they wanted to take him away but he said ‘you can’t, my girlfriend’s really sick, she might die’ but they took him to police headquarters and at that time his girlfriend died,” Mr Christian said.

“Then he started to get worried police were going to do him for the Claremont murders.”

Mr Ross went to see the then-mayor and president of the Council of Civil Liberties, Peter Weygers, who took on his case.

Mr Weygers, who was also a child psychologist, and Mr Ross became friends and Mr Weygers bought the taxi driver’s house.

Mr Christian said Mr Weygers owned about 20 houses and it wasn’t unusual.

Mr Weygers let Mr Ross stay on the property and Mr Christian said police started to believe a conspiracy theory in which the two men were working together to pull off the Claremont murders.

Mr Ross told Mr Weygers he had some information about Sarah Spiers, an 18-year-old who is believed to be the first victim connected to the Claremont killings.

Mr Christian said Mr Ross told Mr Weygers he picked up Ms Spiers and took her home the night before she disappeared.

“She got into a taxi with two strangers, one really drunk girl and a bloke, who hopped in at the last minute,” Mr Christian said.

“Ross was suspicious of this guy and wondered whether he came back the next night and did the same thing.

“He told Weygers he was going to tell the police but Weygers said Mr Ross would be blamed.”

But Mr Ross still went to the police and Mr Weygers set up an interview at his lawyer’s office.

“The next thing, the two of them were accused of murder,” Mr Christian said.

“Weygers was given a questionnaire and the first question was ‘did you murder Sarah Spiers?’.

“He’s a psychologist himself and the fact he refused to fill it in was leaked to the media and it ran all over the front page of the West Australian.

“Ross was accused by police of delivering girls for Weygers to murder, but that was impossible.”

In a statement from Mr Ross, seen by Mr Christian, the taxi driver encouraged police to look at the taxi company’s computer records, to show when he was getting fares and where the work was. Mr Christian said police then thought Mr Weygers knew where Mr Ross was dropping his passengers.

“They were the days before mobile phones, neither of them had one, it actually couldn’t have worked,” Mr Christian said.

Police were given a false tip that Sarah Spiers’ body was buried behind the garage at his house.

Police later dug up the spot but found nothing but a chicken bone. Police deny they acted off that one tip and Mr Christian believes the woman who gave police the information may have had a grudge against Mr Weygers.

“Police seized Weygers off the street, took him to police headquarters and then drove him to his house in Claremont, an old home he inherited from his mum. Surprise, the world’s media was waiting for him and the police publicly searched his house, climbed on his roof, removed tiles and dug in the spot behind his garage,” Mr Christian said.

Mr Weygers then became known as the “million-dollar man” as he was no longer allowed to work as a psychologist with children. He was sidelined and stuck in an office with a computer and phone and wrote the odd report and occasionally reviewed psychology books for the education department.

“This is all because the effort focused on these people who were not remotely responsible,” Mr Christian said.

But Mr Christian commends the police for the recent arrest of Edwards.

“The police had a hard job, they never had anything like this before and it was really unprecedented,” he said.

“Full marks to them for keeping at it and finally getting an arrest.”

WA Police would not comment as the matter is before the courts.

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