The family of Julie Cutler once thought by police to be the first victim of the Claremont Serial Killer, say they finally feel able to erect a graveside plaque accepting her death.
It has been 20 years since 23-year-old's car was towed from the surf at Cottesloe beach two day's after she left a staff function at the Parmela Hilton Hotel around midnight on June 20, 1998.
Her family hope technology will be able to analise clues left in the car by the killer.
Rachel Cutler was 10 when Julie, her half sister went missing.
She said police had told her father that they suspected Julie had been taken by the same person who abducted three women from the Claremont Hotel in the 1990's.
"Julie disappeared seven years before the first Claremont abduction," Rachel said this week.
"The connection was mentioned by police, who said the case was being looked at in association with the Claremont Serial Killings.
"But the details of what was said during those conversations is not for us to say, it is up to the police.
The Cutler family will hold a memorial mass at Julie's former school Iona Presentation College, next month.
"We haven't had a mass for Julie before," said Rachel. "We were always hoping a body would turn up - but because it has been 20 years now, we have decided to accept that we won't have a body to bury."
Rachel said the family hoped new evidence would lead to the perpetrator being caught.
"With advances in technology, we hope DNA can be obtained off cigarette filters that were found in Julie's car," she said.
"They were from a type of cigarette we know Julie didn't smoke and it might prove to be the lead we need."
"Maybe someonewho suspected something at the time will have the courage to come forward and contact Crimestoppers."
A plaque for Julie will be erected at her mother Robyn's grave at Karrkatta cemetery.
Mrs Cutler died from cancer when Julie and her sister Nicole were young girls.
Their father Roger remarried and had four more children - Rachel, Rebecca, Alexander and Jessica.
"But mum and dad talk about her often as does Nicole - they were around the same age and very close, and had grown up together. Nicole has four kids of her own.
"My father has been affected most by what happened."
"I think fathers feel they are the protectors of their children , especially their daughters -and as Julie was the first daughter, he was very fond of her.
"When things like this happen you feel quite powerless."
Rachel said the family never believed Julie would be found alive.
"When she disappeared we feared the worst because it was completely out of character," Rachel said.
"She was consicentious person and wouldn't have put anyone through what my parents and family have gone through.
"We had only just moved to Kalgoorlie from Perth and Julie called dad and told him she was planning to come up for a month."
"She had been saving uop to go travelling after graduating from WAIT (now Curtin University) where she majored in English literature, with a minor in theatre arts."
During the Claremont murder investigations, it was reported that Julie had attended classes at the University with a man police said was their prime suspect.
"We did hear that but didn't think much of it," Rachael said. "She went through classes with hundreds of people, so I don't know if thats relevant.
"Mum and dad didn't want to worry us about it at the beginning.
"They didn't tell us what had happened but a couple of day's later we saw a story on the news that said Julie's car had been dragged out of the surf.
"We asked mum and she said dad would tell us about it later. All he said was that she had gone missing and didn't know where she was. We were both old enough to surmise that she was dead.
"Because it was such a horrific thing to happen it made me aware, from a very young age, that bad things can happen to you.
"As a result, i think our parents were a lot more protective to the point of being overly cautious when we were growing up.
"When it came to Perth to go to University, I would call them and let them know if i was going out at night and I would call them when I got home."
The Cutler family have never spoken to the families of the three Claremont victims - Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
"It was hard for us and I felt sad for their families," said Rachael.
"We didn't want to intrude on their grief and didn't contact them out of respect because we understood what a highly traumatic experience it is."
Julie and Nicole attend Iona Presentation College when the family lived in Perth.
Julie was at Iona between 1975 and 1982 where she did her TAFE and I thought the school would be the most appropriate place to have the memorial service," said Rachael.
"The school and the sisters have been very gracious towards us and we believe in the power of mass, so it will be a healing process for us.
"The plaque we are putting on the grave of Julie's mother means there will be a place where people can go and remember Julie.
"Over time the pain of grief isn't as strong and you learn to cope with it.
"The hardest times have been when we hear media reports of people going missing or a body being found, it brings back the emotions of 20 years ago.
by Romy Ranali, post.com.au
-----
The Claremont serial murders is the case of the unsolved murders of two young Australian women and the unresolved disappearance of a third in 1996 and 1997 in Claremont, a wealthy western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. All three women disappeared in similar circumstances after attending night spots in Claremont, leading police to suspect that an unidentified serial killer was the offender. Mark Dixie was a suspect in the killings however a WA Police Deputy Commissioner Murray Lampard has been quoted in saying (The Age February 24, 2008) "Dixie was closely investigated at the time and eventually ruled out as a suspect."
The case began with the disappearance of Sarah Spiers, 18, on 26 January 1996, after she left a nightclub in the centre of Claremont. Her disappearance was described by her friends and family as out of character and attracted massive publicity. Spiers had apparently called a taxi from a phone booth but was not present when the responding vehicle arrived. Her fate remains uncertain.
Some months later, on 9 June 1996, Jane Rimmer, 23, disappeared from the same part of Claremont. Her body was found in bushland near Woolcoot Road, Wellard, in August 1996.
On 14 March 1997, Ciara Glennon, a 27-year-old lawyer, disappeared from the Claremont area. Her body was found on 3 April, near a track in scrub off Pipidinny Road in Eglinton, a northern suburb of Perth. After this murder police confirmed that they were searching for a serial killer.
Each of the women had attended either a pub called The Continental (since renamed The Red Rock and now known as The Claremont Hotel) and/or the nightclub Club Bayview.
It has also been suggested by Liam Bartlett, a journalist, that Sarah Spiers was not the first victim. He wrote that police have told the father of a fourth missing woman, 22-year-old Julie Cutler, that his daughter was probably a victim of the Claremont killer.
Ms. Cutler, a university student, from Fremantle, vanished after leaving a staff function at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel in Perth at 9pm, one night in 1988. Her car was found in the surf near the groyne at Cottesloe Beach two days later. Her fate is also unknown.
The Western Australian Police established a special task force to investigate the case. It was given the name "Macro". Several phases have elapsed in the course of the continuing work of the task force.
Initial suspicion focused on the taxi-drivers of Perth because of the women last seen in circumstances where they may have been seeking taxi service. There had also been a predisposition to this possibility because of reports from late 1995 of possible improper conduct by some drivers. A massive DNA-testing exercise was carried out to cover all of the taxi drivers licensed in Western Australia; a group of more than two thousand. A thorough review of the character/background standards for drivers was conducted and led to drivers with any significant criminal history being de-licensed. Training for drivers and examining standards for license eligibility were raised. Stricter standards were also applied to verifying that decommissioned taxi vehicles were stripped of any insignia and equipment that could be used to falsely purport that a vehicle was a taxi. While this had the beneficial side-effect of improving the quality of the taxi service and enhancing the confidence of the public in using it, the investigation itself does not appear to have progressed.
In the next major development, a junior officer of the Western Australian Public Service was targeted by police as the prime suspect, after he attracted their attention during a decoy operation. The suspect made himself known to the media and asserted his innocence. He was subjected to a high level of overt surveillance, apparently with the purpose of prompting a confession. Although this continued for several years, the suspect maintained his innocence and appears to have intact alibis. He remains a nominal suspect, but the focus upon him has decreased in intensity.
It has been reported that police are also investigating whether Bradley John Murdoch, the convicted killer of Peter Falconio may have been involved, although Murdoch was serving a custodial sentence from November 1995 until February 1997.
One of the tactics used by the Macro Task-force was the distribution of questionnaires to "persons of interest", including various confrontational enquiries such as "Are you the killer?" The utility of this approach was disputed and the choice of persons to whom they were sent was controversial. One was a prominent civil libertarian and local government figure, Peter Weygers. He was mayor of the Town of Claremont at the time of the women's disappearance/demise and was involved in some disputes with the victims' families concerning the duty of care of the local authority in securing the district. He also was leasing a premises to a taxi-driver who attracted police attention to himself by claiming to have transported Sarah Spiers in his taxi shortly before her disappearance. Weygers' premises were raided by the police and he and his tenant were obliged to give samples for DNA testing. As with other avenues of investigation, nothing was to come of it.
In October 2006, it was announced that Mark Dixie (AKA Shane Turner), who was convicted in the United Kingdom for the 2005 murder of 18-year-old model Sally Anne Bowman, is a prime suspect in the killings, and the WA Police's Macro Taskforce has requested DNA samples from Dixie to test against evidence taken during the enquiry.
In a memoir titled The End of Innocence, published in 2007, Estelle Blackburn, a Western Australian journalist and author, speculated that her former partner, who had assaulted and threatened many times to kill her, may be the killer; claiming that he had performed maintenance on taxi vehicles and often had overnight access to them. This was further explored in a two-part episode of the ABC's television programme, Australian Story, in November 2007.
- wiki
Age at time of disappearance: 22 years
Build: Medium
Height: 162 cm
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Distinguishing Features/Other:
Circumstances:
Julie was last seen leaving the Parmelia Hilton Hotel WA at 12.30am on 20 June 1988 after a staff function. Her car was found 2 days later in the sea off Cottesloe Beach.
------
Inquest into the Suspected Death of Julie Cutler
Delivered on : 6 April 2023
Delivered at : Perth
Finding of : Deputy State Coroner Linton
Summary : Julie Cutler was last seen as she left a work function at the Parmelia Hotel just after midnight on 20 June 1998. Her empty car was found in the ocean off Cottesloe Beach two days later. An extensive search found no sign of Julie. She has not been seen or heard from again. It was quickly concluded by her family and the police that she was deceased, although no formal declaration of her death has ever been made. No person has ever been charged in relation to being involved in her death.
Since June 1998 there has been an ongoing investigation by the WA Police Force into Julie's disappearance. In 2017, the Cold Case Homicide Squad commenced a new operation to review all of the evidence and investigate any new leads. A large number of witnesses were interviewed and other steps taken as part of this review. The investigation primarily focussed on whether another person was involved in her death, with a large number of possible suspects considered. Very few of the suspects have been able to be eliminated, but none of them have been able to be elevated to a level that would warrant interviewing them under the Criminal Investigation Act 2006 (WA). In any event, the majority of possible suspects cooperated with the investigation and provided information voluntarily. At the conclusion of the cold case investigation, a conclusion was reached that Julie was likely deceased and she died either as a result of suicide or homicide by a person or persons unknown.
An inquest was held, during which the evidence obtained from the cold case operation was tendered and a number of witnesses were called, including people who were last known to be in contact with Julie before her disappearance, as well as family and friends who could speak to Julie's state of mind and general behaviour.
At the conclusion of the inquest, the Deputy State Coroner was satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt Julie is deceased and was deceased in relative proximity to the time of her disappearance. The Coroner was unable to determine how she died and made an Open Finding as to the manner of Julie's death.
It has been 20 years since 23-year-old's car was towed from the surf at Cottesloe beach two day's after she left a staff function at the Parmela Hilton Hotel around midnight on June 20, 1998.
Her family hope technology will be able to analise clues left in the car by the killer.
Rachel Cutler was 10 when Julie, her half sister went missing.
She said police had told her father that they suspected Julie had been taken by the same person who abducted three women from the Claremont Hotel in the 1990's.
"Julie disappeared seven years before the first Claremont abduction," Rachel said this week.
"The connection was mentioned by police, who said the case was being looked at in association with the Claremont Serial Killings.
"But the details of what was said during those conversations is not for us to say, it is up to the police.
The Cutler family will hold a memorial mass at Julie's former school Iona Presentation College, next month.
"We haven't had a mass for Julie before," said Rachel. "We were always hoping a body would turn up - but because it has been 20 years now, we have decided to accept that we won't have a body to bury."
Rachel said the family hoped new evidence would lead to the perpetrator being caught.
"With advances in technology, we hope DNA can be obtained off cigarette filters that were found in Julie's car," she said.
"They were from a type of cigarette we know Julie didn't smoke and it might prove to be the lead we need."
"Maybe someonewho suspected something at the time will have the courage to come forward and contact Crimestoppers."
A plaque for Julie will be erected at her mother Robyn's grave at Karrkatta cemetery.
Mrs Cutler died from cancer when Julie and her sister Nicole were young girls.
Their father Roger remarried and had four more children - Rachel, Rebecca, Alexander and Jessica.
"But mum and dad talk about her often as does Nicole - they were around the same age and very close, and had grown up together. Nicole has four kids of her own.
"My father has been affected most by what happened."
"I think fathers feel they are the protectors of their children , especially their daughters -and as Julie was the first daughter, he was very fond of her.
"When things like this happen you feel quite powerless."
Rachel said the family never believed Julie would be found alive.
"When she disappeared we feared the worst because it was completely out of character," Rachel said.
"She was consicentious person and wouldn't have put anyone through what my parents and family have gone through.
"We had only just moved to Kalgoorlie from Perth and Julie called dad and told him she was planning to come up for a month."
"She had been saving uop to go travelling after graduating from WAIT (now Curtin University) where she majored in English literature, with a minor in theatre arts."
During the Claremont murder investigations, it was reported that Julie had attended classes at the University with a man police said was their prime suspect.
"We did hear that but didn't think much of it," Rachael said. "She went through classes with hundreds of people, so I don't know if thats relevant.
"Mum and dad didn't want to worry us about it at the beginning.
"They didn't tell us what had happened but a couple of day's later we saw a story on the news that said Julie's car had been dragged out of the surf.
"We asked mum and she said dad would tell us about it later. All he said was that she had gone missing and didn't know where she was. We were both old enough to surmise that she was dead.
"Because it was such a horrific thing to happen it made me aware, from a very young age, that bad things can happen to you.
"As a result, i think our parents were a lot more protective to the point of being overly cautious when we were growing up.
"When it came to Perth to go to University, I would call them and let them know if i was going out at night and I would call them when I got home."
The Cutler family have never spoken to the families of the three Claremont victims - Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
"It was hard for us and I felt sad for their families," said Rachael.
"We didn't want to intrude on their grief and didn't contact them out of respect because we understood what a highly traumatic experience it is."
Julie and Nicole attend Iona Presentation College when the family lived in Perth.
Julie was at Iona between 1975 and 1982 where she did her TAFE and I thought the school would be the most appropriate place to have the memorial service," said Rachael.
"The school and the sisters have been very gracious towards us and we believe in the power of mass, so it will be a healing process for us.
"The plaque we are putting on the grave of Julie's mother means there will be a place where people can go and remember Julie.
"Over time the pain of grief isn't as strong and you learn to cope with it.
"The hardest times have been when we hear media reports of people going missing or a body being found, it brings back the emotions of 20 years ago.
by Romy Ranali, post.com.au
-----
The Claremont serial murders is the case of the unsolved murders of two young Australian women and the unresolved disappearance of a third in 1996 and 1997 in Claremont, a wealthy western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. All three women disappeared in similar circumstances after attending night spots in Claremont, leading police to suspect that an unidentified serial killer was the offender. Mark Dixie was a suspect in the killings however a WA Police Deputy Commissioner Murray Lampard has been quoted in saying (The Age February 24, 2008) "Dixie was closely investigated at the time and eventually ruled out as a suspect."
The case began with the disappearance of Sarah Spiers, 18, on 26 January 1996, after she left a nightclub in the centre of Claremont. Her disappearance was described by her friends and family as out of character and attracted massive publicity. Spiers had apparently called a taxi from a phone booth but was not present when the responding vehicle arrived. Her fate remains uncertain.
Some months later, on 9 June 1996, Jane Rimmer, 23, disappeared from the same part of Claremont. Her body was found in bushland near Woolcoot Road, Wellard, in August 1996.
On 14 March 1997, Ciara Glennon, a 27-year-old lawyer, disappeared from the Claremont area. Her body was found on 3 April, near a track in scrub off Pipidinny Road in Eglinton, a northern suburb of Perth. After this murder police confirmed that they were searching for a serial killer.
Each of the women had attended either a pub called The Continental (since renamed The Red Rock and now known as The Claremont Hotel) and/or the nightclub Club Bayview.
It has also been suggested by Liam Bartlett, a journalist, that Sarah Spiers was not the first victim. He wrote that police have told the father of a fourth missing woman, 22-year-old Julie Cutler, that his daughter was probably a victim of the Claremont killer.
Ms. Cutler, a university student, from Fremantle, vanished after leaving a staff function at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel in Perth at 9pm, one night in 1988. Her car was found in the surf near the groyne at Cottesloe Beach two days later. Her fate is also unknown.
The Western Australian Police established a special task force to investigate the case. It was given the name "Macro". Several phases have elapsed in the course of the continuing work of the task force.
Initial suspicion focused on the taxi-drivers of Perth because of the women last seen in circumstances where they may have been seeking taxi service. There had also been a predisposition to this possibility because of reports from late 1995 of possible improper conduct by some drivers. A massive DNA-testing exercise was carried out to cover all of the taxi drivers licensed in Western Australia; a group of more than two thousand. A thorough review of the character/background standards for drivers was conducted and led to drivers with any significant criminal history being de-licensed. Training for drivers and examining standards for license eligibility were raised. Stricter standards were also applied to verifying that decommissioned taxi vehicles were stripped of any insignia and equipment that could be used to falsely purport that a vehicle was a taxi. While this had the beneficial side-effect of improving the quality of the taxi service and enhancing the confidence of the public in using it, the investigation itself does not appear to have progressed.
In the next major development, a junior officer of the Western Australian Public Service was targeted by police as the prime suspect, after he attracted their attention during a decoy operation. The suspect made himself known to the media and asserted his innocence. He was subjected to a high level of overt surveillance, apparently with the purpose of prompting a confession. Although this continued for several years, the suspect maintained his innocence and appears to have intact alibis. He remains a nominal suspect, but the focus upon him has decreased in intensity.
It has been reported that police are also investigating whether Bradley John Murdoch, the convicted killer of Peter Falconio may have been involved, although Murdoch was serving a custodial sentence from November 1995 until February 1997.
One of the tactics used by the Macro Task-force was the distribution of questionnaires to "persons of interest", including various confrontational enquiries such as "Are you the killer?" The utility of this approach was disputed and the choice of persons to whom they were sent was controversial. One was a prominent civil libertarian and local government figure, Peter Weygers. He was mayor of the Town of Claremont at the time of the women's disappearance/demise and was involved in some disputes with the victims' families concerning the duty of care of the local authority in securing the district. He also was leasing a premises to a taxi-driver who attracted police attention to himself by claiming to have transported Sarah Spiers in his taxi shortly before her disappearance. Weygers' premises were raided by the police and he and his tenant were obliged to give samples for DNA testing. As with other avenues of investigation, nothing was to come of it.
In October 2006, it was announced that Mark Dixie (AKA Shane Turner), who was convicted in the United Kingdom for the 2005 murder of 18-year-old model Sally Anne Bowman, is a prime suspect in the killings, and the WA Police's Macro Taskforce has requested DNA samples from Dixie to test against evidence taken during the enquiry.
In a memoir titled The End of Innocence, published in 2007, Estelle Blackburn, a Western Australian journalist and author, speculated that her former partner, who had assaulted and threatened many times to kill her, may be the killer; claiming that he had performed maintenance on taxi vehicles and often had overnight access to them. This was further explored in a two-part episode of the ABC's television programme, Australian Story, in November 2007.
- wiki
Age at time of disappearance: 22 years
Build: Medium
Height: 162 cm
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Distinguishing Features/Other:
Circumstances:
Julie was last seen leaving the Parmelia Hilton Hotel WA at 12.30am on 20 June 1988 after a staff function. Her car was found 2 days later in the sea off Cottesloe Beach.
------
Inquest into the Suspected Death of Julie Cutler
Delivered on : 6 April 2023
Delivered at : Perth
Finding of : Deputy State Coroner Linton
Summary : Julie Cutler was last seen as she left a work function at the Parmelia Hotel just after midnight on 20 June 1998. Her empty car was found in the ocean off Cottesloe Beach two days later. An extensive search found no sign of Julie. She has not been seen or heard from again. It was quickly concluded by her family and the police that she was deceased, although no formal declaration of her death has ever been made. No person has ever been charged in relation to being involved in her death.
Since June 1998 there has been an ongoing investigation by the WA Police Force into Julie's disappearance. In 2017, the Cold Case Homicide Squad commenced a new operation to review all of the evidence and investigate any new leads. A large number of witnesses were interviewed and other steps taken as part of this review. The investigation primarily focussed on whether another person was involved in her death, with a large number of possible suspects considered. Very few of the suspects have been able to be eliminated, but none of them have been able to be elevated to a level that would warrant interviewing them under the Criminal Investigation Act 2006 (WA). In any event, the majority of possible suspects cooperated with the investigation and provided information voluntarily. At the conclusion of the cold case investigation, a conclusion was reached that Julie was likely deceased and she died either as a result of suicide or homicide by a person or persons unknown.
An inquest was held, during which the evidence obtained from the cold case operation was tendered and a number of witnesses were called, including people who were last known to be in contact with Julie before her disappearance, as well as family and friends who could speak to Julie's state of mind and general behaviour.
At the conclusion of the inquest, the Deputy State Coroner was satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt Julie is deceased and was deceased in relative proximity to the time of her disappearance. The Coroner was unable to determine how she died and made an Open Finding as to the manner of Julie's death.
The family of Julie Cutler once thought by police to be the first victim of the Claremont Serial Killer, say they finally feel able to erect a graveside plaque accepting her death.
It has been 20 years since 23-year-old's car was towed from the surf at Cottesloe beach two day's after she left a staff function at the Parmela Hilton Hotel around midnight on June 20, 1998.
Her family hope technology will be able to analise clues left in the car by the killer.
Rachel Cutler was 10 when Julie, her half sister went missing.
She said police had told her father that they suspected Julie had been taken by the same person who abducted three women from the Claremont Hotel in the 1990's.
"Julie disappeared seven years before the first Claremont abduction," Rachel said this week.
"The connection was mentioned by police, who said the case was being looked at in association with the Claremont Serial Killings.
"But the details of what was said during those conversations is not for us to say, it is up to the police.
The Cutler family will hold a memorial mass at Julie's former school Iona Presentation College, next month.
"We haven't had a mass for Julie before," said Rachel. "We were always hoping a body would turn up - but because it has been 20 years now, we have decided to accept that we won't have a body to bury."
Rachel said the family hoped new evidence would lead to the perpetrator being caught.
"With advances in technology, we hope DNA can be obtained off cigarette filters that were found in Julie's car," she said.
"They were from a type of cigarette we know Julie didn't smoke and it might prove to be the lead we need."
"Maybe someonewho suspected something at the time will have the courage to come forward and contact Crimestoppers."
A plaque for Julie will be erected at her mother Robyn's grave at Karrkatta cemetery.
Mrs Cutler died from cancer when Julie and her sister Nicole were young girls.
Their father Roger remarried and had four more children - Rachel, Rebecca, Alexander and Jessica.
"But mum and dad talk about her often as does Nicole - they were around the same age and very close, and had grown up together. Nicole has four kids of her own.
"My father has been affected most by what happened."
"I think fathers feel they are the protectors of their children , especially their daughters -and as Julie was the first daughter, he was very fond of her.
"When things like this happen you feel quite powerless."
Rachel said the family never believed Julie would be found alive.
"When she disappeared we feared the worst because it was completely out of character," Rachel said.
"She was consicentious person and wouldn't have put anyone through what my parents and family have gone through.
"We had only just moved to Kalgoorlie from Perth and Julie called dad and told him she was planning to come up for a month."
"She had been saving uop to go travelling after graduating from WAIT (now Curtin University) where she majored in English literature, with a minor in theatre arts."
During the Claremont murder investigations, it was reported that Julie had attended classes at the University with a man police said was their prime suspect.
"We did hear that but didn't think much of it," Rachael said. "She went through classes with hundreds of people, so I don't know if thats relevant.
"Mum and dad didn't want to worry us about it at the beginning.
"They didn't tell us what had happened but a couple of day's later we saw a story on the news that said Julie's car had been dragged out of the surf.
"We asked mum and she said dad would tell us about it later. All he said was that she had gone missing and didn't know where she was. We were both old enough to surmise that she was dead.
"Because it was such a horrific thing to happen it made me aware, from a very young age, that bad things can happen to you.
"As a result, i think our parents were a lot more protective to the point of being overly cautious when we were growing up.
"When it came to Perth to go to University, I would call them and let them know if i was going out at night and I would call them when I got home."
The Cutler family have never spoken to the families of the three Claremont victims - Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
"It was hard for us and I felt sad for their families," said Rachael.
"We didn't want to intrude on their grief and didn't contact them out of respect because we understood what a highly traumatic experience it is."
Julie and Nicole attend Iona Presentation College when the family lived in Perth.
Julie was at Iona between 1975 and 1982 where she did her TAFE and I thought the school would be the most appropriate place to have the memorial service," said Rachael.
"The school and the sisters have been very gracious towards us and we believe in the power of mass, so it will be a healing process for us.
"The plaque we are putting on the grave of Julie's mother means there will be a place where people can go and remember Julie.
"Over time the pain of grief isn't as strong and you learn to cope with it.
"The hardest times have been when we hear media reports of people going missing or a body being found, it brings back the emotions of 20 years ago.
by Romy Ranali, post.com.au
-----
The Claremont serial murders is the case of the unsolved murders of two young Australian women and the unresolved disappearance of a third in 1996 and 1997 in Claremont, a wealthy western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. All three women disappeared in similar circumstances after attending night spots in Claremont, leading police to suspect that an unidentified serial killer was the offender. Mark Dixie was a suspect in the killings however a WA Police Deputy Commissioner Murray Lampard has been quoted in saying (The Age February 24, 2008) "Dixie was closely investigated at the time and eventually ruled out as a suspect."
The case began with the disappearance of Sarah Spiers, 18, on 26 January 1996, after she left a nightclub in the centre of Claremont. Her disappearance was described by her friends and family as out of character and attracted massive publicity. Spiers had apparently called a taxi from a phone booth but was not present when the responding vehicle arrived. Her fate remains uncertain.
Some months later, on 9 June 1996, Jane Rimmer, 23, disappeared from the same part of Claremont. Her body was found in bushland near Woolcoot Road, Wellard, in August 1996.
On 14 March 1997, Ciara Glennon, a 27-year-old lawyer, disappeared from the Claremont area. Her body was found on 3 April, near a track in scrub off Pipidinny Road in Eglinton, a northern suburb of Perth. After this murder police confirmed that they were searching for a serial killer.
Each of the women had attended either a pub called The Continental (since renamed The Red Rock and now known as The Claremont Hotel) and/or the nightclub Club Bayview.
It has also been suggested by Liam Bartlett, a journalist, that Sarah Spiers was not the first victim. He wrote that police have told the father of a fourth missing woman, 22-year-old Julie Cutler, that his daughter was probably a victim of the Claremont killer.
Ms. Cutler, a university student, from Fremantle, vanished after leaving a staff function at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel in Perth at 9pm, one night in 1988. Her car was found in the surf near the groyne at Cottesloe Beach two days later. Her fate is also unknown.
The Western Australian Police established a special task force to investigate the case. It was given the name "Macro". Several phases have elapsed in the course of the continuing work of the task force.
Initial suspicion focused on the taxi-drivers of Perth because of the women last seen in circumstances where they may have been seeking taxi service. There had also been a predisposition to this possibility because of reports from late 1995 of possible improper conduct by some drivers. A massive DNA-testing exercise was carried out to cover all of the taxi drivers licensed in Western Australia; a group of more than two thousand. A thorough review of the character/background standards for drivers was conducted and led to drivers with any significant criminal history being de-licensed. Training for drivers and examining standards for license eligibility were raised. Stricter standards were also applied to verifying that decommissioned taxi vehicles were stripped of any insignia and equipment that could be used to falsely purport that a vehicle was a taxi. While this had the beneficial side-effect of improving the quality of the taxi service and enhancing the confidence of the public in using it, the investigation itself does not appear to have progressed.
In the next major development, a junior officer of the Western Australian Public Service was targeted by police as the prime suspect, after he attracted their attention during a decoy operation. The suspect made himself known to the media and asserted his innocence. He was subjected to a high level of overt surveillance, apparently with the purpose of prompting a confession. Although this continued for several years, the suspect maintained his innocence and appears to have intact alibis. He remains a nominal suspect, but the focus upon him has decreased in intensity.
It has been reported that police are also investigating whether Bradley John Murdoch, the convicted killer of Peter Falconio may have been involved, although Murdoch was serving a custodial sentence from November 1995 until February 1997.
One of the tactics used by the Macro Task-force was the distribution of questionnaires to "persons of interest", including various confrontational enquiries such as "Are you the killer?" The utility of this approach was disputed and the choice of persons to whom they were sent was controversial. One was a prominent civil libertarian and local government figure, Peter Weygers. He was mayor of the Town of Claremont at the time of the women's disappearance/demise and was involved in some disputes with the victims' families concerning the duty of care of the local authority in securing the district. He also was leasing a premises to a taxi-driver who attracted police attention to himself by claiming to have transported Sarah Spiers in his taxi shortly before her disappearance. Weygers' premises were raided by the police and he and his tenant were obliged to give samples for DNA testing. As with other avenues of investigation, nothing was to come of it.
In October 2006, it was announced that Mark Dixie (AKA Shane Turner), who was convicted in the United Kingdom for the 2005 murder of 18-year-old model Sally Anne Bowman, is a prime suspect in the killings, and the WA Police's Macro Taskforce has requested DNA samples from Dixie to test against evidence taken during the enquiry.
In a memoir titled The End of Innocence, published in 2007, Estelle Blackburn, a Western Australian journalist and author, speculated that her former partner, who had assaulted and threatened many times to kill her, may be the killer; claiming that he had performed maintenance on taxi vehicles and often had overnight access to them. This was further explored in a two-part episode of the ABC's television programme, Australian Story, in November 2007.
- wiki
Age at time of disappearance: 22 years
Build: Medium
Height: 162 cm
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Distinguishing Features/Other:
Circumstances:
Julie was last seen leaving the Parmelia Hilton Hotel WA at 12.30am on 20 June 1988 after a staff function. Her car was found 2 days later in the sea off Cottesloe Beach.
------
Inquest into the Suspected Death of Julie Cutler
Delivered on : 6 April 2023
Delivered at : Perth
Finding of : Deputy State Coroner Linton
Summary : Julie Cutler was last seen as she left a work function at the Parmelia Hotel just after midnight on 20 June 1998. Her empty car was found in the ocean off Cottesloe Beach two days later. An extensive search found no sign of Julie. She has not been seen or heard from again. It was quickly concluded by her family and the police that she was deceased, although no formal declaration of her death has ever been made. No person has ever been charged in relation to being involved in her death.
Since June 1998 there has been an ongoing investigation by the WA Police Force into Julie's disappearance. In 2017, the Cold Case Homicide Squad commenced a new operation to review all of the evidence and investigate any new leads. A large number of witnesses were interviewed and other steps taken as part of this review. The investigation primarily focussed on whether another person was involved in her death, with a large number of possible suspects considered. Very few of the suspects have been able to be eliminated, but none of them have been able to be elevated to a level that would warrant interviewing them under the Criminal Investigation Act 2006 (WA). In any event, the majority of possible suspects cooperated with the investigation and provided information voluntarily. At the conclusion of the cold case investigation, a conclusion was reached that Julie was likely deceased and she died either as a result of suicide or homicide by a person or persons unknown.
An inquest was held, during which the evidence obtained from the cold case operation was tendered and a number of witnesses were called, including people who were last known to be in contact with Julie before her disappearance, as well as family and friends who could speak to Julie's state of mind and general behaviour.
At the conclusion of the inquest, the Deputy State Coroner was satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt Julie is deceased and was deceased in relative proximity to the time of her disappearance. The Coroner was unable to determine how she died and made an Open Finding as to the manner of Julie's death.
It has been 20 years since 23-year-old's car was towed from the surf at Cottesloe beach two day's after she left a staff function at the Parmela Hilton Hotel around midnight on June 20, 1998.
Her family hope technology will be able to analise clues left in the car by the killer.
Rachel Cutler was 10 when Julie, her half sister went missing.
She said police had told her father that they suspected Julie had been taken by the same person who abducted three women from the Claremont Hotel in the 1990's.
"Julie disappeared seven years before the first Claremont abduction," Rachel said this week.
"The connection was mentioned by police, who said the case was being looked at in association with the Claremont Serial Killings.
"But the details of what was said during those conversations is not for us to say, it is up to the police.
The Cutler family will hold a memorial mass at Julie's former school Iona Presentation College, next month.
"We haven't had a mass for Julie before," said Rachel. "We were always hoping a body would turn up - but because it has been 20 years now, we have decided to accept that we won't have a body to bury."
Rachel said the family hoped new evidence would lead to the perpetrator being caught.
"With advances in technology, we hope DNA can be obtained off cigarette filters that were found in Julie's car," she said.
"They were from a type of cigarette we know Julie didn't smoke and it might prove to be the lead we need."
"Maybe someonewho suspected something at the time will have the courage to come forward and contact Crimestoppers."
A plaque for Julie will be erected at her mother Robyn's grave at Karrkatta cemetery.
Mrs Cutler died from cancer when Julie and her sister Nicole were young girls.
Their father Roger remarried and had four more children - Rachel, Rebecca, Alexander and Jessica.
"But mum and dad talk about her often as does Nicole - they were around the same age and very close, and had grown up together. Nicole has four kids of her own.
"My father has been affected most by what happened."
"I think fathers feel they are the protectors of their children , especially their daughters -and as Julie was the first daughter, he was very fond of her.
"When things like this happen you feel quite powerless."
Rachel said the family never believed Julie would be found alive.
"When she disappeared we feared the worst because it was completely out of character," Rachel said.
"She was consicentious person and wouldn't have put anyone through what my parents and family have gone through.
"We had only just moved to Kalgoorlie from Perth and Julie called dad and told him she was planning to come up for a month."
"She had been saving uop to go travelling after graduating from WAIT (now Curtin University) where she majored in English literature, with a minor in theatre arts."
During the Claremont murder investigations, it was reported that Julie had attended classes at the University with a man police said was their prime suspect.
"We did hear that but didn't think much of it," Rachael said. "She went through classes with hundreds of people, so I don't know if thats relevant.
"Mum and dad didn't want to worry us about it at the beginning.
"They didn't tell us what had happened but a couple of day's later we saw a story on the news that said Julie's car had been dragged out of the surf.
"We asked mum and she said dad would tell us about it later. All he said was that she had gone missing and didn't know where she was. We were both old enough to surmise that she was dead.
"Because it was such a horrific thing to happen it made me aware, from a very young age, that bad things can happen to you.
"As a result, i think our parents were a lot more protective to the point of being overly cautious when we were growing up.
"When it came to Perth to go to University, I would call them and let them know if i was going out at night and I would call them when I got home."
The Cutler family have never spoken to the families of the three Claremont victims - Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
"It was hard for us and I felt sad for their families," said Rachael.
"We didn't want to intrude on their grief and didn't contact them out of respect because we understood what a highly traumatic experience it is."
Julie and Nicole attend Iona Presentation College when the family lived in Perth.
Julie was at Iona between 1975 and 1982 where she did her TAFE and I thought the school would be the most appropriate place to have the memorial service," said Rachael.
"The school and the sisters have been very gracious towards us and we believe in the power of mass, so it will be a healing process for us.
"The plaque we are putting on the grave of Julie's mother means there will be a place where people can go and remember Julie.
"Over time the pain of grief isn't as strong and you learn to cope with it.
"The hardest times have been when we hear media reports of people going missing or a body being found, it brings back the emotions of 20 years ago.
by Romy Ranali, post.com.au
-----
The Claremont serial murders is the case of the unsolved murders of two young Australian women and the unresolved disappearance of a third in 1996 and 1997 in Claremont, a wealthy western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. All three women disappeared in similar circumstances after attending night spots in Claremont, leading police to suspect that an unidentified serial killer was the offender. Mark Dixie was a suspect in the killings however a WA Police Deputy Commissioner Murray Lampard has been quoted in saying (The Age February 24, 2008) "Dixie was closely investigated at the time and eventually ruled out as a suspect."
The case began with the disappearance of Sarah Spiers, 18, on 26 January 1996, after she left a nightclub in the centre of Claremont. Her disappearance was described by her friends and family as out of character and attracted massive publicity. Spiers had apparently called a taxi from a phone booth but was not present when the responding vehicle arrived. Her fate remains uncertain.
Some months later, on 9 June 1996, Jane Rimmer, 23, disappeared from the same part of Claremont. Her body was found in bushland near Woolcoot Road, Wellard, in August 1996.
On 14 March 1997, Ciara Glennon, a 27-year-old lawyer, disappeared from the Claremont area. Her body was found on 3 April, near a track in scrub off Pipidinny Road in Eglinton, a northern suburb of Perth. After this murder police confirmed that they were searching for a serial killer.
Each of the women had attended either a pub called The Continental (since renamed The Red Rock and now known as The Claremont Hotel) and/or the nightclub Club Bayview.
It has also been suggested by Liam Bartlett, a journalist, that Sarah Spiers was not the first victim. He wrote that police have told the father of a fourth missing woman, 22-year-old Julie Cutler, that his daughter was probably a victim of the Claremont killer.
Ms. Cutler, a university student, from Fremantle, vanished after leaving a staff function at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel in Perth at 9pm, one night in 1988. Her car was found in the surf near the groyne at Cottesloe Beach two days later. Her fate is also unknown.
The Western Australian Police established a special task force to investigate the case. It was given the name "Macro". Several phases have elapsed in the course of the continuing work of the task force.
Initial suspicion focused on the taxi-drivers of Perth because of the women last seen in circumstances where they may have been seeking taxi service. There had also been a predisposition to this possibility because of reports from late 1995 of possible improper conduct by some drivers. A massive DNA-testing exercise was carried out to cover all of the taxi drivers licensed in Western Australia; a group of more than two thousand. A thorough review of the character/background standards for drivers was conducted and led to drivers with any significant criminal history being de-licensed. Training for drivers and examining standards for license eligibility were raised. Stricter standards were also applied to verifying that decommissioned taxi vehicles were stripped of any insignia and equipment that could be used to falsely purport that a vehicle was a taxi. While this had the beneficial side-effect of improving the quality of the taxi service and enhancing the confidence of the public in using it, the investigation itself does not appear to have progressed.
In the next major development, a junior officer of the Western Australian Public Service was targeted by police as the prime suspect, after he attracted their attention during a decoy operation. The suspect made himself known to the media and asserted his innocence. He was subjected to a high level of overt surveillance, apparently with the purpose of prompting a confession. Although this continued for several years, the suspect maintained his innocence and appears to have intact alibis. He remains a nominal suspect, but the focus upon him has decreased in intensity.
It has been reported that police are also investigating whether Bradley John Murdoch, the convicted killer of Peter Falconio may have been involved, although Murdoch was serving a custodial sentence from November 1995 until February 1997.
One of the tactics used by the Macro Task-force was the distribution of questionnaires to "persons of interest", including various confrontational enquiries such as "Are you the killer?" The utility of this approach was disputed and the choice of persons to whom they were sent was controversial. One was a prominent civil libertarian and local government figure, Peter Weygers. He was mayor of the Town of Claremont at the time of the women's disappearance/demise and was involved in some disputes with the victims' families concerning the duty of care of the local authority in securing the district. He also was leasing a premises to a taxi-driver who attracted police attention to himself by claiming to have transported Sarah Spiers in his taxi shortly before her disappearance. Weygers' premises were raided by the police and he and his tenant were obliged to give samples for DNA testing. As with other avenues of investigation, nothing was to come of it.
In October 2006, it was announced that Mark Dixie (AKA Shane Turner), who was convicted in the United Kingdom for the 2005 murder of 18-year-old model Sally Anne Bowman, is a prime suspect in the killings, and the WA Police's Macro Taskforce has requested DNA samples from Dixie to test against evidence taken during the enquiry.
In a memoir titled The End of Innocence, published in 2007, Estelle Blackburn, a Western Australian journalist and author, speculated that her former partner, who had assaulted and threatened many times to kill her, may be the killer; claiming that he had performed maintenance on taxi vehicles and often had overnight access to them. This was further explored in a two-part episode of the ABC's television programme, Australian Story, in November 2007.
- wiki
Age at time of disappearance: 22 years
Build: Medium
Height: 162 cm
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Distinguishing Features/Other:
Circumstances:
Julie was last seen leaving the Parmelia Hilton Hotel WA at 12.30am on 20 June 1988 after a staff function. Her car was found 2 days later in the sea off Cottesloe Beach.
------
Inquest into the Suspected Death of Julie Cutler
Delivered on : 6 April 2023
Delivered at : Perth
Finding of : Deputy State Coroner Linton
Summary : Julie Cutler was last seen as she left a work function at the Parmelia Hotel just after midnight on 20 June 1998. Her empty car was found in the ocean off Cottesloe Beach two days later. An extensive search found no sign of Julie. She has not been seen or heard from again. It was quickly concluded by her family and the police that she was deceased, although no formal declaration of her death has ever been made. No person has ever been charged in relation to being involved in her death.
Since June 1998 there has been an ongoing investigation by the WA Police Force into Julie's disappearance. In 2017, the Cold Case Homicide Squad commenced a new operation to review all of the evidence and investigate any new leads. A large number of witnesses were interviewed and other steps taken as part of this review. The investigation primarily focussed on whether another person was involved in her death, with a large number of possible suspects considered. Very few of the suspects have been able to be eliminated, but none of them have been able to be elevated to a level that would warrant interviewing them under the Criminal Investigation Act 2006 (WA). In any event, the majority of possible suspects cooperated with the investigation and provided information voluntarily. At the conclusion of the cold case investigation, a conclusion was reached that Julie was likely deceased and she died either as a result of suicide or homicide by a person or persons unknown.
An inquest was held, during which the evidence obtained from the cold case operation was tendered and a number of witnesses were called, including people who were last known to be in contact with Julie before her disappearance, as well as family and friends who could speak to Julie's state of mind and general behaviour.
At the conclusion of the inquest, the Deputy State Coroner was satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt Julie is deceased and was deceased in relative proximity to the time of her disappearance. The Coroner was unable to determine how she died and made an Open Finding as to the manner of Julie's death.
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