Australia Claremont Serial Killer, 1996 - 1997, Perth, Western Australia - #17

[Canning Vale]

I posted about this before but I need to say it again -

IMO the fact the BLF was missing it's rego plate is suspicious.

IMO the perpetrator removed the rego plate before sending Fiat out to sea. Thus slowing down any police investigations to properly identify the lost car.

What do other sleuths think about the missing rego plate?

Did it fall off in the ocean?
Or get removed?
By the perpetrator or by the cops?


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Posts are purely my own opinion unless otherwise stated with source links. All my original text and images remain exclusively my personal copyright.
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The number plate should have still been on the car. If it came off, someone would have handed it in to the nearest police station.

 

[Innerchild]

Does anyone know if her drivers licence was in her purse?

No, not according to The West Australian July 8th 1988 Bizarre Case that has detectives stumped, ...She did not go home to collect her wallet which contained a small amount of cash and all her credit cards (no mention of licence)

…19 days after Miss Cutler was last seen detectives admit they have no clue to the Fremantle brunette’s mysterious disappearance…

Her two tone 1968 Fiat 125 was found two days later floating in the surf at Cottesloe beach.

· Miss Cutler disappeared without apparently taking anything from her wardrobe in her Fremantle flat.
· She had no money when she vanished. She did not go home to collect her wallet which contained a small amount of case and all her credit cards (no mention of licence) …
· Miss Cutler’s bank account has been untouched since her disappearance.

Family members are convinced she did not take her own life…and they are adamant that if still alive and not being held captive somewhere she would not sit by and simply watch such a major effort to find her…

Miss Cutler wore a black evening dress to the function. It had a high-necked collar with gold buttons on the right lapel. She wore glossy black shoes and black stockings.

At 12.30am on Monday June 20[SUP]th[/SUP] Miss Cutler left the party, saying she was going home.

She and another woman walked to the hotel car park – used by staff and guests.

Miss Cutler walked alone to her car and was seen standing at the passenger door.

Detectives do not know the route taken by the Fiat sedan when it left the hotel.

They only know it was found at Cottesloe beach two days later, floating in the surf with the ignition and lights turned on, the driver’s window down and the driver’s door open…

The detectives are still interested in a call to the West Australian newspaper from a woman claiming to be Miss Cutler. The call was made after her father told a press conference he believed she was dead. The caller spoke to a reporter…

CAR

Miss Cutler did not smoke and was not a regular drinker.

“Unfortunately, we have got to the stage where – after interviewing hundreds of people – we find ourselves no better off that when we first saw the car in the water,” Det Sgt Katich said…

Source: The West Australian July 9th 1988 Bizarre Case that has detectives stumped

 

[Canning Vale]

There were no reports that said the keys were in the ignition. However, the newspaper reports repeated that the ignition and the lights were turned on. The key may have already been in the boot or removed to check the boot before the Fiat was fully retrieved and righted.

IC,

My apologies IC, it said ignition and I presumed a key was used.

http://www.news.com.au/news/vanishe...g/news-story/1f9da6564bf58fdfb6f6532c5e7b5d2f

 

[Annalise]

It would be great to get a look at the front of the car to see if both plates were missing. An old car, likely the screws holding the plates on were weakened so the back one may have worked itself off.

If both plates were missing from the car and not found by police search I think that might strongly indicate foul play in Julie's disappearance, the offender involved directly in sinking the Fiat to obliterate evidence and investigators might have/should have been quicker to call it.

IMO Julie wasn't in the car when it went into the sea.

Hi Spooks and Pandit - in my opinion the whole disappearance of Julie Cutler looks like foul play. She had the unsettling experience of being chased by some nutter in a car on Stirling Highway. Then a break in at her flat. I think it's obvious there is a connection between these incidents and her disappearance. How the car ended up in the ocean is a mystery. No registration plates is also very strange. I can't get my head around why the car would be put in the sea. I do feel that whoever chased her and nearly ran her off the road was probably the same person who broke into her flat. He got her address somehow. Therefore I feel it was this person who abducted and murdered Julie Cutler. MOO

 

[petedavo.au]

I couldn't find it on Trove.
Only found these, if they're of any use to anyone.
Weather 20/6/1988
[video=twitter;919788695175098368]https://twitter.com/petedavo_au/status/919788695175098368[/video]
Ship lost in heavy seas off Perth in June 1988
[video=twitter;919792512100741120]https://twitter.com/petedavo_au/status/919792512100741120[/video]
Survivors of Ship that broke in two off Perth in June 1988 rescued
[video=twitter;919792969477103621]https://twitter.com/petedavo_au/status/919792969477103621[/video]

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The Bulk Carrier Singa Sea broke in 2 on July 4, 1988 according to the few survivors of the tragedy.
https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/1988/mair/mair22/
ATSB put the disaster some 300 nm West of Bunbury.
There's some nice weather charts in this report BTW.

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[Canning Vale]

Hi Spooks and Pandit - in my opinion the whole disappearance of Julie Cutler looks like foul play. She had the unsettling experience of being chased by some nutter in a car on Stirling Highway. Then a break in at her flat. I think it's obvious there is a connection between these incidents and her disappearance. How the car ended up in the ocean is a mystery. No registration plates is also very strange. I can't get my head around why the car would be put in the sea. I do feel that whoever chased her and nearly ran her off the road was probably the same person who broke into her flat. He got her address somehow. Therefore I feel it was this person who abducted and murdered Julie Cutler. MOO

Regarding the entry into properties….I’m not sure if the external locked boxes were available then.

On 02/05/2017 username Brevette posted information which provided some good insight into possibilities of getting into properties. The information below is only my thoughts and opinion.
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...n-Australia-12/page73&p=13119789#post13119789

1.) depending on the accused's parents 'type' of involvement in real estate & development properties during the time of the claremont disappearances, BRE may also have had access to the keys of homes belonging to others ... homes which were perhaps known to be sitting vacant whilst on the market (eg.owners overseas, deceased estate), or perhaps properties up for rental, or under renovation for same, or earmarked for demolition.

2.)Snipped here…

3.) as BRE was said to be generously helpful with his skills, might he have perhaps been "moonlighting his telstra expertise" at a family level, on behalf of his parents, by installing lines & cabling to their developmental properties? perhaps he also assisted with some additional labour eg. painting the interiors, and general build clean-ups for the folks?
picture a new housing development - at lock-up stage - plumbed bathrooms, running water, no floor coverings, drop sheets(?) ... as yet unoccupied. if this were the case, he would had been a familiar face to the occupants of neighbouring properties, so i doubt any locals would have thought much if he was seen rocking up at all hours, had he been one to regularly check up on progress ... a legitimate reason to be on site, graciously helping out with the finishing touches on weekends and through the night following completion of his day job (?)
... and with his folks to vouch - had anyone asked -
"oh, our boy ... a top young bloke ... works day & night ... give you the shirt off his back"

 

[petedavo.au]

No, not according to The West Australian July 8th 1988 Bizarre Case that has detectives stumped, ...She did not go home to collect her wallet which contained a small amount of cash and all her credit cards (no mention of licence)

…19 days after Miss Cutler was last seen detectives admit they have no clue to the Fremantle brunette’s mysterious disappearance…

Her two tone 1968 Fiat 125 was found two days later floating in the surf at Cottesloe beach.

· Miss Cutler disappeared without apparently taking anything from her wardrobe in her Fremantle flat.
· She had no money when she vanished. She did not go home to collect her wallet which contained a small amount of case and all her credit cards (no mention of licence) …
· Miss Cutler’s bank account has been untouched since her disappearance.

Family members are convinced she did not take her own life…and they are adamant that if still alive and not being held captive somewhere she would not sit by and simply watch such a major effort to find her…

Miss Cutler wore a black evening dress to the function. It had a high-necked collar with gold buttons on the right lapel. She wore glossy black shoes and black stockings.

At 12.30am on Monday June 20[SUP]th[/SUP] Miss Cutler left the party, saying she was going home.

She and another woman walked to the hotel car park – used by staff and guests.

Miss Cutler walked alone to her car and was seen standing at the passenger door.

Detectives do not know the route taken by the Fiat sedan when it left the hotel.

They only know it was found at Cottesloe beach two days later, floating in the surf with the ignition and lights turned on, the driver’s window down and the driver’s door open…

The detectives are still interested in a call to the West Australian newspaper from a woman claiming to be Miss Cutler. The call was made after her father told a press conference he believed she was dead. The caller spoke to a reporter…

CAR

Miss Cutler did not smoke and was not a regular drinker.

“Unfortunately, we have got to the stage where – after interviewing hundreds of people – we find ourselves no better off that when we first saw the car in the water,” Det Sgt Katich said…

Source: The West Australian July 9th 1988 Bizarre Case that has detectives stumped

Thanks for the article. So the phone call was after the father's press conference. So we're no better off really with eliminating a prank.
There's really a lot of details in here that I wasn't aware of. Police believe it went off the groyne and floated. That makes sense if it was upside down as air would be trapped in it. It must've gone off at an angle and rolled sideways into the water thus crushing the roof in the roll over. There was a commotion that night, in Cottesloe but it appears that police have eliminated whoever that was. Back to square one really.

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[janwa]

Julie Cutlers Mother passed away in 1976

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=103679664

http://www2.mcb.wa.gov.au/NameSearch/results.php

 

[Bunnie]

Hilo
That's a good question. I'm not sure if we had the plastic coated driver's licenses back then. Like the ones we've got now.

I think we still had paper licenses back then. Close to the changeover.

 

[Zedx]

Zedx,
I've had a look in Trove, and unable to locate anything with the name Cutler.

I can't find my original source which mentions TROVE, but the same information is repeated by Innerchild on the 17/4/2017 @ 4.17pm on Thread 14. i don't know how to post the link sorry.

 

[Canning Vale]

I think we still had paper licenses back then. Close to the changeover.

Thanks Bunnie,

My thoughts were that an older type driver's license would have perished in the ocean.

 

[Canning Vale]

Thanks for the article. So the phone call was after the father's press conference. So we're no better off really with eliminating a prank.
There's really a lot of details in here that I wasn't aware of. Police believe it went off the groyne and floated. That makes sense if it was upside down as air would be trapped in it. It must've gone off at an angle and rolled sideways into the water thus crushing the roof in the roll over. There was a commotion that night, in Cottesloe but it appears that police have eliminated whoever that was. Back to square one really.

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PD,
Are you able to elaborate on the commotion?

 

[Hilo]

Thanks for the responses [emoji4]. I'm now wondering if she did in fact leave her wallet at home and only took what she needed for the evening- as Spinnaker has already suggested.

 

[Pandit]

Julie's car is in the water quite a bit further from the groyne than I'd initially thought. Thanks Meticulously, this picture is interesting. There's a few guys on the beach in suits, probably detectives so they knew it was Julie's car before it came in, that she wasn't in it but suspected foul play.

If an offender wanted to get rid of a car without attracting attention, I'm not sure he'd drive it headlights on along an elevated position for up to 95 metres which is the length of the groyne. Then hope the plan was going to work in that he could successfully bail out of the car before it crashed over a heap of rocks and didn't jag stuck on the side for everybody to see. Or alternatively, stand there like a beacon pushing it over the groyne and hope it didn't get stuck on the side.

So I'm wondering if the suggestion that the car went over the groyne was misinformation, we know the police do it to distinguish genuine information that comes in from false and if they actually know that BLF drove into the surf from the beach.

 

[meticulously]

There were no reports that said the keys were in the ignition. However, the newspaper reports repeated that the ignition and the lights were turned on. The key may have already been in the boot or removed to check the boot before the Fiat was fully retrieved and righted.

Yeah sure ic ,
you could be right, point taken .
The story was ignition was on .
I dont know enough to be sure.

 

[Canning Vale]

Julie's car is in the water quite a bit further from the groyne than I'd initially thought. Thanks Meticulously, this picture is interesting. There's a few guys on the beach in suits, probably detectives so they knew it was Julie's car before it came in, that she wasn't in it but suspected foul play.

If an offender wanted to get rid of a car without attracting attention, I'm not sure he'd drive it headlights on along an elevated position for up to 95 metres which is the length of the groyne. Then hope the plan was going to work in that he could successfully bail out of the car before it crashed over a heap of rocks and didn't jag stuck on the side for everybody to see. Or alternatively, stand there like a beacon pushing it over the groyne and hope it didn't get stuck on the side.

So I'm wondering if the suggestion that the car went over the groyne was misinformation, we know the police do it to distinguish genuine information that comes in from false and if they actually know that BLF drove into the surf from the beach.

Evidently it gets very dark on the groyne, probably why the headlights were used.

 

[petedavo.au]

PD,
Are you able to elaborate on the commotion?

Only know what's in the article.

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[meticulously]

PD,
Are you able to elaborate on the commotion?

What was the shenanigans that went on around cottesloe beach that Sunday night ? ? ?

 

[meticulously]

Julie's car is in the water quite a bit further from the groyne than I'd initially thought. Thanks Meticulously, this picture is interesting. There's a few guys on the beach in suits, probably detectives so they knew it was Julie's car before it came in, that she wasn't in it but suspected foul play.

If an offender wanted to get rid of a car without attracting attention, I'm not sure he'd drive it headlights on along an elevated position for up to 95 metres which is the length of the groyne. Then hope the plan was going to work in that he could successfully bail out of the car before it crashed over a heap of rocks and didn't jag stuck on the side for everybody to see. Or alternatively, stand there like a beacon pushing it over the groyne and hope it didn't get stuck on the side.

So I'm wondering if the suggestion that the car went over the groyne was misinformation, we know the police do it to distinguish genuine information that comes in from false and if they actually know that BLF drove into the surf from the beach.

Thats a really good point pandit ,
Surely , smart enough locals would have seen if there were tyre tracks on the beach or not ?
Some persons that watched the beach daily on a walk , run , water activity etc .
Someone with an eagle eye who looked for tracks asap .
Surely some people figured it out !

Good theory that re misinformation
.

 

[Spooks-R-Us]

What was the shenanigans that went on around cottesloe beach that Sunday night ? ? ?

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Drunk people spilling out of The Cott Hotel and OBH?


............................................
Posts are purely my own opinion unless otherwise stated with source links. All my original text and images remain exclusively my personal copyright.
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