First article is down the page:
From the "Macro hauls in taxi man"
https://au.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/aussiecrime/conversations/topics/34
Police produced photos Mr Ross had taken of his girlfriend in bed after she had died of an illness in the early 1990s, and also pictures of her funeral.
"They called me a sick person," he said.
Mr Ross's girlfriend, a former beauty queen, died at home while Mr Ross was at a police station being questioned by police over a fare over-charging complaint, which was later dismissed.
How did she die?? And are there pictures of her? Well, check this site:
http://www.johnm.multiline.com.au/cont14.htm
I don't think we'll ever see photos, but it does have her name: Erica Mueller.
It's got dates for articles in the west australian, but it's hard to read all the content.
"At the time, the cab driver was living with Erica Mueller, rumoured to be a former Austrian beauty queen left disfigured and housebound by injuries from an accident. "
• Weygers still under investigation. [​IMG] [​IMG]
The West Australian, Perth, W. Australia, p 14, Wednesday, August 25, 2004
PERTH, Western Australia: The career of controversial civil libertarian Peter Weygers remains in doubt, four months after he was accused of sexual harassment.
The Department of Education and Training is continuing to investigate the school psychologist, who was removed from any duties counselling children when the allegations were made at the end of April. ... [For more, click "Weygers"]
• Lead on Claremont killer sparks raid.
The West Australian, Perth, W. Australia, by Luke Morfesse, Sarah Roberts and Luke Eliot, Page One, Thursday, August 26, 2004
PERTH, W. Australia: Police raided a house linked to controversial civil libertarian Peter Weygers and a Perth taxi driver yesterday armed with new information in the Claremont serial killer case.
Macro task force detectives raided the property in Irwin Road, Embleton, about 10am and seized computers and two vehicles -- a Ford station wagon and a Toyota Hi-Lux utility.
The Ford was used as a taxi by the cabbie at the time that two of the three victims -- Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer -- disappeared from Claremont. In the early stages of the eight-year-old inquiry much of the focus was on the taxi industry because Ms Spiers booked a cab before she disappeared.
Ciara Glennon, the serial killer's third known victim, was last seen only a few hundred metres from where Ms Spiers disappeared, trying to hail a cab. [...]
... Det-Sgt Martin Crane ... said ... "We've seized two motor vehicles which will both be subject to forensic examination."
The West Australian understand the taxi drive sold the house to Mr Weygers several years ago but continues to live in a transportable donga at the back. Mr Weygers' partner's son lives in the main residence.
Mr Weygers was known to have successfully championed the cause of the cabbie who faced the permanent loss of his taxi licence several years ago after refusing a passenger a fare. [sic]
Mr Weygers said last night that the raid was a political exercise and police were revisiting old leads.
Sgt Crane said the raid did not involve Mr Weygers "in any shape or form".
[Television news the same evening used the name and voice of taxidriver Steven Ross, 43] [Emphasis added] [Aug 26, 2004]
• Former mayor Peter Weygers' home searched.
94.5 fm Radio, and Television Channel 7, Perth, W. Australia, Thursday, September 16, 2004
PERTH: The home of former Claremont mayor, Peter Weygers, was searched today, and a DNA sample was taken.
The police said that Mr Weygers was a person of interest in the investigations into the alleged murders of young women in the Claremont area.
It is believed that Mr Weygers, who is president of the Council for Civil Liberties in Western Australia (Inc), declined to give a DNA sample during previous investigations.
He was brought to the house in an unmarked police car, and collapsed in the garden, but later was filmed weeding. [Sep 16, 04]
• Weygers forced to give DNA.
The West Australian, "Claremont killer task force raids home of civil libertarian: Weygers forced to give DNA,"
http://www.thewest.com.au/20040917/news/general/tw-news-general-home-sto129358.html , by Luke Morfesse, Page One, Friday, September 17, 2004
PERTH: The hunt for the Claremont serial killer took a twist yesterday when detectives raided the home of controversial civil libertarian Peter Weygers as part of their investigation into the murders.
Mr Weygers has been identified by detectives as a person of interest. He was held in police custody for several hours yesterday and forced to give a DNA sample before watching forensic officers search his home in Richardson Avenue, Claremont.
In 1996, when he was mayor of Claremont, Mr Weygers was one of up to 100 people given 16-question surveys by Macro detectives. At the time a senior officer said the people who were asked to complete the questionnaire were possible suspects in the murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
Yesterday, the Department of Education and Training confirmed it was still investigating Mr Weygers, a school psychologist, over harassment allegations made in April. A spokeswoman said Mr Weygers, who was removed from duties counselling children after the allegations, was working in a "non-school setting".
Three weeks ago police raided an Embleton property owned by Mr Weygers and used by a taxi driver who claimed to have had Ms Spiers in his Ford cab the night before she disappeared.
Macro task force head Det-Sgt Martin Crane said Mr Weygers had been using the Ford station wagon, which was no longer a taxi, until several weeks ago.
"Mr Weygers is a person of interest to this investigation," he said.
"It's a murder investigation that's unsolved after eight years and we will continue to speak to people and continue to eliminate people (from the inquiry)."
But Mr Weygers claimed the raid was engineered by the State Government for political purposes.
"We've been attacking Carmen Lawrence for a long, long time. They want to discredit the Council for Civil Liberties," he said.
"This is a State decision before the election to appear tough on crime. It is the most outrageous abuse of fundamental rights."
Mr Weygers said that after he was thrust into the Macro inquiry in 1996, then assistant commissioner and now Tourism Minister Bob Kucera assured him that he was not involved in the case at all. # [Emphasis added] [Sep 17, 04]
•
Weygers and the cabbie the odd couple in Claremont inquiry.
The West Australian, by Torrance Mendez, p 6, Friday, September 17, 2004
PERTH: Civil libertarian Peter Weygers and his cab driver friend are the odd couple in the Claremont serial killer investigation.
Mr Weygers has a high IQ [intelligence quotient] and is outgoing, while the 46-year-old taxi driver is comparatively dim-witted, lives for night cabbing and lacks social graces. [...]
... early 1990s when the taxi driver was in trouble over a passenger complaint.
At the time, the cab driver was living with Erica Mueller, rumoured to be a former Austrian beauty queen left disfigured and housebound by injuries from an accident.
The couple bought an investment duplex in Carlisle. The cabbie says she paid $43,000 deposit for thier shared house in Irwin Road, while he paid $20,000.
Ms Mueller died suddenly before Christmas 1990. The cabbie fell under police suspicion but the death was attributed to natural causes. He inherited her property.
He says that experience left him mistrustful of police. He told Macro detectives in 1996 he drove Ms Spiers before she disappeared. He agreed to be questioned in the presence of his lawyer.
Yet more trouble with taxi authorities followed around 2000 which eventually cost him his licence and job.
He sold the Irwin Road house for $110,000 to Mr Weygers in 2001 to help pay legal bills, hoping to share the home with Mr Weygers's partner and her son.
"But they didn't like my smell and reckoned I stunk the house out and they put me out the back," the cabbie said. "I didn't care. All I do is work and sleep. I eat the wrong food and f*rt a lot. They found out I was p*ssing in an esky instead of going to the toilet..." [Sep 17, 04]
• Missing girl's dad was phoned several times in the middle of the night.
The Weekend Australian, "Ex-mayor in calls to murdered girl's dad," by Amanda Banks, p 5, September 18-19, 2004
PERTH, W. Australia: The father of a missing Perth woman yesterday claimed a civil libertarian at the centre of a police inquiry into the Claremont serial killings had telephoned him several times in the middle of the night.
Don Spiers told The Weekend Australian that Peter Weygers had called him on numerous occasions to complain that he had been accused of killing Mr Spiers's 18-year-old daughter, Sarah.
"He has rung me in the middle of the night and said: 'I have been accused of killing your daughter'," Mr Spiers said yesterday. [...]
Mr Spiers said the calls were made in 1996, the same year Sarah went missing. Her body has never been found.
Officers investigating the disappearance of Spiers and the murder of Ciara Glennon, 27, and Jane Rimmer, 23, raided Mr Weygers's Claremont home on Thursday and forced him to provide them with a DNA sample. [...]
Council for Civil Liberties committee member Mary Connor told The Weekend Australian that Mr Weygers -- mayor of Claremont from 1985 to 1997 -- was upset and could not be contacted. ... [Sep 18-19, 04]
• Peter Weygers disappears.
Electronic news media, Sunday, September 19, 2004
PERTH: Mr Peter Weygers is reported as having disappeared. His friend (probably the cabdriver) was interviewed. The news media surmised he might have gone overseas. [Sep 19, 04]
• Weygers might be still in WA.
News media, Mon, September 20, 2004
PERTH: Mr Peter Weygers is now reported to be staying with friends in WA. [Sep 20, 04]