Unsolved Gerard Ross - Abducted Kent st Rockingham WA 1997

In the BF Claremont Murders Bunker (Part 1) thread in July 2020 here,
someone showed great insight with this Gold Standard theory on the possible motives as to why Bradley Robert Edwards might have murdered Gerard Ross (if he ever did).

'Perhaps at the time BRE was irate with his younger brother (TE). The prosecution alleges BRE suffers from having displaced feelings.
GRs older brother went past ahead of him, the brother was about two years older. Same age difference as BRE and TE.
Perhaps there was a street telecommunications break down in Kent St, Rockingham which was being repaired at the time'

He was jealous of Troy as well? In a similar vein, there was also the incident of the Huntingdale victim's 'little brother' who BRE said traumatised him for life by nearly drowning him in the backyard swimming pool and being responsible for his terrible fear of water. We had a long discussion in the CSK threads as to exactly why he thought that was an appropriate story to tell the cops when he was being interviewed for serial murder.

Not sure there needed to be a telecommunications breakdown in Kent Street, BRE seemed to have plenty of time to swing in and out of Rockingham. Police installed 24/7 covert CCTV in at Rockingham after Gerard was taken if I remember this correctly, and it would have been MACRO that did it in the same way it was installed in Claremont.
 
Mar 5, 2017
12,558
34,960
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
Socceroos - Matildas
Need to go back and look at the timeline of where he was at with his relationship with his 2nd wife in October 1997.

By 14 October 1997 (date of Gerrard's disappearance, Bradley Robert Edwards and his 2nd wife had declared their love for each other (according to his 2nd wife at his murder trial).

Maybe Bradley Robert Edwards spending so much time with his 2nd wifes approx. 3 year old daughter in 1997, brought back memories of his childhood that triggered him.

'We fell in love pretty quickly I guess, and then in around June 1997, several weeks [after we had said I love you to each other], he was driving me home. He stopped just in front of Kewdale Senior High School and I was thinking, 'oh my gosh, what's going on', he was very edgy.
"He stopped the car and said he had a criminal record.
"[He said his first wife] cheated on him when they were going out and he couldn't handle it ... and he had a brain snap.
"He cried and everything, I felt sorry for him.
"He said it was just an assault."
Mr Edwards was convicted of an assault in 1990, when he attempted to drag a woman at Hollywood Hospital into a toilet.'

'Ms Barbagallo is now showing the second wife three home videos from when she was in a relationship to Mr Edwards.
The first is time-stamped 29 September 1997 at the bottom and shows a child dancing in the foreground. Mr Edwards is in the background by a white station wagon.'
"It looks like [the video has been taken at] the front of his parent's home," she said.'
 
Feb 11, 2018
988
3,233
AFL Club
Sydney
By 14 October 1997 (date of Gerrard's disappearance, Bradley Robert Edwards and his 2nd wife had declared their love for each other (according to his 2nd wife at his murder trial).

Maybe Bradley Robert Edwards spending so much time with his 2nd wifes approx. 3 year old daughter in 1997, brought back memories of his childhood that triggered him.

'We fell in love pretty quickly I guess, and then in around June 1997, several weeks [after we had said I love you to each other], he was driving me home. He stopped just in front of Kewdale Senior High School and I was thinking, 'oh my gosh, what's going on', he was very edgy.
"He stopped the car and said he had a criminal record.
"[He said his first wife] cheated on him when they were going out and he couldn't handle it ... and he had a brain snap.
"He cried and everything, I felt sorry for him.
"He said it was just an assault."
Mr Edwards was convicted of an assault in 1990, when he attempted to drag a woman at Hollywood Hospital into a toilet.'

'Ms Barbagallo is now showing the second wife three home videos from when she was in a relationship to Mr Edwards.
The first is time-stamped 29 September 1997 at the bottom and shows a child dancing in the foreground. Mr Edwards is in the background by a white station wagon.'
"It looks like [the video has been taken at] the front of his parent's home," she said.'
"Just" an assault.... As opposed to murder! Wonder if they were actually his words she was relaying verbatim.

I had a quick look at the Facebook comments mentioned in the recent post for the details they allude to & didn't find anyone discussing specific people they suspected but I did see 2 people, both males who each make a reference to being offered lifts by a man in a blue car. One says no one has ever been interested in his story.
As TE himself once confirmed, that blue car in the driveway belonged to 2nd wife & although I have no doubt BRE was capable of this, I wonder if the driver of a blue car features in list of original suspects the recent GR articles suggest are the ones being reinvestigated now. Watch & wait with baited breath again I s'pose. I just hope if he is responsible they can prove it. Then he'll find his prison experience change gears a little.
 

Mudman85

All Australian
Feb 21, 2019
654
1,315
AFL Club
Fremantle
Didn’t the police say a few years ago the exact opposite- that they had no reason to think it was BRE. Plus they have his and Gerrards full dna profiles so surely they would have been able to find a hit by now
 
Didn’t the police say a few years ago the exact opposite- that they had no reason to think it was BRE. Plus they have his and Gerrards full dna profiles so surely they would have been able to find a hit by now

Never heard anything about them finding the offender's DNA with Gerard and I don't recall them denying any link to BRE? They might have at some stage denied a link between the Claremont murders and Gerard's when MACRO took charge of his case and some were asking why but that was a long time ago.
 

Mudman85

All Australian
Feb 21, 2019
654
1,315
AFL Club
Fremantle
Never heard anything about them finding the offender's DNA with Gerard and I don't recall them denying any link to BRE? They might have at some stage denied a link between the Claremont murders and Gerard's when MACRO took charge of his case and some were asking why but that was a long time ago.
 

Attachments

  • 6EB76DFD-80F7-4415-B538-D772AB87B596.png
    6EB76DFD-80F7-4415-B538-D772AB87B596.png
    81 KB · Views: 135
  • 55E32313-88F1-4E20-A838-BEBF3CE03ED0.png
    55E32313-88F1-4E20-A838-BEBF3CE03ED0.png
    153.4 KB · Views: 118

Mudman85

All Australian
Feb 21, 2019
654
1,315
AFL Club
Fremantle
Again a beat up

No link forensically to his car
No link forensically to is home

But hey he liked model aeroplanes - warning warning

The Waste Australian
Exactly
I’m pretty sure I have read that Police said BRE was not a suspect. Just trying to find it.

But hey, they said last week they have a dozen suspects. Might aswell say we have no idea
 

Mudman85

All Australian
Feb 21, 2019
654
1,315
AFL Club
Fremantle
Thanks, I do recall something about fibres now its probably in here somewhere. Anything on them finding DNA with Gerard?
Never read much about DNA, other than dog fibers. It’s funny though, one of the urban myths at the time when I was a kid was that he was abducted by a fake Telecom/Telstra van.
Think it may even have been in one of the early re-enactments
 
Mar 5, 2017
12,558
34,960
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
Socceroos - Matildas
one of the urban myths at the time when I was a kid was that he was abducted by a fake Telecom/Telstra van.
Think it may even have been in one of the early re-enactments
Couldn't have been Bradley Robert Edwards then.
As he drove or had access to real Telecom/Telstra vans back then. :think:
 

Mudman85

All Australian
Feb 21, 2019
654
1,315
AFL Club
Fremantle
Couldn't have been Bradley Robert Edwards then.
As he drove or had access to real Telecom/Telstra vans back then. :think:
Very true, what about Lance Williams, or why not blame Peter Weygers and Steven Ross. Just arrest someone
 

zedx

Club Legend
Feb 23, 2019
1,286
4,551
AFL Club
Fremantle
I still cant get over the fact that BRE possibly did these murders in his Telstra uniform! (Though the fibers could have been transferred from the car seats) Too many murderers in uniforms. There was a time when a person in uniform was the most trustworthy person around, sadly it has not been that way for a very long time.
 

Bradaire

Debutant
Feb 21, 2020
57
83
AFL Club
Fremantle
When I read through the FB comments I saw the comments about the blue car following 2 seperate people and a man trying to coax them into the car, I remembered someone mentioning a suspect on kent street and that 98 kent street looked like a car yard so I looked on google maps and saw 98 kent street in 2008 had a older model small blue car. Also in the comments a lady said a guy confessed to her friend that he did it and he was a supsect at the time also.
 

Bradaire

Debutant
Feb 21, 2020
57
83
AFL Club
Fremantle
When I read through the FB comments I saw the comments about the blue car following 2 seperate people and a man trying to coax them into the car, I remembered someone mentioning a suspect on kent street and that 98 kent street looked like a car yard so I looked on google maps and saw 98 kent street in 2008 had a older model small blue car. Also in the comments a lady said a guy confessed to her friend that he did it and he was a supsect at the time also.
Someone else mentioned a guy who lived on Kent street named Axi who was violent and was really odd who hung out with another guy who was the same and that the house he lived in was demolished not long after Gerard was taken and that he moved up north somewhere, another lady also said she thought this guy could have been involved
 

Bradaire

Debutant
Feb 21, 2020
57
83
AFL Club
Fremantle
copied from another chat group -

Hi I am brand new to this page, I stumbled across Gerard's case just recently and its just something I cant let go of. from what I have been reading it seems to me that the police know who the killer is, they just don't have enough evidence
I cant get past the suspect they had that was 26 at the time. the police knocked on his door but he didn't answer, then ten days later he went to the police and said he had seen the 2 boys.. Gerard's body was found 14 days after he was taken, to me is seems like he kept Gerard, decarded his body cleaned up and then went to the police... this suspects house had blood on the wall, at his parents house and in a car he has access too, i think he took him to his house, which i believe to be 98 Kent street, (i read that this suspect had no alibi, that day he was fixing breaks on a car and running errands, if you look on google earth at 98 Kent street it looks like some type of car junk yard) then for some reason, over the next ten days he was killed, then taken the the parents house and placed in the parents cream car and taken out to the pine plantation.

(One thing that confuses me is that one article says a supsect on Kent street was 26 at the time and the one who had model planes and blood on his walls but then the latest article says the man was 46 and living in a unit on Jecks street
 

Attachments

  • snip.PNG
    snip.PNG
    416.5 KB · Views: 125

SquiffyRae

Team Captain
Sep 28, 2020
364
1,066
AFL Club
Collingwood
I still can't see BRE having anything to do with this. If we lean towards the idea that the Claremont murders were caused by issues in BRE's personal life, BRE has a history of taking out his personal frustrations on young women. So if he did have some issue with his 2nd wife shortly after moving in with her, I'd think it'd be more likely he'd seek out a young woman not a child (and a male one at that).

With killers I think with the rare exception, there's a pretty clear line around the age of puberty that they don't tend to cross over. They'll either go for children or adults. Adult killers may still kill people under 18 but it's usually 16-18 where they outwardly look like an adult. It's quite rare in my experience to see a killer who normally targets adults switch and kill a child.

I think whoever it is is more likely to be someone who has a history of preying on children (either known or it will come out after the fact)
 

Bradaire

Debutant
Feb 21, 2020
57
83
AFL Club
Fremantle
I still can't see BRE having anything to do with this. If we lean towards the idea that the Claremont murders were caused by issues in BRE's personal life, BRE has a history of taking out his personal frustrations on young women. So if he did have some issue with his 2nd wife shortly after moving in with her, I'd think it'd be more likely he'd seek out a young woman not a child (and a male one at that).

With killers I think with the rare exception, there's a pretty clear line around the age of puberty that they don't tend to cross over. They'll either go for children or adults. Adult killers may still kill people under 18 but it's usually 16-18 where they outwardly look like an adult. It's quite rare in my experience to see a killer who normally targets adults switch and kill a child.

I think whoever it is is more likely to be someone who has a history of preying on children (either known or it will come out after the fact)

I agree
 

Bradaire

Debutant
Feb 21, 2020
57
83
AFL Club
Fremantle
My dad also mentioned a dentist on thorpe street being questioned at the time but I can't find any info relating to this?
 

Redacted

All Australian
Sep 16, 2019
991
1,284
Western Australia
AFL Club
West Coast

anyone able to access this, screenshot and put in the chat?
Open an online account using any WA library card at SLWA and then you can access the West Australian archives for free and even share the article.

Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk
 

SquiffyRae

Team Captain
Sep 28, 2020
364
1,066
AFL Club
Collingwood
Very much so. The way it's worded sounds like it's someone who has been on the radar cause they know who it is and where he is.

Sounds like at the very least they have some viable suspects just nothing concrete at this stage that tells them one of those suspects is the person they're looking for
 

Krusty Crab

Team Captain
Jan 5, 2019
564
1,271
AFL Club
West Coast
I still can't see BRE having anything to do with this. If we lean towards the idea that the Claremont murders were caused by issues in BRE's personal life, BRE has a history of taking out his personal frustrations on young women. So if he did have some issue with his 2nd wife shortly after moving in with her, I'd think it'd be more likely he'd seek out a young woman not a child (and a male one at that).

With killers I think with the rare exception, there's a pretty clear line around the age of puberty that they don't tend to cross over. They'll either go for children or adults. Adult killers may still kill people under 18 but it's usually 16-18 where they outwardly look like an adult. It's quite rare in my experience to see a killer who normally targets adults switch and kill a child.

I think whoever it is is more likely to be someone who has a history of preying on children (either known or it will come out after the fact)

im of the same thought pattern. for me BRE offences were sexual based, and aimed at females. nothing so far to suggest an interest in abducting children or males.

i believe that bre attacked females in their houses in the early days in chase of something that eluded him, - physical contact with members of the opposite sex. the underwear theft/wearing was his first foray into this area, touching something that had been near the intimate areas of another. the attacks then grew bolder due to limited comeuppance, he moved on to human targets, such as the attack at HH, where he chickened out before completing his plan. forming a relationship with the first wife then put a halt on the attacks, as he finally had the female interaction he was after. after this the attacks began again as the relationship broke down between BRE and wife 1. the new attacks were similar to the originals as in the desire for female contact, however now there was also an edge to the attacks of wanting to hurt the women like they had hurt him.

nowhere during this was there an interest shown in attacking children of a prepubescent age, or of attacking males. if anything BRE backed off from males during confrontation, as witnessed by the interaction with the house mate after finding out wife 1 had been hooking up with him.

for me the newspaper article is a sensationalist piece aimed to flog papers, the substance was to drag out any coincidences between the GR case and BRE and present it as a certified fact. there was nothing of any conclusive basis to suggest BRE was involved, the best that could be done was to say he was somewhere nearby around the same time of year. are we going to see similar pieces regards any major crime that happened in Perth in the late 90's? OMG someone was assaulted in Padbury in June 1998, and BRE may have fixed someone's phone in Padbury sometime that year, it must be him!
 
Back