Likeamystery
All Australian
- Aug 11, 2019
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Perhaps within Mrs Cook’s diary were brief notes that Murray worked, and she had recalled the more specific details, but mistakenly recalled the wrong day - that makes sense. BRE probably drove himself to work which would explain why MC and BRE arrived at different times. Also, why MC left work before BRE – because BRE drove himself home.There is a dispute about whether Edwards and Murray Cook came to work together. John Travis, who kept meticulous records, recorded Edwards as starting work at 8am and Murray starting at work at 10am. There is also the issue that Murray’s wife recalled Edwards being there and assisting with fixing an air conditioner due to it being a very hot day, but the weather report didn’t support that so the conclusion was that she was likely confused about that date.
Having said that if someone else gave Edwards a lift or he got to work other than in his car, he would have had to be back in Perth earlier than 8am.
It did occur to me after I posted that if it was pre-meditated he could have taken a change of uniform with him, or even if not, he may have kept one in his car anyway. I should also say that he may not have worn his uniform that night, but he still had to get in to one for work somehow or at least clean or change his clothes before work the next day if they were not required to wear uniforms while working on weekends.
In the Admissions section of the judgement, there are statements about when Edwards’ parents were overseas. My assumption is that they would have canvassed all of those for the period relevant to January 26 1996 - 14 March 1997, because one of the ones in the admissions doesn’t have anything to do with the dates of the crimes. That IS an assumption, but I think a reasonable one. Based on that, his parents were not overseas for Australia Day 1996.
However, that does raise another possibility I didn’t immediately think of: if they had gone to the Madora Bay house that weekend, then it’s the Gay St house that is empty and where Edwards would, in my view, have gone, which changes things.
I’d still start with Madora Bay as the location he headed towards, though. It fits with where Jane is; in fact, if he took the main highway - the fastest route, it’s literally just a quick couple of turn offs. He’s just killed a young woman, likely for the first time at least in a while; whether it was planned or not, he’s going to be a bit pumped and nervy and not completely calm. He heads somewhere safe to clean up and starts thinking of places to dump the body on the way - a Telstra infrastructure site he was aware of on the way is exactly the sort of thing I think would pop in to his head. Or he’s planned to kill her and he needs somewhere to do it on the way to cleaning himself up. Again, a Telstra site would surely be something he considered.
They probably weren’t required to wear a uniform whilst working overtime on weekends. PPE wasn’t big, back then. My thoughts are BRE kept a change of clothes in his vehicle. I’d think prior to prowling, he would leave home in a work uniform, giving the impression he was going to work then change clothing on-route. He was organized.
Evidently most of those Telstra exchanges have a toilet and wash basin, and some of the bigger ones have a shower. He may have cleaned up at one of the exchanges. That time of night, minimal chance of someone attending for a break-down.
BRE probably knew where the break-downs were occurring, through Telstra’s communication - perhaps BRE was one of the back-up technicians on call.
BRE might have been able to tune into the Telstra jobs and knew where break-downs were occurring (i.e. KK victim thought he’d spoken to someone). Perhaps he’d spoken to the breakdown coordinator via a two-way radio or the like.
Perhaps that particular piece of machinery resembled what’s in a taxi.