Unsolved Gerard Ross - Abducted Kent st Rockingham WA 1997

[MsTeschmacher]

Seems that this case has gone cold again which is saddening considering all the evidence they have on it and the massive 1 mill for info

Only cold in the media. Police are actively interviewing people still as of only a couple of months ago.Hoping they've got a good idea but only got to think of how painstaking the last couple of years of Claremont case was. I'm hopeful.

 

[Bradaire]

I hope they uncover something soon that confirms who it was, my fear is that the person/s have gotten away with it for so long and may be dead soon and will never face the consequences

 

[rubytoad]

I’ve gone through a decent amount of this thread.

The cops have said he was brutally murdered. But not sexually assaulted. For someone to brutally murder someone, especially someone they dont necessarily know, that either makes them full of rage, like an angry ANGRY person, or a psychopath.

Good chance it’s a psychopath, BUT, it’s hard for psychopath’s to stop killing once started as it pleases them. Have any other cases come up in WA that are somewhat similar?

And if it was a hate/rage kill. Why? As Kurve has mentioned earlier in the thread, mistaken identity? Did Gerard look older than he was and possibly mistaken for a mid teen? Was he tall etc?

I don’t think they’ve released more on the way he was murdered, just that it was bad.

But I’d be interested to know (I apologise for this) if there was any mutilation done, covering of the face with cloth etc. Those kind of things can really help build a profile of who it may be.

Also, the road he was left on, it was near an explosives site? Were there many workers there or was it reasonably sparse? Or any other mining/operational work near there? Is that road open for public or closed and need certain things to get into?

I’m not from there so I’m not sure >.< sorry!

I hope this case can finally be shut and solved very soon <3

 

[skygem]

I’ve gone through a decent amount of this thread.

The cops have said he was brutally murdered. But not sexually assaulted. For someone to brutally murder someone, especially someone they dont necessarily know, that either makes them full of rage, like an angry ANGRY person, or a psychopath.

Good chance it’s a psychopath, BUT, it’s hard for psychopath’s to stop killing once started as it pleases them. Have any other cases come up in WA that are somewhat similar?

And if it was a hate/rage kill. Why? As Kurve has mentioned earlier in the thread, mistaken identity? Did Gerard look older than he was and possibly mistaken for a mid teen? Was he tall etc?

I don’t think they’ve released more on the way he was murdered, just that it was bad.

But I’d be interested to know (I apologise for this) if there was any mutilation done, covering of the face with cloth etc. Those kind of things can really help build a profile of who it may be.

Also, the road he was left on, it was near an explosives site? Were there many workers there or was it reasonably sparse? Or any other mining/operational work near there? Is that road open for public or closed and need certain things to get into?

I’m not from there so I’m not sure >.< sorry!

I hope this case can finally be shut and solved very soon <3

my thoughts are that the guilty involved in this ridiculous insane approach is related to a inner conflict from the families whilst living and working in the northern territory or northern Western Australia, hence the family returned back to there origin country...

 

[zedx]

my thoughts are that the guilty involved in this ridiculous insane approach is related to a inner conflict from the families whilst living and working in the northern territory or northern Western Australia, hence the family returned back to there origin country...

what leads you to this thought?

 

[GreyCrow]

And if it was a hate/rage kill. Why? As Kurve has mentioned earlier in the thread, mistaken identity? Did Gerard look older than he was and possibly mistaken for a mid teen? Was he tall etc?

If I recall there was some discussion over mistaken identity around a theft of something

So the rage could be torture

My 2c

 

[Bradaire]

I read somewhere he was strangled with a ligature, I also heard rumours that something so serious was done to him that some cops couldn't bear to look

 

[Krusty Crab]

I’ve gone through a decent amount of this thread.

The cops have said he was brutally murdered. But not sexually assaulted. For someone to brutally murder someone, especially someone they dont necessarily know, that either makes them full of rage, like an angry ANGRY person, or a psychopath.

Good chance it’s a psychopath, BUT, it’s hard for psychopath’s to stop killing once started as it pleases them. Have any other cases come up in WA that are somewhat similar?

And if it was a hate/rage kill. Why? As Kurve has mentioned earlier in the thread, mistaken identity? Did Gerard look older than he was and possibly mistaken for a mid teen? Was he tall etc?

I don’t think they’ve released more on the way he was murdered, just that it was bad.

But I’d be interested to know (I apologise for this) if there was any mutilation done, covering of the face with cloth etc. Those kind of things can really help build a profile of who it may be.

Also, the road he was left on, it was near an explosives site? Were there many workers there or was it reasonably sparse? Or any other mining/operational work near there? Is that road open for public or closed and need certain things to get into?

I’m not from there so I’m not sure >.< sorry!

I hope this case can finally be shut and solved very

I think you should look up the difference between a psychopath vs sociopath, and motivations for both. murder doesn't please a psychopath, they often kill because of a warped sense of reality, and fail to see in themselves that murder is wrong, not that it is pleasant. a sociopath will see the difference of right vs wrong, but they cant give two hoots and will murder if the end justifies the means.

The main sticking points for me about this crime are:

The victim did not live nearby, he was on a holiday. suggests the victim and murderer were unknown to each other.

The victim was a minor. Minors can usually be manipulated by adults to conceal things fairly easily. if Gerard was witness to something, then it must be something major to elicit a response of murdering him. If he saw a small drug deal for instance, the punishment of murder seems to far outweigh the crime. So either Gerard was a witness to something major in a criminal sense occurring (unlikely), or he was a victim for another reason. The only reasons raised so far that could be possible is mistaken identity, or paedophilia. Given the age of the victim, in the case of mistaken identity, what was the proposed victim involved in that murder was a possible outcome? I lean more towards paedophilia as a likely motive.

The victim was removed from the scene, murdered at a second location, and left at a third location. To me this suggests the victim was taken to a second location which was connected to the murderer somehow, if the second location was a random spot, why dump the body in a third location? I'm more interested in what was found on or with the body in the way of fibres/scrapings etc, to try and deduce the second location. The use of a third location to me also rules out a psychopath. lets say someone was cruising past and stumbled across poor Gerard. If it was a psychopath, they would have an altered view of reality, and if Gerard was viewed as a threat they would of killed him and moved on. The use of a third location suggests an attempt to elude authorities, not something done by psychopaths.

Sadly I think the most logical solution is Gerard was grabbed by a paedophile, for whatever disgusting thoughts they had. he either struck up too much of a fight, or was able to clearly identify the perpetrator somehow. His resistance earned him the beatings that possibly took his life. As the second location where he was held was linked to the perpetrator, the body was dumped elsewhere.

As a side note, from memory the body dump site was near a military explosives holding facility. at the time a bit out of suburbia. not mining, and he was left in a state forest/national park area to the side of it. someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this.

 

[GreyCrow]

I think you should look up the difference between a psychopath vs sociopath, and motivations for both. murder doesn't please a psychopath, they often kill because of a warped sense of reality, and fail to see in themselves that murder is wrong, not that it is pleasant. a sociopath will see the difference of right vs wrong, but they cant give two hoots and will murder if the end justifies the means.

The main sticking points for me about this crime are:

The victim did not live nearby, he was on a holiday. suggests the victim and murderer were unknown to each other.

The victim was a minor. Minors can usually be manipulated by adults to conceal things fairly easily. if Gerard was witness to something, then it must be something major to elicit a response of murdering him. If he saw a small drug deal for instance, the punishment of murder seems to far outweigh the crime. So either Gerard was a witness to something major in a criminal sense occurring (unlikely), or he was a victim for another reason. The only reasons raised so far that could be possible is mistaken identity, or paedophilia. Given the age of the victim, in the case of mistaken identity, what was the proposed victim involved in that murder was a possible outcome? I lean more towards paedophilia as a likely motive.

The victim was removed from the scene, murdered at a second location, and left at a third location. To me this suggests the victim was taken to a second location which was connected to the murderer somehow, if the second location was a random spot, why dump the body in a third location? I'm more interested in what was found on or with the body in the way of fibres/scrapings etc, to try and deduce the second location. The use of a third location to me also rules out a psychopath. lets say someone was cruising past and stumbled across poor Gerard. If it was a psychopath, they would have an altered view of reality, and if Gerard was viewed as a threat they would of killed him and moved on. The use of a third location suggests an attempt to elude authorities, not something done by psychopaths.

Sadly I think the most logical solution is Gerard was grabbed by a paedophile, for whatever disgusting thoughts they had. he either struck up too much of a fight, or was able to clearly identify the perpetrator somehow. His resistance earned him the beatings that possibly took his life. As the second location where he was held was linked to the perpetrator, the body was dumped elsewhere.

As a side note, from memory the body dump site was near a military explosives holding facility. at the time a bit out of suburbia. not mining, and he was left in a state forest/national park area to the side of it. someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this.

I don't mind your thought process and have no great qualms about them

I would still suggest mistaken identity can lead to a similar outcome

Hey there's that kid grab him

Torture kid with whattya know kid - oh wait we got the wrong kid.

Which leads to dump site 3

 

[Krusty Crab]

I don't mind your thought process and have no great qualms about them

I would still suggest mistaken identity can lead to a similar outcome

Hey there's that kid grab him

Torture kid with whattya know kid - oh wait we got the wrong kid.

Which leads to dump site 3

mistaken identity could lead to a similar outcome yes, however I discounted that scenario as what could a child get up to that calls for retribution of torture? the intended victim would of needed to have done something pretty serious to make someone want to go out looking for them to torture them.

 

[GreyCrow]

mistaken identity could lead to a similar outcome yes, however I discounted that scenario as what could a child get up to that calls for retribution of torture? the intended victim would of needed to have done something pretty serious to make someone want to go out looking for them to torture them.

Not in the circles I grew up around.

Drug debt beatings that go too far

Peer pressure bash the mentallly deficient person

 

[Kurve]

mistaken identity could lead to a similar outcome yes, however I discounted that scenario as what could a child get up to that calls for retribution of torture? the intended victim would of needed to have done something pretty serious to make someone want to go out looking for them to torture them.

Trying to get information out of him that he doesn't have, by someone whose drugs have gone missing for example and the person who took them tries to set someone else up for it 'I saw two kids running out of the driveway with a package yesterday afternoon'. Gives a vague description and it looks like Gerard.

 

[zedx]

I think you should look up the difference between a psychopath vs sociopath, and motivations for both. murder doesn't please a psychopath, they often kill because of a warped sense of reality, and fail to see in themselves that murder is wrong, not that it is pleasant. a sociopath will see the difference of right vs wrong, but they cant give two hoots and will murder if the end justifies the means.

The main sticking points for me about this crime are:

The victim did not live nearby, he was on a holiday. suggests the victim and murderer were unknown to each other.

The victim was a minor. Minors can usually be manipulated by adults to conceal things fairly easily. if Gerard was witness to something, then it must be something major to elicit a response of murdering him. If he saw a small drug deal for instance, the punishment of murder seems to far outweigh the crime. So either Gerard was a witness to something major in a criminal sense occurring (unlikely), or he was a victim for another reason. The only reasons raised so far that could be possible is mistaken identity, or paedophilia. Given the age of the victim, in the case of mistaken identity, what was the proposed victim involved in that murder was a possible outcome? I lean more towards paedophilia as a likely motive.

The victim was removed from the scene, murdered at a second location, and left at a third location. To me this suggests the victim was taken to a second location which was connected to the murderer somehow, if the second location was a random spot, why dump the body in a third location? I'm more interested in what was found on or with the body in the way of fibres/scrapings etc, to try and deduce the second location. The use of a third location to me also rules out a psychopath. lets say someone was cruising past and stumbled across poor Gerard. If it was a psychopath, they would have an altered view of reality, and if Gerard was viewed as a threat they would of killed him and moved on. The use of a third location suggests an attempt to elude authorities, not something done by psychopaths.

Sadly I think the most logical solution is Gerard was grabbed by a paedophile, for whatever disgusting thoughts they had. he either struck up too much of a fight, or was able to clearly identify the perpetrator somehow. His resistance earned him the beatings that possibly took his life. As the second location where he was held was linked to the perpetrator, the body was dumped elsewhere.

As a side note, from memory the body dump site was near a military explosives holding facility. at the time a bit out of suburbia. not mining, and he was left in a state forest/national park area to the side of it. someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this.

Firstly, just because it has been stated he wasn't sexually assaulted doent mean he wasnt. This could be information they are holding back or it could be a sexual assault where there is no evidence of the assault.
Secondly, I can't recall the exact details ATM, but I remember a witness saying she saw two suspicious men out the front of a house doing something concerning cars??? Did Gerard see something he shouldnt have? But to murder him, it would have to have been something quite significant and there have been no reports of another significant incident around that time??
So many possible scenario's with so little evidence. IMHO, I think he was taken by a pedophile(s) and he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[Kurve]

Secondly, I can't recall the exact details ATM, but I remember a witness saying she saw two suspicious men out the front of a house doing something concerning cars???

I do remember something like that.

They could have been faking a breakdown, waiting for their target/s to come past.

 

[Krusty Crab]

if I recall, when he went missing Gerard was heading down the street with his brother who was a little bit ahead of him. does anyone know what the brother said when questioned by the cops? did he remember going past 2 x guys with a car? was there anything odd going on like people arguing, or someone loitering around?

 

[zedx]

if I recall, when he went missing Gerard was heading down the street with his brother who was a little bit ahead of him. does anyone know what the brother said when questioned by the cops? did he remember going past 2 x guys with a car? was there anything odd going on like people arguing, or someone loitering around?

Witness: ‘I saw two men with a young boy’

A “credible” witness who saw two men struggling with a boy at the time Gerard Ross was abducted — on the same street where he was last seen — says she is still “upset” with herself for driving away.

thewest.com.au

• WATCH THE FULL SERIES: The Boy in the Blue Cap: The Gerard Ross Story Subscriber Exclusive Documentary Series

A “credible” witness who saw two men struggling with a boy at the time Gerard Ross was abducted....
For 22 years there were thought to be no witnesses to Gerard’s actual abduction, but a former Kent Street resident believes she saw the boy being pushed into a car on Kent Street on the morning he vanished.

Gerard disappeared during a family holiday in Rockingham in 1997.

At about 9.30am on Tuesday, October 14, the 11-year-old and his brother, Malcolm, left their holiday unit at 105 Kent Street and headed for a nearby comic shop. Gerard was on foot while 13-year-old Malcolm went ahead on his rollerblades.... They had agreed to meet at the shop...... but Gerard never arrived.

His body was found in the Karnup pine plantation, 20km away, two weeks later.

Sharing her story for the first time, Rose Jurek, who lived at 72 Kent Street, said she was on her way to visit her daughter when she saw “a scuffle” between two men and a child a few doors down from her unit......about 9.30am and was slowly heading south-west towards Wanliss St when she saw something “very unusual” next to a vehicle parked near the road.

A “credible” witness who saw two men struggling with a boy at the time Gerard Ross was abducted ...“I saw a car parked on the verge and (it looked) as if it was some sort of a fight or incident,” she said. “There was some sort of pushing going on. I thought they were arguing, like a couple arguing, so I slowed down when I got close to them, and they just stopped and looked at me, so I thought ‘maybe it’s nothing’.”

Ms Jurek said the car was “a burgundy dark red colour” and that the two men appeared to be aged in their mid-30s, but one was possibly in his 40s.

“One (man) had light-coloured hair ... and the other had dark hair and there was a small person in the middle with a hat on.

“I only saw the back of his head. He had black hair. “It looked to me as if they were telling the boy off or something,” she said.

“As if they were pushing the boy and that’s what got me, that’s why I thought ‘what’s going on there?’”

“I thought ‘maybe it’s just a little boy being told off by his parents’, I didn’t know, but it looked very unusual.”

The car was parked out the front of 68 Kent Street with its nose facing Alexandra Street, which is also the direction of the holiday unit where Gerard was staying. There is no evidence to suggest that the vehicle or the people were linked to 68 Kent Street.

“They were between the car and the house,” she said.

“It looked as if something was going on, so it attracted my attention.”

The Kwinana grandmother said she could not articulate the vehicle model because she “did not know about cars”.

“It was a two-wheel drive car and it was a reddish burgundy colour,” she said.

“I didn’t look at it too much because I was more interested in what was happening.”

As she drove past them, the scuffle momentarily stopped, and the men glared at her.

“I drove slowly past them to the intersection at Wanliss Street,” she said.

“I looked in my rear-view mirror and I saw them shuffling again, so I reversed back a bit.

“They stopped the struggle and they were staring at me to see what I was going to do, if I was going to come back or not.”

Ms Jurek said she thought that perhaps the incident was not as serious as it first appeared and felt reluctant to get involved.

“They looked at me and I looked at them and thought ‘maybe it’s nothing, I’ll keep my nose out of it’, and I drove off again,” she said.

“I wish I hadn’t.

“I wish I had stopped. It’s terrible, I always think ‘Why didn’t I go back?’”

Ms Jurek said she drove straight to her daughter’s Mandurah home, about 30 minutes away, and relayed the incident to Bonnie.

“It was bothering me when I got to my daughter’s house and I told her all about it,” she said.

“She said, ‘that sounds bad, I think you should phone the police’ and I did, from her house.

“I phoned the local police in Mandurah and I told the policeman there and he said ‘yes, OK, we’ll see about it’, and that was it. Then I didn’t hear anything else.”.....“About two or three days later the police came to my door when they were going door-to-door and I said to them, ‘yes, I did see him, I’ve already told you about this’,” Ms Jurek said.

“I told them that I saw the scuffle in Kent Street and told them what time it was, about half past nine.

“I told them about me calling the police straight away and I gave them all the descriptions of everything I knew.”

Ms Jurek said those officers, from Rockingham, were unaware of her October 14 report to Mandurah police.

“So, they took me up to my daughter’s house and spoke to my daughter,” she said.

“The police interviewed her and asked her what time I’d arrived.

“The police came and took her calendar away because it had the date on it that I had gone to visit her.”

Bonnie told The West Australian that she remembers her mum being quite distressed when she arrived at her house.

“She explained that although she didn’t see the people’s faces it was definitely two people and a young boy,” she said.

“She didn’t know whether or not it was two parents fighting with the child to get the child in the car, but something just kept saying to her that there’s something wrong here, hence the reason why she (reversed) back again.

“A child will kick and scream sometimes but it just didn’t look right.”

The week after Gerard’s abduction, police took Ms Jurek to car yards to try to identify the vehicle model.

“I showed them a similar one and I showed them the colour as well,” she said.

Police also took Ms Jurek to a hypnotherapist in Subiaco.

“I think just to make me relax and try to see if I could remember all the details a bit clearer,” she said.

“I was there for about an hour or so telling him the details.”

Following that, police tried to create COMFITs of the men.

“Police took me into the station in Perth and they showed me a screen and they were showing me different eyes, hair and all that, trying to get me to identify the people that I saw,” she said.

“I told them about the one with the blond hair and the one with the dark hair, and that I thought the little person had a cap on.

“I told them all that and they put the photo board together.”

But she said she then spent about five days helping police with their inquiries before Gerard’s body was found.

 

[Bradaire]

I wonder why his hat never turned up, possibly one of the 2 men showing off and said "hey kid give me your hat" which he refused and caused the scuffle. Then the pair egging each other on to torture the poor kid

 

[zedx]

I wonder why his hat never turned up, possibly one of the 2 men showing off and said "hey kid give me your hat" which he refused and caused the scuffle. Then the pair egging each other on to torture the poor kid

we probably will never know where he hat ended up, IMO it probably fell off in the car that he was abducted in, somewhere on the floor and it was not noticed till later, then disposed of.

 

[BomberManU]

Very brazen to go through with the abduction in daylight, when they knew they had been seen. Suggests out-of-towners?
And another failure by 90's era WA Police?

 

[skygem]

what leads you to this thought?

Gerard Ross: Unsolved Schoolboy Murder

It was October 14th 1997 and 11-year-old Gerard Ross was walking to the local Comic Book Store with his brother in the southern Perth suburb of Rockingham.

www.stayathomemum.com.au

 

[skygem]

Gerard Ross: Unsolved Schoolboy Murder

It was October 14th 1997 and 11-year-old Gerard Ross was walking to the local Comic Book Store with his brother in the southern Perth suburb of Rockingham.

www.stayathomemum.com.au

49-Year-Old Newman Man

An anonymous tip to Crimestoppers bought to light a third suspect. A 49-year-old Newman man with children at the same school Gerard attended who happened to be in Rockingham at the same the Ross family. Detectives interviewed the man twice regarding Gerard’s disappearance, and each time his story was slightly different. His alibi for the day was that he had a psychologist appointment however he later admitted he lied about that.

The man has since relocated to Queensland and Police have advised the Ross family that this man is not Gerard’s murderer.

 

[Bradaire]

How can they rule someone out who could have motive and couldn't provide an alibi, to me this means they are onto someone else which means they can rule the newman resident out

 

[Krusty Crab]

How can they rule someone out who could have motive and couldn't provide an alibi, to me this means they are onto someone else which means they can rule the newman resident out

possibly cold case detectives have looked at the case, could they have found dna on Gerards clothing?

 

[Krusty Crab]

Gerard Ross: Unsolved Schoolboy Murder

It was October 14th 1997 and 11-year-old Gerard Ross was walking to the local Comic Book Store with his brother in the southern Perth suburb of Rockingham.

www.stayathomemum.com.au

interesting that the report says Gerard was likely killed and dumped soon after being abducted. such a quick turn around time would make you think Gerard was either targeted, murdered, and dumped, or something went wrong during the abduction and the offenders panicked - maybe Gerard fought back and ended up injured, or one of the abductors killed him while trying to subdue him - offenders panic, and dump the body soon after.

If the offenders killed him accidentally and panicked, you would think there would be evidence left - fingerprints on the body, DNA on the body/clothes, fibre transfer on the clothes.

If a targeted attack, the offenders would cover their tracks as best as they could.

what's peoples thoughts on how the body was left? fully clothed, soon after the abduction, money still in the pocket, left on the ground (not buried)?

 

[GreyCrow]

what's peoples thoughts on how the body was left? fully clothed, soon after the abduction, money still in the pocket, left on the ground (not buried)?

That it was a mistake and (likely) an accidental death

Thats not planned. His clothes AND money are highly suggestive of a panic dump ie his clothes werent removed so unlikely sexual assault . No burial indicates rushing to escape area.