Unsolved Gerard Ross - Abducted Kent st Rockingham WA 1997

[Kurve]

seems like something that should be looked at. once DNA started to become a thing, i would think there would be quite a few cases that have now gone cold that had DNA samples. catching those responsible for those crimes now means they can still face retribution for their deeds, if left too long then perpetrators might have passed away by the time justice catches up with them.

I reckon they are Krusty, just because it might not be allowed to be used in court yet doesn't mean investigators wouldn't use it.

 

[Kurve]

 

[GreyCrow]

From msn.com

Police canvassing the area after the disappearance knocked on the door of the then 26-year-old suspect, who has never been publicly identified, but he did not answer.

However, after seeing the news about 10 days later he said he then decided to walk into Rockingham police station to tell officers he had seen the boys - which he now says he regrets.

After providing a written statement he said police then closed in on him as the main person of interest as he was unable to provide an alibi for a crucial two-hour window around when the boy vanished.

'I was fixing some brakes on a car and doing other stuff. Just running errands. I was driving to the shop at one stage. That's how I saw them. But other than that, I can't really remember,' he said.

Multiple sources confirmed to the publication the man was a major focus of the investigation in its early days.

'He was pretty red hot ... He was a fairly strong PoI (person of interest), put it that way,' one source said.

Investigators found tyre marks showing the boy had been dumped from a small wheel base vehicle, which the suspect had access to, and he also lived alone.

Police searched his house and performed a luminol test - where UV light reacts with a chemical agent to detect traces of blood - which lit up with large amounts of blood which had been cleaned.


The suspect claimed the blood was his own as he had mental health issues and had self-harmed.

The cleaning chemical used prevented DNA from being extracted from samples.

 

[SquiffyRae]

Jeez has it been public knowledge police even had a suspect let alone a prime suspect in this case?

I know WAPOL have a terrible track record with finding a prime suspect who is completely the wrong guy but that luminol thing is so messed up they might actually have good reason to be looking at him. Even if he did self-harm I'm pretty sure there's a difference between the amount of blood you'd expect there and the amount of blood that would make you suspicious a crime was committed

 

[GreyCrow]

As an aside - that the West talked to the POI - and I assume recently - is highly suggestive the POI isnt locked up after going through a very lengthy trial

 

[Kurve]

As an aside - that the West talked to the POI - and I assume recently - is highly suggestive the POI isnt locked up after going through a very lengthy trial

This must be the same guy mentioned early in the thread.

Police were ready to charge one local man after they found blood traces in his car and evidence that blood had been washed off a wall in a room at his home where he kept model aeroplanes. But the cleaning agent used prevented DNA from being extracted. Blood traces were also found at the suspect's parents' house.

The Director of Public Prosecutions wasn't satisfied there was enough proof to proceed with charges.

Detectives re-examined their suspect "with fine tooth comb multiple times" but couldn't find that extra skerrick of evidence they needed to get the DPP across the line.

The case was complicated by the fact that there'd been a murder at the house previously, even though it had occurred on the grass outside.

https://www.news.com.au/national/no...s/news-story/ffa2593bff68924e5f51912d5516f518

 

[Krusty Crab]

From msn.com

Police canvassing the area after the disappearance knocked on the door of the then 26-year-old suspect, who has never been publicly identified, but he did not answer.

However, after seeing the news about 10 days later he said he then decided to walk into Rockingham police station to tell officers he had seen the boys - which he now says he regrets.

After providing a written statement he said police then closed in on him as the main person of interest as he was unable to provide an alibi for a crucial two-hour window around when the boy vanished.

'I was fixing some brakes on a car and doing other stuff. Just running errands. I was driving to the shop at one stage. That's how I saw them. But other than that, I can't really remember,' he said.

Multiple sources confirmed to the publication the man was a major focus of the investigation in its early days.

'He was pretty red hot ... He was a fairly strong PoI (person of interest), put it that way,' one source said.

Investigators found tyre marks showing the boy had been dumped from a small wheel base vehicle, which the suspect had access to, and he also lived alone.

Police searched his house and performed a luminol test - where UV light reacts with a chemical agent to detect traces of blood - which lit up with large amounts of blood which had been cleaned.


The suspect claimed the blood was his own as he had mental health issues and had self-harmed.

The cleaning chemical used prevented DNA from being extracted from samples.

so if we are to believe this man was involved in the disappearance of GR, my question would be why was he involved? according to media articles he had the means, and he had the opportunity, but what was the motive? it takes some pretty strong motivation to want to grab a kid off the street in front of your house, brutalise them in your house, and then dump the body. this isn't something the average person would do, so either this man is innocent, or something terribly wrong was going on in his life at that time. could this correspond to the recent call from police asking for help from partners of potential POI's?

 

[DisplayName]

so if we are to believe this man was involved in the disappearance of GR, my question would be why was he involved? according to media articles he had the means, and he had the opportunity, but what was the motive? it takes some pretty strong motivation to want to grab a kid off the street in front of your house, brutalise them in your house, and then dump the body. this isn't something the average person would do, so either this man is innocent, or something terribly wrong was going on in his life at that time. could this correspond to the recent call from police asking for help from partners of potential POI's?

This is purely speculation, but I in the Rockingham area and have heard a rumour about GR being mistaken for another Scottish boy of similar age and appearance who supposedly lived nearby and had stumbled across some sort of bikie stash and as a result GR was picked up thinking he was this other boy. As mentioned it's just a rumour but interesting seeing as this most recent POI had been noted to have links to bikes.

 

[FeelingThroaty]

I alwàys get a feeling that the perpetrators wanted / wished that they had pulled back on what they had done. But it was too late by then. I sense one of the possible two got cold feet about what they were doing.

 

[Kurve]

This could be big.


Police have raided the homes of murder suspects in the hunt for the killer of schoolboy Gerard Ross, it can be revealed.

The Special Crime Squad has executed more than a dozen search warrants, seizing items and DNA in the hunt for clues leading to the killer of the 11-year-old, according to reports by The West Australian.

In many cases, the suspects watched while the raids took place and forensics officers combed their properties.

Police are reportedly focusing on a “handful” of long-standing suspects who are of “high interest” to police.

Gerard disappeared while walking along Kent Street in Rockingham on his way to a comic store with his brother, who had skated ahead on his rollerblades, on October 14, 1997.

His body was found dumped in a pine plantation, about 20km southeast of Rockingham, two weeks later.

Gerard’s body was fully-clothed but the blue Yankees baseball cap he was wearing when he went missing has yet to be found.

Police RAIDS take place in hunt for Gerard Ross’ killer

Murder suspects have had their homes turned inside out, items seized and DNA taken during a spate of police dawn raids in the hunt for Gerard Ross’s killer.

www.perthnow.com.au

 

[Bradaire]

Some new info

 

[Bradaire]

A lady on a facebook post said she lived next door to the main supsects parents in Coolongup on Waterton Way

 

[Kurve]

Some new info

If you don't mind, I might extract those articles and post them in here later. It's very interesting.

 

[Bradaire]

Says he was around 46 yrs old when GR went missing in 1997 so means he was born around 1951 and died in 2012 would have been 61 yrs old, not much more info on him except he was a pensioner with disability and lived on Jecks street a couple streets away from Kent street

 

[Bradaire]

If you search Gerard Ross on FB anf look at all the post comments seems quite a few local ppl from the area have a few thoughts and details on who it could have been, lots of information

 

[BFew]

Did the Claremont killer murder Gerard Ross too?

Claremont killer Bradley Edwards repeatedly went to Rockingham around the time the 11-year-old schoolboy was snatched in a ‘blitz-style attack’ and killed 24 years ago, new information reveals.

thewest.com.au

 

[Kurve]

Did the Claremont killer murder Gerard Ross too?

Claremont killer Bradley Edwards repeatedly went to Rockingham around the time the 11-year-old schoolboy was snatched in a ‘blitz-style attack’ and killed 24 years ago, new information reveals.

thewest.com.au

Exactly what we've been saying on this thread ... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[one eyed spy]

Did the Claremont killer murder Gerard Ross too?

Claremont killer Bradley Edwards repeatedly went to Rockingham around the time the 11-year-old schoolboy was snatched in a ‘blitz-style attack’ and killed 24 years ago, new information reveals.

thewest.com.au

BFew any chance you can screen shot & post images of paywalled articles please? This isn't in todays paper. Ta.

 

[BFew]

BFew any chance you can screen shot & post images of paywalled articles please? This isn't in todays paper. Ta.

Below is a twitter taste of what's in the paper copy tomorrow.

The digital paper version will be out in the early morning.
Someone like me will probably post a screenshot/photo of it in the BF Claremont Murders Media Thread which can be found here.

 

[Kurve]

BFew any chance you can screen shot & post images of paywalled articles please? This isn't in todays paper. Ta.

I'm hopping up and down in my seat OES ... this is the first time faik the link has been made publicly between BRE and Gerard's murder and the information in the article is what we put together in here over a year ago.

 

[BFew]

Did the Claremont killer murder Gerard Ross too?

Claremont killer Bradley Edwards repeatedly went to Rockingham around the time the 11-year-old schoolboy was snatched in a ‘blitz-style attack’ and killed 24 years ago, new information reveals.

thewest.com.au

Here's the full text from the above article published tonight.

'Could Claremont killer Bradley Edwards be the murderer of schoolboy Gerard Ross?
Kristin Shorten
The West Australian
Fri, 8 October 2021 11:00PM

Claremont killer Bradley Edwards repeatedly went to Rockingham around the time the 11-year-old schoolboy was snatched in a ‘blitz-style attack’ and killed 24 years ago.

Claremont killer Bradley Edwards repeatedly went to Rockingham about the time that 11-year-old Gerard Ross was snatched in a “blitz-style attack” and killed 24 years ago, it can be revealed.

New information that Edwards frequented the area and other similarities between the schoolboy’s murder and the Claremont cases — such as the time frame, bush graves, the perpetrators’ scientific profile and their “psychopathic” level of offending — have all come under scrutiny.

And while some police sources say “the pieces just don’t fit”, others believe “anything is possible” and told The West Australian that “there was only one serial killer running around Perth at that time”.

The three Claremont victims were abducted and murdered between January 1996 and March 1997.
By the time Gerard vanished from a leafy street in Rockingham on a sunny Tuesday morning in October 1997, Edwards had honed his “craft”.

The former Telstra technician was — by then — expertly snatching, subduing, killing and dumping his victims in bushland “with little fuss”.

A fortnight after his kidnapping, Gerard’s fully-clothed body was found in the Karnup pine plantation — a similar semirural setting to where the bodies of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon had been found.

By 2019, the special crime squad had narrowed their focus to a lone, male “psychopath” who was prepared to spontaneously snatch a stranger off the street, capable of killing, with access to a vehicle and reason to be in Rockingham that day.

The West can now reveal that Edwards was in Rockingham around October 1997 when Gerard disappeared.
He had travelled to the seaside suburb, south of Perth, multiple times to visit his first wife — who can only be identified as EB — during their divorce which was finalised in January 1998.

On one occasion, Edwards visited EB at Bates Pet Paradise in Rockingham City Shopping Centre where she worked.

The West can reveal that Edwards was in Rockingham around October 1997 when Gerard disappeared.
It was just 3km from the holiday unit Gerard’s family was renting when he went missing.

On another occasion, Edwards met his estranged wife at the Rockingham foreshore and gave her the papers for the Mazda vehicle she drove.

The comic store Gerard was walking to when he vanished was also at the foreshore.

On a third occasion, Edwards delivered some documents to EB’s home at Warnbro, just 7km from Rockingham.

Edwards’ parents also owned a holiday house at Madora Bay, 25km south of Rockingham, where he had once lived with EB before they married and bought their home at Huntingdale.

During the Claremont murder trial, EB told the court that she and Edwards frequently visited the beachside property. They would drive there from Huntingdale via Baldivis Road or Old Mandurah Road.

Baldivis Road becomes Stakehill Road near the specific entrance of the Karnup pine plantation which police believe Gerard’s killer would have driven down before dumping the boy’s body.

In addition, EB’s parents lived at Golden Bay, 20km south of Rockingham, near Karnup.

There are no confirmed eyewitnesses to Gerard’s abduction but police believe he was likely taken in a car.
Edwards had access to multiple vehicles at that time including a Toyota Camry and a white 1996 Holden Commodore VS Series 1 station wagon.

The Claremont abductions and Gerard’s were all opportunistic, with the victims being either lured into vehicles or violently grabbed.

Gerard’s victimology report indicated that he was unlikely to have gone with a stranger and therefore was likely snatched in a “blitz-style attack”.

State prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo told the Claremont trial that Edwards’ Karrakatta rape victim was also abducted in a “blitz-style attack”.

And while Gerard’s abduction was opportunistic, the murder was deliberate.

As in the Claremont cases, police believe Gerard’s offender was someone who was prepared and planned his killings — even if he met his victims by chance.

Ms Barbagallo described Edwards as a “calculated and methodical” predator who carefully selected his victims.

“He was prepared, he created opportunities, he took those opportunities when it suited him,” she told the Supreme Court. “He could abduct, murder and dispose of (his victims) quickly and with little fuss.” As to whether Edwards killed Gerard, cops are divided.

Edwards’ crimes against women followed a similar pattern and all seemed to be sexually motivated whereas, it is understood, Gerard’s body showed no signs of sexual abuse.

“You’ve got him taking girls from nightclubs whereas this is a young boy abducted off the street in the morning,” a source said. “So, as an offender, you’re really moving away from what your craft is.
“The pieces just don’t fit.”

Yet the rapist and murderer cannot be ruled out as a suspect.
“Anything is possible,” said another source.
“There was only one serial killer running around Perth at that time.
“And just because a perpetrator typically commits a particular type of crime, doesn’t mean that they’re incapable of committing a different type of crime.”

WA Police said they could not comment on individual suspects but that the $1 million reward for information that would result in a murder conviction in Gerard’s case was still available.

“Detectives have thoroughly investigated a number of suspects, executed numerous search warrants and the investigation remains open and ongoing,” a police spokesperson said.

“The vigour with which they pursue new lines of inquiry will not diminish as they continue working to solve the abduction and murder of Gerard Ross.

“Investigators will not engage in public speculation, nor provide commentary on individual suspects and publicly disclose their identities.

“At this point in time they are also not in a position to positively implicate any person or persons in these crimes.”

 

[BFew]

I'm hopping up and down in my seat OES ... this is the first time faik the link has been made publicly between BRE and Gerard's murder and the information in the article is what we put together in here months ago.

Here's some mapping that the West article tonight (see above post) published.

Probably just a coincidence that Bradley Robert Edwards was in the area in October 1997 (for good reasons).

Need to go back and look at the timeline of where he was at with his relationship with his 2nd wife in October 1997.

 

[Kurve]

Need to go back and look at the timeline of where he was at with his relationship with his 2nd wife in October 1997.

i think it's in this thread somewhere, I'll have another look tomorrow. We explored this really well and also realised that there was another murder of a young woman in Warnbro which is where Wife 1 was living.

As I've said before, with Gerard's abduction and murder the victimology isn't consistent but it doesn't have to be with someone like BRE. He is vindictive and bad tempered.

 

[Kurve]

Probably a coincidence but Carmel Barbagallo at the csk trial took some time in examining the kinds of dogs that were owned by BRE. I've seen one, a German Shepherd pup and I think there's mention of a French Bulldog.

Given some dog hairs were found with Gerard, it would be interesting to know if the breed of the dog was identified.

Okay, this back in November 2019 through the CSK trial. We can use this as a marker being the first post I found that draws a link with new information, even if it's a bit loose.

 

[BFew]

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.