Julie Leanne CUTLER
Julie Leanne CUTLER
Julie Leanne CUTLER
DESCRIPTION:
BACKGROUND:
Julie Leanne Cutler was 22 years of age at the time of her disappearance. She enjoyed reading, writing and socialising with friends. She was working casually at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel in Perth as a room attendant and lived in Fremantle with a female flat mate.
CASE DETAILS:
On the evening of Sunday 19 June 1988, Miss Cutler was working at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel, 14 Mill Street, Perth. After finishing her shift, she attended a staff awards night at Julianna’s night club, which was part of the Parmelia Hilton. It is believed that around 180 people attended this function until around 12.30am on Monday 20 June 1988.
Miss Cutler and a female co-worker left the work function, walking together to the staff parking area of the hotel. Miss Cutler was seen by her co-worker bending into the open front passenger side door of her car. Miss Cutler’s car was a two-tone grey and black Fiat sedan registered number 6CW749. It is believed that Miss Cutler then re-entered the hotel and function until it finished, before returning to her vehicle and driving away. The Fiat sedan was last seen turning left from Mill Street onto Mounts Bay Road.
Miss Cutler did not arrive home in Fremantle that night and did not attend work at the hotel for her rostered shift later that day.
In the morning of Tuesday 21 June 1988 Miss Cutler’s flat mate reported her missing.
VEHICLE LOCATED:
About 11.45am on Wednesday 22 June 1988, Miss Cutler’s car was located several metres off the shore-line at Cottesloe Beach by a swimmer. The car was about half way between the Surf Life Saving Club and the groyne. At this time the car was upside down, half buried in the sand. The rear seat of the vehicle was located separate to the vehicle.
The person or persons responsible for Miss Cutler’s disappearance have not yet been identified.
REWARD:
On 19 June 2018, the Government of Western Australia announced a $250,000 reward for information which leads to the apprehension and conviction of the person, or persons, responsible for Julie’s disappearance.
The Government may also be prepared to consider recommending a protection from prosecution, or pardon for any informant with information that leads to the conviction of the person or persons responsible for the disappearance, provided that the informant was not directly responsible for the disappearance of Julie Cutler.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Julie Leanne Cutler, please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or make an online report below. Please remember that you can remain anonymous if you wish and rewards are offered.
'Police decoy used in killer hunt sting'
-Bret Christian
Police hunting for the Claremont serial killer used a policewoman as a decoy,
according to a report in a Sydney magazine.
The sting operation went wrong after the under-cover officer had been picked up
by Cottesloe man Lance Williams and asked to be driven to Mosman Park, the
report says.
Police then surrounded the car and took the driver in for questioning.
The report was written after a months-long investigation by ABC Radio presenter
Liam Bartlett and published in Sydney's Sunday Telegraph magazine last weekend.
"Only the surveillance team knows if one of their members panicked and they're
not admitting to anything," Mr Bartlett wrote.
Mr Williams denies he had anything to do with the killings and says police are
looking at the wrong person.
He says he picked up the woman as a good Samaritan.
He is one of hundreds of people who have been questioned, but no charges have
been laid.
Police were keeping Mr Williams, a 45-year-old public servant, under 24-hour
surveillance.
In his report, Mr Bartlett makes a series of assertions, many of which have
never been aired publicly, about the three Claremont murders.
He wrote that police have told the father of a fourth missing woman, 22-year-old
Julie Cutler, that his daughter was probably the first victim of the Claremont
killer.
Ms Cutler, a university student from Fremantle, vanished after leaving a staff
function at the Sheraton Hotel in Perth at 9pm one night in 1988.
Her car was found in the surf near the groyne at Cottesloe Beach two days later.
Her body has never been found.
The first girl to disappear from Claremont, Sarah Spiers, vanished almost
exactly seven years ago in 1996.
The report also says that police found no offender's DNA on the bodies of the
two women who have been found, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon.
The bodies were exposed to the elements for too long.
The report says that certain items of clothing remain missing from the murder
scenes of both the women whose bodies have been found, Jane Rimmer and Ciara
Glennon.
It says police are convinced both women were killed close to where they were
abducted, and on the same nights that they were abducted.
They were not murdered where they were found.
The report says Mr Williams is in his seventh month of stress leave from his
government job.
He is living with his parents in Eric Street, Cottesloe, has suffered several
bouts of depression and has had an extended stay in hospital.
Other sources say that police have spent more than $2 million investigating Mr
Williams.
Trevor Rimmer, of Shenton Park, the father of Jane, is quoted as saying that it
would be less worrying for his family if the police did not appear to have all
their eggs in one basket.
He says he would like to see a more open approach.
His comments tie in with those of overseas investigators of serial killings, who
say that in similar cases it is common for investigators to develop tunnel
vision.
One overseas investigator has told the POST that that the geographic area where
serial killings occur is not necessarily fixed.
It is common for serial killers to switch their activities to other states and
even other countries when one location becomes too hot.
The overseas investigator told the POST that there was a high possibility that
the Claremont murderer had been killing for many years before and was still
operating.
It was likely he was the worst serial killer Australia had seen.
"He is highly organised, very, very clever and has his methods of entrapping and
killing women down to a fine art," he said.
It was likely he had some sort of security or military training.
"I believe that many other women who are missing in WA or interstate are the
work of the Claremont killer," he says.
He said that it was a myth that the same serial killers used the same methods
once they had developed a technique.
"Western Australia has a notorious example of this, Eric Cooke."
Eric Edgar Cooke, who was hanged for murder in 1964, attacked 20 people, killing
eight.
He used many different methods - attacking them in their beds with knives,
strangling, shooting and running them down with stolen cars.
Many women have gone missing in WA in the past two decades, including another
from Claremont.
Sarah McMahon (20) was last seen leaving the reticulation shop where she worked
in Stirling Highway, Claremont, on November 8, 2000.
The white Ford Meteor she was driving was found in the carpark of Swan Districts
Hospital some days later.
For the families of murder victims, or those who have disappeared, the pain never goes away.
As a journalist who has spent decades working with the families and friends of the missing and murdered I have spent countless hours listening to their hopes and fears.
And now that a man has been charged with murdering Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon the families of others who were murdered or disappeared around the time of the Claremont serial killings are also beginning to wonder if there will be new progress in their cases too.
The case of Sarah Spiers, who has long been regarded as the third victim of the Claremont killer, will continue to be a focus for the Macro Taskforce.
Additionally, the fact that the 48-year-old who has been charged with murdering Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmer, has also been charged with other attacks on women as far back as 1988 has caused many other families to wonder if closure for them too may soon be at hand.
DNA from a silk dressing gown seems to have been the key to the Claremont charges. The garment, apparently dropped by an intruder who tried to rape an 18-year old Huntingdale woman in 1988 reportedly connects the same person to the murder of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon.
Former WA police officer, and now a private detective, Mick Buckley has been watching the growth of prosecutions based on DNA evidence in recent years.
"It's been a game-changer. The ability to go back to old DNA evidence and test it again and again as new techniques become available is a huge thing for detectives and cold case investigators," he said.
So who else will be looking at recent developments and hoping for a breakthrough in their particular family mystery - either through a DNA breakthrough or new evidence from a witness?
Undoubtedly the family of Sharon Fulton will be among them. The then 39-year-old disappeared in 1986. She was last seen on March 18 in Wangara around 9.30am. She was supposed to meet friends at 11am that day but didn't turn up and was never seen again.
A year later, in 1987, Sally Greenham disappeared from the streets of Perth leaving no clue as to what may have happened to her or where she may have ended up.
Missing Persons files say the Geraldton woman was last seen getting out of a car in Adelaide Terrace in the early hours of August 20, 1987.
Then there is the case of Julie Cutler who went missing in 1988. She disappeared after going to a work party at the Parmelia Hilton. Two days later her car was found upside-down in the ocean off Cottesloe Beach.
Superintendent Ron Carey, who investigated the case, said the back seat of the car had been washed out of the vehicle and was found on a nearby beach.
"If the back seat could wash out why didn't Julie's body if she was in the car? Why didn't her shoes, handbag or some other item of property wash up?" he said while being interviewed for the Channel Nine documentary "To Catch a Killer" ten years ago.
"I believe she was never in the car when it went off Cottesloe Groyne. I believe that Julie was murdered and that the body was buried or secreted somewhere else before the car was dumped in the ocean."
Julie Cutler's family, and those of Kerry Turner who disappeared in 1991, have called on police investigating the Claremont serial killings to have a fresh look at their daughters' cases too, according to The Weekend West.
Kerry Turner disappeared from Victoria Park on June 30, 1991, after a night out with friends. Her body was found in bush near Canning Dam a month later.
Detective Darren Bethel who was also interviewed for the Channel Nine documentary, described the last time Kerry was seen.
"Around 4am she left Pinochio's nightclub and caught a taxi but the driver dropped her off at the Causeway when she told him she had no money," he said.
"Witnesses saw her standing on the side of Shepperton Road for a couple of minutes when another vehicle stopped beside her. She hopped into this vehicle straight away and the vehicle left heading south on Shepperton Road.
"We have never located that vehicle and no-one ever came forward stating that they had picked Kerry up."
Then there are the cases of Lisa Brown, Sarah McMahon and Darylyn Ugle.
Lisa Brown went missing in 1998. She was a prostitute working the streets in Northbridge when she disappeared.
Chris Page, the Detective Senior Constable who investigated her disappearance as part of a cold case review, said the 19-year-old was extremely vulnerable at the time.
"Lisa had become estranged from her family. She had a couple of children that she didn't have custody of and she'd developed a heroin habit," he said.
"In addition she was walking the streets late at night dealing with and speaking to strangers.
"She had to have been one of the most vulnerable people in the community."
Sarah McMahon disappeared in 2000. Police say she left her work at a reticulation shop in Claremont on November 8 and drove to Bassendean after which she was never seen again.
In 2012 a man who was serving a lengthy sentence for attempting to strangle a woman was questioned about her disappearance but denied all knowledge of the case.
Darylyn Ugle disappeared in 2003. She had been working as a prostitute and was last seen leaving a friend's flat in Bulwer Street.
Five weeks later, in April 2003, her body was found by bush walkers under a burnt out tree close to Mundaring Weir.
Her mother Jessie also agreed to be interviewed for the Channel Nine program. Her comments paint a picture of the kind of suffering common to all the families of those who are missing or were murdered.
"Maybe when they find the killer, maybe I'll get a life again," she said.
"If your child died after she was sick, or was in a car accident and died, at least you know what happened.
"But to have someone snatch them off the side of the road and kill them, it's so hard to live with.
"You might be able to get on with your life day by day, but it's always at the back of your mind and never goes away.
"I always think about her."
The State Government has today announced a $250,000 reward for information regarding the 1988 disappearance of Julie Cutler.
Julie was 22-years-old and had attended a staff function at Julianna’s Nightclub, which was located inside the Parmelia Hilton, on June 19, 1988.
She left the function in her Fiat sedan about 12.30am on June 20, 1988, and has not been seen since.
Julie’s car was retrieved from Cottesloe Beach on June 22, 1988.
Julie’s father Roger Cutler has joined with Police in appealing for information regarding his daughter’s disappearance.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Homicide squad detectives are combing sand dunes on Perth's Cottesloe beach as part of their ongoing investigation into the disappearance of a woman 30 years ago.
Julie Cutler was 22 and working at the Parmelia Hilton in the city when she vanished on June 19, 1988.
After finishing her shift, she went to a staff awards function at a nightclub within the hotel complex.
She drove out of the staff car park late that night or early the following morning but didn't arrive home or attend her next shift.
She was then reported missing.
Three days after she was last seen, her car was found in the surf on Cottesloe beach.
In October 1996, some of her personal items including a purse and diary were discovered in sand dunes about 1km south of where her vehicle was recovered.
They were handed to police in early 1997 but dismissed as not being Ms Cutler's after police inquired with people who knew her.
A cold case homicide squad review of the investigation has established the items may have indeed belonged to her.
"These inquiries, combined with the proximity to where Julie's car was recovered, are why we are again searching the Cottesloe area, and we are looking for other items that may assist with this investigation," Detective Sergeant Gailene Hamilton said on Tuesday.
The state government has offered a $250,000 reward for information about the case.
"This has been a long and distressing period for Julie's family and friends and we are hoping to resolve this matter for them," Det Sgt Hamilton said.
"Any information, no matter how insignificant it may seem in isolation, may be crucial in the context of the broader investigation and we urged anyone with information to come forward."