A lot of people have an interest in serial killers, but even more have an interest in their wives. We wonder how much these women actually knew. Were they really in the dark? Or did they turn a blind eye out of fear?
When it came to the Claremont serial killer—the case at the centre of Channel 7’s new crime drama The Claremont Murders—he was married twice.
The case, which involved the abductions and murders of three women in the late 90s, became Perth’s longest unsolved murder case. The murderer—Bradley Robert Edwards—was finally caught in 2016, 25 years after the first disappearance, and sentenced to life-imprisonment in 2020.
While the state finally breathed a sigh of relief that there had finally been an arrest, his two ex-wives learned that they had been married to a killer.
This is what we know about the women who married the Claremont serial killer.
Who Was The Claremont Serial Killer’s First Wife?
The state learned about Edward’s first wife during his Western Australia Supreme Court trial in 2019. The wife, whose identity is suppressed, told the court about their relationship when she gave evidence.
The couple met as teens in the late 80s, while attending a rock festival in Western Australia’s north. She met Edwards through another man she was dating at the time, who worked at Telecom with Edwards.
Edward’s first wife told the court that Edwards moved into her three bedroom home in Noranda soon after getting together. They shared two dogs and a horse, which they kept on a property in the Perth Hills.
Edward’s ex-wife said that their relationship deteriorated after he brought a computer home and he started spending hours on it.
“It was a long time,” she told the court via a video link. “I just felt like he wasn’t interested, he wasn’t present in the marriage.”
Did Edward’s First Wife Know That He Was The Claremont Serial Killer?
While Edwards started abducting and assaulting women during his marriage, he didn’t commit his first murder until after their separation.
For the most part, Edward’s wife wasn’t aware of his attacks. The only time she noticed something strange was a day when Edward’s didn’t pick her up from work as planned. According to his first wife, Edwards always dropped her off and picked her up from her work in the CBD. One day, in May 1990, he didn’t show up. This turned out to be the day Edward’s attempted to attack a worker at Hollywood Hospital.
Why Did Edwards And His First Wife Break Up?
A few years later, Edwards and his wife rented out one of their bedrooms to a boarder. When Edward’s caught his wife cheating on him with the boarder, he barely reacted.
“Bradley didn’t say too much to me at all,” she told the court, explaining that he “appeared calm” and didn’t bring up the incident again.
However, his wife began a relationship with the boarder in 1995, later moving in together and having a child. One time during the separation, Edwards arrived unexpectedly at his wife’s parent’s house, stayed for dinner and asked his ex-wife to see a fireworks show. She declined.
During the trial, the prosecutors claimed that it was the rejection that prompted Edwards to murder Sarah Spiers later that night. However, as Edward’s wife couldn’t specify exactly which day the dinner with her parents was, it wasn’t certain that the incidents occurred on the same night. His ex-wife also noted that Edwards “did not seem upset” by the interaction.
Edward’s ex-wife called him to tell him that she was pregnant with the boarder’s child in 1996—around the same time that Edward’s abducted and murdered Jane Rimmer.
However, Edward’s wife later told the court, “he accepted that [the pregnancy] and did not get upset.”
Despite their shared pets, mortgage and car loan, the couple became estranged after that.
Who Was The Claremont Serial Killer’s Second Wife?
Edward’s second wife, whose identity is suppressed, also gave evidence during his 2019 trial in Western Australia.
Speaking of the couple’s initial meeting in April 1997, she told the court they “fell in love pretty quickly”.
However, Edward’s second wife recalled a strange moment two months later, when a “very edgy” Edwards was driving her home. According to his ex-wife, Edwards suddenly stopped driving and confessed he had a criminal record for assaulting a woman during a “brain snap”, triggered by his ex-wife cheating on him.
“He cried and everything … I felt sorry for him,” the second wife told the court. “He was all ‘woe is me’.”
Did Edward’s Second Wife Know That He Was The Claremont Serial Killer?
Edward’s second wife might not have known that he was the Claremont serial killer but she was suspicious about his behaviour.
In 2014—the year before she left him—Edward’s second wife started taking notes on his bank statements because she was “sick and tired” of his lies.
She recalled rifling through his bank transactions after failing to find a statement covering the period of the final victim’s murder.
When asked why she started taking notes on his bank transactions, Edward’s ex-wife said their relationship “started to escalate” and that she “feared for her life”, but was prevented from elaborating on the reason she was scared.
When Did Edwards And His Second Wife Break Up?
Edward’s second wife moved out of their marital home in 2015 but her 21-year-old daughter (Edward’s step-daughter) remained living with Edwards.
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