Claremont serial killings: What Bradley Edwards told cops when arrested at gunpoint over three missing Perth women

01/07/2024

Bradley Edwards was the Claremont serial killerTodd Bowler helped arrest him at his Perth home READ MORE: The secret lair of the Claremont killer filled with objects so vile they couldn't be shown in court

The cop who busted down the door when police arrested Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards has described the sex fiend's breathtaking reaction to finally being caught - and calmly asked officers: 'So what's this all about then?'

Todd Bowler was a member of Western Australia's Tactical Response Group when he was called in to take part in Edwards's arrest 20 years after his killing spree began.

Edwards was the main suspect in the deaths of Jane Rimmer, Ciara Glennon, and Sarah Spiers when police surrounded his home at Kewdale in Perth's east on December 22, 2016.

The three young women had all disappeared from Claremont in the city's west between January 1996 and March 1997. Ms Spiers' body has never been found.

Mr Bowler had been a general duties officer when the women went missing and had driven around Claremont keeping an eye for suspicious vehicles at the time.

When it came to bringing former Telstra technician Edwards in for questioning two decades later, Mr Bowler was keen to be involved.

'It was a fairly quiet thing when it first came in because it was so high-profile and the detectives didn't want any leaks to the fact they'd found a suspect,' he told the Crime Insiders podcast.

Mr Bowler said the operation was planned so that Edwards would be taken down without having time to resist or destroy any evidence which might be in his home.

The cop who busted down the door when police arrested Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards (above) has described the sex fiend's calm reaction to finally being caught.

'We had to work out how to do it pretty smoothly and keep all the evidence intact if there was any left after all those years,' Mr Bowler said.

'We went out that morning and we sat off his house a fair way off in the bushland and just got a surveillance team to have a look at the house.'

The surveillance team detected no movement inside the dwelling so police could not determine whether Edwards was inside or not.

'For obviously reasons, commissioners and people high up in the police wanted this guy taken out as early as possible,' Mr Bowler said.

'Because to leave a known serial killer on the streets would be a bad thing so we had to make a decision at some point.'

Having seen no sign of Edwards since daybreak, it was decided the best way to establish the killer's location was to see if he could be lured out.

'We ended up coming up with a plan where we got a surveillance covert guy to go and knock on the door of his house and Bradley Edwards answered the front door,' Mr Bowler said.

Bradley Edwards was the main suspect in the deaths of Jane Rimmer, Ciara Glennon (above), and Sarah Spiers when police surrounded his home in Perth's east on December 22, 2016

'The covert guy basically said, "I just saw some kids mucking around with the car at the front. You might want to check it out".

'Bradley Edwards said, "Yeah, thanks for the heads-up", went out, checked his car doors and things, and went back inside the house.

'Within a couple of minutes from there, we got our team sorted, and we rolled in.'

Mr Bowler's job was to breach the building through the front door.

'I bashed through the front door,' he said. 'The front door went like a saloon door.

'The top half has smashed open, and the bottom half stayed. It was an old wooden door so it just swung around. So I ended up kind of dismantling it into little pieces of wood.

'We got through there pretty quickly and then grabbed him at gunpoint in the hallway, basically just inside the front door.'

Mr Bowler said by the time Edwards had worked out police had stormed the house 'he was down on the ground on the carpet in the hallway and strapped up facedown'.

Retired cop Todd Bowler said the operation to arrest Edwards was planned so he would have not time to resist or destroy any evidence which might me in his home (above)

So far, all had gone to plan as other officers came in through the back and cleared each room of the house.

Mr Bowler said most offenders were 'not very lippy' when TRG members were pointing firearms at them but they sometimes 'get brave again' once they were gone.

Edwards's reaction, particularly for a person who had never been arrested at gunpoint, was unlike anything Mr Bowler had seen before.

'He sat down on the carpet for probably four or five minutes while we stood over him with guns, just making sure he didn't get up to anything,' Mr Bowler told the podcast.

'And then he just stuck his head up and he said, "So what's this all about then?"

'We just told him, "Mate, detectives will be here soon. Just keep quiet, they'll talk to you when they get here".

"He said, "Fair enough" and he put his head back down on the carpet.'

Mr Bowler said Edwards's heart rate did not appear to rise above 50 beats a minute.

'He was just very calm and very peculiar in that way,' he told the podcast.

Todd Bowler (above) was a member of Western Australia's Tactical Response Group when he was called upon to take part in Edwards's arrest 20 years after his killing spree began

Edwards was charged the next day with the murders of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon. He was charged with the murder of Ms Spiers in In February 2018.

In October 2019, he pleaded guilty to five other charges related to sexual attacks upon an 18-year-old woman at Huntingdale in 1988 and a 17-year-old at Karrakatta cemetery in 1995.

In June 2020, after a seven-month trial, Justice Stephen Hill found Edwards guilty of murdering Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon but not guilty of murdering Ms Spiers.

Justice Hill said it was more likely than not that Edwards had also killed Ms Spiers and in December 2020 sentenced him to life imprisonment with a 40-year minimum term.

Mr Bowler, who left the police force shortly after he helped arrest Edwards, said it had been satisfying to end his service by taking the Claremont serial killer down.

'I'd be amazed if anyone was willing to give him parole, ever, because you'd have to put your name to that one,' he said. 'So I don't think he'll be out.'