The Devil's Garden Read online

  They want to know cause of death, nod mutely when police tell them what happened to Jane. Her throat, it appears, had been slashed. Nature has betrayed the indignities visited on her, swarms of ants rushing to the site of her jugular vein to feast. It is, as a forensic officer will note with grim irony, a 'dead giveaway'.

  Jane's belly button ring is still on her body, and the amethyst ring she wore. But her clothing is gone. Jenny and Trevor brace themselves for the inevitable that they are sure is to follow. Do they want to know? Yes, they do. They can take some consolation, they are told, that it does not appear Jane has been sexually assaulted. It is heartening, a small relief, but one that will haunt them. Are police telling them the truth or simply trying to shield them from further grief? They don't want to dwell in a world of ifs and maybes. They want to know what happened, gritty and sordid as the detail may be. It is their daughter, they say. They have a right.

  The police agree. As far as they can tell, there was no sexual assault and definitely no mutilation, dismemberment of the body or bondage. And Jane was not left in a staged, set pose.

  At home, they eat in silence the rack of lamb Trevor has prepared, tasteless and chewed over and over in their mouths. By morning, Jenny Rimmer will assume a foetal position, and stay curled that way until her daughter's funeral and for months after.

  Jane – meaning 'God is gracious' – comes to Jenny in dreams. Not as the young woman heading off to Claremont for a night out clubbing with friends, but as an 8-year-old child, swinging androgynous hips as she dances to Abba and sings into the broom handle. She wakes and tells Trevor, 'Jane has been here again,' and he knows not to ask. He knows she would only be eight years old. In Jenny's dreams, Jane never grows up. She never goes to Claremont.

  Woolcoot Road is meticulously searched, media choppers flying overhead as every object from cans, cigarette butts and hairs are picked up and sealed. An infra-red scanning system is employed to search the bush around the disposal site, detecting objects and other materials foreign to the area by heat radiation. Forensic teams vacuum the bush and tracks near Jane's disposal site, using gauze pads that they repeatedly change. Entomologists, who calculate the time of death from the life cycle of insects and the age of flies that have gorged on the body, go about their grisly task.

  Police are also quietly briefed to look for Sarah Spiers, who has now been missing for seven months. They have no doubt she has been murdered and reason the killer would feel comfortable returning to the Wellard area. Sarah's body hasn't been found. He may have dumped her there, and later Jane, believing he would not be caught.

  The taskforce goes over and over the 'points of fatal encounter' as geographical profilers call it – the area from where the victim is abducted. Very often it proves to be close to the killer's home, always much closer than the disposal site. The more victims the killer murders, the cockier he – or they – becomes, dumping bodies increasingly closer to home.

  Trevor and Jenny have been married 40 years and still touch hands tenderly as they discuss their murdered daughter. They move effortlessly around each other, as couples do after years of intimate familiarity, but they cope very differently. Jenny, brown eyes set in a face chiselled with grief, is not afraid to cry and does so, often. Trevor, quiet and circumspect, is more controlled. Look closer and his heart is splintered into tiny shards, like the spidery lines that criss-cross his gaunt cheeks.

  Trevor borders on angry when the police ask him pointed questions about his relationship with his daughter, and when they take blood samples for possible DNA testing. But he understands their reasons. Everyone is under suspicion. Still the phone calls flood in to police, thousands of people offering clues to the killer's identity. Mothers nominate sons. Wives point the finger at husbands. Bisexual men suggest former partners. Early on police form a list of names whose calls should be ignored. They don't have time for crackpots. Prostitutes are asked to go through their 'ugly mugs' file, the photos and names of clients who they know to be sexually perverted or violent.

  It is a simple symbol, on a tiny badge: the Arum lily, chosen after Jane's body is found. Underneath, there is an equally simple, one-word inscription. Macro. Normally, the names of taskforces are spat out of a computer at Canberra's Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence. Not this time. 'Macro', meaning 'to look at everything', was chosen by taskforce members themselves. 'To look at everything'.Every possibility.

  The taskforce officers choose the symbol as a sign of respect, to honour Jane Rimmer and Sarah Spiers, to keep them focused on the girls' disappearances. Each officer – around 100 at the peak of the investigation – will wear it discreetly on their lapel.

  11

  If police know anything about serial killers, it is that their cooling-off period is followed by an overwhelming need to kill again. It has been five months between Sarah Spiers's disappearance and Jane Rimmer's. Odds are, he will strike again soon – if he hasn't already. Mother nature has loosened her grip on the normal controls that balance conscience and fear, has 'stuffed up, badly' as one psychiatrist noted. What police don't know is when they will kill again or the motive, the underlying reason why this person is killing women at all. Are they strangers to the killer, or have they met before? Is their murder an act of revenge against women in general? Is he targeting women who remind him of someone else: a dominant mother, a former girlfriend who rejected him, a hated sister? Do the murders, afforded front-page headlines, satisfy some perverse longing for celebrity? Are the killings born out of resentment against a society that the killer perceives does not recognise his worth? What is known of the victims?

  Police examine what they know of the girls, the similarities. They are the same type. Both young women, aged between 18 and 23. Decent. Well heeled. Well groomed. Both employed. Both out in the same area late at night. Both drinking. Average build. Sarah Spiers: shoulder-length fair hair. Slender. Open, attractive face. Jane Rimmer: Similar hair colour and length to Sarah. Taller at 167 cm. Well proportioned, though slim figure. Open, attractive face.

  The police work through the possibilities. Was the killer, or killers, targeting a type? Was it the case, as with American serial killer Ted Bundy, who murdered 23 women and chillingly remarked that 'the victims have to be worthy of me'? Had he watched them in the club or hotel, loitering at a distance, observing their movements, following them as they left? Or was it random, opportunistic as he stood outside his vehicle ready to use a rehearsed line – I wonder could you help me? Did he attack them from the shadows and throw them in the car? Did he lie in wait inside the vehicle, dragging them in as they walked past, or wind down the window to engage in casual conversation? Did he monitor taxi radios, know that a woman is waiting for a cab, cruise along and offer her a lift?

  How did the women get into the vehicle? How much alcohol had they consumed? Police will not release that information, but concede each woman was highly intoxicated. Jane Rimmer, caught on security camera outside the Continental Hotel swinging around a lamp pole, a young woman with a zest for life after a night out with friends. A young woman just having fun. The memory of that last glimpse of her daughter makes Jenny smile. Jane loved a good time. Sarah Spiers? Her father, Don, is defensive on the subject when it is raised, and emits an unspoken warning not to delve too hard there. It is a protective mechanism, to shield his beloved daughter's memory from prying reporters. Back off. This is hallowed ground.

  Alcohol would render the women more vulnerable, less inhibited, impair their decision-making. And the killer would know that. Would know that they are more likely to be approachable, more likely to be at ease.

  The team theorises that the girls got in the car of their own free will; that the chances of forcibly abducting a female on two separate occasions, without one person seeing them or without something going wrong, are too remote to be credible. They work on three areas: that it is probable, possible, or unlikely.

  Were they forced into a vehicle? Possible, but not probable. If they had not been f
orced, what made them enter the car? Their ability to assess risk was diminished by alcohol. They have a driving need to get home and have no alternative transport. Would they, under those circumstances, get into a stranger's vehicle? Were they seduced, cajoled or beguiled into the car by someone smooth, well-educated and plausible? Probable or possible? Both. Was it possibly someone they knew? Both. A trusted stranger, such as a taxi driver? Both.

  Without lucrative crime-scene evidence, strong leads or eyewitness material, police are locked in a deadly game of Blind Man's Bluff. The vastness of their task is more than daunting. The clock is ticking as they shadow box with a deadly stranger.

  12

  Serial killers. Their names litter the pages of criminal histories, sadistic, psychopathic individuals whose abominable crimes are driven by sexual fantasies or a compulsive, over-whelming desire to watch their victims suffer. Without the normal neural circuitry that characterises a balanced mind, they are deaf to the victims' pleas to stop hurting them, to spare their life. And when their violent fantasies are played out – torture, rape, mutilation – and the victim is finally killed, the body is simply a carcass to be thrown away. They have had their fun; there is no further need for them.

  The statistics are frightening. Most serial killers are white, from middle-class backgrounds and with a higher than average IQ. They generally start killing in their mid-20s, long after their apprenticeship in minor crimes – house break-ins, voyeurism – has begun. There is usually abuse in early child-hood – physical, sexual and/or emotional. They often wet their beds into adolescence, deliberately light fires, torture animals and fail to bond with other people closely. In child-hood, it is often the father who plays the pivotal role; he will usually hold down a steady job but is erratically inconsistent with discipline.

  They may be in and out of jail, perfecting their techniques from hardened crims, coming out and practising what they have learnt. Usually cowards, when picked up by police they often cry, but the tears are not for their victims. They are for themselves. Remorse is not in their vocabulary. The more sadistic the torture and murder, the more they cower in jail, often taking their lives to escape.

  There will be pre-crime stressors, factors that tip this person into a killing frenzy. Perhaps loss of a job or added responsibility at work; marital break-up; money problems. Usually it is a fatal combination – the straw that breaks the camel's back – that is the main contributor, the key to their warped motivations. Recent events may be triggering memories from childhood. His partner leaves, he is driven to kill. Did he feel helpless as a child when his parents separated? Is he determined not to feel helpless again?

  Serial killers initially appear friendly and easygoing with their victims, their voice and mannerism changing as the psychopath comes to the fore. They have a script for their victims, telling them what they want them to say, forcing them to use foul, sexually explicit language. I am a dirty whore. I want you to fuck me. Now she has admitted she is a slut, a whore, he can kill her because she deserves it. And he has to kill her, because she can identify him. The only protection she may have is to fight like hell, to scream, kick and get on top of the situation. 'You don't play like you're ill or defecate or throw up,' criminal profiler John Douglas advises. 'That just further degrades you in the eyes of the subject. You've got to fight with everything you've got.'

  A serial killer rarely uses guns; they are too impersonal. He or she wants to watch their victim suffer, likes to watch them die. Stabbing, followed by strangulation and suffocation, is their preferred method. Death up close.

  Creatures of habit, they generally – though not always – go for type. Prostitutes: easy targets who willingly go with strangers. Old women. Homosexuals. Young children. Blacks. The idea is cemented in their sick psyche, and they trawl for victims with the same dedication and planning that others use in normal pursuits. They do not advertise their work. Ritualistic and repetitive, their modus operandi often changes from those that characterise their early murders. As they become more sophisticated, more confident, so their 'signature' – based on their fantasies – emerges. While their pick-up area, method of entrapment, choice of weapon and the disposal site are all important elements in the jigsaw puzzle, the key to their modus operandi is the killers' ritual signature, the aggressive fantasy that is endlessly imagined prior to the first murder and finally played out on the victim, before death or post-mortem.

  Serial killers fall into two categories – organised and disorganised – although the categories can sometimes fuse. The planning and murder themselves can be organised, the frenzied mutilation of the corpse the opposite. But if their targeted type is not available, they won't pass up an opportunity to kill. It is more important to them to see their victim suffer.

  The 'organised' serial killer – more ruthlessly violent than their disorganised counterparts – is never hindered by con-science. They know what they are doing, and they know what they are doing is wrong. The concept of right and wrong is nothing more than an academic exercise: ego-driven and highly manipulative, the coldly planned and executed murders are his trademark. This killer usually uses a vehicle for a fast getaway and constrains his victims with handcuffs, gags or terrifying threats.

  Their victims are usually targeted strangers – a person the killer has stalked during his stake-out of his chosen territory. Like a wild beast hunting its prey, targeting the victim involves a carefully planned reconnoitre of both the pick-up and disposal sites. Streets and highways are memorised, driven or walked hundreds of times before the abduction, and all entrances and exits mentally marked. Given the seemingly flawless way in which the Claremont serial killer lures his victims into his vehicle, police are in no doubt he fits this type. A chameleon, easily able to blend into his environment, control is his catchword: able to glibly seduce a victim, often with just conversation, to do his bidding. It is the planning that most excites this killer, using his logical mind to act out his fantasies.

  The level of organisation will be evident in his taking the weapon of choice to the crime scene and disposing of it after-wards. He will also not leave victims where they are killed; instead, their bodies are moved after death. From that point, he develops an obsession with keeping track of news items or police reports to see whether the body has been found.

  Outgoing and charming in the entrapment phase, the killer's real personality quickly asserts itself once he is alone with his victim. If rape is involved in the murder, the organised killer needs his victim to be submissive. Resistance heightens his rage and sense of indignation; women are the hated, worthless sex, for whom he feels contempt. If he fails to gain an erection during the rape, this killer will likely blame the woman for failing to ignite his sexual interest. The crimes are always driven by sex, even if the act itself is not completed. Sex equals power and control. They take trophies, grim mementos of their crime. Jewellery, clothing, hair, body parts. Items to salivate over, to fondle and view when they celebrate the murder in their memory.

  In contrast, there is no apparent rhyme or reason to the disorganised killer's choice of victims. He has no interest in personalising the people he chooses and when caught, finds it difficult to explain rationally to others the fractured logic he used to target his high-risk victims. His vehicle, like his mind and home, will be dirty and his personal appearance slovenly. Mutilation of the corpse and a chaotically frenzied crime scene are pointers to this killer's state of mind: the body is often found quickly as the disorganised type is not in possession of the clarity of thought required to move a body without being caught. The disorganised offender is very often raised in a household where the father's work patterns are haphazard, discipline is tough and there are external pressures: drug addiction, alcoholism or mental illness. As a child, he is virtually silent at school, retreating behind the mask of shyness but as an adult, he can disrupt his workplace by not getting along with his colleagues. Normal emotions – fear, rage, hurt – are internalised; the disorganised type is incapabl
e or unwilling to express himself. Often physically unassuming or unattractive, they are serial loners, with no social skills at all. Finding it impossible to discourse with others, this type very often lives with their parents, or parent.

  Instead of planning the crime, the disorganised killer will strike impulsively, without warning, an attack that may be precipitated by mental illness. Their victims are usually, though not always, females and after, he has virtually no interest in what he has done. This type does not take trophies.

  Profilers have divided serial killers into distinct types who engage in either slow or fast kills. The Visionary, often a psychotic, hears voices or sees visions that order him to commit murder. The voices are variously that of Satan or God, and the victims are strangers. The Missionary is driven by a misguided, warped sense that it is his duty to eliminate certain people – often prostitutes or those of certain religious persuasions. Both engage in fast kills – the urgent need to enact their violent thoughts. The Hedonist kills purely for pleasure, and often gains financially from the murder; the Lust-driven Hedonist gains pleasure from the anticipatory and real association between sex and murder. These killers will often return to the disposal site to sexually violate a corpse, experience erotic pleasure while fantasising about murder or become sexually aroused while in the act of killing. The Thrill-driven Hedonist experiences a sensational 'rush' when killing, exulting in the mix of control and excitement he feels when a victim is powerless in his hands. The Control Freak takes extreme pleasure in dominating and manipulating his quarry. The latter types will frequently tape their victims' screams or pleas for mercy or photograph them – as was the Birnies' wont – in varying stages of their capture and death.

  Which category does the Claremont serial killer fit? Visionary? This type rarely has a controlled crime scene, moves the body from the murder site or targets a specific victim. What can point to the signature of this killer is penetration of the body using an object, and necrophilia – having sex with the corpse after death. Missionary? Though the crime scene is controlled, this type of killer does not move the body and targets a specific victim. Like the visionary killer, the missionary will not indulge in aberrant sex, use weapons of torture and will not have a prior relationship with the victim. Unlike the former, there will not be penetration with an object or necrophilia. Comfort? These killers like a controlled crime scene, often have a prior relationship with the victim and will leave a weapon at the scene. Lust? This type of killer has a controlled crime scene, may torture, targets a specific victim, engages in aberrant sex and does not know the victim. Thrill? He will move the body, target a specific victim and use penile or object penetration. And the killer with a need for power and control? The crime scene is controlled, torture is possible, a specific victim is targeted and necrophilia is often practised.