The state’s key fibre expert has detailed how the combination of fibres and the types of fibres found in Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon’s hair, as well as critical fibres no matched for their personal items, led him to believe it was more likely the two murdered women were in the Car Bradley Edwards drove, than not.

In Ciara Glennon’s case, Dr Ray Palmer said he thought there was ‘very strong’ support to indicate Ciara was in that Holden VS Commodore, owned by Bradley Edwards in the mid-late 90s.

He also told the court, generally blue polyester fibres - like the ones from the Telstra pants - accounted for 5% of the fibres found in people’s hair, while polypropylene fibres - like the fibres found in the carpet of the car - are not commonly found in people’s hair.

Day 81 of the Claremont Serial Killings trial saw Paul Yovich begin his cross examination of Dr Ray Palmer, in which the beginnings of a contamination theory seemed to be put forward by the defence.

Before the key fibre witness took the stand, earlier in the day, two former taxi company workers told how they were asked by WA police to search their archives for all of their jobs the nights Sarah, Jane and Ciara disappeared.

Amazingly, they managed to find old floppy disks containing that data, which didn’t reveal a lot, except that a job from Sarah Spiers was found. The court had previously heard tat she phoned for a taxi at 2.06am on January 27, 1996. When the taxi arrived less than 3 minutes later, she was gone.

They also found two jobs for “Janes” that night, but none seemed to be leaving from Claremont, and no jobs from a Ciara - or any variations of that name.

But during cross examination, it was revealed, the jobs from hailed taxis were never logged.

Join Natalie Bonjolo, Tim Clarke and Forensic expert Brendan Chapman as they discuss day 81.

Court will be sitting late for the rest of the week as Dr Ray Palmer continues  to be cross examined.

The West Australian has also released a two-part video series, as Tim Clarke takes you through the areas which are key to the trial, from Claremont, where the women went missing, to Hollywood hospital and to the sites were Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon’s bodies were found.

To watch those videos, head to:

Part 1:

https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-tim-clarke-takes-you-on-a-visual-tour-of-claremont-ng-b881516606z

Part 2:

https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings/claremont-serial-killings-trial-tim-clarke-takes-you-to-wellard-and-eglington-ng-b881517153z

If you have any questions for the Claremont in Conversation podcast team, send them in to [email protected]

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