Current Julie Cutler - Murder - 1988 - Cottesloe WA *To the Coroner

[BFew]

Inquest into the Suspected death of Julie CUTLER

https://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Inquest_2023/CUTLER, Julie Leanne.pdf (49 pages)
'[2023] WACOR 19
JURISDICTION : CORONER'S COURT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
ACT : CORONERS ACT 1996
CORONER : SARAH HELEN LINTON, DEPUTY STATE CORONER HEARD :
3 - 4 NOVEMBER 2022 DELIVERED : 6 APRIL 2023
FILE NO/S : CORC 830 of 2019
DECEASED : CUTLER, JULIE LEANNE'

 

[Melsy]

Unfortunately mother nature deals a powerful blow. All the linkages will have been smashed about until the waves flipped the car over.
Nothing much would be in original status which is probably why the car was driven into the washing machine. Destruction of evidence.
Maybe someone familiar with surf clubs and soft track driving.
Cutlers family may have been country as it appears Iona is a girls boarding school.
It sounds like a targetted abduction. Why?

 

[Kurve]

Unfortunately mother nature deals a powerful blow. All the linkages will have been smashed about until the waves flipped the car over.
Nothing much would be in original status which is probably why the car was driven into the washing machine.
Destruction of evidence. Maybe someone familiar with surf clubs and soft track driving.

I dont think soft track driving was involved at all Melsy, if the tyres touched on sand given the huge swell and rains the night her car went in it was wet packed sand with no to very little risk of bogging down.

 

[Melsy]

I dont think soft track driving was involved at all Melsy, if the tyres touched on sand given the huge swell and rains the night her car went in it was wet packed sand with no to very little risk of bogging down.

Beaches with large swell are particularly soft. The closer the water, the softer the sand. Was it low tide?

 

[Kurve]

Beaches with large swell are particularly soft. The closer the water, the softer the sand. Was it low tide?

Soft sand is dry, loose and powdery. Wet sand is harder. Given I have some experience getting bogged in it (that I got out of by using everybody's thongs to shove under the tyres) if I'm going to drive anywhere on sand I'll go in, stick to the shoreline and keep the tyres moving fast.

 

[petedavo]

Unfortunately mother nature deals a powerful blow......
It sounds like a targetted abduction. Why?

Targeted abductions, are probably motivated by an emotion, like envy, jealousy, lust, attachment, anger, revenge, fear or greed.

One theory is based upon the motivation of Anger, Revenge and Fear.

The article from 1986 about a road rage "Recruit acted like a maniac" that has similarities in what's reported as Julie telling her family about an incident with another car on Stirling Hwy in the weeks proceeding her disappearance, spiked my interest when I became aware of who it is, as that same person was named in the media in relation to the Pamela Lawrence investigation as working at Claremont CIB, which is on Stirling Hwy. That meant that he was in the Western Suburbs in that era. However, there's no MSM article yet to confirm where he was in 1988, and it's a big stretch to assume that the behaviour mentioned in 1986 ever recurred. But if every other possibility is eliminated, there's this.

Another theory is based upon Greed.

Dave Everett, notorious former SAS commando had the previous year to Julie's disappearance returned from being a mercenary in Burma. He got married and had 2 kids and was working as a security guard and truck driver, apparently before, embarking on a crime spree, involving kidnappings, a murder, ransom demands, hostages, and faking his own death, breaking into Baldivis and stealing explosives, setting off the biggest explosion in history of Australian crime. He wouldn't of been the only criminal capable of kidnapping Julie Cutler, but he was here. And a bloke who later murdered both his own parents was also here and would've been well versed in rumours and innuendo surrounding a particular case that was prosecuted in 1972, courtesy of the father that he murdered, who had worked as an investigator on that very case in 1970's. The upshot IMO being that Vernon Silich could've touted around his taxi clients to benefit financially or for prestige, from his knowledge, and someone like Dave Everett who had the skills to scope out Julie Cutler's movements and pull off a kidnapping bought into it. What I've read of Dave Everett's posts online he'd think of himself as some sort of Robin Hood or at least that's how he'd like to justify his crimes. Would Dave Everett of undertaken a kidnapping based upon rumours and innuendo? Possibly not, and that is where the Supreme Court judgement that went missing from filing becomes important. My reading of the judgement that's been recreated is that it does not make a finding in relation to any financial gain, however the Judge's decision says that he thinks the defendant's motivation was financial gain and control of Leopold Mineral company. This probably would be enough for Dave Everett who I think might've gained procession of this missing 1972 Supreme Court judgement to look for the names of people who he thought gained a windfall. Some MSM reports that I found in trove, said that the shares were traded under the names of family members of the bloke who was convicted. I imagine that would've been common with whatever knowledge Vernon had to tout. The bloke who was convicted in 1972 was married to a Julie. I think even a master mind like Dave Everett would've realised at some point, if he was involved in Julie Cutler's disappearance, that Julie Cutler was too young to be married in 1972, and that he had abducted the wrong one. It would be sad if this theory is correct, because all that he had to do was ask her if she knew the bloke name Brian who was convicted in 1972. Then again maybe he did, and she answered, but convinced him that there was never was any windfall in the mistaken belief that a kidnapper would simply walk away and let her go if there truly was never going to be a bid ransom paid. Hence the phone call. Something that never did happen.

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[sprockets]

Targeted abductions, are probably motivated by an emotion, like envy, jealousy, lust, attachment, anger, revenge, fear or greed.

One theory is based upon the motivation of Anger, Revenge and Fear.

The article from 1986 about a road rage "Recruit acted like a maniac" that has similarities in what's reported as Julie telling her family about an incident with another car on Stirling Hwy in the weeks proceeding her disappearance, spiked my interest when I became aware of who it is, as that same person was named in the media in relation to the Pamela Lawrence investigation as working at Claremont CIB, which is on Stirling Hwy. That meant that he was in the Western Suburbs in that era. However, there's no MSM article yet to confirm where he was in 1988, and it's a big stretch to assume that the behaviour mentioned in 1986 ever recurred. But if every other possibility is eliminated, there's this.

Another theory is based upon Greed.

Dave Everett, notorious former SAS commando had the previous year to Julie's disappearance returned from being a mercenary in Burma. He got married and had 2 kids and was working as a security guard and truck driver, apparently before, embarking on a crime spree, involving kidnappings, a murder, ransom demands, hostages, and faking his own death, breaking into Baldivis and stealing explosives, setting off the biggest explosion in history of Australian crime. He wouldn't of been the only criminal capable of kidnapping Julie Cutler, but he was here. And a bloke who later murdered both his own parents was also here and would've been well versed in rumours and innuendo surrounding a particular case that was prosecuted in 1972, courtesy of the father that he murdered, who had worked as an investigator on that very case in 1970's. The upshot IMO being that Vernon Silich could've touted around his taxi clients to benefit financially or for prestige, from his knowledge, and someone like Dave Everett who had the skills to scope out Julie Cutler's movements and pull off a kidnapping bought into it. What I've read of Dave Everett's posts online he'd think of himself as some sort of Robin Hood or at least that's how he'd like to justify his crimes. Would Dave Everett of undertaken a kidnapping based upon rumours and innuendo? Possibly not, and that is where the Supreme Court judgement that went missing from filing becomes important. My reading of the judgement that's been recreated is that it does not make a finding in relation to any financial gain, however the Judge's decision says that he thinks the defendant's motivation was financial gain and control of Leopold Mineral company. This probably would be enough for Dave Everett who I think might've gained procession of this missing 1972 Supreme Court judgement to look for the names of people who he thought gained a windfall. Some MSM reports that I found in trove, said that the shares were traded under the names of family members of the bloke who was convicted. I imagine that would've been common with whatever knowledge Vernon had to tout. The bloke who was convicted in 1972 was married to a Julie. I think even a master mind like Dave Everett would've realised at some point, if he was involved in Julie Cutler's disappearance, that Julie Cutler was too young to be married in 1972, and that he had abducted the wrong one. It would be sad if this theory is correct, because all that he had to do was ask her if she knew the bloke name Brian who was convicted in 1972. Then again maybe he did, and she answered, but convinced him that there was never was any windfall in the mistaken belief that a kidnapper would simply walk away and let her go if there truly was never going to be a bid ransom paid. Hence the phone call. Something that never did happen.

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https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/101994970?

 

[petedavo]

There's a story about the missing Supreme Court Judgement from 1972 called "Judgment in the nickel of time" EDITED BY NEALE PRIOR in the West Australian published on 29/9/2008.
You need to have a SLWA library membership or a Paper Archive account to view it. I suggest not discussing the name of the person sentenced in this judgement, as the relevance of this is only to do with the fact that it was found to be missing from WA Supreme Court filing. Judgements are filed and retrieved by clerks at the WA Supreme Court. Back in 1988 there was no internet to look up a digital copy, and photocopy machines were expensive to use, so clerks would have to account for each one made presumably, however anyone who wanted to check out the veracity of information given to them could've fronted up to the Court and handed over an application and a fee and the clerk would dutifully retrieve the item. However that would present a record of the retrieval for someone up-to nefarious deeds planning an abduction, unless the clerk was distracted and the person hiked it out the door with the application and the original judgement. Probably far safer if he knew someone working there, to simply filtch it on the promise of returning it so it could be sneaked back in and surreptitiously refiled later on.
The redone Judgement is on http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/wa/WASC/1972/
IMO it contains a statement that might've lead someone to a belief that there was a financial gain if someone like Vern Silich was asserting a rumour or embellished story on one being passed down from his father who worked upon the original CIB investigation.
There is no point in public sharing of the name of the person subject to this judgement. It's only enough to say that he was married to someone by the same name as the missing person, but isn't the missing person. I'll just assert that searching through paper archives of the West Australian will prove that link in the births deaths and marriages columns. But then Vern Silich probably already knew the wife's name from his father's stories of his time in the Company Fraud Squad. IMO There is nothing at all to suggest that they are responsible for the disappearance of Julie Cutler. Nor should this case in 1972 be construed as the cause, but only as a possible motive if Julie's disappearance is in anyway an abduction for kidnapping for the purposes of extortion or ransom.
This is all you need to decide if this theory has enough facts behind it to take it forward. To put this hypothesis in context: The 1980's in Perth were a wild time, of millionaires and wannabes. It all came unraveling in 1989 and many of those went to Prison, Alan Bond, Laurie Connell, Brian Burke etc. In 1988, IMO, it wouldn't of been beyond the realm for people to be greedy enough to commit crimes to enrich themselves. They were seeing it everywhere around them already, the stripping of Bell Group assets for instance, and it seemed that no one was ready to stop the rampant greed.
Was Julie Cutler a victim of someone like David Everett?


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[Melsy]

Maybe someone salted Cutlers car

The whole rammed off the road attempt sounds like a someone with skills. Acess to multiple cars and spare parts.
Sure SAS or police. Police must have looked at other incidents where cars seemingly went off the road with apparent driver culpability.

Is Cutler a high profile name in Kalgoorlie?

http://www.pierpont.com.au/article.php?Ten-final-tips-from-Blue-Sky-Mines-34

 

[petedavo]

Maybe someone salted Cutlers car

The whole rammed off the road attempt sounds like a someone with skills. Acess to multiple cars and spare parts.
Sure SAS or police. Police must have looked at other incidents where cars seemingly went off the road with apparent driver culpability.

Is Cutler a high profile name in Kalgoorlie?

http://www.pierpont.com.au/article.php?Ten-final-tips-from-Blue-Sky-Mines-34

Her dad owned a drilling company called Geodrillers in the 1970's. I don't know about the 1980's but presumably well known in mining circles, and Kalgoorlie revolved around mining. Unfortunately, the Kalgoorlie Miner is not on trove in that period to verify.

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[FTY1]

Maybe someone salted Cutlers car

The whole rammed off the road attempt sounds like a someone with skills. Acess to multiple cars and spare parts.
Sure SAS or police. Police must have looked at other incidents where cars seemingly went off the road with apparent driver culpability.

Is Cutler a high profile name in Kalgoorlie?

http://www.pierpont.com.au/article.php?Ten-final-tips-from-Blue-Sky-Mines-34

From Rachel Cutler:
"We had only just moved to Kalgoorlie from Perth and Julie called dad and told him she was planning to come up for a month."

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/103679664/julie-leanne-cutler

The Cutlers were in Perth during JC's schooling until 1982 so I am assuming the move would have been in 1987-88.

 

[Melsy]

Maniac attempts run woman off road.

Someone running people off the road making it look like an accident?

Where would you go in a black evening gown in 1988? Ball room dancing?

 

[Melsy]

From Rachel Cutler:
"We had only just moved to Kalgoorlie from Perth and Julie called dad and told him she was planning to come up for a month."

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/103679664/julie-leanne-cutler

The Cutlers were in Perth during JC's schooling until 1982 so I am assuming the move would have been in 1987-88.

Julie had returned from an overseas holiday?

If she was flatting with sisters friend she may have been no fixed address.

 

[petedavo]

Julie had returned from an overseas holiday?

If she was flatting with sisters friend she may have been no fixed address.

Possible, however there's a picture of Julie on this Story https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/cr...ious-julie-cutler-disappearance-ng-b88874370z that was taken on a New Year's eve in Fremantle.

It looks like the sort of picture taken by a newspaper photographer in quality. It wouldn't surprise me if this appeared in the Fremantle Herald, or the West's social pages back in the 1980's. A casual observer might've thought she was a lot older than she is. Having a picture might've helped narrow the search by a would be abductor. It was reported also that she regularly visited her cousins. Maybe an abductor used a phone book and staked out the address of the person who had a court case in 1972 who's reported as living in Safety Bay and then followed her home to Fremantle after a visit. Maybe thinking she was the other person by the same name?
This was the sort of pre-planning and leg work that Dave Everett became known for years later during his crime spree.


Sunday Times, 26th June 1988.
Relatives search for clues.
Julie's father Roger from Kalgoorlie and uncle Brian Cutler from Safety Bay searched Cottesloe beach on Saturday and spoke to Gae Williams of the Sunday Times.

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[Melsy]

I wouldn't over analyse the officers presence in the picture. Not saying you are.
It was common place to get a photo with an officer at New Years as a form of good will. All in good spirit.

Yep, the photo tagged media in the newspaper's archives with the name Julie Cutler after the image was printed.
Its probably been pulled out of archives after being printed.

Maybe someone saw this in the media and doesnt like police. Someone stalking people in the newspaper.
One of the many potential motives in her targetted disappearance.

Is that the OBH she is at?

 

[GreyCrow]

Possible, however there's a picture of Julie on this Story https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/cr...ious-julie-cutler-disappearance-ng-b88874370z that was taken on a New Year's eve in Fremantle.

It looks like the sort of picture taken by a newspaper photographer in quality. It wouldn't surprise me if this appeared in the Fremantle Herald, or the West's social pages back in the 1980's. A casual observer might've thought she was a lot older than she is. Having a picture might've helped narrow the search by a would be abductor. It was reported also that she regularly visited her cousins. Maybe an abductor used a phone book and staked out the address of the person who had a court case in 1972 who's reported as living in Safety Bay and then followed her home to Fremantle after a visit. Maybe thinking she was the other person by the same name?
This was the sort of pre-planning and leg work that Dave Everett became known for years later during his crime spree.


Sunday Times, 26th June 1988.
Relatives search for clues.
Julie's father Roger from Kalgoorlie and uncle Brian Cutler from Safety Bay searched Cottesloe beach on Saturday and spoke to Gae Williams of the Sunday Times.

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A couple of things. I think she looks her age. Not sure if you could make her any older than 25 from that pic.

The sidebar of the weather shows how roiled up the sea could have been in that critical time she might have been in the water

 

[petedavo]

I wouldn't over analyse the officers presence in the picture. Not saying you are.
It was common place to get a photo with an officer at New Years as a form of good will. All in good spirit.

Yep, the photo tagged media in the newspaper's archives with the name Julie Cutler after the image was printed.
Its probably been pulled out of archives after being printed.

Maybe someone saw this in the media and doesnt like police. Someone stalking people in the newspaper.
One of the many potential motives in her targetted disappearance.

Is that the OBH she is at?

It was quite common in the 1980's for New Year's Eve reveller's to congregate around the Clock towers at Perth Town Hall and the one in Fremantle. Media was always there to take pictures which would appear the next day in the paper. There was also a custom amongst the girls to kiss a cop at these events and get themselves in the paper. As a side note, the cop who's badge number can be seen was deployed to the Kimberley before the end of 1987, so the event pictured might've been the NYE before she went overseas, not likely to be the 1987-1988 NYE

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[petedavo]

A couple of things. I think she looks her age. Not sure if you could make her any older than 25 from that pic.

The sidebar of the weather shows how roiled up the sea could have been in that critical time she might have been in the water

I agree that it is a long stretch to add to the kidnapping hypothesis that someone like Vernon Silich would've found this picture in the press back in the 1980's and passed it along with his stories to someone like David Everett, who might've then used it in the process of tracking a victim to her home, then breaking in to find something to positively identify her, and where she worked, so he could attempt to abduct her on Stirling highway, then failing that secrete himself in the back of her car at the Parmelia on the night of her disappearance. But it's one theory that fits the things that the family wanted investigated as they seemed to be sure that those events are related to her disappearance. Of course, none of them might be related. Family and friends might have a rose tinted view, and she could've just spur of the moment drove the car into the ocean herself. Or an entirely different thing happened.

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[craigos]

I'm starting to think that the car isn't as important as it once was. Drunken backpackers find abandoned, unlocked car near Cottesloe and push it into the ocean. Leave the country (or at least state) a day or two later before it's even reported on. Occams razor and all that.

 

[GreyCrow]

I agree that it is a long stretch to add to the kidnapping hypothesis that someone like Vernon Silich would've found this picture in the press back in the 1980's and passed it along with his stories to someone like David Everett, who might've then used it in the process of tracking a victim to her home, then breaking in to find something to positively identify her, and where she worked, so he could attempt to abduct her on Stirling highway, then failing that secrete himself in the back of her car at the Parmelia on the night of her disappearance. But it's one theory that fits the things that the family wanted investigated as they seemed to be sure that those events are related to her disappearance. Of course, none of them might be related. Family and friends might have a rose tinted view, and she could've just spur of the moment drove the car into the ocean herself. Or an entirely different thing happened.

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I dont disagree with this premise, more your earlier premise that she looks older ie could have been mistaken for Mrs Cutler

That was my take

 

[Kurve]

I'm starting to think that the car isn't as important as it once was. Drunken backpackers find abandoned, unlocked car near Cottesloe and push it into the ocean. Leave the country (or at least state) a day or two later before it's even reported on. Occams razor and all that.

The backpackers threw me a bit as well Craigos.

There were a few lower end units and rentals in Cottesloe around that time as well, it wasn't until the 90s that the money started flowing in on my reading. Not that the suburb was 'down' but a different makeup.

 

[petedavo]

I dont disagree with this premise, more your earlier premise that she looks older ie could have been mistaken for Mrs Cutler

That was my take

Fair enough. I'm just assuming that if this was in a newspaper in the 1980's, that it would be in black and white and fairly small on newsprint. And possibly being torn out of a paper a few years before 1988 so the quality of the image by the time anyone used it would be poor, and whoever it was given to possibly wouldn't of known, how old it the image was.

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[petedavo]

The backpackers threw me a bit as well Craigos.

There were a few lower end units and rentals in Cottesloe around that time as well, it wasn't until the 90s that the money started flowing in on my reading. Not that the suburb was 'down' but a different makeup.

It might be worthwhile now to list the alternative theories and start looking for evidence to eliminate them. Hopefully what's left will be the truth.

I'd suggest these theories that have been suggested over the years for a list.
(Apologies for missing any of them)

Theories involving only Julie acting alone.
Suicide
Insurance Fraud, gone wrong.
Staged disappearance.
Accident and misadventure whilst under the influence

Theories involving a third party
Road rage / motor vehicle accidental manslaughter cover up
Random Rapist
Random car jacker
Jilted lover / stalker abduction
Kidnapping for Extortion
Serial Killer
Hoon gang
Occult sacrifice



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[Melsy]

It might be worthwhile now to list the alternative theories and start looking for evidence to eliminate them. Hopefully what's left will be the truth.

I'd suggest these theories that have been suggested over the years for a list.
(Apologies for missing any of them)

Theories involving only Julie acting alone.
Suicide
Insurance Fraud, gone wrong.
Staged disappearance.
Accident and misadventure whilst under the influence

Theories involving a third party
Road rage / motor vehicle accidental manslaughter cover up
Random Rapist
Random car jacker
Jilted lover / stalker abduction
Kidnapping for Extortion
Serial Killer
Hoon gang
Occult sacrifice

And the motive is...

She was last seen alive leaving the Parmelia Hilton car park in her Fiat sedan about 12.30am on June 20, 1988.

Mr Dawson said the cold case homicide squad had launched a fresh investigation into Ms Cutler’s disappearance after an extensive review of the case.

https://www.news.com.au/national/we...r/news-story/d1254bcfd33ee30b605a1f5eec0ed476

 

[metic]

I'm starting to think that the car isn't as important as it once was. Drunken backpackers find abandoned, unlocked car near Cottesloe and push it into the ocean. Leave the country (or at least state) a day or two later before it's even reported on. Occams razor and all that.

How often does that happen Craigos, has it happened before or after the incident in 1988 ?

I just cant imagine how do people "push" a car out so far into the sea ~ 50m offshore whilst ~ 2-3metre high waves are consistently breaking - on Monday early morning ? (~ 1-6 am).

In my opinion it was driven aggressively, so it could get that far out into the water, it was completely submerged for days.

I think if it was pushed or rolled it would not penetrate into the waves.
It could not be done 'easily' or by "accident".
JmO

 

[metic]

A couple of things. I think she looks her age. Not sure if you could make her any older than 25 from that pic.

The sidebar of the weather shows how roiled up the sea could have been in that critical time she might have been in the water

That stormy weather in the news seen in the clippings was just days after the car was retrieved Crow. That was a significant storm and could have affected the search in the days after the car found.
It was a stormy period for weeks around the time june 1988 . In the weeks prior to JC's disappearance there was multiple storms = Lots of seaweed....
JmO