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Detective still haunted by a killer

It takes about 1½ hours to drive from Wellard to Eglinton, two mirrored murder scenes that have held Perth in their vice-like grip for almost 20 years.

Housing estates now dot the horizon - fed by an extended freeway - but Paul Ferguson recognises the spots immediately.

He stops his car, pulls out a road map and draws a line with his finger between the locations.

Mirrored sites. Still one of the only clues police have into the identity of the Claremont serial killer.

The former detective has not been here since April 1997 when the body of 27-year-old Ciara Glennon was found and police finally decided to use publicly the phrase they had been using privately for months - "serial killer".

Eight months earlier, the body of 23-year-old Jane Rimmer had been found at almost the exact same distance from Perth but on the opposite side of the city.

Almost 20 years after three women were abducted from the streets of Claremont, the hunt for a serial killer continues.

Sarah Spiers, who disappeared over the 1996 Australia Day weekend, is believed to be his first victim but has never been found. All three women disappeared when out in the Claremont area.

The probe into the Claremont serial killings is the longest active criminal investigation in the country. It is also the most expensive in Australian history.

But almost two decades on, the murders that scarred the city remain unsolved. Now, Paul Ferguson has come out of retirement to talk to a killer.

"I know that the offender thinks at this stage that he or she is smart and they've got away with it," he says.

Does he still believe the killer will be caught?

"Yes, I do."

Mr Ferguson, the original head of the Macro taskforce, says he believes that the killer will be reading this story. So, too, will a work colleague or friend who knows what happened.

Someone, somewhere could be jolted into giving up evidence that loyalty - or fear - had kept hidden for all this time.

"If someone knows something, put yourself in the Spiers family's position, put yourself in the Rimmers' position, put yourself in the Glennons' position . . . think of what they've been through," he said. "He or they have the propensity to do more next time and it might be your sister or your daughter."

Macro was set up in 1996 to hunt for the killer amid extraordinary public and political pressure.

Experts were flown in from overseas, video evidence sent to NASA, and taxi drivers across Perth were DNA tested amid fears that the only car the three girls would have trusted enough to get into would have been a taxi.

At one point, police even sought the help of one serial killer to find another. In an extraordinary revelation, Mr Ferguson now reveals that shortly after Jane and Ciara's bodies were found, he got a message from David Birnie in Casuarina Prison.

"He said, 'Paul, you know if you want to come down and interview me in relation to what's happening over there I can tell you from a serial killer's perspective what I'd be thinking if it was me'," Mr Ferguson recalls.

Ten years earlier, the detective had been part of the team that caught David and Catherine Birnie, a case he still describes as "the most interesting and horrific I've had in my career".

As he talks about it, he points to the back of his head and closes his eyes: "I've got things tucked away back here that I pray to God I never pull out of the drawer."

Detective Inspector Paul Ferguson talks to the media after Ciara Glennon disappeared. Picture: Bill Hatto/ The West Australian.

From prison, Birnie had reached out and suggested to him that the best way to get into the mind of one serial killer was through the mind of another.

"I went down there. I let David do the talking," he says. "It's actually quite strange that there are consistencies in a lot of serial killers.

"The way they do things like dump sites. David confirmed that his 'prowling patch' was Stirling Highway."

The information was relayed back to the Macro taskforce as they tried to piece together the psyche of the Claremont killer.

The WA Police have refused repeated requests to talk about the Claremont case, saying only that it is continuing inquiries.

Mr Ferguson says he has come out of retirement now because the police had refused to speak and he believed the time was right for someone to come forward.

"What I can tell you is that the more people involved in the crime, the more chances of getting caught," he says.

"Relationships change. Friendships break down. Circumstances change. If someone has some information that can lift one person above the others, ring Crime Stoppers."


Watch Sunday Night at 8.50pm on Seven for full interview

Monday in The West: The families speak