Spiers family suffer in serial killer case

The blonde-haired, green-eyed secretary had been responsible in planning her evening, which started at Cottesloe's Ocean Beach Hotel.

About midnight, Ms Spiers' older sister Amanda drove the group to Claremont where they visited Club Bay View.

Shortly before 2am, Ms Spiers decided to go home to Mosman Park. She briefly spoke with the doorman, then called a taxi from a nearby phone booth.

Ms Spiers told the dispatcher she would wait at the corner of Stirling Highway and Stirling Road, but when the driver arrived several minutes later she had vanished.

Her body has never been found.

She is believed to be the first murder victim of accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards, who was arrested in December 2016 and will face an estimated six-month trial starting on Monday.

Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo told a preliminary court hearing that on the night Ms Spiers disappeared, a Mosman Park resident heard "a series of blood-curdling screams" and saw a car that shared the distinctive features of a vehicle Edwards had access to at the time.

In 2016, Ms Spiers' parents, Don and Carol, said time had not healed their loss 20 years after their daughter vanished.

"Words are inadequate to describe our personal loss and heartbreak," they said in a statement.

"It's hard not to wonder what Sarah's life, and ours, could have been had she not been taken from us.

"She was so full of life and had a great love of family."

In 2017, Mr Spiers threw his support behind the state government's no body, no parole laws.

"My daughter was a loving daughter and we are without her now, and that will stick with us for the rest of our lives," he said.

He also said he had suffered a breakdown and was taking medication for depression.

Ms Spiers' family have attended some of Edwards' preliminary court hearings and are expected to be there for much of his trial.

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Australian Associated Press