WA TOP STORIES OF 2018
FAMILY MASS MURDERS: At a farm near Margaret River, a grandfather shoots dead his wife, their daughter and her four children then kills himself. It is Australia's worst gun crime since the Port Arthur massacre. (May) Two months later, a 19-year-old man allegedly kills his mother, sister and brother at their Perth home in Ellenbrook. Another two months later, a 24-year-old man allegedly kills his wife, mother-in-law and three young children at their Bedford home in Perth.
ASSISTED SUICIDE: Australia's oldest scientist, 104-year-old David Goodall, did not have a terminal illness but says he stopped enjoying life at about the age of 90. The West Australian travels to Switzerland, where it's legal to take his own life. The England-born Member of the Order of Australia says in an open letter he would have preferred to end his days in "the country of my adoption". (May)
CLAREMONT SERIAL KILLINGS: Telecommunications worker Bradley Robert Edwards, 49, pleads not guilty to murdering Jane Rimmer, 23, Ciara Glennon, 27, and Sarah Spiers, 18, in 1996 and 1997, plus separate sexual offences in 1988 and 1995. He is expected to face a lengthy judge-alone trial, starting next year, following what is believed to be Australia's longest-running and most expensive police investigation. (June)
