Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

The Backpacker Murders: Ivan Milat

Ivan Robert Marko Milat (27 December 1944 – 27 October 2019) was an Australian serial killer who was convicted of the backpacker murders in 1996.

Early life

Ivan Milat was the son of a Croatian immigrant, Stjepan Marko "Steven" Milat (1902–1983), and an Australian, Margaret Elizabeth Piddleston (1920–2001), who married when she was 16. Milat was the fifth-born of their 14 children. Many of the 10 Milat boys were well known to local police, and Milat displayed antisocial behavior at a young age, leading to a stint in a residential school at age 13. By 17, he was in a juvenile detention center for theft, and at 19, he was involved in a shop break-in. In 1964, he was sentenced to 18 months for a break and enter, and a month after release, he was arrested for driving a stolen car and was sentenced to 2 years hard labor. In September 1967, aged 23, he was sentenced to 3 years for theft. In April 1971, he was charged with the abduction of two 18-year-old hitchhikers and the rape of one of them. While awaiting trial, he was involved in a string of robberies with some of his brothers, before faking his suicide and fleeing to New Zealand for a year. He was rearrested in 1974, but the robbery and kidnap cases against him failed at trial with the help of the Milat's family lawyer, John Marsden. He took on a job as a truck driver in 1975, and by the time of the Belanglo State Forest crimes, Milat had worked on and off for 20 years for the Roads & Traffic Authority all over the state.

Backpacker murders

By the time of the first Belanglo State Forest discoveries, several backpackers had been reported missing. One case involved a young Victorian couple from Frankston, Deborah Everist (19) and James Gibson (19), who had been missing since leaving Sydney for ConFest, near Albury, on 30 December 1989. Another related to Simone Schmidl (21), from Germany, who had been missing since leaving Sydney for Melbourne on 20 January 1991. Similarly, a German couple, Gabor Neugebauer (21) and Anja Habschied (20), had disappeared after leaving a Kings Cross hostel for Mildura on 26 December 1991. Another involved missing British backpackers Caroline Clarke (21) and Joanne Walters (22), who was last seen in Kings Cross on 18 April 1992.

Discovery of victims

On 19 September 1992, two runners discovered a concealed corpse while orienteering in Belanglo. The following morning, police discovered a second body 30 meters (98 ft) from the first. Police quickly confirmed, via dental records, that the bodies were those of Clarke and Walters. A search of the area failed to uncover any of the other missing backpackers.

In October 1993, however, a local man searching for firewood discovered bones in a particularly remote section of the forest. He returned with police to the scene where two bodies were quickly discovered and later identified as Gibson and Everist. The presence of Gibson's body in Belanglo puzzled investigators as his camera and backpack had previously been discovered at Galston Gorge, over 120 kilometers (75 mi) to the north.

On 1 November 1993, a skeleton was found in a clearing along a fire trail in the forest during a police sweep. It was later identified as that of Schmidl. Clothing found at the scene was not Schmidl's but matched that of another missing backpacker, Habschied. On 4 November 1993, the bodies of Habschied and Neugebauer were then found on a nearby fire trail in shallow graves 50 meters (160 ft) apart.

Search for a serial killer

Examination of the remains showed evidence that some of the victims had been tortured and did not die instantly from their injuries. In response, on 14 October 1993, Task Force Air, containing more than 20 detectives and analysts, was set up by the NSW Police. On 5 November 1993, the NSW government increased the reward in relation to the killings to $500,000. After developing their profile of the killer, the police faced an enormous volume of data from numerous sources. Investigators applied link analysis technology, and as a result, the list of suspects was narrowed from a shortlist of 230 to an even shorter list of 32. Speculation arose that the crimes were the work of several killers, given that most of the victims had been attacked while as pairs, had been killed in different ways, and buried separately.