Ivan Milat: The Backpacker Murders

It’s 1989, and you’re on vacation in New South Wales, Australia. You and your boyfriend set off to go backpacking. You leave and hitch a ride, something you’ve done many times before. But this time is different. He doesn’t just take you to the next town like the others have done. No, he keeps driving, back to his home. There, he managed to tie you and your boyfriend up, rape you, and then stabs your boyfriend multiple times, severing his spinal cord and paralyzing him. Once you’re dead, he buries your bodies in the Belanglo State Forest. At least now, you can rest in peace, right? Wrong, he comes back to visit regularly, smoking his cigarettes and leaving the butts beside your shallow grave. He is Ivan Milat, the backpacker killer.

On December 29, 1989, Deborah Everist and James Gibson disappeared. They were Australians from Melbourne and enjoyed hanging out with the hippy element. They were backpacking around Australia, and hitched a ride with the wrong man.

In October 1993, a local man discovered a human skull and femur in a remote section of the forest. He returned with the police to the scene, and two bodies were discovered. They were identified as Deborah Everist and James Gibson. Their bodies were severely decomposed, and although their clothes were in horrible shape, Gibson’s zipper was intact. It was undone, however the top button of his pants was still fastened.

Further examination revealed that Gibson had been stabbed a total of eight times. A large knife cut through his upper spine, causing paralysis. There were stab wounds in his back and chest, and their placement indicate that his lungs and heart would have been punctured.
Everist was savagely beaten. Her jaw was broken, her skull fractured in two places, and she had knife marks in her forehead. She, too, had been stabbed in the back.

Gibson’s body in Belanglo puzzled investigators, as his backpack and camera had been previously located in the northern Sydney suburbs, over 120 kilometers (75 miles) to the north.

January 20, 1991, Simone Schmidl was hitch hiking south from Liverpool, just west of Sydney. Originally from Germany, Simone, “Simi”, was no stranger to traveling. But this time she hitched a ride with the wrong person. Her body was found on November 1, 1993, in the Belanglo State Forest. Her body was found partially dressed, with her shirt and bra pushed up around her neck, a pair of green shorts hung on her pelvis with the cord ties undone. She was found with several items of jewelry, two coins, and nearby was the clothing of another missing backpacker, Anja Habschied.

Her skeleton showed eight stab wounds, two of which severed her spine, and others which surely punctured her heart and lungs.

On December 26, 1991, Anja Habschied and her boyfriend Gabor Neugebauer left a backpacker hostel in Kings Cross, with the goal of traveling to Adelaide, and then on to Darwin. They were never seen alive again.

On November 3, 1993, their bodies were found in shallow graves, 50 meters (160 feet) apart. Neugebauer had been strangled, and his back showed numerous stab wounds to the left and right sides, front and back, including knife wounds to the spinal area, which had severed the spinal column completely. His pants were unzipped, but the top button was still fastened, just like James Gibson.

Habschied had been decapitated, and, despite an extensive search, her head was never found.

On Saturday April 18, 1992, Joanne Walters and Caroline Clarke were last seen in the inner Sydney suburb of Kings Cross. They were backpackers, meeting up for a tour around the South of the country. But they would never complete their trip. They caught a ride with the wrong man. The details behind their kidnapping and subsequent torture can only be told through the state of their remains.

September 19, 1992, two runners stumbled upon a decaying corpse while orienteering in the Belanglo State Forest. They contacted authorities, and the following day, police constables discovered a second body 30 meters (98 ft) away from the first. The bodies were identified as Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters.

Joanne’s body was found posed in a face-down position, with her hands behind her back and covered by a pyramidal frame of sticks and ferns. Her shirt and bra was pushed up around her shoulders and she was found with no underwear or pants. The condition of her remains made it difficult to know if she had been raped, however considering the state of her body, she was undoubtedly molested.

Her chest showed three stab wounds to the right side, one to the left and another in her neck. When her body was rolled over, an additional two wounds were found to the left side and another five on the right. She had two stab wounds in her spine at the base of her neck for a total of fourteen stab wounds. Five of her stab wounds had cut her spine, and based upon further examination, it was decided that this would have paralyzed her, leaving her completely helpless.

Two of her ribs had been completely severed and investigators were surprised to discover that neither her arms or hands showed any sign of defensive wounds, indicating that the killer had complete control over her as he tortured her. The size of the wounds led investigators to believe that the weapon was a Bowie knife, or similar style blade.

Caroline Clarke’s body was found with her arms stretched above her head with a red cloth tied around it. Bullet holes were visible in the decaying cloth, and once it was removed, a total of ten bullet holes were counted in her skull. There were only four exit wounds found, and four complete .22 calibre projectiles were recovered from inside her skull.

The front of her face and jaw were shattered, and a re-enactment at the scene revealed that the gunshot wounds were consistent with having been fired from three different directions. However, since all ten fired casings were found close together, investigators concluded that the killer must have moved her body into position, fired, then moved her again, as one would do for “target practice.” Caroline also had one single stab wound to the upper back, identical to her friend, Joanne’s.

Police combed the area thoroughly over the next five days, and when they found no further evidence or bodies, they ruled out the possibility of a serial killer, or further discoveries within the Belanglo State Forest. Although Joanne and Caroline were the last to go missing, their bodies were the first discovered, and carried with them the greatest amount of evidence.

Police developed a profile of the killer and applied link analysis technology to Roads and Traffic Authority vehicle records, gym memberships, gun licensing, and internal police records. As a result, the list of suspects was narrowed from a list of 230, to a list of 32, which included the killer. The icing on the cake was when the New South Wales police received a call from Paul Onions in the UK.

On January 25, 1990, Paul had been backpacking in Australia several years before and had accepted a ride out of Sydney from a man he knew as “Bill.” Bill pulled out some ropes and attempted to tie the tourist up, and then pulled a gun on him, at which point Paul was able to escape the vehicle. Onions flagged down Joanne Berry, a passing motorist and reported the assault to the police.

When questioned, Berry was able to backup Paul’s statement, as did the girlfriend of a man who worked with a Mr. Ivan Milat. She believed Milat should be questioned in the case.

Police learned that Milat had served prison time in 1971, and had also been charged with the abduction of two women, and the rape of one of them, although charges were later dropped. Police also learned that Milat worked on a road crew between Sydney and Melbourne with his brother Richard, and on the day of the Paul Onions attack, Ivan had not been at work.

Furthermore, Milat owned property in the vicinity of Belanglo, and had sold a Nissan Patrol four-wheel drive vehicle, shortly after the bodies of Clarke and Walters were discovered. Acquaintances informed police about his obsession with weapons. Paul flew to Australia to assist with the investigation, and on May 5, 1994, he positively identified Milat as the man who had picked him up and attempted to tie up and possibly kill him.
But why did he do it?

Ivan Milat was child number 5, of 14 children raised by an alcoholic and abusive father. The children stayed close to home, and the youngest, Boris, even moved his girlfriend Margaret and their girls up to the property as well.

But it didn’t take long for Margaret to take up with Ivan, and have an affair. Learning of this, Boris demanded Margaret break things off with Ivan, or he would leave her and take their girls. Margaret, not wanting to give her daughters up, broke it off with Ivan.

Boris and Margaret moved away from the family property, and were soon married. News of their marriage left Ivan distraught, and it wasn’t long before he picked up hitchhiker, Paul Onions, intent to take his frustrations out on a human.

Milat was arrested on May 22, 1994 at his home. The search of his home revealed a cache of weapons, including parts of a .22 calibre rifle that matched the type used in the murders. Investigators also discovered clothing, camping equipment, cameras and other personal effects that had belonged to the seven victims, many of which were stuffed into cavities in the walls.

They also uncovered other items, or “trophies,” belonging to the victims. A water bottle, belonging to Simone Schmidl, in addition to her tent and other camping supplies.

A shirt, belonging to Paul Onions, was found in a box in Milat’s mother’s garage.

Leashes, gags and homemade handcuffs were also found.

Investigators recovered several photos as well. This one is a picture of victim Caroline Clark wearing a Benetton shirt, and a picture of Milat’s girlfriend, Chalinder Hughes, wearing the same shirt in Sydney, which was gifted to her by Milat.

Search of Milat’s car, produced the murder weapon.

On July 27, 1996, Milat was found guilty of the murders and was also convicted of the attempted murder, false imprisonment and robbery of Paul Onions, for which he received six years jail time each. For the murders of Caroline Clarke, Joanne Walters, Simone Schmidl, Anja Habschied, Gabor Neugebauer, James Gibson and Deborah Everist, he was given a life sentence for each one, all sentences running consecutively, without the possibility of parole.

Ivan Milat died in his prison cell early Sunday October 27, 2019. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in May, and was given only three months to live. Despite spending time in Prince of Wales Hospital, and receiving chemotherapy, his health failed.

During his last days, investigators tried to get him to confess to the murder of 6 more victims, but he maintained his innocence regarding all the murders, even the ones he was convicted of. “There’s no evidence, no police evidence or whatever, and I argue that and the judiciary, they just cover it up, saying ‘nah, nah, nah, the Crown didn’t have to prove that,” he said. “You could bore me eyes out with a blowtorch and I still could not tell you one word about any of them missing people in that Newcastle area,”

“Whether you believe me or not, that’s up to youse. I don’t count, immaterial to me. But I know in my heart, in front of God or wherever, I’m quite, quite happy when I say this,” he said.

While Ivan Milat was known to have used a victim for target practice at least once, here’s a guy who used his victims for hunting practice. Robert Hansen: Hunting for Humans.