The Crime Web: The Backpacker Murders

On September 19, 1992 a bush walker, hiking through the Belanglo State forest stumbled across the remains of a young woman in a shallow grave, it was obvious that she had suffered multiple stab wounds in a frenzied attack. The discovery shocked the residents Of nearby Berrima. The search was now on. Police identified the corpse as that of Joanne Lesley Walters of England who went missing while backpacking along the Hume Highway with friend, Caroline Clarke. So what had happened to Caroline? It wasn't long until police knew the answer to that question. The following clay police found the remains of Caroline. She was only a few metres from where Joanne had met her brutal fate. She had been shot over ten times through her head. The discovery of the two bodies would only scratch the surface of a more cruel and sinister plot of death and destruction.

Thirteen months after the discovery of Joanne and Caroline, police uncovered the bodies of Deborah Everist and James Gibson who were found in similar circumstances, parts of the skeletal remains of Deborah were found in two shallow graves, she had been stabbed, and her jaw and skull fractured, James had more serious blows with stab wounds shattering his bones. Then one after the other the remains of Simone Schmidl, Gabor Neugebauer and Anja Habschied were found. All in shallow graves, all with sickening injuries. Simone had been cowardly stabbed in the back a number of times. Six bullets shattered the skull of Gabor and if that wasn't enough he was also strangled as if to finish him off. The most horrific injuries were those inflicted on Anja. She had her head severed from her body in one bloody strike. Also the stabbing blows to her body were so fierce that she, like James, had chips knocked out of her bones with each strike. The murders had caused such an outcry that a murderer had to found and fast.

Ivan Milat was arrested on charges of armed robbery and possession of firearms. Though police refused to say whether they had a suspect for the ".Backpacker Murders" (as they were to be known as), the media knew that something was important about Ivan Milat. Within a few days Ivan Milat was charged with the seven brutal murders and one attempted murder of British backpacker known as "A" or as later revealed Mr Paul Onions.

On December 27th 1944, Ivan Robert Marko Milat was born to his Croatian born father Stephen and his Australian born mother, Margaret. He was the fourth child in a extremely large family of fourteen. The family nicknamed the young boy Mac, though none of them can actually remember when the name originated. The family lived in a small suburban three bedroom yellow weatherboard house in Guildford. Out of the ten boys most of them including Ivan went to Patrician Brothers High School in the Southwestern Sydney area of Liverpool. The younger members of the family attended the local schools in Guildford.

While at school Ivan played football, but with school politics you either perform to a high standard or you got your butt kicked for not pulling your weight. School was a sort of stoicism environment, which obviously helped build the character of the boys. Most of the Milat boys did not stay at school for very long. Stephen worked seven days a week yet it still was not enough to feed the family of sixteen. The choice of the Milat boys was either go out and get a job and help with the bills and board or get out and fend for yourself. Therefore Ivan left school at the age of 15. He went to work in the field of road and construction work, he did the odd jobs of digging foundations here and helping out there. He had jobs all over Sydney.

Ivan's father, according to Wally (Walter) was strict but fair. If any of the children got into strife, he would whack them to the ground . He would ensure that rules were laid down up front. But often the problem was over with, that was the end of it . It would never be brought up in conflict again. Ivan, like his brothers got on well with his father, but with such a large family and most of the children working there wasn't really much time to get yourself into trouble. Ivan was a devoted son, who always paid his share of the board and kept the weatherboard house neat and tidy. Ivan also took special care of his younger brother David, who at a young age lost his arm and suffered irreparable brain damage in a car accident. He looked after his parents as well whenever he was home. Wally remembers how the other members of the family would get up late on a Sunday and just hang around, but Ivan Milat would get up early and mow the lawn, for his father.

Ivan Milat got a job with the DMR (known now as the RTA) at the Central Asphalt, at Granville, he even got his brother Wally a job there. Ivan's employers were so impressed by his work that he was made the leading hand. He worked on the construction gang for about fifteen years until all of the employees were retrenched. Ivan, due to his extensive experience was quickly hired by Readymix, which at the point of his arrest he was still an employee of the company.

Ivan met 'his future wife in the late seventies. They married and bought a house in the western suburb of Mount Druitt. They were divorced later on during the early to mid eighties, but since the divorce Milat has a had a few relationships, though nothing serious, but he always had a girlfriend. A few years ago he met one lady that he has been with ever since. It seems to be more serious relationship than any of the previous girlfriends he had, after the divorce to Karen.

Milat was a impeccably neat person. Neighbours interviewed by the press could not believe what had happened. They described Ivan as someone who got on well with the children in Cinnabar Street, even letting them ride his minibike and go-kart. He was always washing his car and attending to his perfectly manicured lawn.

Ivan Milat was a devoted child who took care of his parents as best he could. Ivan's father, Stephen, who was twenty years his wife's senior died over thirteen years ago at the age of eighty-six. the family had watched him suffer the turmoil of bowel cancer which saw him undergo several operations. During the last operation Stephen underwent he contracted pneumonia which was his demise. Ivan looked after his mother as much as he could after his father's death. It also included buying her a new refrigerator a few months ago when hers broke down.

Ivan Milat may seem to this point a rather devoted brother and son but there are a few tarnishes which the public picked up rather quickly. In 1971 Milat was brought up on charges of raping a young backpacker. When released on bail Milat fled to New Zealand to resist being charged. He was rearrested in 1974 when he arrived back in Australia. Crown Prosecutor Lloyd agreed with the ctofOtiee that the charges had been dropped, however the fact that he had jumped bail does suggest a form guilt. Previous to the rape charge Milat had criminal convictions prior to 1968

Deborah's body was very much a skeleton when it was discovered on October 5th, 1993, three and a half years after her death. This made it very hard for scientist to obtain accurate information on the exact cause of death, or in this case what injury caused her death. She had suffered at least one stab wound, though it was evident that there were several "slicing" injuries detected on Deborah's upper skeleton. But due to the advance state of decay, test were unable to determine if Deborah suffered more fatal stab wounds. Her skull had been fractured, this may have been afflicted after her death, but it has not been determined. Her jaw was also broken, this could have been inflicted by her killer punching her until she was unconscious, this would make it easier for him to kill. Both Deborah and James were found in shallow graves in the Belanglo State forest. They were covered only with leaf and stick debris.

Due to the time lapse between his murder and the discovery of James' body a lot of crucial evidence had decayed or been lost. However James' skeleton did provide detectives with the modus of which James was slaughtered. The autopsy indicated that James had suffered multiple stab wounds. Most of James' sickening wounds were in his

chest and upper back. The ferocity of the blows had left some of James' bones severed clean in half, other signs on his decayed skeleton of the attack were chip marks left by the swipe of the murderers' knife. It was obvious that it was the work of a madman, however what people didn't know was that as more bodies were found it was evident that the murderer was getting a "taste" for it so to speak. One of the victims was to be decapitated, two were said to have been sexually assaulted. The black floppy hat that James was wearing in the publicity photo spread all over the media was found near his murder site. It was the clincher that helped his parents to identify him as one of the two skeleton found that day.

Simone's pitiful remains were an all too familiar calling card of the Backpacker murders, she, like many of the other victims, had suffered multiple stab wounds to her upper back. A cowardice act, in any terms. Like the others she was found in a shallow grave in Belanglo State forest, she was also covered with stick and leaf debris. Her body was discovered on November 1st, 1993, after her disappearance in January, 1991.The time delay between her body being discovered and her death means that a lot of the evidence which would help convict someone of the crimes, had deteriorated. Three days later two more bodies were found taking the death toll to seven.

Gabor and his travelling companion girlfriend Anja Habschied were found propped up against trees in Belanglo State forest on November 4th, 1993. This seems to suggest that Milat (like many serial killers) wanted to be caught, he was becoming good at his "work" and though he had for years eluded police it is as though the two German backpackers were left uncovered and in a sitting position against fallen logs in the forest as a sort of tease for police,' Milat was becoming cocky, yet still careful enough to conceal the bodies for nearly two years. Gabor had been shot six times in the head, three shots to the left side of his skull and three shots to the rear base of the skull. Forensic evidence also suggest that Gabor was strangled, maybe as a sadistic last effort to kill him, even though the six shots alone would have been more than sufficient. Inside Gabor's mouth was a rag. He also had a piece of cloth tied around his face as a gag. Obviously there was a struggled between the 21 year old and his attacker. The gun used to kill Gabor was identified as Ruger 10/22. Pieces of a Ruger 10/22 and a homemade silencer were found in a wall cavity at Ivan Milat's house.

murderer's modus operandi for death was by shooting and stabbing (though there is also evidence that he strangled at least one of his victims). With the common cause of death, police were able to link all six victims to the same person or persons, however the murder of Anja Habschied was a far cry from the wounds inflicted on the other "Backpacker" victims. Anja had had her head severed from her body in one violent blow. It sicken forensic scientists to know that it would have taken great force to do such horrific damage in the one strike. Anja's headless body was also missing it's lower half of clothing, this evidence does suggest that she too may have been sexually assaulted but unfortunately due to the time lapse of almost a two years between her murder and the discovery of her body there is not enough evidence for forensics to be one hundred percent sure. Some clothing was found later the same afternoon, it was believed to belong to Anja and Gabor though it had almost completely decayed into the forest floor it is difficult for police to be absolutely certain. At the time of writing Anja's head has not been found, police believe an animal had probably carried it off.

Joanne was the first of the murdered backpackers found (September 19th, 1992). She was found in a shallow grave in Belanglo State forest, she was only partly covered with debris. Like the murder of Gabor Neugebauer, Joanne had been gagged; and for some unknown reason she had two more pieces of cloth covering her face. Joanne had suffered multiple stab wounds to the upper half of her body, both to her chest and back. Police are certain that Joanne was sexually assaulted .

shots entered her head on the right hand side through the red sweatshirt which covered her head. Two more shots entered the left side towards the back of her skull, and three shots entered at the base of her skull at the rear. The last two shots were the worst of all, they entered her skull through her forehead. If the ten horrible gun shots weren't enough she was also stabbed in the lower back. There is enough evidence to support the thought that Caroline was also sexually molested.

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Original Written: May-December 1994