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[00:00:02]

Due to the graphic nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised this episode contains discussions of murder and sexual assault that some listeners may find disturbing. Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13.

[00:00:23]

On the afternoon of January 25th, 1990, Joanne Berry and her sister were driving along the Hume Highway. It was a mini road trip from the town of Mittagong to Canberra in the back of the van where the sisters, five children, Joanne, listen to the kids chattering away, but kept her eyes firmly on the road. It's a good thing she did because up ahead, Joanne noticed the other cars slowing down. Perhaps there was an accident the drivers wanted a better look at.

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But just as she crested a small rise in the highway, Joanne saw what had caught everyone's attention to. Figures were on the side of the road, a short distance away from an abandoned jeep, its doors wide open. Before Joanne had enough time to even wonder what was going on. One of the figures, a young blond man, sprinted into the speeding traffic and planted himself right in front of her car.

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Joanne had no choice but to slam on the brakes. She brought her van to a screeching halt in front of the young man who sprinted to the car, sliding door and pulled it open. He threw himself in the back with the kids and in a heavy British accent said, Help me, he's got a gun.

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Joanne and her sister looked back at the road and saw the other man standing a short distance away. He had dark hair and a distinctive mustache. He clutched a pistol in one hand and wore a grim smirk as he stared at the unmoving van.

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Joanne didn't have much time to think. She had to get her family and this frightened man away from here as fast as she could.

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She threw the van into gear and pulled across the highway as she listened to the frantic breathing of the man sitting on the floor behind her. Joanne had to wonder what on earth just happened, who was the man she was rescuing and who did she just rescue him from?

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Hi, I'm Greg Polson.

[00:02:32]

This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from podcast. Every episode we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're taking a look at Australia's infamous backpacker murders. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson.

[00:02:48]

Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other originals from podcast for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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The backpacker murders captivated Australia throughout the 1990s. And even though the case was eventually closed, lingering questions remain, as does the haunting fear the murders inspired. Today, we're following the discovery of a number of bodies deep inside the Belanglo State Forest, the national panic they inspired, and the frantic search for a killer.

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Next time, we'll dive deep into the life of the investigation's prime suspect and the lengthy trial that captivated an entire country. We've got all that and more coming up.

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Stay with us. About 85 miles south of Sydney lies the Belanglo State Forest, a mixture of native forest and pine plantings make the area hybrid creation of man made and natural beauty. But despite the picturesque landscape, many Australians think of Belanglo as a place of terror.

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Something out of a horror film like urban legends that ripple through entire communities. The disquiet brought on by mention of Belanglo has roots in the truth.

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Over time, rumours and embellishments often turn history into folklore easily dismissed and just as easily forgotten. But there are some stories that need no embellishment where the stories are all horrifically nightmarishly true.

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And what happened in Belanglo is just like that.

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Before September of 1992, the forest was a great escape for locals looking for a place to explore a slightly tamer side of the Australian wilderness.

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But on the morning of September 19th, everything changed. A pair of friends were trekking through the bush when something caught their attention. A foul stench wafted to the two men through the trees, morbid curiosity overtook them, and they followed their noses to a rocky overhang there, covered by detritus from the forest floor. They saw a bone, a boot and scraps of clothing, the unmistakable remains of a human body.

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The men alerted local police to the discovery, bringing crime scene investigators into the forest when the police arrived, they got a closer look at the decomposed remains and could see quite clearly that she died violently.

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She had been stabbed at least 14 times to the neck, chest and back, and Igorot was found close by.

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The initial review of the scene lasted well into the evening.

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And when police returned the next morning, they made another startling find about 100 feet away from the first body covered by branches and leaves was a second body.

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It was immediately clear that, like the first, this woman was also a murder victim. She had been shot 10 times in the head from different angles, almost as if she'd been used for target practice. Bullets and cartridge cases onto the second crime scene suggested the killer used a Ruger rifle. There was also a red cloth wrapped around her head, perhaps to act as a blindfold before she died.

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Once detectives and forensics experts had mined the scene for evidence, the bodies were moved to a Sydney morgue there. A more thorough examination revealed that both women were likely sexually assaulted.

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Crucially, they were also identified. The first body was 22 year old Joanne Walters, and the second was Caroline Clark, age 21. Both women were British tourist who had been traveling together when they were reported missing. They were two of six international tourists who had all gone missing in broadly similar circumstances at different times over the past several years.

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All of the missing tourists had last been seen in Sydney and most, if not all, were known to hitchhike.

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Vanessa's is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode, please note Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show.

[00:07:18]

Thanks, Greg. Hitchhiking is a puzzling act of implicit trust between strangers, despite the danger of placing your trust in someone you don't know. Some people choose to do this anyway. Evidence suggests that most people trust strangers out of obligation to societal norms. In short, we trust strangers even when we don't have a good reason because we're conditioned to believe it's the right thing to do. Not trusting others can induce feelings of guilt or anxiety. So it's better to believe the best in people.

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Social psychologist Roderick M. Kramer of Stanford University states that the tendency to trust made sense in our evolutionary history. Humans are naturally a social species, and to be social is to trust others. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out.

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This trust of strangers, combined with the need to travel frugally, were likely factors that encourage tourists to hitchhike in the late 80s and early 90s.

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Because Australia is a sprawling country, it's expensive to travel around, making the benefits of hitching seem greater than the slim chance of danger. Both Joanne Walters and Caroline Clark had successfully hitched long distances before. So when they set out from Sydney to the town of Mildura over 10 hours away, it would have made sense to hitch a ride. Unfortunately, the calculated risk didn't work out. Someone had cut their trip horribly short. But it wasn't clear why investigators struggled to zero in on a clear motive for the brutal murders, though their backpacks and tents were gone.

[00:08:59]

Both Joanne and Caroline were still wearing some jewellery when their bodies were discovered so rubbery, though a possibility didn't seem the likeliest motive.

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That said, detectives suspected that the missing backpacks might be key to solving the murders. If the murders weren't motivated by financial gain, then at least some of the stolen items were likely being kept by the killer or killers as trophies. Something to remember their victims by. If they could find the missing backpacks, they might just find their killer.

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But hopeful for more clues, investigators returned to Belanglo to perform a more exhaustive search for seven days. A team of around 40 police officers searched a large area directly around the crime scene, as well as along the nearby fire trail. But their search came up empty.

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As the investigation stalled, media attention increased. People had followed the news of the missing backpackers and now that two were confirmed dead. Interest in the other disappearances flared, but there was still no sign of the other tourists. So police focused on the bodies they had.

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Hoping to shed light on the murders, police brought in forensic psychologist Dr Rod Milton, drawing on his experience.

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Working big cases, Milton put together a loose profile of the killer. He suggested that the culprit was familiar with the Belanglo State Forest and likely had at least one accomplice.

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Interestingly, Milton theorized that the pair of killers might be brothers if they were. It seemed to him that the older brother was the more dominant one. It was also likely that the killer belonged to a gun club, enjoyed hunting and lived locally.

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Perhaps most chillingly, Milton's profile suggested that the killer like to be in control and took pleasure in the murders. Unfortunately, even with this insight, police were no closer to catching Joanne and Caroline's killer.

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As 1992 drew to a close, it seemed that without a big break in the case, the investigation would go cold, hoping to encourage the public to help the effort. The New South Wales state government offered a 100000 dollar reward for information leading to a conviction.

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But even that didn't help, the new year came and went and the families of Joanne and Caroline were left without answers. Meanwhile, the loved ones of the missing backpackers waited anxiously, hoping to hear good news, but expecting the worst.

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And while police seem to hope evidence would come to them, not everyone was convinced the murders would be solved that way. Many suspected that more dead bodies would be found in Belanglo before police would find who was responsible. So Bruce Pryor, a Potter familiar with the Belanglo Forest, took it upon himself to scour the area on October 5th, 1993. Bruce drove into the forest and got to searching as he had several times over the past year. This time, however, was different.

[00:12:18]

Within minutes of leaving his car, he came across what looked like a bone. Moments later, he spotted what was unmistakably a human skull. It seemed the Belanglo State Forest wasn't done giving up its secrets just yet and given its size, it was anyone's guess how many more bodies lay hidden in the scrub. Coming up, the search for a serial killer begins by listeners, it's Graig. When it comes to true crime, it doesn't get much better than the hit podcast Unsolved Murders.

[00:13:00]

If you're a fan of our show, you'll love this series.

[00:13:03]

Every Tuesday on unsolved murders, join co-host Wendy and Carter, as well as an ensemble cast of voice actors on an entertaining journey through the crime scene and ensuing investigation of a real life cold case park. Dramatic podcast, part old time radio show. The Spotify original theme podcast is a modern whodunit filled with major suspense and a whole lot of plot twists. While each murder technically remains unsolved at the end of each case, to get a thorough explanation of who the most likely culprit is and their motivation.

[00:13:38]

Some recent episodes include the atrocities of the Atlanta Ripper and the untimely demise of Cleopatra and the suspects and suspicions surrounding the Burger Chef murders. Trust me, the series is a must listen. Follow unsolved murders free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:14:01]

Hi, listeners, it's Greg. When it comes to true crime, it doesn't get much better than the hit podcast Unsolved Murders.

[00:14:08]

If you're a fan of our show, you'll love this series.

[00:14:11]

Every Tuesday on unsolved murders, join co-host Wendy and Carter, as well as an ensemble cast, a voice actors on an entertaining journey through the crime scene and ensuing investigation of a Real-Life Cold Case Park dramatic podcast, part old time radio show.

[00:14:29]

The Spotify original theme podcast is a modern whodunit filled with major suspense and a whole lot of plot twists. While each murder technically remains unsolved at the end of each case to get a thorough explanation of who the most likely culprit is and their motivation. Some recent episodes include the atrocities of the Atlanta Ripper and the untimely demise of Cleopatra and the suspects and suspicions surrounding the Burger Chef murders. Trust me, the series is a must listen. Follow unsolved murders free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:15:08]

Now back to the story. In October of 1993, Bruce Pryor found a human skull in the Belanglo State Forest about an hour and a half south of Sydney, Australia.

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He quickly alerted police to his find and investigators arrived on site with Bruce's help.

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Police found the skeletal remains of a woman partially covered by debris from the forest floor. It was clear that the woman died violently with multiple signs of stabbing and bone fractures not far from the bones.

[00:15:44]

Investigators found several lengths of electrical tape, presumably used to restrain the victim before she died, then about 65 feet away from the body.

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Police found another victim, this time a male. Like the others, he was hidden by forest debris. But once that was removed, his bones revealed clear signs of stab wounds to the chest and back, though the M.O. varied somewhat. It seemed clear to everyone that these were two more victims of the same killer or killers who murdered Joanne Walters and Caroline Clarke, expanding the scope of their search.

[00:16:23]

Investigators found more clues. About a quarter mile away, a tree stood with nine bullets embedded in its trunk. It was a puzzling find, given that neither of the two recent victims were shot. But it seemed to lend credibility to forensic psychologist Dr Rod Milton suspicion that the killer was a keen hunter who belonged to a gun club.

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While investigators looked into every lead, the media had a field day. The discovery of these two new bodies brought the total number of corpses found in the forest to four and confirmed everyone's worst fear. There was a serial killer in their midst.

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Newspaper headlines announced that there was a serial killer at large in New South Wales and accused police of botching the investigation into the deaths of Joanne Walters and Caroline Clarke. How many more bodies were hidden in Belanglo? Journalists asked. It was a question police were desperate to answer. Their determination was perhaps matched only by that of reporters desperate for a scoop.

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According to Clive Small and Tom Gilling, in their book about the backpacker murders, the media were clamoring for interviews with investigating detectives, pictures of the crime scenes, and some even wanted to carry out their own search of the forest.

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Perhaps most of all, they wanted to know the identity of the recent victims. After careful examination, police announced that the bodies were those of 19 year old Australians, Deborah Everist and James Gibson. Both had gone missing in December of 1989 when they went on a backpacking trip that was supposed to take them from a friend's home in Sydney, back south to Victoria for a conservation festival after they visited friends in the city.

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The pair planned to catch a train to the suburb of Liverpool, then hitchhike the rest of the way about a five hour drive. But like Joanne and Caroline, Deborah and James never reached their destination. When Deborah and James's bodies were discovered, Detective Clive Small was placed in charge of the investigation. He quickly formed a task force ER and got to work. Their first priority was a thorough search of the forest to make sure no more bodies were missed.

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So throughout October of 1993, a large scale search was mounted.

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The plan was to scour almost 50 miles of trails and tracks, as well as up to 500 feet on either side of the trails.

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It was an exhaustive search and would take weeks.

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Meanwhile, working with information from Dr Milton's profile, detectives visited the Belanglo Gun Club in mid-October to ask if anyone had seen anything suspicious.

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In particular, they'd received a tip that they should speak to a man named Alex Milat. So after finding him at the club, detectives invited the 52 year old for a formal interview.

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When Alex showed up, he had an overwhelming amount of information to share surprising detectives. In fact, he believed he might have seen the killer's first hand. He told investigators about two suspicious cars he saw driving through the forest in April of 1992, though he could have only seen the cars in question for mere seconds.

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Alex recalled a lot of specific details.

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He said that the first car that passed contained four men, one of whom was visibly armed with a shotgun. There was a woman in the backseat who was bound and gagged. According to Alex, the woman looked scared and was possibly trying to get his attention. The second car carried three men, as well as a second bound and gagged woman.

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Despite this disturbing sight, Alex made no effort to report the incident to police. At the time, when detectives asked him why, he explained that he thought the men who looked to be in their mid 20s were probably just having fun with a couple of girlfriends, that they were on an expedition to find a place to have sex in the forest.

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When detectives showed Alex photographs of Joanne Walters and Caroline Clark, he identified them as the women he saw in the cars that day. Not only that, he told police that he'd seen the two cars at least twice before that.

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And the men inside were usually armed with guns, including a Winchester and a Ruger.

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It was perhaps surprising that he singled out the Ruger brand, given that those were the guns identified as the ones used in Caroline's murder.

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The detectives who spoke to Alex were somewhat confused by the story, the level of detail he provided down to the roughness of the driver's hands seemed unbelievable. So they wondered whether he was lying and if so, was he trying to protect himself or someone he knew?

[00:21:25]

A member of the public came forward to offer an answer to that question. Soon after, a woman reported that her husband's colleague had made some strange comments over the last 18 months when news of several missing backpackers was first making the rounds, Paul Thomas Miller said, I know who killed the Germans. It's possible he was referring to a German couple and you have shade and keyboard neugebauer who hadn't been seen since January 1992 by itself. The comment was troubling, but easily dismissed as the remark of a man seeking attention.

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But when the bodies of Joanne and Caroline were discovered, Miller made a point of announcing there is more bodies out there. They haven't found them all yet.

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And in another conversation about the conviction of a rapist, Miller said stabbing a woman is like cutting a loaf of bread all put together.

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The remarks were unsettling, but there were several other pieces of the puzzle that made Miller suspicious to his colleagues. For starters, there was how often he seemed to change his appearance, particularly his facial hair.

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Sometimes he grew out his sideburns to reach down to his beard. Sometimes he kept his mustache neatly trimmed above his upper lip, and other times he let it grow out in a handlebar style similar to the famous Australian cricketer Merv Hughes.

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Miller's colleagues also knew that he had another name and that gave them pause, though he went by Paul at work. His real name was Richard Mellat, brother of Alex. Once again, a tip brought police to the same local family.

[00:23:12]

The ballots were a large family and several of the brothers had criminal records, which concerned investigators, but it seemed that heavy suspicion and unsettling remarks weren't enough on their own to make detectives zeroed in on Richard or Alex Milat. However, the ballots were most definitely people of interest.

[00:23:32]

Still, the Milat family weren't the only people task force ever heard about. A hotline had been set up and members of the public called every day to report suspicions or theories. Calls poured in throughout October and two in particular told the same story from 1977 informer Detective Clive Small's account. He refers to the callers as Mary and Terrys to protect their identities. So we'll do the same. At the age of 18, the two friends were hitchhiking from Liverpool in Sydney's west, back home to Canberra a couple of hours drive away.

[00:24:11]

They were picked up by a man with straggly black hair who looked to be in his early 30s just outside of the town of Mittagong. The driver turned off the freeway to Canberra and onto the Hume Highway, a road that took them closer to the Belanglo State Forest. He then stopped the car on a dirt road and got out, making a flimsy excuse that he forgot to use the bathroom at the last gas station. The ruse only lasted a few moments as he quickly opened Merry's door and tried to pull her out of the car.

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As he dragged her out, he growled, OK, girls whose first Mary struggled free of his grip punched him. And then she and Taris ran into the nearby scrub.

[00:24:56]

They found a place to hide, lying down under some bushes, remaining as still as possible while their attacker searched for them. They lay there for hours until the man gave up and drove away when they were sure he was gone. The two friends emerged and walked along the quiet road until they found a farmhouse inside the home. The family listened to their story and offered to take them to the police station to report the incident. But for some reason, Marion and turned down that offer.

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Maybe they were too frightened to go to the police or were embarrassed about the incident. Then again, maybe they were just eager to put the whole thing behind them and get home. They asked for a ride back to the highway where they resumed their hitchhiking journey to Canberra. It might seem unusual that Mary and Teresa declined to go to police about the incident, but it's possible they felt too ashamed, even though, according to them, they escaped before their attacker could sexually assault them.

[00:25:56]

The fact that they were in the situation at all might have felt like their own fault. Criminologist Dr. Karen Weiss explores the shame sexual assault survivors feel following an attack. Tellingly, Weiss points out that cultural assumptions dictate how, quote, good girls behave and also condemn the behavior of, quote, bad girls. It's possible that Mary and Terris had been warned against hitchhiking, and so when it turned violent, they assumed it was their own fault or that authorities would blame them for their risky behavior.

[00:26:31]

But clearly, the attack was traumatic enough to stay fresh in the minds of both women. So much so that some 20 years later they at last came forward after both women independently called the hotline.

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They were each shown photo lineups and asked if any of the men looked like their attacker. Terry singled out two photos of Milat brothers, Richard and Ivan, saying they looked familiar to her. It wasn't enough to make a positive I.D., but it was one more mark against the Milat name. Back in the forest, the search for more bodies continued working in teams of 40, around 300 officers searched in single file using cadaver dogs, metal detectors and even six to cover as much ground as possible.

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After a few weeks, their meticulous methods paid off.

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On November 1st, 1993, the skull and skeletal torso of a woman was spotted under a pile of sticks and leaves. Some clothing, jewelry and backpacking supplies were found near the body, but no backpack was found. The search team also discovered a length of pliable wire twisted into the shape of a noose possibly used to restrain the woman before she died.

[00:27:53]

Searchers were fairly confident they'd found another victim of their serial killer.

[00:27:57]

And when the body was examined closely, investigators were certain the forensic exam revealed multiple stab wounds to the woman's chest and back, which was likely how she died. Eventually, the body was identified as that of 21 year old German tourist Simon Schmidle. The last time anyone saw Simon alive in January of 1991, she was leaving Sydney to catch a bus to Liverpool. From there, she planned to hitchhike the nine hour drive to Melbourne, where she was supposed to meet her mother at the airport, but she never showed up.

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Now, almost two years later, her family didn't need to wonder anymore. They had an answer about what happened to Simon, or at least part of it. The final piece of the puzzle was still a mystery. Just who killed Simon as task force air raced to answer that question.

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The search for more bodies continued. Belanglo Forest still had more to reveal. Coming up, the phone calls that cracked the case open at last. Now back to the story.

[00:29:18]

On November 1st, 1993, search teams discovered the skeletal remains of 21 year old German tourist Seimone Schmidle in Australia's Belanglo State Forest. Simon was the fifth victim of an unknown serial killer who had hidden bodies in the forest south of Sydney.

[00:29:38]

So far, all of the victims were known to hitchhike and had disappeared between 1989 and 1992, sometime after they left the suburb of Liverpool in Sydney's west. Unfortunately, there were still more tourists known to be missing. So the search of Belanglo Forest continued on November 4th, just days after Simon was found, searchers came across a brown leather sandal lying on the forest floor.

[00:30:06]

A short distance from the discarded shoe, buried under sticks and leaves like the other bodies lay, another skeleton nearby was a length of rope about 14 feet long, with loops tied at either end, suggesting the victim was restrained. Looking at her bones, it was clear that the woman had been stabbed and slashed. So brutal was the attack that her spinal cord was severed.

[00:30:33]

Like the other victims, the clothes and jewelry the woman wore when she died were found close to the body. But there was something different this time. There was no sign of the woman's skull. This made it more difficult to identify the victim. But thanks to the few belongings nearby, investigators ascertained it was 20 year old German backpacker Anya Happe.

[00:30:53]

She'd Anya and her boyfriend, 21 year old Gabor Neugebauer, had been reported missing in January of 1992 when they'd failed to return home to Germany as scheduled since the pair went missing together. Police believed Gabor's body might be somewhere nearby.

[00:31:13]

They were right about one hundred sixty five feet from where Anna's skeleton lay. They found Gábor when the bones are pulled from under the concealing detritus, investigators found six bullet holes in the skull.

[00:31:26]

A piece of cloth had been used as a gag, while four bullets remained inside the head and another in the chest not far from Gabor's body.

[00:31:35]

Airline tickets in his name were uncovered, protected by a plastic bag a little further into the forest.

[00:31:42]

They found traveler's checks and student IDs, suggesting the killer took no care to disguise their victims identities.

[00:31:51]

The sprawling crime revealed more clues than any. So far, near the checks and IDs, searchers found a zip tie, a length of black electrical tape with wrist size loops on either end, a leash and a length of cord. Given how far the evidence was from the bodies, it seemed to suggest that the victims were moved either before or after they died, and it hinted at the horror they faced in their final moments.

[00:32:18]

As far as we can tell, what those final moments were like is a mystery, though it seems likely that forensics experts would have at least a rough idea based on the injuries. There doesn't seem to be an official version of events. It's possible that few specifics have been given in an effort to lessen the horror surrounding the case. Unfortunately, it's uncertainty that sometimes leads to the worst kinds of fears. But by now, investigators had at least a clearer picture of the killer's methods.

[00:32:50]

They suspected that the killings were well planned. And given the state of the crime scenes, it seemed the killer was spending more time committing the murders themselves.

[00:32:59]

There was also speculation that the murders were increasingly ritualistic, though, as we noted, there's little information about what led to those suspicions.

[00:33:08]

And so, despite an alarming number of victims and plentiful evidence, police were still struggling to figure out exactly what happened in the forest without a suspect in custody.

[00:33:22]

Investigators believe there was no way to know for certain what happened to the seven murdered backpackers, at least not at first. As the search of the Belanglo State Forest continued through November of 1993, a call came in to the hotline and it would change everything.

[00:33:41]

On November 9th, a woman named Joanne Berry called to share a story from almost four years earlier in January of 1990. She and her sister were driving towards Canberra along the Hume Highway when a young man ran into the middle of the road and planted himself in front of her van. Alarmed, Joanne slammed on her brakes, and before she knew it, the man opened the back door and jumped in the back of the car. He told her there was a man chasing him with a gun and begged the man to drive.

[00:34:14]

Joanne didn't have to be told twice. She took a quick look at the man her new passenger pointed to standing by a jeep and threw the van into a U-turn. Then she drove to the nearest police station.

[00:34:28]

There she learned the name of the young man she just rescued. Paul Onions was 23 English and on a backpacking trip around Australia. A man called Bill had picked him up in the town of Mitiga. Bill, he noted, wore a handlebar mustache just like cricketer Merv Hughes. The pair drove for an hour or so before Bill pulled over and got out, producing a gun and a length of rope.

[00:34:53]

Paul froze for a second, then decided to run for it. He launched himself out of the car and tried to flag down passing cars. Some drivers slowed down to see Bill chasing Paul with a gun, but no one stopped. So when Bill started firing at him, Paul had decided that he needed to make a car stop and he chose Joanne Berry officers. A bar. A police station took down his story, including information about the possessions he left in Bill's car.

[00:35:25]

The report was then filed away while Paul and Joanne returned to their separate lives. But in 1993, when news of the bodies in Belanglo reached Joanne, she reached out. After all, she'd picked Paul up not too far from the forest and thought perhaps the incidents were related. It seems Paul had the same thought. News of the murders also made headlines in the UK, where Joanne Walters and Caroline Clark were from just two days after Joanne called the hotline.

[00:35:59]

Paul did, too. He corroborated her story, which baffled detectives because they couldn't find a record of his report anywhere. It seems it was lost.

[00:36:09]

At any rate, police had the story now and it was useful to them as they continued their investigation, especially as it so closely matched the story of friends Mary and Theresa told about their own 1977 hitchhike abduction.

[00:36:27]

While investigators looked into whether the abductions were the work of the same man, the search of the forest was winding down. It seemed there were no more bodies to be found in Belanglo, at least not yet.

[00:36:39]

Meanwhile, the Australian press was having a field day with the news. Seven bodies pulled out of the same forest and task force Air hadn't so much as announced a suspect list. Finally, they caved to pressure and acknowledged for the first time that they were hunting a serial killer or killers. Not that it was really news by then. And yet it was still shocking to hear about the search for a violent murderer. And it wasn't good for business. Many seemed worried that the murders would scare away international tourists.

[00:37:13]

This might have been what motivated the New South Wales government to increase their offered reward to 500000 dollars, the largest ever offered in Australia at the time for information leading to a conviction.

[00:37:26]

The sizable reward seemed to reflect the state of fear gripping New South Wales while the killer or killers remained at large. This fits with the results of a 2005 study by Matthew Ahly and Erika DeHart.

[00:37:40]

Their findings suggest that fear of crime in general increases when the public is aware of an active serial killer. Then, when the culprit is apprehended, anxiety about crime declines sharply. Unfortunately, the fear would last a little longer, and the longer the case dragged on, the more the mystery surrounding the murders captivated the nation. Belanglo was a place of horror now. And authorities were desperate to find those responsible for that particular loss of innocence.

[00:38:13]

They even offered a free pardon to any accomplices who didn't actually commit the murder. Turn the killer in and you'd be allowed to walk away. Unfortunately, it seemed no one knew who the killer was. At least no one who was willing to trade that information for half a million dollars. But people still called the hotline, and one woman made a call to alert police to a man who lived near her. She said she didn't know if it was any use to them, but this man was a little strange, drove a jeep and owned a lot of guns.

[00:38:48]

She didn't have anything else to offer other than that she was suspicious of him. His name was Milat, but it wasn't Richard and it wasn't Alex. This was Ivan. And like his brother Richard, he sometimes went by another name, the same one he gave to Paul Onions Bill. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with Part two when we'll meet Ivan Milat and the quest to bring him to justice.

[00:39:29]

For more information on the backpacker murders. Amongst the many sources we used, we found Milat inside Australia's biggest manhunt.

[00:39:38]

A detective story by Clive Small and Tom Gilling extremely helpful to our research.

[00:39:45]

You can find all episodes of serial killers and other originals from our cast for free on Spotify.

[00:39:51]

Will see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from podcast.

[00:39:59]

Executive producers include Max and Ron Cuddler Sound Design by Trent Williamson with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden and Aaron Larson. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Joel Kaplan with Fact Checking by Claire Cronin and research by Brian Peteris and Chelsea Wood. Serial Killers stars Greg Polson and Vanessa Richardson.