The Backpacker Murders took place in the Belanglo State Forest, New South Wales, Australia, between 1989 and 1993. They are commonly believed to have been committed by Ivan Milat. 7 bodies of young backpackers were discovered there near the town of Berrima. 5 of the victims were foreign backpackers (3 German, 2 British) and 2 were Australian. Milat was convicted in July 1996 and was sentenced to 7 consecutive life sentences followed by 8 years without parole. Milat died in prison in Australia on 27 October 2019. In previous decades, backpacking through Australia was common and considered to be a mostly safe means of travelling for free. However, thanks to several missing persons cases in the 1970s and ‘80s, backpackers began travelling in pairs. By the time the first bodies were found in Belanglo State Forest, several backpackers had disappeared. These disappearances included Deborah Everist, 19, and her boyfriend James Gibson, 19, travelling from Sydney for ConFest on 30 December 1989, along with Simone Schmidl, 21, a German traveller missing since 20 January 1991. There was German couple Gabor Neugebauer, 21, and Anja Habschied, 20, vanishing in December 1991, and finally, a pair of British friends, 22-year-old Joanne Walters and 21-year-old Caroline Clarke, were last seen on 18 April 1992, before vanishing near the forest.

A hidden body was found by two people orienteering in Belanglo on September 19, 1992. Police found a second body nearby the following day. Dental records confirmed the bodies to be those of Clarke and Walters. Walters had been stabbed over a dozen times in the chest, once in the neck and 9 times in the back – an injury which would have paralysed her. Clarke was shot 10 times in the head, police believing she was used for target practice. Following a search of the forest, investigators ruled out the idea of more bodies in the forest. 13 months later, in October 1993, a local man searching the forest for firewood found some bones in a secluded part of the forest. He alerted police and two bodies were found, later identified as Everist and Gibson. Gibson’s skeleton, curled in a foetal position, showed 8 stab wounds. A large knife had severed his upper spine, again causing paralysis, and stab wounds in his back would have punctured his heart and lungs. Everist was brutally beaten, with a fractured skull, a broken jaw and knife wounds on her forehead. She was stabbed once in the back. Finding Gibson’s body there was a surprise to investigators, as his camera was found on December 31, 1989, and his backpack on March 13, 1990, by Galston Gorge, 75 miles away. On November 1, 1993, a skeleton was discovered during a police sweep of the forest for unrelated reasons. The body was identified as that of Simone Schmidl, who had suffered at least 8 stab wounds – two had severed her spine and others would have punctured her heart and lungs. Clothing found near her body did not belong to her, but matched another missing backpacker, Anja Habschied. Her body, along with that of her boyfriend, Gabor Neugebauer, were found on a nearby fire trail on November 4, 1993, in shallow graves. Habschied had been decapitated and her skull was never found. Neugebauer had been shot in the head 6 times.

As a result of the discoveries, Task Force Air (containing over 20 detectives and analysts) was set up by the NSW Police on October 14, 1993. The following month the NSW government increased the reward for information on the killings to $500,000. Public warnings were given against hitchhiking along the Hume Highway. After creating a profile of the killer, the police faced a huge amount of data from hundreds of sources. Investigators used link analysis to review vehicle records, gym memberships, gun licenses and police records. Following this, the list of suspects was narrowed to a list of 230, before being whittled down to 32. All murders contained similar aspects – each body was dumped in remote bushland and covered with sticks and ferns. Forensics showed that each victim had suffered multiple stab wounds to the torso and many showed signs of sexual assault. The killer, believed to be a local with a 4-wheel-drive, had obviously restrained and spent lots of time with the victims both during and after the murders, as campsites were found near the location of each body. Matching bullets, shell casings and cartridge boxes from 2 different weapons also linked the scenes. It was speculated that this could be the work of several killers, since most victims were attacked in pairs, were killed in different ways and were buried separately. On November 13, 1993, Paul Onions, 24, called police from the UK. He told a very interesting story… on January 25, 1990, he was backpacking in Australia and whilst hitchhiking from Liverpool station to Mildura, accepted a ride from a man he knew as “Bill”. Less than 1km from Belanglo State Forest, “Bill” stopped and pulled out a revolver and ropes, telling Onions it was a robbery. Onions managed to escape while the assailant followed and attempted to shoot him. Onions managed to flag down passing motorist Joanne Berry, and they sped off to file a complaint with the Bowral police. On April 13, 1994, detectives found a note regarding Onions’ call, but the original report was missing from the Bowral police station. Luckily, a constable wrote the details down in her notebook. The statement was corroborated by Berry, who contacted the investigation team separately. Someone else who contacted the police was the girlfriend of a man who worked with someone she thought police should look at. The name? Ivan Milat.