In the case of Ivan Milat, more commonly known as the ‘Backpacker Murders’, use of evidence was an essential factor in finding the criminal. With the discovery of an increasing number of bodies found in the Belanglo Forest, investigators began observing peculiar patterns at each of the four murder sites. As we go through the timeline of the investigation, we can understand how pieces of forensic evidence, as well as a witness statement, narrowed down the serial killer to one culprit.
On the 19th of September 1992, the bodies of Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters were found in an area known as ‘Executioner’s Drop’ in Belanglo Forest; both victims were stabbed, shown from their spinal knife wounds. Walter’s jeans were unzipped, but buttoned – suggesting sexual assault, whilst Clarke was shot in head 10 times, 4 bullets remaining in her skull. Other unique features found alongside the bodies included a 22-caliber cartridge and a primitive brick fireplace, suggesting he had revisited the site on many occasions. Investigators enlisted the help of Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Rod Milton who claimed the killer was in his mid thirties, had history of aggression, was familiar with the surrounding terrain and was motivated by the pleasure of inflicting pain. However, Milton believed the perpetrator not to have been serial killer.
Next to be discovered were the remains of Paul Gibson and Deborah Everist during October of 1993. Both victims also had stab wounds on their spines and Gibson’s pants were left in a similar state to Walter’s from the first site.
As the possibility of a serial killer being at large became more apparent, Superintendent Clive Small was put incharge of the case. He began by establishing a large task force which did massive manual searches of the extended Belanglo Forest area. In these searches Small’s team found the body of Simone Schmidl, who again had similar spinal stab wounds. A primitive brick fireplace and a 22-caliber cartridge was also found, like that identified next to Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters.
On the 4th of November 1993 the last bodies of Anja Habschied and Gabor Neugebauer were discovered. For Neugebauer, there was evidence of being shot and strangled and sexual assaulted, her jeans unzipped but buttoned. The other victim, Habschied, had been decapitated, her head appeared to have been severed by sword.
The recovered bullets from Neugebauer’s person matched that of Clarke from the first murder site through forensic examination of the bullets; and with this key linking piece of evidence, police had to acknowledge there was a serial killer on the loose. An official statement was released to the public, urging them to come forward with reports on a possible suspicious behaviour in the area. Various individuals began voicing their suspicions of Ivan Milat and the Milat family. However their evidence was unreliable as their reports were founded primarily on personal beliefs.
Finally, in the April of 1994, Paul Onions, the only victim to escape, came forward with his eye-witness account. He met the murderer in January 1990 but managed to run away. Onions was flown to Australia from his home in England and identified Ivan Milat as the killer in a video lineup.
By collecting unique pieces of forensic evidence from each of the seven bodies and the four sites, investigators were able to identify specific characteristics of the murderer and his techniques. As patterns emerged amongst several murder sites – as shown by the colour coded table above – police also began forming ideas of who and what they were looking for (i.e things which would have been in the killer’s possession). After the series of individual reports regarding the Milats; Paul Onions, the only living witness, came forward and identified Ivan Milat as his attacker. With enough circumstantial evidence to take a search warrant, police search the property and found possessions which directly linked Ivan Milat to the string of backpacker murders.
This particular case is of significance to the Australian legal system as it introduced link analysis to use of evidence and forced police to reassess their record systems. The link analysis software took information from a variety of police sources, government databases, records of gun ownership, vehicle registrations, movements of cars and people as well as gym memberships to find suspect names and addresses. This narrowed the list down to 230 persons of interest before getting shortlisted to 30, which included the murderer Ivan Milat.
Public outrage over the length of the case also brought police to the realisation that they needed to organise their records more carefully. The victim who got away, Paul Onions, had in fact submitted to Bowral Police Station a witness statement directly after the attempt was made on his life in January of 1990. However, this crucial piece of evidence, which could have greatly shortened the lengthy investigation and saved many lives, was lost. Onions had to call from England to re-submit his account in April 1994.