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It was the kind of forest you'd drive past without a second thought.
Just another stretch of trees nestled off a highway in the New South Wales countryside.
Peaceful and still.
But behind the stillness, something sinister was hiding.
For years, carefree young travelers from around the world vanished without a trace along Australia's highways.
Some were written off as runaways and others as accidents.
But deep in the Belonglo State Forest, a horrifying truth waited to be unearthed.
A predator had been hunting in plain sight.
And the peaceful image of Australia as backpackers' paradise was about to shatter.
This is not just the story of a killer.
It's the story of how one man's darkness left a scar on an entire nation and how justice nearly slipped through the cracks in the process.
Crime conspiracy cults, serial killers and murder all things that I love to consume, and I know you do too, you sick twisted beautiful, intellectually minded freak.
And today we are taking a trip across the pond over a couple.
A couple hops, couple hops.
A couple skips across the pond over to Australia.
Sorry if I butcher, absolutely butcher, some of the naming here, some of the pronunciations, but I'm going to do my very, very best.
That was terrible.
Gosh, bad.
But we're talking about a horrifying individual.
So, without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go Mach 5 down the highway, slam on the brakes and bust through this windshield into this absolutely insane, psychopathic killer together.
Ivan Robert Marko Milat was born on December 27th 1944 in the suburb of Guildford, New South Wales, Australia.
And he was the fifth of 14 children born to Stephen Milat, a Croatian immigrant.
14's a lot.
My, my goodness.
God bless that woman.
And that woman was margaret piddleston, who was an australian native, and the malatz family's home environment was marked by poverty and violence.
So they lived in rural western sydney, often in run-down houses with dirt floors, and this large brood, if you will, struggled to make ends meet.
Ivan's father, a wharf laborer, was a strict disciplinarian and an alcoholic prone to violence and outbursts.
And Boris Milat Ivan's older brother, recalled their father striking their mother at least once a week during drunken rages, which is absolutely horrible.
And their mother, while devoted, had a fierce temper as well, though sometimes punishing the children very harshly.
The husband's doing it to the wife and the wife's doing it to the kids.
It's just terrible.
And growing up, the Milat siblings were surrounded by weapons.
Guns and knives were a normal part of childhood play, and target shooting in the backyard was just a common pastime.
And with ten boys in the family, chaos was constant and local police became very well acquainted with the Milat household over the years.
So from a young age Ivan exhibited disturbing behavior that set him apart even in his tumultuous family.
And relatives later described noticing psychopathic tendencies in Ivan as a boy, because he had a bit of a cruel streak, taking pleasure in harming animals with machetes, to be specific.
Which is enough for me.
Because in one incident recounted within the family, Ivan allegedly took the machete and I'm going to say this in the only way possible.
He made one dog into two, if that makes sense, which is, it makes me want to cry.
Any violence is bad.
You know animals.
Just, oh god, as a child, like thinking that that is okay or just taking pleasure in that is uh yeah i, i it's.
I can't wrap my head around it, honestly.
And by age 13 his behavior had become so unruly that he was sent to a residential school for troubled youths.
Thank god, i think prison would have been better at this point.
But he was only so old.
So And Boris Milat would later say that Ivan quote was going to kill somebody from the age of 10, believing his brother had a murderous disposition, practically quote built into him from childhood.
Send this kid to a i don't know a bunker underground, my lord.
But despite attending catholic school like his siblings, ivan's education was overshadowed by his poor behavior and instead of studying, ivan spent his early teens breaking into houses and stealing just petty crime.
You know, one of the ingredients in the serial killer stew arming animals and petty crime.
So ivan would drop out of formal schooling at around the age of 15 years old and spent his late childhood in the pursuit of criminal thrills.
You know, as you do.
And this would mark the beginning of Ivan Milat's lifelong pattern of crime and violence.
So by his mid-teens, Ivan Milat's stint of minor crime had evolved into a complete lifestyle.
And by the age of 17 in the early 1960s, he was already very well acquainted with law enforcement and had actually been sentenced to six months in a juvenile detention center for burglary, which he did have allegedly.
He showed little regard for authority or social bounds and he allegedly engaged in affairs with at least two girlfriends of his own brothers during this period.
Quite the ladies man and quite the piece of shit, but he had no remorse in betraying those closest to him.
So it's just setting the stage for who this guy is about to become.
And academically, there was no record of Millat achieving anything notable at all.
And instead, his teenage years were just defined by escalating run-ins with the law.
And friends and peers if any remained took a backseat to Ivan's true adolescent companions, which was cars, guns and crime.
Sounds like the title of a 10% Rotten Tomatoes action movie to me, but anyway.
So Milat's early adulthood saw a steady stream of criminal offenses and growing boldness.
And in 1964, at the age of 19, Milat was sentenced to 18 months in prison for breaking and entering.
And barely a month after his release, he was caught driving a stolen car and was handed a two-year sentence of hard labor.
The guy's got a problem because, completely undeterred by the stints behind bars, Malak continued to just do what he wanted.
He had no care in the world for anybody else except for himself.
And in September of 1967, at the age of 22, he was convicted of theft yet again and imprisoned for three more years.
He just spent his entire young adulthood in and out of jail.
And these early convictions for burglary, car theft and other property crimes show a pattern of escalation, as we can see.
And law enforcement in New South Wales were by now quite familiar with the Malat brothers.
And Ivan in particular, had become a regular offender, cycling in and out of custody throughout the late 1960s.
But still, the severity of his crimes and the length of his sentences kept increasing.
And it was just a foreboding sign of what was about to come.
And Malat showed no desire to reform at all during his stints.
Because each time he returned to society, he would just slip back into his old habits.
And during this period, Malat's legitimate work, history and personal relationships were unstable at best.
Because any semblance of a normal career was frequently interrupted by his prison terms.
You know, the consequences of your actions.
But in the mid 1970s he eventually secured a job as a truck driver for the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority.
Truck drivers.
I know there's good ones out there, but my God, is that a good job for a serial killer?
And this would be a position he would drift in and out of for the next two decades.
But in the 1960s and early 70s, steady employment was hardly Malat's priority, to say the least.
And as for his personal life, Ivan demonstrated a strong disregard for conventional morality.
He was known to charm women with his looks and confidence, but these relationships were often fleeting and very dysfunctional.
And as noted before, he even seduced women within his brother's circle.
But it would not be until the late 1980s that Milat entered into a serious marriage, and even that union would be overshadowed by violence.
But we'll get to that shortly.
So in his 20s, Malat's main commitments were to his own impulses and desires rather than to any sort of family or any sort of other relationship.
And by the end of the 1970s, he had established a double life.
On one hand, he was an outwardly unremarkable blue-collar worker to acquaintances and, on the other, a hardened criminal with a growing potential for violence behind closed doors.
So as the 1970s began, Ivan Milat's criminal conduct took a darker and more violent turn.
And the first known instance of his brutality occurred on April 7th 1971 when 26-year-old Malat picked up two 18-year-old female hitchhikers near Liverpool on Sydney's outskirts.
And at knife point, he abducted the young women, tied them up, and SA'd them.
But luckily the pair eventually managed a narrow escape by fleeing at a roadside service station cafe.
And the lad was arrested later that day and charged with one count of SA and two counts of armed robbery, as well as an abduction charge.
So this incident marked Milat's transition from property crimes to violence against people.
And while out on bail awaiting trial, in 1973 he and some of his brothers committed a string of robberies, just showing that Ivan was undeterred by the prospect of prison.
And in a somewhat surprising move to avoid the looming trial, Milat actually faked his own life cancellation, if you know what I mean.
And he would leave his shoes abandoned at The Gap, which was a notorious Sydney clifftop life ender spot, just to mislead police.
And then he fled the country.
And for about a year, he hid out in New Zealand under an assumed identity.
And authorities suspected that, upon sneaking back into Australia, Milat roamed between Queensland and Victoria, and possibly other parts of the country, to evade detection.
But he was eventually rearrested in 1974, when he resurfaced in Sydney after his mother suffered a heart attack.
But in court, however, he escaped justice.
And in 1974 he was acquitted of the charges after his defense lawyer, John Marston, aggressively attacked the victim's credibility, which is absolutely fucking disgusting.
And he did so by exploiting prejudices, by labeling them as lesbians which like for that.
To hold up in court at that time, like it wasn't that long ago, is absolutely insane to me.
Definitely different times.
But buoyed by this legal vindication, Malat just grew bolder, and Malat's inclination for extreme violence did not subside at all.
In fact, it just escalated.
And in 1977 he was implicated in another incident involving two female hitchhikers traveling from Liverpool to Canberra, and it was an attack in which he allegedly attempted to SA and murder the women, but he was never charged due to lack of evidence.
It's like, it's weird.
You'd think they'd look back at his record and be like, oh yeah, this guy's definitely capable of that.
Like, I understand that you need evidence for stuff, but you think they'd Dig a little more.
I don't know.
Though formal charges were absent, the pattern was clear.
Malat was increasingly targeting vulnerable travelers and growing more confident in doing so.
Burglar to predator.
And it's crazy because he would even speak very openly about violence.
And acquaintances later recalled Milat bragging about how to incapacitate a person by stabbing them in the spine and graphically describing how to turn someone into quote a head on a stick, which is very reminiscent of Ed Kemper, who literally said that quote verbatim, talking about women that he would look at and he would like picture a life with them, or he would picture their head on a stick.
Just monsters walking the earth.
But such comments in hindsight just eerily foreshadowed the grievous injuries inflicted on his eventual murder victims.
So throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, Malat remained an avid shooter and outdoorsman, often hunting in the very forest that would later become his killing grounds.
So the two decades before his known killing spree saw Ivan Malat evolve into a hardened, volatile criminal who had proven capable of sexual violence cunning, evasion of law enforcement and remorseless brutality.
Just all the ingredients for a serial killer lying in wait.
Just a giant steaming pot of shit serial killer stew.
Just of the worst kind.
Behind the scenes of his escalating violence, Millat attempted to create a facade of normalcy in the late 1970s and late 1980s and, as mentioned before, after evading conviction in 1974, he secured a steady job as a truck driver with the roads and traffic authority, operating out of liverpool and traveling widely across new south wales and by outward appearances.
He was a reliable road worker known to his co-workers as quiet if somewhat rough edged, and in 1983 ivan entered into a relationship with a teenage girl named karen duck, who was 16 years old and pregnant, by one of Ivan's cousins when they met.
What the fuck is going on?
This wasn't like 1950.
10 or 20, not that that would make it okay, but it's just like so recent where this is just, it's just disgusting to think about, insane.
So ivan married 16 year old karen in 1984, perhaps seeking a conventional domestic life.
So the couple would live in southwestern sydney and for a time malat's violent impulses were not publicly visible, But behind closed doors.
The marriage was deeply, deeply troubled, which is not remotely surprising given who this piece of shit is.
Because Karen would later describe Ivan as, quote gun crazy recounting, how he found joy in shooting kangaroos during visits to the Belanglo State Forest and how he kept a frightening arsenal of weapons.
And she also endured his temper and physical abuse.
And in 1987, after years of just terror, Karen fled the marriage in fear of her life.
And they would divorce in October of 1989.
And I believe that this was one of the kicking off points to him getting back into his murderous ways.
Because, despite marrying, Malat's treatment of women and family remained unbearable abhorrent, if anything.
And in yet another breach of trust, Ivan carried on a secret affair with his own brother Boris's wife throughout the 1970s, while he was married to Karen, which resulted in the birth of a daughter named Linnise.
So through the 1980s, Malak continued living around the Sydney area, working intermittently, saving money to buy firearms and vehicles and honing the outdoor skills that would soon facilitate his transition from violent criminal to serial murderer.
And financially Ivan was stable enough due to his roadwork income, to fund his hobbies of guns and off-road vehicles.
And by the end of the 1980s, Malak continued to be a seemingly ordinary laborer on the surface.
But underneath, his rage and predatory intent were ready to burst.
All he needed was the right opportunity and victims to unleash the full extent of his monstrosity.
So Caroline Clark was 21 years old and from England, and Joanne Walters was 22 years old and was from Wales.
And they were traveling in Australia when their paths crossed in the early 1992.
And the two actually became friends while staying at a backpackers hostel in Sydney's King Cross district and decided to team up for the next leg of their adventures.
So on April 18th 1992 they set off together from Sydney, intending to hitchhike south towards Victoria to find fruit picking work or possibly travel west to see more of the country.
So when weeks passed with no word from either woman, their panicked parents alerted authorities in the UK and Australia and flyers were distributed and media outlets publicized their disappearance and raising the fears that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong on the road.
And tragically, those fears would be confirmed in late September of 1992.
So, on September 19th of that year, two orienteering runners in the Belanglo State Forest stumbled upon a concealed corpse in the bush.
And the next morning, police investigators found a second body only 30 meters away.
And dental records identified the remains as Joanne Walters and Caroline Clark.
And the condition of the bodies revealed the horrifying violence that had endured.
Walters had been stabbed repeatedly 21 times in the back and 14 times in the chest, according to forensic reports.
And one thrust had actually severed her spinal cord, which was a wound that would have instantly paralyzed her.
But Clark had been killed differently.
She was shot in the head 10 times at close range, as if used for target practice.
And she also showed evidence of stabbing to the chest and was found with a makeshift blindfold suggesting the killer had sadistically terrorized her before death.
And investigators noted other eerie details at the crime scene.
One was a primitive stone fire pit that had been built nearby, and cigarette butts and 22-caliber shell casings littered all over the ground.
In Walter's jeans were discovered with the zipper undone but the top button still fastened, a sign that she may have been SA'd and then redressed in haste.
And due to decomposition, it was impossible to conclusively determine if SA even occurred, but the implication was very clear and extremely horrifying and my heart goes out to the victims' families and the victims.
It's abhorrent what was done to these girls.
These details painted a picture of a killer, or killers, who derived pleasure from cruelty and spent time with the bodies after death.
And the discovery of Clark and Walters just sent shockwaves through Australia and abroad.
And the British tabloids dubbed the unknown perpetrator the quote beast of the bush and speculated that a serial killer was preying on young tourists.
And Australian police, however, were initially cautious.
And in late 1992, officials publicly downplayed the idea of a single serial murderer, suggesting it might be an isolated incident or the work of multiple assailants, despite the gruesome evidence,
But still.
An extensive search of the Belanglo State Forest was conducted after the first two bodies were found.
But no further remains were located at the time.
And without any immediate leads.
The investigation into Clark and Walters murders grew cold as 1992 turned into 1993.
But unbeknownst to authorities, the killer had struck before and would strike again.
The earliest known victims of Ivan Milat were not foreign tourists, but rather Australians on a road trip.
19 year old Deborah Everest and 19 year old James Gibson. a young couple from Frankston, Victoria.
So in late December of 1989, James and Deborah left Melbourne to attend an alternative lifestyle festival.
It was called ConFest, near Albury, just over the New South Wales border.
And they arrived in Sydney, first spent a couple of days sightseeing, then commenced hitchhiking southward on December 30th 1989, hoping to reach the festival.
Don't hitchhike.
I say it all the time, and I'm saying it now.
Don't hitchhike, my sweet little bean.
So the two would attempt to hitchhike to get to this festival, but unfortunately they would never make it.
And when neither James nor Deborah contacted their families after New Year's missing reports were filed.
And early clues created confusion because on December 31st 1989 A hiker found James Gibson's damaged camera by the side of the road in Galston Gorge in Sydney's northern outskirts, which was far from any direct route to Elbury.
And a few months later, in March of 1990, Gibson's empty backpack was also recovered in that same area of Galston's Gorge.
And these discoveries would just puzzle police who at the time had no bodies and thus suspected James and Debra might have met with foul play closer to Sydney, nowhere near Belanglo.
But in reality, the items had likely been dumped by the killer to mislead investigators.
Who do we know who loves to try to mislead police?
We're getting there.
But the young couple's fate remained a mystery for almost four more years.
And on October 5th 1993, after Clark and Walters had been found, a local man scavenging for firewood just stumbled on skeletal remains in a remote section of the Belanglo State Forest.
And he notified police and an intensive search quickly uncovered two bodies buried not far apart.
And those bodies would be identified as James Gibson and Deborah Everest, the long missing Victorian youths.
And the injuries to the bodies bore the hallmarks of a killer's viciousness that would become all too familiar.
James Gibson, for example, had been stabbed eight times And, like Walters, one massive knife wound had sliced through his upper spine, paralyzing him completely.
And other stab wounds to his back and chest would have punctured his heart and lungs, likely causing a quick but extremely agonizing death.
And Gibson's body was found curled in a in his final moments and deborah everest remains revealed a slightly different brutality because she had been brutally beaten about the head and the face and her skull was fractured in two places and her jaw was also broken Injuries consistent with being struck with great force.
And, in addition, there were knife marks on her forehead and stab wounds to her back, indicating that even after beating her, the killer stabbed Deborah as she lay unconscious.
But the discovery of Gibson and Everest nearly four years after they vanished would definitively link the 1989 missing persons case to the string of backpack murders.
And initially investigators were perplexed that Gibson's camera and pack had turned up so far from Belanglo.
But now it was clear that something more sinister had taken place in the forest.
And the murders of Deborah Everest and James Gibson also had a chilling effect on the Australian public.
Because the fact that such violence could be done upon locals, not just international tourists I don't know why that would matter, but you know it's just hitting home for these people.
I guess just underscored the universality of the danger.
But meanwhile detectives redoubled their efforts, realizing that a single madman was likely responsible for all of these killings and had been active since at least 1989.
So 21-year-old Simone Schmidl was an adventurous traveler from Germany touring Australia alone.
And in January of 1991 Simone planned to hitchhike from Sydney down to Melbourne where she was supposed to meet her mother, who was flying in from Germany for a camping holiday.
So she departed Sydney on January 20th 1991 with her backpack and an eager optimism familiar to many lone backpackers.
But when Simone failed to show up at the Melbourne airport and made no further contact, it raised alarms among her family and her friends and she would be officially reported missing.
But with next to no clues and her journey spanning hundreds of kilometers of highway, the search for Simone did not yield answers for a very long time.
And it wasn't until nearly three years later, with renewed police operations in Belanglo, that Simone's fate was finally discovered.
So on November 1st of 1993 the New South Wales police were conducting a massive line search of the Belanglo State Forest.
And that's where officers came upon a set of human bones and a clearing off a fire trail.
And the remains were identified as those of Simone Schmidl.
And like Walters, Simone had been killed with extreme brutality.
She would suffer at least eight stab wounds, including ones that would sever her spine and would have caused paralysis similar to the others, and others that punctured her heart and her lungs.
So the manner of her death just showed an awful similarity to Walter's multiple stabbings with control wounds to incapacitate.
And disturbingly, at Simone's gravesite, police found clothing that did not belong to her.
And those clothes of green silk, shorts and a yellow top that were later identified as items worn by another missing backpacker, Anya Habshid.
And this indicated that the killer had murdered multiple victims in the forest and perhaps moved or intermixed their belongings.
And whether that was to confuse investigators or simply as a result of handling various trophies is unknown.
But Simone Schmidl's discovery reinforced the growing realization that a serial killer was prowling the New South Wales bush.
She had vanished over two years before, but now the link between her case and the others was completely undeniable.
And the young German solo journey in Australia had met a horrific end at the hands of a predator who showed absolutely no mercy.
Gabor Neuschbauer was 21 years old and his girlfriend, Anja Habschied, was 20.
And they were a German couple exploring Australia together.
And in late 1991 they had big plans because after Christmas in Sydney they would travel across the country, aiming to reach Darwin in the Northern Territory, and then fly home to Germany a month later.
So on December 26th 1991, which was Boxing Day, Gabor and Anja checked out of their Sydney hostel and set off hitchhiking, intending to head south and then west on a grand outback adventure.
But unfortunately, they never made it to Darwin alive.
And when the pair failed to contact their families or catch their scheduled flight home, they were reported missing.
And, like the other cases, with no immediate leads, their disappearance remained a mystery for some time.
And it wasn't until November 4th 1993, just days after Simone Schmidl's body was found.
The intensive police search of Belanglo Forest yielded two more grim discoveries.
And in a bush covered area not far from where Simone lay, searchers found two shallow graves about 50 meters apart, and within them were the remains of Gabor and Anya.
The condition of the German couple's bodies revealed both the killer's escalating depravity and the varying methods that he employed.
Anya, for example, had had her head removed from her body completely, but her head unfortunately, would never be recovered.
So it appeared that the killer had taken Anya's skull potentially as a trophy, and Gabor had been shot six times in the head execution style similar to Caroline Clark.
But there was no evidence of other abuse.
An investigator determined that Gabor had been bound prior to being shot.
So it's possible that Gabor may have been forced to watch or listen as Anya was murdered before he was finally executed.
Just extremely gut-wrenching. gut-wrenching to think about.
This one is extremely rough and ballistic evidence linked the scene to earlier murders because the bullets that killed Gabor matched the caliber a Type 22 used on Caroline Clark.
So the killer had clearly favored a firearm and brought it along on his deadly hunts.
So the murders of Gabor and Anja just underscore the sadism of the backpack killer, because we can see, during the murder and even after he's escalating, what he's doing, the viciousness in what he's doing.
And by the time the German couple's remains were uncovered, the full scope of the backpack murders was apparent.
In total, five women and two men all young travelers had been slain in similarly brutal fashion and hidden in the same forest.
And the timeline of their disappearances ranged from late 1989 to 1992.
But they were all discovered within a 14-month span in 1992 to 1993.
So, with each body found, the pressure just mounted on law enforcement to find who was responsible for these deaths, atrocities.
And from the outset of the backpack murder investigation, police and media speculated that Ivan Milat's murderous career may not have begun or ended with the seven confirmed victims, because there were patterns and similarities in other disappearances that led authorities to revisit cold cases from the 1970s and the 1980s.
And over the years, Milat had been publicly linked to a number of unsolved cases, though unfortunately none have been proven.
But among the cases often discussed are three young women who vanished from the Newcastle area in 1978 to 1979.
And those three women were Leanne Goodall, who was 20 years old, Robin Hickey, who was 18 years old, and Amanda Robinson, who was 14 years old.
And all three went missing near highways within a few months of each other, in an area where Millat often worked as a road crew member at the time.
And Milat was named as a person of interest in those cases, but insufficient evidence prevented further action unfortunately,
And similarly in 2004 to 2006, Milat was formally investigated regarding the disappearance of two Sydney nurses.
Jillian Jamison and Deborah Bulkin, both of which were 19 and 20 years old and who were last seen at a tavern in June of 1980, speaking to a man in a cowboy hat.
Amalat denied involvement when he was questioned, but he was mentioned as a person of interest at the wrongful death inquiry.
And another likely victim often mentioned is Annette Briffa, who was 18 years old and who had vanished while hitchhiking north of Sydney in January of 1980.
And an inquest in 2005 heard that, although there was no hard proof Ivan Milak killed her, he could not be eliminated from the investigation altogether.
And the investigators have even looked back to cases as early as the 1960s, because Millat's brother Boris, claimed in 2015 that Ivan privately confessed to the 1962 shooting of Sydney taxi driver Neville Knight, a crime that left Knight paralyzed and for which another man was wrongfully convicted, which is fucked up.
And police have noted the eerie parallel between Knight's injury an injury that was caused to the spine, as we know that he did to quite a few of his victims that caused paralysis.
However, no charges were ever brought against Milat for that incident.
So, all told, as many as 20 unsolved deaths and disappearances have been theorized as potential Malat victims by various experts, authors and police task forces.
And these include hitchhikers and backpackers who vanished along Australian highways in the 1970s and 80s.
Their profiles and the circumstances just echoing the known victims.
So the New South Wales police response to the backpack murders evolved from skepticism to full mobilization as the scope of the crime spree became very, very apparent.
And, as mentioned before, after the first two bodies, Clark and Walters, were found in September of 1992, police were cautious about declaring that a serial killer was at work.
But, despite media speculation, authorities initially suggested it might be an isolated incident or work of multiple assailants, given differences in how the two women were killed,
But still a dedicated team of investigators began combing through missing persons files for any similar cases.
And early on they noted that several backpackers had vanished without a trace along the Hume Highway corridor in recent years, including an Australian couple who was Everest and Gibson, and at least three Europeans Schmidl, Neubauer and Habschied, whom of which we already spoke about.
However, at this point, with no bodies besides Clark and Walters, linking the cases was largely speculative.
So the forensic evidence from Walters and Clark's crime scene, which was bullet casings of a 22 caliber, ropes and fibers, was collected and analyzed.
Without a suspect to compare against, it remained simply data in a growing archive.
But one of the few leads was a criminal profile offered by forensic psychiatrist Dr. Rod Milton.
And after examining details of the first two murders, Dr Milton suggested that the killer was likely a local man in his mid-30s with a history of aggression, someone familiar with the forest terrain, and that the crimes were motivated by the pleasure of inflicting harm.
However, Dr Milton did not initially believe a quote classic serial killer was responsible and even floated the idea that the murderer might even have an assistant.
So this guidance, while not pinpointing a specific person necessarily, did reinforce certain truths.
And that's that the perpetrator was extremely dangerous, as we know, and he was likely to strike again if not caught.
So the breakthrough in police urgency came in October of 1993 when the second cluster of bodies was discovered, which was Everest Gibson, Schmidl and the Habschied and Neubauer.
So, realizing they were dealing with a serial killer who had been active for years, the NSW police ramped up their efforts dramatically.
And on October 14th 1993 they established Task Force Air, which was a special homicide task force of over 20 detectives and analysts dedicated solely to the backpack murders.
That is how you do an investigation.
And veteran investigator Superintendent Clive Small was appointed to lead this very task force.
But this team faced immense challenges.
One of which was a flood of information from the public and other police units and dozens of potential suspects or persons of interest, and intense media scrutiny.
So the government posted a reward for 500000 for information leading to the killer's capture, which was an unprecedented sum reflecting the urgency of figuring out who committed these murders.
So investigators began the painstaking work of cross-referencing missing persons reports, scouring records of anyone with a history of violence in the area and applying computer-assisted link analysis to find patterns in massive data.
And another challenge was just the geography, because the Belanglo Forest is vast and remote and initially police weren't sure if more bodies even remained hidden.
And after the October to November 1993 fines, police conducted an exhaustive search of the entire forest with over 300 officers and volunteers line by line over weeks, to ensure no victim was left undiscovered.
And by the end of 1993 seven bodies had been recovered and Task Force Air was fully engaged in one of the largest manhunts in Australian history.
The case arrived thanks to an extremely brave survivor because on november 13th in 1993, just over a week after the victims were found, police received a phone call from paul onions, who was a 24 year old brit.
Because onions had seen reports about the backpack murders on the news and felt compelled to report an incident that had happened, an incident that had happened to him years earlier.
So in January of 1990 Onions had been backpacking in Australia and hitchhiking south from Sydney toward the town of Mildura.
And he was picked up on the Hume Highway near Kisula by a man who introduced himself as quote Bill.
And as Onions later recounted, at first, the ride was uneventful.
But Bill began asking probing questions about his plans and whether onions had family or friends expecting him at his destination.
And if he'd done any special forces training in the military.
He was basically sizing the guy up to see if he could kill him.
And onions during this time would become increasingly concerned as the questions continued along with quote Bill making racist and xenophobic comments.
And south of the town Mittagong.
The driver pulled over under the pretense of searching for some cassette.
And that's when he would suddenly produce a handgun and a length of rope announcing it was a robbery.
And Paul Onions knew he was in mortal danger at this point, but he managed to fling open the door and run for his life.
And the assailant fired a shot and gave chase, but onions zigzagged down the highway until a passing car stopped for him.
Thank God.
And in a stroke of luck, a woman named Joanne Berry was driving by and picked up the frantic onions.
And together they sped off and later reported the incident to Bow Roll Police, providing a description of the attacker, including his mustache and likeness of Australian cricketeer.
Registration number.
And at the time, in 1990, that report did not lead to an arrest.
And the Barrow Police would log the complaint, but with no immediate suspect.
It just languished in a filing cabinet.
And when Task Force Air detectives heard Onion's story in late 1993, it immediately rang alarm bells.
Between the location of the attack, which was near Belanglo, and the MO, the modus operandi, which was a hitchhiker and a gun and a rope, And the timeframe, which was January of 1990, which was smack between the known murders, were too coincidental to ignore.
So digging through their records.
On April 13th of 1994 investigators unearthed the original Bowerville police reports.
And they would find Onion's report.
And the details in that report provided a golden lead.
And Barry, the Good Samaritan who helped Onions, was tracked down and corroborated his account, recalling the terror of that day.
And furthermore, acquaintances of Malat, including a girlfriend of one of his co-workers, had come forward noting that Ivan was quote obsessed with weapons and that he talked about guns and hunted had a suspect.
And the name that kept coming up was, you guessed it, Ivan Milat.
So in May of 1994 Paul Onions was flown back under conditions of secrecy to Australia at police request, to help positively identify the suspect.
And on May 5th, 1994, Onions viewed a videotape lineup of potential suspects.
Some accounts say it was a live lineup, but we don't actually know for sure.
But without any hesitation, he picked out Ivan Milat as quote.
Bill, the man who had tried to kill him four years prior.
And this identification was the moment investigators had been hoping for, because it linked Milat directly to an attempted abduction and murder in the vicinity of the Belanglo murders.
So, along with other evidence they had quietly gathered, Task Force Air was now confident that they had their man.
So they had a name, they had a face and a living witness tying Malat to attempted murder slash, kidnapping in the area of the backpacker killings.
So, armed with a prime suspect, police moved swiftly yet carefully, to ensure they could secure a conviction.
So, as we know, Malat had a very large family, some of whom might tip him off if they sensed he was under suspicion.
Because although some of them didn't like him, a lot of them did.
There was a lot of siblings to go around.
So to prevent any sort of tip-off happening, investigators conducted covert surveillance on Ivan for several weeks before arresting him.
So, beginning on February 26 1994, detectives kept watch on Malat's residence on Cinnabar Street in the Sydney suburb of Eaglevale.
And they noted his routines and even discovered that he had recently sold his silver Nissan Patrol 4WD, the same type of vehicle described by Paul Onions shortly after the first bodies were found in late 1992.
Trying to cover his tracks.
Nice try, motherfucker.
So this was obviously a suspicious move, suggesting malat was trying to dispose of evidence, and they also confirmed through employment records that malat had been off work on the dates of each of the known attacks suspicious.
So everything was just lining up perfectly and, with paul onion's identification in hand, task force air decided it was time to strike.
So in the early morning of May 22nd 1994, a coordinated raid was launched on the Malat family and police teams simultaneously executed search warrants on properties belonging to Ivan's mother and five of his brothers, as well as Ivan's own home, to prevent any evidence from being hidden or transferred at any time or ahead of time.
So over 50 officers took part in the operation surrounding Ivan's house to ensure he couldn't shoot his way out or flee.
And Ivan Milat was arrested at the scene, initially on charges related to the assault on Paul Onions, which was armed robbery and weapons offenses, so that police could hold him in custody at least.
But what the search teams found was a damning trove of physical evidence.
Because inside Milat's home they discovered a hash of weapons, including a 22 caliber Anschutz bolt-action rifle, parts of a disassembled 22 Ruger and a semi-automatic rifle, which was the same model believed to have fired the bullets that killed Clark and Neuberger.
They also found a Browning pistol and a large Bowie-style hunting knife.
And ballistic testing would later show that the Anschutz rifle and the Ruger parts were capable of firing the unique ammunition found at the murder scenes.
And even more incriminating were the personal belongings, because scattered throughout Ivan's house were camping gear and personal items proven to belong to the victims, including sleeping bags, clothing and cameras that had been property of various murdered backpackers.
For example, a distinctive water bottle carried by one of the German victims turned up in a bedroom closet, and Simone Schmidl's sleeping bag was found in Malat's possession.
And at Malat's mother's house, police pried open a lock cupboard and found a long, curved cavalry sword exactly the type of blade that could decapitate a person, raising the strong likelihood that it was the one that was used to remove Anya's head, which is Horrifying.
Just absolutely horrifying.
And additional stolen property from the victims, including clothing and camping equipment, was recovered at various Malat family residences, indicating that Ivan had shared or stashed items with relatives.
And...
They just didn't question it or they didn't do anything.
They just did nothing and let it go on.
But many of the family members would allegedly claim that they had no idea that the items were linked to crime.
But the sheer volume of evidence was overwhelming.
So it seemed that Milat essentially kept trophies of his killings, and those trophies directly linked him to each murder scene.
So with this evidence in hand, the case against Ivan Milat was solid.
But still, with that rock solid evidence, a long legal road lay ahead to ensure Milat would be accountable for his atrocities.
And the public watched closely as the story shifted from manhunt to courtroom.
So Ivan Milat's arrest on May 22nd 1994 marked the dramatic climax of one of Australia's biggest manhunts.
And the raid on his Eagle Vale home unfolded at dawn, catching Milat by complete surprise, and officers reported that ivan was initially stunned but maintained an air of feigned innocence as he was handcuffed and he was 49 years old at the time and he was fit and a very muscular man who likely would have violently resisted had he had any warning.
Thus the overwhelming show of force by police.
So in custody, Malat was cool and almost nonchalant, pretty much what you'd expect from a narcissistic, psychopathic sadist.
And during the initial questioning, he denied any knowledge of the murders.
And when confronted with a trove of victims' belongings found in his house, Ivan shrugged and offered implausible explanations.
For example, he claimed he quote found some of the items along the roadside, or they were left behind by anonymous people.
Nice try, you fucking lying piece of shit.
And luckily these excuses obviously rang hollow, given the sheer amount of specificity of the evidence.
And investigators later recounted that Malat seemed to believe he could talk his way out of it.
But as item after item was cataloged and each tied to a name and a grieving family, his answers grew faint.
So on May 23rd 1994 Millat appeared in court for a brief preliminary hearing, where he did not enter a plea and was formally remanded in custody on the initial charges.
So within days of the raids on May 31st 1994, he was formally charged with the seven backpack murders, in addition to the charges for the onions attack.
So after a manhunt spanning years, the backpack murderer had been caught.
And as news of Malat's arrest broke, a sense of just... overwhelming relief swept through the public and media outlets across australia and internationally splashed ivan malat's face on front pages and led nightly news bulletins and the photo showing a broad-shouldered middle-aged man with a bushy mustache and a blank stare became instantly infamous and almost immediately comparisons were drawn to infamous serial killers overseas And Malat was dubbed, quote, Australia's worst serial killer by many outlets.
But he was most often referred to simply as the backpack murderer, a label that stuck for the rest of his life.
And the revelation of Malat's identity and the details of the case provoked both relief and outrage in the Australian community, because after so many months of fear since the first bodies were found, people could finally put a face and name to the evil that had haunted the national imagination.
And public interest in every step of the legal process was intense, as it usually is with these kinds of cases, and when malat was driven to court, crowds of onlookers and journalists just swarmed for a glimpse of him, And in the media extensive profiles of Millat emerged, of his work history, his family background, interviews with former classmates and neighbors, as everyone tried to understand how an unassuming road worker had become a sadistic killer.
Little did they know he was doing this weird fucking insane shit since he was a child.
And the media delved into his upbringing, reporting on the strict and violent Malat household and his prior run-ins with the law, and many Australians were just stunned to learn that Malat had been acquitted of a 1971 grape of hitchhikers questioning how a violent predator was able to roam free.
All was overwhelmingly one of anger and just a thirst for justice, which is absolutely justified.
I mean he should not have been walking the streets or driving on the highways after all the other crimes that he had committed.
It's just atrocious.
Like, yes, during the investigation, this specific investigation, they really stepped up.
But I mean, it could have been avoided.
So family members of the victims, some of whom had traveled from the UK and Germany for the trial, were vocal about their hope that Malat would never see freedom again.
Quote whoever has done this.
These are evil-minded people and, like dogs with rabies, they've got to be put down, said Ray Walters, Joanne Walters' father, upon learning of Malat's arrest, which absolutely excites.
Such a horrendous end and his sentiment would capture the mood of many.
Because Malat was widely regarded as less than human, which, yeah, absolutely.
He was regarded as a rabid animal that needed to be caged permanently.
And the Australians' public faith in hitchhiking and carefree travel was deeply shaken.
And many who had once encouraged people to explore the world now warned them sternly about stranger danger.
And the tourism industry, for its part, had mixed responses.
Some operators feared a downturn in backpacker arrivals, while others insisted that catching Malat made Australia safer than ever, emphasizing that such crimes were extremely rare.
But in the immediate aftermath there was a temporary dip in international backpacker tourism.
But it seemed to have made a comeback, with Malat placed securely behind bars and the sensational headlines subsided.
And the capture also ignited speculation about whether Ivan had acted alone or possibly had help from within his large family.
Because, given the difficulty of subduing two victims at once, early rumors swirled that maybe a brother or friend had been involved in some of the killings.
Police did actively investigate some of Ivan's brothers, and during the initial raids, two of on weapons and stolen property charges when illegal items were found at their homes.
However, no evidence ever emerged that any other Malat took part in the murders.
And by the time of the trial, prosecutors felt confident Ivan was the sole perpetrator.
And one notable positive effect of the case was the heightened public vigilance.
Because the idea that a activities more readily and in the global context.
Malat's arrest and subsequent trial were followed closely in the UK, Germany and other countries that had lost citizens.
So internationally there was an outpouring of sympathy for the victims families and just a morbid interest in the case as it unfolded.
Australia's image as a safe destination took a hit in the early 1990s, But the successful capture and prosecution of Milat somewhat mitigated that.
And Australian authorities even pointed to the exhaustive investigation and eventual justice served as evidence of the country's effective law enforcement.
So within Australia, the Milat case ultimately reinforced confidence in the police and Task Force.
Heir's relentless work and the role of the brave survivor Paul Onions are worthy of legend.
So after Milat's arrest, the case proceeded through a meticulous legal process.
And given the enormous publicity and public anger, the courts took care to uphold due process and Malat's right to a fair trial.
Which doesn't seem fair, because what he did was absolutely not fair.
But we live in a just society and we must do it that way.
So Malat initially retained the services of John Marsden, who was the flashy lawyer who had gotten him off back in 1974.
Just another piece of shit.
But within weeks, Malat dismissed Marsden amid some dispute.
And instead, he applied for a public legal aid and eventually a new defense team was appointed.
Meanwhile, Malat was denied bail and remained in custody throughout.
Yeah, thank God.
I don't even understand why bail is a thing, especially for serial killers, suspected serial killers.
But luckily no judge was going to release an accused serial killer on bail, especially given the risk of flight or harm.
So throughout 1995, both prosecution and defense prepared intensely.
The prosecution team, led by Senior Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi, assembled a massive brief of evidence.
And at this point they had hundreds of exhibits, from the guns to the sleeping bags and scores of witness statements.
And a crucial part of pretrial was the committal hearing that ran in late 1994.
And it was effectively a mini trial in front of a magistrate.
So over 200 witnesses gave evidence at this committal.
And this allowed the defense a preview of the prosecution's case.
And the magistrate ruled that there was more than sufficient evidence for Milat to stand trial of the seven murders, plus the onions related charges.
But one issue that arose pre-trial was severance.
So Malat's defense tried to argue that seven murder charges should be tried separately to avoid prejudicing a jury by sheer number of crimes.
So they basically want seven different trials because that looks better somehow, even though it's public knowledge.
It doesn't make sense.
It makes sense for the defense, kind of, not really.
It kind of just makes everything go longer and just costs the taxpayers more money and just hurts the victims' families so much more.
So just scum of the earth, people.
So luckily the judge rejected this because the cases were clearly linked by MO and it was efficient to have one big trial.
So the attempted murder of Paul Onions was also allowed to be joined to the trial as well, since it directly tied to the pattern of crimes.
The defense strategy from the outset was to maintain Malat's innocence and claim he was framed or mistaken from someone else.
So by March 1995, everything was in place for the trial.
Millat was formally arraigned and he entered pleas of not guilty to charges as expected.
So the stage was now set for one of the most anticipated trials in Australian criminal history.
And Ivan Millat's trial commenced on March 26th 1996 in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Sydney.
The proceedings would stretch over months, filled with gruesome evidence and riveting testimony.
And presiding the case was Justice David Hunt, who was a very seasoned judge.
So the prosecution painstakingly laid out the evidence linking Milat to each murder.
And the key elements presented to the jury included physical evidence from Milat's home.
And jurors were shown the camping gear, clothing, and other items that belonged to the victims.
For example, Simone Schmidl's sleeping bag and Deborah Everest's sleeping bag were exhibited, and both were recovered from Milat's house.
And the Ruger rifle components and bullets were forensically matched to the crime scenes.
So this forensic linkage was devastating for Milat's case, and experts testified that the odds of those ballistics marks coming from any gun other than Milat's were astronomical.
And then there was Paul Onion's testimony, perhaps the most compelling witness that there was.
So he would take the stand and recount in detail his encounter with Milat.
Bill in 1990, and he pointed out Malat in court as that man.
And then several Malat family members testified as well, some for the prosecution and some effectively as defense witnesses, really split this family up.
This case did.
So two of Ivan's brothers, Walter and Richard, were called and they had been investigated themselves, especially Richard, whom the defense tried to cast suspicion on, but under oath both denied any involvement and claimed to have alibis.
So the prosecution used them to show that after Ivan's arrest, Walter and Richard had been found with weapons and items that Ivan gave them, which just demonstrated Ivan's consciousness of guilt through hiding evidence.
And then there was expert testimony which had forensic experts walk the jury through each crime scene, autopsy results and significance of the similarities between each crime, between the spinal stabbings and the type of bullets etc.
And the defense strategy in all of this centered around just creating doubt.
And Milat's lawyer contended that the evidence, while suggestive, was circumstantial.
Which how can you even practice law and present that?
I don't understand that.
How do you sleep at night?
But he would say that there was no eyewitness to any murder saying, quote, I saw Ivan do it.
Yeah, because that's what you need in order for somebody to be convicted of murder.
What?
You know how not often that happens?
Plus you have Paul Onions saying that he was gonna murder me?
Like, I don't know.
It's just insane to me.
And they even floated alternate scenarios, one of which was perhaps one of Ivan's brothers, who also liked guns and had criminal records, was the real killer and had stashed items at Ivan's house just to frame him.
So essentially they tried to weave a story that Ivan was innocent and being set up, as Malat claimed, a conspiracy of police planting evidence or by a malicious family member.
Just bullshit.
Just a reach, a reach to the fucking stars.
And a dramatic moment came during the trial when Ivan Malat himself took the stand in June 18th of 1996.
Because it's relatively rare for defendants in murder trials to testify.
But Ivan was confident.
I mean we see this with, like Ted Bundy and countless other serial killer, narcissistic serial killers.
They're like, I can get out of this.
But he calmly asserted his innocence, claiming, quote, My basic defense was that it wasn't me.
I don't know who did it.
It was up to them to prove my guilt, not for me to prove my innocence.
Just the fucking arrogance of this just shit stain of a person.
Oh my god.
Though under cross-examination, his composure was tested.
And his testimony, obviously, did not win him sympathy.
If anything, observers felt he came across as cold and implausible, especially when faced with personal items of murdered young people.
And through it all Malat remained outwardly just confident and just unbothered.
He truly seemed to believe he might be acquitted, like he was actually delusional.
But as the trial wound down in july of 1996, the weight of the evidence was crushing and after final arguments, justice david hunt gave instructions to the jury carefully outlining how they could consider the evidence.
And on July 27th 1996, the jury returned their verdict after several days of deliberation.
Which why is this taking several days?
But whatever.
But Ivan Milat was found guilty on all seven counts of murder, as well as the charges related to the attack on Paul Onions.
And the verdict was unanimous and came as a relief to the victim's families and to the public.
And Millett reportedly showed little reaction.
He actually smirked and shrugged, maintaining his indifference.
But it was over now.
The evidence had been overwhelming.
And during the sentencing hearing, Justice Hunt did not mince words.
And he sentenced Ivan Millett to seven consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole, one for each life that he took.
And additionally for Paul Onion's attempted murder, kidnapping and robbery.
Milat received six years, each totaling 18 more years on top of those seven consecutive life sentences to be served concurrently, which was mostly symbolic, as life terms ensured he would never be free at any point.
And in Australia, life without parole is relatively rare and reserved for the worst of the worst offenders.
And Malat joined that infamous category that day.
And Justice Hunt's remarks when delivering the sentence were powerful and captured the horror of Malat's crimes.
And he addressed the courtroom, noting that quote.
These seven young persons were at the threshold of their lives, with everything to look forward to travel career happiness love, family and even old age.
And that Malat had callously snuffed that out.
And he went on to say that the behavior exhibited was of such quote, callous indifference to suffering and complete disregard of humanity.
It is almost beyond belief which I could not have said it better myself.
And he highlighted that the victims must have been quote absolutely terrified and that their deaths were likely, neither swift nor merciful.
And Justice Hunt also touched on the question of an accomplice.
And he stated his opinion that it was quote clear that in at least two of the killings two people had been involved.
I mean, for a judge to say that it's it's it's quite telling because I mean as you can imagine how many cases come across their table so the thought of one of the brothers or somebody else being involved in this case and not convicted it is quite terrifying and this of course was not an official finding but just an observation but it just left that open possibility that Malat did But regardless, Hunt made it plain that even if that were so, Ivan was certainly one of those perpetrators and the primary culprit by all evidence.
And thus ended the legal chapter of the backpacker murders.
And the trial's outcome was hailed a triumph of justice.
And it demonstrated the effectiveness of law enforcement and the courts in dealing with one of the most heinous serial murder cases the country and the world has ever seen.
So Ivan Milat began serving his sentence in 1996 in Matlin Jail, a maximum security prison in New South Wales.
And from the outset, he proved to be a difficult and notorious inmate.
And in May of 1997, less than a year into his life term, prison authorities uncovered a daring escape plot engineered by Milat and a crew of inmates.
And the plan involved collecting tools and attempting to cut through prison bars.
But when it was foiled, Malat's would-be accomplice, George Savas, a convicted drug trafficker, was found hanged in his cell the next morning.
And in response, officials transferred Malat to a maximum security wing at Goldborn Correctional Center, which was also known as Goldborn Supermax, in June of 1997, where Australia's most violent prisoners are held under highly restrictive conditions.
And there Malat was placed in a small, very small one-man cell under 23-hour lockdown, initially with intensive supervision.
And for the next two decades, Malat's life behind bars was marked by defiance, self-harm and zero remorse.
And he never admitted his guilt in the backpacker murders and in fact continued to file appeals and legal challenges in effort to overturn his convictions.
But in July of 2001, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal unanimously dismissed Malat's first appeal, affirming that there was no miscarriage of justice in his trial.
Which yeah, fucking duh.
And Malat then petitioned the High Court of Australia for a special leave to appeal.
But in November of 2004, the High Court refused to hear his case at all.
So that just extinguished Malat's legal avenues.
And Malat, just enraged at being out of options, turned to hunger strikes and self-mutilation to draw attention to himself.
And in 2003 he swallowed metal staples and bit off razor blades, forcing a trip to the prison hospitals as authorities feared internal injuries.
And in January of 2009, Malat used a plastic knife to saw off his little finger, intending to mail it to the high court of Canberra as a protest for not getting an appeal.
Sounds like a very macabre fucking toddler.
So, after cutting off his finger, he went on a nine-day hunger strike, consuming nothing but water, until prison officials intervened.
And he ended the protest only when he became so weak he accepted a sandwich from the guards.
And it was allegedly rumored that Milat staged this particular stunt to also demand a PlayStation video game console in his cell.
I have no words.
A request, luckily, that was flatly denied.
And these antics earned Malat little sympathy, obviously.
And the New South Wales corrections minister at the time publicly scoffed that Malat could quote starve all he wants.
Amen.
And he wouldn't be getting any special treatment because of it.
But nevertheless, Malat's self-harm episodes reinforced his manipulative personality, because even behind bars, he sought control through any means available, including trying to inflict guilt or inconvenience on the system by injuring And on at least one occasion, Milat was attacked by other inmates as a form of prison justice.
And Milat recovered from these minor injuries without much complaint.
So even as Ivan Milat grew weak in prison, law enforcement did not forget the possibility that he had more victims.
And throughout the late 1990s and 2000s, detectives from NSW and other states periodically visited Milat in prison, just trying to elicit more information about unsolved cases.
But each time, Malat would casually deny any sort of involvement.
And in 2001 an inquest was held into the disappearance of the three Newcastle area teenagers from 1978 to 1979, which was Goodall, Hickey and Robinson.
And Malat was brought from prison to testify, but he provided nothing useful.
Essentially just shrugging and saying he didn't know them.
And a police officer who was present said that Milat seemed to enjoy the exertion from prison more than anything and treated the inquest like a quote day trip.
But similar efforts would follow.
In 2003, Queensland police, interviewing Milat about several unsolved hitchhiker murders in their state, found him polite but unhelpful.
In 2005, NSW police attempted to question Malat about Annette Briffa and two missing British nurses also from 1980.
But Malat, again, gave no confession or insight.
And one of the more intriguing developments came from within Malat's own family, actually.
Because over the years, a few of Ivan's siblings broke ranks and suggested he might have been involved in other crimes.
And his brother Boris, for instance, gave an interview in 2015 where he stated that Ivan had hinted at killing a taxi driver in 1962, like I mentioned previously, and that Ivan did other things that nobody will ever know about.
And Boris even took a polygraph test which a polygraph expert claimed indicated Boris was truthful in saying Ivan admitted that early shooting.
So investigators found the taxi driver story plausible but ultimately unprovable because he can't use polygraph in trials.
And it remained officially unsolved.
But Boris's outspoken stance caused a rift in the Milat family, most of whom remained tight-lipped or defensive of Ivan.
So Boris was ostracized by many relatives for airing family dirty laundry, but he felt it was important that any other potential victims not be forgotten.
And another terrifying chapter in the Milat saga unfolded in November of 2010, when Ivan's great nephew, Matthew Milat, murdered his friend in Belanglo State Forest, the very same forest where Ivan had killed before.
And Matthew, who was only 17, used an axe to execute the crime and reportedly declared quote you know who my family is.
That's what the Milats do.
During the incident, which is so incredibly horrifying and chilling like it just makes you think of all the other things that could have happened within this family and all the victims.
It's just insane.
So in 2012, matthew malat was convicted and sentenced to 43 years in prison for that murder, and while this crime was matthew's own a completely separate atrocity its location and method inevitably drew comparisons to his great uncles, and police scrutinized any possible correspondence between matthew and ivan.
However, there was no evidence ivan instructed or encouraged matthew to do so, So it seemed to be a case of familial influence or just mere coincidence, but I'm going to say influence.
But nonetheless it reinforced the Malat family curse narrative in tabloid media and it just pained the original victims' families to see the Malat name in headlines again for murder.
And some of them wondered publicly if violence truly quote ran in the family, renewing debates about nature versus nurture and the lasting trauma of Ivan's crimes.
But despite all these threads, as the years passed, it became clearly more victims than seven.
And he was intent on taking those secrets with him to the grave.
The police continued to revisit cold cases up until his dying days, but no new charges were ever laid.
And the unsolved cases possibly linked to him remain officially open investigations.
And many detectives involved have since retired.
And some have speculated that, given Malat's unwillingness to cooperate, we may never know the full extent of his crimes.
Because in the late 2010s, Malat's physical condition began to decline.
Because decades of prison food, limited exercise, and likely the toll of stress took effect.
And in early 2019, he started experiencing pain in his throat, and rapid weight loss.
And on May 13th 2019, Ivan Milat, then 74 years old, was transferred to Goldburn's Supermax prison to Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney for medical tests.
And doctors discovered he had advanced esophageal and stomach cancer, an illness in which was deemed terminal.
Boo.
Who?
Realizing that Australia's most notorious inmate was dying, officials set strict protocols and Malat was kept under heavy guard, shackled to a hospital bed and allowed no visitors except immediate family.
And even as his life waned, Malat maintained his stony demeanor and he gave no deathbed confession and no apology.
He came into this world a shit stain and he And by October 2019, Malat was moved to the secure hospital wing at Long Bay Correctional Center in Sydney to live out his final days.
And on the morning of October 27th, 2019, Ivan Malat died in custody from his cancers at age 74.
And news of his death made headlines across Australia and internationally.
And for many, it was final closure that the backpack murderer saga was over.
And families of victims expressed bittersweet relief.
And the NSW corrections minister, Anthony Roberts, voiced a more blunt reaction, reflective of public statement which was quote he can rot in hell.
He showed no remorse.
The world is a better place without Ivan Milat.
And that is it for the backpack murderer.
My heart goes out to the families and the victims.
At the end of the day, seven innocent people were killed, most likely a lot more and uh, i'm very happy that this monster is rotting in hell.
But if you want me to deep dive into any other case, let me know down below.
I always read your comments and i appreciate you guys being here very, very much.
And remember please please, stay safe out there and I will see your beautiful face in the next one.
Okay, bye.
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