A vicious serial killer terrorized and hunted young backpackers in Australia’s Belanglo State Forest in the early 1990’s. The impact of his heinous crimes still resonates with residents to this day. How he committed his crimes made even the most seasoned investigators shudder and the true number of victims he’s suspected of murdering may never be known.
Watch Apex now, only on Netflix.
Deborah Everist and James Gibson Photos: (Photo Source) Strange Outdoors
Simone Schimdl Photo: (Photo Source) Strange Outdoors
Gabor Neugebauer and Anja Habschied Photos: (Photo Source) Strange Outdoors
Caroline Clark and Joanne Walters Photos: (Photo Source) Strange Outdoors
Ivan Milat Photo: (Photo Source) Strange Outdoors
Victim Discovery Map: (Photo Source) Newspapers.com
Belanglo State Forest Photo (Photo Source) TheGuardian.com
Belanglo State Forest Location Map: (Source) Google Maps
Australia Geography Map (Source) Google Maps
Episode Source Material
- Belanglo State Forest Facts
- Article about the effects of the murders on the backpacking industry.
- Article about Simone’s memorial
- Appeal document links (1)
- Appeal document links (2)
- 60 Minutes Australia Youtube: Detective Who Caught Ivan Milat Says Belanglo Forest Is Pure Evil. By staff.
- 60 Minutes Australia Youtube: Australia’s Murderous Family, The Milats. By Staff.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Mother tells of daughter’s ‘pact’ before she vanished, by Lindsay Simpson via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Police divers fail to find missing pair via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Couple still missing via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Tourist tells of danger in Australia via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Hitchhiking still gets the thumbs up, by Richard Macey via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Every day, twenty more lost souls, by Bobbi Mahlab via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Mother’s desperate bid to find missing couple, by Deborah Cornwall via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Parents in search for lost couple, by Karen Davey via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Heartbroken parents quit their search, by Karen Davey via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Police link backpackers to missing Germans via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Hunt launched for two British tourists, by Australian Associated Press via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: New ‘sightings’ of missing women, by Christine Rau via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Backpackers seen via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: New lead in hunt for tourists via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: No clues to two missing backpackers via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Homicide squads join search for foreign travellers, by Sandra Harvey via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: A hitch or two in bid to register tourists, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Parents’ plea on missing daughter, by Nick Papadopoulos via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Backpacker’s body identified, by Gareth Boreham via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Frenzied killer marched girls to bush graves, by Deborah Cornwall and Nick Papadopoulos via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Files reopened after backpacker murders, by Gareth Boreham via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Police find indications of roaming serial killer, by Deborah Cornwall via Newspapers.com.
- Associated Press: Australian Murders Make Campers, Backpackers Jittery, by Geoff Spencer.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Killer stabbed victims, by Deborah Cornwall via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Tourist women seen in hotel before murders, by Deborah Cornwall and Eammon Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Parents now fear for the worst, by Karen Davey via Newspapers.com.
- Sydney Morning Herald: New Clues in murder hunt, by Janine Cullen via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Many sightings of suspect van, by Deborah Cornwall and Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney morning Herald: ‘This wicked place will be peaceful again’, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Tip search fails to unearth murder clues, by Nick Papadopoulos via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Police fear truckie is mass killer, by Kevin Norbury via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Calls flood in after TV plea on tourist murders, by Maria Ceresa via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Bodies found near NSW murder site, by Gerard Ryle via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Serial killer fears grow after bush graves found, by Sandra Harvey via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Police intensify search for bush graves, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick and Julie Lewis via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Serial killer alert on tourist murders, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Fears rise for four visitors, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: A town that fears itself, by Jennifer Cooke and Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Killer’s knife frenzyAr, by Jenny Dennis and Rochelle Tubb via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Backpacker’s mother calls on public to help, by Mark Riley via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Dogs search for bodies, by Jenny Dennis via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Backpacker search targets death rifle, by Mark Riley via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Police find fifth body in forest near Bowral, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Last day of a lone hitchhiker, by Sandra Harvey and Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Switch in hunt for killer of tourists, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick and Mark Riley via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Christmas call was a son’s farewell, by Mark Riley via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: The force stays with it as forest yields its grisly clues, by Gerard Ryle via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Backpack Killer: sometimes he is Mr Nice, by Mark Riley via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Bones chipped in attacks, say police, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Backpack killer used a rare rifle, by Martin Warneminde and Frank Walker via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Prison may be link in backpacker murder case, by Gerard Ryle via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Serial killings: more remains, property found, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: After 14 months, still no suspects, by Mark Riley and Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Macabre turn in killer hunt, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick and Mark Riley via Newspapers.com.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): A chilling profile of ‘serial killer’, by Australian Associated Press via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Belanglo: more than one killer, by Mark Riley and Eamonn Fitzpatrick via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: In Belanglo today, to remember the dead, by David Killick and Nicole Taylor via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Backpacker squads arrest man, by Sandra Harvey and Brad Norington via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: As dawn broke, a quiet suburban street exploded, by Sandra Harvey via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: The eight-hour search that led to an arsenal, by Nick Papadopoulos via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Task force manhunt nightmare via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Cautious reaction by victims’ parents, by Donna Reeves via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Backpacker search intensifies at house, by Sandra Harvey and Jenny Cooke via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Police breakthrough in Belanglo case, by Martin Warneminde via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Forest of Death: Milat charged with 7 murders, by Sandra Harvey and Nick Papadopoulos via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Milat breaks his silence to come to his own defence, by Nick Papadopoulos via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Right to fair trial at risk, says Milat’s new lawyer, by Nick Papadopoulos via Newspapers.com.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Milat brother unreliable witness, court told, by Nick Papadopoulos via Newspapers.com.
- Crime Library: Ivan Milat: The Last Ride, by Patrick Bellamy. Published Date Unknown via Internet Archive.
- News.com.au: Australia’s worst serial killer Ivan Milat has died aged 74, by Candace Sutton.
- Yahoo News: Ivan Milat’s brother tells why the ‘evil’ murderer killed seven backpackers.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: ‘I still can’t help you’: Police tried eight times to get Ivan Milat deathbed confession, by Simon Bouda.
- ABC News (Australia): Ivan Milat forced to pay for his own cremation.
- Strange Outdoors: The real Wolf Creek- The Backpacker Murders in the Australian Outback.
- 7 News Sunrise (Australia): Chilling claim backpacker murderer Ivan Milat killed TWENTY more victims.
- Ivan Milat: Buried Secrets (Television Series). 7 News via Amazon.