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.
The Episode
- Belanglo State Forest Facts
- Article about the effects of the murders on the backpacking industry.
- Article about Simone’s memorial
- Appeal document links
- 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.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Police divers fail to find missing pair.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Couple still missing.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Tourist tells of danger in Australia.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Hitchhiking still gets the thumbs up, by Richard Macey.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Every day, twenty more lost souls, by Bobbi Mahlab.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Mother’s desperate bid to find missing couple, by Deborah Cornwall.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Parents in search for lost couple, by Karen Davey.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Heartbroken parents quit their search, by Karen Davey.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Police link backpackers to missing Germans.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Hunt launched for two British tourists, by Australian Associated Press.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: New ‘sightings’ of missing women, by Christine Rau.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Backpackers seen.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: New lead in hunt for tourists.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: No clues to two missing backpackers.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Homicide squads join search for foreign travellers, by Sandra Harvey.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: A hitch or two in bid to register tourists, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Parents’ plea on missing daughter, by Nick Papadopoulos.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Backpacker’s body identified, by Gareth Boreham.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Frenzied killer marched girls to bush graves, by Deborah Cornwall and Nick Papadopoulos.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Files reopened after backpacker murders, by Gareth Boreham.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Police find indications of roaming serial killer, by Deborah Cornwall.
- Associated Press: Australian Murders Make Campers, Backpackers Jittery, by Geoff Spencer.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Killer stabbed victims, by Deborah Cornwall.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Tourist women seen in hotel before murders, by Deborah Cornwall and Eammon Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Parents now fear for the worst, by Karen Davey.
- Sydney Morning Herald: New Clues in murder hunt, by Janine Cullen.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Many sightings of suspect van, by Deborah Cornwall and Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney morning Herald: ‘This wicked place will be peaceful again’, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Tip search fails to unearth murder clues, by Nick Papadopoulos.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Police fear truckie is mass killer, by Kevin Norbury.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Calls flood in after TV plea on tourist murders, by Maria Ceresa.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Bodies found near NSW murder site, by Gerard Ryle.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Serial killer fears grow after bush graves found, by Sandra Harvey.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Police intensify search for bush graves, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick and Julie Lewis.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Serial killer alert on tourist murders, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Fears rise for four visitors, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: A town that fears itself, by Jennifer Cooke and Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Killer’s knife frenzyAr, by Jenny Dennis and Rochelle Tubb.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Backpacker’s mother calls on public to help, by Mark Riley.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Dogs search for bodies, by Jenny Dennis.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Backpacker search targets death rifle, by Mark Riley.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Police find fifth body in forest near Bowral, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Last day of a lone hitchhiker, by Sandra Harvey and Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Switch in hunt for killer of tourists, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick and Mark Riley.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Christmas call was a son’s farewell, by Mark Riley.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: The force stays with it as forest yields its grisly clues, by Gerard Ryle.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Backpack Killer: sometimes he is Mr Nice, by Mark Riley.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Bones chipped in attacks, say police, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Backpack killer used a rare rifle, by Martin Warneminde and Frank Walker.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): Prison may be link in backpacker murder case, by Gerard Ryle.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Serial killings: more remains, property found, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: After 14 months, still no suspects, by Mark Riley and Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Macabre turn in killer hunt, by Eamonn Fitzpatrick and Mark Riley.
- The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia): A chilling profile of ‘serial killer’, by Australian Associated Press.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Belanglo: more than one killer, by Mark Riley and Eamonn Fitzpatrick.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: In Belanglo today, to remember the dead, by David Killick and Nicole Taylor.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Backpacker squads arrest man, by Sandra Harvey and Brad Norington.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: As dawn broke, a quiet suburban street exploded, by Sandra Harvey.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: The eight-hour search that led to an arsenal, by Nick Papadopoulos.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Task force manhunt nightmare.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Cautious reaction by victims’ parents, by Donna Reeves.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Backpacker search intensifies at house, by Sandra Harvey and Jenny Cooke.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Police breakthrough in Belanglo case, by Martin Warneminde.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Forest of Death: Milat charged with 7 murders, by Sandra Harvey and Nick Papadopoulos.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Milat breaks his silence to come to his own defence, by Nick Papadopoulos.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Right to fair trial at risk, says Milat’s new lawyer, by Nick Papadopoulos.
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Milat brother unreliable witness, court told, by Nick Papadopoulos.
- Crime Library: Ivan Milat: The Last Ride, by Patrick Bellamy.
- 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.