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AUSTRALIA-CRIME-MURDER-MILAT
Notorious Australian serial killer Ivan Milat dies
SYDNEY, Oct 27, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Australia’s most notorious serial killer
Ivan Milat, whose murder of seven young backpackers in the 1990s terrified
the country, has died in hospital, officials said Sunday.
Milat was serving consecutive life sentences for the brutal killing spree
took place near Sydney between 1989 and 1992.
A spokeswoman for Corrective Services New South Wales said in a statement
that the 74-year-old died at Long Bay Hospital at 4:07 am on Sunday.
He was diagnosed with terminal stomach and oesophagus cancer in May and had
been in hospital to receive pain relief since October 11, according to
national broadcaster ABC.
His seven confirmed victims were Britons Caroline Clarke, 21, and Joanne
Walters, 22, Australians James Gibson and Deborah Everist, both 19, and
German backpackers Simone Schmidl, 21, Anja Habschied, 20, and Gabor
Neugebauer, 21.
In each case, he had offered the young hitchhikers a lift, stabbed or shot
them in thrill killings and buried the bodies in shallow graves in a forest
in the NSW southern highlands.
Milat was arrested in 1994 following one of Australia’s biggest police
investigations, which was sparked by the discovery of the bodies in 1992 and
1993.
He was convicted of the murders in 1996, as well as of the abduction of
another traveller who escaped, but denied having a role in the crimes.
Milat was also a major suspect in the murders of three other women who went
missing in the state’s Hunter region a decade before he began the killings
for which he was jailed.
Leanne Beth Goodall, Robyn Elizabeth Hickie and Amanda Therese Robinson
disappeared in 1978 and 1979. Their bodies were never found.
Milat admitted that he had worked as a roadman in the area during the late
1970s but denied involvement in the three murders.
Australia is a popular destination for young backpackers, with more than
600,000 touring the country every year.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0840 hrs