Ivan Milat was convicted for seven murders but police think he is responsible for many more. The Backpacker Murders is the name given to serial killings that occurred in the Belanglo State Forest, 2 hours south of Sydney. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partly buried there. Five of the victims were young backpackers on holiday in Australia and included 3 Germans, 2 British and 2 Australians. Croatian-Australian Milat was convicted of the murders and is serving seven consecutive life sentences plus 18 years. But he wouldn't be in gaol today if it wasn't for an Englishman called Paul Onions.
Police received a call from Paul Onions in Britain. He had been backpacking in Australia several years before and had accepted a ride from a man named "Bill" on 25th January 1990. Bill pulled a gun on Onions and tried to tie him up but he managed to escape and ran for his life along the busy highway pleading for someone to stop and help him. Cars screamed passed ignoring him but finally Joanne Berry went against her better judgement, and stopped. He went straight to the police and reported what happened. As the years passed, he wondered why he hadn't heard anything more about it. The reason was that the police investigation was so hopelessly incompetent, they had lost his report.
On 5th May 1994, Onions positively identified Milat as the man who had picked him up. As a result, Milat was arrested at his house in outer Sydney and a search revealed a .22 rifle that matched the type used in the murders plus clothing, camping equipment, and cameras belonging to the young victims.
Last week, an 18 year old relative of Milat (who can't be named), smiled as he appeared before Campbelltown's Childrens Court via video link charged with the axe murder of 17 year old family friend and schoolmate David Auchterlonie. And he chose Ivan Milat's killing grounds - the Belanglo Forest - to do it. It seems that he and two other friends went to the forest on the pretext of celebrating David's birthday which occured on that day. He'd spent a week planning the killing and how he would entice his victim to the forest. After he drove an axe into the back of his head and partly covered up his body, he drove his two terrified companions home and said he was going to dispose of the axe and their clothes which were covered in blood.
Although he has had no contact with Ivan Milat, and the murder is no way connected to the Backpacker murders - the killing made the headlines because he is a relative of Milat and he chose to kill his victim in the Belanglo forest. There were 14 siblings in the Milat family. Some of the children had run-ins with police when they were teenagers but straightened out and led clean lives. But the father of the murdered boy said yesterday "Obviously the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in that family, it must be in the bloodstream."
The sign says "Please be Careful" but doesn't say what of.
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