Ivan Milat (serial killer)

Ivan Milat
Ivan Milat's 1971 mug shot
Born	Ivan Robert Marko Milat (1944-12-27) 27 December 1944 (age 72) Guildford, New South Wales, Australia
Other names	The Backpacker Killer The Backpacker Murderer
Criminal penalty	7 consecutive life sentences plus 18 years without parole
Killings
Victims	7
Span of killings	1989–1993
Country	Australia
State(s)	New South Wales
Date apprehended	22 May 1994

The backpacker murders were a spate of serial killings that took place in New South Wales, Australia, between 1989 and 1993, committed by Ivan Milat. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partially buried in the Belanglo State Forest, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south west of the New South Wales town of Berrima. Five of the victims were foreign backpackers visiting Australia (three German, two British), and two were Australian travellers from Melbourne.

Milat was convicted of the murders 27 July 1996 and is currently serving seven consecutive life sentences, as well as 18 years without parole, at the maximum-security Goulburn Correctional Centre.

On 19 September 1992, two runners discovered a decaying corpse while orienteering in the Belanglo State Forest in New South Wales, Australia. The following day, police constables Roger Gough and Suzanne Roberts discovered a second body 30 metres (98 ft) from the first. Early media reports suggested that the bodies were of missing British backpackers Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters, who had disappeared from the inner Sydney suburb of Kings Cross in April 1992. However, a German couple, Gabor Neugebauer and Anja Habschied, had also disappeared from the Kings Cross area some time after 25 December 1991, and Simone Schmidl, also from Germany, had been reported missing for more than a year. It was also possible that the bodies were of a young Victorian couple, Deborah Everist and James Gibson, who had been missing since leaving Frankston in 1989.