Considered to be one of Australia’s worst serial killers, the crimes Ivan Milat committed are still horrifying three decades later.
But the seven murders Milat was convicted for in 1996 barely scratch the surface of his crimes, according to former detective sergeant Neville Scullion. “There’s anything up to possibly 80 people that he killed,” Neville shares with Woman’s Day.
“The first body was found in 1992, he’s arrested in 1994, but he didn’t just start killing in ’92… he was rampant over a 20-year period.”
Along with another former New South Wales Police detective, Paul Gordon, who died last November, Neville firmly believes Milat’s killing spree began in February 1971 when Keren Rowland, 20, was murdered near Canberra.
Neville joined NSW Police in 1977, and first became involved with the Milat case in April 1992 when British backpackers Joanne Walters, 22, and Caroline Clarke, 21, were reported missing by Joanne’s parents Ray and Jill.
He recently opened up about the case for the first time on the true crime podcast The Missing Australia: Milat Untold.
“Both girls had been in regular contact with their parents, but Caroline’s father became concerned when he couldn’t make contact with her,” Neville shares.
“In the early stages of the investigation, I felt there was something really wrong and this was far worse than two girls who just lost contact with their families.”
First bodies found
When Neville heard two bodies were found in Belanglo State Forest in September 1992, he knew they were Joanne and Caroline’s.
“I was asked to take some dental records [of Joanne’s] to the morgue in Glebe, and when we arrived, they’d already X-rayed the body,” he recalls.
“So we put ours alongside them and you could tell it was Joanne Walters… she had a very distinctive jaw.”
The same day Joanne and Caroline were identified at the morgue, Neville received a phone call from Ray and Jill, who were visiting Australia to search for Joanne.
“I told Ray we found two bodies in Belanglo and we’re pretty sure it’s Joanne and Caroline.”
After finding out her precious 22-year-old daughter was dead, Neville recalls Jill’s gut-wrenching screams.
“We put her into the back of the homicide squad car to take them back to where they were staying, and she was thrashing her arms and legs so much that she smashed one of the windows,” he shares.
“They had to get a doctor to sedate her. It was a dreadful time.”
Little did Neville know, the bodies of Joanne and Caroline were just the first two of Milat’s confirmed victims found.
Dealing with a serial killer
Just over a year after Joanne and Caroline’s bodies were found in Belanglo, a local man searching for firewood discovered the remains of backpackers James Gibson and Deborah Everist, both 19, in October 1993.
After an extensive search of Belanglo the following month, the bodies of German backpackers Simone Schmidl, 21, Anja Habschied, 20, and Gabor Neugebauer, 21, were all found in shallow graves on a fire trail.
“The thought that we were dealing with a serial killer hadn’t crossed my mind when Joanne and Caroline were found,” Neville says.
“But as more bodies were being located, it was more obvious a serial killer was involved.”
Milat was finally arrested in May 1994 after being identified by Paul Onions, a 24-year-old British backpacker who had escaped an attempted murder by Milat in January 1990.
After 18 weeks of testimonies in court, Milat was convicted of seven murders and given a life sentence without parole for each count in March 1996.
Before he died of oesophageal cancer at Long Bay Correctional Centre in 2019, NSW Police tried to get him to confess to the seven murders, as well as several other deaths police strongly believe he could’ve committed from the early 1970s to the mid 1990s. “He was a complete and utter psychopath,” Neville says.
The first victim?
Retired detective sergeant Hugh Hughes from Wales, UK, believes Milat killed Hughes’ wife Andrea’s cousin Keren Rowland. Keren, 20, disappeared near Canberra in February 1971.
“There’s circumstantial evidence he could have been responsible for Keren’s death,” he tells Woman’s Day.
“There are media reports of a man matching his description accosting three women on Constitution Avenue three days before Keren went missing, and just before he raped two girls near Goulburn that April.”
Now, 54 years later, he and Andrea are still searching for answers. They’re encouraging the public to contact the Australian police with any information about Keren’s death.
Milat’s victims
From December 1989 to April 1992, Milat killed these seven hitchhikers and buried them in Belanglo.
Deborah Everist
James Gibson
Simone Schmidl
Anja Habschied
Gabor Neugebauer
Joanne Walters
Caroline Clarke
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