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Steven Clark believes he is lucky to be alive today. He has no doubt that he was being driven to his death by a serial killer who was later convicted of murdering seven young people. Mr Clark had been hitchhiking with a friend as a teenager when a car speeding by slammed on its breaks and pulled over for them. They got in.
"As my mate was just starting to close the door, he took off, he hit the accelerator. He hadn't even got the door closed," Mr Clark told ABC, adding that the driver then started asking them suspicious questions like who knew they were hitchhiking and who knew where they were going.
"He was quite happy to ask us questions and begin to find out stuff about us, but he wouldn't volunteer even his name to us," said Mr Clark. Luckily for the young hitchhikers, the way the vehicle was being driven caught the attention of the police, who pulled it over and issued the driver with a speeding ticket.
The driver's behaviour changed immediately and he dropped the youngsters off where he said he would — but not before Mr Clark had caught a glimpse of the first two letters of his name on the speeding ticket.
"It began with I, V," he said. "I didn't get a chance to read the rest of it." He had no idea how close he'd come to a serial killer, and a sickening discovery was made years later in a haunting bombshell.
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Who was the driver?
Many years later, Mr Clark was watching the news when he saw the man again: "I recognised him straight away," he said. The man was Ivan Milat and he had just been arrested in connection with the murder of at least seven young hitchhikers. Between 1989 and 1992, Milat abducted, assaulted and murdered seven young people and dumped their bodies in Belanglo State Forest, around two hours south of Sydney, Australia. It was later dubbed "Serial Killer Forest".
Three of his victims were German, two were British and two Australian. But police and campaigners believe he could be responsible for the deaths of many, many more dating back to the 1970s, long before the first murder for which he was convicted. An inquiry began this summer in Australia to examine the links between unresolved missing persons cases and Ivan Milat. Among them is Kay Docherty, who vanished at the age of 15 in 1979 while hitchhiking on the same road where Mr Clark was picked up. Her brother, Kevin, told the inquiry: "I promised my mum, who died in my arms, that I would continue the search for her daughter, my twin sister."
Furthermore, a retired British detective believes a 20-year-old woman, Keren Rowland, was Milat's first victim. She went missing in 1971. The detective, Hugh Hughes, said: "If he did kill Keren, and I am 95 to 98% certain he did, then she was his first victim."
Who were Ivan Milat's victims?
The young men and women who Ivan Milat was convicted of killing were all backpackers who were picked up when hitchhiking between Sydney and Melbourne. Some were in pairs, some were alone, all were taken into the Belanglo State Forest and all met the most awful deaths. Their bodies were found between September 1992 and November 1993, buried face down in shallow graves with their hands tied behind their backs.
Caroline Clarke, 21, and Joanne Walters, 22, had been last seen in April 1992. Their bodies were found by runners. Ms Walters had been stabbed multiple times all over her body, Ms Clarke had been shot 10 times in the head.
The bodies of James Gibson and Deborah Everist, both 19, were found in October 1993 in a remote part of the forest. They had been savagely beaten and stabbed. They had been missing since December 1989.
In November 1993, a skeleton was found in a forest clearing by police and two others were found nearby three days later. They were Simone Schmidl and German couple Anja Habschied and Gabor Neugebauer. They had all been missing since 1991. Ms Schmidl had been stabbed at least eight times, Mr Neugebauer shot six times in the head and Ms Habschied decapitated.
How did Ivan Milat kill for so long without being caught?
Just a few weeks after Keren Rowland's disappearance in 1971, Milat was charged with abducting and raping two teenage hitchhikers. He managed to flee to New Zealand while on bail and, despite being brought to trial three years later, was acquitted after his lawyer raised the girls’ psychiatric history in court.
Australian politician Jeremy Buckingham believes Milat could have murdered more than 80 people. He fought to bring about the inquiry (and is now chairing it) and was successful after he presented a sketch of the man believed to be responsible for the Wanda Beach murders of two young girls, Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock, in 1965 whose bodies were found stabbed and partially buried. The drawing bears a resemblance to a young Ivan Milat.
Then there's Peter Letcher, who was 18 when his body was found in another state forest in 1988. He was shot in the head and stabbed several times in the back. Bullets at his murder scene came from the same gun that killed some of the backpackers. Clive Small, who led the Milat investigation, told the BBC: "I'm satisfied the 1987 murder of Peter Letcher was Ivan Milat."
Mr Buckingham said last year that he wants the inquiry to go much further and investigate "impediments in the justice system that impacted the delivery of justice". He told parliament: "I believe it is possible that Milat’s long‑term relationships with powerful and corrupt interests protected him from investigation, prosecution and justice for many decades before he was convicted for the Belanglo murders."
He added: "What's clear is that it was as plain as the nose on your face that a serial killer was operating in New South Wales in the 1970s."
He said the inquiry had received "scores of stories of people who had been picked up" or had reported assaults or near-misses that were only later associated with Milat.
The 'star witness' who helped convict Milat
Ivan Milat may have got away with all his heinous crimes if it hadn't been for a British man called Paul Onions. When he was picked up by Milat in 1990 and saw a gun and rope in the car, he knew he was in trouble. He managed to get out of the vehicle and was chased on foot and shot at by Milat before he managed to get into another car and flee to the nearest police station. His report was not taken seriously by local police and it wasn't until years later, with Mr Onions back in the UK, that he saw news reports about the remains of bodies found in Belanglo State Forest.
He called the Australian Federal Police from the UK and was immediately flown back to Australia, where an investigation was under way. It was now 1996. News reports at the time called Mr Onions a "star witness" but he said he turned down a reward payment of A$200,000 (£110,000) at the time.
What happened to Ivan Milat?
Ivan Milat was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences without parole for seven murders, as well as for the attempted murder, false imprisonment and robbery of Mr Onions. He died in prison in 2019 aged 74. After being diagnosed with stomach and throat cancer six months earlier, police tried to get him to confess to his involvement in other unsolved crimes but he refused, taking any secrets with him to his grave. He left a letter to his brother which was signed off: "I am innocent of the crimes convicted of."
“He is still without peer as Australia’s worst serial killer,” said former detective Stuart Wilkins after his death. “It’s a real travesty the way he sat there and still denied his absolute guilt in committing those murders and others. It just goes to show his psychopathic personality to the end.”
It is similar to another chilling case of a 15-year-old hitchhiker who lost both arms after a sickening attack.
