Between 1989 and 1992, seven backpackers left Sydney and were never heard from again. The missing -- Deborah Everist and James Gibson from Frankston, Victoria; Simone Schmidl from Regensburg, Germany; Gabor Neugebauer and Anja Habschied from Karlsfeld, Germany; Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters from Haslemere, England, and Maesteg, Wales, respectively -- were between the ages of 19 and 22 and were all last seen hitchhiking south on the Hume Highway, heading towards Melbourne.
In 1992, runners in Belanglo State Forest -- a pine plantation 88 miles south of Sydney, just off of the Hume Highway -- stumbled across skeletal remains. Over the next two years, police would uncover six more sets of remains buried in shallow graves throughout the forest, and positively identify them as belonging to the missing backpackers.
Fearing a serial killer was on the loose, police raced to solve the murders and caught a break in the case when a UK man named Paul Onions contacted the authorities and described a horrifying incident he had narrowly escaped from.
Three years earlier on January 25, 1990, Onions had accepted a ride out of the Sydney suburb of Liverpool from a man who called himself "Bill." As they approached Belanglo State Forest, Bill suddenly stopped the car and pulled a gun on Onions, telling him he was about to be robbed. Onions managed to jump out of the car and flagged down a passing motorist before Bill could capture him. Onions reported the incident to local police, giving a detailed description of his assailant and his vehicle.
Onions' statement and later positive identification lead to the arrest and conviction of truck driver Ivan Milat, inside whose home items belonging to the seven murdered backpackers were found. Although Milat never explained his motive, and in fact maintained his "innocence," evidence shows that his victims were first paralyzed, then tortured for hours before finally succumbing to death. Milat died from cancer in 2019, serving seven consecutive life sentences.