Milat may have murdered four more: former cop

By Nicole Hasham
Updated November 6 2012 - 1:00am, first published August 30 2010 - 11:16am
The crime scene established by police in the Belanglo State Forest where human remains were found.  Picture: GARY SCHAFER
The crime scene established by police in the Belanglo State Forest where human remains were found. Picture: GARY SCHAFER
IVAN MILAT
IVAN MILAT

The former chief investigator in the Belanglo backpacker killings says Ivan Milat may have committed "three or four" more murders as police today continue the hunt for further skeletal remains.Trail bike riders found a human skull and bones in a dense section of bush in the Belanglo State Forest on Sunday afternoon. The forest is the notorious killing field of Milat, who dumped the bodies of seven young backpackers during a murderous spree in the 1990s.Former NSW police assistant commissioner Clive Small said Milat could possibly have carried out a handful of further killings."It's quite possible he is linked to a couple of other murders, maybe three or four, but I won't go into who they are," Mr Small said yesterday. He did not imply the bodies were dumped at Belanglo.The discovery of bones has prompted a flurry of questions over the identity of the possible victim.Since Milat's conviction in 1996, the serial killer has been named as a suspect in a string of missing persons cases dating back to the 1970s.In November 2006, Milat was named a suspect in the murders of Sydney nurses Gillian Jamieson and Deborah Balkan, both 20, who disappeared from a Parramatta Hotel in 1980 - the same night they are believed to have attended a Wollongong party.Milat was named at inquests into the disappearance of Robyn Hickie, 17, Amanda Robinson, 14, and Leanne Goodall, 20, all from the Hunter region, who disappeared in the late 1970s. He is also the prime suspect in the murder of Berowra schoolgirl Michelle Pope, 18, and her boyfriend, Stephen Lapthorne, 21, who vanished from Sydney's North Shore in 1978.Police believe Milat could also be linked to the murder of Gosford woman Susan Isenhood, 22, whose remains were found in NSW North Coast bushland in 1986.In March this year, Milat's former lawyer Leon Sokulsky alleged his client may have murdered more than 100 people - a figure dismissed by Mr Small. But the Belanglo forest murders continued to fire the public imagination, he said. "You've got a forest where seven bodies were found and rumours of more and spooky tales going on - it does generate discussion," Mr Small said.Meantime, debate continues over whether an accomplice, possibly a family member, helped Milat. The trial judge determined it was "inevitable" the murders were not committed by Milat alone, but Mr Small believed Milat was a "loner" and "control freak" who would never have trusted anyone to help him kill.

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