In the forest of the vanishing, a trail of death, The Age, 22 June, 1994

In the forest of the vanishing, a trail of death

Author: John Stapleton

Date: 22/05/1994

Words: 917

      Publication: The Age

Section: The Backpacker Raids

Page: 3

Australia's worst serial killings started out as little more than a missing-persons case.

Seven young backpackers had disappeared from various locations around Sydney, but there seemed little to connect them in habit or circumstance and, in the impulsive way of young people travelling, perhaps more reason to suspect they might one day reappear, telling of fantastic adventures in far-flung places.

But as time dragged on without news, suspicions of foul play took hold among police and parents, to be realised in September 1992 when the first two bodies were discovered in a lonely spot in the Belanglo State Forest.

One by one, the remains of seven backpackers were found, sparking a massive investigation into what was clearly one of Australia's worst serial killings.

The victims were all young travellers: three Germans, two British and two Australians. They were all born between 1969 and 1971 and doing what so many thousands of young people have always done: seeing the world on a shoestring.

The story began on 29 December 1989, when James Gibson, from Moorooduc, and his girlfriend Deborah Everist, of Franston, 19, were last seen in the inner-Sydney suburb of Surry Hills.

Gregarious and nomadic, they told friends they were going to hitch- hike along the Hume Highway to Albury where they were thinking of attending an anti-logging rally. They were not seen alive again.

Their disappearance attracted no media attention until nearly four months later, when Mr Gibson's camera and backpack were found in Sydney's Galston Gorge.

On 20 January 1991, Simone Schmidl, a 20-year-old German backpacker from Regensburg near Munich, left Sydney to hitch-hike along the Hume to Melbourne. She had arranged to meet up with her mother, Erwinea.

She vanished. ``We tried to stop her hitch-hiking alone but she wouldn't listen," a friend recalled. A fortnight later the headlines appeared: `Mother pleads for missing daughter', `Fears for missing hitch-hike girl'.

Eventually Mrs Schmidl returned to Germany without her daughter, whose disappearance was linked with missing shop assistant Carmen Verheyden, 22, who also disappeared in the same area.

The day after Christmas, in December 1991, two German backpackers, Gabor Neugebauer, 21, of Munich, and Anja Habschied, 20, of Karsfeld, disappeared after planning to hitchhike from Sydney to Darwin.

The last contact the couple made with their families was on 24 December, when Mr Neugebauer rang his father from Bondi.

Their bank accounts remained unused, traveller's cheques uncashed, flights missed, and there appeared to be only one explanation. Private investigators failed to find any trace of the couple.

In April 1992, the British backpackers Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters, both 22, left a hostel at Kings Cross.

In the following weeks there were a number of reported sightings of them in the days after left Sydney, into a truck at the Caltex service station in Bulli, drinking in the Blue Boar Hotel at Bowral, camping south of Mittagong.

The last to be killed, they were the first to be found.

Caroline Clarke's body was found on 19 September in a shallow grave in the Belanglo State Forest, near an area known as Executioners Drop.

Joanne Walters was found the next day, also in a shallow grave.

Both had been repeatedly stabbed. Ms Clarke had also been shot.

A search was begun for a white early model Volkswagen Kombi after reports that the girls had been seen with a man driving such a vehicle.

A little over a year later, on 5October 1993, the skeletal remains of Mr Gibson and Ms Everist were found in the Belanglo State Forest, less than one kilometre from where the bodies of Ms Clarke and Ms Walters were found, confirming the worst fears of friends and relatives.

In the following days police launched an intensive search of the area, and admitted that all four murders were probably connected.

In early November things moved quickly. A fifth body was found in the Belanglo forest about five kilometres from the other four. It was later identified as Simone Schmidl, last seen on 21January 1991.

Three days later, on 4 November, the bodies of Mr Neugebauer and Ms Habschied, were found.

Taskforce Air, as the police operation to find the killer or killers was known, dragged on for months, costing millions of dollars.

Up to 360 police at a time have joined the murder hunt, with inquiries starting in the forest and the small nearby country town of Bowral, stretching as far south as Melbourne, and extending to Britain, Greece and the Netherlands.

Stories about the police use of sophisticated new technology, including the computer system Netmap, kept the story alive but a conclusive result was elusive.

In February this year, in a clearing in the Belanglo State Forest, a memorial plaque was unveiled, with some of the family and friends of the murdered young people attending.

There was an overwhelming sadness at the needless death of people who should have had their whole lives in front of them. Prayers were offered for a swift result to the investigation.