Ivan explained 38 .22 calibre bullets found in the wardrobe of his bedroom by saying, ‘I used to go shooting at my brother’s place,’ referring to Alex Milat’s property at Buxton. Some of the cartridges were Winchester Winner, the type found at the Clarke and Neugebauer crime scenes in the forest. The police also found some Indonesian currency in the bedroom; Ivan had never travelled to Indonesia, but Gabor Neugebauer and Anja Habschied had spent time in Indonesia immediately before coming to Australia. Two rolls of black electrical tape similar to that located near Gabor’s and Anja’s bodies were also found. Searchers also discovered a driver’s licence with Ivan’s photograph and the name ‘Michael Gordon Milat’. When Ivan was asked by Leach whether he had ever been to the Belanglo State Forest, Ivan replied that ‘he had driven up a dirt track that goes past it [in the mid-1980s]’.
Several items of interest were also found in the spare bedroom, including a camouflage knife similar to the one described by Onions; four boxes of Eley .22 calibre cartridges of the same batch number as those found near Gabor’s body; a broken barrel band from a Ruger rifle; a Ruger 10/22 instruction manual; various gun parts; 50 Winchester cartridges, including Winner cartridges like those found at or near the Clarke and Neugebauer crime scenes; a range of ammunition for .22, .32, .38 and .45 calibre guns; and a green water bottle and pouch similar to one belonging to Simone Schmidl.
In the bedroom used by Ivan’s sister Shirley, searchers found a green sleeping bag similar to that used by Deborah Everist, and a Salewa sleeping bag like that used by Simone Schmidl.
Suspicious or incriminating items continued to be found in almost every room of the house. On the coffee table in the family room was a photograph album with pictures of Ivan’s girlfriend, Chalinder Hughes, wearing a green and white striped Benetton top like that owned and worn by Caroline Clarke. The photograph was dated ‘92’ (Caroline had disappeared in April of that year). In the hall cupboard, they discovered part of a Ruger 10/22 rifle, coloured with camouflage paint, and a map of the Southern Highlands, which included the Belanglo State Forest. A camera, cooking set, stove and cups similar to those owned by Simone were found in the kitchen, while a .32 calibre Browning pistol and ammunition were found under the washing machine in the laundry.
Asked to explain some of these items, Ivan usually responded with a shrug and some form of denial: ‘I don’t know’, ‘I’ve never seen it’, ‘It doesn’t belong to me’, or ‘I don’t understand.’
The searchers moved on. A Salewa sleeping bag cover, a green tent and tent cover, tent frame and related items believed to belong to Simone; a silencer that would fit a .22 calibre rifle; ammunition; black electrical tape and cable ties similar to those found at the Neugebauer and Habschied crime scenes; a pillowcase; and several blood-stained sash cords were found in the garage. Items found inside the red Holden Jackaroo included .22 calibre ammunition; a 1989 English 20-pence coin (Paul Onions, Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters all left the United Kingdom after 1989); and a threaded barrel cap that could be used on an Anschutz rifle. Ivan had previously told Leach that he had not owned a car during the previous six years. Asked about the red Holden Jackaroo in the garage, he said, ‘It’s me brother’s.’ The Jackaroo was registered in the name ‘W. Milat’, but Ivan later admitted it belonged to him.
Detective Senior Constable Peter O’Connor was one of the team that searched the garage. Using a ladder, O’Connor climbed through a manhole and began searching the roof cavity of the house, pulling out the insulation batts and shining a torch into the cavity between the inner and outer walls. After searching for some time without finding anything, O’Connor spotted a plastic bag lying on a piece of timber inside the wall cavity, but the bag was out of reach. Using a stick he had taken from the garage, O’Connor groped in the cavity until he managed to hook the bag and pull it out. Inside were some rags and what looked like parts of a gun, including a trigger mechanism.
Ballistics expert Gerard Dutton immediately recognised the parts as a complete breech bolt assembly, a complete trigger assembly and a Ram-Line magazine from a Ruger 10/22—the model Dutton had previously identified as having been used in the murders. Using a magnifying glass, Dutton could make out two features—a crescent-shaped firing pin and two small burrs on the bolt face—that matched the impressions on several of the fired cartridge cases recovered from the forest.
Leach was called to the garage and shown the parts. Ivan was then brought in and asked, ‘What’s this?’ Ivan casually replied, ‘Looks like something out of a gun,’ and denied ever having seen the parts before.
Knowing Rod Milton’s assessment of Ivan, Rod Lynch and I were reasonably confident of finding some small ‘memento’ —a piece of jewellery, for instance, or a personal item—in Ivan’s house, but neither of us had expected the avalanche of calls that began within moments of the search teams entering the house. From our point of view it was an Aladdin’s cave of evidence, a fantastic and, frankly, unbelievable vindication of the careful detective work we had been doing behind the scenes for months.
Around 8 a.m. the other teams began searching the other properties on our list.
Rod Lynch and I couldn’t wait any longer; we decided it was time to make an onsite assessment. When we arrived at Ivan’s house the street was still closed off; the search wasn’t finished yet. The media had been allowed into the yard but not inside the house.
We found Ivan sitting in the living room, handcuffed and guarded by a police officer. Ivan showed no sign of being aware of the consequences of what was happening around him. After speaking to some of the searchers, Rod and I looked at some of the items that had been recovered. As I walked from room to room a thought struck me: the house was jointly owned by Ivan and his sister, but the way Ivan’s things—including weapons, ammunition, clothing and other property apparently linked to the backpacker murders—were strewn around the property made it look as if the house was Ivan’s alone. I left the house convinced that Rod Milton had been right in his assessment that control, possession and domination were the driving forces behind Ivan’s life.
Satisfied that the search teams at Eagle Vale had all the equipment they needed, Rod and I returned to the command centre, where information had already begun to come in from the other properties.
Steve Leach now decided it was time to take Ivan to Campbelltown Police Station. Newspaper reporters and TV camera crews crowded around as Ivan—handcuffed and with a jacket over his head to hide his face—was led out of the house and taken to a police car. Questions were flying—What was Ivan being arrested for? What had been found in the house?—but it was too soon for them to be answered.
Meanwhile, O’Connor was still searching the roof and wall cavities. A call came through asking for permission to cut a hole in the lounge room wall in order to retrieve something hidden in the cavity: it turned out to be a rotary magazine for a Ruger rifle. Cadaver dogs and metal detectors were brought in to search the backyard. Every item found was photographed and logged with a description, location and the name of the finder.
Back at Campbelltown Police Station, Chalinder Hughes was told the allegations against Ivan. Although clearly in a state of shock and disbelief, she consented to police searching her home at nearby Kearns. Nothing that incriminated Ivan or any other person was found.
Margaret Milat, the 76-year-old family matriarch, was, as always, protective of her sons, refusing to assist the police in their search of the family home at Guildford. Rather than open a padlocked locker behind the house, she forced the police to break it open. Inside the locker they found a .22 calibre rifle and rifle sight with the name ‘Ivan’ engraved on it. In the garage, police recovered a Hallenstein T-shirt similar to one owned by Simone Schmidl; a Next shirt similar to one owned by Paul Onions; and a piece of rag similar to the gag used on Joanne Walters. A cavalry sword was found in a bedroom used by one of Ivan’s brothers, 35-year-old David, who had lived with his mother since losing an arm and suffering severe brain damage in a car ac
cident.
Richard Milat’s property at Hill Top comprised about a hectare. He and his partner lived in two caravans that had been joined together, although they had plans to build a house on the property. The caravans were also joined to a number of sheds, inside one of which police found an Ultimate sleeping bag, a bed roll and a blue tent, each similar to those owned by Caroline Clarke, and a blue Caribee Blaze sleeping bag like that owned by Joanne Walters. In Richard’s car, an old Datsun registered in his mother’s name, police found a length of rope similar to that found near the body of Gabor Neugebauer, three rifles, a shotgun and a crossbow. Richard was later convicted of drug and firearms offences.
At Walter ‘Wally’ Milat’s property, also in Hill Top, a High Sierra day pack similar to the one owned by Simone Schmidl was found in an alcove under the house. Ammunition, including 36 Winchester Winner .22 calibre cartridge packets and twelve packets of Eley .22 calibre cartridges, both of the same batch number as those found near the Neugebauer murder scene; an Anschutz rifle and bolt; a Winchester 30/30 repeating rifle; an unused Ruger 10/22 .22 calibre rifle; a .33 calibre revolver; a pump-action shotgun; a Ruger Mini-14 .223 calibre self-loading rifle; a self-loading shotgun; and parts of various weapons, some painted with camouflage paint, were found in and around the house. In total, searchers found about a quarter of a tonne of ammunition as well as 400 grams of cannabis. Like Richard, Walter was later convicted of drug and firearms offences.
Richard told police that one night in March 1994 he received a phone call from Wally, who asked him to go to Ivan’s house and ‘pick up some things’. Richard said that he and Wally arrived there about the same time, and that they took ‘guns and ammo’ from the garage and roof of the house. Ivan told them he wanted the guns moved because ‘the police might come to investigate’. Richard said they then took the guns and ammunition to Wally’s house, where it was stored and later found by police. Richard also said that he understood Shirley had been complaining and wanted the guns moved. Wally confirmed Richard’s story.
In Buxton, at a property previously owned by Alex Milat, a team of around 80 police spent six days excavating a homemade ‘rifle range’, while another team searched a 450-acre property near Wombeyan Caves, owned by Richard and Walter Milat and used by Ivan and other members of the Milat family for shooting practice. At both properties, police recovered thousands of spent cartridge cases and spent bullets.
At William Milat’s property in Bargo, a family photograph album was found. It was later used to identify camping equipment Ivan had souvenired from his victims.
Meanwhile, in Queensland, police returned to Alex’s West Woombye property with a search warrant, and seized a quantity of Winchester Winner .22 calibre ammunition with the same batch number as that found near the body of Gabor Neugebauer.
As the searches continued, Ivan was interviewed twice at Campbelltown Police Station by Detectives Leach and Gordon. The detectives did most of the talking, with Ivan denying any knowledge of the items found. The second interview ended about 11.40 a.m.
After the interviews, Rod Lynch and I went to see Ivan in the interview room. Given everything we now knew, it was a strange experience. Ivan gave the impression that he was enjoying the attention and that he knew exactly what was going on and why he was there, but that he still believed he was in charge and would soon be going home.
On the afternoon of Ivan’s arrest, the local lawyer, member of the Police Board and openly gay civil libertarian John Marsden was hosting a barbecue at his home for the board of directors of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras when the phone rang. The caller was Ivan’s sister, Shirley Soire, who told Marsden that Ivan had been arrested by the backpacker task force and was at Campbelltown Police Station.
Marsden hurriedly left the party but asked his guests to continue without him. Although he had represented Ivan on the 1971 rape charges, we didn’t know that Marsden planned to represent Ivan this time until he turned up at the police station.
Marsden and I knew each other through his role on the Police Board. We didn’t always agree, but we shared a mutual respect. When he arrived at the police station, he asked Rod Lynch and I whether I had any problems with him appearing for Ivan. I didn’t. Marsden was there in his capacity as Ivan’s solicitor, not as a member of the Police Board. In any case, the board wasn’t involved in operational matters, although due to the media interest it had received some general briefings. At the station Marsden never asked for any special privileges and none were offered.
We explained that Ivan would be charged with the armed robbery of Paul Onions and some firearms offences, but at this stage no charges relating to the backpacker murders would be preferred. We also told Marsden that a large quantity of property we believed to be related to those murders had been seized and that the next day we would be seeking an adjournment while we made further inquiries. Bail would be opposed. Marsden was then taken to see Ivan. They spoke for some time before Marsden returned to tell us that Ivan insisted he had done nothing wrong and that he would not be answering any further questions. I told Marsden I wasn’t concerned whether Ivan said anything or not and Marsden, looking somewhat surprised, asked, ‘You’re not?’
‘No,’ I said.
‘You’re telling me you think he’s fucked,’ said Marsden.
‘I’m just telling you I don’t care whether he says anything or not.’
Marsden looked at me and said, ‘Okay,’ before turning and walking away.
After Marsden had gone, Rod and I talked over our plan. Ivan would be charged with the robbery of Onions. That would be enough to ensure that his bail was refused. There would be no mention of the backpacker victims to the media or to the courts, not least because the searches of Ivan’s house, the firing range at Buxton and the Wombeyan Caves Road property were not yet complete.
While the material gathered appeared to be overwhelmingly against Ivan, there was much to be done to verify the ownership of the exhibits; connect the seized ammunition and weapons with the murders; and assemble this information in a way that would enable us to present a cogent and compelling case to the courts. One mistake, such as an incorrect identification of property or an inaccurate forensic finding, could have serious implications in court.
Later that afternoon, Ivan Robert Marko Milat was charged with the armed robbery of Paul Onions at Berrima on 25 January 1990. While the media had photographs and footage of the operation, as well as comments from people living near the raided properties, they were smarting at the lack of official comment from the task force. There had been no police briefings since before the raids began, and there had been no leaks. Every journalist was being harassed by his or her editor for a scoop. All they could report, however, was that the backpacker task force, supported by heavily armed police, forensic specialists, cadaver dogs and the Airwing (the police aerial unit) had carried out a series of raids; that a large quantity of property, including firearms, had been seized; and that three people had been arrested. But for what?
We all knew the headline they were after—‘Man charged with backpacker murders’—but they couldn’t run it without getting confirmation from the police, and we had no intention of giving it to them.
As darkness fell I spoke briefly with the media in the yard of the Campbelltown Police Station. I told them we had executed search warrants at seven locations. ‘One man has been arrested and charged with armed robbery and discharging a firearm south of Berrima on 25 June 1990. He will be appearing in court tomorrow morning. Two other men have been arrested and charged with firearm and drug offences. Our inquiries are continuing. I can’t say any more at this stage.’
It was pretty much what they already knew. They had learnt the names of those arrested from the neighbours. There was a barrage of questions, but they all amounted to the same thing: ‘What about the backpacker killings?’, ‘Is the man going to be charged with the backpacker killings?’, ‘Can you at least say the robbery charge today is linked to the killings?’
I could understand their frustration. My concern, however, was not for tonight’s or tomorrow’s headlines, but for a successful prosecution. That meant leaving nothing to chance, and resisting the pressure to rush into things before we were ready. The media had their agenda and we had ours. What we needed was time, and sleep. Like several of my colleagues, I had slept little during the past week. I had to be back early in the morning to prepare for Ivan’s court appearance, and all I wanted to do right now was go home and sleep. It had been an extraordinary day, but the media went home dissatisfied.
Usually, a preliminary court appearance and adjournment are formalities lasting only a few minutes, but that was never going to be the case with Ivan. As it happened, John Marsden couldn’t be in court (he was attending a New South Wales Police Association biennial conference in Wollongong), so Ivan was represented on that first morning by Marsden’s brother, Jim, a member of the same legal firm. Jim arrived at the police station early and had a lengthy conversation with Ivan in the cells. Jim then went directly to the court to wait for Ivan.
Campbelltown Court was packed. Few of those who had come to see the man arrested by the backpacker task force were able to get inside. Those who did were frisked for weapons by security staff. Meanwhile, a large crowd gathered outside the court, hoping to catch a glimpse of the defendant.
The court opened at 10 a.m. Ivan was well down the list and he had to wait while a string of mostly minor matters came before the magistrate, Kevin Flack. Then, about 11.30 a.m., Ivan’s name was called. He was brought into the court through a side door, surrounded by security guards. After acknowledging his solicitor, Ivan sat motionless and expressionless as the police prosecutor read out the fact sheet containing the allegations against him. Paul Onions’ name was suppressed by the magistrate. Journalists scribbled furiously while sketch artists tried to capture Ivan’s looks and features.
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