NSW:Human remains found at Belango

AAP General News (Australia)
08-30-2010
NSW:Human remains found at Belango

By Belinda Cranston

SYDNEY, Aug 30 AAP - Human remains have been found in a previously unsearched area
of Belango State Forest, 18 years after the first of seven murdered backpackers was discovered
there.

It's too early for police to know how long the bones, discovered by a bike rider on
Sunday, have been lying by a dusty fire trail 100km southwest of Sydney.

Acting Superintendent Evan Quarmby on Monday confirmed the remains were human, but
he was reluctant to draw any links between the grisly discovery and convicted serial killer
Ivan Milat.

The former road worker is serving seven life terms for the murders of seven young backpackers,
whose bodies were found dumped in shallow graves in the forest in the early 1990s.

"We are not drawing any conclusions in relation to any missing persons or other past
or current investigations," Supt Quarmby told reporters at Bowral in the NSW southern
highlands.

"We are just going to gather what we can and make some judgments."

It's long been suspected that Milat may have been involved in more killings, but Supt
Quarmby refused to say whether he would be questioned.

"It is early days, and we are in the process of gathering all of the possible evidence
that we can," he said.

He conceded the remains had been found at a previously unsearched area of the forest,
known as Dalys Waterhole.

"This part of the forest was not searched in the past for human remains," he said.

"The Belango Forest is a huge area, not all of the forest could be searched ...

"In the past, searches were made based on the best information that was available at
the time, and this area wasn't searched during those previous investigations."

Former NSW police assistant commissioner Clive Small, a lead detective in the investigation
of the backpacker murders, was also sceptical about linking Milat to the remains.

He said the serial killer typically buried victims away from fire trails.

"In this case, (it looks like) the remains were right beside the (fire) trail," he
told Fairfax Radio on Monday.

"That would be inconsistent with the pattern that Milat has used."

Supt Quarmby said it wasn't uncommon for bones to be found in Belango State Forest,
although most of the time they belonged to animals.

Two hikers in 1992 came across a rotting corpse in the dense Belango forest which turned
out to be the remains of 22-year-old British tourist Joanne Walters.

In the course of a year, six more bodies were found in the forest.

Five of Milat's victims were European: Ms Walters from Wales, her friend Caroline Clarke,
22, from England, and three Germans - Simone Schmidl, 20, Gabor Neugebauer, 21, and Anja
Habschied, 20.

The other two, James Gibson and his girlfriend Deborah Everist, both 19, were from Melbourne.

After an 18-month investigation, police raided a home at Eagle Vale on the outskirts
of Sydney on May 22, 1994. They seized evidence and charged 51-year-old roadworker Milat,
one of 14 children of Yugoslav-Australian parents.

AAP bc/tr/jl/cdh

KEYWORD: BONES WRAP (PIX AVAILABLE)

� 2010 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.