He may have died in jail in 2019 but the crimes of notorious serial killer Ivan Milat terrifyingly continue.
While he was only ever convicted for the murders of seven people, a team of investigators now believe he could be responsible for as many as 80 additional victims who are buried in bushland.
The three police detectives, who helped track down Milat in the 1990s, said the new victims could date back to the 1970s.
“There’s anything up to 80 people that he killed,” former NSW detective, Neville Scullion told the Ivan Milat Untold podcast.
“The first body is found in 1992, he’s arrested in 1994, but he didn’t just start killing in ’92… he was rampant over a 20-year period.
“If there were other bodies that are located in similar circumstances, there’s probably some that can be attributed to him. But the chances of locating any bodies now are fairly remote, as sad as that is but that’s the reality.”
It’s the first time the detective has spoken publicly about the case, including his work leading the investigation into the 1992 disappearance of British backpackers Joanne Walters, 22, and Caroline Clare, 21.
Their bodies were found months later in the Belanglo State Forest where Milat buried the rest of his victims.
Milat’s other known victims are Deborah Everist and James Gibson, both 19, Simone Schmidl, 21, Anja Habschied, 20, and Gabor Neugebauer, 21. British backpacker Paul Onions managed to escape.
Former detective Paul Gordon, who initially named Milat as a suspect, also agrees he committed dozens of murders he’ll never be held accountable for.
“Do the math, two or three a year for 20 years,” Paul told the podcast.
Another retired detective, Hugh Hughes, believes Milat was responsible for the unsolved 1971 murder of his wife’s cousin, Keren Rowland.
Keren was 20-years-old and five months pregnant when she disappeared. Her remains were discovered nearly three months later in a pine plantation near Canberra airport.
Hugh believes Keren was one of Milat’s earliest victims due to his presence in the area and the similarities between her death, and that of Milat’s known victims.
In 1996, Milat was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He never confessed to his crimes and took his secrets to the grave, dying while incarcerated in Long Bay Correctional Centre in October 2019, aged 74.
