The Backpacker Murders /// Part 1 /// 330 | Forensic Files

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let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign [Music] on the evening of March 6 1962
9 year old Taxi Driver Neville Knight was picking up fairs in Sydney's west side
Neville was retired from the Navy where he was a morse code expert after the Navy he thought he would drive
a cab making some money while driving around it would be like he was his own boss
recently he had been wanting to get out of the cab business he was married and had a three-year-old daughter at home
but daytime jobs were hard to come by so he figured with bills to pay and mouse to feed
he would just keep driving the cab until he found something better it was late in the evening when he
picked up a boy in Moore Bank as usual the boy opened the back door of the cab and sat down behind night
thought the boy to be about 16 years old and he was happy to take him wherever he
needed to go for a fee of course the boy gave instructions on where he needed to go
but other than this he said very little they got just about to where they were heading when they ran into some trouble
Knight drove to Fairfield West as instructed but once there the boy was unsure of the exact location
he was looking for a house but it was a place he had only been one time before and he was having some trouble
remembering just where the house was but he said I'll know it when I see it Knight didn't care
he had a whole shift to finish and better to be driving around with someone in the car running up the meter
they continued driving up and down streets looking for the house Knight was driving just under 40 mile
per hour when he heard a loud explosion reacting to the deafening noise Knight tried to slam on the brakes but the car
continued he then tried to push in the clutch but he could not feel nor move his leg
he quickly grabbed the handbrake and pulled the car screeched swerved and then came
to a stop the boy in the back seat jumped up and hopped out of the vehicle he then opened the front door to the cab
Neville Knight was still very unsure of what had just happened he was in pain he couldn't seem to move either of his
legs thank God he was not alone and now I've got to tell this boy to go and get some help he thought
now with the front door open the boy looked inside he said nothing stared at Neville
slowly studying him with his eyes and then just like that the boy ran off into the darkness
[Music] [Music] many people travel to Australia for many many different reasons it's a popular
destination for outdoor enthusiasts people go there for all kinds of things hiking camping and just traveling the
land by different means of travel now like in the U.S at one time hitchhiking was commonplace in fact it was even
encouraged and enjoyed especially by the younger Travelers low on funds it was a
cheap and adventurous way to get from place to place hitchhiking in Australia for the most
part was considered to be safe this being decades ago if you were traveling in pairs or in a group now let's start
off on January 25th 1990. we have a young man here named Paul onions he's 24 years old now he's from the UK but he is
in Australia on holiday he had been there for about a month traveling seeing the sights and getting
around by several means of travel but on this day he was looking to hitch a ride
he's looking to hitchhike so he's standing out at the edge of the Hume Highway some sections of this are
now known as the Hume freeway or Hume Motorway this is one of Australia's major Intercity National highways
spanning over 500 miles and it runs between the major cities of Melbourne and Sydney now Paul is about a mile or
so from the balanglo state forest he's got his thumb in the air but he's having no luck really so far with any offer for
a ride so he starts walking South eventually he decides to take a break stopping off to grab a drink and a snack
it is here that a man approaches Paul the man is muscular with a dark mustache and he introduces himself as Bill they
get to talking and eventually Bill offers Paul a lift Paul told Bill where he was hoping to
get to and Bill agreed that he would drive him over 200 kilometers Paul and Bill climbed into Bill's silver
four-wheel drive and they drove off as they were driving South the normal conversations took place now this drive
could be a long one it's probably going to be maybe a three hour drive at most so after about an hour according to Paul
Bill started getting weird he was looking around a lot as he drove his behavior voice and words were becoming
increasingly aggressive and angry he was spouting out racial slurs left and right
this of course is making Paul very very uneasy he doesn't know this man and this
man is behaving strangely Bill stops the vehicle he's telling Paul that he's got to retrieve some cassette
tapes from the trunk of the vehicle so that they can listen to them now Paul is already on edge right and he looks over
and he sees cassettes inside the vehicle so the reasoning for stopping is not making a lot of sense to Paul
this is enough to make Paul seriously question what this man named Bill could be up to
after Bill got out of the vehicle Paul did as well this apparently upsets Bill basically with a growl he tells Paul to
get back in the vehicle Paul decides he better play along Bill reaches under the seat and he pulls
out a revolver sticking the nose of the gun in Paul's face Paul says he could see the shiny bullets
in the cylinder Bill tells him that this is a robbery then he produces some rope
Paul is terrified he jumps out of the vehicle he runs as fast as he could right into uncommon traffic
bill is now yelling at Paul and then he starts pulling the trigger the cars swerve to avoid hitting Paul
but they just keep on driving finally Paul is able to flag down a van he jumps in from the sliding side door
Paul is screaming to the people inside he's got a gun he's got a gun the driver sees the man with the gun the
man appears to be going back to his vehicle the driver is Joanne Barry and with her is her sister and five kids
Joanne is desperate to get away and she does not want the man with the gun following her especially with a van
full of kids Joanne goes in reverse makes a U-turn and now facing the opposite direction
she slams the pedal to the floor and speeds off she drives Paul to a police station
there he reports the attack he gives a description of the man and tells them the man that he knows only as Bill said
that he is a road worker he also provides a description of the gun and the vehicle now Paul he was like super
panicked right when fleeing this vehicle so of course he left behind everything that he brought with him he leaves
behind his backpack this held everything that Paul was traveling with including his passport
so not only does he provide them a description of the man the gun the vehicle and some of the things that this
man Bill told him he also leaves him a good description of the items he left behind in Bill's vehicle a police did
send out the description of the man and the vehicle they were looking for this man who attempted to commit an armed
robbery that's the way this was reported nothing came of the search for the Armed
robber they never found the suspect never made an arrest by June of 1992 The Missing Persons unit was quite busy as
missing persons cases they were piling up at a faster Pace than normal the Sydney Morning Herald ran several
articles regarding this one by Christian rail this was particularly interesting it
says police were optimistic in one of the cases this was of two missing women Caroline Jane Clark and Joanne Leslie
Walters both 22 years old were visiting Australia and they were there on a working holiday
police were optimistic that they would find the women alive and well this is because they received over 100 calls
from people all over the place saying they have seen the two English women the women were missing sometime it's
believed to be like April of 1992. a large number of calls were coming in from the Northern Territory and from
Darwin police were hoping to confirm the sightings of these women they were able to get a copy of what is
believed to be Caroline's last letter two missing women were traveling Australia and securing fruit picking
jobs along their way the letter was written from Queenstown postmarked April 8th this letter stated that they
intended to go to Sydney and then to canunera I know that I did not say that right there captain
this was for a fruit picking job it was supposed to last four weeks then they would continue on to Ayers
Rock so police were optimistic about the sightings however the problem here is none of the ladies have contacted family
or touched their bank accounts since April the article that I read was from late June so about two months or so that
it's believed that they possibly have been missing police figured out that Clark and Walters checked out of a
king's cross Backpackers hostel this too in April and this is the last confirmed sighting of the two women
what they were looking into is if there is any possibility that this could be connected to the December disappearance
of a young couple from Germany that young couple just like the two English women their last known
whereabouts was a king's cross Backpacker hostel the missing German couple is Gabor nugbauer 21 years old
and Anya haveshied age 20. so by this point in our story Captain we have four missing persons four that have
made the papers anyway and this is June of 1992. now on Saturday September 19 1992 two
men found a body in the blanglo State Forest this was around 4 15 in the afternoon
this is in one of the more dense forest areas of the State Forest the men were out on an orange hearing
exercise practicing their skills near the Long Acre Fire trail the body was well hid in fact they only
found it because they were investigating a terrible smell that they thought could
be coming from a kangaroo carcass which of course was not the case the body was wedged under a rock ledge
and partially covered with shrubbery the next day police working the scene found a second body just about 40 meters
from the first the second body was hidden by bushes and was badly decomposed on the scene told reporters that
although they could not immediately name the cause of death or identify either victim they said they were investigating
a double homicide Now using dental records they were able to determine the identity of both of the
victims investigators learned that their victims are Caroline Clark and Joanne Walters both missing since late April of
1992. Caroline Clark's head and face were wrapped and covered with a maroon sweatshirt she had been shot 10 times
through the top of her head she was stabbed twice in the back and stabbed once in the chest I believe this
was an attempted single stab to the heart Joanne Walters was found gagged using pieces of her shirt
she had been cut and stabbed many times with one of these stab wounds severing her spine which would have left her
paralyzed during her fight in an attempt to flee from her attacker or attackers now reports vary on the level of
Mutilation here with stabs reported as high as over 30 times and as little as 20 times either way what we're looking
at here is a frenzied knife attack that killed her one of the things that I find
extremely interesting here is the statements by the investigators right very early on in this investigation they
are saying that they would be expecting to find more bodies all right we have two victims we already
have two victims so I can see where they're stating hey In This Very dense forest location in a place where bodies
would be extremely hard to find and locate you know these bodies aren't just lying
on the the trail there they're off well off of the trail and they're concealed almost buried under brush
even the descriptions in some cases describe the bodies as that as being buried and then the other one like
stuffed behind bushes and things like that the interesting thing here too is one
they are seeing things at this crime scene at the murder scene where they it's very obvious to them that they are
looking for potentially more bodies the other thing you got to wonder too we describe the injuries and what could be
the cause of death in both cases there's a lot of Overkill involved in each of these attacks so maybe that as
well is leading them to making the statement the thing here as well we have the transient lifestyle that the two victims
were living at the time of their disappearance this also certainly drastically increases the chances that
we might be looking at a stranger on Stranger murder or strangers on Strangers attack and murder
the balanglo force let's talk about this location where these two victims bodies
were found this is an important aspect to this crime into this case and it will also help to steer the direction and the
focus of their investigation the state forest is in New South Wales and located three kilometers west of the Hume
Highway this is a popular Park open to the public and it features Trails for hiking dirt
bikes quads there are creek crossings and plenty of camping areas the state forest is quite big and it
looks like the most populous trees there are pine I was able to find actually the you know
how big of a location this is however the train trying to figure out how to transfer that into our system
gets a little complicated for me remember didn't go to school for math that was a little bit of computer that I
was studying now on October 5th 1993 again we are in the blanglo state forest and again we
are near the long fire acre Trail a man he is out collecting firewood he found another body
this discovery led to another Finding lying just 20 meters away was an additional body later it was determined
that they located the bodies of Deborah Everest and James Gibson these two were missing for about four
years see in late 1989 the two took off together on a backpacking Adventure they
were both just 19 years old at the time both were recently accepted into college
so this was supposed to be one of those last Big Adventures before they get serious about going to school
before leaving James told his mother that they intended to hitchhike their way around to which she tried to talk
him out of she was warning him that hitchhiking was very dangerous Deborah last made contact with her
parents calling home on December 28th there was an earthquake that day and she called home to tell them that she and
James were all right now two days later the young couple left a communal house in Surrey Hills
the night before they were telling others there that they intended to hitchhike their way down south
three months later James Gibson's red backpack was found on the roadside and Deborah's camera was found nearby
but no one knew what happened to the young couple for all of that time until these bodies were found
a strange thing here Captain those two items James's backpack and the camera after the bodies were found we would
learn that the backpack and the camera were nowhere near the location of the bodies this is in fact many many miles
apart apparently the killer or Killers drove these items extremely far away before
tossing them on the side of the road Deborah was found hogtied her skull and jaw were fractured it does not seem like
early on that law enforcement were certain of the cause of this fracture but it looks like the cause of death was
the stab wounds to her head the Sydney Morning Herald reported James was stabbed multiple times including one
through the spinal cord also stab wounds that punctured his lungs and as the herald put it in both
cases extreme force had been used and it seemed that the victims had not been able to defend themselves
now we already mentioned police saying that they were expecting to find more bodies well now
they're pretty clear about this statement publicly they start stating that the murders were connected believed
to be connected and that they were searching for a serial killer or killers [Music]
all right we are back he is back I am back before we get cranked up too much here Captain
I do want to thank a big thank you to our friend hold on I'm already cranked uncrank yourself uh big thank you to
Cairo he's the uh B shirt guy that we met a couple weeks ago oh yeah yeah thank you Cairo for the awesome beers
all right Captain we have still plenty to get to here because on November 1st 1993 we're now in a location that's
about five kilometers away from where the bodies of Deborah and James were found
the body of Simone schmiddle was found in this location Simone was 21 years old from a town near Munich
she was visiting Australia and traveling around now on January 20th 1991 she was
traveling solo and she told some friends she planned to catch a train to Liverpool and then hitchhike her way
down the Hume Highway after this she has never seen alive again now some of her items were found four
months after her disappearance Simone had multiple stab wounds and was stabbed twice through her spine three days later
on November 4th 1993 the bodies of Gabor nugenbauer and Anya hamsheed were found
just about one kilometer east of where Simone's body was located both were missing since Christmas of
1991. this is the missing German couple that we discussed earlier Gabor was double gagged one stuffed in his mouth
and one tied around his head he had been strangled and looking through all this I could not figure out
if it was thought to be manual or ligature strangulation but the reports are that the hyoid bone was broken
he was also shot in the head six times Anna was found under a pile of logs branches and debris
she was face down and naked from the waist down she had been decapitated from what was
determined to be a single Blow from a heavy bladed object such as a sword or a machete we are now at seven bodies found
total in three of the cases we have two persons traveling together only one case
out of the four do we have someone traveling solo what is common throughout we have witnesses
or people who saw or spoke to the victims shortly before they went missing stating that the victims were believed
to be hitchhiking their way around at some of the sites where the bodies were found not too far from where the
bodies themselves were located we have evidence that the killer spent some time hanging out in the area this could be
days leading up to the killings meaning in separate visits entirely or immediately after the killings
what they found was evidence of a campfire near the attacks Plus at one of the body dump locations
they found like a makeshift firing range where the shooter shot up trees bottles
and cans now at this makeshift Shooting Gallery they found tons of shell casings spent
bullets and so on they found two different calibers at one site now they were able to determine
from the debris left behind by the shooter that all of this stuff had been there
about the same amount of time this meaning that the two guns were fired the same day or night not not a situation
where one target you know once target shooting and then returns at a later date with a different
gun for more target practice right it looked to the detectives as though the offender had a silencer on the 22. which
this also makes you believe that one we have multiple cases where there's two victims and there's different wounds so
law enforcement might think okay well maybe we have more than one killer and now we have a situation where we have
somebody shooting off guns but there's two calibers that would also lead to the idea that maybe that there is more than
one individual yeah and sorry I think I jumped ahead here in my notes Captain they were able
to determine that one of the calibers that was used at this uh Shooting Gallery let's say was a 22 and they
could sit out by markings on the bullets that the a silencer was being used with
the 22. well and also with a gun being involved especially in the three cases of the couples that would also lead one
to believe that maybe there was only one attacker because you could control two individuals with a gun
yeah let's we'll get into that in just one second here but before we do so I want to point out that you know we have
law enforcement very early on with the statement of we're expecting to find more bodies and then when they do
in fact find two more bodies their next statement is we think we're looking for a Serial offender or serial killers here
what is confirmed at some point after seven bodies are found we learned that the there are matching
22 caliber bullets shell casings and cartridge boxes that were found at multiple crime scenes
so not only were they suspicious of this and thinking that they were looking for
a serial killer or Killers now they have confirmation of evidence left behind that these attacks and murders are in
fact connected well at least two of the cases we have a spinal cord being severed that is not a very typical
injury that you see and murders yes and you know we've talked about this before with the Lindsay buziak case
it's for me personally it's awfully difficult to determine if that is in fact deliberate or if in a frenzied
attack that maybe it just it just happenstance that it occurred I feel like in Lindsay's case it could
have just occurred like I I lean more that way right but with some of these it appears to be much more deliberate yeah
I it's it's strange to me because the amount of wounds you know or amount of times that somebody shot or stabbed to
me there's a rage element here but then there's a calculation element in here as
well welcome to the segment of armchair styling and profiling with the captain and Nick
um but I also think there's a element of calculation here because we see in again
multiple cases where the spinal cord is severed but you also have these this time and this could be happen stance as
well but punctured lungs it's almost like this person is creating a scenario where they the they
want the person to suffer through this these are kind of suffer wounds if that makes any sense well and the need to
like incapacitate them and make it so that they are unable to flee or to fight back during the course of whatever left
what is EV what is left of the attack right and then then you also wonder you sever one person's spinal cord they
can't move they're paralyzed now you can do whatever you want to the other victim and almost make the person
like like I said suffer in pain but also suffer through the attack of the other individual
okay so let's go through the psychological profile of the killer or Killers now there were several profiles
actually worked up for these cases worked up by psychiatrists and criminologist what I did here Captain to save us some
time is I try to combo them for one master profile so first as you were pointing out
it was tricky right they they are uncertain if they should be looking for one or two killers police were having
trouble with this and mainly for reasons that you already pointed out but just to
simplify they were having trouble with how just one person could lure in most cases two victims into the forest
control them and murder both of them plus we have three cases where we have two victims in those cases and these
incidents one victim is more mutilated than the other so could it in fact be two killers this was strongly argued in
at least two of the profiles that were put forward and in both of these they cited that brothers would be
more likely to be the the team of offenders here often when we have two offenders there
is a more dominant personality of one offender and then a more follower type for the other right the profiles that
pushed the two offender Theory cited this as the likely cause for the differing levels of Mutilation between
the victims the other difficult thing here is the crime scenes where it appears that two
victims are controlled attacked killed and partially buried or concealed in separate locations yeah be it close
together but still separate so what they're getting at here Captain is that two offenders this is certainly possible
right it's the idea of okay we we've now attacked our victims all right move your victim to a spot where they
couldn't be found and so if they're separated on some level then you would then the bodies would be separated more
once you go to conceal them where if you have one killer he attacks his victims he he drags one of the victims into a
secluded spot where he thinks this makes the most sense and then you drag the next victim to the same spot yeah and I
think that the reason why they're pointing out this this scenario here is that you likely have two offenders because
they seem to be choosing two victims and then the thought on top of that is why are we finding one victim here and then
one here when we know that they were once together is that possibly that the offender
wanted privacy from the other offender with the victim right so a lot of a lot of uh analysis going on here with these
crime scenes yeah and some pretty detailed analysis too I don't know if I buy this idea that based off what
evidence we have that you can say well these we think they're Brothers if the if there's two killers you know the idea
that you're one stating pretty early on we have a serial killer and we're going to find more bodies and
then you go okay not only do we have a serial killer but we have a a Duo serial killer team and they're Brothers yeah we
we actually have two profiles that were put forward that that shared that thought
um not outwardly saying that they have to be brothers but that was something that they were leaning towards
in their profiles I just wish I knew if there was something more if they had some more evidence whether that was some
kind of or something that would lead them to believe that there would be they would
be related I don't think that it was evidence that was found as far as like fingerprints or or anything of that
nature what they're pointing out here is in cases that they have seen in the past
look it is it is very rare and I know that everybody's going to think of three or four or five cases immediately as
soon as I say this but it is rare for there to be a serial killer team it's it's often they work alone right this is
not Batman and Robin yeah and then even more rare than that would for it to be relate relation that are working
together I can't name one so they don't have there were some cousins in Florida um of course there were actually
brothers in Ohio back in the 70s that I think were were the uh they were looking
for the 22 Caliber Killer I believe was the the moniker that was applied to those cases and it turned out to be two
offenders and they were brothers um you wonder though so it does happen yeah but you said there was a 22 caliber
in this case as well yeah you wonder if it's just you know they're doing some research and going okay well in Ohio
they were looking for killers and it happened to be brothers you know which I mean
first of all you just don't trust brothers from Ohio that's number one rule so the the reason why I think that
they're coming up with this and it's difficult because it is as you pointed out such a small sample size to come up
with this evidence they're they're looking for similarities between solved cases and what they think that they're
looking at and I think where they go to the point of saying that the offenders might be brothers or related I I think I
might have taken it a step too far right maybe one of the profiles just said some
relation but they're saying that they've seen in the past that the victims are separated for the purpose of privacy and
they usually see this when there is a relation between the two offenders where if the two offenders are more just
friends or in on this this thing together there's a hobby together that they actually feed off of
each other more so than what brothers or uh related offenders would so two offenders this is certainly a
possibility but let's go through some other stuff that we know right we have evidence regarding
the Paul onions situation that attack he was picked up by one man not two and when the man using the name Bill tried
to kill him he shot at him so now when creating this profile to be completely fair to all that we're
putting these profiles forward at this time the experts there were not armed with
the information that this Paul onions attack May in fact be connected right so looking at this information that we know
Captain we now can add crimes where we know that a gun was used and we know that from what we found with our dead
victims but we also know that with Paul onion situation adding the use of the gun to the equation means a signal
killer may possibly been able to control more than one victim at a time so starting there
are we looking for one or two let's let's go to that maybe we're looking for just one offender because the other
profiles set out for one offender so this one offender would be somebody who owns and is very comfortable around guns
this man would be average living an ordinary life given the physical nature of his crimes he would be fit and
possibly athletic expect him to be fairly intelligent he is a loner but he is outwardly sociable a talker he lives
on the outskirts of a city or in a semi-royal area right he is employed in a semi-skilled job probably works
outside he has a history of aggression against Authority he likely has a record of some
kind police record they mean and may view himself as some type of Outlaw they also struggled to come up with the
offender's possible age in these profiles this as we have pointed out several times in many other cases this
is one of the hardest details to estimate but again we have a possible eyewitness
so if we go back to the story of Paul onions the the Survivor right if he was in fact attacked by the same man we have
a general idea based off of his description of the man's age and so for the single offender profiles they put
the man's age as being in his 30s or 40s he's a man they say that fits into his surroundings he could be a co-worker
neighbor or a friend meaning kind of like the Delphi situation he's hiding in plain sight
he's probably married or in a stable relationship I like how they throw this little thing
in here too even though she may not know it to him the relationship may be unsatisfactory
uh see if I was a profiler I'd throw in some weird stuff just like I don't know why you had to point out that he had a
criminal record because I don't think anybody was thinking he has a world record for long jump or anything but you
mean me clarifying that it's a criminal record but I think if I was profiling I'd throw in like one or two things that
I knew weren't true but also didn't matter that people would just read over and be like
he he also likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches you know like some random fact some of this next stuff to me seems
a little vague and I and I'm I maybe I'll just get into it as we go through it to not to not to confuse anybody here
but so they say he gets a sexual and likely and emotional satisfaction from controlling and killing his victims But
ultimately he kills for pleasure for the thrill simply because he enjoys it now although he may not have had
intercourse with the victims he got his kicks by expressing his bizarre deviations through sadistic aggression
mutilation and finally their execution so yeah and there's something you know he could go back we see this from time
to time or they're not actually sexually assaulting the victims but then they're
going home and uh thinking about it and playing you know long games of flicky flicky yeah and I I mean I totally get
what they're saying here there is some suspicion that you know I and I know that they're saying in these profiles
that the crimes are sexual in nature whether or not he's raping or sexually assaulting the victims
there does seem to be some evidence at these crime scenes that there was at least some fondling or
something going on during the course of these attacks and again it's one of those things that you also then
questioned I think if you're taking two victims especially when you have a female and
male combo that could be less likely that it'd be for sexual reasons um because if it was purely
you know sexual reasons then why wouldn't you just take a victim that was you know that the single type victim
that you're looking for you know if you're does that make sense oh 100 uh I think what what we might be looking at
here though Captain is and I and I hate to use some of these terms but but it only makes sense I
think it's the you know where he is hunting plays into a factor of that right so it
whether or not it'd be two offenders or one we have a situation where as you said we got couples
um at least in two of the cases we have a couple and yes it would be a lot easier for a
single offender and two offenders to commit these crimes against one person the problem is I think
regarding this specific situation we noted at the start of this episode that hitchhiking was considered to be
somewhat safe but we pointed out that that is considered to be safe when you're traveling as as a group or with another
person right I mean you see this a lot there's a lot of Americans that go over to Europe right after high school or or
sometime during college to go backpacking through Europe and and you also see this in Australia as well so
having that as a part of your culture and also a part of your economy this also leads towards
well this these are also easier prey because one they're looking for rides they're they're
willing to get into the vehicle well they're yeah because in fact that's how he's picking them up one if you ever
stayed at like a youth hostel or any you know hostel is you know you might be in
a room with four other strangers you're going to fall asleep in a room with you know four other strangers or however
many strangers are in that room um you know unless you want to pay for like you know so you're separated but
most people don't and so you're already in a situation where you're going let's let's see the world and let's explore
this country and and we have to be trusting of all these strangers that we meet along our journey
um so it's really uh it's really a perfect scenario to um to just kind of sit there and pick and
choose who you want to pick up well and but but what I mean by this is not more so that he's doing it out of
necessity rather than as a preference okay so right right right because well first of all somebody's going to be
it's more likely if somebody's traveling alone it would be male than female and so and the the chances of anybody
really doing a venture like that on their own is is probably way less of a percentage as doing it with a group of
people yeah there were some cases in this area that we're talking about that took place in the 70s uh some of them
being unsolved murders and unsolved missing persons cases where the the victim was believed to have been
hitchhiking at the time by themselves and so it was kind of known in commonplace throughout this area that
that you don't do this type of activity by yourself that you should be with with
another person or a group and therefore I mean he might he might have just been doing this because that's all he could
get into his car and we have Ed Kemper who told us that you know it was much easier for him to
get to girls in the car at one time rather than than one they're they're just more
trusting when they have somebody else to go along with them well and I was thinking about this the other day
because we'd talk about controlling you know we've talked about this a lot you know
we've done 300 plus episodes but there's a lot of times where we go okay how did
they get the victim into the car or how do they control two victims and I actually think controlling two victims
wouldn't be as hard as as I've initially thought and that's because let's say you
have a gun or a knife or whatever you have and you're controlling you only have to control one of the individuals
that other individual chances are is not going to take off and run for it because what are you doing if you do
that right it's inevitable that the person that you're leaving behind is a goner right and and they've
actually you know some people will cite cases where a serial killer has has looked for a
couple especially specifically like a married couple or a female and male couple because they find
that sometimes as you said if you can just control one of the individuals essentially you're
controlling both of them and that's also what has been often speculated in theorized in the Delphi murders case
right that yes would it be more difficult yes it but given the relationship of the two involved it
might have just been equally as easy to control both and and there's been many people that have said look those two
neither of them would have run or left the other alone they were there for each other so and you see this also like with
the Zodiac yeah so continuing on with this profile here Captain the next thing is he he would
keep items belonging to his victims that he considers to be trophies some of this stuff is as you pointed out
earlier psychological but some of this is also created by evidence the profile itself right what
we know here is we have these individuals that have been murdered that yes they are out in the middle of you
know nowhere essentially in an area that is very difficult to search and to find
actual evidence but we have multiple situations where it looks like these victims are missing some of their
belongings or all of their belongings so the evidence would tell you this is this
is something that might be psychological but probably more more added to the profile because of the
evidence that is involved we found these people but we didn't find their stuff it
had to go somewhere they believed that the offender or offenders would be keeping some of the items belonging to
the victims and they may consider these to be trophies now one forensic psychologist
in his profile stated that he's talking about a single offender said quote he's bad rather than mad
he's evil he's not crazy is what they're pointing out there and one one thing that is
strange here to me is this reminds me in a sense portions of this profile remind me of Jack the
Ripper a little bit so somebody who kills for pleasure and that the killer the killings are in fact sexual in
nature as they say in the profile though he may not be having sex with them let's take this a step further when
comparing it to somebody like Jack the Ripper and this is this is also stuff that they state in the profile of these
killings as well look this is difficult terrain this is an area that's not familiar to everyone
and so what they want to point out here is that this guy he hunts and he kills in an area where he is familiar and
comfortable that's just like Jack the Ripper did back in the day the difference here to me what I see is
a situation where Jack the Ripper hated women the backpack murderer he hates everyone right he just hates people and
it seems more so like especially those that He considers to be different from himself if we're going to go through
this and believe that they are right in the sense that he hunts and kills in an area that he is not only familiar but
comfortable with it's not a stretch to believe that he's not that he's you know from that area lives in that
area and it was born and raised in that area as well and we have some of our victims here are are foreign to the land
right so then you wonder if he just doesn't like foreigners or or if it makes it easier to I think
it would make it easier I mean think about it this way like they're not from this country and it's
also of a time period where communication isn't instantaneously right you're not going
to be able to they're not texting people right right so it's like somebody goes missing for a couple weeks it's going to
take a while for for that to get back to their family if they're from Europe or whatever
so maybe that's part of it or be but also maybe there's some psychology to it where it's this guy this individual
feels like he's stuck and he's stuck in a a place that he can't get out of and and maybe he is somewhat intelligent
maybe somewhat skilled and he and he feels kind of trapped by um the society he lives in and these people are they're
they're Rome in the the world and they're seeing the sights and they they have uh nowhere to be you know I mean no
no destination well and on top of that too like what they point out in Silence of the Lambs
if the Killer can see the victim I'm going to call you name dropper how many cases uh are you
gonna name um throughout this episode I got a few more of my notes here but um in in the
in the movie Silence of the Lambs they point out that it is it's easier for the killer to kill the
victim if they don't see them as a person if they see them as an object and some of the victims being from a foreign
land maybe they don't talk the same as our offender maybe they don't look the exact same as our offender maybe that in
a way makes it easier throughout the interactions with those individuals to see them as an object maybe even faster
because the other thing you have to wonder too is are there people if he is in fact
finding the victims by way of hitchhiking are there people that he's let go for any number of reasons throughout this I
mean there's a lot to consider here there's a lot to think about Juan another thing about that too is if you
pick up hitchhikers for example right like you're just pulling up you can size up individuals a little bit right from
inside your car while you're pulling up but you take a scenario where you or maybe
the uh the guy appears a little bit larger once you once he gets in the car you know now you you start going okay
well this girl seems strong and this guy seems strong so maybe these are these are people that he could then just take
to their destination and and move on you know I mean so it is a way of you know and I would I would assume like
Ed Kemper would do the same thing you now have them in the car you can kind of size them up you can kind of see if if
they fit your likings and if they don't uh you can you can just drop them off at
the next exit right also one thing here captain that I want to point out before we move on that that I think is
fascinating I think that we have somebody that I would dub like a choice of weapon killer
but on top of that we have a choice of victim type killer right both male and female in some of the cases
and that's fascinating in a sense because we often do not see both genders killed by
one offender so this again may be pointing back to two offenders and then we have multiple
weapons Implements of murder gun knife and rope sometimes sometimes all three are used right but again I think that
points a lot of profilers to the idea that there's more than one attacker I kind of view that as when we talk
about the sexual gratification that the person is getting right that if that is true uh if they are getting
that and that's kind of hard for me to wrap my head around it's probably hard for a lot of us to wrap our head around
um but and if you're if you are wrapping your head around it you might want to go talk
to somebody but um the the thrill or the sensation is probably different with gun
different with knife I mean we have a scenario where we know there was a knife involved we know there was a gun
involved we know there's strangulation we don't know if there was uh rope or not right
but so those are three different acts and then also when you have the decapitation I don't mean to be so gory
but with this decapitation we don't know if this was a machete or some kind of Sword so it's almost like
like you were saying like this person is it knows he's going to pick his victims
and then he's going to have all these things with him because he wants to I think he wants to try
killing in different manners and with different instruments to see if there's different uh sexual gratification
which is which reminds me of a zodiac communique the the one that where he States
by fire by gun by knife by rope foreign again we want to thank you guys so much for joining us each week in the garage
our buddies our Pals thank you thank you thank you thank you filthy animals a thousand thank yous a thousand filthy
animals thank you so much and thank you for sharing on social media join us back
here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind don't live foreign [Music]
[Applause] [Music]

The Backpacker Murders /// Part 1 /// 330

Part 1 of 2

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New South Wales, Australia - In the 1970’s Hitchhikers started to disappear. This continued for two decades. In the 1990’s they started finding bodies. This week we go down under and look at the largest manhunt in Australian history. Law Enforcement are still unsure of the true number of victims and the total number of killers. Join us as we hunt the Backpacker Murderer. Beer of the Week - Cheer Team by 3 Floyds Brewing Company Garage Grade - 4 and a half bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the murders of hitchhikers in Australia, focusing on Neville Knight and Paul Onions' experiences and the investigation into a serial killer.

Key points

The Mysterious Explosion. Neville Knight's cab ride takes a terrifying turn when an explosion occurs, leaving him injured and confused.
The Hitchhiking Dilemma. Paul Onions, a young traveler, faces danger when he accepts a ride from a strange man named Bill.
The Discovery of Bodies. Two bodies are found in the Blanglo State Forest, leading to a chilling investigation.
The Connection of Murders. Police reveal that the murders of Deborah Everest and James Gibson are believed to be connected to a serial killer.
The Discovery of Simone's Body. Simone Schmiddle's body was found with multiple stab wounds, raising serious concerns.
The Bodies of Gabor and Anya. The bodies of Gabor Nugenbauer and Anya Hamsheed were discovered, linking them to Simone's case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He said nothing, stared at Neville, then just ran off into the darkness.

The chilling moment when the boy leaves Neville after the explosion.

6:59WatchNov 21, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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