Ep 2 - Ivan Milat, The Backpacker Murders

Australia’s vast outback has always promised freedom — but for seven unsuspecting backpackers, it became a place of horror.Between 1989 and 1992, young travellers began vanishing along New South Wales highways. Their remains were later found buried deep inside Belanglo State Forest — bound, brutalised, and left as trophies.The man responsible was Ivan Milat — a gun-obsessed truck driver from Sydney’s outskirts whose charm masked decades of violence. From his brutal childhood and string of early crimes, to the chilling discovery of his victims and the raid that finally brought him down, this episode dives into Australia’s most infamous serial killer — the so-called Backpacker Murderer.We’ll trace Milat’s disturbing pattern of control, his obsession with weapons, the survivors who helped catch him, and the generational darkness that lived on through his great-nephew’s copycat killing years later.Trigger Warning: This episode contains detailed descriptions of violence and sexual assault.