How the backpackers at Salt Creek fought back against Roman Heinze’s evil attacks
TERRIFIED and alone, the two young backpackers attacked in the remote sand dunes of Salt Creek were confronted with the worst — and then the best — of human character.
- UNMASKED: Salt Creek kidnapper revealed as Roman Heinze
- DEFIANT: Victim tells Heinze ‘you cannot break me’
- GRAPHIC: Roman Heinze’s sick sexual obsessions
- GUILTY: Salt Creek kidnapper convicted of vile crimes
- SECRETS: What the Salt Creek jury didn’t hear about kidnapper
WHEN she left Germany for Australia, the young backpacker did so against the wishes of her parents.
It was not that they disapproved of their daughter leaving home and seeing another country, nor broadening her horizons before she settled into her chosen career.
The couple were, like any parents, simply worried — perhaps even a little bewildered by the thought of their girl trusting strangers for transport, accommodation and food.
The backpacker did not share their concerns, trusting in the connections she had already made, and would continue to make, online would help her accomplish her very simple goals.
“I came to Australia to live in freedom, to experience unforgettable memories and to meet awesome people,” she told the Supreme Court last week.
“I did have them — but in a negative way.”
Much has been written, since February 2016, about the ordeal the German and her Brazilian travelling companion endured on the remote beaches of Salt Creek.
When Roman Heinze — the man who bashed the German and sexually assaulted the Brazilian — was unmasked last week, so too was his perverse past.
The inevitable comparisons have been made — Heinze is the successor to Ivan Milat, the kin of Bradley Murdoch, or Wolf Creek made real.
While that is all apt, what should not be forgotten is that the German and the Brazilian were helped, in their moment need, by two groups exemplifying the Australian ideal.
Having rescued one another from Heinze’s clutches, the duo were evacuated from the scene of their nightmare by men who put aside their own terror and came to their aid.
Like all of Heinze’s victims, the German and the Brazilian’s first point of contact with Australians was the internet.
They and the 14 other backpackers Heinze stalked would look for rides, and for places to stay, on websites like CouchSurfer and Gumtree.
The Brazilian told Heinze’s trial she had just 20 days to see Australia — the German was visiting for much longer — and, at a friend’s suggestion, advertised on Gumtree for a ride.
Heinze, who will be sentenced in the Supreme Court today, was one of two men who answered.
When her first choice of a driver fell through due to car trouble, the Brazilian — German friend in tow — accepted his offer.
“I had been travelling a lot using this app, when I meet people they are maximum 30 (so) when I saw him, it was a bit weird ... he was a bit older than I was expecting,” she said.
The German said she had been expecting a man “the same age as us”.
“It was a bit surprising but I thought ‘(the Brazilian) is here as well, she knows him a little bit, it’s fine’,” she said.
Her assessment was generous — Heinze had only communicated with the Brazilian by text, meeting her face-to-face for the first time immediately before their departure.
He spent the time before that indulging in his collection of bondage pornography and loading his truck with condoms, Viagra, and precut lengths of rope.
Within hours, Heinze had stripped the Brazilian naked, tied her up and sexually assaulted her, then repeatedly struck the German in the head with a hammer.
In order to survive, the profusely bleeding German and the naked, terrified Brazilian fled into the dunes in separate directions.
Ali Mohammed and his son, Abdul Karim Mohammed, did not even consider driving on when confronted by the sight of the terrified Brazilian.
They immediately stopped to help her — and even agreed to place their own lives at risk by going to look for the German.
“She was naked, pretty much hysterical, afraid, telling me there there’s a man out there and he’s going to kill us all,” Ali Mohammed told the trial.
“She said ‘he ripped them (my clothes) off me, he tried to bash me, rape me ... (her) being naked said it all to me.”
Abdul Karim Mohammed said the Brazilian “broke down” in the back seat as he gave up his own clothes to “cover her modesty”.
“Honestly, it was pretty much like she was kind of relieved and, at the same time, like she had seen the devil,” he said.
“She said ‘he’s still got my friend, she’s out there’ ... I’m not going to leave my friend behind — she saved my life’.”
The German, meanwhile, had survived being mowed down by Heinze’s four-wheel drive and struck a devil’s bargain with him when it became bogged, helping to free its tyres.
As soon as they were near the entrance to the beach, she fled toward Victorian fisherman Max Harrison and his friends — who had no idea what was coming their way.
“We stopped, we didn’t want to get closer because we didn’t know what was happening,” he said at trial.
“We couldn’t honestly tell if the figure was male or female ... her hair was thick with blood, her chest and face were filled with blood.
“It was very overwhelming, like something out of a horror movie.”
Like the Mohammeds, Mr Harrison followed the advice of the local roadhouse owner and called for help.
Proprietor Adam Stewart told the trial it was his practice to give visitors a bumper sticker and say “if you get in the s--t, ring this number”.
He said that, on a panic scale “of one to ten”, the calls he received that day “were a 15”.
Mr Stewart, the Mohammeds, Mr Harrison and his friends not only evacuated the women from the beach, they barred Heinze’s escape and helped SA Police begin the search for clues.
And, when the time came for the women to give their evidence at trial, they attended court, lent their support from the public gallery and escorted them into and out of the building.
It’s no wonder, then, the German told Heinze he had not, could not and would never break her connection to the country she had long dreamt of visiting.
Though she admitted to nightmares and trauma — and her poor mother’s ongoing post-traumatic stress — she said that would not stop her from finishing her trip as planned.
“You can’t take what Australia means to me,” she said in her victim impact statement.
“I know this crime has nothing to do with the country, but only you as a person.”