Chris Swan reveals terrifying Ivan Milat encounter on Central Coast

It was 1971 when Avoca Beach surfie Chris Swan, then aged 16, says he and his young girlfriend had a terrfiying encounter with Ivan Milat at Kincumber.

Ivan Milat is one of Australia’s most notorious killers.

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Chris Swan was a carefree teenage surfer when he hitched a ride with his girlfriend Esther Fraser in 1971. But, there was something off about the man in the flatbed truck, who stared ahead at the road in stony silence as he drove the pair, both 16, from Avoca Beach.

In an interview with The Australian newspaper last week, Mr Swan revealed the chance encounter that has haunted him for decades.

“My girlfriend was in the middle­ and she was wearing a little­ pair of hotpants and I’m on the side,” said Mr Swan, now 63.

He said things turned sinister when the driver suddenly swung off the main road and headed up a desert­ed bush track.

Chris Swan pictured in Kincumba Mountain Reserve where he believes he escaped Ivan Milat. Picture: Ryan Osland

The then-teenager glanced down, saw ropes on the floor, and panicked. Grabbing Esther, he leapt from the vehicle as it slowed down.

More than 20 years later, Mr Swan saw a face flash up on the news and instantly recognised the man who had given them a lift.

It was Ivan Milat, charged in 1994 with the murders of seven young hitchhikers.

“I’ve got no doubt who it was — that it was him,” Mr Swan told The Australian.

“You know the face, you recog­nise the eyes.

“His eyes were really evil. I reckon I looked at evil.”

Chris Swan and his then-girlfriend Esther Russell. Picture: The Australian

Mr Swan told the national newspaper that the area, somewhere outside Kincumber, had never been developed.

Mr Swan’s former girlfriend, Ms Fraser, now a travel agent, confirmed the incident but unlike Mr Swan, she can’t remember the driver’s face.

Milat murdered seven young men and women who had been hitchhiking south from Sydney between 1989 and 1992.

All were found in the Belanglo State ­Forest.

Mr Swan said he phoned the taskforce investigating those murders­, but never heard back.

“If he has driven up that track, there’s every chance there could be bodies up there,” he said.

“Or else, if there was someone that disappeared in that area at that time, it could well be related.”

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