Meni Caroutas from The Missing podcast reveals his Ivan Milat theories
It’s one of Australia’s most infamous cases but serial killer Ivan Milat still has more skeletons yet to emerge.
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The number of murders linked to Ivan Milat will almost certainly climb in the future as “other secrets in the forest” emerge – including the identity of a potential female accomplice.
In new insights into one of Australia’s most infamous cases, former NSW police officer Meni Caroutas has opened up about his investigations into Milat.
Speaking with News Corp’s Charles Miranda, the man behind the highly successful podcast series The Missing revealed why the Milat case isn’t buried despite the serial killer’s death from oesophageal cancer in 2019, aged 74.
The “Backpacker Murderer” abducted, assaulted, robbed and killed two men and five women between 1989 and 1992 – but Caroutas said new victims will ultimately be revealed.
“I don’t believe that Ivan Milat woke up in the early 90s one morning and said ‘I’m going to go out and kill backpackers’,” he said.
“He’d been doing this for some time and he would have continued to do it if he hadn’t been caught.
“I think that there are other secrets there in the forest and I think that in the future more bodies will be uncovered.”
Milat has previously been linked to as many as 14 murders – including Peter Letcher in 1987 and Dianne Pennacchio in 1991 – and the killer continued to hinder police until the day he died.
“He took (any new information) to the grave,” Caroutas said.
“And the reason for that, we’re talking about a sociopath, psychopath, a narcissist.
“ … The only power Milat had (when he was in jail) was a knowledge of these other victims. And for someone like him, a narcissist, that’s all he could hold on to.
“So, you know, he was an evil person and even in death he continues to torment victims and their families.”
During his trial in 1994 Milat famously attempted to shift blame to others – but Caroutas has another theory.
“ … I’ve always believed that if Milat did not act alone, that the other person was a woman,” he said.
“And the reason I believe that is because I think hitchhikers would be reluctant to get into a car with two rough looking blokes.”
Caroutas, though, did offer a word of warning to future investigations.
“There are a lot of (cold) cases, but I think also we need to be careful because I think the mistake that’s made is that people will assume that every young person hitchhiking that’s gone missing is a victim of Ivan Milat,” he said.
Caroutas also spoke of his investigations into other prominent cases across Australia, including William Tyrrell, Daniel Morcombe and Lynette Melbin.
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Originally published as Meni Caroutas from The Missing podcast reveals his Ivan Milat theories
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