Her body was found six weeks later five miles (8km) downstream. It was also theorised that all of the victims had been picked up while hitchhiking and then driven to Belanglo State Forest against their will (The Age, 6 November, 1993 Bones Chipped in Attacks, Say Police). . After checking out, they were headed for Confest, planning to hitchhike to Albury. Ivan Milat was convicted of seven murders, which occurred between 1989 and 1992, but he is suspected of even more. Anja Habschied, was decapitated, put on a leash made from a sash cord perhaps from Milats mothers house and her spinal cord severed. Ms Habschieds last letter home to her family spoke of the long distances between the spots the couple wanted to see, and that they would need to travel the 4100km to Darwin fairly swiftly. Police were performing a sweep of a fire trail in the Belanglo Forest on November 1, 1993, when they found a skeleton. The girls were best friends who on Friday October 5, 1972 decided hitchhike from Brisbane to check out the party and pub scene on the Gold Coast. Technology for sequencing DNA useful for genetic identification is now cheaper, faster and better than ever before. [22] Each of the bodies had been dumped in remote bush-land and covered by a pyramid of sticks and ferns. [20] Investigators applied link analysis technology to Roads & Traffic Authority vehicle records, gym memberships, gun licensing, and internal police records. I just don't think there's a moral to the story.". Nine bodies have been discovered in Belanglo Forest since the 1990s. Once a sample from the remains has been tested, the DNA profile can be compared to a database of DNA profiles from missing persons. YouTuber Logan Paul Has Apologized for Filming a Dead Body in the Forest. [39] 145 witnesses took the stand, including members of the Milat family who endeavoured to provide alibis, and, on 18 June, Milat himself. If you decide to go further afield, you may very well find yourself exposed to a level of risk from crime that you hadnt anticipated. The remains were later identified as missing German backpacker Simone Schmidl (21). Fear would grip the area as talk of a serial killer lurking within the area began to circulate. On January 20, 1991, Simone Schmidl set off to hitchhike from Sydney. Both bodies were found lying face down, covered in branches. Presumably it looked the same in 1989, which might have appealed to Milat's particular sensibilities. Firewood collection permits may also not be available during times of high bushfire risk. But the DNA will continue to degrade the longer we wait, so time is of the essence. The New South Wales Deputy Coroner, Peter Gould, would inform the public that in addition to being murdered, it was very likely that a number of the victims had been tortured and some had been sexually assaulted. Facing both rape charges and two counts of armed robbery, he fakes his own death. This approach also relies on suitable family members donating DNA reference samples for those missing persons that dont have a DNA profile already in the DNA database. Lying on the stainless steel autopsy table, the body of Ivan Robert Marko Milat was seen to have short, grey hair with "a male balding pattern". But a year later the bodies of two 19-years-olds from Melbourne showed up.