Milat by Clive Small

Author:Clive Small
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRU002010, book
ISBN: 9781743435076
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2014-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

14

HOW MANY MORE?

In the two years between Ivan’s arrest and conviction, Task Force Air continued to investigate allegations against Ivan and other members of the Milat family, and to reinvestigate unsolved disappearances and murders. The focus was on people aged between seventeen and 40 who had gone missing in New South Wales between 1970 and 1992, and on unsolved murders, attempted murders and other crimes of violence in which a .22 calibre rifle and/or a knife had been used. The task force paid special attention to victims known to have been backpackers, hitchhikers or travellers. Help was sought from all Australian State and Territory law enforcement agencies.

As a result of information received, the task force identified 43 missing persons and sixteen unsolved murders for investigation. Nine missing persons were found; DNA testing identified a body found in Perth in 1986 as belonging to a woman who, not long before she was reported missing in 1980, had travelled from Darwin to Perth. There was no indication that Ivan had been involved in the disappearance of any of the remaining 33 missing persons.

In thirteen of the sixteen unsolved murders, no evidence was found to implicate Ivan. In three cases there was cause for suspicion, but insufficient evidence to justify the prosecution of Ivan or any other person. I have no doubt, however, that one of these three was Ivan’s eighth victim or, to be exact, the first of his eight victims.

Peter David Letcher was only eighteen years old when he left his home in Bathurst to visit his girlfriend in Busby, near Liverpool. He was unemployed and had not been in contact with his family for two years. A week later, on 13 November 1987, with 44 cents in the bank and a borrowed $30 in his pocket, he is thought to have booked a rail ticket from Central station in Sydney to Bathurst. He hitched a lift from Busby to Liverpool with the intention of catching a train to Central. It was the last time he was seen alive. Nine weeks later, on 21 January 1988, Letcher’s body was found near a fire trail in the Jenolan Caves State Forest, about 800 metres off the Jenolan Caves Road and 20 kilometres from the caves, by a family visiting the forest. The body was lying face-down in a hollow, next to a log and partly covered by branches and leaf litter. Despite having been in the forest only a short time, the body was badly decomposed. The upper clothing revealed signs of multiple stab wounds to the back. Five bullet wounds were found in the back of the skull. Three .22 calibre bullets were recovered nearby.

In June 1995 a preliminary re-examination of the crime scene was undertaken by the task force, but the weather and the demands of the approaching trial meant that any further efforts had to be put on hold. A week after Ivan was convicted, however, the task force was back at the Letcher crime scene conducting a large-scale search using metal detectors.

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