Backpack Serial Killer Murders — True Crime
The serial backpack murders that put a country on edge and left piles of bodies scattered throughout a state forest.
The Victims
1st and 2nd Discoveries
In September 1992, runners in the Belanglo State Forest found a decomposing body. The next day police found a second corpse about a hundred feet away.
Through dental records, the bodies were identified as Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters, British backpackers last seen on April 18, 1992.
“Beast of the bush: Brit girls victims of Oz serial killer.” — The Sun
Autopsies revealed the brutal torture both victims had suffered before being killed and buried in the woods.
Joanne Walters had been stabbed a total of fourteen times. Once in the neck, four times in the chest, and nine in her back, which had paralyzed her.
Caroline Clarke appeared to have been used target practice with a gun. She had been shot in the head ten times.
After seeing the brutality of the kills, police decided to widen their search in the Belanglo State Forest for more bodies, but they came up empty.
