In 1989, this man and his friends decided to go camping in an Australian national park in the middle of the winter. He and his buddies were all nineteen years old at the time and thought it would be a fun group adventure.
So, on their first day at the park, they set up camp. But, even though the campgrounds were completely empty due to the frigid weather, he recalled a man setting up right next to him and his friends.
Still, he did not think anything of it until the next day. That morning, the man began badgering him and his friends to go to an abandoned gold mine.
“Two out of three of us had made the trek numerous times but did not bother saying anything and were non-committal. But, as the morning drew into the afternoon, he finally wore us down, and two of us went,” he recalled.
The hike up to the goldmine was far from normal, though. He remembered that the man immediately began acting “nutty” and did some bizarre things– like diving into ice-cold rock pools. Plus, the man had a massive Bowie knife strapped to his leg, which was a bit concerning.
Anyway, the hike up to the gold mine was nearly four miles long. And apparently, the man kept boasting about how many times he had seen the mine. He and his friend were not phased, though, since they had also been there on several occasions.
And their knowledge of the area may have very well saved their lives– because about three miles into the hike, the man tried to lead them astray.
In fact, the man told them to start heading up the mountain. But, he knew that the gold mine was actually at the bottom, and the only thing located at the top of the mountain was a thick rainforest.
Then, he went to look over his shoulder at his friend and realized that they were gone. And at that moment, he realized he was alone with a stranger in the middle of nowhere just one hour before sundown. So, he bolted.
David – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person
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“My guts just dropped, and I just instinctively turned around a fled. Now, I had been a long-distance runner, but I don’t ever think I have run so fast,” he said.
And once arriving back at camp, he found his friend, who had disappeared, already holding a rifle at the ready. His friend was also freaking out, asking what the man was going to do to them. So, he grabbed the rifle from his friend and told everyone to start packing up their things. But then, just moments later, the man came bolting out of the bushes while laughing manically.
Once the man saw his rifle, though, the laughing was replaced with mumbles– which freaked him and his friends out even more.
“We packed within a half hour. He must have really legged it back to be that close behind us,” he explained.
Regardless, the group of friends all made it out of the remote area safely and did not think much about the incident afterward. So, it was not until years later, when he and his friends were watching a special on television, that they realized who the mysterious man in the park had been– Ivan Milat.
Ivan Milat is Australia’s most infamous serial killer. Between September 1992 and November 1993, Ivan murdered seven young backpackers in the Belanglo State Forest. Each of the backpackers was found face down and with their wrists crossed behind their backs. Ivan was eventually arrested and stood for a lengthy trial– in which one hundred and forty-five witnesses testified. And the jury ultimately found Ivan guilty and gave him seven life sentences without the possibility of parole.
“We were very lucky,” he said.
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