Peter Letcher, an 18 year old man who was murdered in 1987 while hitchhiking from Sydney to Bathurst, is now considered the eighth victim of the Australian serial killer convicted in 1996 Ivan Milat, infamous for his backpacker murders uncovered in Belanglo State Forest.
Clive Small, former task force commander who headed Milat’s investigation says that the circumstances of Letcher’s murder fitted with Milat’s patterned killings. Small told news.com.au that the timing of Letcher’s murder aligned with Milat’s dissolving marriage in 1987, a potential motivation for his killing: “With Ivan it was all about control and when Peter Letcher was murdered Ivan had broken up with his partner.” The details of Letcher’s brutal killing—stabbing and shot wounds to the head—were also characteristic of Milat’s other murders.
It’s surprising since Milat’s conviction of 7 murders—five being backpackers from Germany and the UK, the remaining 2 travelers from Melbourne—that any backpacker at all would willingly step on to our pristine shores again in fear of a man who preyed on young foreigners; the infamous serial killer is one of Australia’s most feared and abhorrent public figures.
Peter Letcher may join Caroline Clarke, Joanne Walters, Simone Schmidl, Anja Habschied, Gabor Neugebauer, James Gibson and Deborah Everist as another addition of the 69-year old’s confirmed victims. Milat has also been considered a suspect in the murders of two Sydney nurses in 1980.
Ivan Milat is currently serving seven consecutive life sentences at Goulburn Jail’s Supermax. In 2011, Milat underwent a hunger strike, shedding 15 kilos in protest for not being allowed to have a PlayStation in his cell.
Catching Milat, commissioned by the Seven network and a recent recipient of Screen Australia funding, will be a procedural-based two-part telemovie outlining the tumultuous investigation of the backpacker murders, directed by East West 101 director Peter Andrikidis. A release date for the series is yet to be announced.
Via news.com.au
