Members of Ivan Milat’s family have come forward with public statements, days after NSW Premier Chris Minns said he was open to an inquiry into the killer’s potential involvement in more deaths.
ICYMI, the Legalise Cannabis Party this week announced it was pursuing whether Milat was responsible for dozens more unsolved murders throughout Australia, on top of the seven murders he was already convicted of for the killing of backpackers between 1989 and 1992.
In pursuing the inquiry during an estimates committee hearing, the party’s MLC Jeremy Buckingham presented Minns with two images; a photo Milat alongside a police sketch of the suspect in the Wanda Beach murders — an as-yet unsolved crime which left two 15-year-old girls dead in Sydney back in 1965.
Per The Guardian, Minns agreed there was a likeness between the two images, saying he was “concerned they are incredibly similar”.
In light of the images, Minns refused to rule out the party’s inquiry in Milat’s potential involvement, saying the move “may be the necessary next step” in solving the Wanda Beach murder cases.
While Buckingham was blocked from receiving some Milat-related files in pursuing the inquiry, since criminal investigations are ongoing, Minns said he would consider the request to release Milat’s government employment records, stemming from his time as an employee for the Department of Main Roads.
No new developments have arisen since that hearing, but Milat’s nephew and sister-in-law have now come forward to deny claims the serial killer was responsible for additional unsolved murders.
“I see they keep vilifying Ivan with no real proof, just stories,” Milat’s nephew, Alistair Shipsey, told news.com.au in comments published on Saturday.
Shipsey, who released a book about his uncle’s crimes titled Secrets of Belanglo earlier this year, said he spent “10 years researching” the murders, and claimed Milat was “framed” for the seven convictions he was dealt back in 1996.
“I can show the corruption in the system and I want to open up people’s eyes,” Shispey said.
Meanwhile, Milat’s sister-in-law, Carol Milat, likewise slammed the “the ignorance of people who have no idea of the facts” and the “misinformation the police give to the media” in a statement to news.com.au.
“It affects people badly,” Carol said.
Police have long maintained that Milat could have been responsible for more murders than the seven he was convicted for, and continually questioned him about a number of unsolved cases right up until his death.
In 1993, police launched Strike Force Air, a task force dedicated to investigating Milat’s links to a slew of unsolved murders and disappearances. The victim list ran to 56 people, and spanned every state and territory in Australia.
Milat was sentenced to life in prison in 1996, and died behind bars in 2019.
Lead images: YouTube and Izhar Khan/Getty Images
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