Sixty-seven women have gone missing, never to be found, on the NSW North Coast since 1977. It now begs the question, are these cases connected?
Former Greens MP and member of the NSW legislative council Jeremy Buckingham made a statement in Parliament suggesting there was “alarming similarity” between these unsolved cases of possible homicide between Newcastle and the Byron Bay area.
In the latest episode of the Motive & Method podcast, Dr Xanthe Mallett and criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro take a closer look at this chilling theory, examining patterns and potential links that have left both investigators and the public searching for answers.
Watson-Munro made his stance on the case clear.
“We are of the view there’s more than one person at work here,” he said.
“As we know, serial killers have a chameleon ability to blend into the community. And of course, a lot of those towns along the eastern seaboard, particularly Byron, are transient towns. So people can do hit and runs and disappear”.
For Mallett, the sheer scale is alarming.
“It cannot be a coincidence. This is not a normal pattern.
“The NSW Police have had various Strike Forces look at some of these cases and these potential patterns, they say they don’t think there were any other serial killers besides Ivan Milat active in that area but they have said there’s some causal links between those cases.”
With a new spotlight on these cases, social media was quickly sent into a stir as a number of women began to share their horror stories from along the NSW east coast.
Most notably was influencer Laura Clare, who recently shared her own unsettling experience hitchhiking in Byron Bay on TikTok and quickly garnered millions of views.
Clare joined Dr Mallett and Watson-Munro to share her story, reflecting on how a “gut feeling” pushed her to decline a ride—a decision that, in hindsight, could have been critical.
“A van pulled up, nothing to really note about the guy. He seemed quite normal. When I went to get into the front, there was a big knife and his answer was, ‘I’m a chef’,” she said.
“The knife was very rusty and it did not look like something that you would want anywhere near food. This is where my alarm bell finally kicked in. He then said he was currently unemployed. Those two moments together made me feel really uneasy.”
Listen to the latest episode of Motive & Method wherever you listen to your podcasts, or tap hereor press play below.
https://omny.fm/shows/motive-and-method/m-m-is-there-a-serial-killer-final/embed
So, is there a serial killer, or multiple, still out there?
Mallett believes we can’t rule the possibility out.
“To me, it says there’s got to have been more than one predator. Which means they could, in theory, still be active and a risk to the public.
“I’m not trying to scare anyone, but until we know who they are we can’t guarantee that that’s not the case,” she added.
