The tourist went to the mountains, where maniacs were operating, and disappeared. Her bones were found 23 years later, but there are still many mysteries in the case.

Woman hiker vanished in mountains where cannibals lived, bones found 23 years later but case still holds many secrets.

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

Picture: 7NEWS Australia / YouTube

A walk through the mountains of Australia ended in a nightmare for a young tourist and her family. The girl disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and her remains were found only 23 years later. For many years, the police linked the Australian woman’s death to suicide, and only the girl’s parents were sure that she had been killed. What was it: a strong-willed decision to leave this world, an accident or the machinations of a serial killer, rumors of which are circulating in local towns? “The tape.” tells the story of a missing traveler, which to this day has many gaps and questions.

A random find

The Blue Mountains are a picturesque area in the Australian state of New South Wales, an hour and a half drive from Sydney. There are many guest houses and cottages in the local towns for outdoor enthusiasts who come from all over the world to enjoy hiking on steep slopes with dense forests, caves and waterfalls.

Although the Blue Mountains are the center of attraction for tourists, they keep many secrets — people have disappeared here more than once and maniacs have been operating

On April 30, 2024, the Australian police conducted an operation near the city of Katoomba. It is unknown why the law enforcement officers went to the Blue Mountains initially, but their discovery shed light on the mysterious case of 23 years ago. During the descent from the cliff, one of the officers noticed human bones in the bushes. A month later, the police returned to the scene and seized the remains.

They were sent for examination, and the results were compared with data on missing persons. It turned out that the bones belonged to a girl who had been unsuccessfully searched for since 2001. Then the Australian newspapers exploded with loud headlines “A serious breakthrough in the Kelly Ann Carmichael case.”

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

The Fateful Day

Little is known about the missing tourist. In the Australian register of missing persons, she is described as follows: height 180 centimeters, slim, brown-haired, blue eyes. Kelly lived in the port city of Geelong in Victoria and was the youngest of three children of John and Margaret Carmichael. Apparently, the family was religious, since the girl studied at the Sacred Heart Girls’ Roman Catholic High School. Kelly was described as an intelligent and well—educated girl, but she had health problems – at the age of 21 she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Three years later, the Australian woman went on a trip to the Blue Mountains and disappeared without a trace. On the last day of the trip, on the morning of April 29, 2001, she checked out of the hostel in Katoomba, saying at the reception that she would return later for her things. The girl planned to take the train to Sydney, and from there fly home at 20:30, so she had time until the evening. That was the last time Kelly was seen alive.

The girl’s parents have been trying to reach her for almost a week. On May 5, they contacted the hostel administration and found out that Kelly’s belongings were still at the reception. There was everything she couldn’t do without—a wallet, an ID card, a phone, a camera, bank cards and a photo of her brother. Then John and Margaret went to the police. Law enforcement officers began investigating the case, while concerned parents also came to Katoomba and searched for their daughter for two days themselves. Later, Danny’s son joined them, and he spent another week in the Blue Mountains.

Upon learning that Kelly had schizophrenia, the police immediately began to consider the suicide theory, and it remained a priority for more than three years

My parents never believed in it. According to John Carmichael, shortly before the disappearance, his daughter told him that she was going to visit friends and hoped to cope with the disease with their help. In addition, her parents assured her, nothing in Kelly’s words or actions indicated a desire to commit suicide.

“The police even told us that people specially come here from all over the world to commit suicide,” John recalled. The man was sure that the suicide version suggests that investigators have forever missed important information that could be collected about Kelly’s latest movements.

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Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

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“They will hunt you to the death.”

Homicide detectives took up the Carmichael case only in 2004. Two years later, the officers publicly admitted the violent nature of the girl’s disappearance. They managed to find out that the tourist had acquaintances in the nearby town of Bathurst and she could visit them. Other details of the investigation were not disclosed, so there is little information about this in open sources.

In 2009, Deputy State Coroner Carl Milovanovich again drew public attention to the disappearance of Kelly Carmichael. He demanded that the police finally dismiss the suicide theory and look at the case in a new way. Milovanovic recommended the creation of a task force to investigate a number of unsolved murders and disappearances of young women in New South Wales. At the same time, the coroner did not publicly specify how many victims were in question and whether he found a connection between the series of disappearances.

Kelly’s family also did not give up trying to get the case off the ground. The girl’s former classmates appealed to the police with a request to create a working group and promised to provide all possible support. Although eight years have passed since the disappearance of the Australian, her memory was fresh, and people continued to write kind words to her.

You were a beautiful, radiant young woman with magical qualities. I think about you every day. I’ve shed so many silent tears that I don’t think there are any left, although they’re still flowing. You could get married and have children, or travel the world, as we dreamed of when we were young, but you disappeared without a trace. I’m living the life you’d like for me, Kelly, but my heart continues to ache for your safe return.

Former classmate Kelly Carmichael

In 2011, the state government finally offered a reward of 200,000 Australian dollars (almost 12 million rubles) for information that would help solve the case of Kelly Ann Carmichael. Police spokesman Michael Daly then promised to find out the truth at all costs. “The person guilty of this crime deserves to be behind bars. If you are responsible for harming Kelly Ann, the police will never close this case. She will hunt you to your death,” Daly threatened.

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

Notoriety

Over the years of searching for Kelly Carmichael, many theories have emerged about her disappearance. Some have suggested that she was the victim of a serial killer, and it seems that there is good reason. The Blue Mountains National Park is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. It attracts travelers with the vast expanses of wild forests, clean mountain air with a bluish haze of eucalyptus steam, historical hotels, and breathtaking views. However, this place also had a bad reputation.

In the late 1890s, one of the first serial killers in Australian history, Frank Butler, operated in the Blue Mountains. He came to the country from England, where he was a thief and forger, and began to master a much darker trade

Butler (this is one of his pseudonyms) advertised in the Sydney newspapers for hiring people to work in the gold mines. He chose at least three victims and took them in turn to the west, luring them with stories about the richest mines. There he forced men to dig their graves under the guise of searching for gold, and then shot them and robbed them.

Just a few years before Carmichael disappeared, another bloody drama unfolded in these places, shaking the whole world. Then, in the Belanglo forest, 150 kilometers from the Blue Mountains, they began to find corpses left by Australia’s most famous serial killer Ivan Milat. He preyed on young hitchhikers and killed at least seven Australian and European travelers aged 19-22.

The “beast from the bushes,” as journalists dubbed Milat, cut his victims, broke their spines and shot them like targets in a shooting gallery. One of the victims was decapitated, her skull was never found

The criminal was caught thanks to a British man, Paul Onyes, who traveled to Australia after serving in the Royal Navy. In 1990, Milat met a tourist on the highway and offered him a ride. On the way, he took out a rope and a pistol and reported the robbery. Onyes barely managed to escape and dodge the shots. It took the police another four years to find the killer, and it was Onyes who identified him later.

Ivan Milat was detained seven years before Kelly Carmichael disappeared, but the main mystery in his case has always been the alleged accomplices. Investigators were confused that the victims were killed in different ways. In addition, six of the seven dead traveled in pairs, and the question arose how Milat could cope with them alone. Then suspicion fell on the killer’s relatives, especially his brother Richard, but it was not possible to prove the involvement of anyone else.

By the way, in 2012 another Milat was convicted of a brutal murder. A distant relative of the famous serial killer, 19-year-old Matthew Milat, hacked a teenager with an axe in the same Belanglo forest, and his friend filmed the massacre on his phone. It was said that in court the young criminal boasted: “That’s what all Milats do!”

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

“A thousand corpses could be hidden there.”

It is unknown whether the police considered the possibility that Kelly Carmichael could have been kidnapped and killed by one of Ivan Milat’s possible accomplices or followers. At the same time, Reddit users drew attention to one more detail.

Kelly was far from the only young woman who mysteriously disappeared in the Blue Mountains in those years.

For example, in 1992, 23-year-old Maureen McLaughlin died. Data on the last days of her life is very scarce: on March 30, she withdrew money three times from an ATM in Katoomba, the next day she was seen at a hotel in the nearby town of Lithgow. Two weeks later, the girl’s body with multiple injuries was found in a shallow grave nearby. Maureen’s killer has never been found.

In 1997, 15-year-old Jessica Small disappeared in Bathurst. The girl went to the entertainment center with her friend and tried to hitchhike home. An unknown man in a white sedan stopped in front of the schoolgirls, and they got into the car. After driving off to a deserted place, the attacker attacked the girls. Jessica’s friend was able to escape and rushed for help, but the car disappeared in an unknown direction. Although the police had more information about the perpetrator than in other cases, they still could not find him.

1 ml of Australian dollars

(59 million rubles) to the one who will help solve the case of Jessica Small

A year later, 19-year-old Belinda Paisley disappeared in Katoomba. The investigation revealed that shortly before her death, she received an impressive inheritance and often invited guests home. At the same time, Belinda, at that time a mother of two children, had accumulated debts and had drug problems.

A few months after Kelly Carmichael disappeared, the name of 31-year-old Janine Vaughan appeared on the list of missing persons. She was last seen leaving a nightclub in central Bathurst and getting into a maroon Hyundai. Her case has added to an impressive list of unsolved murders in New South Wales.

There is no official information about a possible connection between these cases. The author of the thread on Reddit, who considered the disappearance of the girls similar, explained that he compared them only out of curiosity. “I know a former detective of the local police, and he once told me that law enforcement officers always suspected that the same person might be involved in some cases of missing people in the area,” he said. Some users agreed that it all looks suspicious.

This is a really wild, rocky, densely forested area. A thousand bodies could be hidden there. Plus, there are forest fires

Reddit user

“It’s an interesting hypothesis, but I don’t think there’s enough information here to draw any conclusions,” others objected. Users drew attention to the differences in handwriting: if in the first case the killer grabbed one girl and barely sprinkled her body with earth, so that he was almost immediately found, then in the second the criminal went so far as to attempt a double abduction and hid the corpse so that it was not found for 30 years.

“According to the popular theory, it was suicide, but I think it will be quite difficult to rule out an accident at this stage. The last time I was in the mountains, I went for a run. It was restless because of how often deep steep cliffs were hidden just behind vegetation or very close to the trail. Only the most touristic places are fenced in there. It seems to me that it would be quite easy to accidentally fall,” the local resident added.

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

Туристка отправилась в горы, где орудовали маньяки, и пропала. Ее кости нашли через 23 года, но в деле все еще много тайн

“Our daughter was stolen”

The examination should shed light on the true cause of the mysterious disappearance of Kelly Ann Carmichael. It is not yet known what condition the remains of the tourist are in and whether it will be possible to confirm or exclude violent death from them.

I feel like our daughter and grandchildren have been stolen from us. You know, we’ll be grateful for anything, because our lives will never be the same.

Margaret Carmichael is the mother of missing tourist Kelly Carmichael

Most likely, Kelly’s demise will remain a mystery. It is unlikely that the girl’s parents will find out what really happened to their daughter and get rid of the feeling of uncertainty — there are too many gaps and suspicious coincidences in this story. It remains to be hoped that the opportunity to say goodbye to Kelly with dignity after so many years will bring relief to her family.

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