Revisited: The Backpackers

In the early 1990s, young backpackers hitchhiking along Australia's Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne began vanishing. Over several years, seven disappeared without contact, their families reporting them missing after failed check-ins and no financial activity. Authorities initially treated the cases separately, assuming typical traveler delays, but scattered belongings and patterns emerged, pointing to foul play in Belangalo State Forest, a 9,400-acre pine logging area southwest of Sydney prone to disorientation from downed timber.

Early Disappearances and Clues

Deborah Everest, 19, and James Gibson, 19, called Deborah's mother from Sydney on December 29, 1989, post-Newcastle earthquake, planning a hitchhike to Albury for a music festival. They promised regular contact but never followed up. By late January 1990, after missing a wedding and classes, families reported them missing. In March, James's backpack surfaced cut open near Galston Gorge, northwest of Sydney, with his name inside but camera missing. A resident then turned in the camera, found December 30 nearby. Searches there failed amid bad weather.