Police to check if Belanglo Forest body is millionaire Kerry Whelan

MURDERED: Millionaire housewife Kerry Whelan was murdered by family friend Bruce Burrell, but her body has never been found. Source: PerthNow

While the initial investigative focus is likely to centre on whether the body could be an eighth victim of serial killer Ivan Milat, police are likely to examine other missing persons cases.

The Whelan case has been linked to the grisly find because Belanglo Forest is near to Burrell's farm, Hillydale, in Bungonia, 185km southwest of Sydney. Reports last night said Whelan's family had been notified of the find.

Burrell was also convicted of the 1995 murder of elderly widow Dorothy Davis, whose body is still missing.

Yesterday, the detective who led the investigation into the Ivan Milat murders said police knew of up to two other slayings that could have been the work of Australia's most notorious serial killer.

The revelation came as NSW police confirmed that a cluster of bones found in rugged scrub in the Belanglo State Forest on Sunday afternoon appeared to be the remains of at least one person.

While the notorious Belanglo forest was the dumping ground for the remains of Milat's seven victims, Acting Superintendent Evan Quarmby yesterday said police were not willing to speculate on whether this latest discovery could be linked to Australia's "backpacker murderer".

"Obviously, there is a lot of speculation surrounding this discovery," he said. "We are not drawing any conclusions with any missing persons or past investigations."

One of the men who made the find said the remains included a skull, ribs and what looked like human leg bones. "We were definitely sure they were human," the rider, who gave his name as Andrew, told Macquarie Radio. The grisly discovery was made just off a bush track on Brethren Point Road, about 4km past an ominous green road sign saying: "Belanglo State Forest. Be careful."

Blue and white police tape, seen all too frequently in Belanglo in the early 1990s, yesterday blocked access to the narrow and windy Brethren Point Road. Just 600m behind the tape, forensic police were busy examining the remains.

The location was not among the corners of the forest previously scoured by police in the early 1990s, when detectives searched the area for signs of Milat's victims. The man in charge of that investigation, retired assistant commissioner Clive Small, said it was too early to say if the remains found on Sunday were linked to Milat, who killed and disposed of seven backpackers in the Belanglo forest in the late 1980s and 90s.

Mr Small said he had been told the remains had been found well away from the seven Milat victims previously found in Belanglo -- all of whom were found within a relatively concentrated area.

"As I understand it, from where it was found . . . it was quite a distance away from where the backpacker murders were," Mr Small told The Australian.

Mr Small said a thorough search of the area had been conducted as part of the Milat investigation. "It's an area where a lot of bushwalkers go and other people go. No one's ever found any more bodies there, so there's no reason to think anyone was missed 20 years ago," he said.

But he told The Australian he believed Milat had committed additional murders. "There were up to three or four other people," he said. "Without becoming specific, in one or two cases there has been a body found."

He would not say where the bodies were found, citing the sensitivities of victims' families.

Milat was reportedly the chief suspect in the murder of 18-year-old Peter Letcher, found in the Jenolan forest in 1987. He has never admitted to any of the killings.

 Read more at The Australian

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