DEATH ROAD I hitched a ride from a secret serial killer who murdered seven strangers & planned to butcher me with a masonry hammer
Colin Powis reveals the spine-chilling moment he escaped from Australia’s worst ever serial killer Ivan Milat who was just moments away from bludgeoning him with a hammer

WATCHING a documentary about Ivan Milat – Australia’s worst serial killer – Colin Powis froze in horror.

Images of the fiend instantly took him back to 1982 when, as he backpacked in New South Wales, he had accepted a lift from a shifty stranger with a hammer stashed in his pick-up.

Colin, who was 21 at the time, had only arrived in Oz from County Durham two days earlier and recalled thinking the driver’s behaviour was “a bit odd”.

Fearing he was about to be robbed, he managed to flee the vehicle, but did not report his scare to police as he had escaped safely.

It was only when evil Milat’s face filled Colin’s TV screen eight years ago that he recognised him and realised he had escaped the clutches of a monster.

Milat murdered seven young hitchhikers, including two British women, in Australia between 1989 and 1993.

Cops now believe he could be responsible for as many as 50 murders, with definite links to 11.

A parliamentary inquiry Down Under has been considering if Milat could be behind more slayings.

Retired construction worker Colin, now 65, who lives near Durham, said of his close call with Milat: “It was a one-in-a-million chance he picked me up.

It was only when I saw a reconstruction of his murders on a documentary that my memory was triggered and I realised who it was.

“At the time, I thought he was some hillbilly who was going to rob me, but I now know I am lucky to be alive.”

Colin was one of millions of young Brits who travelled to Oz in the Eighties when backpacking became popular after the country brought in working holiday visas.

With no mobile phones and vast stretches of unoccupied land, tourists were an easy target for Milat.

He attacked young people travelling along the Hume Highway — the main route from Sydney to Melbourne — before dumping their bodies in the Belanglo forest.

 

His victims included Brit backpackers Joanne Walters, from Maesteg in Mid Glamorgan, and Caroline Clarke, of Farnham, Surrey, who met at a Sydney hotel in April 1992.

Milat picked up the two 22-year-olds and murdered them as they went fruit-picking in southern New South Wales.

Their bodies were found in makeshift shallow graves in a state forest reserve near Bowral, about 80 miles from Sydney, in September 1992, five months after they vanished.

Forensic evidence showed Joanne had been sexually assaulted, while Caroline’s body had decomposed so badly police were unable to tell if she had suffered the same ordeal.

Colin was travelling through the Blue Mountains to the mining town of Cobar in search of a job when roadworker Milat pulled over and offered him a lift.

He said: “It was about 10am and I was standing by the side of the road when he pulled over. In retrospect, he wasn’t at all normal, but I really needed the lift.

“I was going to throw my backpack in the back of the truck, which was open and virtually empty.

“The only thing I saw in it was a masonry hammer, which was lying in the corner. But Milat told me to put my bag in the cab behind the seats instead. Then he told me to put my seatbelt on. Back then, people didn’t put seatbelts on as a matter of course, so I thought it was a bit odd.

“A minute later, he told me to put the lock button down on the door. I thought, ‘Who does that? Nobody over ten years old’. I looked at him in a quizzical way and he said, ‘I don’t want you to fall out’.”

Chillingly, Milat then asked Colin how long he had been in Australia — and who knew he was in the country.

“After I said I didn’t know anyone, he went into a sort of trance state and more or less stopped talking to me,” Colin said.

And recalling how he tried to make small talk, he revealed Milat gave “short answers and grunted” during their 30-minute car trip.

“To be honest, I thought he was maybe drunk,” Colin admitted.

“I tried to humour him a bit, trying to make conversation. I asked him a bit about his background and he said his father came from Yugoslavia after the war. It later emerged this was true.

“We were going along the main highway and he suddenly said he was going to turn off on a dirt road because he wanted to check some animal traps he had set.

“He said I could come along if I wanted and ‘see some real Aussie wildlife’. Those were his exact words.

“I refused and said, ‘I want to carry on going’ and asked him to let me out. But instead of stopping, he continued slowly down the dirt road for about 400 yards before coming to a stop.

He said, ‘I’ll help you get your backpack’, and ran around the back of the pickup. He ran round to my side and by the time I’d got my backpack out he was standing there with his hands behind his back.

“It’s only now I realise he must have taken the hammer from the back and intended to bash me with it.”

Colin said the pair were disturbed when traffic diverted from the main road passed by.

He explained: “Luckily, the lights had changed and cars started driving slowly past us. If they hadn’t, I think I could have been killed.

“I remember I wasn’t that scared at the time. He was just a short fella and I was 21 and a good athlete, but I was worried he was going to steal my backpack and take my passport.

“As the traffic went slowly past us, I grabbed my bag and turned to walk away, but he tried to block my path. I shoved him with my shoulder and walked away.

“I was about 50ft away when he called, ‘Hey mate’. I looked back and he was lounging against the tailgate of his truck and shouted, ‘Have a safe trip’. He had a frustrated, wolfish look on his face.”

That was the last Colin saw of Milat and, despite hearing him named Australia’s most prolific killer, he thought little more about his encounter till the documentary aired.

The show featured another British male backpacker who escaped Milat’s murderous rage.

Paul Onions, of Birmingham, was offered a lift by the serial killer in 1990 and, spotting a rope and gun in the 4×4, he undid his seatbelt, jumped from the vehicle and ran.

Milat gave chase, firing his weapon, but Paul, who was 20 at the time, flagged down a passing motorist.

He went to Bowral police station and gave detailed information about Milat, including his job and the type of vehicle he drove.

But he was handed ten Australian dollars to get back to the British High Commission in Sydney and the report lay in a drawer for years.

Later, when Paul read newspaper stories about the remains of partially buried bodies in Belanglo State Forest, he called cops and reminded them of his ordeal.

Milat was arrested in 1994 and many of his victims’ possessions, including camping equipment and sleeping bags, were found at his home in Eagle Vale, New South Wales.

Weapons which fitted the killings were also discovered.

Finally, in 1996, Milat was convicted of murdering Joanne and Caroline — as well as Germans Simone Schmidl, Anja Habschied and Gabor Neugebauer, and Australians James Gibson and Deborah Everist.

An ongoing parliamentary inquiry into unsolved murders and long-term missing persons cases in Australia has heard how Milat, who died in jail in 2019 aged 74, could be behind more killings.

It heard from New South Wales homicide chief, detective superintendent Joseph Doueihi, who said a review into Milat involved assessing “50 or so” cases.