Notorious serial killer Ivan Milat has died at the age of 74.
The backpack killer who was convicted in 1996 of the murder of seven backpackers died after being diagnosed with terminal oesophagus and stomach cancer.
WATCH: Notorious serial Killer Ivan Milat is dead
“Ivan Milat, 74, died at Long Bay Hospital 1 about 4.07am on Sunday, 27 October 2019,” a Corrective Services NSW spokesperson told 7NEWS.com.au
“All deaths in custody are subject to a coronial inquest, including deaths resulting from natural causes”.
Milat killed Britons Caroline Clarke, 21, and Joanne Walters, 22; Victorian couple Deborah Everist and James Gibson, both 19; and German nationals Simone Schmidl and Gabor Neugebauer, both 21, and Anja Habschied, 20.
One of Australia’s-and the world’s-most notorious killers, Milat was serving life terms for the murders of seven backpackers in NSW’s Belanglo State Forest between 1989 and 1992.
The travellers, which included five women and two men, came from Australia, England and Germany. It is believed Milat picked up his victims as hitchhikers before driving them deep into the forest, tying them up and either stabbing or shooting them to death (or both). He took his time with the killings and decapitated one victim (her head has never been found).
Police began investigating Milat when his name kept cropping up in tips from the public as a suspicious, gun-loving person. He was arrested after an English backpacker called Paul Onions, who had escaped Milat during a “robbery”, identified his abductor as Milat.
Milat was arrested on May 22, 1994, and a search of his western Sydney property yielded a trove of evidence including a part of the rifle used in the murders, and the murdered backpackers’ property.
WATCH: Inside serial killer Ivan Milat’s prison cell
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