Matthew Milat wanted to be just like his Serial Killer Uncle, Ivan | Crimes that Shook Australia

a trip to the balango state forest began as a 17th birthday celebration with friends he's walking down singing and he was just so happy and that's the last time I seen him but what happened during the course of that evening was nothing short of horri the incredible capacity for evil of people who were so young I think is what made this case so chilling but tragically this was not the first time the Bango State Forest had been associated with evil nobody could believe that another generation of malats were involved in these kind of [Music] killings the senseless murder of David octone in the balango state forest was a crime That Shook [Applause] [Music] Australia uh when I met Chase day was in the M room at Barrel police station he pretty pretty tired and and still upset at the circumstances Mr day for the purpose of the record would you please State your full name and spell your surname CH Nathaniel day d y now it's been explained to you that you're under arrest for your uh involvement in the murder of David oaly do you understand that [Music] yes Chase D told the police that he had uh gone to blang State Forest with two friends and that he had witnessed a murder and I said what are you doing this for and he said you stare the [ __ ] out of it and get back in the car and I did I did what he said because I didn't I didn't want to get hit and I heard oo start [Music] screaming the chilling statement by a regular 18-year-old in the early hours of Monday the 22nd of November 2010 confirmed that something terrible had happened in the nearby Bango State Forest Chase day had handed himself into the police and revealed that his friend 17-year-old David octone had been murdered in 2010 David octone was just a normal teenager growing up in the small town of Bargo New South Wales he liked to ride his scooter and his skateboard his motor bikes and Bush bikes play Playstation yeah just have fun although close to his mother David grew up in the family home of his grandparents when he was little he was a beautiful baby he was no trouble what whatsoever and when he first of all came to me he came for short stay and as his parents went different ways his Stay With Me grew longer he was just happy and loved life and enjoyed it and it was just good to be around and to have someone like that in your life everybody was his friend you know everyone was his friend and he he never seen the bad in anyone yeah David was very trusting with a lot of people and would give them a chance and you know hang out with him and see what sort of people they were and hope that they didn't do wrong by him David octone belonged to a close-knit group of local teenagers who used to hang around in Bargo the group included Chase day Cohen Klein and another young man who stood out from the others when David was up at his mother's Place one day David said to me n he said you remember Matt and he come right up to my face and he said do you know who I am and I said you're Matt milman he said I am not he said my name's Matthew Mallette Matthew's in fact born Matthew mman and at some stage he had changed his name that Matthew had started to develop this fixation with Ivan Mt who was his great uncle a man has appeared in court charged with The Backpacker serial murders 49-year-old Ivan mut faces seven counts of murder and one of attempted murder Ivan Mt is one of Australia's most notorious serial killers he was convicted of murder in 1996 after abducting torturing and killing seven Backpackers before hiding their bodies in the Bango State Forest Ivan atat picked up all of his victims the police think are round about the same place on the Hume Highway he stabbed them in the back to paralyze them so they couldn't run away one of the German Backpackers and Hab Sheed she was beheaded he used others for target practice and there was evidence that some of them were sexually assaulted as well including some of the male Backpackers and then he buried them just next to a log in the bangala state forest and the police don't think that these seven Backpackers that he killed were the only ones they continued their investigations and there are at least another dozen women who went missing believed murdered whose bodies have never been found rather than shying away from his relatives chilling history Matthew Milat almost idolized his Uncle Ivan and would actually brag about his connection Matthew Matt started to talk to his friends about how he thought of Ivan Mt that he would often want to go to bangalow State Forest to have a look at the the parks and the sites relevant to the backpack of murders and that really put people off Matthew M really started to send out warning signals about his his mindset his frame of mind he certainly seemed to take an incredible perverse pride in that link a lot of other malat family members had changed their name to avoid the association but here we had someone who was absolutely hellbent on being associated with this family and with this crime and I said to David I'm sorry but I don't like him I said there's something weird about him and I said I said do you realize that he's related to Ivan Mallette the one that that murdered the Backpackers he goes oh yeah n but he said you never ever see the good in people you always got to see the bad I said well I'm just telling you to be very very careful him because there's just something about him I think David cuz he was just that sort of person he just felt sorry for him you know felt bad at what the family had gone through David's family were well aware of Ivan milt's crimes they'd always regarded his great nephew Matthew Milt as a little odd but soon his behavior began to raise much more serious concerns and one day Matt Mt had pushed David and I've come out and I said what's going on out here and I said to David I said you go inside and I said to Matt Mt you get in your car and you go home and he come right up to my face and he said nobody tells me what to do and I was frightened so I put my hands out and I've literally pushed him off me and I said now you get in your car and don't you ever come back here again he then began doing Drive buys past my house two or three times a day and he'd come up here around the corner SK on the brakes in the car would do a 360 he he was a bully he was a definite bully despite his grandmother's dislike for Milt David continued to spend time with him it was an association that would cost her grandson dearly on Saturday the 20th of November 2010 David octone was celebrating his 17th birthday with his family first with his mother and then with his grandparents being his birthday we you know talked and hung out for a little while give him a card with some money in it and then he went off to his NS to do the same thing and celebrate his birthday there with them as well and my youngest son came down and we had a birthday cake and we sang and he loved it and he was so happy and we had a couple of beers and he said he was gone with his mate he said well you know look after yourself don't do anything silly and that was the last we sign of [Music] him David's plan was to meet up with three friends Chase day Cohen Klein and Matthew Millet to continue his birthday celebrations when David left me to the best of my knowledge he was going down the street he was always down the street he would be sitting under the tree there'd be a group of young boys with him they'd sit there and just laugh and just look at all the girls cuz they were at that age and there was no reason for me to think otherwise however David never made it to his usual hangout Matthew Milt had other plans in mind he wanted to go to the Bango State Forest he used to boast to people you know what my uncle is famous for you know what my family is famous for and that in the leadup to the crime he had been talking to friends and boasting that well we're going to go to bangalow and someone's going to die belanglo State Forest is a dense Pine Woodland of around 4,000 hectares it lies about a 40-minute drive from the town of Bargo in New South [Music] Wales since the early 1990s it's become synonymous with murder the blang state forest is probably one of the most notorious Parts in Australia I've spoken to a lot of people who being there it's just an eerie place to be by virtue of what whatever I knows or believes has happened there blang Forest is a really eerie place it's dark it's dank it's got the high trees if you didn't know the area you wouldn't know where you were if someone put you in the middle of the forest you would never be able to find your way out Matthew matat was for some time asking for people able to come with him to go and visit the sites that were notorious now as a result of his uncle on his 17th birthday and after a Day celebrating with his relatives in Bargo David octone planned to meet up with friends to continue the celebrations Chase day met up with David earlier that day Matthew and Cohen came and picked them up they went and got some drugs and then they went to the bangalow state forest and the idea was that they were going to go down the forest smoke some cones have some drinks and basically celebrate as young boys do without fear of police or anyone getting involved and ruling their party they've got something to eat and then stopped at a a little y intersection in the pitch dark and sat there and they played some music and David octone had sort of gone along with this this plan of just four friends hanging out in the forest at this stage still none the wiser as to what was going to take [Music] place I hadn't heard for David for two nights and I thought this is highly unusual David definitely Rings me whether he's stranded hungry or what on Sunday I tried to dream uh I couldn't get through so I on the Monday I tried again and again couldn't get through the mystery surrounding David's disappearance would be solved that same day when I met Chase day was in the m at Barrel police station he was a young man uh who witnessed something very traumatic but at the same time he'd implicated himself in the offense he um had confided in his father earlier that day and his father immediately took him to the police tell me what happened uh starting on the 20th uh of November Chase day told us that for some reason Matthew Mt called David octone from the front of the car up around to the boot and he suddenly heard David cry out or scream [Music] con come over to me and he said just get in the car and I heard oo start screaming because mat hit him in the ribs of an Axe and then he saw Matthew M with an axe chasing David octone around the car and he said lay down and M like was like don't do meaning like crying saying he was [Music] sorry there wasn't a lot of light down there apart from the headlights so he he says that he didn't physically see much of the assault at all mostly just the the verbal exchange that he could hear but I could hear oo like crying and screaming telling Matthew to stop and then he laid o down on the ground and all I heard was M saying move your hands move your hands and then I I didn't hear anything he there but he just went [Music] silent it's at that point that he says that Matthew Mt um starts talking about taking the body and and having to dispose of the body he dragged up he drag he dragged him along the ground did Matthew say to you why he wanted David dragg into the bush and so he wouldn't get [Music] found one thing I I do remember quite clearly from the interview with Chase day is his recollection of Matthew mite's behavior on the way back to Bargo and he describes Matthew m going through this Rush um like a like a high oh he was saying what did they actually say Matt was saying oh yeah that was such an adrenaline rush that was all I heard him say and then Matt col was like I I told you that you going to go down the same path as your uncle and that was it and then I started I started losing just hours after Chase day gave his statement David okon's body was discovered by police where it had been hidden in the Bango State Forest shortly afterwards his relatives were told of his death then I got a knock on the door and there's a an officer from the Gin police station he said oh there's been an accident and they said now we want you to go down and identify by the body so we've gone down and they've said to us can I stop I rang his grandparents phone number and his uncle actually answered and I said hello is David there I've been trying to ring him and I just can't seem to get through and and his uncle just turned around and said to me um no donor is not with us anymore and we went down to Barrow to identify the the body that was horrible because all I could see was his his eyes were wide open and they were just they were just staring just help me help me that's all I remember seeing I think I was still in shock at the time I think I held it together till the funeral yeah they they wouldn't let me touch him or hold his hand or kiss him or say goodbye cuz they didn't want me to interfere with the evidence and even though I said you bet it's me like I'm his mom I had to stand back and say goodbye to him and tell him that I loved him and that I was sorry [Music] and Chase day implicated both Cohen Klein and Matthew Milat in the death of their friend David octone police moved quickly to arrest the two suspects now that we've established what had occurred by speaking to chase day at Barrel the the next phase of the investigation moved to the arrest of Matthew Mt and Colin [Music] Klein when the police um arrived at Matthew Matt's house they found him asleep in his bedroom when he told him that he was under arrest and what the police were investigating he his reaction was very nonchalant enjoying the notoriety was my interpretation Matthew do you agree with me that uh I entered your bedroom and I said that you're under arrest yes and I also uh spoke to you about uh a hat that you were wearing on Sat night and what did you indicate to me about that sitting in the bu and also um some shoes that you wearing the shoes that just E White they located a pair of shoes which we l later found had the blood of David octal on them and also a hat which we believed Matthew may have been wearing at the time that he committed the murder um Matthew matat was taken back to C police station by Andrew Marx and another investigator Greg Payne and they attempted to interview him there about his involvement for the purpose of this record what is your full name Matthew Steven Mt what stood out to the investigators during the interview of Matthew Mt was how calm he was it was very very little reaction considering that he was a 17y old boy who was under arrest for a horrific murder I'm investigating the murder of David ocalan who was killed on Saturday the 20th of November 2010 at the bangl State Forest do you understand that yes he was supported by his grandfather William Mt and he was quite protective of Matthew where were the clothes were that you were wearing on Saturday night just don't answer that man okay so the the interview with Matthew mad unfortunately didn't give us any further Evidence it was basically a no comment interview now I want to ask you some questions about that are you prepared to answer those question no at the same time other detectives went to the home of Cohen Klein just for the purpose of the uh video recording can you please tell me your full name really police conducted a search warrant at the address of K Klein he identified a number of items which belong to him whose shoes are those they my brother's shoes where are your shoes just there my new shoes when you say new shoes how long have you had those for days of Interest the investigators located a Nokia mobile phone that con cled identified as being his phone who owns that mobile phone me is that the only mobile phone you have yeah we wouldn't realize the significance of that phone until later on in the investigation got a hand off you Klein was taken to a local police station where he gave his version of events come Klein played a different tact when he was arrested by police he immediately tried to play victim he told the police that he was absolutely petrified of Matthew Mt that he'd been caught up in a in a horrific murder and that he was too scared to come forward at any stage did you attempt to stop what Matt was doing to David I couldn't but if Chase was asking him to stop and he just kept saying shut the [ __ ] up Chase sort of thing wa when did that conversation take place we not I was going around the car okay I was literally like scared for my life I couldn't say anything than that like I just get the shakes thinking of bit so can't even sleep nothing okay we didn't accept any of it Jas has told us that as um you got in the car um you you basically actually the car as as you're telling me um and it's about that time that you've said uh to him um I've asked Matt not to hurt you I told him that you're my M or I'm your mate was to that effect you recall that was he said that when when did he say that why would to say that he said it to me like after I said it to him after I seen Matt is there any reason why you didn't ask him to um not hurt David well I couldn't really ask him cuz it was a bit late the inconsistencies in Cohen Clin statement were enough for police they were convinced that amongst their three suspects was the killer or Killers initially I did have some suspicion that chase day may have had some involvement and the reason being is his version started with him telling us that he had concerns earlier that day that Matthew M was going to kill David Octan and he couldn't really explain that when you met up with um Matthew and Cohen that afternoon before you went to the forest did you think that they were getting to kill D it was on the back of my mind but then when we got in the car why was that in the back of your mind because belang forest and then Matt being arvin's nephew for that reason I wasn't completely convinced that chase day's version was true despite these doubts day's statement along with the lack of any other viable suspects convinced police that they had found the people responsible for David's death K Klein was charged with murder Chase day was charged with accessory after the fact of murder for his involvement in disposing of the body and Matthew Mt was charged with murder and all of them were Bale refused Matthew you're going to be charged with the murder of David off theany do you understand that yes this interview is now concluded with the three suspects in custody but two very different versions of events police had to decide if Chase day was telling the truth was he an innocent victim or a willing accomplice they would find the answer to that question on the phone discovered at Cohen Klein's home even though the file had actually been deleted the uh electronic evidence Branch were able to actually recover that file piece by piece and I could tell straight away what I was listening to it was the recording of the murder [Music] detectives investigating the brutal murder of David octone in the Bango State Forest had discovered a mobile phone at the home of one of the suspects Cohen Klein we're going to take that mobile phone that the identifi as his what they found on that phone was the evidence police needed to convict their suspects we were interviewed K kin at gin um upon advice from me solicitor prior to the recording being found and at that stage we were hopeful that we would actually recover the file so we put it to him at the time where was your mobile phone that night did you have it with you yeah did you at any time make an audio or a video recording from your mobile phone no you're in possession of your phone at all times at night where yeah okay I reacted as I didn't know what we're talking about the recording would prove to be the vital piece of evidence in the case over 14 minutes the final horrifying moments of David octal's life were played out due to its graphic nature the recording has never been made public a winner recording starts you do see a brief glimpse of video of David oaly in the Leaning into the driver's seat of the car preparing a joint and the boys are talking about the fact that he's not doing a really good job of it shortly after that you hear this grown and you hear David oone it's like a a sound as though he's been winded and um we know from the examination of the postmortem that Matthew matat struck David octal in the ribs with a large axe what was Matthew saying if anything stop running well I want to talk to you David Octan has fallen to the ground you he Matthew M basically proceeds to torning him for minutes goes on and Chase day is begging for David to be left Aline wanting to intervene and I said what are you doing this for and he said you stay the [ __ ] out of it and get back in the car and I did I did what he said because I didn't I didn't want to get hit and I wanted to be there for o but there was absolutely nothing I could do towards the end Matthew Mt starts to repeat himself building up to the final will blow it was just asking him the same question over and over again and how how can I trust your word and all that and d d was like you can you can and he's like well from all this other [ __ ] how can I trust it and that was it that's all I heard and I just said end they just went beside hearing Di it's last breath and it's very chilling sound several months after the murder police were handed another vital piece of evidence a person had been walking down around the ponds in the Bargo area and found the wallet of David octone with the license still inside with the proximity of the wallet to the local swimming hole we sent the police divers down and not long after they recovered the large double-headed axe that Matthew mad had used to kill David [Music] octone this terrifying weapon along with the forensic evidence found at Matthew milt's home built a solid case against the three alleged perpetrators at the same time police were growing more and more convinced that chase day's account of that terrible night was in fact the [Music] truth in September 2011 the charges against day were dropped and he was called to give evidence in court we spoke with the director of public prosecutions about Chase day it was clear from that recording from the mobile phone that he was under addess at the time so Chase day had the charges withdrawn and at the time of the sentence hearing he appeared as a witness and assisted the prosecution in providing evidence against K kin and Matthew Manan in the face of overwhelming evidence against them Matthew Mt and Cohen Klein both pleaded guilty to murder on the 21st of May in 2012 the two young men appeared at the Sydney Supreme Court for sentencing Matthew Mt had posted about killing David octone before and after it happened this was his Day of Reckoning it was very strange to be back in the Supreme Court in Sydney involving a Mt I think that bizarre feeling never really left it of this horrible sort of family Dynasty that had been created in Matthew mt's mind to have that played out in court to have the bangalow state forest all of these words coming back into courtrooms in Sydney so many years after the trial for the backpack of Serial killings was an incredibly surreal experience so the public reaction to this case was one of horror uh and outrage because of the age of the victim uh because of the uh the age of Matthew himself and this was committed um the use of the the battle AXS uh and I think just the horrendous nature of of what happened Richard first was asked to undertake a psychological examin of Matthew Milat this was submitted as evidence at the sentence hearing I concluded that he was likely stressed by some of the situations he'd raised including the relationship and unemployment and some drug use however there was no indication that he was driven by a serious mental illness or psychosis and even the reasons he gave were probably insufficient to account for the horrendous nature of what actually took place um and the degree of planning I used to look at Matthew in the dock but he was cold and he knew he was going to get what he was going to get and he wasn't going to feel sorry or guilty he's just that sort of person he would not engage with the court room kept his head down he didn't look at the judge he didn't look at the gallery didn't look at us um yeah it was it was unusual every time he looked at myet he there was no remorse and it was like hey I'm on show here I can't be touched they were just sorry that they got caught and jailed and they got locked up other than that I believe that they would have been still out bragging about it to this day on the 8th of June 2012 Justice Jane Matthews sentenced the two young men for the murder of David octone it was clear to the court that this offense was a premeditated murder that there was no real motive apart from Matthew Mt wanting to kill David oani essentially as a Thrill Kill and to emulate his his uncle although the judge allowed Coen Klein a small reduction in his sentence Matthew Milat was refused any leniency due to the extreme gravity of the crime and the serious danger he posed to the public Justice Matthews handed down one of the most significant sentences for a juvenile that I'm aware of and is definitely as a legislation stands at the moment one of the most significant sentences handed down to a juvenile and that was 43 years imprisonment with a Nona period of 30 years probably the the thing that speaks loudest that uh it was such a horrific crime that it seemed to attract such a long sentence um but uh I was still surprised at how long that was because most juveniles are given a chance to rehabilitate or engage and tend to have shorter sentences um so it's very uncommon to have such a long sentence the reaction of Matthew mad and K Klein when they were sentence was one of shock I think it was probably finally Dawning on on them just how much of their life they will now spend in jail we were glad that they got as long as they did but we still don't think it was enough you know they took a life they should have got life they should have being put in jail locked up for the rest of their lives never to be released although disappointed by the sentence David's family hoped that the closing of the Court proceedings would allow them to grieve in peace but Matthew Mt had other ideas during the sentencing David's family were given a note written by Matthew Mt Matthew Mt prepared a single page handwritten letter of apology to the octone family uh detailing his regret for what had happened that night but it was a letter that was wholeheartedly rejected by the octone family who saw it as nothing more then aoy by him to avoid a heavier sentence although the note was dismissed by the octone family who saw it as completely lacking in remorse this was not the first time Matthew Mt had written about David's [Music] death Matthew Milat and Cohen Klein had been convicted of the murder of David octone and given significant prison sentences as David's family were left to grieve in peace milat's own writings in custody began to reveal more about the mind of a killer a poem that Matthew matat wrote about 9 months after the murder was actually described by the sentencing judge as being particularly chilling to think that a teenager was capable of writing such brutal violence and the images that it were raised in the poem were really incredibly haunting this was a poem written by Matthew MC called your last day click clack hear that stopping in the middle of the track are you getting nervous in the back should be you're getting whacked talk [ __ ] here talk [ __ ] there no one's really going to care but talk [ __ ] with every breath you just signed away your health I can see you start to sweat wondering what you're going to get hoping for one in the head or put it in your leg tell me are you having fun get up and start to run how far are you going to get your match you have just met stumbling all over the place hear the crunch of leaves and feet feel your heart skip a beat are you going to get away no hope kid this is your day the day that you won't be found 6 ft underneath the ground it really in my view speaks to the person who's is in a way glorifying if you like the events or reliving them it's a deeply worrying uh sign that there a poem like that written in July 2013 the friends and family of David octone were even more incensed when his Killers appealed their sentences I was quite disgusted to know that there were were trying to appeal their sense because they thought they were hard done by they weren't the ones hard done by David was you know so why should they be given a chance to appeal the SS to reduce it so they can get out and have their freedom when my son didn't get a chance when they appealed I just felt sick in the stomach to think Here We Go Again haven't we been through enough we're suffering we've got this life sentence and we have to sit now and watch you two showing no was because she didn't give two Hots about David Matthew mt's appeal was dismissed but Cohen Klein had 2 years taken off his minimum jail term and David's friends and family now have to live with the knowledge that one day these two men may be released I hope they never get out because Matt is a sick psychopath and I believe that he would have scores to settle and for those people that came forward and helped solve all this mystery he would be after them they would be targeted Matthew Mt tried to follow in the footsteps of Ivan Mt his great uncle two sets of crimes committed in this beautiful Forest but we're left with the question of why he did it was this a matter of nature or nurture the reasons behind um personality formation and violence um are not fully understood but there have been a study showing a linkage between various genes in the brain and persistent juvenile offending certainly Matthew mot seemed to hint that he saw that he was fulfilling some sort of family Destiny by boasting about you know what my family is famous for and you know what my uncle did there but it is hard to imagine that someone did this to make a relative who he barely knew proud I think this was just a case of two two very bad young men who did it for nothing more than seemingly their own entertainment and I think that's what makes this case just so incomprehensible in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy the octone family continue to honor David's memory he was well liked and there's still people that remember him Sandra and I had a plaque put on the local skate spot you spent a lot of time up there chilling out riding his skateboard or his scooter David's death it rocked the community it was horrific and everywhere we went it was people were crying and we'd have people coming up to us it just brought us into the spotlight and we didn't want [Music] that David Steph had a big impact on the community it just broke a lot of people it devastated us [Music] all I think what we can learn from sometimes friends that appear to be friends just definitely aren't your friends and just to be wary every now and then you do something and it comes flooding back because you may have done it with him it's little things that you've done W that bring young stuck I still can't accept it and I've just had to learn to live with it every day and and just accept the reality of it that it's happened and that he's gone just absolutely devastated me and destroyed me and when they took David's life they also took mine yeah the thing that always strikes me about this case in particular having worked at homicide for a number of years is that this was a Thrill Kill for me it's hard to rationalize an offense where a young man a 17-year-old boy murders another 17-year-old boy for fun this is certainly one of the absolute worst crimes that I have ever heard of the violence the callousness the Youth of the two people involved Matthew and K Klein I think it absolutely was a case that shook Sydney shook that area near bangalow again and obviously because of the notorious meat name certainly shook Australia as well the information that we had uh from our investigation into Matthew Mt was that he was going to kill again he definitely had the intention to go on to be like his Uncle Ivan and to gain that notoriety by killing as many people as he could he really wanted to go on to become a serial [Music] [Music] [Music] killer [Music]

Channel: Australian Crime

Views: 227,833

Keywords: Australia, Australian Crime, Australian crime documentary, Australian crime series, Gangs & Mobs, Stalkers, child crime, cold case, crime, crime documentary, crime series, disappearances, family crime, ivan milat, murder, podcasts, police, renae marsden, revelle balmain, roger rogerson, serial killer, true crime, true crime documentary, true crime series, crime stories, murder mystery, australian crime shows, matthew milat, rife

Id: a1PZgGOF8zQ

Length: 45min 46sec (2746 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2023