The detective who caught the serial killer, Ivan Millat, also caught another similar killer.
The criminal, Daniel James Holdom, is handed two life sentences for the murder of Karlie Pearce-Stevenson,20, and her young daughter Khandalyce. They were killed two days apart in December 2008 but it took the police 5 years to work out what had happened.
Karlie’s body was discovered by dirt bike riders in the Belanglo State Forest — south of Sydney — in 2010. It was the same place where Milat buried his victims years earlier. Khandalyce’s remains were found inside a suitcase alongside a remote South Australian highway.
Detective Clive Small, who worked on the Milat case, told Channel 9’s 60 Minutes it was likely Holdom enjoyed the notoriety of Belanglo and the crimes associated with it.
“There was an immediate suggestion, of course, or questions asked, did Ivan Milat kill this person too? Was it another victim of Ivan Milat?” he told the program.
“It had the hallmarks of a Milat murder in some ways. The fact that there’d been no attempt to bury the body, it had just been left off the vehicle tracks in the bush.”
It took 5 years for the police to recognize the body of Karlie because Holdom faked that she was still alive. This act had started to come undone when 5 years later Khadalyce’s body was found.
Holdom was Karlie’s partner. To pretend that she was still alive, he used her bank account and duped her family and friends into thinking that she was still alive.
Karlie’s aunt Sharon told 60 Minutes that they had assumed she was alive but had chosen not to have contact with her family.
Detective Small said when her body was found it was examined for DNA and cross-checked with missing persons. “They looked for people who disappeared under suspicious circumstances, but actually got absolutely nowhere. One of the main reasons being was because the killer, which was her partner, actually continued to maintain that she was alive,” he said.
Karlie’s aunt Sharon described Karlie as a person with a heart of gold.
Karlie and Khandalyce left Alice Springs, the place where Karlie grew up, with Holdom and never returned.
Karlie had called her friend, Tanya Webber, and cried on the phone claiming that she regretted going there. That was the last called that they shared.
Karlie eventually stopped calling and her family had started to worry. One year after they left with Holdom, Ms. Webber and Karlie’s mum Colleen had had enough and went to the police.
The police spoke to Holdom who said Karlie and Khandalyce moved to Queensland and he also claimed to have no contact with her.
It was later learned that Karlie and Khandalyce were murdered only weeks after they said goodbye to their family in Alice Springs.