Gillian Janine JAMIESON

Monday, May 22, 2006. 2:54pm (AEST)
Milat linked to missing nurses' case

Serial killer Ivan Milat has been named as a person of interest at an inquest into the deaths of two Sydney nurses more than two decades ago.

Westmead Coroner's Court has heard that Gillian Jamieson and Deborah Balken were last seen in a western Sydney hotel in 1980.

Detective Sergeant Ian McNab has outlined the police investigation into the nurses' disappearance in July 1980.

He told the court the 19-year-olds were last seen at the Tollgate Hotel at Parramatta in Sydney's west.

They later called a flatmate and told her they were in Wollongong and would return in several days.

The coroner has formally found the teenagers are dead.

Det Sgt McNab said Milat was interviewed about the case in 2004.

Milat told police he was not responsible for the women's disappearance.

Milat was convicted in 1996 of the murders of seven backpackers, whose bodies were found in the Belanglo State Forest south of Sydney in 1992 and 1993.

He is one of six people police have named at the nurses' inquest as persons of interest.

The coroner has recommended the case be referred to the unsolved homicide squad for further investigation.

Outside the court, Det Sgt McNab said the case would indeed be referred to the "cold case" unit.

"It's always frustrating if you can't solve a matter," he said.

"We won't close this case we'll refer it to the state crime command unsolved homicides and it'll remain open."

Deborah Balken's sister, Cheryl Balken, said the families needed to know what had happened.

"I think it's almost 26 years, and you learn to live with what's happened," she said.

"You never accept what's happened because they're still out there somewhere but it's never going to be closure until we find them."

By Leonie Lamont - SMH
May 23, 2006

A SPECTRE hung over the deputy state coroner's finding that two trainee nurse's aides met with death by foul play when they disappeared 26 years ago that was all too familiar - that of Ivan Milat.

Among the four chief "persons of interest" named in the disappearance of Gillian Jamieson and Deborah Balken, both 19, was Milat, who is serving a life sentence at Goulburn's Supermax prison for murdering seven backpackers.

However, the deputy state coroner Carl Milovanovich wondered whether all the "bizarre coincidence of young persons going missing" could be laid at Milat's feet.

"It may well be there is another serial killer out there, and [the perpetrator here] may not be Ivan Milat," he said yesterday, while offering his condolences to the Jamieson and Balken families.

The officer in charge of the police investigation, Detective Sergeant Ian McNab, told the inquest, at the State Coroner's Court in Westmead, that he had interviewed Milat in 2004. He had shown him photos of the women, and a composite picture of a male suspect in a felt hat. Milat said that at the time he did not own such a hat, and said he had never met the women.

The inquest heard that the two women, who had been school friends at Cumberland High School, often hitchhiked. One friend told police "it was not unusual for Debbie and Gill to go to places with people they hardly knew on a promise of a good time". They were last seen at a favourite pub, the Tollgate Hotel in Parramatta, on the night of July 12, 1980. It was a bikie hangout, and drugs circulated at the hotel. The inquest heard Balken might have been using heroin.

Balken rang her flatmate from a pay phone. She said they were in Wollongong, and asked the flatmate to ring her and Jamieson's work after the weekend, to say they were ill and would not be in.

A woman who worked in the snack bar at the hotel told police how she had been terrorised by a man who she recognised as having been speaking to the girls on the night they disappeared. Months after, he approached her at the hotel and said: "It was a terrible thing that happened. You know they're dead. The police won't find them. It'll happen to your two sons and then you." He threatened to cut her throat and "slit" her kids. She said she left work that night, never to return. She said the man wore a black felt hat with a large brim. She helped police prepare a composite picture of him without a hat.

In the months after their disappearance more than 40 alleged sightings were reported to the police, stretching from Queensland to Victoria.

Investigating police took seriously one reported sighting of two young women seen in a car in Parramatta soon after their disappearance. A teenager and her mother described two men trying to put jumpers on the women, who were limp and floppy. The teenager was hypnotised in 1998 as part of the investigation.

The coroner said the case would not be closed, and would be handed over to the "cold case" homicide unit. He also asked that the Government offer a reward.

The other main persons of interest named included two former fellow students from Cumberland High School. Peter King, who was involved in drugs, had been going out with Balken. The inquest heard that another former student, Peter Flood, who has served jail for sexual assault, was obsessed with Balken, and carries photos of the two women as part of his own "investigation". Also named was Michael Toomey, a gardener at Yallabi Nursing Home, who knew Jamieson and was in a group talking with the girls the night they disappeared.

Balken's sister, Cheryl, said outside court that while the death pronouncement meant the family could now get a death certificate, she would not seek a certificate until her sister's remains were found. She and Jamieson's mother have given DNA samples to police.

Investigating police took seriously one reported sighting of two young women seen in a car in Parramatta soon after their disappearance. A teenager and her mother described two men trying to put jumpers on the women, who were limp and floppy. The teenager was hypnotised in 1998 as part of the investigation.

The coroner said the case would not be closed, and would be handed over to the "cold case" homicide unit. He also asked that the Government offer a reward.

The other main persons of interest named included two former fellow students from Cumberland High School. Peter King, who was involved in drugs, had been going out with Balken. The inquest heard that another former student, Peter Flood, who has served jail for sexual assault, was obsessed with Balken, and carries photos of the two women as part of his own "investigation". Also named was Michael Toomey, a gardener at Yallabi Nursing Home, who knew Jamieson and was in a group talking with the girls the night they disappeared.

Spectre of second serial killer
May 22, 2006 - 5:33PM - SMH

Backpacker murderer Ivan Milat may not have been the only serial killer preying on young people in NSW in the 1980s, an inquest into the disappearance of two nurses heard today.

NSW Deputy Coroner Carl Milovanovich found that nurses Gillian Jamieson and Deborah Balken died a few days after they were last seen at Parramatta's Tollgate Hotel in 1980.

The two 19-year-old women, who shared a flat in the Sydney suburb of Dundas, left the bar with a man in dirty work clothes after telling friends they were going to a party in Wollongong.

At the time, Milat was working less than 2km away at the then Department of Main Roads.

The 60-year-old is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of seven backpackers between 1989 and 1992.

Detective Sergeant Ian McNab today named Milat as one of four men considered key persons of interest in the disappearance of the two nurses.

During a police interview at Goulburn Prison in 2004, Milat denied ever having met the women.

"He said he did not know them or about their disappearance,'' Insp McNab said, adding that Milat also told him he did not visit hotels and rarely drank.

After hearing a police brief of evidence compiled over 26 years, Mr Milovanovich told Westmead Coroner's Court "it is a reasonable finding'' the women died soon after their disappearance.

But there was not enough evidence to satisfy a jury that Milat was involved in their disappearance, he said.

"Unfortunately, his name comes up in every missing person's case I deal with,'' Mr Milovanovich said.

"None of the evidence really gets to the level that would be required of a criminal standard of proof ... (none of the evidence) would be capable of satisfying a jury.

"The police would probably have charged somebody if they were of that view.''

Given the number of young people killed around Sydney in the 1970s and 1980s, Mr Milovanovich said it was possible another serial killer was operating at the time.

"There may well be another serial killer out there, it could well be someone else,'' he said.

The inquest heard Ms Jamieson and Ms Balken had a history of hitch-hiking and experimenting with drugs.

Sgt McNab said the women may have overdosed, or been murdered while hitching a ride.

Alternatively, someone "known to the girls murdered them and disposed of their bodies,'' he said.

In his findings, Mr Milovanovich referred the case to the Unsolved Homicide Unit and recommended a reward be reinstated for information about their deaths.

"It does not mean that the investigation ends here, I will make sure that it doesn't,'' he told the distressed families of the two women.

Outside the inquest, Ms Balken's sister, Sheryl Balken, urged anyone with information to contact police.

"Someone out there knows something,'' she said. "You learn to live with what has happened ... but there is never going to be closure until we find them.''

Ms Balken said she wanted to blame Milat for the murders ``because then at least we would have found someone''.

''(But) there is no proof,'' she said.

Ivan Milat a prime suspect again

Gillian Jamieson and Deborah Balken

June 12, 1980

They were both 20 years old, and had developed their friendship at Cumberland High School before going on to become trainee nurses.

They were confident, friendly and sometimes they hitchhiked.

At around 7.30pm on June 12, 1980, the girls are seen in a back bar of the Tollgate Hotel in Church Street, Parramatta talking with a man wearing a large-brimmed black cowboy hat.

A woman who worked at the snack bar saw them at the hotel, a bikie hangout where drugs were dealt.

Ms Balkan later phoned a flatmate and said the two had got a lift to a party in Wollongong on the NSW South Coast.

That flatmate, a snack bar worker, would later testify at the girls’ inquest that months after the girls’ disappearance the man in the black hat had threatened to slit her throat if she said anything.

The woman said he had told her, “It was a terrible thing that happened. You know they’re dead. The police won’t find them.”

Following the girls’ disappearance, Ivan Milat, who in 1980 was working at the Granville depot of the then Department of Main Roads, is understood to have been interviewed.

Police asked him about his movements and vehicles he owned, including a lime green Valiant Charger sedan.

More than 40 alleged sightings of Gillian and Deborah, from Queensland to Victoria, were reported to the police, but they were never found.

Milat was named as a person of interest at the young women’s joint inquest.