Fresh hope in investigation into death of pregnant nurse suspected of being Ivan Milat’s first victim

The family of Keren Rowland, who suspect she was Ivan Milat’s first victim when she was brutally murdered more than five decades ago, hopes a $500,000 reward will bring new leads on one of Australia’s most baffling unsolved homicide cases.

The ACT government on Monday announced the substantial reward for information that leads to an arrest, 55 years after the 20-year-old pregnant woman’s body was found in a pine plantation on the outskirts of Canberra.

“Keren and her unborn baby deserve the truth to come out. That child would be 55 this year,” Keren’s brother Steve Rowland said.

Keren’s loved ones have long suspected the dental nurse was serial killer Milat’s first victim, 18 years before he killed and dumped the bodies of seven young backpackers in the Belangalo State Forest.

In June, at a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into unsolved murders and missing people, NSW Police confirmed a taskforce set up in the early ’90s to investigate the backpacker murders had concluded they too believed Milat was “highly likely” to have killed Keren.

That information was passed to ACT police, but Steve Rowland says they’ve struggled to get answers about what police did to further their own investigations into Keren’s death.

“I haven’t been trying to catch the police out. I haven’t been trying to see if they’ve done right, or they’ve done wrong. I’ve just been trying to find out what happened to my sister, but they made every turn very tight, and it was really difficult to find out anything.”

ACT Police Minister Dr Marisa Paterson said the reward would be “a strong incentive for someone to tell police what they know.”

ACT Chief Police Officer Scott Lee acknowledged “that significant time has passed” but “that doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there that knows what happened.”

The reward was one of five announced, with Lee saying these matters were the “ones most likely to have witnesses or information that can assist police.”

For Steve Rowland, who was only 16 when his sister vanished, the long-awaited cash reward brings a bittersweet mix of raw emotion and profound frustration.

“We’ve been fighting for eight years for this reward, someone must know something whether it’s related to Milat or not, someone knows something. That figure could draw something from even the Milat family.”

Steve admitted he isn’t entirely hopeful the reward will instantly bring justice after years of police dead ends and lost evidence, but he hopes the money will help bring closure to decades of grief.

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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