The man arrived in a van and appeared average.

Since 1977, the NSW north coast has been plagued by a disturbing pattern - sixty-seven women have gone missing, never to be found. This raises the question: could these cases be connected? Recently, former Greens MP and member of the NSW legislative council Jeremy Buckingham made a statement in Parliament, pointing out an "alarming similarity" between the unsolved cases of possible homicide in the area between Newcastle and Byron Bay.

In the latest episode of the Motive & Method podcast, Dr Xanthe Mallett and criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro delve into this chilling theory, examining patterns and potential links that have left both investigators and the public searching for answers. Watson-Munro has made his stance clear, stating, "We believe that there is more than one person at work here. As we know, serial killers have the ability to blend into the community, and many of the towns along the eastern seaboard, particularly Byron, are transient. This makes it easy for people to commit crimes and then disappear without a trace."

For Mallett, the sheer scale of the situation is alarming. "It cannot be a coincidence," she says. "This is not a normal pattern. The NSW Police have formed various Strike Forces to investigate some of these cases and the potential patterns, but they have only identified Ivan Milat as a serial killer in the area. However, they have acknowledged that there may be causal links between these cases."

As more attention is brought to these cases, social media has become a platform for women to share their own unsettling experiences along the NSW east coast. One notable example is influencer Laura Clare, who recently shared her own horror story of hitchhiking in Byron Bay on TikTok, garnering millions of views. Clare joined Dr Mallett and Watson-Munro on the podcast to recount her experience, reflecting on how her gut feeling ultimately saved her from a potentially dangerous situation.

"A van pulled up and the driver seemed quite normal at first," Clare recalls. "But when I went to get into the front seat, I noticed a large, rusty knife. When I asked about it, the driver casually replied, 'I'm a chef'. This immediately set off alarm bells for me. He then mentioned that he was currently unemployed, and those two moments together made me feel extremely uneasy."

So, the question remains - is there a serial killer, or possibly multiple, still out there? Mallett believes that we cannot rule out this possibility. "To me, it suggests that there must be more than one predator," she explains. "Which also means that they could still be active and a threat to the public. I don't want to scare anyone, but until we know who they are, we can't guarantee that this is not the case."

To learn more about this disturbing case and hear from experts and survivors, listen to the latest episode of Motive & Method wherever you get your podcasts, or click the link above to listen now.

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