Number 8 Catherine Shaw On March the 5th of 2019,
British backpacker Catherine Shaw was reported missing after being last seen in the town of
San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala. 23-year-old Shaw, a yoga teacher, was described as a spiritual person
who enjoyed being surrounded by nature. She’d reportedly been fasting for a few days when,
in the early hours of the morning, she left her hotel to watch the sunset on a mountain hiking
trail. Shaw’s body was found, on March the 11th, unclothed and in advanced state of decomposition.
She’d sustained bruising, lacerations and a traumatic brain injury. Authorities initially
suspected she’d been murdered but further examination along with a statement released
by her family changed that perspective. They noted that Shaw was “very comfortable in her
own skin” and that it was likely she’d removed her clothing herself. Foul play was ruled out and it
was determined she’d either slipped or fainted, potentially due to the lack of food intake,
while climbing to a vantage point. Number 7 Palace Backpackers Hostel Arson Disaster
On June the 23rd of 2000, a fire ravaged the Palace Backpackers Hostel, in Childers, Australia,
claiming the lives of 15 backpackers. The blaze had been deliberately ignited by itinerant fruit
picker Robert Paul Long, who’d expressed a hatred of backpackers and held a grudge against the
hostel after being evicted for missing rent. He’d reportedly told a visiting couple to leave their
windows and doors open as he was planning to burn down the place. 37-year-old Long,
who still had a key to the hostel, started the fire in the downstairs rec room, at around
1 am. The 100-year-old building was made out of timber and didn’t have smoke detectors or
working fire alarms. The blaze rapidly spread to the upper levels, voraciously consuming
the wooden structure. Chaos ensued as backpackers struggled to escape through the thick black smoke.
In a second-floor room, a bunk bed blocked an exit and the windows were barred. 10 of the deceased
victims were subsequently found inside. It took roughly four hours for firefighters to extinguish
the blaze, a time during which they’d raised the ladder, allowing some of the victims to get out.
Nine women and six men, from Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Ireland and the Netherlands,
perished in the fire. Residents from the town of Childers banded together offering support,
in the form of food, blankets and housing for the survivors. Five days later,
the police tracked down and confronted Long, in the bush-land, about 20 miles from Childers. He
stabbed an officer in the chin and slashed a police dog before a second officer shot
him in the arm. Long was sentenced to life in prison and became eligible for parole in 2020.
Number 6 Alixe Stoffel In the summer of 2016,
a young French backpacker was killed in a freak accident, after a year-long trip around Australia.
19-year-old Alixe Stoffel had flown to the country shortly after completing her university degree,
in July of 2015, and had since been detailing her experiences in a travel blog. Roughly a
year later, Stoffel had hitched a ride to Nudgee, north Brisbane, with a semi-trailer driver. As she
got out at a service station, Stoffel dropped her backpack and it ended up underneath the truck. She
then stumbled while trying to retrieve it. At the same time, the driver set the vehicle in motion.
Stoffel was dragged on the ground, suffering devastating injuries. CCTV footage from the
station’s security system captured the moment that bystanders tried to help her. In spite of their
efforts, she passed away at the scene. Number 5 Caroline Stuttle
On April the 10th of 2002, late at night, Caroline Stuttle was returning to the Bundaberg
caravan park she’d been staying at, in Australia’s Queensland state. Ian Previte, who was described
as a drifter and a drug addict, was making his way south from Cairns and was staying at a hostel in
Bundaberg, where he’d met a dealer. As she was crossing the Burnett River Bridge, 19-year-old
Stuttle encountered Previte. At the time he was high on a cocktail of morphine, antidepressants
and cannabis. He attacked the backpacker and tried to steal her bag. Stuttle didn’t let go and,
in the ensuing struggle, Previte threw her off the bridge. The young woman plummeted 33 feet below,
suffering fatal head and spinal injuries. The friend she’d been travelling with called the
authorities, when Stuttle didn’t return to the caravan park, and her body was later found at
the bottom of the bridge. The bag that Previte had made off with contained less than $5. The words "I
Throw The Girl off The Bridge I am sorry" were reportedly found inscribed on a bench near the
hostel where he’d been staying. 32-year-old Previte was sentenced to life in prison and,
after serving part of his sentence, was released on parole in 2020. In the aftermath of her death,
Stuttle’s family started Caroline’s Rainbow Foundation, which helps backpackers and young
travelers stay safe abroad. Number 4 Simone Strobel
Over a decade and a half since it occurred, in 2005, the murder of German backpacker Simone
Strobel remains a mystery. Strobel had been travelling through Australia with her boyfriend,
Tobias Suckfuell, his sister Katrin and their friend, Jens Martin. They checked into the
Lismore Tourist Caravan Park, in New South Wales, on February the 11th. Shortly before midnight,
the group left a hotel bar and returned to the caravan park, where they continued drinking
together. The following morning, at 10:45 am, Strobel’s companions went to a Lismore police
station and declared her missing. She’d reportedly left the campsite at night, following an argument
that had erupted between Katrin and Tobias. Six days later, Strobel’s nude body was found, covered
with palm fronds, on a bocce court. Her cause of death remains unconfirmed but it’s suspected
to have been due to asphyxia or suffocation. There wasn’t any evidence to indicate that
her companions had been involved in the murder and her killer or killers remain unidentified.
In 2020, the New South Wales Government and police announced a $1 million reward for
any information leading to an arrest. Number 3 Chynna Deese & Lucas Fowler
In July of 2019, a pair of teenagers went on a killing spree in Canada, claiming the lives of
a university lecturer and a backpacking couple. American woman Chynna Deese and her Australian
boyfriend Lucas Fowler, both in their early 20s, were on a dream road trip through the country.
The last time that Deese’s mother had heard from her was on July the 13th,
when she checked in and told her not to worry because they wouldn’t have Wi-Fi for a while.
The following day, the couple’s Chevrolet van broke down along the Alaska Highway,
about 20 miles from Liard Hot Springs. A local mechanic and his wife had stopped to assist them.
He reported that Deese and Fowler were having a picnic and assured him that they had the situation
under control. The mechanic described them as “happy” and “smiling”. The next morning, a highway
worker found their bodies in a ditch, close to their van, dead from gunshot wounds. The windows
of the vehicle were smashed and the doors had been left open. A few days later and 290 miles away,
on a highway south of the Stikine River, the authorities discovered a torched pickup truck.
University of British Columbia botany lecturer Leonard Dyck was found gunned down a little
over a mile from the vehicle. He’d been executed in a manner similar to the backpacking couple.
It was revealed that the pickup had been operated by Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky, aged 18 and
19 respectively. They were initially reported as missing persons by the authorities but became
murder suspects, when it was revealed they’d stolen and burned down Dyck’s Toyota RAV4. In the
span of 10 days, with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on their trail, the teens traversed roughly
2,000 miles and four provinces. The manhunt came to involve assistance from the military in the
form of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft, for aerial sweeps using high-thermal detection gear.
The massive search effort ultimately failed to track down the perpetrators. On August the 7th,
the bodies of McLeod and Schmegelsky were found on a bank of the Nelson River, close to where a
damaged rowboat had previously been discovered. They’d died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Today's topic was requested by Ingrid D and Katelyn Lee. If you have any other
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Number 2 Amelia Bambridge
On October the 23rd of 2019, British backpacker Amelia Bambridge disappeared from a beach party
on the island of Koh Rong, Cambodia. The island is a favorite among backpackers, for its pristine
beaches as well as for cheap guesthouses and bars. It’s believed that, during the party,
the 21-year-old had gone for a late-night swim. A massive search was mounted after Bambridge failed
to checkout from her hostel. 100 members of the local security forces scoured the sea and nearby
jungle. More than a week later, Bambridge’s body was found floating in the coastal waters,
north-west of Koh Rong, near the Thai border. Her death was ruled as accidental drowning and
her remains were returned to her family. Number 1 Mia Ayliffe-Chung & Tom Jackson
On August the 23rd of 2016, a mentally unstable French national fatally stabbed two backpackers
who, like him, were staying at a hostel in Home Hill, Australia. 29-year-old Smail Ayad, who would
later be diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, attacked and dragged his roommate,
Mia Ayliffe-Chung, out of her bed. Armed with a large knife, he took the 21-year-old to a balcony
and pressed the blade against her throat. The hostel manager and another guest pleaded with
Ayad to drop the weapon, but he started violently slashing Ayliffe-Chung. The manager was stabbed in
the leg as he tried to intervene. The young woman, staggering from her wounds, managed to reach a
bathroom and another guest called the authorities. Without thinking of his own safety, backpacker
Tom Jackson, aged 30, ran upstairs and tended to Ayliffe-Chung’s injuries. Unfortunately, she would
succumb to them at the scene. Upon opening the bathroom door, Jackson was confronted by Ayad. He
kicked the door open and then relentlessly started stabbing him in the head. Ayad then chased, caught
and killed the hostel’s pet dog, Atari. Multiple police officers were injured as they struggled
to subdue and restrain him. Five days after the attack, Jackson passed away from critical puncture
wounds to his eye and brain. For his selflessness, in 2021, he was posthumously awarded the Star of
Courage, Australia’s highest bravery distinction. Ayad was charged with two counts of murder, one of
animal cruelty and multiple counts of assaulting police. Ayad was subsequently found to have been
unsound of mind at the moment of attack, as he believed there was an international conspiracy
to kill him. He was remanded to Brisbane mental health center, in Brisbane, where he was still
awaiting expatriation to France, as of 2020. Thanks for watching! Would you rather attempt
to walk the world's longest route, from the tip of South Africa to northern Russia,
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