In a world where our measure of human barbarity is all too frequently being re-evaluated what happened to two overseas backpackers at a remote south australian beach sets a new unthinkable low for horror salt creek is a rugged and spectacular piece of coastline 200 kilometers southeast of adelaide but it’s very isolation made at the perfect setting for monster roman heinz to try to satisfy his wicked fantasies he lured the unsuspecting 23 year olds one from brazil one from germany to the beach and then kidnapped and attacked them but how
The young women fought to save themselves and each other shows courage can conquer evil tonight for the first time beatrice and lena tell their incredible story of escape from salt creek and we have to warn you this story has some confronting scenes and violence foreign [music] it’s tuesday the 9th of february 2016 and police are responding to a chilling cry for help yo shows it started out as a regular road trip a friendly stranger giving two young backpackers a ride they think they’re safe but just moments later these two women
Are fighting for their lives [music] what happened at this abandoned and remote campsite at the hands of this man roman hines is terrifying he is evil in the worst kind he’s another ivor millet [music] and for all its beauty salt creek two hours southeast of adelaide was his hunting ground [music] when you get out there your middle of nowhere needle and haystack and the chances of two girls that survived him caught the chances of that happening are really really remote [music] but the survival of beatrice from brazil
And lena from germany didn’t come without an incredible fight worthy of a hollywood movie [music] roman hines didn’t count on you two did he he didn’t count on how strong you were no he expected we both would be weak and he can just do what he wants with us he didn’t know that he was in fact facing two amazonian women yeah who were much stronger than him yeah i think we were just his mother yeah exactly just at that moment it just we knew that we had to fight we had to do whatever was needed to survive somehow [music]
I think it’s kind of what everyone thinks you just think of the beach and so on like 24 7. Australia has long been the go-to destination for free-spirited backpackers keen on adventure i think australia is of course a safe place we have plenty of sun surf and in the minds of backpackers not so many serial killers no are there serial killers here gosh i still wouldn’t get into a car like hedgehog by myself but if i do it with her with someone else or stuff like that i would definitely do that yeah lana 2 thought australia’s safe even
After watching our own backpacker horror film wolf creek which she considered pure fiction more tourists where you from ah shut the [ __ ] up warded with a friend together and i remember that i was telling him after the movie was finished that i said to him this is horrible but it’s not real this will never ever happen to anyone like not like this and then yeah and then one month later yeah something like that happened and it happened to you yeah so it’s quite unbelievable both 23 at the time beatrice and lena had always dreamed of visiting australia
Leno was on a gap year and beatrice was completing her nursing studies both were keen to see as much as they could my first adventure in my life and i really wanted to do it so i wasn’t really that that worried and i knew there would be a lot of backpackers anyway no one of those backpackers would be beatrice who had also never before traveled on her own [music] just one week after meeting new aussie boyfriend james she was on her way to adelaide everyone says it’s a good experience to travel by yourself and i thought like
I’m going to be in australia i’m gonna meet people on the way it’s like lovely country just gonna try and james did you think it was safe yeah yeah things happen i mean everyone knows ivan milat and those sorts of people but you know it’s almost like a myth really we never expect it to happen in adelaide beatrice meets lana for the first time and learns they have the same plans a desire to see the great ocean road they just need a ride and so as so many young travelers do beatrice posts an ad on gumtree looking for someone to
Drive them from adelaide to melbourne i got two main response first a guy that it was the one that i wanted to go but the night before he had a problem with his car so i had to cancel with him and that’s when i called to my second option which was roman did you get any sort of sense of warning any sense of danger at all in those initial dealings with him no i just thought he was a bit impatient that’s the feeling that i had because he was like send me message like ah just be nice with me just send me a message just answer if you want to go or
Not but i didn’t have so many options 29th of february last year and lena and beatrice arrive at the designated meeting spot 59-year-old roman hines is already there waiting the first impression that i had it was weird because he looked like older than what i was yeah i thought like okay beatrice is here too and that made me feel safer than it would normally do yeah like i’m not sure if i would have gone with him all alone i yeah yeah me too [music] what the girls did not know was they were now with a man who was dangerously
Volatile a man who planned to hurt them this looks like you in happier times yes it was um actually it was a fantastic time you know this is before he started going a bit weird artist sylvia clarke fell in love with a man she found charming but very soon encountered another side to him so here you are happy six months later i’m black and blue um and heartbroken um sylvia says these photos are evidence of a vicious attack by roman just one month before he picks up beatrice and lena her account is harrowing i must have went into a deep sleep
And um then i woke up this hand was already tied up my left hand was already tied up and i just said what the hell are you doing then he just he just swore at me and told me to shut up and then he started biting me hey kept constantly biting me and then he was grabbing me like i was a dirty rag and just yanking at me my legs trying to get my legs apart and um and then i just laid there and i just thought to myself if i keep doing this look at it it could come out worse then when he’d finished it just rolled over left me tied up just
Rolled over turned his back like and i was like flying there you didn’t say anything to you i didn’t say a single word to me too ashamed to go to police sylvia ended the relationship and luckily escaped a planned camping trip to salt creek what do you think might have happened to you if you’d gone with him on that camping trip to salt creek well the way he would like that flick instantly from weighing one person to another i probably wouldn’t have come back blissfully unaware of his violence against sylvia beatrice and lena are now
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Two hours into their drive with heinz without discussing it with the girls he pulls off at salt creek to set up camp miles from anywhere and anyone he just went there and started setting up the tent and there didn’t like any special place it’s just a beige in the middle of nowhere no one so i just i don’t know why why here you know at what point do you think he planned that now i think he planned before before he seen my ads you know he was already chasing someone to do something bad coming up i can just remember it so well
In the middle of nowhere heinz becomes a monster he grabbed me and then i realized that wasn’t a joke his terrifying plan is revealed in chilling detail what happens next oh my god he wants to kill us that’s next on 60 minutes coming back now what are the thoughts going through your mind uh it’s always a strange feeling coming back here it’s really clear and still i can just remember it so well no wonder soul creek will always be seared in lena’s memory what happened in this remote place in february last year to her and fellow backpacker beatrice
Was horrific but as beatrice happily and innocently captured it started out as a simple road trip with adelaide man roman hines giving them a lift what was that drive like quite most of the time i felt that he was worried about us having a nice trip you know he was concerned like ah let’s take some pictures i know you guys are tourists [music] the girls were unaware of the menace heinz kept hidden on their way to the great ocean road he decided to pull into salt creek a remote fishing destination he knew well [music]
He took them to tea tree crossing to set up camp by now lana was worried i remember that i asked beatrice like do you think he’s all right and she was like oh he’s a little bit weird but i think it’s gonna be okay yeah yeah masquerading as a mild and helpful fellow traveler heinz soon had the camp ready [music] so after the cap was set up what did you do elena i was pretty tired on that day and i actually just wanted to sleep so i went in the car that’s where i finally slept and beaches in roman they were like setting up the stuff and they
Were cooking something together and yeah sitting on the table just like this is laid out now yeah yeah all the way all in this sort of space yeah how did roman hines convince you to move away from the campsite he convinced me that there were kangaroos in the back and he said that he saw some footprints he said like ah would you like to go to sea and said yes why not you know heinz’s twisted plan was now in action trustingly beatrice followed him into the sand dunes unaware he was carrying a knife hammer and robes
There were no kangaroos and beatrice wanted to return still unaware of the danger [music] once i turned around to go towards the campsite that’s when she grabbed me and then at the beginning like the first i think splits of seconds i just thought it was a joke i just didn’t get uh and then so like no it’s no fun what are you doing look and then i realized that wasn’t a joke you know it wasn’t how had he grabbed you he was on my back and he put his arm around my neck and put me down what did he do then um then he he grabbed a knife that he
Had on his back and he put on the sand and then if he got some pieces of ropes and try to tie my arms and my legs my ankles but once i realized that he was trying to do i grabbed the rope and throw them away that’s a great moment of defiance did he react in any way he said to me either you make it easy or you’re gonna break your arm so i said okay i’m not gonna piss him off i’m gonna just do it wasn’t the right moment to piss him off and i know this must be painful but if you can tell me what happens after that
What happens next then like she was in control of me you know in that moment just i couldn’t do anything else so he was turning me and he ripped my bikinis and start like trying to kiss me and like me you know and i understand he got he did get angry i mean he he he physically hurt you to what what prompted that and what did he do i was trying to talk with him and convince him that wasn’t a good thing it didn’t please him so he started punch me like shut up you know i don’t want to hear what i have to say and did that stop you no it was like and
It it’s weird but i didn’t feel pain at that moment with the puns you know because i had so much adrenaline inside of me that i just was focusing like what can i do to survive were you sure at that point that you would survive no if it passed for like several moments in my mind that i was gonna die and i even imagined my mom coming there to see my body like to you know that’s the emerge that i had but i didn’t think about giving up at any moment you know i just thought it would be really unlikely for me to survive i was
In the middle of nowhere he was there i was tied what could i do like nothing nothing he must have been terrified yeah i felt like i was in a horror movie you know the end you don’t need to watch till then you know what’s gonna happen beatrice’s next move most likely saved her life incredibly instead of fighting roman she tricked him persuading him they could continue with whatever he wanted back in the comfort of the camp i had to convince him that i was on his side so i said like you don’t need to do this if you want to do something just ask me
We can go to the tent we can relax there you don’t need to do this and when we were going towards the camp i felt good but for some reason when we were getting close to the camp he felt that he changed his mind and he went towards the other direction and at this moment i thought that’s my final chance because if you go far away i don’t know what’s going to happen and that’s when i screamed for lina i had just one chance lena [music] and that’s it and then he started punching me and free from me on the sand [music]
I heard the scream and i went around the car and and you knew what then it was from this direction no it came from the left direction definitely that lana heard her name above the wind and the waves was a miracle in itself now she had to find exactly where the single scream came from i saw them she was lying in the sand dunes naked and roman was standing over her it was like oh my god this can’t be true then after the short moment i yeah i got really angry suddenly i was like what the hell does he thinks he is
Like he can’t do this and um so i went in their direction and i shouted at him something like like leave her alone get away from her let her go and he turned around to me and he said something really strange that i didn’t get immediately in that moment he said something like i just wanted to try her and then um he was coming after me and i was i was running back to the car because i knew i don’t want to be close to this guy anymore like i knew he he was like planning on doing something but i had no idea what exactly
And i was trying to warn her you know like he has an ex i didn’t know what was it you know so i just ran away he has an ax a hammer i just i didn’t know what was it and like she was there so brave trying to help me and just no run away then having to leave beatrice bound lano races back to the car she’s desperate to get to her phone to call for help i think i was even telling him like i just want to grab my back and get out of here he was like yeah get your [ __ ] back so i opened the door to get the back which was here
And i tried to grab it but didn’t work out because he came from behind and it’s when i got the heart smash with the hammer i think that’s it i gonna he’s gonna bury bury me in the sand or something so i thought that’s it pretty much i didn’t know what he had like hit me with because i couldn’t see it immediately but i thought that’s the end because the smash was so hot blading profusely elena is now fighting for her life as she tries to get the hammer off this six foot six enraged man he manages to hit her three more times
Before she escapes him he has a hammer and a knife what do you think he was planning on doing his intentions with those tools was to harm us for sure yeah like after the hammer attack it was clear i was just thinking oh my god he’s just totally insane like he wants to kill us yeah coming up incredible courage she saved me again at this moment whose idea was it to go separate ways and an unbelievable chase yo i mean look at you you’re little and he’s got this four-wheel drive and he’s chasing you how lena outsmarted the madman so i
Pretty much jumped on the bonnet it was really angry that’s next on 60 minutes foreign er considers herself lucky to be alive this could well have been her final resting place if the cruel and perverse roman hines had his way she stopped his sexual attack on her friend beatrice but now she was his target how elena survives is extraordinary if you didn’t fight back where would you be today ah probably not alive i guess [music]
Her fight for survival went on for hours as the injured laner runs away from heinz he jumps into his four-wheel drive to chase her down elena is not only trying to get away she also wants to find and help beatrice i wasn’t sure where beatrice was was at that time so i was yelling for her like where are you where are you [music] i don’t know where exactly was i think he went to his car to chase us and at this moment she untied my arms so she saved me again at this moment and that’s when i have the opportunity to survive
Whose idea was it to go separate ways yeah just a natural decision that we sort of both had together you know it was clear somehow yeah that we had to split up that you’d have a better chance at escaping [music] but which direction to take was another fateful decision beatrice went left up into the sand dunes and lena right naked and frightened beatrice hid in the bushes but lana was in full sight [music] then he turned around and he started chasing me and i was running in all different directions pretty much but on
This flat area here you must have been terrified again yes yeah i mean look at you you’re little and he’s got this four-wheel drive and he’s chasing you he’s huge the car and i didn’t really know what to do the only chance was just running away as fast as i could weaving between scrubby salt bushes lena ran for nearly a kilometer with heinz constantly on her tail intent on running her down it’s hard to imagine her terror what freaked me out was either a small footprints you see so it was not much of a girl’s obviously a small person
But the footprints were like four feet apart and uh it’s clear as a bell that someone ran up at their life the hunt ended here lena had nowhere else to run we finally reached me with the car and just bumped into me pretty much in my back with the bumper bar yeah so you’re running and he’s got you yeah so how many times did he do that to you he did that like i think four times and always bumping into me with the bull bar and then i flew away in the sand but always stood up again what did you think this is the spot
Where i will die yeah i thought i’m going to die i was really sure about it like i already imagined myself dying here and that’s why i didn’t want to give up in the end because i was so like so so determined that i didn’t want to die here i really don’t want to die today and on this spot not here i don’t know physically at her weakest lena now makes a truly remarkable decision [music] i realized that i got weaker and weaker i knew i couldn’t go on for this for very long so i remember when when he turned around the next time and
Was facing me with the car i thought like okay i have to do something because i can’t keep on going and so i pretty much ran towards the car and just jumped on the bonnet and i was holding myself on the antenna of the of the car and then pushing myself up on the bonnet and then straight going onto the roof because i i thought like okay i’m safe on the roof he can’t get on the roof i’m laughing because i can’t help it but it’s because you’re so extraordinary like how did you think to do that how could you do that
Physically it’s incredible i felt like a bit like in a movie it felt felt like james white a bit [music] what was roman heinz’s reaction to you doing that he was really angry like really angry and was shouting at me get off the [ __ ] roof get off the [ __ ] roof he said it like 10 times but i was really angry as well he tried to climb on the roof and was trying to hit me with the hammer again and i remember i tried to like kick in his face foreign to be in this situation where this man is clearly trying to get you you’re
Bleeding profusely it was like you’re like your blood rain it like kept on dripping onto the roof that’s when i knew like it’s really serious because it just kept on dripping didn’t stop like blood rain you see yeah black rain [music] unable to shout her down the furious hinds tries everything to dislodge lena from his roof driving first along the beach and then through the sand dunes it’s like driving like a madman through everything [music] it was quite like it was quite rough like like being on a rodeo that’s how i
Felt like [music] petrified heinz would be back beatrice stays hidden behind bushes until unexpectedly her luck changes she sees another car makes sure it’s not romans before desperately flagging down the driver and his friends [music] can you describe the image they would have seen coming at them out of the sand dunes yes like a girl naked running waving for them and i think when they saw me they thought that it was weird but once i got in the car and i started screaming they saw that it was serious [music] freaked out fishermen called adam
Stewart the owner of the local and only road house in the area this some girl on the beach has been raped was the first thing he said there’s basically some guys raped and bashing some girls on the beach and just panic like just an extreme level of help while adam called police and prepared to head to the beach beatrice convinced her rescuers to search for elena and they want me to like take me back to the entrance to save me but then i said no my friend’s still there and they agreed with me to try to look for her you know and i think that’s the
Moment when indirectly i saved her back you know because roman knew that there was someone else chasing him it’s an incredible story of survival never did the small feisty elena give up even though she was still at the mercy of this monster mentally lana was stronger setting the rules that would lead to her freedom he was like get off the roof like i’m not driving any further with you on the roof and he said this is ridiculous i remember that he said that and i was like why is it ridiculous like why should i come off the roof you you tried
To kill me like why should i even trust you so i told him i only come off the roof if you throw away your weapons you had two hammers and there was a knife remarkably he listened to her and perhaps seized by sympathy heinz handed lena her cap to help stem the blood gushing from her scalp but the kindness is short-lived with lane and now in the front seat he races up the beach past another group of fishermen foreign had just driven through the campsite and one of the boys in particular had a really really good view of notice that
In the passenger seat was a young girl covered in blood and all that you can see was an arm waving and then they ruled off up the beach waving as in waving for help ah it was more so flapping out of their car not a lot of energy in it [music] fear the young men got back in their car and followed finally cornering heinz in the sand dunes it’s a chilling phone for all the kids on the phone just start going mental that’s like we can see him adam we can see the car we said we can see him and sound on that voice coming through
That phone those kids were were scared rightly so and and i’m like where’s the girl can you see the girl no no we can only see him [music] um i finally opened the door it was like please elena get back into the car and i said no i’m going to the fisherman now he looked really confused like not like as if he didn’t know what to do really with this kind of situation and then i pretty much just ran away and i turned around a couple of times but he didn’t come after me [music] it’s being described as being so bad that
Those men didn’t know if you were a man or a woman yeah i idea that’s what they taught me later that’s why they were so scared and didn’t want to come towards me roman hines didn’t stick around for elena’s rescue and fled the scene in his four-wheel drive austin hundreds of kilometers of sand dunes to cover it became a race against time from that moment on it was it was just a hunt we were after him you know we we knew the girls were safe we just got to find this guy coming up the hunter becomes the hunted it was ending there it was ending one
Way or another we’re just gonna wait you’re just gonna run him yeah and one more chilling twist witnesses saw him with a young blonde woman they assumed was a backpacker that’s next on 60 minutes hello i’m tara brown thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes australia make sure you subscribe to our channel you can also download the nine now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content
