Murder of Peter Falconio

Peter Marco Falconio (born 20 September 1972) was the third of four sons in a family who lived in Hepworth, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom.

When this did not happen, investigators began to focus on the registered owners of the 1991-1999 model Toyota Land Cruiser 4WD identified, and on the thirty-six men whom callers had identified in the footage.

In 1996, he started a relationship with Joanne Lees (born 1973) after meeting her in a local nightclub.

Lees soon began living with him the following year in Brighton, where Falconio was studying at Brighton University.

On 15 November 2000, the couple embarked on a trip to Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Australia (though recent news of the backpacker murders, the Port Arthur massacre, and the Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel fire had made their families anxious about that final leg of this trip).

Peter Falconio was a British tourist who disappeared in a remote part of the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia on the evening of 14 July 2001, while travelling with his girlfriend Joanne Lees.

In the aftermath of the backpacker murders, the case quickly attracted considerable public and legal attention both domestically and worldwide.

Falconio was 28 years old at the time of the disappearance.

His body has never been found and he is now presumed dead.

By 16 January 2001, the couple had arrived in Sydney on a working holiday visa, and on 25 June they departed on a road trip planned as Sydney to Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin, and Brisbane.

Around 7:30pm on the night of Saturday 14 July 2001, Falconio and Lees were travelling on the Stuart Highway bound for the Devil's Marbles in their orange Kombi.

Falconio was driving and Lees sat next to him in the passenger seat.

The two had been conscious of a car that had been following them since they stopped at a roadhouse in Barrow Creek, and were expecting to be overtaken.

However, when the vehicle - a white Toyota 4WD with a green canopy - drew alongside, the driver gestured excitedly at them to pull over.

Falconio stopped the van and went to speak with the man, who had pulled off the road ahead of them.

The man explained he had seen sparks shooting out of the van's exhaust.

As the two went to the rear of the vehicle to investigate Lees moved into the driver's seat, ready to rev the engine.

She then heard a loud bang from the rear of the van, and moments later the man was at the window brandishing a silver handgun.

The gunman climbed into the van.

Lees let him secure her hands behind her back with black cable ties, but fought the tying of her feet and taping of her mouth.

She was then dragged to the Toyota (noticing the gunman's dog) but, fearing rape, managed to flee into the bush while the gunman was distracted (apparently while moving Falconio's body).

The gunman searched for Lees before leaving, passing nearby three times, but she hid before finally flagging down a road train driver at 12:35 am, who with his co-driver took her back to Barrow Creek.

The Alice Springs Police were called around 1:30am, arrived to collect evidence and testimonies at around 4:20am, and (accompanied by the road train driver) commenced a search for Falconio, the Toyota, and the gunman at 7:00 am.

Returning to the scene, they found a dirt-covered pool of blood and the couple's Kombi hidden some 80 metres into the scrub.

It was not until eight hours after the rescue that roadblocks were put in place on the twelve likely roads exiting the district.

Police searches of the area in the following months revealed little except Lees' footprints.

Four Aboriginal trackers arrived from a nearby settlement within a few days but none of them found evidence of either Falconio or the gunman.

Given the unusual nature of the attack, and the lack of corroborating evidence (i.e. Falconio's belongings or body), it took the police some days to appreciate the significance of the crime.

But in the wake of the backpacker case, the media were quick to sensationalise Lees' story as one of survival in a crime of unusual horror against all odds.

However, inconsistencies in Lees' statements and her demeanour in the following weeks shifted attention to the veracity of her version of the incident (e.g. the perpetrator's facial composite, the actual type of vehicle or dog, and assumed CCTV footage of the suspect from a service station in Alice Springs), similar to what had happened in the Azaria Chamberlain case.

A $250,000 reward was posted, but the only new evidence in the Falconio case was an unidentified male-DNA trace on Lees' T-shirt, and some related DNA on the cable ties and Kombi gearstick.

Police were hopeful that the release of the CCTV footage would lead to the person shown coming forward to remove themselves from suspicion.

Based on these results, police interviewed Bradley John Murdoch in Broome on 1 November 2001, though Lees' descriptions did not immediately connect the case to him and no DNA sample was collected.

On 17 May 2002, investigators caught Murdoch's drug-running accomplice, who began to relate details of his connections to the case, and a DNA examination of Murdoch's brother also supported his involvement.

Murdoch then disappeared, but on 22 August 2002 he was arrested and tried on an unrelated kidnap and assault charge by South Australia Police.

On 13 December 2005, Bradley John Murdoch was convicted of Falconio's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

After extradition, a committal hearing began in April 2005.

The trial began on 17 October of that year before the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in Darwin.

To cope with the demands of the trial and the huge media contingent covering the proceedings, the court building in Darwin was renovated at a cost of A$900,000.

The judge was Brian Ross Martin QC, Chief Justice of the Northern Territory.