EXCLUSIVE Peter Falconio killer Bradley John Murdoch just 'a couple of days' from death - and stubbornly set to take his evil secret to the grave
Bradley John Murdoch has 'only a couple of days to live' but still refuses to reveal where he hid the British backpacker's body, 24 years to the day since he killed him.
Prison insiders have revealed the former hulking brute is now just a shrunken shadow of his former self as he sees out his final hours in his hospital deathbed.
He 'is acknowledging people are there, but very limited in talking,' said the insider.
Murdoch, 67, is dying from metastasised throat cancer and is spending his last hours surrounded by prison guards at Alice Springs Hospital in the Northern Territory.
He was moved from his Alice Springs jail cell to the palliative care unit in late June but is still keeping silent about where he put Mr Falconio's body.
His deathbed is 200km away from the spot on the Sturt Highway near Barrow Creek where he shot Mr Falconio dead and attempted to kidnap his girlfriend, Joanne Lees.
The ruthless drug runner shot Mr Falconio, 28, in the head on the night of July 14, 2001, after tricking the couple as they drove between Alice Springs and Darwin in their VW Kombi campervan
After shooting Mr Falconio, Murdoch threatened Ms Lees before he bound her hands behind her back with cable tie restraints and bundled her into the back of his ute.
But while Murdoch disposed of Mr Falconio's body, Ms Lees managed to escape, running barefoot through the bush where she hid while Murdoch hunted for her with his dog.
Five hours after her boyfriend's murder, Ms Lees eventually flagged down a truck and raised the alarm.
No trace of Peter Falconio's body has ever been found.
The road trip-turned-outback nightmare has been the subject of multiple books, TV programs and documentaries, as well as wild theories about where Falconio's body lies, and the fruitless searches for it.
Murdoch has steadfastly refused to end the mystery of what he did with Mr Falconio's corpse, which remains one of the greatest riddles in Australian crime.
The only trace of Mr Falconio was a small blood stain on the tarmac of the highway where the shooting took place.
Murdoch always protested his innocence throughout a murder trial which saw him convicted in December 2005, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The former mechanic, who drove road trains and trucks across the Outback lodged two unsuccessful appeals, and was refused special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia in 2007.
Mr Falconio's mother broke a long silence about her son's murder in 2022 to beg for information about the location of Peter's body.
Joan Falconio and husband Luciano, 80, issued a heartfelt plea backed by a demand for NT Police to put up a $1million reward to fund a renewed hunt for Peter's body.
Despite several searches, including a five-day operation in 2019 when police emptied an outback well, Murdoch's hiding place remains a mystery.
'His life stopped on a lonely road ... shot dead by cowardly Murdoch, who will not reveal where or what he did with him,' Mr Falconio's heartbroken mother said.
'Our pain is always with us. We want to bring Peter home where he belongs, near his family.'
After Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed on March 10 that Murdoch was dying of cancer, the Falconios said they had not been informed by authorities of his imminent death.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
26 minutes ago
- BBC News
Doncaster shooting at house 'targeted attack gone wrong'
A house with a mother and child inside was shot at in a "targeted attack gone wrong", police have of gunshots were made from Petersgate in the Scawthorpe area of Doncaster at 00:24 BST earlier and a red 4x4 vehicle fled the Yorkshire Police attended and found damage to the window and a door of the woman and her child who live at the house were asleep but were not hurt in the incident, the force said. The car believed to have been involved in the shooting was found on fire on Green Lane shortly Insp Claire Moss, from the Armed Crime Team, said: "A completely innocent mum and her child were in bed asleep at the time of this incident."They could have lost their lives due to careless behaviour and this is not acceptable."Our enquiries remain ongoing, but we strongly believe this was a targeted attack gone wrong."She urged members of the public to share any information that could assist with the arrests have been made so far. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds or catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Daily Mail
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Teenage killer raped and murdered best friend before carrying out the unthinkable
A teenager raped and murdered his best friend in her bed before joining his victim's parents in their grief just hours later like nothing had happened. Daniel Bartelt, who was 19 at the time, killed 19-year-old University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student Jessie Blodgett in the summer of 2013. Hours before her death, promising young musician Blodgett had been partying with her friends and fellow cast members of the Fiddler on the Roof production she had been starring in. On the night of the slaying, Bartelt snuck into her family home in Hartford, Wisconsin, where he sexually assaulted her and strangled her before then fleeing the scene. With no sign of a forced entry, Blodgett's death sparked a major whodunnit within her friendship group of fellow actors, with many of them completely at a loss at who could be behind the heinous act. Blodgett's death is put under the microscope in ID's latest episode of A Killer Among Friends, which reveals Bartelt had been behind another senseless act before he killed his best friend – but it also exposes his chilling behavior in the hours that followed. On July 15, Blodgett's mom had found her dead in her bed and immediately called the emergency services. Hours after murder, a group of Blodgett's friends – including Bartelt – returned to the site of the killing to comfort her parents amid their grief. At this point in time, nobody knew who the killer could be. 'It became tough to conceptualize who could have done this thing,' friend Ian said in the episode. 'Every person that surrounded Jessie was of, what I thought to be, great character because she bonded with great people. 'So, every stranger was a suspect and every person on the street could be guilty.' Bartelt had been at the Blodgetts' house sharing memories of the victim when he was called to come in for questioning by cops at the station. His interrogation, however, didn't raise alarm bells among his friends as they didn't suspect he had anything to do with her death. 'We expected him to be questioned because he was close to Jessie,' Jackie, another friend in the group, said. 'And when we dropped him off, he said, okay, maybe you can come and pick me up in 30 minutes?' 'We drove back to the police station to pick him up and we were met outside by a police officer asking if we were there for Dan. He had said, "we can't release Dan, he's being detained.'" The friends were left in a state of shock after learning that Bartelt had been detained. 'We couldn't picture Dan being the type of person who did this,' Ian added. And like the friend group, Blodgett's dad, Buck, refused to believe Bartelt was his daughter's killer – especially given that he had joined him just hours after her life was taken. Sharing his initial doubt in the episode, he said: 'It's not Dan, he's never been in any trouble at school or the law, that we know of. 'Jessie and Dan sit together at school; he was a straight A student... they would write songs together and sing together, he was welcome in our home. 'He was just over, the day after Jessie's murder, sharing hugs and memories and tears with us until his phone rang and he was called in for questioning.' While being completely devastated by his daughter's death, Buck was still somehow able to have compassion for her killer. 'Our first reaction wasn't, "we hate this kid," it was "oh my God, what happened to Dan?"' he said. After a 16-day police investigation, Bartelt was charged with Blodgett's murder, and in August 2014, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. He also pled guilty to first-degree reckless endangerment for tackling an unknown woman in a park to the ground while he wielded a knife just days before the murder, on July 12, 2013. When questioned by cops over the attack, he explained that it was a 'spur of the moment decision' and that he wanted to 'scare' the victim. For the attack, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and five years' extended supervision, to be served consecutively to his life sentence. To this day, Bartelt's motive for killing Blodgett's is unclear and he has maintained his innocence. After being convicted, he addressed Blodgett's parents, Buck and Joy, in the courtroom. Speaking to them, he said: 'I can't give you the answers that you're looking for. 'I pray for you, for all of you, and I hope that — I believe that — someday we will be before a court that will know that my conscience is clear.' A Killer Among Friends airs Mondays at 10/9c on ID, with new episodes weekly. Episodes will be available to stream on HBO Max.
Daily Mail
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Chilling moment murderer tells police 'I've killed someone' - as he faces life in jail for stabbing woman to death then sexually assaulting her corpse
This is the chilling moment a man casually admits murdering a family friend in a 'barbaric' knife attack, as he faces life in prison for stabbing her and sexually assaulting her corpse. Ernestas Juska stabbed 39-year-old Nina Denisova to death with a large kitchen blade as she slept in bed. The 21-year-old also admitted sexually abusing his victim after killing her at his home in Dartford, Kent. He then approached a member of the public and told them to call the police as he had killed someone. In bodycam footage Juska is seen sitting cross-legged on the floor as an officer approaches him, asking: 'What's going on, lad?'. 'I killed someone,' he casually replies. Juska today admitted charges of murder and committing a sexual offence against a deceased female at Maidstone Crown Court, and will be sentenced in November. He was arrested on the morning of August 17 last year, after approaching a member of the public on the street and telling them to call the police as he'd killed someone. Juska was detained by officers at a bus stop before directing officers to the crime scene at his nearby home. In the bodyworn footage, Juska is heard telling an officer of his victim: '[She's] a friend of my mum's' and that her body was 'in the house'. Upon entering the property, officers found the 39-year-old victim dead on a bed, having suffered multiple stab wounds. When arrested and taken into custody, Juska told officers the victim was a family friend who had been staying in his house overnight. He said he killed her as he wanted to 'lash out', and that it had been important she wasn't someone who was close to him. In police interviews, Juska also spoke of the 'excitement' he'd felt in the moments leading up to the murder, and explained that he'd consumed alcohol and cocaine on the evening prior to the attack. At around 6.40am on the morning of the murder, he chose a knife from the kitchen and, after climbing the stairs, entered a bedroom and attacked his victim as she slept. He also admitted that he later went on to sexually abuse her. Det Sgt Max Gregory, of Kent Police, described Juska's crimes as 'senseless', saying: 'The depravity of Juska's actions is almost indescribable. 'He inflicted horrific injuries upon his defenceless victim and admitted he had no real motive for killing her other than wanting to harm someone who wasn't related to him. 'During police interviews he spoke of the excitement he felt in the moments leading up to this barbaric murder. 'For Juska to then commit further heinous acts on the deceased woman is beyond comprehension. 'Juska's crimes have ultimately led to the senseless loss of a beloved daughter and sister and our thoughts remain with her family.'
