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ABC News
3 days ago
- ABC News
How Bradley Murdoch's murder of Peter Falconio changed Central Australia forever
Twenty-four years ago, the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio and assault of his girlfriend Joanne Lees sent shockwaves through the Central Australian community of Alice Springs and its surrounds. The mystery left locals wondering "how something so evil could happen" on their doorstep — and almost a quarter of a century on, the event continues to haunt this remote part of Australia. Convicted killed Bradley John Murdoch died last week, at the age of 67, while serving a life sentence in prison for fatally shooting 28-year-old Mr Falconio in an attack near Barrow Creek in July 2001. He never revealed the location of the backpacker's body, taking the secret to his grave. Murdoch was also convicted for assaulting and attempting to kidnap Mr Falconio's girlfriend Ms Lees, whose wrists he tied with cable ties before she managed to escape into bushland. Mr Falconio's family in the UK still holds out hope the backpacker's remains will be found, and a $500,000 reward for information that could lead police to answers is still active to encourage members of the public to come forward. Three hours south of Barrow Creek, the town of Alice Springs felt some of the strongest impacts in the aftermath of the crime that made headlines across Australia and the world. Robyn Lambley, the MLA for the Alice Springs electorate of Araluen and a long-term resident, said the cold case "changed us forever". "It had an instant impact of just horror — how could something so evil happen on our doorstep?" she said. Consumed by "a lot of panic and fear", she said the killing sent a "dark veil" over the unsuspecting community. "It changed our psyche — we went from being fairly innocent, I guess, to having some sort of psychopath commit this terrible crime just up the road from Alice Springs," Ms Lambley said. She said she was an avid bushwalker before hearing about the case, but afterwards, like many others, her outdoor jogs became weighed down by "this feeling that Peter Falconio could be buried just over there and you wouldn't even know it". Ms Lambley said Murdoch's death last week had only "sent more tremors" through the region, reopening the wound and serving as a reminder of "the terrible nature of things that can happen in the middle of nowhere". "The whole chapter … hasn't gone away," she said. Ms Lambley said, with the young couple visiting Australia at the time of the attack, "a sort of frenzied media" from both Australia and abroad had descended on Alice Springs in search of answers. Locals were caught up along with the rest of Australia, she said. "There was so much speculation around what happened, who actually did it, what part did poor Joanne Lees play in it." She said Barrow Creek locals were also dragged into the saga, called to give evidence due to their proximity to the crime. Speculation quickly fell onto Mr Falconio's girlfriend, who had escaped Murdoch and flagged down a truck driver for help, and Ms Lambley recalled her being "put under the microscope" because Ms Lees hadn't grieved how some believed a victim should. Ms Lambley said the fact it was "so difficult to find any sort of body in Central Australia", and that authorities believe Mr Falconio's remains could be anywhere between Alice Springs and Broome, had only fuelled speculation. Former NT parks ranger Shane Bloomfield met Ms Lees on a 2003 tour around Alice Springs Telegraph Station, when he taught her about the region's history. He said at first he did not know who she was, but after learning she was back in the area as part of Murdoch's trial, he told her it was a privilege to meet her and that he was sorry for her loss. "It was very hard to pinpoint any sort of feeling or understanding of who this person was — she had sort of grown this rockstar status overnight — but then the feeling in Alice Springs, the territory in general, was just this eerie sort of feeling," he said. "I didn't really feel she was enjoying her time there … it just looked like she wanted to get in, do what she had to do, and get out of the place." Mr Bloomfield said he guessed the British tourist was consumed by the unknown, having lost "someone special to her". An NT Supreme Court jury found Murdoch guilty in 2005, with enough evidence to convict him beyond reasonable doubt, and Chief Justice Brian Martin sentenced him to life behind bars. Ms Lambley said the crime had put everyone in Alice Springs — locals and tourists alike — "on alert" in the years following Mr Falconio's death. Mr Bloomfield reflected on his own experience camping on a swag at Barrow Creek a year before the murder, and said he couldn't believe he'd been so trusting in the open outback. He said locals locked their doors, people on the road resolved to never pull over for anyone, businesses suffered a drop in customers, and the region was clouded by a surreal sense of "unknowing". He said Alice Springs, the town where "everyone knows everyone", was left with a lingering sense of eeriness. Mr Bloomfield doesn't think the remote town will ever totally return to normal, but hopes it will bounce back eventually. Tourism Central Australia chief executive Danial Rochford said the news of Mr Falconio's murder had "sent a chill through the whole of outback Australia", stretching into western Queensland where he'd been working at the time. He recalled the mass media coverage across television and radio, with rumours about Murdoch's whereabouts heightening concerns on his side of the border. After a vehicle breakdown during a trip to Mount Isa with colleagues, he remembered being suspicious of the first car that approached the group — a LandCruiser with a canopy, similar to the vehicle police were looking for at the time. "That was kind of the sense that a lot of people had in outback Australia at the time, [that] there was a killer on the loose — 'Where are they and who could they be?'" Mr Rochford said. He said backpackers became fearful of travelling in the outback, resulting in a decline in overseas tourists hitting the road in Central Australia for the next few years. Even now, visitors still ask Mr Rochford about the Falconio case and travellers continue to stop on the side of the Stuart Highway to pay respects to the cross marking the spot where he died. Mr Rochford said the attack had polarised the nation in 2001, but the immediate scare was followed by an outpouring of love for the victims. "Our hearts are with the family … The tourism impact is completely insignificant compared to the other impacts," he said. "Ultimately, we've grown stronger. We're starting to see that international drive market rebound, [though] it's taken a good decade or so."
News.com.au
5 days ago
- News.com.au
Key witness in Peter Falconio's murder trial remembers Bradley John Murdoch as ‘bad, bad man'
A key witness in Peter Falconio's murder trial and supporter of Bradley John Murdoch has remembered the outback killer as 'a p**ck of a man'. Murdoch, one of Australia's most notorious murderers, died of terminal throat cancer earlier this week, aged 67. In an eerie coincidence, his death came just one day after the 24th anniversary of him infamously killing the British backpacker. Greg Dick was one of the last people to see Mr Falconio alive on July 14, 2001, before the 28-year-old was shot in the head by Murdoch while travelling on the Stuart Highway north of Barrow Creek, about 208km north of Alice Springs. Mr Dick is also one of the few men to publicly back Murdoch. Yet in an interview with the Herald Sun on Saturday, the 79-year-old said there was one thing he was sure of: 'He did it. I think that's the case.' 'He's a p**ck of a man, and that's it. That's all there is to say,' Mr Dick said. 'He's just a bad, bad man.' Until recently, Mr Dick ran the Aileron Roadhouse where Mr Falconio and his girlfriend Joanne Lees ate their final meal together. Despite being a witness for the prosecution at Murdoch's 2005 trial – which concluded with him being found guilty by a unanimous jury verdict and sentenced to life in prison – Mr Dick went on to cast doubt over the verdict. 'I still reckon they've jailed the wrong man,' he said as recently as 2016, claiming that an unidentified 'fella' who was 'definitely not Bradley John Murdoch' may have been responsible. The theory was one of many floated by former defence lawyer Andrew Fraser in Murder in the Outback: The Falconio and Lees Mystery, an AACTA-award winning, four-episode documentary that explored the circumstances of the case – and the unanswered questions over it – two decades on. The location of Mr Falconio's body – a secret Murdoch took to the grave – remains the biggest mystery, one that police in the Northern Territory have vowed to solve. In a statement acknowledging Murdoch's death on Wednesday morning, NT Police said it was 'deeply regrettable that (he) died without, as far as we are aware, ever disclosing the location of Peter Falconio's remains'. 'His silence has denied the Falconio family the closure they have so long deserved,' the statement read. 'Our thoughts are with the Falconio family in the United Kingdom, whose grief continues.' Last month, NT Police Acting Commander Mark Grieve made a renewed appeal for information on the whereabouts of Mr Falconio's body, offering a potential reward of up to $500,000. Authorities 'still hold out hope that someone will be able to provide some vital information to assist in this search', Acting Commander Grieve said at a press conference. 'We're asking for anyone that may believe they have information that can assist to please come forward and contact police … We recognise the passage of time that's transpired, however it's never too late to reach out and at least start that conversation.' Murdoch family's staggering statement Despite his crimes, Murdoch's family issued a gushing statement in the wake of his death, describing him as 'much more than the headlines' and noting he had 'always denied responsibility (for Mr Falconio's murder) from his arrest until his death'. 'When given the opportunity, Brad was a devoted father, father-in-law, and proud Poppy who never missed a chance to brag about his grandchildren,' the statement read. 'He was a beloved brother, uncle, and friend. Throughout his years in custody, Brad was well liked and respected by fellow inmates and correctional officers alike. He earned the affectionate title of 'Uncle' from many Indigenous prisoners, recognising his efforts to offer guidance, support, and practical help whenever he could.' They claimed Murdoch had a 'generous spirit' and was 'a gentle giant with a heart of gold'. 'Above all, he was someone who, no matter the circumstances, always extended a helping hand to those around him,' the statement continued. 'We understand that the public perception of Bradley will always be shaped by his conviction, but our intention is simply to share the man we knew, the version of him that was rarely, if ever, seen beyond our family and close friends. 'He was deeply loved. He will be deeply missed.'
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
How I looked into the eyes of the Outback killer and asked him if he did it... and ended up convinced the official story is full of holes. The case haunts me: RICHARD SHEARS
For a time, the face in that photograph was one of the most famous in the world. Instantly recognisable: the craggy, weather-worn skin, the belligerent, challenging stare, Bradley John Murdoch was a man not to be messed with. The sort of rough, bush-dwelling, hard-living, authority-defying Aussie you wouldn't want to lock eyes with across a bar. How many times had I looked at that face... and wondered. After his arrest in August 2002, nearly a quarter of a century ago, Murdoch's face was all I saw, in newspapers or flashed up on TV, where it was usually accompanied by another set of pictures, of a smiling young couple: a woman with shiny, bobbed black hair and toothy grin sitting alongside a young man with a wide, friendly face. They were Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio, a pair of British backpackers who were ambushed as they drove their VW camper van along a remote highway, north of Alice Springs, Australia, one bitterly cold night in July 2001. Peter, 28, was murdered – probably shot in the head at close range – and his girlfriend, Joanne, 27, trussed up and bundled into the assailant's truck, before she staged a dramatic escape, hiding in bushland for five hours as the killer stalked her. At the time, I was working as the Mail's Australia correspondent, covering this case that had gripped the world. And it was not long after his arrest that I found myself face to face with the man the police were convinced did it. In a stroke of blind luck, Murdoch, a 47-year-old drifter, mechanic and drug-runner, with a string of convictions, had been picked up by police on an unrelated case and a DNA match had placed him at the scene of the Falconio murder. What's more, he wanted to talk, and the prison authorities gave permission for me to visit him at the Berrimah jail, in Darwin. He was awaiting trial for the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl and her mother – charges he denied and for which he was subsequently cleared. But of course, all everyone wanted to talk to him about was the Falconio case. A burly figure, towering over my own 6ft 2in frame, there was no hesitation as he walked towards me across the prison yard in his blue and yellow prison uniform. He wasted no time in getting to the point: 'You're going to ask me, did I do it?' he said with a smirk. 'Even from inside here, if I could get a few bucks for answering that question I'd be a rich man,' he said. 'But did you do it?' I asked. 'Joanne has her story and I have mine,' he said. We went back and forth with this frustrating exchange for 15 minutes with no definitive response. His attitude was almost playful. ghoulishly mischievous. Murdoch, who travelled extensively through the Outback in his white four-wheel-drive vehicle delivering cannabis, was no stranger to the law, and how to play it, and here he was playing me. I came away from that interview feeling no closer to the truth. Along with the rest of the world, I caught my breath when that same face appeared on TV again this week, after the news that Murdoch, serving life for Peter's murder and Joanne's attempted kidnap, had died of throat cancer at the age of 67. He died still protesting his innocence and, most cruelly for Peter's family, refusing to reveal where he had buried his body. I spent around five years immersed in this deeply disturbing story, travelling through some of the world's most remote and hostile terrains, to speak to those who knew Murdoch. I was granted exclusive access to his parents, former workmates, girlfriend and ultimately the prisoner himself. They were encounters I will never forget. Of all the crime cases I have covered in more than 50 years as a journalist this is the one that has troubled me above all others. Murdoch had been arrested in a supermarket in South Australia on August 28, 2002. Like everyone closely following this story, I rejoiced at the news as the manhunt over the previous year had been intense. After his arrest, he was found to be carrying a gun, and his white Toyota truck fitted the description Joanne had given. A DNA sample was taken and forensic scientists compared it with a tiny smear of blood on the T-shirt Joanne had been wearing. It was a definite match – 150 quadrillion (150 million billion) times more likely to have come from Murdoch than from anyone else – prosecutors were told. Although he was cleared of the rapes, as far as the Falconio case was concerned, the police had their man. Yet as I investigated further, troubling questions emerged in the prosecution's case, which weren't helped by Joanne's sometimes confused and inconsistent testimony about what happened to her that night. So let us remind ourselves of the events of July 14, 2001, when Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio set off on their ill-fated trip. She was a travel agent from Hove, he was a building contractor from Huddersfield, and they were driving along a highway, about 200 miles from Alice Springs. At around 8pm, a white truck caught up with them, and the driver indicated there was something wrong with their van's exhaust. They pulled over, and Peter got out and joined the other driver at the back of the vehicle while Joanne moved over to the driver's seat. Joanne said she then heard a bang – like a gunshot or the exhaust backfiring as she revved the engine. Then a stranger appeared at the driver's door, a man of average height, with a moustache and long, straggly hair, who pointed a gun in her face. He managed to restrain her with a pair of homemade cuffs and partially bound her ankles. He then threw a sack over her head and forced her into his vehicle. But she escaped and, still shackled, crawled into the wilderness, before being picked up by a passing driver five hours later. Peter's death was confirmed by a pool of his blood found on the highway, but soon questions started being asked about Joanne's version of events. Murdoch, his family and friends emphasised time and again, was a giant of a man, 6ft 4in tall, and had always worn his hair short, nothing like the description of the long-haired attacker provided by Joanne. And why did this big, heavy man leave no footprints in sandy bushland as he, and his dog, walked around looking for Joanne? I'd spoken to Aborigine trackers, brought in to hunt for clues, and they'd found only Joanne's sandal marks in the sand – not Murdoch's prints or those of his dog. Also, Murdoch had no teeth – a fact I could vouch for, having stared into that grotesque grin in the prison room – yet Joanne never mentioned it, despite being face to face with him. Then there was his truck: Joanne claimed she'd escaped by climbing from the front through to the rear, yet the cab was sealed. Also, his trusty hound Jack was a Dalmatian, but Joanne recalled seeing an animal with a reddish-brown coat. But superseding everything was that irrefutable DNA sample: DNA doesn't lie. Yet even that wasn't as clear-cut as everyone hoped. Forensic experts who picked up the tiny speck of blood questioned why there wasn't more, given how close the two were and how violently she had struggled. The next time I spoke to Murdoch was in 2005, as he awaited trial for the Falconio case, this time at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre. Again, he was coolly confident, and, for a man with little or no education, had an awful lot to say about DNA. He was being framed, he said, by a police force that was terrified by the world attention and desperate to salvage its reputation. 'It's got to be obvious what they are doing,' he said. 'They are going to throw a DNA case at me because there's nothing else. 'It will be all part of their plan to close me down and lock away the Falconio case,' he said, before adding, cryptically: 'I have one particular enemy who's been collecting my DNA.' Intertwining his big fingers, he said: 'Everybody knows that the van Peter and Joanne were driving had all manner of people in it and that's where the confusion will arise in my case. 'They'd picked up a couple of German tourists at Kings Canyon and there are people bumping up against one another all the time.' In a reference to carrying guns – police found a fearful collection of weapons in his truck, including an electric cattle prod, a shotgun, a box of ammunition, two pistols, several knives, a crossbow with 13 bolts and Russian-made military-style night-vision glasses, rolls of tape and ten cable ties – of course he was 'tooled up', he said. 'The business I was in, everybody knows about that, was very dangerous,' he said. (His drug-running, taking cannabis between South Australia and the north west town of Broome, was well-documented and never denied.) 'I'm not in the motorcycle gangs any more. I don't have their protection. It was generally known I was driving through the desert with a big amount of money. I was very careful, there could be no risks of any kind.' He was convinced he'd be cleared. Around this time, Murdoch's parents, Colin and Nance, agreed to meet me at their home in Perth, western Australia. A friendly, working-class couple, then in their 60s, they could have been anyone's mum and dad. They served me tea and biscuits in their humble bungalow and were keen to talk about their wayward boy. Yes, he was a tough man, they said, but not the psychopath depicted in the media. 'Please understand this,' Colin told me, clutching my arm. 'My son is not a killer. If I thought he had done this, believe me I would know it.' 'Big Brad' as he was known, hadn't had an easy childhood. Money was tight and they'd led a transient life, travelling around the country, looking for work. There was tragedy, too. The couple's 23-year-old son, Robert, died of cancer when Bradley was ten, affecting him badly. 'He would have turned out good, but he got pulled away by the wrong people as he was growing up – those bike types, the gangs, a bad marriage. [Murdoch married a woman called Diane in 1984, and they had a son together before separating two years later.] It all worked on his mind,' said Colin. Yes, there were 'skirmishes' with Aborigines who lived nearby, and with 'druggies', his parents said. Murdoch had served 21 months in jail for shooting at a group of Aborigines he claimed were harassing him. 'It's true he got into fights with some local gangs but he ended up on top, except that time he got his leg broken in a fight.' Colin gazed at family photos on display in a cabinet, pointing out they were from Bradley's boxing days. 'He didn't win everything,' said Nance, as she showed me one photo of Brad, with his missing front teeth. 'So he got his teeth knocked out?' I asked. 'Oh no,' she quickly corrected me. 'He lost them because he was eating too much chocolate.' I stared into his face for seven long weeks during his trial in Darwin in 2005 and watched him, stony-faced and impassive, as the guilty verdict was read out. It was the last I saw of him – until this week, when his image dominated headlines again and I was reminded of something he said the last time I interviewed him. 'Let me tell you this, mate, the truth will come out some day. I just have to be patient.' Peter Falconio's family may never have peace, may never be able to bury their boy. And, I fear, we will never know the full story about this case, which continues to haunt me to this day.
ABC News
6 days ago
- ABC News
Bradley Murdoch's life behind bars after murdering British backpacker Peter Falconio
To Bradley John Murdoch's family, he was known as "proud Poppy" and a "gentle giant with a heart of gold". To those who knew him in prison, the convicted murderer was a "lone wolf", a skilled mechanic and a master in manipulation. And to the loved ones of Peter Falconio, Murdoch is the monster who ruined their lives. As the world comes to grips with Murdoch's death from terminal cancer this week, details are emerging about what the 67-year-old killer was like behind bars. Murdoch died on Tuesday night at Alice Springs Hospital's palliative care unit. He was serving a life prison sentence for fatally shooting 28-year-old British backpacker Peter Falconio, near the remote Northern Territory town of Barrow Creek in 2001. Murdoch was also convicted for assaulting and trying to kidnap Mr Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees, tying her wrists with cable ties before she escaped into bushland. Murdoch never revealed the location of Mr Falconio's body, which authorities believe could be anywhere between Alice Springs and Broome. The 28-year-old's parents have never been able to bury their son. "We didn't have much faith, but we were hoping Bradley John Murdoch would reveal where Peter was before he died," Mr Falconio's family said in a statement this week. Twenty-four years ago, the brutal and unprovoked nature of Murdoch's attack on the side of the Stuart Highway prompted intense international media attention and made tourists and truck drivers look over their shoulders on Australia's outback roads. His death has cast a spotlight on the case once more, but little is known about the man's character behind bars. Murdoch spent more than 20 years inside correctional centres in Alice Springs and Darwin, alongside some of the NT's most hardened criminals. Zak Grieve, who served 12 years in Darwin's Berrimah and Holtze prisons, described Murdoch as a "lone wolf" who expected special treatment from prison guards. He recalled an incident in 2014 when the Australian horror film Wolf Creek played on free-to-air television inside the Darwin Correctional Centre. Grieve said Murdoch was surprised to learn the film was loosely based on his murder of Mr Falconio and attempted kidnapping of Ms Lees. "He watched it and he was f***ing gutted," Grieve said. Grieve said Murdoch later let him borrow a copy of Ms Lees's biography, which he kept in his prison cell. He also said Murdoch manipulated prison guards and inmates by sharing personal information behind their backs. "It didn't matter whether you were a prisoner or an officer, if he could use you to gain something, he'd give you up in a heartbeat," he said. One former prison guard, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, agreed that Murdoch could be calculating. "If he got jealous, he could set things up in a way that would cause suspicion on another prisoner," the former guard said. He said Murdoch was popular with other correctional officers who appreciated his dry sense of humour and work ethic. An experienced bush mechanic, Murdoch had a knack for trade skills and was known for sharing his expertise with other prisoners. He also had a reputation as a decent cook while on kitchen duty, baking desserts for correctional officers on Christmas Day. But Murdoch's charms only went so far. "If you were a female officer, he hated your guts … but if you were a male officer he'd try and get into your good books," Grieve said. Before his arrest for Mr Falconio's murder, Murdoch had faced charges of abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl and her mother in South Australia, but was ultimately acquitted. He had also served jail time in Western Australia for shooting at a crowd of Aboriginal football fans in Fitzroy Crossing. The sentencing judge at the time said Murdoch fired up to 10 rounds during "a fit of rage", and that it was clear he had "a long-standing hatred of Aborigines". Gerry McCarthy, who was appointed NT corrections minister in 2009, said Murdoch was mostly well behaved in prison. "He was a high-profile prisoner, and he was listed as high security because of his ingenuity," he said. "He was a very intelligent, intuitive person who could operate lots of equipment and machines." In 2020, Murdoch gave evidence at a coronial inquest into the death of Darwin inmate Christopher Malyschko, who died from asphyxiation after using synthetic cannabis, known as kronic. Murdoch told the inquest he condemned the use of the drug, and said he'd warned prisoners "someone's going to die from this" just days before Malyschko died. While Murdoch said he had never used kronic, he'd previously worked as a truck driver and drug smuggler in the outback, using amphetamines to stay awake on the road. The common view is Murdoch was reserved in prison, and even those on his good side never knew the real him. "I think a lot of the prisoners were a bit intimidated by him, and felt that he was a pretty tough sort of fellow," the former prison guard told the ABC. On multiple occasions, the officer said he probed Murdoch for answers about what happened on that night in 2001, but to no avail. "I made a joke with him when he first came in, with the idea of trying to get his trust and breach the truth … but he never gave any indication whatsoever of the truth behind what happened," he said. Uncooperative until the end, Murdoch has now taken his secrets to his grave. For Mr Falconio's family, their quest for answers continues. "Even now, we still hold out hopes that his remains will be found," they said in a statement.
The Sun
17-07-2025
- The Sun
I quit the UK with my boyfriend for sunny Australia – I never imagined the horror that was awaiting us
LIKE most young couples, Joanne Lees and her boyfriend Peter Falconio were eager to explore the world together. The pair dreamt of leaving their home in Brighton for a sunnier, less pebbly beach in Sunny Australia - but Joanne could never imagine the horrors that would take place on the other side of the world. 6 6 6 Joanne, 28, and Peter, 27, decided to get a working visa before heading to Sydney in 2001. Joanne found a job at a bookstore and the pair spent five months exploring the city and its nightlife before buying a campervan to explore the rest of the country. The pair planned to cruise from Sydney to Brisbane taking in the sites along the way. But their lives were soon about to change forever after driving along Stuart Highway one cold July night. The two travellers were flagged down by Bradley John Murdoch along a remote stretch of the highway near Barrow Creek. Murdoch, a drug-runner and mechanic, drove alongside the couple to warn them sparks were coming out the back of their van. As Peter stepped out to check the damage, Murdoch brutally shot him in the head while Joanne sat up front in the van none the wiser. She said: "I heard him talking to the man, all seemed amicable, joking, I could hear him saying 'Cheers mate, thanks for stopping,' it just seemed all friendly." At one point, she looked in the mirror and made eye contact with Murdoch, which left Joanne feeling uneasy, so she began to rev the engine in the hope Peter would hurry up. "I heard a bang, I automatically thought 'Oh it's the exhaust.' I stopped running the engine, turned to look around the man was stood outside the driver's door," she reveals. 6 Grandparents, 46 & 47, found GUILTY of murdering boy, 2, after horrific 'targeted' abuse and 'casual cruelty' "I saw the gun in his hand pointing at me." He went on to bound her wrists with cable ties and forced her into his own van before taking her hairband and tying it around his gun as a trophy. For me there was no choice. It was either run or be raped and killed. Joanne Lees "I just felt the isolation that I was completely alone. I was screaming for Pete to come and help me, he didn't return. "Now I realise that Peter had already lost his life but I didn't want to accept that," she said. The Outback Murders Timeline July 14, 2001: British backpacker Peter Falconio disappears and is presumed murdered on the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek, Northern Territory, Australia. His girlfriend, Joanne Lees, is assaulted and abducted but manages to escape. November 1, 2001: Police interview Bradley John Murdoch in Broome. August 22, 2002: Bradley Murdoch is arrested and tried on an unrelated kidnap and assault charge by South Australia Police. November 2002: Joanne Lees identifies Murdoch from police photographs. 2003: Murdoch is arrested and charged with the murder of Peter Falconio and the assault and attempted kidnapping of Joanne Lees, following his acquittal for unrelated rape and abduction charges in South Australia. DNA evidence links him to the crime. October 17, 2005: The trial of Bradley John Murdoch for the murder of Peter Falconio and the assault and attempted kidnapping of Joanne Lees begins in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in Darwin. December 13, 2005: Bradley John Murdoch is found guilty of Peter Falconio's murder and the assault and attempted kidnapping of Joanne Lees. He is sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 28 years. June 24, 2025: It is announced Murdoch has been released from prison into palliative care at Alice Springs Hospital due to terminal throat cancer. July 15, 2025: Bradley John Murdoch dies at the age of 67, without ever revealing the location of Peter Falconio's remains. At some point, Murdoch went back to the couple's van and Joanne seized her chance to escape and ran into the outback. There, she waited for several hours, hiding in a salt bush, praying Murdoch and his dog wouldn't sniff her out. "For me, there was no choice. It was either run or be raped and killed," she told 60 Minutes. Thankfully, Murdoch was unable to find her and she eventually was able to flag down a road train to get help. Joanne was taken to the police, where she was able to describe Murdoch's appearance and his car, which the police were later able to track down thanks to CCTV. His DNA was then tested against the cable tie handcuffs he made Joanne and it was a match. 6 Life Now He was officially charged for the murder of Peter and attempted kidnapping of Joanne in 2005 and sentenced to life in prison. Earlier this week, Murdoch died while in hospital from throat cancer at the age of 67. While many won't be saddened by the news of his death, grief is felt as Peter's family has never been able to properly say goodbye. Despite spending 24 years in prison, Murdoch has never confessed to where he put Peter's body, which still remains unfound. Last month, police offered a reward of £400,000 for information on the murdered backpacker. Joanne, who has never forgotten about Peter, went back to the Australian outback in 2017 to help bring him home. "The important thing is for me to come here and at least try," she said. "I loved his smile, his sense of adventure. And even though you know he only had a short life and died at the age of 28... he made the most of it." Joanne, now 51, lives in West Yorkshire and works as a social worker. Since her return to the outback to try and find Peter in 2017 she has stayed out of the media. Where to seek grief support Need professional help with grief? Child Bereavement UK Cruse Bereavement Relate The Good Grief Trust You can also always speak to your GP if you're struggling. You're Not Alone Check out these books, podcasts and apps that all expertly navigate grief… Griefcast: Cariad Lloyd interviews comedians on this award-winning podcast. The Madness Of Grief by Rev Richard Coles (£9.99, W&N): The Strictly fave writes movingly on losing his husband David to alcoholism. Terrible, Thanks For Asking: Podcast host Nora McInerny encourages non-celebs to share how they're really feeling. Good Mourning by Sally Douglas and Imogen Carn (£14.99, Murdoch Books): A guide for people who've suffered sudden loss, like the authors who both lost their mums. Grief Works: Download this for daily meditations and expert tips. How To Grieve Like A Champ by Lianna Champ (£3.99, Red Door Press): A book for improving your relationship with death.
