Peter Falconio was a British tourist who disappeared, and is presumed murdered, after being attacked on a remote roadside of the Australian Outback near Barrow Creek while travelling with his girlfriend Joanne Lees, who escaped an attempted kidnapping during the same incident.
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. Though his body has never been found, he is presumed dead. On 13 December 2005, Bradley John Murdoch was convicted of Falconio's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Background
Peter Marco Falconio (born 20 September 1972) was the third of four sons in a family who lived in Hepworth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. In June 1996, he started a relationship with Joanne Lees (born 1973) after meeting her in a Huddersfield nightclub. The following year both moved to the south coast of England when Falconio began studying construction management at the University of Brighton, while Lees worked as a travel agent in nearby Hove.
On 15 November 2000, the couple embarked on a trip to Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Australia. The recent news of the backpacker murders, the Port Arthur massacre, and the Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel fire had made their families anxious about the final leg of this trip. By 16 January 2001, the couple had arrived in Sydney on a working holiday visa and spent the next few months earning money to fund the next stage of their trip, with Lees working in a bookshop and Falconio at an office furniture company.
On 25 June 2001, the couple drove to Melbourne in an orange Kombi camper van, with the intention to travel up the center of the Australian Outback and finish their journey in Darwin. Falconio and Lees took turns driving the van and slept in the back of it while parked overnight on roadside lay-bys, and by the night of 13 July 2001 they had reached Alice Springs.
Day of attack On the afternoon of Saturday 14 July 2001, Falconio and Lees ate lunch at Red Rooster restaurant before heading north at around 4pm on the Stuart Highway, with Lees driving and Falconio sleeping in the back of the van. At around 6:30pm they stopped at Ti-Tree to buy fuel and shared a joint of cannabis while watching the sun set, then continued their journey towards the Devil's Marbles with Falconio driving. Around 7:30 pm, Falconio and Lees had been conscious of a car that had been following them for the previous 10 kilometers since they drove through 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. Lees noticed the interior light was on in the Toyota and a dog was sitting in the passenger seat. Despite her reservations, Falconio stopped the van and went to speak with the man, who had pulled off the road behind them. The man, who Lees later described as a tall middle aged Australian with a horseshoe moustache, explained to Falconio that he had seen sparks shooting out of the van's exhaust pipe. Leaving the Kombi engine running, the two men went to investigate the exhaust, and Lees moved into the driver's seat ready to rev the engine. As the interior light of the Kombi was illuminated, Lees' night vision was degraded and she could not see what was going on at the rear of the vehicle.
She revved the engine on Falconio's command and then heard a loud bang from the rear of the van, which she thought was the engine backfiring, and moments later the man was at the driver side door brandishing a silver handgun. The gunman climbed into the van and pushed Lees over to the passenger side, and after pressing the gun to her head secured her hands behind her back with black cable ties. The man then pushed her out onto the hard shoulder and attempted to bind her legs with cable ties, but fearing a potential rape Less fought back violently until the man struck her in the head. She was then dragged to the Toyota and forced in the rear compartment, where a hood was placed over her head. Lees eventually managed to quietly slip out of the rear tailgate and flee approximately 60 meters into the bush while the gunman was distracted (apparently while moving Falconio's body). The gunman searched for Lees with his dog, passing nearby three times, before driving off in a southern direction. A short while later she heard gravel crunching and realised he had returned, before a vehicle engine started and again headed south. Lees remained hidden for several hours before manoeuvring her bound hands in front of her body and finally flagging down road train driver Vince Millar at around 1:00 am. Millar removed Lees' cable ties with a pair of bolt cutters, and after being informed the man who attacked her was armed decided it was safer to drive to Barrow Creek and raise the alarm rather than search for Falconio.
Investigation
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 on the edge of the asphalt covered road. Searching around one kilometer to the south of the crime scene, officers located the couple's Kombi hidden some 100 metres into the bush. 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. In early August 2001, the Northern Territory Police Force released CCTV footage of a man who had stopped his white Toyota four wheel drive at an Alice Springs service station to buy fuel and supplies at 12:45am on the night in question, who they believed was connected to the attack on Falconio and Lees.
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 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 offered, but the only new evidence 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. When this did not happen, investigators began to focus on the vehicle the man was driving, which was identified as a 1991–1999 model Toyota Land Cruiser. The fact the man bought diesel fuel allowed detectives to narrow the search to a HZJ75 model, and a list of registered owners was cross referenced with the names of thirty-six men whom anonymous callers had identified in the footage. Based on these results, police interviewed Bradley John Murdoch at his apartment in Broome on 1 November 2001, though Lees' descriptions did not immediately connect the case to him and no DNA sample was collected. Murdoch also had an alibi that placed him in Broome at 4am on 16 July 2001, and detectives thought it unlikely he could have travelled the near 2000 kilometer distance in the 27 hours from the sighting at the Alice Springs service station.
On 17 May 2002, investigators caught Murdoch's drug-running accomplice James Hepi in possession of 4 kilograms of cannabis after an anonymous tipoff. In return for a reduced sentence, Hepi provided information about Murdoch's suspicious behaviour around the time of Falconio's murder, such as shaving off his long hair and mustache along with dramatically modifying his Toyota 4WD. Detectives also obtained a DNA sample from Murdoch's older brother in early August 2002, however he then phoned Murdoch to warn him police were investigating his involvement. Murdoch then went on the run, but on 22 August 2002 he was arrested and then charged with unrelated kidnap and sexual assault offences by South Australia Police.
In early October 2002, while being held on remand at Yatala Labour Prison in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, Murdoch was questioned by detectives in the presence of his lawyer regarding Falconio's murder after his DNA matched samples recovered from the crime scene, however he exercised his right to silence and refused to answer any questions. A few weeks later, Murdoch was officially designated the prime suspect and an arrest warrant was issued by Northern Territory police. On 11 November 2003, Murdoch was found not guilty by majority verdict at the District Court of South Australia in relation to counts of rape, false imprisonment, and indecent assault against a 12-year-old girl and her mother. Murdoch was then promptly re-arrested on an interstate warrant for the murder of Peter Falconio.
Murder trial 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. Murdoch pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering Falconio and assaulting and attempting to kidnap Lees.
Prosecution evidence Prosecutor Rex Wild Q.C. narrated to the court how on the night in question a man driving a white pick up truck stopped Falconio and Lees campervan to say he has seen sparks emitting from its exhaust pipe. While the man and Falconio went to the rear to investigate, Lees revved the engine, after which she heard a loud noise, when suddenly the man appeared at the open drivers side door and pointed a revolver at Lees. The man then restrained Lees with homemade handcuffs made from cable ties and threw her into the back of his truck. Lees managed to escape and hide in the bush, before being rescued several hours later by passing truck drivers. A later search of the area found a large pool of Falconio's blood which had been covered over with soil, and he was missing presumed murdered by the authorities. Eyewitness Jasper Haines told the court how he was driving in the area on the night of the attack and had seen a large white vehicle, possibly Toyota Land Cruiser with a green canopy, parked at the side of Stuart Highway beside an orange campervan. Forensic experts testified that no bullet fragments or bodily tissue were found at the crime scene, which suggested a low powered cartridge such as a .22 short was fired into Falconio's head and did not produce an exit wound. The court heard from several witnesses that Murdoch owned a silver .22 caliber revolver and often carried it in his truck while traveling cross country.