It isn’t unusual for a couple to travel together as part of life’s great adventure. However, when one of them seemingly vanishes into thin air, the adventure can soon become a nightmare.
Peter Falconio was born on September 20th, 1972 in Hepworth, West Yorkshire, England. In 1996, he met the love of his life, Joanne Lees, who was a year younger than him. They had big plans, and a bright future ahead of them. Part of their plans included travelling the world.
On November 15th, 2000, Peter and Joanne started their whirlwind trip. They planned to travel to Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Australia. They also planned on getting married somewhere along the way.
They arrived in Sydney, Australia on January 16th, 2001, where they worked in order to save money for the next leg of their trip. They bought themselves a bright orange Kombi – a camper van – with the intention of taking a road trip from Sydney to Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin, and Brisbane.
Seven months after arriving in Sydney, Peter and Joanne were ready to set up, having saved up for their road trip.
On Saturday, July 14th, 2001, Peter and Joanne were ready to continue their road trip, going from Alice Springs to Darwin. The drive would have been roughly 15 hours through the Northern Territory of Australia, along the Stuart Highway. They had planned to stop at Devil’s Marbles along the way.
The Stuart Highway is the main road through most of the Northern Territory. It is well-travelled, and surrounded by desert, and sporadic flora.
Before departing Alice Springs, the couple stopped at a Red Rooster restaurant. Along their drive, they also stopped at the Tea Tree Roadhouse for petrol and snacks. As they passed the Barrow Creek Roadhouse, they noticed that a vehicle was following close behind them.
The vehicle looked to be a white Toyota 4WD with a green canopy – known as a ute. The driver was gesturing toward them wildly as it drew alongside them. Peter, who’d been driving, pulled over. Joanne didn’t want him to – she wanted him to keep going. But Peter thought it best to see what the man wanted.
Peter got out of the Kombi, and spoke to the man who got out of his ute. The man told him that he’d seen sparks coming from the Kombi’s exhaust pipe. Peter came back to the front of the Kombi, and asked Joanne to hop into the driver’s side. Her task would be to rev the engine, while Peter and the man would stand at the back to see if sparks really were coming from the exhaust.
As Joanne slid into the driver’s seat, she got a look at the man in the rearview mirror. The way he stared at her in the mirror unnerved her, and she got a very, very bad feeling. Peter returned to the back of the Kombi, bent down, and yelled at Joanne to start the van. She did. Then she heard a bang. And she never saw Peter again.
No sooner had she screamed, the man was at the Kombi’s driver’s side window, brandishing a silver gun in her face. He demanded she move over, and keep her head down. The man then tied Joanne’s hands behind her back with black cable ties. She fell out of the van, in an attempt to escape, but the man was on her, tying her hands, and attempting to tie her ankles together with tape. That’s when Joanne started thrashing and fighting.
The man grabbed hold of Joanne, and dragged her to his ute, throwing her in. The man had managed to get tape around her throat and hair, but had missed taping her face, as he’d intended as a way to subdue her, through her thrashing. The man left her there, and Joanne heard dragging sounds. Fearing the worst, Joanne managed to flee from the ute, and ran into the bush while the man was distracted, presumably, moving Peter’s body.
She was stumbling, in shock and terrified, and knew that if she tried to keep running, the man would surely catch her. So she hid in a bush. She heard the man walking through the shrubbery, searching for her. She saw him swing a flashlight around, looking for her in the dark. But she stayed put.
Joanne panicked when he passed near her hiding place, but she kept still and silent. Eventually, she heard the sound of the man’s ute starting up, and she hoped that he had given up. Instead, he swung the vehicle around, and used his headlights to search through the bushes. Eventually, the man did give up and left.
Joanne was terrified, and kept hiding for hours, fearful that the sound of the truck driving away had been a ruse to lure her out. But it was getting late, and cold, the longer she hid. She knew she had to move soon, or the elements would get her. Slowly, she inched her way to the road, and hoped for help.
Joanne managed to flag down a passing road train, startling the driver. At 12:35AM, on July 15th, 2001, Joanne Lees was found on the side of the road.
The driver of the road train, and his co-driver who’d woken up from the commotion, came around to help Joanne. She kept telling them that they had to find Pete, her boyfriend. She kept saying, over and over, that she wanted Pete. She also mentioned that she thought he might have been shot.
The men cut her out of her bindings, and took her to the Barrow Creek Roadhouse, a well-known stop off for truckers. It was the only place that would have been open, and where they thought they could take her. She accepted the offers of tea, and to clean herself up. The police were called at around 1:30AM, but they were still 3 hours away, in Alice Springs.
Alice Springs Police arrived at around 4:20AM. They began taking Joanne’s statement, but they didn’t begin searching the Stuart Highway for Peter Falconio, or the Kombi ,until around 7:00AM.
It wasn’t until the search started that the police set up roadblocks. It’s impossible to say how many road trains, or other travellers, passed by where the incident occurred – kicking up dust, distorting evidence. By the time police began searing in earnest, they found a small dirt-covered pool of blood, and the Kombi hidden 80 or so meters into the shrubbery.
Police brought in Indigenous trackers, who were skilled in tracking footprints and trails. They said that so many police officials had walked up and down the area where the incident occurred, it was incredibly difficult to discern any differentiating footprints at all. The only clear prints that were found belonged to Joanne, and they were found near the bushes where she’d hidden for hours on end.
The media were made aware of the incident, and latched on, sensationalizing it immediately. The police were under extreme scrutiny and pressure – they had taken some hits over the case of the Chamberlain family, and the entire country was hyper-alert after the discovery of the Backpacker Murders. The police needed to solve this, and they needed to solve this quickly.
Their attention turned pretty much immediately to Joanne Lees.
Joanne gave her initial statement the morning of the incident – on July 15th, when Alice Springs Police arrived. However, this statement had been lost, and statements she made afterwards were jumbled, and lacked clarity – whether due to PTSD symptoms, or fabrication, it’s difficult to tell. But police needed to know why Joanne’s statement lacked so much clarity, and they were persistent about it.
She told them that she believed Pete was dead – though she hadn’t seen the body. She’d only heard the bang, and heard the dragging. There was only a little blood found at the scene, and no gun shot residue. Police also never found the drag marks, or a blood trail.
But, what was not discovered until much later was that it took almost 8 hours before roadblocks were set up – passing traffic could have disturbed the scene, and kicked up dust, which would contaminate the scene.
However, police were searching for Peter – dead or alive. The search was arduous, and difficult, as the Northern Territory is extremely vast. If Peter was hiding, he could be anywhere. If he was dead, his body could be anywhere. And there was very, very little to go on in terms of finding Peter, and his alleged murderer.
DNA evidence was also found on Joanne’s T-shirt, as well as on the cable ties, and on the Kombi’s gearstick. The DNA was found to belong to an unidentified male, but there were no matches in police databases.
With so few leads, Joanne was being looked at quite thoroughly. Three days after the incident, on July 18th, 2001, police decided to run a reenactment of the attack, hoping it would jog Joanne’s memory, or point towards other leads.
At some points, Joanne described the incident in clear, clinical details. At other times, she seemed uncertain, confused, or overcome with emotions. Police found this suspicious – they found everything Joanne said or did suspicious. They did not account for how trauma can affect a person, and their memory.
All this time, the media were clamouring for anything – this was a huge story, and everyone wanted to hear what Joanne had to say. But she kept refusing. She kept her distance, and this infuriated the media. Finally, on July 25th, 2001, 11 days after the attack, Joanne held a press conference.
She only allowed one reporter, and two cameras in the room with her, and she pre-approved all of the questions that were to be asked. When asked why she refused to give interviews, she stated, quite plainly, that the press had routinely misrepresented information, misquoted her, and made up false stories.
Already annoyed with Joanne’s behaviour, the media turned on her fully – doing, more or less, exactly what she’d accused them of. But, their stance against her seemed to do police some favours. Now that her credibility had been openly and publicly questioned, police could look at her more as a suspect, and less as a victim.
Their first order of business was to go over a SCAN report – SCAN stands for Scientific Content Analysis Notes, and such a report essentially looks at the content of statements for truthfulness, or signs of deceit.
The analyst found Joanne’s account to be deceitful. They found that she had missing time, and couldn’t commit to a series of events. They also noted that when Joanne began speaking the the attack, she would switch to speaking in the present tense.
(It wasn’t known at the time, but research shows that people who have endured a traumatic event tend to speak of it in the present tense – as if they’re reliving it, which can trigger PTSD symptoms.)
Joanne knew that she was the primary suspect – and she was, also, annoyed. Police weren’t seriously looking for Peter, she thought. They were looking to nail her to the wall. She decided to protect herself, and called a second press conference.
The media had a field day, describing in detail the pink shirt Joanne wore, with “Cheeky Monkey” emblazoned across the front. Joanne didn’t let that deter her. She deferred all questions to Paul, Peter’s brother, and sat silent as the Falconio family begged for information on Peter’s whereabouts – dead or alive.
Up until they began suspecting her, Joanne had remained cooperative. But now she was stonewalling. Police and media began calling her an ice queen.
Even though police had to pursue all avenues of inquiry, they seemed keen to hone in on Joanne. Along the way, they also seemed to have made some questionable calls.
Weeks after the attack on Peter and Joanne, police finally released CCTV footage they’d acquired. The footage showed a man, similar to the man Joanne had described, at a truck stop, buying gas and groceries near the location of the attack.
The man was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser 4WD with a canopy, similar to the ute Joanne described. Had the police released this footage earlier, it might have gone a long way to corroborating Joanne’s account of the attack.
Police also revealed that they had three witnesses that had seen the Kombi that night. One witness had seen it parked on the side of the road, with a ute parked behind it. Another witness had seen a ute drive off, and a third witness saw the Kombi parked where it was found in the bushes. They also saw what appeared to be the beam of a flashlight searching among the bushes.
All three witness accounts help to clarify, and corroborate, Joanne’s story. But these witnesses were never brought forth in the beginning, despite their statements being taken in the early days of the investigation.
After the second press conference, Joanne returned home to the UK with the Falconio family. She ceased communication with police, and put her efforts into healing after the attack.
With their main witnesses essentially cutting them off, police had to find other avenues, and other leads. At the time, police were made aware of 2,500 persons of interest.
A known drug runner was on the list – he had a ute similar to the one in the CCTV footage, and similar to the one Joanne had described. The man was known to make runs along the Stuart Highway a couple of times a month. Witnesses were also able to place this man in the area when Peter and Joanne were attacked. Bradley John Murdoch was interviewed in Broome on November 1st, 2001, but there wasn’t anything else police could do at the time.
Months later, on May 17th, 2002, nearly a year after the attack on Peter and Joanne, Murdoch’s “business partner” was apprehended. Knowing the steep consequences he would pay, he began telling police about Murdoch’s involvement in the attack. He hoped that by cooperating, they would go easy on him.
Investigators managed to get a DNA sample from Murdoch’s brother. This sample showed a familial DNA match to the sample taken from Joanne’s T-shirt.
Murdoch’s brother tipped him off that police were looking for him, and he disappeared. On August 22nd, 2002, Bradley John Murdoch was arrested and tried on an unrelated charge by South Australia Police. He was acquitted, and Northern Territory Police swooped in to make their own arrest.
As police were searching through Murdoch’s belongings, they discovered a hair tie. It was a hair tie that had belonged to Joanne, one she’d lost as she fought off her attacker.
Bradley John Murdoch was charged with the murder of Peter Falconio, and the assault and attempted kidnapping of Joanne Lees. The trial began on October 17th, 2005, before the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in Darwin. Murdoch pleaded not guilty.
Joanne had previously identified Murdoch from a photo-lineup in November of 2002, when he’d first been arrested. Three years later, she sat in a courtroom and testified that Murdoch was the man who had killed Peter, and attempted to abduct her.
The CCTV footage was also shown, and though it was grainy, and bad quality, an ‘expert’ testified that the man in the footage was, indeed, Murdoch. This ‘expert’ evidence has since been called into question.
The DNA evidence was also presented – the DNA found on the T-shirt was “found to be 150 quadrillion times more likely to belong to Murdoch than anyone else”. However, what the jury didn’t hear was that the technique used to test the DNA was controversial. That particular test has since been found not to be completely accurate, and is barred from being used in certain jurisdictions.
Murdoch’s defence argued that the DNA found on Joanne’s shirt could have been transfer from the Red Rooster. Murdoch had been there hours before Peter and Joanne. It’s possible that that was how Joanne got the DNA on the back of her T-shirt.
The defence also presented witnesses who claimed to have seen Peter a week after the attack. If Peter was alive, then Murdoch couldn’t be responsible for his death.
After nearly 2 months of trial, the jury deliberated. On December 13th, 2005, Bradley John Murdoch was found guilty of all charges, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 28 years.
Once news of the sentencing had reached far and wide, the media discovered what Murdoch had gotten up to in South Australia.
He’d been charged with aggravated sexual assault, while holding a mother and daughter hostage for 25 hours. He’d been acquitted, and that had allowed the Northern Territory Police to extradite him to their district. Many couldn’t help but wonder if that would have happend to Joanne Lees if he’d managed to abduct her.
A year after Murdoch’s conviction, he launched an appeal. On January 10th, 2007, the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the appeal.
Following that, Murdoch applied for Special Leave in order to appeal to the High Court of Australia. On June 21st, 2007, the Special Leave for appeal was refused.
Murdoch launched another appeal in 2013, though it was withdrawn by his lawyers in 2014, for reasons unknown.
The mysterious disappearance of Peter Falconio remains a case that is wildly speculated.
Though he’s been convicted, many believe that Bradley John Murdoch is innocent of the charges against him. Some believe Joanne played a part in Peter’s disappearance. Some believe he may have faked his own death. The speculations never seem to end, with many differing opinions on the matter.
However, these facts remain – Peter Falconio disappeared, and has never been found. Joanne Lees survived. Bradley John Murdoch has been convicted of Peter’s murder, and Joanne’s attempted abduction.
So, what happened to Peter Falconio?
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Sources:
‘We know who did it’: How solving Peter Falconio’s murder changed a detective’s life – Johanna Bell – The Guardian
New twist in Falconio case – The Sydney Morning Herald
RedHanded podcast – Episode 157 – The Disappearance of Peter Falconio
Murder in the Outback documentary – Channel 4
Murder of Peter Falconio Wikipedia page