Ten years after the event, and this “event” is back in the headlines.
On the 14th July 2001, Peter Falconio and his girlfriend Joanne Lees, while driving their Volkswagen Kombi on the Stuart Highway near Alice Springs, were stopped by a man in the road.
At this man’s request Falconio got out of the van to check the vans exhaust, and has never been seen since.
Joanne Lees has stated that she was then tied up, but managed to escape later.
Peter Falconio disappeared on 14th July 2001 and his body has never been found.
Bradley John Murdoch was convicted of his murder on 13 December 2005.
Did Bradley John Murdoch really kill Peter Falconio ?
Is Peter Falconio still alive ?
The major evidence against Murdoch was:
- His blood was matched by DNA to bloodstains on Joanne Lees’ t-shirt.
- His blood was found on the gearstick of their car.
- His DNA was found on the tape used to tie the wrists of Joanne Lees.
The current evidence to prove Murdoch Innocent:
- Four people are being quoted, by Andrew Fraser, (Murdoch’s current lawyer) as seeing someone that looked like Peter Falconio, AFTER, the date he went missing.
Bradley John Murdoch (Convicted Murdered)
- 1980 convicted of causing death by dangerous driving.
- 1995 convicted of shooting at people at a football match in Western Australia.
- 2002 arrested in South Australia and charged with a rape offence, but was acquitted partly for the reason that the woman, a former prostitute, did not immediately go to the police. wwwsmh.com.au
- A self confessed drug runner.
Andrew Fraser, Murdochs current lawyer
- 2001 jailed for 7 years for importing $2.7 million worth of Cocaine.
- Author of the books: Killing Time: Court in the Middle, Killing Time – Lunatic Soup and Snouts in the Trough.
Peter Falconio (the victim)
- The Victim with no real reason to voluntarily go missing.
Joanne Lees
- Still single and now living a quiet life in the UK.
- Author of the book: No Turning Back
I see no real reason for some people to try to accuse this current lawyer of trying to resurrect this story so he can sell more books. It isn’t as if he is doing a book on Peter Falconio or Bradley John Murdoch.
News Articles:
- December 14, 2005 Murdoch guilty of murder www.smh.com.au
- December 14, 2005 Murdoch found guilty in Falconio murder trial www.abc.net.au
- December 15, 2005 Bradley Murdoch, Paranoid, armed and deadly www.smh.com.au
- July 31, 2011 Convicted killer Bradley Murdoch blames Falconio girlfriend Joanne Lees www.heraldsun.com.au
- August 01, 2011 Peter Falconio ‘seen by four people’ since he disappeared, claims lawyer www.dailytelegraph.com.au
- August 01, 2011 Falconio killer breaks silence – with accusations that victim’s girlfriend Joanne Lees was involved www.perthnow.com.au
1,280.1 - 813,390
@ ABCDiamond.
It’s been said there were many perceived inaccuracies in her story, but when I looked at those inaccuracies in detail I found just 3 that were factual. The rest were perceived inaccuracies based on false or misconstrued media reports. The 3 unquestionable inaccuracies were: Where and when she was able to move her hands from the back to the front is one, the description of the dog and the third was the walkthrough behind the seats. I’ve recently learned about a report from a friend of Murdoch’s that he did indeed have a passage put in between the front cabin and read tray around mid July 2001.
Extract of article from the Port Pirie Recorder:
The man convicted of killing Peter Falconio, Bradley John Murdoch, had the keys to the home of a Port Pirie woman. He also provided clues to where the body of Mr Falconio may be buried. Jennifer Wainright knew Murdoch before the murder happened in the outback.
She recalls how her partner owned a property in Swan Reach next to Murdoch. When Murdoch visited Adelaide, he would stay in Ms Wainright’s garage in Parafield Gardens with his dog, Jack. “Obviously, we didn’t know he was anything other than normal,” she said. Ms Wainright, who is an advertising representative with The Flinders News, spoke on Monday, August 1, after a television program screened the night before about questions being raised about Murdoch’s guilt.
She said that after the murder Murdoch had changed his ute. “One of the inconsistencies of the case is how Falconio’s girlfriend Joanne Lees got from the cab of the car to the canopy,” she said. “There was a hole cut for the dog to go back and forth through” “I know that is one of the things he changed after the murder happened.” Ms Wainright said that after the murder, her partner at the time had warned Murdoch not to travel up north because he fitted the description of the person who killed the backpacker. But Ms Wainright and her partner did not know that he was responsible. “Then one day out of the blue, Murdoch said, ‘they’ll never find him, he is in the Tanami Desert’.” Ms Wainright recalls how close Mr Murdoch was to his dog who would respond to silent commands with a click of a finger. “I saw that first-hand,” she said.
The knowledge that she used to live next to a murderer still haunts Ms Wainright today. “It freaks me out,” she said. “The fact that he had access to my home …” It was a decade on July 14 since Falconio disappeared from his Kombi van in the Northern Territory.
Joanna stated she was put in the cab of a ute and thence pushed through an opening into the tray of the ute. murdochs ute didnot have this facility.
Murdoch is no doubt a scumbag but the evidence does not fit, he was set up with spurious DNA evidence. All other issues questioned in this case just cloud the simple fact his ute wasnot the ute in joannas statement.
Her words in court were: “I don’t know exactly because I didn’t put myself in the back. I was put by the man. He grabbed me and put me in the back. I am not sure whether from the front cabin into the back or around the side.”
On being questioned, by Chief Justice Brian Martin, on the confusion of how she got to the back, her answers seemed to satisfy both the Judge and the Jury.
We only read excerpts of everything…
Having known people say things, whilst in shock, and then finding inaccuracies in what they have said later, I tend to give a certain leeway on initial statements, and related immediate recollections.
However, there were apparently about 12 perceived inconsistencies in Joanne Lees’ story.
There is a lot to consider…
Hi Daryl, JL never heard or saw the dog when BM went looking for her, she has never stated that, thats the media getting the facts wrong.
Yes the dog would have found JL very quickly, however BM would not have let Jack out as he sometimes had trouble getting him back in the truck once he had bolted. There is no evidence of the dog on the roadside or in the bush, the dog stayed inside the car the entire time. Yes drugs do effect people and BM had the right (wrong?) character for the drugs to work with, he was always an accident waiting for a venue add the drugs to that and you a very dangerous combination. Without drugs BM would not have murdered PF. IMHO
My logic is, that he[Murdoch] backtracked to around the murray downs region[120 to 130k’s from the blood on the road]
or a similar backroad off to the left around there, [CRIMS TRY NOT USE MAIN ROADS FOR THE MAIN]disposed of the body ,then had to go into the Alice as he’d used up the extra fuel[260k’s there- of]doing this. Dope affects people markedly, so Joanne’s inconsistencies
on the lesser points of the matter are to be expected. eg:my reasoning is, she was actually shoved back into her own vehicle, then Murdoch put Falconio’s body in his ute/flat tray , noticing she was missing , flashed the torch around for a minute or two, then got the hell out of there.The 5 hours joanne thought he looked for her CONTINUOUSLY,[ A BUSHY WITH A TORCH & ADOG WOULD DEFINATELY OF FOUND HER IN 5 HOURS -her heart would of been going at 200 plus-the dog would of heard that alone]would in all probability be when he swung by on his way towards the Alice, in the hope he might of been just able to locate her.The blacktracker advised, THERE WAS ONLY ONE SET OF TRACKS IN & OUT OF WHERE JOANNE HID, which basically indicates what’s advised here…Murdoch would of also been under extreme duress, so that he ordered something he normally wouldn’t eat, would only be , GRAB WHAT’S AVAILABLE 7 GET GOING .
Bradley Murdoch has been consistent in his defence cases:
The SA Rape case of the Mother and daughter:
Murdoch claimed that the case was not reported to the police, and that the Mother being a prostitute, was not reliable.
The NT Peter Falconio case:
Murdoch claimed that Joanne Lees was not a reliable witness due to her, at times, confused testimony.
Interesting, but where can we read Bradley Murdochs story of what happened on the night?
That would make an interesting read, if something was available.
He does say however that he was not even in the area, that it could not have been him, and that police procedures were not followed correctly, therefore invalidating his conviction.
Photos proving him to be in the area were produced, and after getting permission to allow photo matching with new photos of him, it was confirmed in all likely-hood that he was actually there.
Murdochs refusal to allow photo matching to be done to confirm, or deny, his identity leads to more questions. If he was truly innocent, what reason did he have to try to get an injunction to have this done and possibly help his cause?
He also says that Joanne Lees was inconsistent with her testimony, and therefore he should be found innocent, in the same way he was with the other rape case, which he did win, due maybe to technical reasons ?
Neither this original trial nor the two further appeals accepted his claims for innocence.
This text of the actual Judgement from the NT Supreme Court makes interesting reading on the case.