The police officer who took the Falconio call
Bradley John Murdoch died in palliative care, serving a life sentence for the 2001 murder.
It was an event that changed the town of Alice Springs forever.
Erica Gibson was a shift sergeant working at the local police station 24 years ago when the call came in from Peter's partner, Joanne Lees.
Gibson says while she understood the seriousness of the call, she could never have foreseen the gravity of the event over the next two and a half decades.
She spoke to ABC Darwin's Lillian Rangiah about that fateful night.
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News.com.au
11 hours ago
- News.com.au
Idaho murders: Students haunted by terrifying question after finding four friends dead
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Their friends were murdered, they thought they were next Hunter Johnson, Emily Alandt, Josie Lauteren and Ava Wood recall being in a state of shock and fear staying in a hotel the night of the murders, alongside surviving housemates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, in a new docuseries on Amazon Prime Video titled One Night in Idaho: The College Murders. Ava said they all sat in the hallway in shock, but Hunter, who was the one to find their dead friends, looked particularly affected – like a 'ghost'. Hunter said it was at the hotel that night that he finally cried. 'I think the realism actually set in and I was very terrified. I didn't sleep that whole first night,' he said. 'I was like, is there someone here right now? I don't even know. I was truly scared.' He shared the most troubling thought: 'They are our best friends. If that just happened to our best friends, who's to say it's not going to happen to us?' Emily said the fear of the unknown got to them all. 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'She was like, 'something weird happened last night, I don't really know if I was dreaming or not but I'm really scared, can you come check out the house?'' Emily said. 'She was like, 'I'm in the basement with Bethany'. She said, 'I called for Xana a few times and she hasn't responded but will you just come over.'' Emily, Josie and Hunter went over to the house but none of them were overly concerned, explaining that they thought nothing much of the call. They met a 'frightened' Dylan and Bethany outside, then Hunter went into the house and found Xana and Ethan dead. 'Hunter was ahead of me and Emily. I stepped foot in the house and was immediately pushed out and Hunter was like 'get out, someone call 911,'' Josie recalled. 'Hunter saved all of us extreme trauma by not letting us know anything,' Emily added. She said he had not initially told them anyone was dead and instead 'worded it very nicely' by telling the friends to tell 911 that there was an unconscious person. He later added there was no pulse. The 911 call was made public for the first time in March. As the friends had rushed out of the house and called the police, they did not know Madison and Kaylee were also inside, and dead. They found out later when a 'vandal alert' - a warning system for University of Idaho students - was sent that advised police were investigating the death of four people. Investigators had described the murders as a 'targeted attack' and revealed in a first press conference days later on November 16, 2022 they still didn't have a suspect. It wasn't until over a month later that Bryan Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at a different university, was arrested on December 30, 2022. This month, the now 30-year-old pleaded guilty to breaking into the home and stabbing them to death. 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The Age
12 hours ago
- The Age
Jail for former Indonesian trade minister over sugar imports a bitter blow for supporters
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Sydney Morning Herald
12 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Jail for former Indonesian trade minister over sugar imports a bitter blow for supporters
One of the architects of the Indonesia-Australia free trade deal and improved bilateral relations has been jailed in what supporters believe was a politically motivated prosecution designed to punish critics of the Indonesian government. Thomas Lembong was jailed for 4½ years for illegally authorising certain sugar imports at the expense of the state when he was serving as the nation's trade minister in 2015-16. Prosecutors requested a prison term of seven years, but a panel of judges gave Lembong a sentencing discount because they accepted he had not enriched himself in any of the supposedly corrupt deals. The Harvard-educated investment banker is respected in Australian political circles for his work in the cabinet of then-president Joko Widodo's cabinet and later as the chief of the country's investment board. Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull credited Lembong with facilitating what became a strong friendship between the Australian leader and Widodo. Loading But Lembong became a critic of Widodo in 2019. Significantly, he also served as an adviser to Anies Baswedan, who ran for president last year and was a serious challenger to Widodo's chosen successor, Prabowo Subianto. Anies could again run for president in 2029. Lembong was arrested in October, days after Prabowo was sworn in as Indonesia's leader and a decade after the supposed crimes. The timing and allegedly 'cherry-picked' charges against a high-profile opponent to the Widodo-Prabowo alliance set off red flags among democracy watchers. High-level corruption is common in Indonesia, and decisions about whom to prosecute and whom to leave alone are, rightly or wrongly, interpreted as signals from powerful people at the top.
