Finding backpacker's remains 'not impossible' decades after outback murder

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

Decades after his murder, the search for British backpacker Peter Falconio is not over.
Investigators had long hoped the man convicted of fatally shooting the 28-year-old and assaulting his girlfriend would reveal the location of his remains.
Those hopes were extinguished when Bradley John Murdoch died of terminal throat cancer in an Alice Springs Hospital earlier this month.
But, a cold case forensics expert tells the ABC, that is not enough to quash the goal of finding Peter's remains and delivering answers to his family.
"I think the biggest challenge is with where Peter was killed, [because] it is so remote,' says Angela Williamson, a University of Queensland graduate.
Dr Williamson now works to solve cold cases, having previously managed major forensic programs for the US Department of Justice and at America's largest private forensic DNA laboratory.
She has worked on multiple high-profile cases, from the abduction of Daniel Morcombe to identifying Samuel Little, the most prolific serial killer in American history.
She has also worked with the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and oversaw the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, a program focused on untested DNA samples taken from sexual assault victims.
"How many stories do you read where someone was out walking their dog or running and they find a body?" she says.
"It's actually really common over here. That's how a lot of older cases are solved, or when there's construction, digging.
By July 2001, Peter Falconio and 27-year-old Joanne Lees had been together for several years.
Their arrival in Sydney in January 2001 marked the latest stop on a world trip celebrating Falconio's university graduation.
There, they purchased an orange Kombi van and set off.
Their route would have taken them through Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Alice Springs and on to Darwin, according to court documents.
From there, they planned to go to Cairns, Brisbane and New Zealand.
Almost three weeks into the trip on July 14, they left Alice Springs and headed north on the Stuart Highway.
They stopped to watch the sunset at Ti-Tree, the next town on their journey, 193 kilometres away.
About 8pm they noticed another vehicle was following them — the driver, later identified as Murdoch, motioned for them to pull over.
Falconio did so, got out, and walked to the rear of the car, and spoke to Murdoch, who said he had seen sparks coming from the exhaust.
Falconio came back, asked Ms Lees to rev the engine, and returned to the rear.
Ms Lees heard a bang, "like a car backfiring".
Peter Falconio was never seen again.
Bradley John Murdoch was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Mr Falconio and the attempted kidnapping of Ms Lees.
Despite repeated appeals for information and attempts to elicit information from Murdoch, he died without ever revealing where Peter Falconio was left.
In 2005, a court heard he had put Mr Falconio's body into his ute before dumping it somewhere between Alice Springs and Broome.
The Northern Territory Police Force has announced a $500,000 reward for any tip that leads to the recovery of his remains.
"[We remain] committed to resolving this final piece of the investigation," they said in a statement announcing Murdoch's death.
The next question for investigators, Dr Williamson says, concerns how the body was disposed of.
"Was it what we call a surface deposit? Was he literally just dumped somewhere?" she says.
"Then you have the harsh Australian sun, which will weather the bones. You could have … animal predation and the scattering of remains, which could be a factor as well.
"Now if he's buried, that could be harder because, it's my understanding that [Murdoch] drove from the abduction site all the way back to Broome.
Police searched the area where the Kombi van stopped, to no avail.
Murdoch took the van with him when he fled the scene following Ms Lees making a run for it and hiding in scrubland.
The next morning, it was found a kilometre south along the Stuart Highway, parked "about 104 metres, or a little further, off the road".
There was no blood inside. DNA samples were found on the gearstick which were linked to Murdoch.
After leaving the van, according to court documents, Murdoch drove to a truck stop in Alice Springs.
A CCTV camera showed him arriving at 12.38am and leaving at 12.50am.
He then drove to Broome, where he told a friend he had taken a "route which did not take him in the vicinity" of either Alice Springs or where the attack occurred.
"The police … will generally have very good intelligence on [Murdoch]," Dr Williamson says.
"Knowing his lifestyle, and then talking to … family members, friends or associates, where did he frequently drive to and from?
"Did he have a favourite place he liked to go fishing, or did he go shooting? Were there [areas] he would travel to frequently?
"And those would be the areas you would look at first."
Friends of Murdoch in court described him changing his appearance after returning to Broome, suddenly "completely clean-shaven".
Other acquaintances said the appearance of his vehicle also changed in that time.
Unveiling the increased reward earlier this year, Acting Commander Mark Grieve said police believed some might still have information.
"There may be someone out there that he's confided in — whether that's family and friends — we just don't know," he said.
At the time, Murdoch was in palliative care in Alice Springs Hospital, having been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2019.
The confidence police have shown in the likelihood of finding Mr Falconio, Dr Williamson says, may mean they have "a lot more information" than what has been made public.
"I think back to the Daniel Morcombe case … it almost seemed like a needle in a haystack," she says.
Thirteen-year-old Daniel Morcombe disappeared from a bus stop on the Sunshine Coast in December 2003.
His remains were found in a rugged area of the Glass House Mountains in 2011, when searchers crawled on their hands and knees in dirt and mud.
"But they had enough information to know where they needed to search," Dr Williamson says.
"And even though that area had flooded, they were still able to find some of Daniel's remains.
"So there's usually a lot more information that the police are privy to than what's released.
"It's telling people who maybe know a little bit more … we're not going to stop searching.
"If you have a hunch that someone helped him move Peter's body … [so] are they working that angle?
"Are they trying to see if they can broker a deal with that individual?
"So you don't know those inner workings, and the public is like, we need to know this. Why? If you're not working the case, you do not."
In a statement to the ABC, Mr Falconio's parents, Luciano and Joan Falconio, spoke of a "weight" being lifted after hearing of Murdoch's death.
"[Our] family's future with Peter was cruelly taken away," they said.
"We didn't have much faith, but we were hoping Bradley John Murdoch would reveal where Peter was before he died.
"But even now we still hold out hope that his remains will be found."
While court documents referenced a need for "closure" for both Ms Lees and the Falconio family, Dr Williamson warned against using those terms.
"I am always hesitant to use the word closure," she says.
"Even when you find someone's body or you convict someone for killing that individual, is that closure?
"It's such a personal word, and it's such a personal concept to the people involved, to the family members, to the friends.
"It's often not really closure because that person is still gone."
Instead, she says, she prefers to focus on delivering answers and a sense of justice to families.
"I hope his family … are all getting ongoing trauma support, we call it victim advocacy and family advocacy," she says.
"If and when [Peter's] body is found, they will need a lot because [with] anything traumatic that happens to you, you kind of processed it at the time.
"You go through a certain stage of healing. But then when it comes back to light, then it's a whole other thing you have to deal with.
"It can be very traumatic."
The former NT Police officer who led the investigation into the murder told ABC News Breakfast earlier this month she was "not surprised, but disappointed" at the lack of answers from Murdoch.
"Bradley's prolonged refusal to cooperate with police and provide the information that we needed to locate Peter's remains [resulted] in … prolonged family agony by the Falconio family," former police officer Colleen Gwynne said.
"I've pretty much always said that I don't think that he will ever speak to police.
"[His way] to gain some control was to never cooperate, and to have that power over the Falconio family by not disclosing any details of what he did with Peter to allow us to narrow that search."
Acting Commander Grieve said in June that the murder had "never gone away" for both police and the general public.
In 2016, the Northern Territory introduced new "no body, no parole" legislation in an attempt to force Murdoch to speak to police.
For those still looking for those answers, Dr Williamson says, Murdoch's death may mean an added drive to bring Mr Falconio home to his family.
"We do this work because we want to help people, we want to provide answers, we want to bring people home," she says.
"They need to be home.
"It really hit me when I was working on children's cases. These were children without a name, that were in an unmarked grave, or in a box at a medical examiner's officer.
"This was a child, they needed their name back, they needed to go home.
"The honour of knowing that you helped give these answers and to give some kind of resolution to the families, it's pretty amazing.
"Everyone is missed by somebody.