Bradley Murdoch, man who murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio, dies aged 67
Murdoch succumbed to throat cancer on Tuesday at a hospital in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, according to reports. He had been moved to the hospital from jail in June.
In 2005, Murdoch was convicted and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum period of 28 years.
The body of Falconio, believed murdered in 2001, has never been found, and Murdoch always maintained his innocence.
Murdoch had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2019, according to reports.
In July 2001, Falconio, then 28, was travelling Australia with his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, on a remote stretch of highway about 300km north of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory when he was pulled over by Murdoch, who said their van might have an engine problem.
Falconio went behind the car with Murdoch to investigate, and Lees heard a gunshot, before Murdoch cable-tied her and covered her head.
Lees managed to escape and hide in bushland for five hours while pursued by Murdoch and his dog before flagging down a truck driver, while Falconio died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Murdoch was convicted of murder and attempted kidnapping in 2005 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 28 years, but had never revealed the location of Falconio's body.
Last month police offered a a $500,000 reward for information on the location of Falconio's remains.
More details to come
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The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Australian outback killer Bradley Murdoch never revealed where Peter Falconio's body was. Now he's taken his secret to the grave
The unofficial policy of the Northern Territory Department of Corrections was to 'destabilise' prisoner number 257128. For more than 20 years, Bradley John Murdoch was sent back and forth from the Alice Springs correctional centre, surrounded by outback red dirt and scrub, to the maximum security prison at Berrimah in Darwin's industrial outskirts. Murdoch, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio, died in custody on Tuesday, aged 67. The 'outback killer', whose crimes partly inspired the horror film Wolf Creek, was convicted of murder by a jury in 2005. He maintained his innocence until his final breath. Falconio's body has never been found. The 1,500km prison transfer bus trip up the Sturt Highway between the Northern Territory's two maximum security prisons would have passed through Barrow Creek, the remote town with 11 inhabitants, where Murdoch ambushed the VW Kombi van of Falconio and his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, in July 2001. Most of the searches for Falconio's body have focused on the area that surrounds the town, but the outback is vast. The distance from the nearest towns – Alice Springs, in one direction, to Tenant Creek in the other – is more than 560km, the equivalent of a journey from London to Dusseldorf. Kate Vanderlaan, the retired former acting commissioner of the NT Police Force, was the head of the Alice Springs crime division in 2001 and recalls the days and weeks immediately after Falconio went missing. Lees told police she managed to escape and hide in the bush for hours while Murdoch searched for her, with the help of his dog, until she flagged down a truck driver and called for help. 'My most significant memory was that it was a very difficult investigation in the early days,' Vanderlaan said. 'It wasn't clear cut [at the outset] as to who did it, [and] there was significant media interest. 'I'd never dealt with such media scrutiny before. We had a description of the vehicle and the recollection [of Lees], but at the end of the day, it was starting from scratch because you don't know the motive … other than it was such a random thing. 'We got so much information, sometimes that was quite overwhelming – how to deal with it.' Vanderlaan recalls searching for Falconio's body in the first few weeks after he disappeared. 'The initial search was concentrated along the road or within a kilometre of the road. But it's vast, and the burial evidence would probably dissipate pretty quickly. They were pretty thorough in their searches, but it's like a needle in a haystack,' she said. 'We've had so many different suggestions and thoughts since, and they've all been followed up. It was always the case that if we had some leads, it was always followed up. We had the psychics and those people thinking they knew where the body was.' Murdoch was convicted by a jury in December 2005 and sentenced to life in prison, with a non-parole period of 28 years. In the time since, he has steadfastly maintained his innocence, including several unsuccessful attempts to appeal against his conviction. His family released a statement on Wednesday, acknowledging his death. 'To many, Bradley Murdoch is known only for the events that led to his conviction in 2005 for the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio, a crime for which he has always denied responsibility from his arrest until his death,' the statement said. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'But to those who truly knew him, he was much more than the headlines. When given the opportunity, Brad was a devoted father, father-in-law, and proud Poppy who never missed a chance to brag about his grandchildren. He was a beloved brother, uncle, and friend.' 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The search for Falconio's remains has fascinated police, journalists and amateur sleuths for years. In 2014, Australian current affairs program Today Tonight claimed to have discovered a possible location for Falconio's body in a well at Neutral Junction, about a kilometre from the crime scene at Barrow Creek. It later emerged the segment had been filmed three years earlier. After decades of fruitless searches, the best hope remained the possibility, however remote, that Murdoch might confess and reveal where Falconio was buried. Sources familiar with the Northern Territory's dealings with Murdoch say they tried 'all manner of things' to elicit a confession. In 2016, the NT introduced 'no body, no parole' laws. There was only one prisoner in the Territory's jails who was affected. But Murdoch remained silent. He contracted throat cancer in 2019, and the possibility of parole would have seemed impossible. Last month, as the 67-year-old appeared close to death, Northern Territory police announced a new reward of $500,000 for information about Falconio's disappearance. Murdoch died in palliative care at the Alice Springs hospital. He took the secret – the best hope of finding Falconio – to his grave. 'Let's hope someone might come forward now that he's dead,' Vanderlaan said.
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