Girlfriend hunts for murdered Oz tourist
Murdered backpacker Peter Falconio’s girlfriend has returned to the Australian Outback 15 years on in the hope of finding his body.
The Brit was shot dead after his car was f lagged down by a hitchhiker 200 miles north of Alice Springs in July 2001.
Joanne Lees escaped from his killer and had not been back to the area since.
Joanne, 43, of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, told an Aussie TV show she wanted to “bring him home”.
She said she had “no choice” but to run from his killer because “it was either run or be raped and killed”.
Bradley Murdoch was conv icted in 2005 of murdering Peter, 28, and assaulting Joanne, then 27.
Murdoch, 58, waved down their camper van and shot Peter in the head.
Joanne was threatened with a gun, punched in the head and bound with cableties but got away and hid in bushes for hours while he stalked her with a dog.
Murdoch is believed to have hidden Peter’s body.
In today’s episode of current af fairs show 60 Minutes, Joanne is seen in a helicopter f lying over the murder scene saying: “Pete’s still missing. I know that he’s somewhere here.”
Asked if she was “stepping inside your attacker’s mind”, she said: “It is a very alien thing for me to do because I’m not a violent person.
“I’m not a murderer but if that’s how I’m going to find Pete then that’s what I’m prepared to do. I need to bring him home.”