Return to outback in hunt for body

Joanne Lees, 43, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the girlfriend of a Yorkshire backpacker murdered in Australia, has returned to the Outback after 15 years in hope of finding his body.

THE GIRLFRIEND of a Yorkshire backpacker murdered in Australia has returned to the Outback for the first time in 15 years in the hope of finding his body.

Joanne Lees, 43, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, said she wanted to “bring him home” as she returned to the scene of the shooting of Peter Falconio for an Australian television show special.

She said she had “no choice” but to run from his killer, who had also attacked her, because “it was either run or be raped and killed”. Bradley Murdoch was convicted in 2005 of murdering Mr Falconio, 28, and assaulting Ms Lees, then 27, on a remote stretch of highway near Barrow Creek, about 200 miles north of Alice Springs, on July 14 2001.

The pair were travelling when Murdoch waved down their camper van and shot Mr Falconio in the head.

Ms Lees was threatened with a gun, punched in the head and bound with cable-tie restraints before she managed to escape, hiding in bushes for hours while her attacker stalked her with a dog.

Murdoch is believed to have hidden Mr Falconio’s body, which has never been found despite extensive searches.

In trailers for current affairs show 60 Minutes, Ms Lees is seen in a helicopter flying over the murder scene saying: “Pete’s still missing. I know that he’s somewhere here.”

When asked by reporter Liz Hayes if she was “stepping inside your attacker’s mind”, she said: “I guess 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 what I have to do and that’s how I’m gong to find Pete then that’s what I’m prepared to do.”

She fought back tears as she added: “It’s because I love Pete so much and I want to bring him home and I need to bring him home.”

The interview, which was billed as a “major television event”, was screened last night.

The young couple had set out on a “trip of a lifetime” and were travelling along the Stuart Highway when Murdoch flagged them down in their orange camper van.

At the trial in 2005 at the Northern Territory Supreme Court, in Darwin, Chief Justice Brian Martin said Murdoch was a cold-blooded killer whose actions were “cowardly in the extreme” and who had shown a complete lack of remorse.

There was a “real prospect” that Murdoch, then aged 47, of Broome, Western Australia, would die in jail, the judge said.

The judge said: “On July 14 2001, you destroyed not only their plans, but the life of Peter Falconio.”

He said that Miss Lees’s escape placed Murdoch “in a position of great difficulty” so he put Mr Falconio’s body into the rear of his car and it was “likely” he buried it somewhere between Barrow Creek and Alice Springs.

“Although you knew Miss Lees had escaped and would at some time to raise the alarm, you were cleaning up in an endeavour to get rid of evidence and to give yourself as much time as possible to escape from the scene, “the judge said.

Miss Lees, in a victim impact statement read to the Northern Territory supreme court, said that she had lost the person who knew her best and loved her most.

Murdoch has always denied he was the killer.

I want to bring him home and I need to bring him home. Joanne Lees speaking about Peter Falconio, who was murdered in Australia.