CU in the NT, motherfuckers!
Our first foray into the Top End covers the murder of Peter Falconio, a British tourist who was murdered while on holiday with his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, on a road trip from Sydney to Darwin. Bradley John Murdoch played the role of concerned fellow motorist when he signalled to Joanne and Pete to pull over, saying that sparks were coming out of the exhaust on their Kombi.
Knowing that car trouble could lead to serious trouble if they were stranded on the Stuart Highway in the literal middle of nowhere in the remote Northern Territory Outback, Peter pulled over, checked the exhaust, and was then shot at point-blank range by Bradley Murdoch. Murdoch then handcuffed Joanne with homemade cuffs and pulled her into his car with the intention to do God-knows-what, but she managed to escape, hiding herself in the bush until Peter gave up and drove away.
A massive (and somewhat flawed) police investigation followed. Locating the suspect took literal years, allegations of evidence contamination dogged the trial, and Joanne Lees was forced to physically demonstrate how she escaped from Murdoch before the jury before he was ultimately convicted of the crime.
EPISODE NOTES:
As we all know, most of Australia is essentially full of sweet fuck-all. For tourists, that’s part of the appeal – long stretches of road with nothing but blue skies and the wild Outback out the window. Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio had dreams of those blue skies when they came to Australia in 2001 on a working holiday visa. After working for a few months, they planned to drive from Sydney through to Adelaide and up to the Top End in an old orange Kombi van before heading to New Zealand and back home to the UK.
Their dream Aussie holiday came to a tragic end when they happened upon Bradley John Murdoch on the Stuart Highway by Barrow Creek. The senseless murder of Peter Falconio (and Joanne Lee’s miracle escape) would make headlines across the world. The investigation into Peter’s murder would continue for years, and Joanne would fall prey to an unfriendly media who wouldn’t accept that her British stiff-upper-lip attitude after Peter’s murder was masking unmentionable pain.
Bradley Murdoch, a drug runner and suspected rapist, would eventually be found guilty of Peter’s murder, but not before Joanne was found guilty in the court of public opinion. This case added to the atmosphere of fear generated by the Backpacker Murders that Australia was unsafe for tourists, and perhaps for good reason. The body of Peter Falconio has never been found. He is one of many people lost to the unforgiving Outback.
You can watch the telemovie made about the case here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEMz1ACXF8g&fbclid=IwAR3ve6qxPn6GK_TLTodKQ2emccGyfJ5s69A5twjoj3DXKiLqKQ5ibg0MQlo
and the episode of Real Crime Stories covering the case can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28eb8c6FYEM&t=7s&fbclid=IwAR1WGsDgsETr2Kx5KnIZb-pgQoh56qSOt8x_CXagsgy1QesypWVaQ6OLA5Q
To read more about the drama about the interview with Andrew Fraser, go here https://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/channel-7-and-rahni-sadler-charged-over-bradley-john-murdoch-interview/news-story/90b3a9a4324e453fc7e161dfaadeb7fe?sv=f9980e182f0bb97134b47bcd07250b81&fbclid=IwAR1kcTLfzwPXXg7udSdKT9rtvZfy4qu7902l4YQVEvmXBDbJIuMyEm0xy04
Of course, there’s always Casefile if you’d like a more scripted version of the case (this is just professional jealousy, the episode is really good) https://casefilepodcast.com/case-44-peter-falconio/
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