The convicted murderer Bradley John Murdoch has died in custody in the Northern Territory without revealing where he hid the body of his victim, British backpacker Peter Falconio, ensuring Australia’s dead heart keeps another secret and exacerbating the pain of loss for his family and friends.
Murdoch, 67, was serving a life sentence for killing Falconio, then 28, who disappeared in a remote part of the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek while travelling with his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, in July 2001. She survived the attack.
Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio in their camper van before the attack.Credit: Getty Images
After a year-long nation-wide search, Murdoch was captured in August 2002 and extradited to the territory. His trial started in 2005, and Murdoch’s decision to keep an elastic hair tie that belonged to Lees as a trophy was his undoing despite him maintaining his innocence. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life for also assaulting and attempting to kidnap Lees.
His crime took on a life of its own.
The long history of discomfort with the outback among Australian city dwellers sparked a national and continuing frenzy of true crime coverage. Internationally, Murdoch’s crime belonged to the same school of thought as the 1980 disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain, the 1989-92 Ivan Milat hitchhiker murders and the 2000 Childers hostel fire.
Falconio’s disappearance gave many international tourists pause for thought, partly thanks to the media circus that followed the case over the years. A 2005 film originally based on the Milat murders but adapted to the Murdoch persona, Wolf Creek, was so successful it not only blazed a trail for Australian horror movies but sparked sequels, television series and documentaries. At least six books were written.
British author Keith Allan Noble controversially offered a reward of $40,000 for information proving Falconio was alive. Other media outlets paid for interviews. As the only survivor, Lees lived a life of intense public scrutiny – for a while she was cast as an evil suspect in the murder of her boyfriend – even though she sought neither the crime nor the public interest.
Bradley John Murdoch outside the Adelaide Magistrates’ Court in 2003.Credit: AP
While Falconio is missing still, there are cases that offer comfort to people when someone close disappears without trace.
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