The person who murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio greater than 20 years in the past has died after by no means revealing the placement of his sufferer’s stays.
Bradley John Murdoch murdered Mr Falconio, 28, and assaulted his girlfriend Joanne Lees at gunpoint on a distant stretch of highway close to Barrow Creek in Australia’s Northern Territory on 14 July 2001.
Mr Falconio and Ms Lees, each from Yorkshire, had stopped their camper van after Murdoch pulled up beside them claiming to have seen sparks coming from their automobile.
He shot Mr Falconio within the head as he inspected the van, earlier than forcing Ms Lees into his automobile and binding her wrists with cable ties.
She managed to flee, hiding within the outback for hours earlier than flagging down a passing truck.
Murdoch was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to life imprisonment with out parole for no less than 28 years.
Murdoch, 67, was identified with terminal throat most cancers in 2019 and was moved to palliative care from Alice Springs Correctional Centre final month, in response to native media stories.
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Bradley Murdoch was convicted of Peter Falconio’s homicide in 2005
The Northern Territory Division of Corrections confirmed that Murdoch died in hospital.
A spokesperson stated: “I can confirm that Bradley Murdoch passed away last night in the palliative care unit at Alice Springs Hospital.
“The loss of life will probably be topic to investigation by the Northern Territory Coroner.”
Throughout his trial, prosecutors argued that Murdoch was prone to have disposed of Mr Falconio’s physique someplace within the huge, distant expanse of desert between Alice Springs and Broome, masking greater than 1,200 miles.
Regardless of repeated searches, the physique has by no means been discovered and Murdoch by no means revealed the place it’s.
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Bradley Murdoch at a courthouse in Adelaide in 2003
Ms Lees, who returned to the UK, advised Australian present affairs programme 60 Minutes in 2017 that she nonetheless wished to “bring him home”.
“Pete lost his life on that night, but I lost mine too,” she stated on the time.
“I’ll never be fully at peace if Pete’s not found, but I accept that that is a possibility.”
Murdoch lodged a number of unsuccessful appeals over time, with Australia’s highest court docket refusing to listen to his case in 2007.
Final month police introduced a brand new 500,000 Australian greenback (about £240,000) reward for data resulting in the invention of Mr Falconio’s stays.
