It’s been 24 years since British backpacker Peter Falconio was brutally murdered during a trip through Australia’s Northern Territory.
Now his killer, Bradley John Murdoch, is dying of cancer in his prison cell – and is set to take the secret of where he buried Peter to his grave with him.
The 67-year-old has been diagnosed with terminal throat cancer, and is being treated at Alice Springs Correctional Centre, where it’s believed he will die before the end of year.
The former mechanic has always refused to reveal where he buried Peter’s body after he shot him in cold blood in 2001 – and now it looks like Peter’s family will never get the answers they so desperately want.
Reports from inside the Alice Springs Correctional Centre, where Murdoch is imprisoned reveal that prison staff have been warned that Murdoch is personable but manipulative.
PETER HAS NEVER BEEN FOUND
Peter, 28, and his girlfriend Joanne Lees were driving between Alice Springs and Darwin in their VW Kombi van when Murdoch shot Peter dead, then tied up Joanne with cable ties and put her in the back of his ute.
Joanne managed to escape while Murdoch supposedly buried Peter in the bush.
There have been several searches for Peter over the years, including a five-day investigation in 2019 when police emptied an outback well to no avail.
However, no trace of Peter’s body has ever been found, apart from a small blood stain on the road where the shooting took place.
Murdoch was convicted of Peter’s murder in 2005 and sentenced to a life sentence in prison.
His non-parole period would technically end in 2032, but he would never be allowed to walk free without revealing the location of Peter’s body under the Northern Territory’s “no body, no release” laws.
Peter’s parents Joan and Luciano Falconio have begged for information about the location of their son’s body.
On what would have been his 50th birthday in 2022, they issued a plea for the Northern Territory police to offer a $1 million reward to begin a fresh search for Peter’s body.
IMPOSSIBLE TO MOVE ON
Peter’s girlfriend at the time, Joanne, has rarely spoken about their ordeal, apart from telling the story in her book No Turning Back in 2006, which she wrote in order to “reclaim her life from other storytellers”.
She has never married or had children and lives in the North of England.
While Murdoch might be insisting on taking his secret to the grave with him, for Peter’s family, their pain will live on.
“His life stopped on a lonely road… shot dead by cowardly Murdoch, who will not reveal where or what he did with him,” Mrs Falconio has said previously.
“Our pain will always be with us. We want to bring Peter home where he belongs, so he can be near his family.”
