"The area was examined by the forensic biologist using luminol.
News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services.The 27-year-old backpacker claimed she and boyfriend Peter Falconio, 29, both from West Yorkshire, had been attacked after their camper van was stopped by a truck, on July 14, 2001, in the dead of night.She claimed the driver shot Falconio before tying up Lees, who managed to escape and hide in the bush.The case made headlines around the world, and after a prolonged police manhunt a tip-off led to the arrest of small-time drug runner and lorry driver Bradley John Murdoch.Murdoch, 45, always proclaimed his innocence but in December 2005, in Darwin, he was sentenced to life in prison for Falconio’s murder and the attempted kidnap of Joanne Lees.Peter Falconio’s body has never been found and for some the guilty verdict, upheld on appeal, has always felt clouded with doubt.Now, in one of the most detailed re-investigations ever mounted, a Channel 4 documentary series, Murder in the Outback, revisits this notorious case.Beginning on Sunday and running over four consecutive nights, it follows the campaign of former lawyer Andrew Fraser to get Murdoch’s conviction overturned.It features previously unseen footage of Joanne being confronted by detectives over seeming inconsistencies in her version of the attack and raises a number of fascinating unanswered questions about a case which continues to haunt many Australians.Vince Millar is one of the two truck drivers who rescued a highly-distressed Joanne Lees on the Stuart Highway, near Barrow Creek in Darwin – but Andrew Fraser believes one vital aspect of his statement was never followed up.
Joanne …
Enter your email address to receive notifications when new articles are published "Thinking back now, putting all the dots together, I’m pretty sure that bloke in the middle very well could have been Peter Falconio," Millar recalls on film.For Fraser, the sightings "change the whole story. No JL hair or DNA on he tie!
In it, he claims that he was travelling the same route as JL/PF for several hours and that they interchanged positions several times during the trip. "His ultimate conclusion? That when it came to DNA evidence "there was very little clear evidence at all. It is the police inventory of the contents of the Kombi.
There are no two pieces of evidence that seem to stack up in this case and when nothing made sense, Lees just changed her testimony and the NT police and judiciary allowed this happen to suit the narrative. This aspect of Vince’s story has never been followed up on or investigated. "Reading Vince’s statements again there is one bit that continually catches my eye: only minutes before Joanne jumped out in front of his truck Vince describes very odd behaviour on the road ahead while he was driving," says Fraser. In her original interview with police, Joanne Lees said she had lost two items on the day it happened. Joanne Rachael Lees (born 25 September 1973) is best known for her ordeal in Central Australia when, in 2001, as a young English tourist travelling with her partner Peter Falconio, she was attacked and subjected to an attempted abduction by a man later identified as Bradley John Murdoch.Lees escaped her attacker, but Falconio was never found, and in 2005 Murdoch was convicted of his murder. He knows it was Falconio because he was just looking at his photo in the paper when Falconio walked in. "As I walk around here it’s making clear footprints - so why were there only Joanne’s footprints?"
I can also thoroughly recommend Robin Bowles’ book ‘DEAD CENTRE’ as it expertly chronicles the case from beginning to end and much more. The number 182 in the list is the one and only positive article that relates to Peter Falconio. A look-alike?
And there has not been any evidence produced that Falconio was shot.These factors and the many questions that are still subject of speculation – about the body, the motive, aspects of Lees’ story – make this case more of a running mystery than an open and shut murder case, where the prosecution case has been proven beyond reasonable doubt. "This wasn’t put before the jury and I think it should have been", he says. As I think most people can understand, Murdoch altered his vehicles and appearance due to his line of business and subsequently to evade the border patrols during his travels. I am personally convinced he is alive. "One of the many things that puzzled detectives who worked on the case was the lack of blood at the scene, which was inconsistent with the amount expected from a fatal gunshot.Nineteen years on, Professor Barry Boetcher, an expert in blood groups and bodily secretions who looked at the case at the time – believes it was not enough to secure a conviction.
"It raises the question – did this bloke get a fair trial? Forensic bioligist Carmen Eckhoff said that DNA collected from the spot was an "EXACT" DNA match to that of Broome mechanic Bradley John Murdoch. "In my opinion, based on that and blood evidence, I would not expect today to have a guilty verdict recorded against anybody. I don’t know where he is but he’s alive." "DNA can be transferred without them actually being involved," he explains.Earlier that day, Fraser points out, Lees and Falconio had visited the Red Rooster restaurant in Alice Springs – could the DNA have been transferred there from sitting with their back to the same chair?McDonald also raises questions about the DNA swabs taken from the gear stick and steering wheel of the camper van and the manacles used to bind Joanne’s wrists, which the jury were told contained Murdoch’s DNA.In fact, says McDonald, they are "complex low-level mixtures" - meaning they are very small amounts of DNA, with multiple individuals contributing to them. On the 14th July 2001, the 27-year old flagged down a truck on a quiet part of the Stuart Highway in Central Australia.