The strange case of Peter Falconio

Interested to hear if anyone has any opinions on this case from some time back...

Followed it closely at the time and certain things didn't seem to add up.

A mystery or they got the right bloke and justice is being served...?

Andrew wrote:Interested to hear if anyone has any opinions on this case from some time back...

Followed it closely at the time and certain things didn't seem to add up.

A mystery or they got the right bloke and justice is being served...?

The girlfriend is well dodgy IMO.

Yes, she did have a touch of 'McCann' about her. That's for sure..

http://www.news.com.au/national/the-death-of-peter-falconio-continues-to-fascinate-more-than-a-decade-after-he-and-joanne-lees-were-fatefully-flagged-down-on-a-desert-highway/story-fncynjr2-1226813918871

A review of the case from an Australian source.

I doubt that the full truth has been revealed.

The "body down a well" claims certainly sound familiar.

Just stumbled across this article from a couple of months ago.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/12189960/Killer-of-British-backpacker-Peter-Falconio-told-no-parole-unless-he-reveals-site-of-body.html

Snipped:

The Northern Territory plans to introduce a “no body, no parole” law that would force the killer of British backpacker Peter Falconio to reveal the whereabouts of the body


And this article from yesterday about this law..

http://www.wsj.com/articles/australia-weighs-no-body-no-parole-law-for-convicted-killers-1465316461

http://news.sky.com/story/appeal-to-help-find-the-body-of-murdered-brit-10501606

Appeal To Help Find The Body Of Murdered Brit

It is 15 years since Peter Falconio was shot dead in the Australian outback but police there say the case is still open.

16:37, UK,
Thursday 14 July 2016

The appeal comes on the 15th anniversary of Peter Falconio's death while travelling through the outback in Northern Territory with his girlfriend, Joanne Lees.

The pair were ambushed by drug runner Bradley Murdoch as they were driving along in their VW Kombi.

Mr Falconio, 28, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, was shot dead on the spot but Ms Lees managed to escape.

After hiding for hours in thick bushes, she managed to hail down a passing road train but the only sign of Mr Falconio was a pool of blood in the road.

Undated police handout photo of Bradley Murdoch
Bradley Murdoch has refused to say what he did with Mr Falconio's body
Murdoch, who is serving a life sentence for the killing and assaulting Ms Lees, has refused to say what he did with the body.

He denied the attack but was found guilty in 2005 after a speck of his blood was found on Ms Lee's T-shirt.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Jamie Chalker said the case was still open and detectives would welcome any new leads.

"If anybody has any information as to his whereabouts, please come forward," he said.

Mr Chalker said the case continues to fascinate the media and the public, leading to new avenues of inquiry, some which are more reliable than others.

"Recently there was another media expose in respects of locating an item that was believed to be linked to Mr Falconio, but further investigation showed the item had no linkage whatsoever

The VW Kombi in which Mr Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees were travelling
The couple's VW Kombi
"What we're hoping is that at some point in time we still do get calls around skeletal remains in particular, if people happen to stumble over them by happenstance."

He added: "Australian law enforcement has a history of many cold cases where somebody finally has the realisation that they themselves may not have long left on Earth and make the decision to impart information that they've held onto for a very long period of time."

The government of Northern Territory recently passed new laws called "no body, no parole".

They prevent convicted killers from obtaining early release unless they reveal the whereabouts of their victim's remains.



.... Following on from the conspiracy thread - then this is a case where I'm not convinced they have the right chap.

I doubted her story when she somehow managed to get her tied hands from behind her back to in front of her. Here are a few more discrepancies.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

That link is to the current front page of The Telegraph.

Here is a recent Mail article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3678752/Joanne-Lees-Fifteen-years-boyfriend-Peter-Falconio-murdered-Outback-attack-survivor-girlfriend-forging-new-career-social-worker.html

I saw a programme some years ago where Joanne Lees demonstrated that she could get her tied hands in front of her.

I know that there are still other unresolved issues though.

We used to have a thread on this case but Freedom merged it somewhere and no idea where..

Probably of no interest to anyone apart from me but it's in the news again.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3839727/Joanne-Lees-secretly-returned-Australia-raising-money-memorial-boyfriend-Peter-Falconio-near-Outback-site-murdered-15-years-ago.html

Thanks Freedom. Yes it was on this thread.

IMO - there was a lot more to this story (the actual case). And I think she's been far from being completely honest.

Andrew wrote:Thanks Freedom. Yes it was on this thread.

IMO - there was a lot more to this story (the actual case). And I think she's been far from being completely honest.

Andrew, what would be her motive to murder Peter Falconio?

I've just read a press article linked to on this thread and at the trial of the man who was convicted she admitted to a sexual fling with another man while on this Australian holiday with Peter. Now if Peter found out about this, there could have been a big row/fight and she could have ended up dead. If she was getting bored with Peter, all she had to do is to break it off. they did not have children together and I've never read that she stood to gain financially from his death.

I'm not sure to be honest. Certain things just didn't seem to add up or seem right about it all...

Some additional reading if one can be bothered:

http://coolinterestingstuff.com/mystery-in-the-outback-the-strange-story-of-peter-falconio-and-joanne-lees

http://richardshears.com/?p=736

There certainly are some yet to be explained issues here.

As with other cases, we don't know what the motive might have been but we do know that the official story just doesn't add up.

I don't attach much credence though to the testimony of the couple who are sure that they saw Peter F at a service station. Why didn't they take the registration number of the vehicle that he and the two people with him were supposedly travelling in?

This affair intrigues me... I had my own little thread about the case on here until Freedom merged it all... , Anyway some latest news/ story about it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4210406/Peter-Falconio-s-girlfriend-Joanne-Lees-speaks-murder.html

Have to say Andrew that I too find the Falconio case fascinating. There are similarities with the McCann case inasmuch as both Falconio and Madeleine were supposedly abducted but in both cases nothing has been heard of them since. No bodies, no ransom notes, nothing. Both abduction stories were inconsistent in places and both Lees and the McCanns displayed what a lot of people felt was inappropriate reactions to the devastating events. Expert Aboriginal trackers, called from a nearby settlement, could find no sign of tracks of anyone, other than Lees’ in the bush where she stated she hid . Sometimes you just can't put your finger on it but you just know something isn't quite right.

Apparently Lees has just found out that she has a half sister living ........................................in Australia!

Have given it its own thread Andrew, I don't know if Freedom can did out some of the other posts you made on the case.  I have to say I always felt something not right with this, a gut feeling, why kill one and leave the other?  I think it worthy of a look into, and some of the background.

Andrew wrote:This affair intrigues me... I had my own little thread about the case on here until Freedom merged it all... , Anyway some latest news/ story about it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4210406/Peter-Falconio-s-girlfriend-Joanne-Lees-speaks-murder.html

'It was either run, or be raped and killed': Joanne Lees on her terrifying escape from Peter Falconio's killer in the Outback - as she vows to find her boyfriend's body 15 years after he vanished

• Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio were travelling in a Kombi in outback Australia
  
• They were flagged down by Bradley Murdoch who shot dead Mr Falconio
  
• Murdoch then handcuffed Ms Lees before dragging her into his vehicle
  
• He was later convicted of Mr Falconio's murder but the body was never found
  
• Ms Lees has returned to Australian outback and has vowed to find his remains
  

By Max Margan For Daily Mail Australia
Published: 02:43, 10 February 2017  | Updated: 08:06, 10 February 2017


A British tourist whose boyfriend was shot dead in one of Australia's most notorious murders has relived her horrific ordeal.
Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio were travelling in a Kombi van towards Darwin on a remote highway when they were flagged down by Bradley Murdoch in 2001.
Murdoch shot Mr Falconio, 28, before handcuffing Ms Lees and dragging her into his vehicle.
Ms Lees, who was 27 at the time, fought for her life and managed to escape.
'It was either run, or be raped and killed,' she told Channel Nine's 60 Minutes program in an episode due to air on Sunday.


Ms Lees heard a gun shot but didn't know if her partner had been killed.

She said her will to escape was driven by the thought that Mr Falconio may not be dead.

She fought off Murdoch and made her getaway with 'the thought that Pete was still alive'.

Murdoch was later convicted of murder, but Mr Falconio's body has never been found. 




Ms Lees, originally from the English county of Yorkshire, has returned to the Australian outback and has vowed to find his remains.

'I love Pete so much and I want to bring him home... I need to bring him home,' she said.

Flying in a helicopter in the area he was murdered, north of Alice Springs, Ms Lees said: 'I know that he's somewhere here.'


Ms Lees said she is attempting to 'step into the killer's mind' to discover what Murdoch did with her partner's body.    



'It's a very alien thing for me to do because I'm not a violent person, I'm not a murderer,' she said.

'But if that's what I have to do and that's how I'm going to find Pete then, that's what I'm prepared to do.




The world was suspicious of Ms Lees' story that Murdoch had shot dead her boyfriend when she appeared emotionless after the incident.

It was later reported that she had taken Valium to numb her grief.

'How could they think that? It was like a stab to the heart,' she said.

Murdoch was convicted of Mr Falconio's murder in 2006, largely on DNA evidence which included a spot of Ms Lees' blood on his T-shirt.

Police later found a pool of blood on the road, but were never able to locate Mr Falconio's remains.

Murdoch, now 58, is serving a life prison sentence in the Northern Territory.

He has always protested his innocence and insists he can't reveal where Falconio's body is because he wasn't at the crime scene. 





http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4210406/Peter-Falconio-s-girlfriend-Joanne-Lees-speaks-murder.html





Some interesting comments after the article.

OK, well not OK. For one, I've made some 7 tries to comment and got into oblivion. So will keep it short: what worries me is that she said: "I'm not a murderer". Denial before accusation?

Will try and dig out some old links and stick them up. Will start with Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Falconio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_John_Murdoch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanne_Lees