Bradley Murdoch

This is another case of a murder where no body has ever been found. In 2001 Peter Marco Falconio (born Harrogate, north Yorkshire 20 September 1972) and his girlfriend Joanne Lee's (born 25 stemptember 1973 decided to travel around Australia and brought an orange Volkswagen Kombi van for AUS£1,200 in which to travel. On 14 July 2001 they were on a road North of Alice springs when a truck flagged them down. As they stopped, Mr Falconio got out of the vechle to see what the problem was and miss Lee's heard a gunshot. The truck driver opened her door and dragged her out, handcuffed her. He told her " Keep quiet or I'll shoot you". When miss Lee's asked he denied shooting Mr Falconio. Miss Lee's managed to escape and hid in the bush for two hours until the man got tied of looking for her and drove off. Mr Falconio corpse has never been found, despite a thorough search by the police and expert Aborigine trackers. The police were no nearer to identifying the attacker until they arrested James Hepi, a 35- year old  Maori, on drug charges and, in exchange for a lighter sentence, he named Bradley Murdoch ( born 6 October 1958). Murdoch had been in trouble with the police before, he beginning in 1980 when he reached a suspended sentence following a conviction for causing death by dangerous driving. He was arrested in August 2002. Joanne Lee's identified him as her attacker and he was arraigned for trial. He was further linked to miss Lees via DNA in blood found on her T-shirt. Murdochs murder trial began on 18 October 2005, before chief justice Brian Martin,QC, at the supreme Court of the northern territory in Darwin. During the trial miss Lees admitted that she had sex with a man named Nick Reily in Sidney, without Mr Falconio knowledge. Several authors attacked her credibility especially after she confessed to using ecstasy and marijuana and taking large sums of money for media interviews. However, the jury believed her and on 13 December after deliberating for eight hours they returned a verdict of gulity. Murdoch was sentenced to life imprisonment and will not be eligible for parole until 2032. On 21 June 2007 the high Court refused Murdoch special leave to appeal? He has consistently maintained his innocence.