I see the man convicted of murdering the English "backpacker" Peter Falconio has died.

This was a case I had real reservations about whether he was the real killer.
The only evidence was that cops found, the other victim, Joanne Lees' hairpiece around the accused's gun holster. It just seemed like it could have been planted.

The Northern Territory is the oddest place. I've only been once, to that mysterious rock Ulhuru.

It was a media junket to watch, bizarrely, a version of Cats (hated it) in a circus tent.

Watching Ulhuru from my hotel room as it changed colour every couple of hours was a bizarre spectacle. No wonder the Aboriginals treat it as sacred.

In the evening they threw a cocktail party on a sand dune overlooking the Rock..others agreed with me..the feelings were so odd watching the giant Rock (could have been the Champagne though)

I also once met Lyndey Chamberlain , the "Dingo took my baby" lady.

The weird circumstances when they found her babies outfit at the base of the rock years later which freed her from jail was bizarre. There was so much talk of secret religious sects involved.

A couple of pals who lived in Darwin for a few years always said the cops were totally corrupt and there were secret Masonic cabals and so on.

Bradley Murdoch dies 24 years after murdering Peter Falconio

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-16/bradley-j...alconio-nt/105462624

The dingo story made good headlines, it sold millions of paper's. People always underestimate wild animals and the outdoors in general.

It's been known in Australia for eagles to pick up babies and take the babies back to the nest.

Australia is trying to kill you.

I thought Joanne Lees saw the perpetrator and was tied up by him.

Jo wrote:
I thought Joanne Lees saw the perpetrator and was tied up by him.

Murdoch looked nothing like the photo fit drawing from her description.

Jo wrote:
I thought Joanne Lees saw the perpetrator and was tied up by him.

The article says as well as the hair band she did visually identify him and there was also DNA from the scene which matched his blood sample. Setting aside Police corruption, seems pretty clear-cut to me...

Well spotted, Wyot.

...In unchallenged evidence at the trial, forensic scientist Carmen Eckhoff concluded a bloodstain on the back of Ms Lees's shirt was "at least 150 quadrillion times" more likely to be Murdoch's than anyone else's. ...

The appeal judges noted a "conflict" between expert witnesses about the technique used to identify other DNA, including on the improvised cable-tie handcuffs used to restrain Ms Lees, which one expert described as "pushing science to the limit".

But the court said that while witness's evidence was not "compelling", it was also irrelevant as the shirt evidence was sufficient "to find beyond reasonable doubt that [Murdoch] was the assailant". ...

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-17/evidence-...ios-murder/105539522

Obviously I have no proof or clue what really happened but as far as I can see there were only 2 pieces of evidence..blood on a t-shirt and the "scrunchy" it's claimed was found on the accuser's gun holster.

The crime novel author gives a somewhat odd claim about the possibility that the blood could have found it's way onto the t-shirt at some previous stop where she says Murdoch, Lees & Falconio encountered each other or were there at the same time.

Really the strangest factor is Murdoch only came to the attention of police via a telephone call from some stranger claiming Murdoch was the killer. How did he know?

I recall at the time one of the frustrating aspects of the case was that the Northern territory had 1000s of vans like Murdoch's registered which made looking at them all a nightmare.

And there still is the fact Murdoch looked nothing like Joanne Lees' photofit but then it would have been pitch black on the night.

Unfortunately the Northern Territory police have a shocking history of stitching up accused people especially Indigenous folk but that doesn't mean this investigation was not carried out correctly. But it's not referred to as the "Deep North" for no reason (as in the corrupt Deep South in the USA).

The dingo lady Lyndey Chamberlain was a good example of police corruption in the NT, stitched up by police on zilch proof just circumstantial "evidence" and an appalling media hate campaign really not unlike all the portrayals of Murdoch, yet so many who knew him claimed he was a "gentle giant"..a rogue and drug runner but not violent.

He was accused of raping a girl but the mother making that claim rape was found to be unreliable and the case was dropped.
But you never know that from media reports.

None of this does not mean he was not guilty. I just question any thing that comes out of the Northern territory where so many Indigenous folk have died in police cells.

That's interesting. I didn't know that about the NT. I've just looked at the photofit and wouldn't say that it looks completely unlike photos of Bradley Murdoch, e.g. both have a long face and lined forehead. He could have shaved off a moustache and cut his hair. Also surely Joanne Lees would have remembered other things about him, like his build, height and voice. There's also the gun. If Bradley Murdoch owned a gun and was a drug runner, was he really as gentle as people claimed? But Joanne Lees having his blood on her T-shirt seems pretty conclusive, unless the police had put it there if they had somehow got blood off him (the crime author's idea sounds pretty far-fetched).

hedda wrote:


None of this does not mean he was not guilty. I just question any thing that comes out of the Northern territory where so many Indigenous folk have died in police cells.

You may well be correct Hedda as I know nothing about the Northern Territory other than, following your insights, that it would be wise to avoid it as a holiday destination...

Wyot wrote:
hedda wrote:


None of this does not mean he was not guilty. I just question any thing that comes out of the Northern territory where so many Indigenous folk have died in police cells.

You may well be correct Hedda as I know nothing about the Northern Territory other than, following your insights, that it would be wise to avoid it as a holiday destination...

There was an appalling case just a few short years ago when a warders at a youth jail were tossing naked kids into a bare cell (filmed by CCTV..child porn?) and gagging them or leaving them for hours like that.

It became a huge scandal when a TV show exposed it..Royal Commission and so on plus huge compo payments were made to the children.

The jail was shut but at it's replacement, the very same things happened all over again.

Maybe it's the terrible tropical humid heat that sends people batty. People seem to spend half their lives in pubs there getting plastered.

One odd aspect..similar to West Australia, half the cops seem to be British immigrants !