British backpacker Peter Falconio was murdered 24 years ago – his elderly father Luciano is clinging onto hope his son’s remains will be found within his lifetime
The elderly father of a British backpacker murdered in Australia is desperately clinging onto hope he will find out where his son’s body was hidden before he dies.
Peter Falconio’s dad Luciano gave an interview on the 24th anniversary of the day of his son’s death – July 14th 2001. He was speaking following reports that convicted murderer Bradley John Murdoch has just ‘a couple of days to live’ in his battle against throat cancer.
The 83-year-old said he doesn’t know if he and his wife Joan will ‘live long enough’ to ever find out where their son’s body is located.
“Today is an important day,” he said, 24 years to the day that his son was killed. “It is very significant, I wish I could find him and make an end to it, bury him. [I want to] find where he is buried and what happened to him, even me, I don’t know. I know what happened but I don’t know where he is.
“I still hope, yeah I still hope, but I don’t know, if we [will] live long enough.”
Recently a huge new reward appeal was launched in a desperate plea for information. Luciano was talking to News Corp from his home at Hepworth, West Yorkshire. Peter was murdered on July 14, 2001 after Murdoch persuaded him and his British girlfriend Joanne Lees to pull over late at night as they were driving through the outback between Alice Springs and Darwin while on a backpacking holiday. The 76-year-old murderer is in palliative care at Alice Springs Hospital and he has always denied murdering Mr Falconio.
Murdoch is dying from metastasised throat cancer and has never revealed where he dumped the body of Mr Falconio, who was 28 years old at the time of his murder. The drug runner shot the British backpacker in the head near Barrow Creek in remote Northern Territory but he was not charged until two years later in 2003.
He was found guilty in the NT Supreme Court in 2005 and is serving a life sentence with a non-parole period of 28 years.
He was also convicted of assault-related charges and ‘deprivation of liberty’ relating to Ms Lees, whom he bound up with cable ties. Ms Lees, who lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, managed to escape and hid in bushland for five hours before she managed to wave down a passing vehicle to seek help.
Mr Falconio was asked if he had been contacted by any Australian authorities including the police since the latest reports emerged that Murdoch may die within days, but he said he had heard nothing. “Not today, not yesterday or last week,” he said.
He said the torment he and his wife have lived with for years not knowing where their son is has never subsided and the feeling of tragedy, heartbreak and pain never eases. “It is important [to find Peter]…but we won’t find anything today,” Mr Falconio said.
“It’s 20-odd years so it’s (the feeling is) not particularly any different. Twenty years is a very long time.”
Admitting he has rarely spoken to the media since his son’s murder 24 years ago, Mr Falconio said he has a message to share with Australians. ‘Thank every Australian, because I have got nothing against Australia,” he said. “Most people are [supportive].”
In March when reports first emerged that Mr Murdoch was dying of throat cancer, Mrs Falconio said, we “have been through this before”.
“I’ve been in touch with [a friend in] Australia and we don’t know if it’s true because it’s happened before,” Mrs Falconio said. “This was being told back in 2021 and the time before that as well so it might not be true. I’ve got this in hand with somebody in Australia.”