Did he do it or didn’t he?
The recent death in prison of accused outback killer Bradley John Murdoch has revived interest in the notorious Peter Falconio backpacker murder of July 2001.
So many questions in the case remain unanswered. No body has ever been found. There were no witnesses, no cause of death, no weapon, no motive and no tangible evidence. The accounts given by Falconio’s companion Joanne Lees of that fateful night have been inconsistent and often wildly sensationalised in the media. And for more than 20 years, Bradley John Murdoch – drug-runner, seedy underworld figure, and outback hard man – denied any involvement in the crime.
Australian true crime writer Robin Bowles was granted rare access to Murdoch during his incarceration and her 2023 book, Dead Centre, takes readers deep into the murky world of the man who inspired the Wolf Creek horror films. In a case that rose to the same sensational legal heights as that of Azaria Chamberlain and accused mushroom murder Erin Patterson, Bowles’ account of the hunt for a killer as elusive as he was brutal will have readers questioning what really happened that terrible night and whether justice was truly served.
-Rochelle, Cootamundra Library
