Peter Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees on how she escaped his killer

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 Servisi 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, kombi servisi or be raped and killed,’ she told Channel Nine’s program in an episode due to air on Sunday.

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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, Kombi Servisi 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. If you beloved this article so you would like to obtain more info with regards to kombi Servisi i implore you to visit our page.    

‘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.