Northern Territory
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The Barrow Creek Saga..continues 

 

NT police vow to crack Falconio case
Northern Territory Police vowed to crack the case of missing British traveller Peter Falconio after his girlfriend Joanne Lees accused them of taking it easy over his probable murder.
Miss Lees said outback detectives were "sitting back" waiting for the public to call in with information on the lone gunman she says ambushed the couple on the Stuart Highway, 300km north of Alice Springs, last July.
Northern Territory Police repeated its support for Miss Lees and insisted they would solve the case.
Assistant Commissioner of Crime John Daulby said there were still 14 officers working on the case and they were receiving about 20 calls a week providing information that is helping us with our investigation.
He said he was confident of cracking the mystery but conceded: "This is a very serious crime, which occurred in extremely difficult conditions, and there's no denying that it is not proving to be an easy case to resolve."
Miss Lees, 28, from Almondbury, West Yorkshire, said she believed detectives already have enough evidence to solve the case.
Interviewed in Britain on ITV1's Tonight With Trevor McDonald, she said: "I think they are relying on the public for getting a name, they are concentrating far too much on that.
"They are sitting back waiting for that phone call ... and unless they take some action now, that's the only way it's going to be solved."
Miss Lees has helped the programme film a reconstruction of the night of July 14 last year.
Recounting the events, she said she felt "guilty" as she believed she was the primary target of the attack.
She recalls how the couple were flagged down by the man in their camper van and her boyfriend got out to help. She heard a bang, then a man in his 40s appeared at her side with a gun, tied her hands and forced her into his truck. 

Moments later, she seized an opportunity to escape and hid in bushes nearby.
A large pool of Mr Falconio's blood was found at the scene but police have not been able trace him or the gunman.
Miss Lees said: "I personally believe that the man wanted me and that it was random. He was going to kill someone or rape someone that night but he hadn't chosen who until he was driving up the highway.
"He just wanted a female and he had to get Pete out the way. I feel guilty that I left Pete with that man and I feel guilty that the man didn't want Pete at all and it was just me he was after."
She said it was now her "personal project" to find out what happened to Mr Falconio.
Hitting back at some reports in the media shortly after the incident, Miss Lees said she found it hard to believe that some people thought she could have killed her boyfriend.
"I'm just telling the truth and whether (people) choose to believe me or not, I don't really care," she added.

 

Survivor Defends herself 
Outback ambush survivor Joanne Lees has publicly denied she killed her boyfriend Peter Falconio, missing since his alleged shooting and abduction in the Northern Territory last July
Survivor defends herself
By Paul Mulvey  in The Age March 20 2002
Outback ambush survivor Joanne Lees has publicly denied she killed her boyfriend Peter Falconio, missing since his alleged shooting and abduction in the Northern Territory last July.
Speaking for the first time on television about Mr Falconio's presumed murder, Ms Lees laughed incredulously and said "No" when asked by reporter Martin Bashir on Britain's ITV whether she had killed him.
When asked whether she had any idea who killed him, she again replied: "No."
Asked for her response to the speculation that she had killed him, the 28-year-old said: "It's totally untrue."
She said her reluctance to speak to the media until yesterday's hour-long special Murder, Mystery and Me - for which ITV reportedly paid her $A85,000 - was because she had been treated badly by the press.

 

Abducted tourist keeps faith 
by Leo Schlink and Bruce Wilson in London, The Courier-Mail  20 mar 02 
JOANNE Lees says she speaks every day with her missing boyfriend Peter Falconio, who is presumed dead after being ambushed by a rogue gunman in the outback last year.
Desperately clinging to hopes her boyfriend might still be found alive after the July 14 attack north of Alice Springs, a distraught Ms Lees said she still communed with Mr Falconio.
"I talk to him every day. If I've got a decision to make, I ask him what he would do," Ms Lees said. "It's really difficult to talk about Pete, before I start crying. He's the nicest person I've ever met. He was everything to me.
"I miss him being there. Being a friend, someone I can rely on, someone I could trust, someone to talk to, someone to share my day with and my dreams and ambitions.
"Peter would push me and tell me that I'm the best and that I can do anything I can put my mind to and encourage me. It's hard because I've come back to the UK with no job, no home, and without Pete.
"All the plans we had for the future are gone."
The gunman tricked Mr Falconio into pulling over the couple's campervan. Two large pools of blood were found on the road where he got out to speak to the man. Ms Lees heard a gunshot but initially thought it was the van backfiring.
The gunman then tied her up but she managed to flee into the pitch-black scrub where she hid for four hours before waving down a passing truck and escaping to safety at Barrow Creek.
Ms Lees yesterday appeared on British television in an interview for which she is believed to have been paid as much as $A90,000.
She plans to attend university and do voluntary work to help others because of the traumatic circumstances which have for ever changed her life.
"I just want to give something back to people and help people who are struggling and need a direction," she said. "I can empathise with them and I think I would have appreciated someone like me to help me.
"He'd (Pete) want me to do this. He'd want me to go to university. I want to make him proud of me, like I was proud of him."
Ms Lees said she did not want to leave the attack site, despite her fear, because she felt she was deserting her partner.
"I really did not want to leave Pete there because I believed he was somewhere – I just couldn't find him," Ms Lees said after being rescued by the truck driver and his mate.
They drove to a roadhouse and contacted the police. She gave a statement, was asked to hand her clothing over to the forensic team and her injuries were photographed.
"I just kept asking them 'Have you found Peter? Have you found the man?' At one point they asked me to come outside and identify a utility and as soon as I saw it I thought 'Brilliant, they've got the man' but as soon as I walked to the front of that vehicle I saw the bull bars and I knew it wasn't the one."
The interviewer asked all the right questions: Why did she not see Pete's body behind the van? Why were the van lights on (if they were) when the man was combing the bush for her? Where was the dog? How did she free herself? Why was none of Pete's blood on the van? How did the killer's blood get on her? Where were the footprints?
Her answers were less than informative: "No idea . . . I'm no expert . . . dunno anything about dogs . . . it was pitch black".