Wolfe Creek, murder in the Australian Outback

[Richard]

Yesterday I happen to see a gruesome movie called Wolf Creek. It’s a story about a crazy murderer in Australia. Normally I don’t watch movies like this but this I watched since it was based on a true story. The story is pretty wild and it sounds like this guy has been mudering people for many years. Here’s what one site said about it. 

This true story of a murder in the Australian Outback influenced the Wolf Creek movie and five (!) books are on their way.

The scenic Wolfe Creek National Park in the Western Australian Outback has never received so much attention, even though the movie title misspells it.

The actual name of the remote meteorite crater on the edge of the Kimberley and the Great Sandy Desert is Wolfe Creek.

Wolf Creek: A True Story?

In the Wolf Creek movie story three young backpackers in their twenties return from a hike in Wolf Creek National Park in the Australian Outback to find that their car won't start. They accept help from a seemingly friendly local bushman. He tows their car to his camp, an abandoned old mine site.

They spend the night there, wake up the next morning and this is when they realise that he is not the friendly bushman they thought. The horror starts there, and I won't tell you any more in case you haven't seen the movie.

The movie tagline says, "Based on true events." So what's the Wolf Creek true story? How close is the movie to Australian Outback reality?

I've seen outcries on travel forums by young English backpackers: "Oh my god, what are they doing to us?" Excuse me? They? As in us Australians? Or what?

Anyway, for those who have trouble separating fact from fiction, here is Wolf Creek, the true story.

Wolf Creek: The True Story

The true Wolf Creek story happened about two thousand kilometres from Wolfe Creek National Park, and not in Western Australia, but in the Northern Territory.

On July 14, 2001, British tourists Peter Falconio (then 28) and Joanne Lees (who in October 2006 finally launched her book, the only true story!) travelled on the Stuart Highway from Alice Springs in the direction of Darwin. It was night time.

Roughly half way between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, just outside Barrow Creek, a mechanic called Bradley John Murdoch managed to make them pull over, and told them that sparks were coming out of the exhaust of their van.

Peter went to the back of the van with Murdoch to have a look, and Joanne was asked to rev the engine. She later said she thought she heard a shot. Then Murdoch, holding a gun, came to her window. He bound her hands and dragged her into his four wheel drive.

Then he disappeared for a while. It is assumed that he dealt with Peter's body during that time. That's when Joanne managed to escape. She hid in the bush as Murdoch was searching for her with his dog. Eventually he gave up.

Joanne waited for hours, making sure that he was really gone and not coming back. When she finally staggered back onto the highway two truck drivers stopped and helped her.

Murdoch was caught in the largest Northern Territory police investigation ever. He had been in Alice Springs the same day as Joanne and Peter, he had also visited the same fast food outlet.

Whether he targeted them at random or followed them from Alice Springs is not known. He claims he wasn't even near Barrow Creek, had taken the Tanami Road instead (a rough bush track from Alice Springs to Western Australia. It runs past Wolfe Creek National Park)

Many questions remain. No weapon or body was found. The motive is unclear, too. But speculations revolve around paranoia and aggression induced by his heavy amphetamine use. Murdoch is a self confessed drifter, drug runner, and regularly transported large amounts of cannabis between Alice Springs and Broome in Western Australia.

His lawyers couldn't explain how his DNA had ended up on the makeshift handcuffs that Joanne was tied up with, if he'd been nowhere near her. After a two month trial he was found guilty in December 2005. The verdict by the jury was unanimous. Murdoch will serve at least 28 years of a life sentence, unless his appeal (due for hearing in December 2006) is successful. (Update: Murdoch's appeal was rejected in January 2007.)

I followed the reports of the trial and admired Joanne Lees' stoicism. I believe it helped her to make an escape, but it often didn't help her before and during the trial. She has remained silent, withdrawn, not revealing her emotions (which are nobody's business in my opinion). No big magazine spreads and TV shows, just four days of testimony during the trial. Unusual in our age of media hype and rampant disclosure...

Update:

Five years after her ordeal Joanne released her book, "No Turning Back", in October 2006. And now, for the first time, she is talking to the media.

I found this terrific interview (5 pages! The links to pages 2-5 are below the image and ad.), which confirms every impression I had of her. I'm so impressed with this woman...

Joanne Lees is an exceptionally strong person who deserves our compassion and our admiration. I recommend the interview, and if you want the true "true story", read the book.

(Australians can buy it here.)

And that's it, the Wolf Creek true story. Or is it?

Well, not quite. There sure are many parallels, enough for Murdoch's lawyers to prevent the movie from being released in the Northern Territory during the trial. But the true story above is not the only one that influenced the Wolf Creek movie.

The character of Mick Taylor, the seemingly friendly and helpful bush bloke, is modelled on Ivan Milat. Milat was a serial killer who picked up hitchhikers and took them into the woods where he tortured and killed them. These murders took place in the 1990s in New South Wales, not in the Outback (and have taken place in other form at other times in other parts of the world as well...) Milat, too, was caught and sentenced to life in prison.

You should also keep in mind that writer/director Greg McLean wrote the original story years ago, as a conventional and purely fictional horror flick set in the Australian Outback. He only became aware of the true cases afterwards, and took ideas and cues from them and blended them into his story. The line "based on true events" surely helps marketing the film, but it is misleading...

So what does the Wolf Creek true story mean for tourists to the Australian Outback? Should you be concerned?

Absolutely. Stay away from amphetamines...

http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/wolf_creek_true_story.html

Read about Wolfe Creek National Park

Go from Wolf Creek True Story to Outback Australia Travel Guide home page

Joanne Lees interview

Exclusive: Joanne Lees - the interview

Part 2: Writing a book

Part 3: Recalling that terrible night

Part 4: Childhood, family and Peter Falconio

Part 5: Moving on

In pictures: Joanne Lees »

Podcast

[Astrojewels]

Many strange events have happened in the outback, Ivan Milat was a one off case and he was a version of crocodile Dundee meets Fred west! The one thing that many of these tourists do not realize is that Australia, especially the outback, has intense reptilian energy. There are many stories of backpackers dying in the outback because it is a desert environment with no water or shelter for thousands of kilometers, these people head off usually in a totally inappropriate vehicle, like Joanne and peter went outback in a kombi van. The other thing is that most of this land is still occupied by aborigines and the energy of dreamtime and ancient spirits, if you do not respect the land and its offerings, you will be dealt with.

These events have helped the popularity of the wolfe creek movie and I think that Joanne lees is living a comfortable life from all the money she made from the interviews and that book! I believe she is the one who should be doing time in some outback jail for murder, watch those interviews with her and I am certainly interested in what anyone else has to say about her eyes, facial and body language that gives her performance away.

[Sily]

I hope my sister will be okay.  She left for Australia the beginning of February and should return to the United States in a week or so.  Last I heard from her, she sent me a picture via email of two huge ships meeting in a harbor and that was 2 days ago.   Stay safe sis.  :?

[Richard]

These events have helped the popularity of the wolfe creek movie and I think that Joanne lees is living a comfortable life from all the money she made from the interviews and that book! I believe she is the one who should be doing time in some outback jail for murder, watch those interviews with her and I am certainly interested in what anyone else has to say about her eyes, facial and body language that gives her performance away.

Karen, I watched a video interview and I didn’t pick up on what you did. Are you saying she made up the whole story?

Here’s the video I watched.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/video/default.htm?clip=joannelees

[Astrojewels]

Silly,

Sounds like she is in Sydney, I guarantee that she will tell you some amazing stories and would have had a great time, maybe the flies, heat and bugs would be her only complaint.  I would say that Australia is one of the safest countries left in the world, the outback just needs to be respected and many do not understand the bush or the outback and this is why they get into trouble. It is like if I came over to the USA and just took a casual walk though one of your tough areas without a second thought. 

Richard,

Funny you have brought this all up as last night I heard on the news that a body has been found in the area and they suspect it to be Peter Falconio, they will do a DNA and will tell us soon. Yes I believe that Joanne lees is guilty. That is not the interview I had seen, that one looks recent. There are thousands of people in jail that have not committed crimes.

[Richard]

Karen, I checked out the news and it sounds like you’re probably right about Joanne. Here are a couple stories I found. 

Bones found not Falconio's, police say

Human bones found in the Central Australian outback probably belong to a missing Aborigine and not murdered British tourist Peter Falconio, Northern Territory police say.

The skeletal remains were discovered by a man mustering stock near the community of Wallace Rockhole on Sunday.

The site is about 100km southwest of the service station where Bradley John Murdoch refuelled hours after killing Mr Falconio in 2001.

His body has never been found and Murdoch, who lost an appeal against his murder conviction and life sentence in January, has refused to detail its whereabouts.

A police spokeswoman said detectives had not ruled out the possibility the remains could be those of the British tourist.

But it was more likely they belonged to an Aboriginal man who went missing in the region 18 years ago.

"Police believe it is possible that the remains belong to an Aboriginal man who went missing in the area many years ago," the spokeswoman said.

"We won't know the identity of the remains until forensic testing is completed."

She said a crime scene had been set up after the bones were found and a line search was conducted on Tuesday.

The bones will be flown to Darwin for forensic testing although the results could take several weeks.

Murdoch, a former Broome mechanic, was sentenced to life in jail in December 2005 after being found guilty of killing Falconio on a stretch of the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory outback.

He also was convicted of abducting and assaulting Mr Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees near Barrow Creek, about 300km north of Alice Springs.

The admitted drug smuggler - who will be 73 when he becomes eligible to apply for parole - made no admissions during his eight-week trial and has always denied murdering Mr Falconio.

Brought to you by AAP

http://ararat.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=national%20news&subclass=general&story_id=561350&category=general

The crucial questions Joanne Lees fails to answer

Date: Tuesday, 10 October 2006

By Robin Bowles, author of Dead Centre, a book about the Falconio saga

I read Joanne Lees's book last night. It's self-serving, self-congratulatory and full of padding about sunsets, swimming laps in various pools and how grateful Lees is to this or that friend who believed her and supported her.

But it fails to answer vital questions. After all, a man has been sentenced to 28 years in one of the toughest prisons in Australia. If there are inaccuracies in the story, this could be a miscarriage of justice.

These are the questions I would like to hear Joanne Lees answer: 

Happily ever after or on the last legs of a break-up?

Will you comment on the stories that in the UK, Peter would bring in large quantities of duty free grog and cigarettes from France and then sell them at a profit to your friends at social functions at your flat? Is it true that one of his friends said: "He'd sell his grandmother for a tenner"?

Why did Peter and his friend Paul Dale spend time and money before you left Sydney on pulling out and replacing the panelling in the Kombi when the engine was so old it barely functioned? Was anything hidden behind those new panels?

Is it possible that Peter could have agreed to carry some drugs across a couple of state borders for someone? As a daily user of cannabis he had connections with the drug scene in Sydney. Could the "unprovoked" incident at Barrow Creek have been a drug handover gone wrong?

Why did you lie under oath about your clandestine relationship with Nick Reilly, concealed in your email addresses as "Steph"? Why, when your boyfriend of five years was probably lying dead in the desert, did you continue to secretly email "Steph" and make arrangements to meet him in Berlin? Are you surprised that this and other clues about your shaky relationship with Peter caused the NT police to consider you as a possible suspect in his disappearance?

When you left Judy and Bill Pilton's house in Alice Springs, where you spent the first couple of nights after the incident, you left a note you'd written to a friend in one of the pockets of your borrowed track-pants. This letter was very critical of Peter and actually threatened his welfare. Why would you write such a letter if your relationship was in such good shape?

Why did you and Peter have a "blazing row" (witnessed by many people) at Mataranka Hostel the night before you left Alice Springs? Why did you have another row (also witnessed) at the library the next day? What about the statement from one of the backpackers you gave a lift to about another row as you travelled between Uluru and Alice Springs, where Peter walked away from the van and you followed and hit him?

Why did you leave Alice Springs so late (around 4.30pm) on 14 July if you did not have to keep an appointment? Why risk the night driving, the dodgy engine on the Kombi and the long distances between civilisation?

Why did you tell the jury that the fire beside the road just past Ti Tree made you "scared because it could be a trap or a trick"? Why would an innocent backpacker be scared about being "trapped" or "tricked"?

If the killer was after you, why did he let you, the only eyewitness to Peter's murder, escape?

Why did you change your story about how you were pushed through the space between the seats in the 4WD? You told Martin Bashir: "he pulled me and grabbed me and pushed me [between the seats] into the back of his vehicle, which had some sort of bed in there." You told the Alice Springs police the same story and they spent months and millions looking for a similar vehicle with a crawl space between the seats and didn't find one in Australia.

At the trial you told the jury you might have got confused with the front-to-rear access of the Kombi. "As I have had time to reflect on my initial statement and I remember landing in the rear of the vehicle on my stomach, it's possible he may have pushed me through the side of the canvas." Why did you wait for nearly four years to reveal this critical piece of evidence?

Why do you think after all the struggling and manhandling you've told the court about, did your attacker only leave one tiny spot of his DNA on your shirt and not one fingerprint in the Kombi?

How do you think you were able to escape from his 4WD without getting a
single dog hair on your clothing, when you say you first sat in the passenger seat just vacated by his dog and then wriggled across the bedding where Murdoch's dog regularly slept on long trips and made your escape out the back?

How do you think you were able to elude Murdoch, an experienced bushman, in sparse bush when you say (Martin Bashir interview): "I knew he was behind me, I could hear him behind me. I tripped over a few times... I knew I couldn't outrun him so I just crawled into a bush and hid. I didn't go very far, 30-40m. I heard his footsteps crunching the branches and I saw the torch -- very close -- he came past me three or four times ... He was three to four metres away, maybe closer." 

http://crikey.com.au/Media/20061010-Whats-missing-from-Joanne-Lees-book-the-truth.html

[Astrojewels]

I remember when all this first happened, and I watched her facial expressions and they did not match a person who had just escaped a mad man and her boyfriend was missing, she was collected and had it all together. Body language is everything and it tells if the person is under mind control, has committed the crime or innocence, there are not many people who can hide the truth of within.

It is always easy to blame some eccentric individual, anyone who lives in out in the bush, especially in the outback where this bloke lived, would be a little strange. He would have little communication with others, be a keen hunter and I am sure she would not have escaped, and there were too many questions but at the end of the day, the court system does not like to leave unsolved cases, so someone has to be the fall guy, and because this case could hurt the tourist industry, it had to be solved and doubt it will ever be challenged.