Peter Falconio family anguish as cops DENY finding remains where Brit backpacker was murdered in Australia 22 years ago
POLICE in Australia have denied reports they found human remains that could belong to a murdered British backpacker.
Peter Falconio was travelling with his girlfriend Joanne Lees when he was shot dead on the Stuart Highway north of Alice Springs in 2001.
Drug runner Bradley Murdoch who was sentenced to life in prison for Peter’s murder in 2005, has refused to say where he dumped Peter's body.
Despite extensive searches over the years, the location of Peter's body remains a mystery 22 years on.
Today his family were offered new hope after respected newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald reported bones were found in the area.
Sources reportedly told the papers the remains would be tested to see if they could be Peter's.
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However, hours later the Northern Territory Police issued a statement denying the reports.
"No human remains have been located by Northern Territory Police, and a search is not currently being conducted," the force said.
Assistant Commissioner Michael White added: "NT Police would like to advise the public that speculating on the identity on any missing person causes unwarranted grief and trauma to the family and friends."
The earlier reports claimed skeletal remains were found on January 9 on Tanami Road, a few miles from where Peter was shot.
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Sources reportedly said the bones were discovered during unrelated searches for mum-of-two Angie Fuller, 30, whose disappearance is being treated as a homicide.
The age of the remains was said to have made it obvious they were not Angie's, and they would instead be tested for possible links to the Falconio case, according to the reports.
But hopes of a breakthrough were dashed when cops said no remains were found.
Police have launched a number of searches over the last two decades to find Peter's body.
Back in September, cops revealed a crucial detail that could have helped them locate the body.
A possible new witness has claimed he spotted a vehicle similar to the killer's parked "in an odd place" 24 hours after the murder.
Meanwhile, SA Best MLC Frank Pangallo demanded a £500,000 reward for information that would lead to Peter's body.
He made the plea after receiving an email from the backpacker's heartbroken mum Joan, 75, pleading for "anyone with a conscience" to help locate his remains, reported at the time.
The email read: "We want to bring Peter home where he belongs near his family. Our pain is always with us.
"Peter has a beautiful niece and two lovely nephews who he never got to see or know.
"I am appealing to anyone with a conscience to help me however small to tell me where he [Peter] was put."
Police issued a fresh appeal for information in 2021, on the 20th anniversary of Peter's disappearance.
The backpacker's murder made headlines across the world with authorities launching an extensive police manhunt to locate the culprit.
Peter who was 28 at the time was backpacking with his girlfriend Joanne Lees, 27, through Western Australia in July 2001.
On July 14, Joanne flagged down a truck on the Stuart Highway saying she and her boyfriend, both from West Yorkshire, had been attacked after their camper van was stopped by a truck.
She claimed the driver shot Peter before tying her up, but managed to escape and hid in bushes for five hours.
She later said: "It was either."
It wasn't until four years later that a tip-off led to the arrest of drug runner Bradley Murdoch.
Murdoch always proclaimed his innocence but in December 2005, in Darwin, he was sentenced to life in prison for Falconio’s murder and the attempted kidnap of Joanne Lees.
During his trial, the prosecution alleged that after he killed Falconio he bought fuel in Alice Springs before heading back to his home in Broome, along the Tamami Road.
Cops have previously searched sections of the road as part of their investigation.
He was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 prompting the police to attempt to get a confession finally in exchange for moving him to a prison closer to his family.
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Murdoch can apply for parole from 2033 but if he doesn’t reveal the location of Peter’s body his application will be denied.
The documentary series, Murder in the Outback: The Falconio and Lees Mystery, aired on Channel 4 in 2020 revealed crucial details about the case.
