'IT'S MIND-BLOWING'
Brit backpacker Joanne Lees whose boyfriend was gunned down in Outback reveals she wants Australian citizenship after discovering she has a long-lost SISTER
THE British girlfriend of a backpacker killed in the Outback has revealed she wants Australian citizenship - after discovering she has a long-lost sister.
Joanne Lees discovered last year she had a "mirror-image" sister called Jess as she searched for the body of murdered Peter Falconio near Alice Springs.
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She believed she was an only child, but was thrilled to find out her estranged Australian dad had a daughter from a different relationship.
Joanne, originally from Huddersfield, is now in the process of applying for an Australian citizenship.
She told told Channel 9’s 60 Minutes: “It has been really amazing and kind of emotional.
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“It’s almost like a mirror (the resemblance). We saw each other and it was just instant. It was amazing.”
Joanne continued: “It’s so neat when someone says ‘oh you can tell you’re sisters’ — to us the novelty definitely hasn’t worn off we’re still in celebration mode of finding each other."
The backpacker was travelling through around Oz with her boyfriend Peter Falconio when the pair were set upon by Bradley Murdoch in 2001.
She managed to escape her boyfriend’s killer after hearing gunshots – but his body has never been found.
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Murdoch was jailed for 28 years for the murder but has always protested his innocence.
Joanne revealed she was faced with a terrifying choice to “either run or be raped and killed” by Murdoch.
Her sister Jess, who is eight years younger, had no idea about Joanne's nightmare ordeal as she was travelling overseas at the time.
Joanne said: "I feel less alone in the world. When wonderful things happen in the world I want to share them with Jess,’ Lees said. “It is kind of mind-blowing.”
The Brit told 60 Minutes’ Liz Hayes “she never wanted to come back to Australia again ... never wanted to hear an Australian accent” after the trauma.
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But as her boyfriend's body was never found, she was forced to face her fears and return to the scene of the crime, on a new mission to find him — and peace.
Hayes told : “Joanne was like the English version of Lindy Chamberlain,” even after Murdoch was charged and convicted over Falconio’s killing.
“There were people on the police force who didn’t believe her and that made her upset. She has been formally diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). She can’t sleep at night until she feels she has done everything she can to try and find Peter’s body.
“If she is ever going to move forward she has got to do it now. She has not remarried. She has not had children. Her life has stalled.”
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Joanne calls police suspicion about the truth of her story “a stab to the heart”.
“We were just young and carefree,” she said. “We had no idea what was going to happen. We thought we had the rest or our lives together. Who would expect … a gunman? Horror movies have been made of the events that happened to me.”
Reporter Liz Hayes had never met Joanne before filming this one-hour episode.
She said: “I didn’t know what to expect from her. When I first met her she was definitely very suspicious of me and of all media. She was very distrusting. In her mind there is no such thing as a good journalist.
"I had no doubt in my mind that this is a woman who has suffered a terrible crime. She is without doubt the victim of a horrendous attack and lucky to be alive.
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“I came away appalled by the suspicion that she was treated with. I can’t imagine what that was like. Think about it — you’ve been attacked, you’ve almost died, your partner’s been murdered and not only do people not believe that but they think you’re some part of it.
“I was devastated when she said to me ‘I wish I’d died out there because living has been sheer hell’.”
During 60 Minutes filming in December, a French tourist, Philippe Jegouzo, was stabbed to death in outback Northern Territory.
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Hayes said: “We’d been in exactly the same place only four hours before.
“It was pretty appalling timing for her. The whole place has horrific memories. She’s still highly traumatised. But I do think there have been some very big positives that have come from [filming].
“She’s capable of laughter and smiling and there is a light and funny side to her and she is quite easy to be with.
“It has been a good thing for her to come back and I am pleased I can say that. There would be nothing worse than her deciding she needed to do this and go 'that was still the worst thing I could have ever done'.”
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