A map showing the location of Barrow Creek<\/a><\/p>\nHarrison revealed to the Guardian that, after working with Canning-Mello, he had revised five potential sites from his earlier reports down to three. But that he believes the most likely potential burial site \u2013 the \u201cprimary\u201d site for any comprehensive geoforensic search \u2013 is a disused racecourse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a phrase in this type of work, whenever we work on a cold case we say, \u2018You must clear the ground from under your feet,\u2019\u201d Harrison says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we mean by that is that the nearest most proximate location must be considered.<\/p>\n
Dense scrub near Barrow Creek. Photograph: AAP<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you had a map of the area, the racecourse is the most likely crime scene near the attack site. The geography is unique to this case. The nearest place to conceal a body is the racecourse, otherwise it\u2019s just a stretch of road\u201d<\/p>\n
Into the criminal mind<\/p>\n
In the absence of a confession by Murdoch, a psychological criminal profile is arguably the most effective way of getting into the mind of the killer.<\/p>\n
The criminal profiling and other evidence that have gone into identifying possible burial sites include an assessment that Murdoch\u2019s intent \u2013 when he shot Falconio and bound Lees \u2013 was to kidnap and rape her.<\/p>\n
Murdoch, a one-time interstate drug runner on the Stuart Highway that connects Australia\u2019s north and south like a scar across the interior, was familiar with the terrain and is assumed to have planned to take Lees to a specific isolated location.<\/p>\n
When she escaped, Harrison says it\u2019s likely that same intended location became the burial site.<\/p>\n
By this logic, the racecourse stands out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we do know is that he would absolutely know it was there, he was a long-distance driver, he would drive past that for years and one would suspect he would have driven past that when it was an active racecourse.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe chose the attack location for several reasons. When it gets dark, as soon as it\u2019s past the racecourse he\u2019s got a perfectly straight road. He\u2019s doing that because he can see up the road and down the road in clear sight. He also knows the can get to the racecourse very quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt provides such good cover from view. The old racecourse buildings, the canopy cover, you\u2019re hidden away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio on their trip through Australia. Photograph: PA<\/p>\n
Lees told police that, after Murdoch searched for her along the highway, he had given up and driven south, towards Alice Springs. CCTV footage of the killer arriving at an Alice Springs petrol station that night, taking into account the time it would have taken him to drive there, leaves about 90 minutes unaccounted for.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not panicking, he\u2019s frustrated,\u201d Harrison says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s drug-affected, he\u2019s frustrated and cross because his plan hasn\u2019t gone to plan. But now he\u2019s going to dispose of Peter. There\u2019s no panicking this man, he\u2019s got time to spend some time in concealing his body.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where people who are uninformed about these cases would think that if an abduction is unsuccessful, the person is going to panic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not who he is. What he can control now is how he gets rid of this body. That\u2019s going to bring some comfort to him. To make sure he disposes and hides him somewhere and in a manner he is confident no one will find him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northern Territory police searched the racecourse in the aftermath of the killing, after Lees flagged down a road train and was taken back to the Barrow Creek roadhouse. The searches included walk-throughs and officers riding motorbikes.<\/p>\n
Harrison says this would not have located a well-concealed body.<\/p>\n
Last year Guardian Australia revealed that the recommendations from Harrison\u2019s two reports had never been properly been followed by the Northern Territory police.<\/p>\n
The search expert, who consulted on cases including the searches for Madeleine McCann<\/a> and the Australian children Daniel Morecombe and William Tyrrell, was involved at the expense of the British government and had access to the entire case file.<\/p>\nHe says typically his involvement in cases would involve identifying sites, developing a search strategy, then having some involvement or oversight of the search.<\/p>\n
But he says the Falconio case was \u201cunusual\u201d because the Northern Territory government took his report \u201cwhich was highly technical\u201d and did their own searches.<\/p>\n
In a statement last year, the NT police said they received the report and attended each suggested site.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice resourcing is finite and the entire scope of the report, and suggested search techniques, could not be completed by the NT Police at the time, however ongoing assessment and review of this data continues,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Harrison says advances in technology would allow for a \u201chigh assurance\u201d search, including the use of drones, radar and a dog. The process could be conducted for less than the cost of the $500,000 reward for information, which remains in place despite Murdoch\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m saying is that the most likely site has simply not been searched to a level of confidence you\u2019d require to say he\u2019s not there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe racecourse is a potential crime scene that was visited but never searched as you would a crime scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that site has been almost frozen in time. Normally after such a long time you\u2019d have to contend with changes like urban development or environmental impacts, but there aren\u2019t any.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing has changed, it literally is as it was. That is such an advantage for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former British government expert who consulted on the search for the remains of the murdered backpacker Peter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-806627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}