Publisher's Synopsis
Author Dr Keith Allan Noble, insists Murdoch is innocent and offers a reward of 25,000 to anyone who can prove that Falconio is still alive. His book Find! Falconio outlines what he describes as "the show trial in which the jury was lied to and pressure-cooked resulting in a shocking miscarriage of justice." The trial began on 17 October 2005. Murdoch pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering Falconio and assaulting and attempting to kidnap Lees. A sample of his DNA was found on Joanna Lees t-shirt and was shown to be "150 quadrillion times more likely to belong to Murdoch" than anyone else. Eyewitnesses claimed they had seen Falconio at a petrol station, a week after he went missing. Prosecutor Rex Wild, QC, dismissed these claims, arguing that each account gave conflicting information, in particular there were inconsistencies about the man's hair colour. He pointed out that the police had followed up various eye witness accounts, all of which had proven fruitless. He was convicted on December 13, 2005 for Falconio's murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 28 years. Murdoch was also convicted of other assault-related charges on Falconio's girlfriend, Joanne Lees. Falconio's body has never been found "despite one of the most exhaustive police investigations ever seen in Australia." However the police found traces of his DNA on a pair of homemade handcuffs that Murdoch had used in the attack.
