Notorious outback killer Bradley John Murdoch has died of throat cancer aged 67.
Murdoch, 67, was diagnosed with metastasised throat cancer in 2019 and spent his last hours surrounded by prison guards at Alice Springs Hospital in the Northern Territory.
His death means any hope of finding the body of British backpacker Peter Falconio has died with him.
Prison insiders had told Daily Mail Australia the former hulking brute had shrunken to a shadow of his former self as he battled metastasised throat cancer.
He ‘is acknowledging people are there, but very limited in talking,’ the insider said.
Murdoch had spent more than two decades behind bars before he was moved from his Alice Springs jail cell to palliative care unit in late June.
Authorities and the family of Peter Falconio were hoping for a deathbed confession, with Murdoch providing the location of the young backpacker’s body.
Murdoch had always denied killing Peter, protested his innocence throughout the murder trial and refused to give up information despite only having hours to live.
On July 14, 2001, British backpacker Peter Falconio and his then-girlfriend Joanne Lees were driving between Alice Springs and Darwin in their VW Kombi campervan.
Murdoch signalled at their car, instructing the pair to pull over on the Stuart Highway, north of Barrow Creek.
Once stopped, Murdoch shot Peter in the head and tried to abduct Ms Lees, but she miraculously escaped.
Murdoch was found guilty in the NT Supreme Court in 2005 and was sentenced to life in prison, but he never divulged the whereabouts of Peter’s body.
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