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Only three people know the truth of  what happened on a lonely desert road in the middle of the Australian Outback four years ago.

The first, Peter Falconio, is missing  presumed dead after allegedly being gunned down by the side of the Stuart Highway, which runs ruler-straight through the scrub and red sand dunes of the Northern Territory.

The second, Bradley John Murdoch,  is the gunman accused of killing him on that pitch-black  night.

Last week, the 47-year-old former mechanic and alleged drug runner went on trial for murder in the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin, the capital of Australia's tropical north.

The third person is  Falconio's former girlfriend, Joanne Lees,  who spent the week having her story of that  night examined in minute detail.

The Australian media is calling the case 'the trial of the decade', the most sensational case since Lindy Chamberlain was wrongly accused of murdering her baby, Azaria, in the shadow of Uluru, then known as Ayers Rock, in 1980.

Its twists and turns have gripped  Australia and Britain, countries half a world apart but united by language, culture and family ties.

No fewer than five books are being written about the mystery, and it has spawned a critically acclaimed Australian-made film, Wolf Creek, about three backpackers who are preyed on by a psychopath after their vehicle breaks down in the Outback. The film's release has been postponed in the Northern Territory amid concern it could influence the jury.

Falconio, then 28, and Ms  Lees, now 32, set out on a year-long trip in late 2000, visiting Nepal and Southeast Asia before reaching Sydney. By July 2001 they were driving a battered, 30-year-old orange VW Kombi van from Adelaide, in South Australia, to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

After a few days in the desert town, they set off north on the afternoon of  July 14 heading for Darwin, more than  1,600km to the north.

They were allegedly flagged down by Murdoch, who was driving a white pickup truck, near the remote settlement of Barrow Creek. He indicated there was something wrong with the Kombi's exhaust.  Falconio got out to investigate and was allegedly shot dead.

Ms  Lees heard a gunshot and never saw him again. His body has never been found. Murdoch allegedly handcuffed Ms  Lees with a pair of  black manacles, threatened her with a revolver and marched her to his truck, shoving her into the back.

She  escaped, fleeing into the desert scrub, evading his search and five hours later flagging down a passing truck.

That, at least, is the story Ms  Lees has given the court. But a series of apparent inconsistencies emerged  last week that have only deepened the mystery.

She  said the pair  had left Alice Springs at around 4.30pm.

But Murdoch's lawyer, Grant Algie, suggested that a call she made to a girlfriend in England put the departure time closer to 2pm. If so, what happened in the intervening hours? Mr Algie put it to Ms  Lees that she may have come into contact with Murdoch at a fast-food restaurant in Alice Springs, several hours before the alleged ambush, a proposition she  denied.

Ms  Lees confirmed that she had had an  affair in Sydney with a British backpacker called Nick Riley. Revelations of the infidelity were no doubt painful for  Falconio's parents and two brothers, who are attending the trial.

Relations between Ms  Lees and the Falconios have appeared at times frosty, although they put on a united front after she  finished giving evidence on Thursday, leaving  the  courtroom together.

After driving north from 'the Alice', the couple reached the tiny settlement of Ti Tree, where they stopped to smoke a joint and watch the sunset.

Mr Algie said the distance from Ti Tree to the site of the alleged ambush was 100km, but the odometer on the couple's VW Kombi  showed the van  travelled 107km.

'Did you turn off anywhere along the way?' Mr Algie asked, to which Ms Lees replied: 'No'.

He reminded her that in earlier statements she had said she asked  Falconio not to stop the van to put out a small bush fire because it might be 'a trap'.

Mr Algie questioned why Ms Lees had sensed no heat nor detected a smell of gunpowder when Murdoch held the revolver to her head,  seconds after allegedly shooting dead  Falconio.

Another inconsistency emerged in her account of how the gunman pushed her from the front cabin of his truck into the back tray.

Ms Lees originally claimed she had been shoved between a gap in the seats, but later varied her story after police told her that no such vehicle with front-to-rear access existed in Australia.

It is  puzzles like these that have sustained the enormous interest in the case. More than 70 local and international journalists covered the start of the trial last  week. The media pack is so large that the courtroom cannot accommodate everyone, and two overspill rooms with live television links to the court proceedings have been set up.

Photographers and television camera crews are camped outside the  Supreme Court building throughout the day, sweating in 35 degrees Celsius heat.

For Ms Lees it must seem a long way from her native Huddersfield, in northern England. Darwin is a  port city overlooking the  Arafura Sea, inhabited by saltwater crocodiles, sharks and deadly jellyfish. The city is closer to Jakarta than to Sydney or Melbourne, and there is an  Asian feel in its stifling  heat  and multicultural mix of whites, Asians and Aborigines.

The trial is taking place during the build-up to the monsoon season, when the high  humidity can lead to frayed tempers and an increase in crime. Locals call it 'going troppo'.

But Falconio was never destined to enjoy cosmopolitan Darwin.



Media frenzy in outback murder trial