Outback murder mystery girl Joanne Lees returns to her Yorkshire roots to rebuild her life

It was at a disco in her home town that Joanne Lees met Peter Falconio and the relationship began that would take them around the world to a rendezvous with murder.

Twelve years later, she is back where she started.

Miss Lees, 34, has returned to her Yorkshire roots in an attempt to rebuild her life.

She has bought a former mill cottage on the outskirts of Huddersfield and is living there alone.

Miss Lees and Mr Falconio were travelling in the Australian Outback when she somehow escaped the clutches of a gunman who shot her boyfriend dead.

She then became the central figure in one of the most puzzling and controversial murder investigations in modern times, culminating in the conviction of drug-dealing drifter Bradley Murdoch.

With more than £250,000 from her autobiography No Turning Back still in the bank, Miss Lees is under no immediate financial pressure and does not appear to have a job.

The three-bedroom terrace house she bought a year ago for £144,000 is two miles from the family home where her late mother Jennifer lived with her stepfather. The Falconio family also live nearby.

A year after meeting Peter Falconio, she went to join him in Brighton, where he was studying for a degree.

In 2000 the couple embarked on a world tour which took them to Sydney, where she worked in a bookshop and he delivered furniture.

On July 14, 2001 they were driving their camper van at night on a remote stretch of highway when they were stopped by a man claiming to have engine trouble.

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Mr Falconio, then 28, got out to help and was shot.

Miss Lees said her wrists were tied, a sack was put over her head and she was forced into the back of the man's truck.

But she managed to escape and hid in the bushes for more than five hours while the man - later identified as Murdoch - and his dog searched for her. She told how at last he drove off in her camper van and she was picked up by a lorry driver.

Mr Falconio's body has never been found.

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