One of the nation’s most notorious killers refused to watch a plea from his victim’s parents even as he lay dying in hospital under the watch of prison guards, a court has heard.

Convicted outback killer Bradley John Murdoch’s final days were detailed in a Northern Territory Coroner’s Court hearing on Thursday.

The court heard police repeatedly visited Murdoch in an Alice Springs hospital with a video from his victim Peter Falconio’s parents, asking him to tell them where their son’s body is before he died.

But Murdoch continued to protest his innocence and refused to watch the video.

Murdoch died from stage four cancer last July while serving a life sentence, to the end refusing to say where he hid the body of the backpacker he shot dead on a remote highway in 2001.

Northern Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage on Thursday conducted a one-day public hearing in Alice Springs into Murdoch’s death. Only representatives from the NT’s corrections and health departments, including Murdoch’s doctors, gave evidence.

Murdoch died from throat cancer, aged 67, on July 16, 2025 at the palliative care unit of Alice Springs Hospital.

He was jailed for life for the murder of 28-year-old British backpacker Falconio and the assault and attempted kidnapping of his girlfriend Joanne Lees, now 52, on the Stuart Hwy near Barrow Creek in July 2001.

Murdoch had always denied the crimes.

During Murdoch’s trial, the court heard the backpackers were driving along the Stuart Hwy when Murdoch drove up behind them and indicated they should pull over because their van might have an engine problem.

Falconio went behind the car with him to investigate and Lees heard a gunshot. Murdoch then grabbed her, cable-tied her and covered her head.

But she managed to escape and hid in bushland for five hours while Murdoch hunted for her, before he left and she eventually flagged down a truck driver.

Murdoch was arrested over Falconio’s disappearance in November 2003, after a jury in South Australia acquitted him of raping and falsely imprisoning a 12-year-old girl.

The SA case allowed NT Police to obtain his DNA, which was later found on the makeshift handcuffs used on Lees as well as on her T-shirt.

Falconio’s parents in July expressed relief that Murdoch had died, saying “it’s like a weight that’s been lifted”.

“We didn’t have much faith but we were hoping Bradley John Murdoch would reveal where Peter was before he died,” Luciano and Joan Falconio said in a statement at the time.

“But even now, we still hold out hope that his remains will be found.”

A reward of up to $500,000 is available to anyone providing information that leads to the discovery of Falconio’s remains.