One of Australia's most enduring crime mysteries came to an end Tuesday when a mechanic and admitted drug runner, Bradley John Murdoch, was found guilty of the 2001 murder of missing British tourist Peter Falconio.
Murdoch, 47, was also found guilty by a jury in the Northern Territory Supreme Court of assault and the attempted abduction of Falconio's English girlfriend, Joanne Lees, on a moonless night in remote central Australia.
Chief Justice Brian Martin immediately sentenced Murdoch to a mandatory life term for Falconio's murder, with submissions on the length of a non-parole period to be heard later.
The jury of six men and six women took just eight hours to reach a unanimous verdict following an eight-week trial that drew international media attention.
The prosecution alleged that Murdoch shot dead 28-year-old Falconio and then assaulted Lees on a remote stretch of the Stuart Highway in the desert of central Australia after pulling the couple's campervan over and telling them they had engine problems.
Lees testified during the trial that Falconio got out of the car to talk to the stranger, who she later identified as Murdoch, and she heard a loud shot and never saw her boyfriend again. Falconio's body has never been found.
The court heard that Murdoch then assaulted and tied up Lees but she managed to escape and flag down a passing truck driver after hiding in the scrub for hours.
The case prompted the largest manhunt in Australian history and evoked deep emotion both here and abroad as it conjured up images of death and danger in Australia's vast outback.
It took police DNA evidence gathered at the crime scene and two years of searching to track Murdoch down.
During the trial, witnesses testified that Murdoch ran illegal drugs across outback Australia and prosecutors said he may have killed Falconio either because he thought he was following him, or because he saw Lees driving the vehicle earlier and thought she was alone.
Lees and members of Falconio's family were present when the verdict was handed down.
With its guilty verdict, the jury ignored lingering doubts among some that Lees had been less than truthful in her account of the fateful night.
Murdoch's defence lawyer had sought to discredit the 32-year-old Lees over inconsistencies in her memory of the attack and had alluded to indications her relationship with Falconio was on the rocks at the time of his disappearance.
The jury also rejected defense claims Falconio could have faked his disappearance and still be alive, dismissing reported sightings of the British tourist as fantasy.
The case has attracted international and national media coverage, with scores of journalists, authors and members of the public drawn to the court in steamy Darwin for the case.
The first of several books on the backpacker's disappearance is expected to be published within days of the verdict, and a film loosely-based on the attack, "Wolf Creek" is already in cinemas.