footage would lead to the person shown coming forward to remove themselves from suspicion. When this did not happen, investigators began to focus on the registered owners of the 1991-1999 model Toyota Land Cruiser 4WD identified, and on the thirty-six men whom callers had identified in the footage. Based on these results, police interviewed Bradley John Murdoch in Broome on 1 November 2001, though Lees' descriptions did not immediately connect the case to him and no DNA sample was collected. On 17 May 2002, investigators caught Murdoch's drug-running accomplice, who began to relate details of his connections to the case, and a DNA examination of Murdoch's brother also supported his involvement. Murdoch then disappeared, but on 22 August 2002 he was arrested and tried on an unrelated kidnap and assault charge by South Australia Police. Murder trial After extradition, a committal hearing began in April 2005. The trial began on 17 October of that year before the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in Darwin. To cope with the demands of the trial and the huge media contingent covering the proceedings, the court building in Darwin was renovated at a cost of A$900,000. The judge was Brian Ross Martin QC, Chief Justice of the Northern Territory. Murdoch pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering Falconio and assaulting and attempting to kidnap Lees. Lees had identified Murdoch from police photographs shown to her in November 2002 and finally face-to-face during the trial on 18 October. She also told the court that her assailant tied her wrists together behind her, put a sack over her head and forced her into his ute (pickup truck), stating that the person forced her between the seats of and into the rear of his vehicle. Lees said she escaped from the ute and fled into the dark, hiding under bushes, while Murdoch tried to find her using a torch. Expert trackers could find no sign of footprints other than those of Lees in the vicinity. Murdoch was found to have left Alice Springs at a time and in a direction which were each consistent with him being at or around Barrow Creek at the time of the murder. Expert testimony presented at the trial indicated that he was the man captured in the CCTV footage at the service station at 12:38 am. This indication was later corroborated by Murdoch's own father as well as his business