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If it was sold at auction, there were fears that it could become a macabre souvenir of Mr Falconio’s disappearance and Ms Lees’ attempted abduction on a moonless night in July 2001.

Ms Lees ordered the scrapping of the vehicle, which has been held by police as a court exhibit for the last seven years, from her home in the UK.

“That is the owner’s wish – that it be disposed of rather than sold,” a spokeswoman for Northern Territory police told the Telegraph today.

Mr Falconio and Ms Lees bought the van for around £900 from a Sydney used car yard for an outback adventure that ended in his disappearance four months later.

They were driving up through the desert heart of the continent when they were flagged down by a lone gunman on the Stuart Highway, north of Alice Springs.

Mr Falconio was never heard of again. Ms Lees, who said she heard a gunshot, was tied up by the gunman but managed to escape into the surrounding scrub.

She hid for hours before waving down a truck. Her account of the ordeal sparked one of the biggest manhunts in Australian history.

The van was found the next day, parked off the road and hidden by bushes, and has been in police or court custody ever since.

Self-confessed drug courier Bradley Murdoch was convicted in 2006 of the murder of Mr Falconio and the attempted abduction of Ms Lees.

Last year Murdoch lost his final appeal against his conviction and life prison sentence. His DNA found on the van's gear stick proved crucial to the prosecution case.

Police said the van was shifted to a compound in Darwin on Monday from the Northern Territory Supreme Court basement where it has been held as evidence.

Mr Falconio’s murder attracted sustained international media attention and has been the subject of several books and a television dramatization.

His body has never been found.

Article source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/2036287/
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