Australian police have been searching a remote site in the Outback, near to where murdered Huddersfield backpacker Peter Falconio disappeared.
It follows a tip-off about a ‘shallow grave’ but nothing has been found.
Northern Territory Police investigated a spot south of Barrow Creek, 180 miles south of Alice Springs, on Sunday.
Mr Falconio, of Hepworth, and his girlfriend Joanne Lees, originally of Almondbury, were kidnapped on the Stuart Highway, near Barrow Creek, in July 2001.
Ms Lees escaped but Mr Falconio’s body was never found.
Drug runner Bradley Murdoch is currently serving 28 years in prison for Mr Falconio’s murder, although Murdoch has always protested his innocence.
According to Australian media, police searching for a missing person 100 miles north of Barrow Creek decided to search the spot on the way home to Alice Springs following a tip-off.
Senior Sergeant Mike Potts told Australia news website News.com.au: “Some guys stopped there in 2013 and took a photo and finally reported it through Crime Stoppers last week.
“We periodically get information and we have to check it out.”
Images from the disappearance and search for Peter Falconio below.
Snr Sgt Potts said he and another officer searched the site after receiving coordinates for the site but failed to find a shallow grave.
The officer said the area was “like an old road crew camping area, with discarded rubbish and mounds. It’s all been checked out yesterday.”
It is believed that drifter Murdoch, who is serving his sentence at Berrimah Prison, near Darwin, buried Mr Falconio in a shallow grave just north of Barrow Creek or further south on his drive to Alice Springs.
Ms Lees escaped from Murdoch, who was jailed in 2005, and his in bushes for several hours before being rescued by passing truckers.
Falconio and Lees were travelling at night along the Stuart Highway, near Barrow Creek, on 14 July 14, 2001, when a man – later identified as Bradley Murdoch – in another vehicle flagged them down and told them that their Volkswagen Camper had engine trouble.
After Falconio went to the rear of the vehicle with the man to investigate, Lees heard a shot fired.
The man then threatened Lees with a gun, tied her up and covered her head, but she escaped while he was distracted, apparently while moving Falconio’s body.
The hunt for Peter Falconio
She hid for five hours in nearby bushes before running out onto the road and flagging down a truck driver who removed her cable ties and took her to safety.
Murdoch’s appeal against his conviction and sentence was turned down in 2007.
