A MAN told an Australian court he recognised a canopy his company had made on a vehicle filmed at a truck stop soon after backpacker Peter Falconio disappeared.
The vehicle was filmed at the Alice Springs truck stop early on July 15, 2001.
This was just hours after 28-year-old Mr Falconio, of Hepworth, disappeared from beside the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek, about 180 miles from Alice Springs.
Upholsterer Jean-Louis O'Dore said he believed he raised the matter with Bradley Murdoch, the man accused of Mr Falconio's murder.
Mr O'Dore told the court in Darwin: "I believe I said I'd seen photos of the car and had thought it was ours, our canopy.
"I think he said `it may have been', because he goes up there.
"It may have been him in the truck stop."
Under cross-examination, Mr O'Dore admitted he now had doubts about his memory of the conversation.
The prosecution says Murdoch drove from the truck stop to Broome, Western Australia, mostly along the dirt Tanami Road.
Northern Territory road inspector Bruce Stanes told the court it was possible to make the 1,100km trip between Alice Springs and Halls Creek, Western Australia, along the Tanami in less than 15 hours.
