While the police and Peter Falconio's family are convinced the tourist is dead, there have been several reported sightings of him in Australia since he disappeared at Barrow Creek.
One of the most convincing happened eight days after he was supposedly shot. It happened at a service station in Bourke, a rural community in New South Wales. Robert Brown and his partner, Melissa Kendall, were closing up their garage when a man similar to Falconio walked in, accompanied by an older man and a woman.
They remember it well because they were amazed by the eerie similarity between the man standing in front of the counter and the photograph of Falconio in that morning's edition of the Sydney Sunday Telegraph.
In the four years since then, Mr Brown has never wavered in his view. 'I served Peter Falconio and spoke to him briefly,' he insisted.
There were other reported sightings in Queensland. And an intriguing anonymous letter sent to the Northern Territory police claiming that Falconio had asked a friend in Britain for information about the best way to fake a death.
If he did, what would have been the reason? He had not taken out a life-insurance policy, so he didn't stand to gain financially.
