A CRUCIAL witness who may have watched British backpacker Caroline Stuttle plunge to her death is to give evidence at a murder trial after police mounted a hunt across Australia to trace a fruit picker.
Peter Ralph Boehmke, 42, contacted officers yesterday after admitting he was standing underneath the Bundaberg bridge, when it is alleged a man threw the teenager off the side of it.
The 19-year-old student, from York, allegedly struggled with a thief before she was killed in April 2002.
Mr Boehmke, an itinerant worker, is expected to be called as a witness in the trial of Ian Douglas Previte, 32, who has pleaded not guilty to murder and robbery.
The case, being heard at Bundaberg Supreme Court, has been told that Ms Stuttle was returning to a caravan park when she met her death.
Ms Stuttle's father, Alan, is expected to join his son Richard in court today for the first time as the case enters a second week.
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