It’s 6.40pm on a Tuesday night in Alice Springs.

Angie Fuller sits in the driver’s seat of her small red Toyota Corolla, parked beside a petrol bowser at the Shell service station on the edge of town.

The young mother is on her iPhone, which is pressed to her ear, when a man enters the frame.

Jake Jefferson Peters, her new boyfriend, is barefoot. He carries a plastic bag and crosses the concrete with light steps before sliding into the passenger seat.

The clear, full-colour footage is silent and unremarkable.

CCTV shows Mr Peters fastening his seatbelt. Ms Fuller turns the key in the ignition. She wedges the phone between her left shoulder and cheek, places both hands on the steering wheel, and pulls away.

Then the Corolla exits the frame.

For police, this four minute clip — captured on January 9, 2023 — is the last independent sighting of Ms Fuller.

In the hours that followed, the 30-year-old vanished, without a trace, into the arid desert outside of Alice Springs.

Late on the night of January 11, more than 48 hours after that service-station stop, Mr Peters approached the front counter of the Alice Springs Police Station and reported her missing.

By then, the terrain had already begun erasing what little evidence may have existed.

In an extraordinary and carefully considered move, the Northern Territory Police Force has now released the CCTV footage to The Nightly, urging anyone who may have seen Ms Fuller’s red Toyota Corolla or its occupants in the hours that followed to contact investigators.

NT Police have also shared footage of the couple driving into the Alice Springs McDonalds carpark at 6.31pm, before they stopped for fuel.

Police rarely release such material in an active homicide investigation but detectives believe someone with critical information has chosen not to speak.

The footage marks the beginning of a crucial window of time: the 48 hours during which Thai-born Ms Fuller vanished.

Angie Lee Fuller and Jake Jefferson Peters drive into the Alice Springs McDonald’s carpark at 6.31pm on January 9, 2023.

(Source: NT Police)

Angie Lee Fuller and Jake Jefferson Peters drive into the Alice Springs McDonald’s carpark at 6.31pm on January 9, 2023.

An altercation on the Tanami

Ms Fuller’s next – and final – reported sighting was in the early hours of January 10 when her Corolla was involved in an “altercation” on a remote stretch of road, about 15 kilometres west of the Stuart Highway intersection.

Police say their information indicates Ms Fuller was likely driving, with Mr Peters in the front passenger seat, when her Corolla came into contact with another vehicle on Tanami Road.

The occupants of that other vehicle — members of the McCormack family — later told ABC’s 7.30 program they were driving home to their remote Hamilton Downs outstation after a routine trip into Alice Springs when a vehicle approached them from behind at speed with its headlights on high beam.

“It seemed like the car was following us,” Kevin McCormack said.

“Then it started to come up beside [us], and I saw a person put half their body out through the window — he had a cloth, or a t-shirt, wrapped around his face.”

The McCormacks allege the person struck their rear windscreen with an object, shattering the glass.

“I thought it was gunfire,” Mr McCormack said.

Fearing for their lives, the family says they attempted to escape.

In doing so, they “bumped” the other vehicle, causing Ms Fuller’s Corolla to zigzag, leave the roadway and become bogged.

One of the McCormacks’ relatives called Triple Zero as they raced back to the outstation and described what they believed was a dangerous road-rage incident.

After reaching safety, the family returned to the site with a hunting rifle for protection, concerned someone might be injured.

But when they arrived, the Corolla was empty and its occupants were gone.

Police attended the scene after daybreak on January 10. Officers observed footprints but no clear trail.

NT Police have confirmed the McCormacks are not suspects, were not previously known to Ms Fuller or Peters, and are not under investigation.