The whereabouts of the video documenting the terrible death of Australian naturalist Steve Irwin still remain unknown 16 years after the stingray that killed him.
On September 4, 2006, while filming a new television programme at the Batt Reef close to Port Douglas, Irwin was stabbed by a ray.
Before being brought to land and receiving CPR from paramedics, camera teams feverishly tried to rescue the environmental icon, but he passed away before arriving to the hospital.
For the TV show Ocean’s Deadliest, the whole event was captured on video, and the recordings were given to the police to aid with their investigation.
Due in large part to the requests of Irwin’s close friends and family, the film has never been made public, even though Monday marked the anniversary of his passing.
When it is eventually disclosed [after being looked at], it will never be made public. Ever. John Stainton, Irwin’s closest friend and a filmmaker, said to Larry King in 2006.
I’ve seen it, but I don’t want to see it again.
On the day of his death, Irwin was scuba diving for his new programme as crews were originally trying to locate a dangerous tiger shark off the reef.
When he was unable to locate one, Irwin instead focused on a huge, eight-foot stingray for a another endeavour they were engaged in, maybe his daughter’s Bindi the Jungle Girl show.
In order to avoid being mistaken for a shark, Irwin swam over the typically timid and unthreatening stingray before it sent one of its barbs into his chest.
Three poisonous spinal blades on the tail of rays serve as the barbs, which they utilise as a defensive strategy when approached or trod upon.
Irwin was swimming over the stingray when it bit him in the chest and broke his heart. Crews rushed the famous diver to their boat.
Irwin’s videographer Justin Lyons said how the fatal event was captured on camera: “It sliced into his chest like a hot knife through butter.”
Irwin first claimed the beam had “punctured my lung,” not realising it had really damaged his heart.
It likely mistook Steve’s shadow for a tiger shark, which preys on them often, and it began to attack him, according to Lyons.
We’re telling him things like, “Think of your kids, Steve, hold on, hang on, hang on,” as we’re driving back. I’m yelling at one of the other crew members in the boat to put their palm over the wound.
He quite calmly raised his head to face me and remarked, “I’m dying.” And it was his last statement.
Irwin’s closest friend and filmmaker John Stainton said that the video of his passing would “never see the light of day” and that he regretted having seen it.
The 44-year-old naturalist had instructed all of his employees to record everything that occurred, despite the dreadful circumstances, and to provide the horrifying tape to the authorities who were looking into his death as soon as possible.
Irwin constantly maintained, “He would be unhappy if no one caught [his death] on video,” according to his biographer Timmy Donovan.
His burial was aired globally from his cherished Australia Zoo in Queensland in the days that followed as Australia grieved the death of one of its most treasured sons.
In an emotional interview with CNN presenter Larry King, Irwin’s close friend Stainton, who collaborated with the star at Discovery Communications, vowed to see to it that the tape was never made public.
In the aftermath of his passing, the filmmaker said, “I would never want that tape broadcast.”
After Irwin passed away, Stainton flew with his corpse back to Sydney from Cairns and then watched as Terri, Bindi, and Robert, Irwin’s wife, came to view his coffin for the first time.
“I spent the whole six hours of the flight with him.” I cried non-stop for five hours. He said that it was catastrophic in 2006.
“When the family saw the coffin last night when we finally brought him home, it was like a complete stop.”
You cannot fathom it unless you experience it. You believe it to be a dream and not real. But it is, it has, and it is finished.
All copies of the video, with the exception of one, were destroyed right once after the inquiry into Irwin’s death was over.
According to reports, Terri received the last copy of her husband’s last moments.
Terri said to You magazine in 2018: “After Steve passed away, a video of his death that was posted on YouTube had 100 million views.”
“That movie was a pure fiction that preyed on people’s grief.” I’ve never seen the actual video. How could I? It would have been terrible if my children had seen my husband’s death, so I was pleased that they weren’t on the boat as they typically would have been.
Terri claims that a copy is still present and detained in a dingy police safe.