SHOCKING footage of the second Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray stays hidden from the general public as thriller surrounds the tape’s location.
The beloved Australian conservationist died on September 4, 2006, after being pierced within the chest by the creature’s venomous barb whereas filming a brand new TV present.
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His digital camera crew caught the whole horror incident – together with Steve’s closing phrases – on tape whereas filming the documentary Ocean’s Deadliest on the Batt Reef close to Port Douglas.
All copies have been handed over to authorities for his or her investigation and as soon as it was full they have been all destroyed – besides one.
Steve all the time insisted his workforce caught every thing on digital camera when filming for TV – regardless of how grim the scenario.
The harrowing footage has by no means been made public and the whereabouts of the ultimate present tape stays a thriller 16 years on from the 44-year-old’s tragic dying.
Steve’s crew frantically tried to revive the Crocodile Hunter star earlier than paramedics carried out CPR on the shore, however the dad-of-two sadly died earlier than attending to the hospital.
His finest mate and John Stainton instructed CNN’s Larry King again in 2006: “When that (the tape) is lastly launched, it’ll by no means see the sunshine of day. Ever. Ever.
“I truly noticed it, however I do not need to see it once more.”
Steve was pierced by way of his coronary heart by a stingray after swimming above the eight-foot creature.
It’s thought the often innocent fish mistook the animal professional for a shark.
Steve instructed his crew the barb had “punctured me lung”, unaware it had gone by way of his coronary heart.
Cameraman Justin Lyons, who filmed the tragic incident, mentioned: “As we’re motoring again, I am screaming at one of many different crew within the boat to place their hand over the wound, and we’re saying to him issues like, ‘Consider your children, Steve, hold on, hold on, hold on’.
“He simply kind of calmly seemed up at me and mentioned, ‘I am dying’. And that was the very last thing he mentioned.”
Stainton vowed to make sure the video was by no means made public throughout a heartbreaking interview in 2006.
He mentioned: “I might by no means need that tape proven.”
All copies of the footage, besides one tape, have been destroyed after the investigation into Steve’s dying.
It has beforehand been reported his widow Terri was handed the final copy.
However she has mentioned there may be nonetheless a duplicate sitting in a police vault.
She instructed You journal in 2018: “After Steve died, 100 million viewers watched video of his dying that was launched on YouTube.
“That movie was an entire fabrication exploiting individuals’s disappointment.
“I’ve by no means watched the actual footage. Why would I?
“I understand how my husband died and I used to be relieved that the youngsters weren’t on the boat as they often can be; it could have been horrendous if they’d witnessed it.”
Terri continues to run Australia Zoo – based by Steve’s mother and father Bob and Lyn in 1970 – along with her and Steve’s two children, Bindi and Robert.
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