Mystery of Steve Irwin’s death tape – what happened to lost footage of accident

As Steve Irwin grappled with crocodiles, snakes and sharks he had one rule – and that was that the cameras must keep rolling.

“He tells his camera crew to always be filming,” his IMDb biographer Tommy Donovan said.

“If he needs help he will ask for it. Even if he is eaten by a shark or croc, the main thing he wants is that it be filmed. If he died he would be sad if no one got it on tape.”

Steve’s wish tragically came true 14 years ago today when he was killed by a stingray in a freak accident off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

He had initially started his day looking for tiger sharks for his show, Ocean’s Deadliest, but when he saw the 220lb ray lying on the ocean floor off Batt Reef, he knew it would be perfect for his eight-year-old daughter’s series, Bindi the Jungle Girl.

Together, Steve, 44, and cameraman Justin Lyons climbed into the chest deep water, expecting the usually placid creature to swim away as Steve approached, giving them the perfect shot.

But instead the animal stood firm. And when ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve passed over the top, it raised its razor-sharp tail, stabbing him ‘hundreds of strikes in a few seconds’.

Not realising the severity of the attack, Justin continued to film, capturing the creature as it finally swam off. But when he panned back to Steve and saw him surrounded by blood, he knew something had gone very wrong.

As the cameras rolled, he heaved Steve back onto their inflatable boat and sped back towards the main vessel, Croc One, as the star writhed in agony from the venom.

Both feared he’d suffered a punctured lung and the crew applied pressure to the massive wound on Steve’s chest as the Crocodile Hunter went into shock.

“He was having trouble breathing. Even if we’d been able to get him into an emergency ward at that moment we probably wouldn’t have been able to save him because the damage to his heart was massive,” Justin said.

“As we’re motoring back I’m screaming at one of the other crew in the boat to put their hand over the wound and we’re saying to him things like, ‘Think of your kids, Steve, hang on, hang on, hang on.'”

Perhaps knowing his injuries were far more serious than suspected, the cameras even caught the heartbreaking moment Steve turned to Justin and calmly said, “I’m dying.” Those would be his last words.

Once back on Croc One, a second camerman took over so Justin could give Steve mouth-to-mouth – something he continued to do for an entire hour until paramedics took one look at him and declared him dead.

“Steve had this rule that no matter who was injured we had to keep filming,” he said.

“The stingray attack, the CPR and medical efforts were all captured on film.”

In the confusing days that followed, the tape was handed over to Queensland Police to help with their investigations.

Rumours immediately circulated that it would be shown on TV but Discovery Communications, the network that made Steve a star, insisted the footage would never see the light of day.

Producer and director John Stainton – who was on the boat that day and saw the haunting recording – said it was too disturbing to ever be shown

“I mean, it should be destroyed,” he told CNN’s Larry King Live.

“When that is finally released [from the coroner], it will never see the light of day. Ever. Ever. I actually saw it, but I don’t want to see it again.”

Still, millions of people searched online for the harrowing footage, and they continue to do so to this day. But what happened to the tape?

In 2007 the authorities said they had destroyed all but one copy, which they gave to Steve’s devastated widow Terri.

She had always known of her husband’s desire to have his death filmed, but for her, its existence was too much and she destroyed it without ever watching it.

Terri told You magazine in 2018: “After Steve died, 100 million viewers watched a video of his death that was released on YouTube.

“That film was a complete fabrication exploiting people’s sadness. I have never watched the real footage. Why would I? I know how my husband died and I was relieved that the children weren’t on the boat as they usually would be; it would have been horrendous if they had witnessed it.”

However, according to Terri there is still a copy sitting in a dusty police vault somewhere.

But as far as camerman Justin is concerned, that’s where it should stay.

“Never (should it be seen), out of respect for everyone and his family, I would say no,” he said.

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