 Thanks for everyone for attending. Karm will see you today to make a public plea in relation to any information in relation to the death of her brother, Tony. Tony McGraw was, we believed, killed at his residence at 93 Maynard Street at Woolloongabba on Tuesday the 21st of May. Tony was found, his body was found under his house at that location two weeks ago today. He was found by a friend at about 6pm on the 23rd of May. We're investigating that murder and we've asked Karmel and she's, thank goodness, or luckily for us, she's agreed to attend. So I'll just ask for any questions of Karmel, thank you. Yes, well my brother and I were the only two living children of my mother and father so we were very, very close. My mother and father had lived in 93 Lower Maynard Street and after they passed away, Tony lived in that house to the day of his passing. We went to local schools, we went to St Luke's at Buranda, we walked to school every day and then Tony did his high school at Villanova. Tony left halfway through year 11 to take up a position with Australian Taxation Office and he worked there for 39 years until he retired two years ago. But while he was at the Taxation Office he completed his year 12 certificate, the senior certificate it was back then, and then went on to university to study a Bachelor of Business. Also around the time, it would have been about 18, he joined the Referees Association and he had a long-term association with the referees. He was very much a family man. He was my greatest confidant and friend. He was a loving brother, a loving friend, very loyal friend. We were brought up with very old-fashioned values, we were brought up to respect other people's space and possessions, but if anyone ever needed anything, he was always the first serious to joke to me that anyone on the Referees Association that had ever laid a slab of concrete or did any renovations or ever moved, he'd moved all of them. And the same with us and our family, if anyone had something to be moved or we had anything to do with the family, like any weddings or anything like that or even with my husband's funeral, he was always the first one there to assist us. So very loving family man. Yes, certainly. Do you have any enemies? No. Do you see any sort of person who might have any enemies? No, he was a peacemaker. He was so non-confrontational, so I can't get the words out. He was a very non-confrontational person. And I think that's the one thing that anyone who's known Tony, we can't understand why. He was, as I say, the best adjective I can think of is peacemaker. He seemed to have came to himself a bit calm, was there any particular reason why? Well, I don't think he did keep to himself, really. I think I did read a report, one of the very few reports I've read that he was alone, but I don't think he was. As I said, we had an old-fashioned background bringing that we respected other people. But he went to referees three or four times a week. You know, his funeral were 300 people there at the funeral. He had many friends through taxation department. I think what he had, he had long-term good friends. Well, he'd refereed since he was 18, so he was 57 when he passed away. He was a life member at the referees association. So we started off as a referee, and as the years went on, when he was made a life member in 1992, he then wanted to mentor young referees and got on to the admin side of the referees association. So he'd been on committees, and he was in development groups with the referees. And when he retired, he retired in 2010, I think it was. And just after that, in January 2011, the floods happened in Brisbane, and their referees association ground was impacted. So Tony then did volunteer work. Like, he was there every day to help build up the grounds. He then coordinated in getting bookings for the referees to, you know, to raise revenue. He was instrumental in the canteen. He stalked the canteen. And he was one of those old-fashioned people that you hear about that volunteer with no monetary gain. So when we say that he was a loner, I don't think he was a loner. He was just a quiet man, a very private man, but he had a lot of acquaintances. What was the last thing you said to him? Do you remember your last conversation? I remember the last thing he said to me. Tony had been refereeing a game out the north side. I lived near the bay side, and we had a favourite fish and chip shop. And he said, I'm going to specifically ask to watch this young referee so I can come and have fish and chips with you. And as he drove me back home, the last thing he said to me is, thank you for taking care of me. Because he had stayed with me for the five and a half months of his recovery after the fire. And how did you hear about him? I found out ten days ago the police came to my house and advised me that my brother had, did I know, Anthony John McGraw, and that he was deceased. But it's devastating. This was my last relative. There was mum and dad and Tony, and I, this is the last person. And that was our family home. And all my brother was doing was driving into his driveway. He was shot in his driveway, underneath the house. It's devastating, and it's, I'm so unnerved by it. And I just want to know why. And that's why I've come here today. I'm appealing to anyone in the general public who Tony might have spoken to who has confided in to help us find out what's happened. Because we all should be able to feel safe in our own home. There was a fire in the house in October. Again, I didn't have my radio or television on that morning. And one of my sons called me to say, mum, there's been a house fire in Wollongabur and it's uncle Tony. We need to get to the hospital straight away. And so I did, I went to the hospital and I had to identify, identify he had come in as unknown. When I first got there I thought the worst. But when we went into intensive care they had the chip down his throat working on him. And they told me that they had to have to go in and try to save his toes. So they did that. They had to amputate three toes on one foot and one on the other. And that night when he came out of surgery he had no memory of the fire for none. He doesn't remember, he remembers waking up in the hospital room with the missing toes. But he was in hospital in Royal Brisbane for about five weeks. He had to have a skin graft. And then when he came out of hospital he came to live with me because of my floor plan. Like he couldn't walk stairs or anything like that. So he came to me for the five and a half months to recuperate. Did he ever think that someone had done that to him or that he thought someone was out to get him? No, he felt that he had angels that night because basically from what we gather I'm only telling you what Tony told me. My first impression when I got to the hospital that night is that I, my beloved brother was alive. But he thinks what happened is he's got up during the night and walked down the side of the bed. There was an old power board or frayed power board. He stepped on that and he was thrown back on the bed unconscious. It happened about two o'clock in the morning and please I don't know if I'm spot on but the neighbours next door had saw a flicker of light and they'd come in to see if he was home. And they didn't think he was, but he coughed and they got into him. But he was very lucky to survive this scene. But he just said, I've had a second chance of life. Yes, he was still undergoing recovery. When I say he would have had ongoing recovery. He was still going back to the Burns unit for check-ups and he was under his own doctor at Cooparoo. So to you this is just a complete... Absolute nightmare. Can't, cannot believe it. Are you scared? I'm more unnerved and scared because then this is... It's unnerving to think that you're not safe in your own home. I think we all should be unnerved. I really do, you know. It's more unnerving when anyone passes away. You know, you're there with them one minute, you're there with them the next. It was my birthday yesterday, Tony, and now we're going to meet up last night for a steak. We had planned that. That was unnerving too. That's the last time of my... I have children, but that was the last time we made arrangements to meet. And that's why it's so important. I'm appealing to anyone to assist the police. None of us should feel scared. None of us should feel unnerved, you know. Tony was a good and decent man. He worked hard all his life. Colonel, how do you feel knowing that somebody hunted your brother? It wasn't a year to be around your Kenny, but this was a targeted, strategic attack in the place he was most vulnerable. Well, I'm not sure if he was hunted. I don't know that, but what it does... I think I just want to know why. And how dare they? How dare they kill my brother? He had years of life. He'd gone through the skin grafts and the pain of going through that. He'd learned to walk again. He was driving again. He was back in the referees. He was so proud when he was voted in as president. How dare someone take that away from him? That's how I feel. I'm not that hunted. I don't know about that. Again, I'm just appealing for anyone who saw anything or Tony might have said the least little thing. Please get in touch with the police so we can get closure. Yes. I've spoken to a lot of his friends and also I caught up with some of them at the funeral. Yeah. Everyone says the same thing. Why Tony? Why Tony? Well, all through his life, he was a teacher and a mentor. So, you know, he wasn't someone that was argumentative. And that came through with anyone in the referees or with the in taxation department or even in the family. He was just, you know, a peaceful man, a peacemaker. He was my confidant. So if I called him and said, oh, look, this is happening here. You know, think of it this way and, yeah, that's what I mean with the peacemaker. He wasn't aggressive. I've never known him to be aggressive. Tethys, I don't know what you make of this. How does this murder stand out in contrast to some others? It's certainly baffling at this stage. As Carmel said, Tony certainly didn't have any enemies and we've been investigating this intensely for two weeks and certainly we haven't uncovered any enemies as such. He was a clean living man, honest, hard-working. Not a recluse as was first reported, as Carmel's alluded to. So it's very frustrating from us. Is there a possibility here that this might have been a mistaken attack? Anything's possible at this stage, yes. One detective was reported as saying that he didn't think it was a random attack. Is there anything to suggest that, you know, this was someone, is there something specific that suggests that it was someone that he knows? From witnesses it could well be that because of a brief argument that neighbours or witnesses have heard that we're hopeful it's not mistaken identity and we're certainly hopeful that it's not a random thing. So if there was an argument and a confrontation then you would assume, I would think, that they were known to each other. So that's right, yes. There was no words heard, it was just witnesses that had heard raised voices. Again, that may or might not have occurred on that night. People perceived different things while looking at all that. No, they weren't. It seemed to be male voices, but again that's not certain from the witnesses. Were these only reported after his body was found? Because? Were these the after his body was found? Yes, yes. Have you looked into that? Yes, we have. We're looking at all angles of Tony's life. So was there any cases that he was put on? Was he assigned to you know, audit particular people and stay on that case? Probably calm, I was only talking about this earlier so you probably best answer that. Tony did a lot of work in project work. So Tony retired, it was a voluntary retirement. He decided to retire it in 1955, so but previous to that he'd been working on project work with the GST in superannuation and he was also doing training. So, and that was two and a half years ago. Extensive have the search been for a weapon and have you got any closer to defining on that local area? It has been extensive the search. We call on the SES who are wonderful. They searched that area of Norman Creek, if you know it it's heavily mangroved at the bottom of Tony's street and he lives a short distance from there so clearly if anyone had gone in there on foot which is a possibility too from Dession Street or nearby streets we had divers also search the creek there thoroughly and interesting enough since the floods the creek was quite clean so they're 95% sure that that's been searched thoroughly and at this stage the firearm hasn't been located. Yeah, we do. We have a major room set up at Dutton Park Police Station we've got the assistance of the Homicide Squad the numbers of investigators and police involved vary from day to day with resourcing but we're putting as many resources to it as we need can't rule out anything at this stage, unfortunately. Would you describe it? Is it literally stage and history? Yes, yes. It's not a particularly nice question to ask but what style of killing was it? Was it cold and calculated? Was it a brutal slaying? One shot, what sort of kill was it? It was one gunshot wound to the head all we know is it was brisk execution style whether it was out or not or just a passionate thing we don't know. Do you know what some gun was? We believe it was a low-calibre low-calibre weapon, possibly a pistol or a saw-in-off weapon but again that's open to debate. That's right, yes. We believe it occurred at 9 o'clock on the Tuesday night and on the Thursday night a friend of Tony's from the Referees Association went to look for Tony and he found him there about 6 o'clock on the Thursday night. We've had some calls to crime stoppers but yes it is frustrating that Tony would like more information. Is it a case that you're out of leads now or are you still pursuing some lines of inquiry? Are you literally desperate at this stage? Look I wouldn't say there's lots of lines of inquiry we're still running but we would like further information with new leads clearly. Sorry other than the argument on the night was there anything else unusual reported by neighbours or the other sides of any people or cars that have been reported? No, no. Carmel said it's a bit unnerving that you know someone is out there from a police perspective are you concerned for the public living around that area or are there any fortunes that should be turned from a message to them to a lot of things? Personally I don't think it's a random attack that's my feeling but certainly it's concerning the public that someone can do this and they're walking around I mean it's clearly worrying to everyone including ourselves So we know that Yes, that could be right and we haven't exhausted all the inquiries there's still lots and lots of work to be done with our methodologies and whatnot there's a hell of a lot of work to be done but at this stage we just don't know what direction to look in. I think that's why I'm here today because they know anything sometimes it might be so insignificant but it might help the police so we're asking anyone who's had any contact with Tony within the last four weeks of his life to come forward and help us just help us find out what happened who did it please, please, please help us Basically on the family liaison officer and also just the system with the investigation itself I'm sure there will be We're quite fortunate where it's happened is there's extensive CCTV in that Deshyn and semi-industrial area and the residential area around there we're very fortunate in that regard we just really need that civil bullet of someone with a bit more CCTV that's clearer a lot of it is a lot of it is that's clearer a lot of it isn't clear some is clear so that's going to be a great source for us but obviously that takes a lot of time to review and analyse look we're still examining that we're still results of pending on a lot of that stuff it varies it varies from times and when we had searches we'd have up to 50 police normally in the major incident room the investigation centre we'd have 20 to 30 20 to 30 years I think everyone was shocked that was the overriding comments at the funeral and everyone was shocked and couldn't believe it it was quite a large funeral it was a requiem mass because we wanted he'd been when we found him he'd been dead for two days it was a Catholic ceremony but everyone everyone came up and said to me we can't believe this has happened this was your last connection to your original family you must be feeling lonely at this stage well I am I am my mum and dad and Tony and I were a unit my mother used to buy casket tickets in the olden days when we had caskets in the syndicate was Cage, Carmel, Anthony, George and Eunice and he left yeah it would have been I can't think it was it would have been probably 10 days before Tony passed away but we were having a one of my granddaughters was having a little birthday party and I texted him we would have seen him then would have been about 10 days before well he refereed quite a few years ago he was in the admin side and he was the president of the referees association he was working towards building up the ranks and mentoring young referees and bringing people through the ranks that's what he was doing and also in the admin work building up the fields and getting the canteen to be viable and also looking out the fields to get more revenue for the referees so he was an all in admin I can't remember I'm so sorry