On the morning of May 9, 65-year-old John Tracey sat in the garden of his NSW home and fondly remembered his little brother, Neil.
It was exactly 37 years ago that young Canberran Neil Tracey was found dead in a house in the Brisbane suburb of New Farm. In 1989, the landmark Fitzgerald Inquiry was exposing deep-seated corruption within the Queensland Police while authorities declared Neil's death to be from "natural causes" despite what his family says were numerous red flags.
The passing of the youngest boy in the family devastated the sixth-generation Canberra family from Ainslie. For decades, they kept quiet, fearing repercussions. Now, they are determined to get answers.
Mr Tracey still vividly remembers the morning of May 9, 1989, when a man walked up to his workplace in Lyneham and threw a piece of paper at him containing a phone number.
"Your brother is dead. Call the copper," he recalled the man saying.
Hours later, the Queensland Police officially notified the Tracey household of Neil's death.
"His body hadn't even been identified by that evening, but all this happened in the morning," Mr Tracey said in disbelief. "He was a fun bloke, a wild bugger who lived life to the fullest. I think of him a lot."
Neil, then a 26-year-old electrical cable layer in Canberra, had fled to Brisbane following allegations that he and a friend had stolen a safe containing $14,000 in cash from a well-known local crime figure.
"He feared for his life as there was a bounty of $1000 on his head," said Mr Tracey, who was 28 at the time.
A few weeks later, Neil was found dead. The New Farm police, under the Fortitude Valley police district in Brisbane, swiftly closed the case, declaring "no suspicious circumstances." The Canberra family received a brief police report five months later, but no coroner's report ever followed.
Gripped by fear, no one dared to pursue what really happened.
The cause of Neil's death remained an open secret within the small community of North Canberra, where family members believed people who were responsible for his death still lived.
"Things were different back then. I had a young family and I was worried," Mr Tracey said.
While Neil was laid to rest in Mitchell, the circumstances surrounding his death have remained a family heartache for more than three decades. Now, the next generation is chasing the truth.
"We just want to find out what happened regardless of the outcome," said Neil's niece, whose quest for answers recently unearthed something unexpected and intriguing. She asked to remain anonymous.
The Canberra woman began investigating her uncle's death and quickly uncovered what she saw as major gaps in the original investigation. She managed to secure a right to information report from the Queensland Police on her second attempt, after initially being told that no file existed.
"There is new information not known then," she said.
A newly emerged coroner's report revealed glaring discrepancies when compared to the initial police report dated July 27, 1989, specifically regarding witness accounts and the circumstances of the death.
However, the family's bid for truth hit an unexpected roadblock. The Queensland Police informed her that a "restricted file" on Neil Tracey's death is currently sitting in the Queensland State Archives.
"I went to the State Archives but the file is sealed until 2054," she said.
For the family, the question remains why the death of a 26-year-old Canberra man in Brisbane nearly four decades ago needs to be kept under wraps by Queensland for another 28 years.
The clue may be in the era and what was happening in the state at that time.
In mid-1989, the investigation into Neil's death was conducted by Queensland police officers from the New Farm unit who were said to be under intense scrutiny by the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police misconduct and corruption.
The findings of that landmark commission ultimately resulted in numerous high-profile figures, including then-Queensland police commissioner Terence Lewis, being jailed for corruption.
The family has determined that they will fight against this institutional gag.
Armed with this newly unearthed evidence, the Tracey family will formally approach the Queensland Coroner to reopen the case.
They hope that at long last this can lead to them finding closure over the death of their "wild bugger" almost 40 years ago.
