A grieving mother says her 18-year-old son died at Brisbane’s Star Casino Sky Deck about a year before another young worker lost her life at the same 100-metre-high attraction.
The Star has faced intense scrutiny this week over claims it failed to respond to repeated warnings from senior staff about safety risks on the deck, after a 24-year-old chef from the Philippines died by suicide there in June.
She had accessed a ledge by using a handrail beside a gap in the glass safety barrier.
Natalie Heslop has told Our News Outlet that her son, Amir David Almansouri, went to the Sky Deck on July 4 last year and used the same location before taking his own life.
Ms Heslop said she still cannot understand how, a year apart, two people were able to reach the deck, get past the railing and die without being stopped. In her son’s case, she said no staff member approached him, asked what he was doing, checked whether he was okay or interacted with him at all.
According to the coroner’s report into Mr Almansouri’s death, seen by the Mail, there appeared to be a significant window in which an intervention could have occurred.
The report, supported by security footage from The Star, said the teenager was “loitering” around the grounds for more than two hours before going to level 23, where the Sky Deck is located, at 4.19pm.
The report said he was not affected by drugs or alcohol. He then sat alone beside a water feature for about an hour, with his phone and a large duffle bag, as staff and groups of tourists passed by, before he moved outside and climbed over the barrier.
Amir David Almansouri (pictured) took his own life at The Star Brisbane
Amir David Almansouri is pictured with his mother, Natalie Heslop
Mr Almansouri died about a year before a young chef jumped from The Star Casino’s 100-metre-high Sky Deck at Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane (pictured) in June
‘There has to be negligence involved,’ Ms Heslop said.
‘I just want it known that another person has gone out the same way and the casino has to be somehow accountable because it looks so easy to do.’
Ms Heslop contacted a lawyer in the months after her son’s death to ask if she could bring civil action against the casino, but was told nothing could be done.
She said The Star did not acknowledge Mr Almansouri’s death to her at all.
Even a year later, Ms Heslop still has no idea why her son ended his life.
He had just moved from Melbourne to Brisbane to live with his father, did not appear to be suicidal, and was getting his driver’s licence. His life was just getting started.
She is locked out of his phone and bank records, and has only the texts he sent to family and CCTV footage from around Brisbane to piece together his last hours.
The night before he died, he declined a call from his grandmother and sent her texts saying he was at the cinema.
Mr Almansouri (pictured) had only recently turned 18 when he died
Mr Almansouri didn’t go home the night before he died on July 4, 2025
Pictured: The messages Mr Almansouri sent his sister before he died
He later sent his sister a cryptic photo of himself standing on a bridge while holding a doughnut, along with the 1972 Jim Croce song Photographs and Memories, which is about a failed relationship.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked.
‘Tis the peaceful life,’ he replied.
When she sent him a question mark, he told her that he was ‘eating doughnuts’ and ‘walking to Springwood’.
‘What’s in Springwood?’ she asked.
‘[I don’t know],’ he replied.
His sister was concerned and alerted their father, but he was driving to Melbourne with his partner at the time and couldn’t check on his son.
Their father tried calling but couldn’t get through to Mr Almansouri.
CCTV showed the teen didn’t go home to his father’s house in Sheldon after the film and somehow ended up at a shopping centre in Logan at about 9am the next day.
Mr Almansouri’s family have no idea why he ended his life
Mr Almansouri had recently moved from Melbourne to Brisbane to live with his father
Pictured: The bannister Mr Almansouri hit after plunging from the Sky Deck
He bought some cables for his phone before heading to QBD Books and buying the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, which he put inside his duffle bag.
Other items in the bag included camping equipment, tea lights and a waterproof blanket.
Ms Heslop’s mother used to pay for his phone bill, so they know he received a call from a ‘random person’ sometime between his leaving the shopping centre and arriving at The Star at 2pm.
When she phoned that person to ask what they spoke about, he said he didn’t know her son and that the call had been made because Mr Almansouri had misplaced his phone in his duffle bag and asked a stranger to ring it so he could find it.
Ms Heslop thinks her son was waiting for someone at the casino, but she can’t be sure.
The coroner’s report said Mr Almansouri ‘loitered’ around the casino from 2pm until 4.19pm when he went up to the Sky Deck.
He was on his phone for about an hour while groups of people passed by to take in the view from the deck.
At 5.18pm, he left his duffle bag at the water feature, put his phone in his pocket, and deliberately climbed over the railing.
Star Casino failed to act on safety hazards in relation to its Sky Deck viewing platform, where two people took their own lives
His fall was broken by a bannister, which sliced his arm off.
Security guards told Ms Heslop there were live electric wires inside the bannister, which meant there was a loud bang when he struck it.
She flew up to Brisbane the next day to see where her son died and to watch the footage because she wanted to be sure he wasn’t pushed or coerced.
‘Looking at the footage, it’s clear he was intending to die,’ she said.
A witness later told police that he thought Mr Almansouri’s falling body was a mannequin.
Ms Heslop said a number of factors about her son’s death were confusing. He loved camping, but the equipment in his bag was strange, and he would never leave his beloved German Shepherd Lulu behind.
She described her son as a ‘gentle, calm’ boy who was a perfectionist and loved coding, gaming and hiking.
According to a Sydney Morning Herald report, a senior Star manager in Brisbane flagged the handrail balustrade on the Sky Deck as an obvious safety risk in May 2025 – two months before Mr Almansouri’s death.
The Sky Casino Sky Deck, where two people took their own lives within the last 13 months
He warned it would be easy for someone to climb through a gap in the safety glass partition on floor 23.
The manager followed up with another email in July 2025 – the month Mr Almansouri died – warning of ‘the handrail along with the gap between the glass panels’.
Another manager raised the issue again in September 2025, warning of the ‘risk of falls (willful acts)’.
The staff member called on Star Brisbane ‘to see what if any modifications can be carried out to reduce the risk of people being able to scale the external balustrades in all areas (e.g. removing handrails)’.
Another report, dated October 14 and prepared independently for Star, warned that the issue needed urgent attention.
‘Recent and unfortunate incidents have highlighted the potential for some façade elements to be misused as scalable hand and foot holds – in particular the Sky Deck balustrade handrail.’
Following the employee’s death, The Star hired security and installed temporary hoarding, but no permanent fix has been completed.
Our News Outlet contacted Star for comment several times. No response has been received.
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