EXCLUSIVE: The family of a deckhand found dead in a Weipa toilet block believe he was murdered.

Police will await the results of an autopsy today before determining whether Brian Dunnett, 24, met with foul play at Evans Landing early Saturday morning.

Connie Williams, the trawler deckhand’s sister, spoke of the devastation her family was enduring since hearing the news on Saturday night.

She said there was “not a shadow of a doubt” that he was murdered.

“Someone took his life,” Ms Williams told The Cairns Post. “We are certain of that. We know that he was not suicidal.”

Mr Dunnett had just enjoyed a reunion with a brother and was loving his work, she said.

“We just know that Brian was really happy,” Ms Williams said. “He had just spent time with his brother. He hadn’t seen him for nine years and Brian was just ecstatic.

“He was very family-oriented. He was going to get his wish for us all to be together. He would’ve loved to be there.”

Ms Williams was told her brother had been in a fight at a pub in the hours before his death.

Mr Dunnett also had been injured in a car accident about two weeks ago and had to undergo brain scans, she said.

Rumours are rife at Weipa and surrounding towns that Mr Dunnett was murdered.

He was a deckhand aboard the fishing trawler El Dorado, which was stranded at Weipa awaiting a generator, and in the past he had worked with close friend Bevin Simmonds and his 10-year-old son, Brad.

The pair vanished checking shark nets in June, 2003, and were presumed murdered.

“That little fella (Brad) was Brian’s little mate,” Ms Williams said. “He was just devastated.”

Mr Dunnett was last year charged with stalking after telling police he planned to “hunt down and kill” Michael Gater, who was acquitted of the Simmonds’ murder.

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