The open secret of Star Casino’s suicide tower: Mother reveals the texts, CCTV and agonising hour when staff could have stopped her son, 18 – as casino claims another young life

A mother has revealed her 18-year-old son took his own life from the Star Casino’s 100-metre-tall Sky Deck in Brisbane about a year before a young chef did the same.

The Star came under fire this week for failing to act on repeated warnings from senior staff about safety hazards associated with the deck after a 24-year-old chef from the Philippines died by suicide in June.

She had used a handrail beside a gap in the glass safety barrier to get onto a ledge on the deck.

Natalie Heslop has now told the Daily Mail that her teenage son, Amir David Almansouri, went up to the Sky Deck and used exactly the same spot to take his own life on July 4 last year.

She remains baffled by how easy it was for two people a year apart to access the deck, climb the railing and jump to their deaths. In her son’s case, no staff member asked what he was doing, if he was okay, or interacted with him at all.

And according to the coroner’s report for Mr Almansouri, seen by the Mail, there was ample time for someone to intervene.

The report, backed by security footage from the Star, says the teen was ‘loitering’ around the grounds for more than two hours before making his way to level 23, the Sky Deck floor, at 4.19pm.

Unaffected by drugs or alcohol, he sat alone next to a water feature, with his phone and a large duffle bag, for an hour as staff and groups of tourists walked past, before he quickly walked outside and climbed over the barrier.

‘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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Daily Mail contacted Star for comment several times. No response has been received.

If you need support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.