What happened to footage of Steve Irwin's final moments as cameraman shared why he was forced to record it

Steve Irwin instructed his camera crew to keep rolling, even in the moment he died, but what happened to that footage remains a mystery.

The Australian croc lover died on 4 September, 2006, after he was attacked by a stingray when filming near Port Douglas, Queensland.

Despite the best efforts of paramedics who raced to the scene, Irwin passed away before reaching the hospital.

The father-of-two - who was just 44 when the tragedy struck - was filming for the TV show Ocean's Deadliest.

Irwin's team were under strict instruction by the wildlife conservationist to keep rolling, even when he got into some pretty hairy situations with crocodiles, snakes, sharks and more.

As a result, his camera crew reportedly got the whole moment on tape, including his last breath from the freak accident.

"He tells his camera crew to always be filming," Irwin's IMDb biographer Tommy Donovan once said.

"If he needs help, he will ask for it. Even if he is eaten by a shark or croc, the main thing he wants, is that it be filmed.

"If he died, he would be sad if no one got it on tape."

The cameras even captured the heartbreaking moment Irwin calmly turned to his cameraman to say: "I'm dying," which were his final words.

Footage of the incident was immediately sent to the authorities to help with their investigation, and a mystery has remained over what has happened to the tapes since.

Investigators claimed to have destroyed the tapes they were given in 2007 and that there was just one lone copy remaining - which was given to Irwin's grief-stricken widow, Terri.

While Terri has always known her husband would have wanted to have his final moments filmed, especially as it was doing what he loves most, she couldn't cope with the tape.

Instead, she said she destroyed it without ever watching a single second.

And despite the only existing copy to have been wiped from existence, Terri said there was a fake video that circulated on social media about it.

Speaking to You magazine in 2018, Terri said: "After Steve died, 100 million viewers watched a video of his death that was released on YouTube.

His widow, Terri, said there was a fake video of his death (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

"That film was a complete fabrication exploiting people’s sadness. I have never watched the real footage. Why would I? I know how my husband died and I was relieved that the children weren’t on the boat as they usually would be; it would have been horrendous if they had witnessed it."

Instead, she claims police still have a copy buried somewhere, which is where Irwin's family and friends believe it should stay.

Irwin's best friend and director, John Stainton, admitted he saw the tape once and would never watch it again.

"I actually saw it, but I don't want to see it again," he told CNN host Larry King in 2006.

"I would never want that tape shown."

Sharing the grisly details of the fatal stingray attack, cameraman Justin Lyons told Daily Mail Australia: "[Irwin] swam up right over his tail. Instead of swimming off, [the bull ray] propped himself on the front of its wings and pushed his rear end up and started madly stabbing with his tail towards Steve.

"The water boiled with bubbles, thrashing and whatnot. The entire time I was locked on Steve. I didn't know what was going on, I could see it was trying to stab Steve and he was pushing him away but it was over in about 10-15 seconds.

"The stingray swam off so I panned to film Steve swimming away.

"It wasn't until I panned back and the water around him was already filling with blood that I realised he had passed."