Hotel manager Jason Rigby was a force of nature. He was outgoing, kind, and the life and soul of family gatherings. A golf fanatic and surfer, Jason was also the fun uncle to his nieces and nephews.
“Jason was charismatic, charming and a free spirit,” remembers his brother Chris.
“We were always fighting when we were growing up, as brothers do, but I looked up to him and he looked out for me. He always had my best interests at heart.”
Chris, 41, last saw his brother in August 2024, when Jason visited the Gold Coast from his adopted home of Fiji, where he was working as executive assistant manager at a hotel in Nadi. Jason wanted to spend time with his newest nephew Rocky, now two.
“I remember Jason being really proud of Chris,” says sister-in-law Jessica, 37.
“Chris and I had both been married before, and we have children from those marriages. Jason was genuinely stoked that Chris had found happiness. I’m glad he got to see Chris in the life he’s living now.”
A call no one expected
Jason, who was 40 when he died, had spent his life in the hotel industry and after years of hard work, his career was on the rise and he was loving life.
Which is why the family was distraught and confused when, on 14 December 2024, Surfers Paradise police left a note for Jason’s mum Robyn asking to see her in person.
Robyn immediately rang around the family to make sure everyone was OK – Chris and Jessica first. Then Chris tried to reach Jason and their other brother Ben, who was in Los Angeles.
There was no reply from Jason, so Robyn called his girlfriend. Shivani Siwan had been dating Jason for around six months and when she finally answered her phone, the news was devastating.
Things didn’t add up
Shivani told Robyn that Jason had taken his own life. She explained Jason had arrived home, gone to the bathroom and stabbed himself to death. Shivani had been present at Jason’s home in the hotel’s staff quarters when it happened.
The family was shattered. Chris and his dad Peter, 71, flew to Fiji immediately. Very quickly, they grew suspicious about what might have unfolded in Jason’s apartment the morning he died.
“The way the hotel staff acted towards us, the lack of any incident report about what happened and the fact Jason’s personal phone was – and still is – missing… Things just didn’t add up,” says Chris.
The mystery deepens
Furthermore, the Rigbys believe the knife that killed Jason didn’t belong in his apartment. The family’s suspicions grew as Fijian police initially put Jason’s
death down to suicide, then labelled it a suspicious death and then suicide again.
Over the coming months and years, the Rigbys kept pushing for answers, certain that Jason would never have taken his own life.
No suicide note was ever found and initial tests done in Fiji found no alcohol in his system. Jason had made plans for future holidays, was plotting to buy a property in Australia and had never experienced any mental health challenges. He was, the family insisted then and now, a very happy man who enjoyed life.
A major breakthrough
Then, last month, Fiji Police Force assistant commissioner Loraini Seru confirmed authorities are now treating Jason’s death as a murder investigation.
In an interview with 60 Minutes, Loraini confirmed police had spoken to Shivani.
“She is treated as a suspect,” she said.
“We have interviewed her. She is the only one that we’ve interviewed so far.”
Jason’s best mate, the hotel’s executive chef Ian Lovie, was in the same room as Jason while paramedics battled and failed to save his life. Ian has given a statement to the Fijian police, but he hasn’t talked to the Rigby family.
“Ian and Jason met when Jason moved to Fiji, and they hung out socially,” says Jessica.
“We’ve been told that the first person Shivani called when it happened was Ian.”
Closer to the truth
It was previously reported that a third colleague, Arushi Arora, arrived after getting a call from Ian and later told how she’d found Jason in pain, with a large, bloodied knife on a table nearby.
Ian and Arushi are not suspects, nor are they accused of any wrongdoing. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was recently handed the police brief of evidence, so it’s possible charges may be laid.
After almost two years of investigating, and hiring a private investigator and lawyer, Jason’s family hopes they’re edging closer to the truth.
The search for truth
The investigation continues, with the family and Fijian police waiting on tech experts at the Australian Federal Police to extract data from Jason’s work phone.
“We believe the data is crucial,” says Jessica, who’s written a book, While The Baby Slept, about the family’s fight to uncover the truth.
“It will show where Jason was and who he was speaking to. We hope it will give us answers. “Someone knows what happened to Jason. I can’t remove Chris’ grief or love him harder to make any of this easier, but answers may make life more bearable. Jason could have done anything with his life. It’s sad that was taken away.”
Chris hopes to discover what really happened so he can finally grieve.
“We want to see everyone responsible and everything that stood in the way of that truth held to account,” he says.
“We went public so no other family has to fight this hard just to find out what happened to someone they love.”
While The Baby Slept by Jessica Rigby is out in November at Hembury Books.
