00:00I don't believe for a minute that John would ever shoot himself. He wasn't that
00:04kind of person and you know the sort of person that will shoot themselves. I mean
00:07you know if you if you have suicidal tendencies no matter what's going on in
00:11your life you know it takes a very very strong very special person to put a gun
00:16to their head and pull the trigger and I don't I don't believe for a minute that John would do
00:19that.
00:23He chose a spot not far away from home and that's where he ended his life.
00:28The circumstances of the shooting, the circumstances which he was found and the
00:36place where he was found, I had no doubt he took his own life.
00:45On hearing the news of Mr. Friedrich's death police surrounded the home of the
00:50identity who was once the center of a national manhunt. Police say Mr.
00:54Friedrich was last seen alive around 8 o'clock yesterday morning.
00:57It appears he walked from his home to a hilly clearing in dense bushland several
01:02kilometres away. There an associate found Mr.
01:05Friedrich's body around 7 o'clock last night. All the people that I know around the
01:10area that used to work for the Safety Council, I can't really think of one that
01:15believes John Friedrich is actually dead. He had a massive amount of pressure on him
01:19coming up to the court case. He was going to have a lot of hard questions to answer that
01:22might cause embarrassment but I still just don't think he's the sort of man that
01:26would have taken his own life. At first light four wheel drives were called in to
01:30recover Mr. Friedrich's body. He had been lying face down with a gunshot wound to the
01:35head, a pistol a short distance from him. A court hearing into charges against Mr.
01:40Friedrich was set to begin on Thursday. He was to appear on 23 counts of theft by
01:45deception, with allegations the National Safety Council was defrauded of $286 million.
01:53Suicide is a result of a deep depression and at no time did I determine that this man had
02:03been depressed. If you say well he didn't kill himself you then buy into a whole level of intrigue
02:11because what did happen to him if he didn't kill himself obviously there was a body substituted
02:16in some way. My wife and I were leaving Houston so going through Bush International which is
02:23the main international airport in in Houston and we just checked in curbside and get a little trolley
02:29and with our hand luggage and I'm walking through the terminal going into departures and probably
02:36halfway across the terminal and there's a big bank of elevators. Why was there a body substituted?
02:41Who had an interest in substituting him? Where is he now? What is he doing now?
02:45And this guy walked out of the elevator with three young guys all with suits all short haircuts
02:54they look like bodyguards you know look like a CPP type you know close personal protection operation
03:01um and um the guy the guy in the middle um had an uncanny resemblance to John um and in
03:12fact he made eye
03:13contact with me and he made eye contact with me and completely turned 180 and got back into the
03:18elevator and disappeared. That's the problem with accepting that he didn't kill himself is you then
03:22have to accept that there was something else going on at the Safety Council which we were none of us
03:27were
03:27aware of and um and I think that and if there was something like that going on maybe it devalues
03:32our experience of being there. Um and I and Emily said to me I must have I did I stopped
03:38walking I just
03:38I was you know frozen to the spot and Em said are you okay and I said well I just
03:43think I've seen a ghost
03:44um and it you know it just looked so much like John but it was quite freaky quite uncanny um
03:52and um
03:53yeah that happened a few years ago. Police want to know if any of Mr Friedrich's associates noticed
03:58any mood changes. He was due to appear in court uh next week. He took his own life on a
04:05Friday night
04:06and the trial was to begin on Monday morning. I'm reluctant to say definitively that was John
04:12because I mean you know everyone knows John shot himself on the side of a hill in
04:15country Victoria but um and I guess stranger things have happened.
04:23John would never point the finger at anyone. I felt he was such a together sort of individual that he
04:30would not even in times of strife and trauma that he was experiencing he still would not
04:39name names or point the fingers at anyone except for giving out various documents.
04:48And that's the other issue that is fascinating in this case.
04:57About three weeks before that happened he came to South Australia where I was managing a restaurant
05:01after the Safety Council collapse. He came to spend some time with me because his daughter
05:06was having her I think it was 10th birthday or something and um all the parents of the other
05:13kids that were invited to the birthday party uh refused to go to the party because you know John
05:18was going to be there and he'd been shot at you know all these things. So he rang me and
05:23said look
05:23can I come over and spend a few days with you? I said yeah come on come over. John said
05:27to me look
05:27I want to work I want to I'll come and work in your restaurant. I said John it's nuts don't
05:31worry about it
05:31you know just go to the beach. And he said no no you know John being John. So he'd kind
05:36of retrained
05:37all the staff by that afternoon I think by the day he was there and uh had everything organized as
05:42John does and um that night it was a Saturday night he was waiting tables doing drinks orders and
05:48things and he he wore a baseball cap he put it on backwards put an apron on and then waited
05:53tables.
05:54You know here's a guy that was the former chief executive of the National Safety Council
05:58collapsed you know sort of a I don't know 10 months before or something waiting tables in my
06:03restaurant. He went into a little room and was waiting on a table of people six people I think
06:09it was and um he was working the table all night looking after them and they were the people were
06:14raving about this waiter you know. There was one guy that said um that drinks waiter of yours? I said
06:21yes
06:21he goes his face is his face is vaguely familiar you know I really I didn't know his face from
06:27somewhere.
06:27I mean at the time John was on the news every day you know I'm surprised you know people didn't
06:31recognise him. Um I said oh no no he's a transient you know I don't know where he came from
06:36you know
06:36works here every now and again. Um turns out the guy that John was looking after that guy who made
06:42the comment about John was the general manager and state manager of the State Bank of South Australia
06:48one of the biggest creditors of the National Safety Council. So we had a good old laugh about that
06:53uh with John. He went back into the table after I told him he went back there got some more
06:59drinks
06:59I mean you know that was just John.
07:01Yeah
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