The family of an n man who mysteriously died while working as the manager of a luxury resort in Fiji have been left with burning questions after local authorities insisted they weren’t looking for a suspect.
Jason Rigby, 40, was found in the bathroom of a suite at the Crowne Plaza Fiji Nadi Bay Resort and Spa on Saturday December 14 with stab wounds to his chest.
By the Monday, police said they believed the injuries were self-inflicted and confirmed there would be ‘no criminal investigation’.
Mr Rigby’s family said they are devastated and in disbelief that Jason would have taken his own life.
He was a keen surfer and golfer who had been enjoying a dream job working in a four star resort on the idyllic tourist island.
‘[It’s a] complete shock. There’s some conflicting information that we’ve been told,’ his brother Chris told The Courier Mail.
A witness had reportedly seen Mr Rigby take a knife from the kitchen and go into the bathroom.
Despite Fiji authorities being quick to declare they weren’t hunting for a suspect, it appears the investigation is still quietly underway with the family last week receiving information DNA tests were being conducted.
Mr Rigby, the eldest of three brothers, is originally from Christchurch.
The boys’ father was also a hotel manager and the family had lived in Melbourne and Suva, Fiji.
Mr Rigby settled on the Gold Coast where he became a surf lifesaver, earned a university degree and followed his father into the hotel management business.
Chris said a few days before the incident his brother had told their mother he had a HR meeting at the hotel, which the family had since learned was about a staff member crashing one of the hotel vehicles.
‘I don’t think it was him at fault 100 per cent, but someone drove one of the vehicles there unlicensed, crashed it and wrote it off, and I think broke his arm or something like that,’ he said.
‘[Jason] wouldn’t get worried about that stuff. He would just brush it off and be like, yeah, sweet, I’ll just get a job somewhere else. That’s the mentality he had. He was easy going and nothing really used to frustrate him.’
Mr Rigby was an executive assistant manager at the resort – which recently had an extensive refurbishment – had stepped into an acting manager role and had a girlfriend with him in Fiji.
The third brother, actor Benjamin Rigby who had a role in the 2019 film Ford v Ferrari, is based in LA and his home was burned down in the recent fires.
‘I still can’t comprehend that I’m saying goodbye to my brother and my home in the same week,’ he wrote to Instagram this month.
‘These past few weeks I’ve learned it’s really just about love and community. Family, chosen and unchosen.
‘The outpouring of love in this extremely tough time has taught me that kindness rules everything, to hold people tight and tell them you love them and care for them.’