A Queensland grandfather asked local fishermen to amputate his ‘painful’ leg just months before he died on Saturday after allegedly convincing a fruit picker to cut off his limb with a circular saw.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal pensioner Kalman Tal, 66, was found unconscious outside a seafood takeaway shop at Innisfail, in far north Queensland, suffering horrific injuries and could not be revived.
Police have charged Vanuatuan man and banana picker John Yalu, 36, with Mr Tal’s murder. It will be alleged Yalu used a circular saw to amputate the elderly man’s leg.
Mr Tal, a retiree with significant health problems, had been living in Innisfail for several years before his horrific alleged murder.
For last two years, Mr Tal, known around town as a keen fisherman, had been living in a house with his son and daugher-in-law, and his grandchild.
Mr Tal’s family members were gathered at the house on Wednesday, but were too distressed to speak about their father’s alleged murder.
Grandfather and keen fisherman Kalman Tal, 66, who died after allegedly having his leg amuptated by another man in a north Queensland park on Saturday
One relative, who did not want to be named, said the family wanted ‘complete privacy’ while coming to terms with the horrific circumstances of his father’s death.
The man said Mr Tal had been ‘ill’ and ‘desperate’ prior to his death, but he denied it was diabetes that the man was suffering from, instead it was another disease ‘which will come out in time’.
He said Mr Tal was ‘a lovely man’.
Daily Mail Australia has been told Mr Tal has been asking fishermen around Innisfail over the last five to six months if they could help him by amputating his left leg which was painful.
Police confirmed that other men in the town had been asked to help sever Mr Tal’s leg with a battery powered circular saw he carried around in a late model vehicle.
Last Friday night, Mr Yalu is believed to have visited Nite Rumours bar on one of Innisfail’s main streets and afterwards was allegedly convinced to accompany Mr Tal to the riverfront Fitzgerald Park.
Around 3.48am two brothers going for a walk found the body of Mr Tal in a pool of blood in a gutter by the Innisfail Seafood shop.
Paramedics were unable to revive him.
Police allege John Yalu, 36, (pictured) a fruit picker, amputated Mr Tal’s lower leg with a circular saw
On Tuesday night, Vanuatu’s High Commissioner to Australia flew into Innisfail from Canberra for an urgent crisis meeting with distraught seasonal fruit pickers who are traumatised after their co-worker was charged with murder.
Samson Vilvil Fare addressed a highly charged private meeting of around 300 emotional Vanuatans at secluded location at Innisfail’s Warrina Lakes.
The meeting was private and Mr Fare spoke to the workers in the Vanuatan Bislama language, but several workers told Daily Mail Australia after the meeting that the High Commissioner told them to stay calm and keep on carrying out their farm work.
He also said despite the murder charge Vanuatu has a long standing good relationship with Australia, and that the accused would get diplomatic assistance from the High Commissioner’s office.
Pictured: A car park sitting along the banks of Innisfail’s Johnstone River, near where police believe the alleged amputation took place
Mr Tal had allegedly asked local fishermen to amputate his leg in the months before died
Detective Acting Inspector Gary Hunter (pictured) is leading an investigation into the alleged amputation death of a man in Innisfail, North Queensland, on Saturday
Yalu, who was arrested a short time after Mr Tal’s body was discovered, arrived in Australia from Vanuatu last year and regularly sends money from his fruit picking job home to his young family.
Detective Acting Inspector Gary Hunter, who is heading the police investigation, told Daily Mail Australia that the victim, Mr Tal, had previously asked around for someone to amputate his leg, but had been knocked back.
Multiple local residents told Daily Mail Australia the suffering man had asked a doctor to amputate his leg, but no medical professional would agree to do the procedure.
Police will allege Mr Tal then brought his own battery-operated table saw to the banks of Innisfail’s Johnstone River around 3am last Saturday and then injected himself with a sedative.
Then, Yalu took up the saw and severed the man’s left leg below the knee, police will allege in court.
Police then alleged Yalu helped the man back to his car and fled from the scene.
Pictured: The Innisfail fish and chip shop where Mr Tal was found dead on Saturday
Police believe the alleged victim got out of his car and slumped into the gutter next to the Innisfail Seafood shop (pictured, the area around the cafe)
It is then believed Yalu returned to his nearby boarding house – the Innisfail Accommodation hub for Non-Resident Workers – which overlooks the river bank, according to investigators.
Police believe the amputated man then pulled himself out of his vehicle before slumping into the gutter next to the Innisfail Seafood shop.
Two brothers aged in their 20s found him there and called police, with paramedics unable to save his life.
Inspector Hunter said there was ‘really good CCTV’ footage from Innisfail taken early last Saturday morning which is assisting with his investigation.
Vanuatu’s High Commissioner to Australia Samson Vilvil Fare addressed a highly charged private meeting of around 300 emotional Vanuatans at secluded location at Innisfail’s Warrina Lakes on Tuesday night
Police believe the deceased man paid the 36-year-old (pictured) $5,000 to perform the amputation
Police will allege the man had diabetes and had asked Yalu to cut off his leg after several failed attempts to have his limb amputated (pictured, the local police headquarters)
Inspector Hunter arrived on the scene from Cairns around 5am, when he said junior officers were still dealing with ‘the very confronting scene’ out the fish and chip shop, saying there was ‘lots of blood’.
Although Insp Hunter could confirm ‘the two men knew each other’, he said investigators were still trying to discover ‘the extent of their relationship’.
He said despite reports of an alleged $5,000 payment by the man to Yalu, police were still ‘trying to establish whether cash was exchanged’.
Police said ‘no screams’ had been heard from the scene of the alleged amputation and the area ‘had been very quiet’.
Yalu is understood to have been residing at the Innisfail Accommodation hub for Non-Resident Workers (pictured)
Yalu (pictured) remains in police custody after he was refused bail earlier in the week
The alleged victim’s body, car and circular saw are still under examination by forensic officers.
Yalu was still in police cells on Tuesday after he was refused bail earlier in the week.
He is expected to be transferred soon to a correctional centre while on remand until his next court appearance in May.
One local business proprietor said Yalu was a ‘nice young man who regularly sent money home to his wife and children’ back in Vanuatu.
Police are seen in Innisfail after the man’s body was found outside a fish and chip shop
Investigations by detectives from Innisfail, Cairns, Mareeba and Tully are being co-ordinated under an operation named Uniform Cremini.
Yalu left his young family behind in Vanuatu to do farm work in Australia in June last year.
His social media account is littered with pictures of his young children in his native country.
Fellow farm workers and countrymen who lived with the Vanuatu national at the Rankin St property said they were ‘shocked’ by his arrest.
They said he flew to Australia on the same plane in June last year, with the group quarantining together before moving into the non-resident accommodation centre.
Yalu (pictured) left a young family behind in Vanuatu to travel to Australia to work as a fruit picker last June
