An eight-year-old girl has spent the holidays coming to terms with the death of her young parents after they passed away within weeks of each other.
Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains images and names of people who have died.
On November 5, 2022, Jason Dick was walking down a quiet street in the north-west Queensland town of Mount Isa when he was struck by a vehicle and killed.
The vehicle fled the scene and no leads have been obtained by police who continue to investigate the matter.
The 30-year-old council worker was survived by his partner, Wongka Neal, and their daughter, Kitara.
In an attempt to distract her daughter from the grief impacting their family, Ms Neal planned to use her late partner's superannuation money to take Kitara on a short holiday to the coast.
But the pair never made the trip.
Six weeks after Mr Dick's death, Kitara sat beside her mother trying to wake her after the 30-year-old suffered a heart attack.
Ms Neal passed away on December 18.
Plea for information
Reeling from the double tragedy, loved ones are renewing calls for anyone with information on the hit-and-run death of Mr Dick to come forward.
"I think everyone's past being angry, the family just needs closure," said Mr Dick's cousin Marian Radecker.
Mount Isa Police Detective Inspector Dave Barron reminded the community information could be shared anonymously.
"We appeal to anyone in Mount Isa or other towns who have information or may know something about this incident to contact police or contact Crime Stoppers," Detective Inspector Barron said.
"It can be provided anonymously through the Crime Stopper service."
Family 'shattered'
Ms Radecker, who also worked with Mr Dick at the council's parks and gardens department, said family and friends were mourning the loss of a fun-loving couple.
"When Jason was at work, you knew he was at work — he was always making you want to laugh or choke him," she said.
On the night he died, Mr Dick had been walking home from a gathering with his colleagues.
"We were so much more than workmates; he was a brother to the guys he worked with," Ms Radecker said.
"There's so much guilt among the boys. They feel like they shouldn't have let him walk home. They're not coping."
Burial woes
Ms Radecker said that, despite generosity from local council, as well as a GoFundMe Page, the family was struggling to arrange the burial of Mr Dick and Ms Neal in the same cemetery.
"Kitara has moments where she just goes quiet. She likes to play on her mum's phone a lot. It breaks my heart to think what's going through her little head at the moment," Ms Radecker said.
"She shouldn't have to go to two funerals and not be able to visit her parents in the same graveyard, so that is what we're trying to arrange but it's not looking good.
"Our focus is on that little girl now."
