Iuliana Trescaru and Beniamin Farcas. "They came to Australia when [Iuliana] was 17 so she was really there for him for quite a lot of time and some really important years." When the family joined their mother in Australia in 2002, the special bond between Iuliana and Beniamin continued. "They were inseparable," Ms Anderson said. "He was the brother that was always on her tail, always there looking out for her, making sure she was OK. And she did the same for him."

Last year, Beniamin was found guilty of deprivation of liberty and received a custodial sentence of more than a year. Despite being a permanent resident, the charge meant he was sent to immigration detention where he remains. He was in the Australian government's immigration detention centre on Christmas Island when his sister's body was found stuffed inside a toolbox in Logan after she had been missing for more than a fortnight. Iuliana, along with Logan man Cory Breton, was beaten, stabbed, tied up and forced into a large metal toolbox before being driven to a dam where they were shot in the head and sunk, inside the toolbox, in the water. The brutal death and the grisly details of the murder have had an enormous impact on Iuliana's family.

"I cry every time I think about her. I just still don't believe it, I feel like she is going to come home and come back," Ms Anderson said. But perhaps the most hard hit has been Beniamin, the little brother who had always looked out for her. "He blames himself, he feels guilty about his sister because he wasn't there to protect her," Ms Anderson said. "[Beniamin] was always the one who was around Logan, to check on Iuliana ... They would have laughs, go for drives and he would always protect her ... he stood up for her." As the family prepares to lay Iuliana to rest on Tuesday, they are doing so with the knowledge that Beniamin won't be there to say goodbye.

"He just wants to be there for that last leg of her life," Ms Anderson said. Ms Anderson contacted Immigration Minister Peter Dutton begging him to allow Beniamin out of immigration detention for the day to attend the funeral. On Friday, a letter from Border Force was emailed to her rejecting the application. "His sister was brutally murdered, her life was taken away, It took 14 days for them to find her body in a tool box, it is devastating," Ms Anderson said. "He just wants the chance to say goodbye, he doesn't want to be let out for a month or something, he just wants to be there from when the funeral starts at 11am until 2 in the afternoon."

Ms Anderson said the Immigration Department's heartless refusal to allow Beniamin out of detention for the day had made the family's heartache worse. "My message [to Mr Dutton] is he should have some more sympathy, we are just asking for a few hours," she said. A spokesman for the Immigration Department would not be drawn on Beniamin's case specifically but said special purpose visits were assessed on a case-by-case basis. "Circumstances [where a special purpose visit may be granted] may include the death or critical illness of close family or the birth of a child to the detainee," the spokesman said. "Decisions on special purpose visit requests take into consideration the values of being fair and reasonable and upholding the dignity of, and respect for, the detainee.

"One factor that would be considered is the cost incurred by the Commonwealth in transporting that person to and from the location in question, and whether this cost would reasonably align with community expectations. "SPV requests are also balanced against operational and accommodation capacity, especially when interstate travel is required, and other potential risks." Stay informed. Like the Brisbane Times Facebook page.