By SCOTT INGLIS
The prime suspect in the Childers hostel blaze left a suicide note at a local pub after telling people three of his daughters had died horribly.
However, as police last night hunted 37-year-old fruitpicker Robert Paul Long, doubts were being expressed about how true his hard luck stories were and details of criminal offending emerged.
Long, an itinerant beneficiary, had been in Childers for about three months and had been staying at the Palace Backpackers Hostel before fire swept through it on Thursday night, killing 15.
Seventy others survived and have told stories of luck and heroism as they fled the blaze, which police believe was deliberately lit.
Locals yesterday began painting a picture of Long as a loner who talked of a tragic life and told locals shortly before the blaze that he had lung cancer.
Long had been a regular drinker at the Federal Hotel in Childers and owner Chris Woods described him as "a lonely individual who is craving people's friendship."
Mr Woods said that last month Long suddenly broke the news that two of his daughters had just died in a car smash while with his estranged wife in Darwin.
"Obviously people were supportive of him and people wanted to make sure he went to the funeral so he could get over the grieving process ... but it turned out he didn't go."
A month earlier, Long attended the cancer fund-raising event Shave For A Cure and had his head shaved with local celebrities to raise money for leukemia.
He told people there that he had lost a 9-year-old daughter to the disease.
Local Isis Town and Country newspaper editor Wayen Heidrich met him at the fundraiser but said last night: "He's a bad man. I think it might have been part of an act."
In fact, Sydney-born Long is known to police, according to newspaper reports. In 1993, he was charged with attempted murder and child stealing after allegedly trying to strangle his de facto wife's 6-year-old daughter.
Ten days before the fire, Long rang the bell at the Federal Hotel's bottle store, left a note on the counter and fled. A pub worker came out and discovered a suicide note. Police were called and said they would catch up with him.
In the note, Long essentially said he was going to commit suicide and apologised for any hurt that would cause. He also said his life had gone wrong and something had happened that day that brought it to a head.
He never returned to the Federal and three days before the fire he turned up at the hostel, where he was behind in his rent, to drop off his key. He told people there he had lung cancer and not to feel sorry for him.
Long had been drinking with an English couple at the hostel the night of the fire.
Last night, as a memorial service was held, anger was rising in Childers as the grief-stricken community struggled to come to terms with the tragedy.
Mayor Bill Trevor told the Herald: "I think revenge is the wrong word. There's an underlying anger stirring."
Tales of torment spun by hotel blaze suspect
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