The last remaining footage of Australian "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin's deadly encounter with a stingray has been destroyed, says his widow.

The 44-year-old wildlife enthusiast died on Sept. 4 after a stingray pierced Irwin's heart with its poisonous barb. He was filming a wildlife special off the Australian coast at the time.

Terri Irwin, widow of Australian television personality Steve Irwin, with daughter Bindi and son Bob at a memorial service for her husband in Beerwah, Australia, Sept. 20, 2006.
(Steve Holland/ Associated Press)

"There's standard protocols for examining certain evidence and that's no longer necessary,'' Terri Irwin told the celebrity television show Access Hollywood in an interview that aired on Friday. "All footage has been destroyed."

Australian officials said last week that they had finished their investigation into Irwin's death and destroyed all but one copy of the tape, which they said they gave to Terri Irwin.

Video from the rest of the shoot will be featured in a Jan. 21 special on The Discovery Channel and Animal Planet on the show Ocean's Deadliest.

"We're very proud that Steve's last documentary is going to air and that's his last footage with wildlife,'' said Terri Irwin, who is American and met her husband while on vacation in Australia in 1991. They also have two children: Bindi, 8, and two-year-old son, Bob.

Irwin's death caused an outpouring of shock, emotion and support from Australians and many around the world who watched his programs. A public memorial held two weeks after his death attracted 5,000 mourners and tributes from Australian Prime Minister John Howard and actor Russell Crowe.

Terri Irwin and Bindi have been in the U.S. promoting Bindi's upcoming wildlife series Bindi, The Jungle Girl.

She has been giving interviews and fending off criticism that her parents have pushed her into show business, saying that she's doing it in memory of her father.

"I want to make him the proudest dad to have me and I want to show everybody, and nearly be as good as him because he was the best,'' Bindi said on CNN this week, also pointing out that she had already been scheduled to accompany him on a tour of the U.S.