Greg Josephson: 15-year-old boy charged with murder after Universal Store millionaire found dead

The millionaire co-founder of popular clothing retailer Universal Store has allegedly been stabbed to death by a 15-year-old boy during a party at his Brisbane home.

Greg Josephson - who co-founded the Universal Store with his brother Michael in 1999 before later selling it in 2018 for $100 million - was found dead after police were called to investigate an altercation at a teen house party in the inner north Brisbane suburb of Clayfield about 8.15pm on Thursday.

Police say they found the 58-year-old deceased on the top level of the Oriel Road home and a group of around 30 teen party-goers in the house.

A 15-year-old boy known to Mr Josephson was arrested after being found at a nearby street.

He has now been charged with murder.

“This is a tragic incident that will affect the family, the community as a whole,” Detective Acting Superintendent Craig Williams said.

“Other young persons who are at the house at the time...are assisting us with inquiries and were not involved in the situation at all.”

Det-Supt. Williams said he could not discuss whether Mr Josephson had been trying to break up the house party when he was injured.

“I can confirm that there was a party underway at the house with a number of young persons at the house, as for what had occurred prior to the incident, it’s still under investigation.”

Det-Supt. Williams said it was a “confusing” situation when police arrived at the scene.

“It was a party obviously and when police turn up at a party it was confusing until until obviously all persons present sort of understood what was going and why police were there.”

He said most of the teens were unaware of what had happened when police arrived.

“At this stage the initial investigation indicates that no other persons were involved other than the 15 year old boy has been taken into custody.”

He confirmed the alleged murder weapon had been found.

“It’s extremely distressing, of course, when a young person is involved and any time that there’s loss of life,” Det-Supt. Williams said.

“As I said, it’s distressing for the family, it’s distressing for the community and for the innocent people who were at their house who had nothing to do with it.

“So, all possible supports being offered to those people and I would ask anybody who needs support to to reach out accordingly.”

“It’s very early days and understanding exactly why it’s occurred and what’s happened, the investigation’s still underway.”

The boy, who appeared via video link from hospital, was refused bail in Brisbane Childrens Court on Friday where the case was adjourned until August 22.

Universal Store, a popular youth fashion retailer with 80 outlets nationwide, released a short statement today.

“We wanted to share the sad news that Greg Josephson, who founded our company and played a significant role until 2018, has recently passed away,” it said.

“Our sincere thoughts and condolences are with his family at this very sad time.”

Josephson was the owner of the Noosa Reef Hotel, which he purchased for nearly $14 million in 2021, among his multi-million dollar property portfolio in Queensland.

He had worked as a leasing executive for Lend Lease, Westfield and Jones Lang La Salle.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli would not speculate on if the boy would face the state’s tough new “adult crime, adult time” policy where youth offenders were sentenced as adults for serious crimes like murder.

“I’m just mindful at the moment... a family’s lost someone in recent hours,” he told the Courier Mail.

“I might reserve my comments on that particular (issue).

“We’ll let the courts do their job.”

Investigators are appealing to anyone who may have information that could assist, or who may have CCTV or dashcam footage from the area, to come forward.

Anyone with information is urged to contact police: Crime Stoppers. Call 1800 333 000.