The angry widow of an Australian journalist has vowed to fight to her last breath for answers to his killing in East Timor nearly 40 years ago.
Greg Shackleton, then 29, was one of a group of Australian-based newsmen - known as the Balibo Five - covering the Indonesian invasion in 1975.
The group also included Australian sound recordist Tony Stewart, 21; cameraman Gary Cunningham, 27, from New Zealand; and two Britons - cameraman Brian Peters, 24, and reporter Malcolm Rennie, 29.
The Australian Federal Police announced on Tuesday it had dropped a five-year war crimes investigation into their deaths which a NSW coroner in 2007 blamed on Indonesian special forces soldiers.
There was insufficient evidence to prove an offence, the AFP said.
Tuesday's decision has angered Shirley Shackleton who described it as a "shocking" and "terrible" outcome.
"You kill five people ... and it doesn't constitute an offence?" she told AAP.
"How would you feel if that was your son, your dad?"
Ms Shackleton blames the Office of International Law inside the Attorney-General Department's Office for the decision, saying it had provided the AFP with "spurious" advice.
She hopes to launch a court case at the highest level to get "proper answers".
"I will keep on this until I die."
Cunningham's son John Milkins wants the case re-examined as it was based on a morally and legally wrong brief.
"I certainly think it should be investigated if there's been a miscarriage of justice because of a faulty legal premise," he told AAP.
Mr Milkins is disappointed five years of police work and $500,000 has been effectively wasted on a null outcome.
But he also believes it's not the end in the fight for answers.
"It's maybe a chapter closing," he said.
The case has been a long-running sore for Australia and Indonesian relations.
The official Indonesian version is that the men were killed by crossfire during the battle for Balibo.
The AFP decision came a day after the inauguration of new Indonesian president Joko Widodo.
