A KIND gesture to protect his friends took a fatal turn for a young North Queensland man, who was about to move away, become a husband, and one day a dad.

Josh Hyde, 20, had his life taken away on Sunday night when he was stabbed in an Ingham street.

He was walking two female friends home from a night drinking with mates, trying to do the right thing, when a man attacked him on Mcilwraith St about 11.30pm.

Josh's fiance, Shontah Green, was eagerly awaiting his move to Caboolture this Friday when she woke to the devastating news on Monday morning.

Ms Green hadn't seen her partner in almost a month, but spoke to him only hours before he took his last breathe, which was also her 19th birthday.

"I woke up this morning to all these missed calls and messages from my sister in law … she said that he had been stabbed," Ms Green said through tears.

"I thought it was a joke, but it's real, it's happening."

Josh proposed to Ms Green in September after three years of wonderful memories.

"We would always go to the beach together, the waterholes," she said.

"The best memories would just be driving around singing really loud … throwing lychees at each other from opposite sides of the trees."

"He was just the most beautiful person you've ever known."

Josh loved his car and video games, but was excited to move away from North Queensland and start a life, and a family, with Ms Green.

"The last time I seen him he put me on a bus to the airport, grabbed my hand and said 'I'll see you soon'."

Ms Green said she planned to get Josh's name tattooed on her chest, beside her heart, because "that's where he belongs."

A crime scene was set up at two locations on Mcilwraith St on Monday morning, but detectives did not have anyone in custody.

Police are still investigating exactly what happened, saying the suspect was known to the two female friends, but he was not known to Josh.

shayla.bulloch@news.com.au

Originally published as 'Beautiful man': Tributes flow for stabbing victim