Qld murder victim's parents make plea

The parents of a man who was beaten to death by a masked assailant on the patio of his Gold Coast home admit their son wasn't a saint.

But Peter and Julie Spencer are devastated by the murder of their son Mark, 37, and are pleading with the public to help police catch his killer.

Mark was beaten to death with what appeared to be a metal pole by a man wearing a balaclava on the back patio of his Foxwell Road home at Coomera about 4am on Wednesday.

His housemate, Daniel McNally, witnessed the attack and contacted police. He is not considered a suspect.

The parents travelled from Nowra, on the NSW south coast, to meet detectives and appeal to the public for information.

"We've come a long way up here to hopefully hear a good result and take our boy home," Mr Spencer told reporters on Friday.

"Mark is, he's not a saint, he's been a bit of a rascal in his life, but he's been our rascal.

"He's always been in mischief from a little boy."

But Julie Spencer described her "baby" as the sort of man who would offer help to anyone who needed it.

"(He'd say) `here's my shirt, have it'," she said.

"That's the sort of person he is."

The distraught mother said the brutal crime also left her grandchildren without a father.

"Not only have we lost a son, but there's two little children that have lost a father, which to us is very sad, too," she said.

"It's just like a piece of you has broken away."

Detectives are appealing for CCTV footage from anyone who lives near the area and might have caught vehicle or pedestrian movements about the time of the attack.

Forensic investigations at the scene were continuing on Friday.