Angler's grisly catch prompts police probe

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

File photo: Henk Kruger

Cape Town - An angler’s catch of the day has resulted in a police investigation after the decomposed body of a man became hooked on his fishing line on Sunday.

NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon said the man was fishing just north of Nine Miles Beach between Strandfontein and Mnandi in the morning.

“He didn’t reel the body in, but walked along the sand to see what was caught on his hook. When he realised it was a body, he notified authorities,” Lambinon said.

In a separate incident earlier on Sunday, the body of a middle-aged man was found floating off Camps Bay.

Officials were unable to verify if the man drowned or was already dead when he landed in the ocean.

Bernard Schäfer, chairperson of the Camps Bay Community Police Forum, said members of the local neighbourhood watch were doing patrols near the Camps Bay shoreline when they noticed something floating about 15m out at sea. It was a man.

They managed to get the man out of the water and the Camps Bay Community Medics, police, NSRI and other emergency services were contacted.

Bruce Davidson, NSRI Bakoven station commander, said the NSRI performed Camps Bay Community Medics took over and performed advanced life support CPR, but eventually declared the man dead.

“The man was found wearing only a dark-coloured striped pair of swimming shorts,” Davidson said.

Police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana said the man was about 1.75m tall and slender, and had blue eyes and thinning black and grey hair.

At the time of going to press no one had come forward to identify the man and there had been no reports of anyone missing.

Schäfer said neighbourhood watch members scoured the area for more than an hour for people or items linked to man.

Disaster Risk Management Centre’s Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said metro law enforcement had declared the spot where his body was found a crime scene.

It was not clear if he had been swimming nearby or if the current had carried him.

nurene.jassiem@inl.co.za

Cape Times