Warrant Officer Riaan Prins. Photo: SAPS

The horrifying day on which Anthony Dau died was made a little more bearable for his family by a policeman’s support.

It fell upon the shoulders of Warrant Officer Riaan Prins of Table View Police Station to inform the Dau family of Green Point of their 45-year-old son’s death. The bereaved familiy praised Prins’s thoughtfulness this week in a letter to the Chief of Police.

Father remembers fateful call
William John Dau can remember precisely what the time was when Prins called them with the news of Anthony’s death. It was 5 o’ clock in the afternoon. The date was 11 January.

Prins informed the Green Point family that Anthony’s body had been found at Pearly Beach. A double tragedy had occurred, during which Anthony’s 43-year-old girlfriend, Reiko Okayama, also died.

Gruelling hours
In his letter to the Chief of Police, William Dau writes, “Throughout that horrifying day he (Prins) kept me informed of what was transpiring. When he telephoned me at around 5 pm to inform me that they had found the body of our son in the house at Pearly Beach, he immediately acted beyond his scope of duties and telephoned my minister to inform him of the situation. I must inform you that throughout the day he was in contact with Anthony’s mother who had travelled to Pearly Beach, unaware of what she was going into.

Could not have been easy for the policemen- and women
This has most certainly given us a different picture of what one is usually told of the police department. I cannot express our thanks enough for the support given to us during these gruelling hours.” Dau continued, “This whole affair could not have been easy for the policemen- and women whose names we do not have who worked on this case.

The forensic team was incredible and the information passed on to us gave us such a high view of the men and women that work behind the scenes. Their findings were outstanding and again this has given us such respect for the high calibre of people we have working in those departments. We are proud of our South African Police Department.”