Cape Town – The town of Fish Hoek was in mourning on Wednesday night after the slaying of a much-loved son, retired master builder Henri La Cour.
He was accosted and stabbed on the Trappieskop Trail, which ascends the southern end of the Kalk Bay mountainside to a saddle,
with a close family friend, a woman in her early forties, whose identity the Cape Argus has been asked to protect for her safety.
“He absolutely loved hiking – he’d go up into the mountains two or three times a week,” said close friend Kevin O’Donoghue, who is pastor at the Full Gospel Church in Fish Hoek, where La Cour was a parishioner.
Around 10.30am on Wednesday, La Cour and the woman friend, also from Fish Hoek, headed up the trail.
“At some point they stopped to rest and were attacked,” O’Donoghue said. “It seems he may have tried to stop the assailant attacking her – but it is not clear.”
La Cour, 72, was stabbed in the upper chest.
The woman fled to escape and seek help, back down the path to Godfrey Road, about 250m below.
A resident, who asked not to be named, told the Cape Argus: “She rang my bell. But by the time I answered she had run next door to my mother-in-law.
“She called me and I called 10111 and screamed for them to bring the police, bring an ambulance, bring everything.
“The police were here extremely quickly, as was CMR (a private paramedic service).”
Within a short while, a police chopper was circling, searching for the attacker…
South Africa Today – South Africa News
