Quinton took shortcut to death

2005-08-31 23:18

Ziegfried Ekron

Cape Town - Taxi fare of R4 from Glencairn to Fish Hoek could have saved an Ocean View youth from a death on Table Mountain.

Members of the metro emergency services and Wilderness Search and Rescue found the body of Quinton van Rhyn, 19, in the Elsies Peak area after he had gone missing on Monday night.

Van Rhyn was last seen alive at his work in Glencairn about 17:00 on Monday before he took a short cut over the mountain to Fish Hoek station.

According to Anwaaz Bent of the search-and-rescue organisation, Van Rhyn must have lost his footing on the mountainside, but it was not yet clear whether he had died instantly or of exposure.

Bent called on the public once again to immediately report missing people to the emergency services. He said the emergency services found out about the search for Quinton only at 21:30 on Tuesday.

Didn't arrive home

"We could do nothing in the dark, but we sent out the sky-med helicopter at first light. The body was found 20 minutes later.

"Who knows, if we were informed in time, we might have been able to save him."

It seemed as if Quinton's mother, Helene van Rhyn, wasn't aware her son had tried a shortcut across the mountain.

She became worried when he didn't arrive home from his work at a loan company on Monday.

"I went to see if he was at the church youth group, because he was involved with them, but the evening's meeting was already over and there was no trace of him.

"We phoned him on his cellphone, but it just rang and eventually changed to his voicemail message."

The next day she asked her employer - for whom she worked as a domestic - to help, and they eventually got hold of Quinton's employer.

She said her son usually reported to his employer's office in Fish Hoek, but on that particular day he was taken to Glencairn to work at the company owner's house.

"He didn't have R4 to take the taxi back to Fish Hoek. He had only a bus ticket from Fish Hoek to Ocean View. He didn't know the way and he didn't survive."

- Die Burger