22-year-old Daniel Booysen was stabbed near Cape Town
GAYLORD, MI -- A former Gaylord exchange student from South Africa was found stabbed to death in Cape Town.
His name was Daniel Booysen. He spent 2006 in Gaylord, and his host family said he was the type of guy who had a contagious smile, had no enemies, and was loved by everybody.
Last Thursday, Booysen was murdered.
According to Booysen's host family, he was walking with a female friend in Cape Town when three men approached the couple.
There was a struggle, and when a vehicle approached the scene, the three men fled.
Booysen was found dead, reportedly by a stab wound in the neck.
He lived with Sue and Robert Topp while in Gaylord.
“We had 1/22 of his life with us, shared with us," said Sue Topp. “It's just devastating news. He was a very wonderful, enthusiastic, gifted person, and it's just so tragic to have, what I call, a brilliant star, extinguished in such a violent death at such a young age."
Booysen was 22.
He was only a few weeks away from graduating from Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
