A man has revealed the horrifying moment he discovered a surfer stabbed multiple times during an early-morning attack at a popular NSW beach.
Kye Schaefer, 22, was fatally stabbed in the neck and chest after leaving the surf at Park Beach on Ocean Parade in Coffs Harbour shortly after 6am on Thursday.
A local man who had been sleeping rough in the carpark said he saw Mr Schaefer slumped on the ground next to his car before emergency services arrived.
‘I put my joggers on to go for a run and I just saw him … he looked like he was sitting down on the ground up against his driver’s door,’ he told 7News.
‘All I could see was his legs in his wetsuit. He just looked like he was sitting there, and I couldn’t see much more of him, except for his legs.
‘Then I got back from my jog and there were cops who wouldn’t let me into the carpark … there were all these cops everywhere.’
The family of Kye Schaefer, 22, have mourned the sudden and tragic loss of the young man with a ‘heart of gold’
The man said Mr Schaefer had been seen arriving at the beach early each morning over the past week.
The revelations come as Mr Schaefer’s family mourn the sudden and tragic loss of the young man with a ‘heart of gold’.
His uncle, Ralph, told 2BG radio his nephew had a ‘gentle, caring nature’.
‘He was a lovely young man,’ he said on Friday.
‘He definitely had a mischievous side to him. He loved to laugh, but more than anything else he just had a heart of gold.’
Coffs businesswoman Sandy Ryman told The Daily Telegraph Mr Schaefer was a much loved young man.
‘He was an extremely gentle soul, quiet spoken, polite and well mannered,’ she said.
‘All the family are wonderful people.
Mr Schaefer, 22, was fatally stabbed in the neck and chest after leaving the surf at Park Beach on Ocean Parade in Coffs Harbour shortly after 6am on Thursday
‘We had the privilege of both Kye, his dad Tony and Kye’s sister Mimi all working for us, and Tony and his wife Pam have become good friends.’
Cowper MP Pat Conaghan wrote on social media after the attack that more needed to be done to stop violent knife crime.
‘My thoughts this afternoon are with the family and friends of the young man stabbed to death on one of our region’s beautiful beaches,’ he said.
‘With two sons myself, I can only imagine what you are going through.’
A local man who had been sleeping rough in the carpark said he saw Mr Schaefer slumped on the ground next to his car before emergency services arrived
Mr Conaghan urged the NSW government to consider introducing legislation similar to Jack’s Law.
The law was recently passed in Queensland following the fatal stabbing of 19-year-old Jack Beasley on the Gold Coast in 2019.
Coffs MP Gurmesh Singh said the community was in a state of ‘significant fear and trauma’.
‘I was actually in Sydney for the Bondi incident a few weeks ago and it hanged the feeling of Sydney overnight – this incident has done the same in Coffs,’ he said.
‘There’s a lot of fear and trauma in the community at the moment and I would encourage anyone who needs mental health support to go and seek it out immediately through the available channels.’
