Dad's Last Message to Daughter Was to ‘Stay Safe’ During Hurricane Helene. Days Later, He Was Found Dead (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jim Lau (second from the right) with his daughter Destinie Andrews and her children Roman and Roland.Photo:Destinie Andrews

Destinie Andrews

The daughter of a North Carolina courthouse security officer,whose body was found in a river after Hurricane Helene,remembers her father as a funny and quick-witted man who was helpful and happy to share his knowledge with others.

“I have periods where I am fine, and then I am losing it all over again,” Destinie Andrews, 37, tells PEOPLE in an email interview.  “I will remember him as my hero. There’s really no other way to word it. If I needed him, no matter the distance, he was always there."

Charles James “Jim” Lau, 75, a retired sheriff’s deputy who spent many years working in Florida’s Volusia County, was working at the Macon County Courthouse in North Carolina at the time of thedevastating storm.

According to the Macon County Sheriff’s Office, they got a call on Friday, Sept. 27 about a “truck in the river on Fulton road, with witnesses saying that they [saw] someone in [the] truck before it went underwater.”

“It was soon realized that one of our courthouse security officers, Jim Lau,hadn’t returned to work from lunchand his truck matched the description of the truck that was seen in the river,” they said in a statement.

Jim Ladd with his daughter Destinie, son-in-law Ricardo and grandchild Roman.Destinie Andrews

Andrews, a married mother of two in Daytona, Fla., tells PEOPLE she received a call on Sept. 28 from her stepmother Judie, who told her Lau was missing.

“I felt helpless,” Andrews recalls. “I didn’t know what to do, so I reached out in that Hurricane Helene group [on Facebook], looking for something, anything, anyone, that could help my Daddy.”

About an hour later, she says Judie called again to tell her that his body had been recovered. “It was all in one day for me,” she adds. “I didn’t know he was missing until the day they found him.”

Lau was born in Pittsburgh, says Andrews. He and Andrews’ mother split up when she was young, but she would always visit her dad every other weekend and Wednesdays. “Even as an adult, I always called him Daddy,” she shares.

“I remember one time, I fell on my rollerblades at a friend’s house, busted my lip really good," she says. “All I wanted was my Daddy.”

Jim Lau.Destinie Andrews

According to hisobituary, Lau served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. After his time in the military, he pursued a long career in law enforcement that included working at the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office (VCSO) for 23 years and the Macon County Sheriff Office.

“He occasionally picked me up from school in full VCSO uniform and in his unmarked patrol car," she says. “I was so proud. I still am.”

Jim Lau with his daughter Destinie in 2005 during his retirement from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Department.Destinie Andrews

Andrews says that Lau and his then-wife Millie moved to Franklin, N.C., following his retirement in 2005. She died in 2007 after a battle with breast cancer.

He went on to marry Judie that same year and the two moved to Wyoming, where he worked for TSA. “He just couldn’t sit down. He needed to work, to serve his purpose," Andrews says, adding that “they eventually moved back to North Carolina to be close to Judie’s children and now grandchildren.”

At the time of his death, Lau was working with the Macon County Sheriff’s Office again at the courthouse. “My Daddy had been battling prostate cancer, and yet still, wanted to work,” Andrews says. “To serve. He was stubborn, a little hard headed and determined.”

Still, he always made time to see Andrews and her sons, 5 and 2, at the family’s home in Daytona Beach. “He was very excited to be a grandpa,” she says. “He never missed a birthday or Christmas card for them, and would FaceTime visit occasionally just to catch up. He loved my boys, and they knew it, even with the distance between us, he made sure of that.”

Jim Lau holding his grandchild.Destinie Andrews

The last time Andrews saw her father was in June when he visited Maggie Valley in North Carolina. Their last text message was more recent.

On Wednesday, Sept. 25, two days before he went missing during the storm, Andrews says her father sent her a message, which she got as an email.

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“I hadn’t realized just how many lives he touched in his 75 years,” she says. “The love is truly felt. I have been trying to keep up with the massive amount of outreach, the wonderful things people are saying about their time spent with my Dad. It’s just amazing.”

As for his legacy, she would like people to remember her father for his “dedication to service.”

“Work hard, do good. Treat people right. Teach,” she adds. “Make sure to smile and make others smile, too.”

source: people.com