Since the Japanese Coast Guard found Yu-Gi-Oh! creator and Japanese artist Kazuki Takahashi dead off the coast of Japan on July 6 at age 60, his death two days before remained a mystery until a few weeks after. In an effort to tell a fuller story of how Takahashi helped save the lives of a drowning 12-year-old girl and man near Mermaid’s Grotto, a diving and snorkeling resort in Okinawa, The New York Times on Friday spoke to witness Capt. Neda K. Othman of the U.S. Army and her husband as well as Japanese officials familiar with the matter. The Times also received sworn statements from the Othman couple and diving instructor. “The glare and the sunlight was kind of silhouetting him, so I didn’t see his face,” Othman, who later helped the swimmers reach safety on July 4, told the Times. The well-renowned artist’s family did not want his cause of death—drowning—revealed when the Coast Guard determined he was last seen at Mermaid’s Grotto on July 11, according to the Times. And because authorities didn’t initially want the girl to know Takahashi drowned trying to save her life, Coast Guard officials told the paper they did not “publicly connect” his death to the rescue until the media asked.