Arrest warrant sought for American man over missing body parts

– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community

PHUKET: An arrest warrant will be issued for an American man who allegedly tried to courier human parts to the US. He faces charges of theft, possessing stolen items and falsely declaring the types of items being posted.

He was also apparently captured on surveillance cameras entering Siriraj Hospital’s medical museum recently before the body parts were reported missing, a police source said yesterday.

The parcels were heading for Las Vegas.

The source said Bangkok police chief Pol Lt-General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul had ordered his subordinates to seek the arrest warrant.

As of press time, the police were also in the process of acquiring surveillance-camera clips implicating Ryan Edward McPherson.

Dr Udom Kachintorn, dean of Siriraj Hospital’s faculty of medicine, had reported that five body parts had gone missing from a museum inside the Adulyadej Wikrom Building after McPherson was last seen entering the building a month ago.

“We want to find out if the body parts had been carried out in [McPherson’s] backpack, or if he bribed the museum staff” to take them out, the dean said.

Three of the five parts were allegedly stolen from the Forensic Science Division and the other two from the Division of Anatomical Science in the same museum, Udom said. He did not specify which parts came from which division.

Siriraj Hospital filed a complaint with Bangkok Noi police yesterday and museum custodians were interviewed about the surveillance footage and the case of the missing parts.

Police said policies on visitors to this museum and other medical displays under Siriraj Hospital would have to be stricter.

Separately, senior investigators met yesterday at the Bang Phongphang Police Station to discuss the case, and at a press conference later, investigator Pol Lt-Colonel Jaturong Thongphanlertsakul announced that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation was being asked to help in terms of the intended recipients.

Senior investigator Pol Colonel Sombat Milinthajinda confirmed yesterday that McPherson had left Thailand for Cambodia through the Khlong Luek border checkpoint in Sa Kaew province.

He said McPherson was one of the two Westerners believed to be involved in the case, though police had earlier never referred to a second person. However, a second man was seen alongside McPherson in photographs published in several Thai-language newspapers yesterday.

— Phuket Gazette Editors