Chiang Rai family exhumes body after ‘dead’ son walks back home
A Thai man believed to be dead returned to his home in Chiang Rai province on January 24, leaving his family stunned and forcing them to exhume a body they had already buried, only to discover it was his friend, not him.
Rescuers from the Thap Yang Sataranakusol Foundation were asked to assist a family in the Mae Fah Luang district after they realised a serious identification error occurred. The body in question was buried on January 9.
According to the father, 66 year old Aryuay, he was informed on January 9 that his son, identified only as A, had died. Rescue workers later transported the body, believed to be A, back to the family home. The family held funeral rites and buried the body the same day.
The situation took a shocking turn when A unexpectedly returned home on January 24, leaving Aryuay and other family members in disbelief. After questioning what had happened, the family discovered that the body they buried actually belonged to A’s friend, who lived and worked with him in Chiang Mai.
The friend carryed A’s identification card at the time of his death. As a result, rescuers mistakenly identified the deceased as A, leading to the fatal mix-up.
Once the truth was uncovered, the family contacted the rescue foundation to retrieve the body and return it to the correct relatives. Rescuers exhumed the remains, changed the burial shroud, placed the body in a new coffin, and transported it to a hospital, where the deceased man’s real family was waiting.
Aryuay said he did not know how or why his son’s friend had possession of A’s identification card, adding that his son had not explained the matter to him.
According to a report by Channel 7, A’s family belongs to the Akha ethnic group. Under Akha beliefs, bringing the body of someone from outside the community into the village is considered a violation of tradition.
Following the incident, a local spiritual medium conducted a ritual to ward off misfortune and apologise to the spiritual powers respected by the community.
A similar case was reported in January last year, when a Thai man returned home in Sakhon Nakhon to find his family holding a funeral for him after police mistakenly identified another man who died from cold weather as him.
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