Death by aromatherapy

BANGKOK: A woman in Bang-wa District died of asphyxiation after turning her bathroom into a makeshift sauna and aromatherapy chamber in an attempt to shed unwanted flab. Tanakrit Kianthong, a grilled pork vendor, told police he returned home on July 3 to find his wife Pattaporn, 43, lying dead on the floor of the second-story bathroom of the couple’s three-story townhouse. Arriving at the scene, police found her body lying face down on the floor wearing only a yellow sarong. Beside her was a pot of weight-loss herbs that had been boiling on a stove the deceased had moved into the bathroom. Police and a doctor who accompanied them concluded that the woman had become dehydrated and passed out from the combination of heat, smoke and fumes from the boiling herbs and stove. Once unconscious, she died from lack of oxygen. Police said there was no evidence of foul play and estimated the time of death at about four hours before their arrival. K. Tanakrit told police that he and his wife normally went to sell pork at Bangkae Market, but on that day his said that she wanted to visit a friend. But apparently she had other plans. “After I came back in the early evening I couldn’t find her, so I thought she was still at her friend’s house. But when I went to the upstairs bathroom to take a shower, I found the door locked. I could smell the scent of the herbs, so I looked through the ventilation hole above the door and saw her body on the floor. I broke down the door, but it was too late,” K. Tanakrit explained sadly.