Desperate son’s 700km search for missing father who disappeared during durian harvest

A distressed 26 year old Thai man and his wife embarked on a journey of over 700 kilometres in a search for his missing father. The disappearance occurred after the father accompanied a friend to collect durian fruits in Chumphon province, where he displayed strange behaviour. The father, who supposedly spoke of three women while standing alone talking to himself near a tree, remains untraceable despite the son and his wife’s continued search efforts.

Anant Wanthong, a resident of Nong Kham, Sri Racha, Chon Buri province, journeyed with his wife, Rungthip Laengsuk, from Chon Buri to Chumphon province. Their mission was to search for his 48 year old father, Suriya Wanthong, who had travelled with a fellow truck driver friend to collect durian fruits from the Chumphon province’s vicinity. It was after taking a break near a tree that Suriya began speaking to himself about three women, later disappearing without a trace.

Anant and his wife reported that Suriya had joined his friend in Chon Buri to drive a container truck collecting durian at a farm near Khao Pheeb crossroads, Thung Tako, Chumphon. As Suriya was loading the durians into the container truck at around 8am on June 22, he strolled to the adjacent woods to urinate. Upon return, he began speaking nonsensically to himself about three women, which alarmed his friend to the point of offering him a blessing necklace. It was at this point that Suriya expressed his intent to visit his son residing in Tohmakham Lane, a location in Chon Buri instead of Chumphon, reported KhaoSod.

Further relaying the sequence of events, the son explained that Suriya continued speaking to himself before smashing his mobile phone, accusing three women of trying to extract information from it. His friend refuted seeing any women around, to which Suriya reaffirmed that he wasn’t speaking to his friend but to the three women.

Once his friend continued to the durian farm, Suriya was seen strolling along the Asian Highway No. 41 in the direction of Khao Pheeb crossroads. Suriya’s friend saw him flagging down a biker who was exiting a different durian farm and promptly lost sight of him due to the darkness on the road leading to coastal Thung Tako. It was this narration from Suriya’s friend that spurred Anant and his wife to leave their work in Chon Buri and travel to Chumphon to locate Suriya.

Picking up the trail from the durian farm on Asian Highway No. 41, Anant and his wife searched from Wat Tham Khao Pheep (temple) to the seashore, temples within a 3-kilometre radius, and ancient sites at Khao Pheep, in which Suriya and his friend had planned to visit. However, there was no trace of Suriya in these locations.

Anant received a call from a family member telling him to offer reverence with nine joss sticks at a shrine at a rocky location in the west direction and was also prompted to bring along an areca nut for the offering. Anant and his wife headed in the designated direction towards the Lang Suan area, where they found a shrine at Khao Muang, performed the rituals, and looked around for Suriya but found no lead.

Anant revealed that his father was last seen wearing a blue shirt, and black jeans, carrying a green cloth bag and holding a large red water container. Anant intended to take to social media to seek assistance in the search for his missing father and provided two contact numbers, 065-5274116 and 081-7013500, for anyone with information.