Elderly woman dies in heatstroke after walking 2km barefoot

An elderly woman, famously known for walking barefoot for two kilometres to ask for money for food, was found dead alongside a road in Udon Thani province yesterday. The 81 year old woman named Boon, who was discovered naked, is believed to have succumbed to the sweltering heat.

At 9am, Ratpol Mora Rat, an investigator at Na Kha Police Station, was informed by a villager about the lifeless body found by the roadside in the Ban Ngoi-Ban Nakhon Kaew area. The investigator, accompanied by a medical team from the Sawang Metha Udon Thani Foundation and the emergency unit of Udon Thani Centre Hospital, arrived at the scene to find Boon lying dead on her right side facing down in a fetal position.

Boon’s clothes were located nearby: a sarong, a blue button-up shirt, a walking stick, and a plastic bag containing two to three sets of clothes. The post-mortem examination revealed that she may have died two days before the discovery, showing no signs of struggle. Boon likely suffered a heatstroke due to the hot weather, causing her death. She may have removed her clothes to cool down as the heat became unbearable.

Her relatives and fellow villagers were disheartened to see Boon’s lifeless body. Having died likely due to the scorching heat on Sunday, with temperatures nearing 45°C, she suffered a tragic death. Boon became the subject of stories shared widely on social media in July of last year, as her walking clip garnered millions of views and sympathy from the public.

Boon’s 44 year old daughter, Bangon, revealed that her mother had no pre-existing health conditions despite her old age. On the day of her disappearance, Boon had mentioned that she intended to stay with a sick relative in another village. Boon said she would walk there with her walking stick and without shoes, a practice she was already accustomed to. Her daughter assumed Boon had safely made it to the village and did not inquire further until she received the shocking news.

Refuting any suspicions, Bangon believes that the cause of her mother’s death was heatstroke brought about by the unbearably hot weather on Sunday, which her mother likely could not endure while walking. The family is deeply saddened by Boon’s passing, marking an end to her story that captured the hearts of many.