Runaway bride

SAPHAN BURI: Being forced into a loveless marriage is an unhappy fate for any girl to endure, but not everyone takes the situation lying down.

After being forced to marry the son of a wealthy local cattle owner, one young woman from Suphan Buri managed to escape with not only her freedom, but also the 400,000-baht sin sot (bride price) as well.

The story came to light on May 27, when the bride’s mother, 40-year-old Kamlai Thirakaow, contacted the press to enlist its help in locating her daughter, 19-year-old Walee.

The bride had disappeared nine days earlier on her wedding night, along with the all-important sin sot.

With tears of anguish streaming down her cheeks, K. Kamlai told reporters that on May 17, Walee had wed 23-year-old Sunet Kamlangdee, whose family had paid her a bride price of cash and gold worth about 400,000 baht.

After the wedding reception, the couple went back to Sunet’s home– presumably to consummate their union.

The next evening, Walee slipped out of the house with the sin sot, which her mother had yet to collect, and had not been seen since, K. Kamlai said.

K. Kamlai said that Sunet had told her that on the evening of May 18, he had been lying in bed with Walee when she got up claiming she needed to use the toilet. The next thing he heard, however, was the sound of a motorbike being driven away at speed. When he got up to investigate, he found that the 150,000 baht in cash and 12 bahtweight of gold sin sot had gone.

Immediately suspicious that her daughter’s ex-boyfriend had something to do with the disappearing act, K. Kamlai decided to bring the law in and reported the incident to Bang Pla Ma Police Station.

The reason she thought the ex-boyfriend was involved was that Sunet had told her that on the wedding night, a man had rung up and threateningly said, “We’ll soon see who will really get Walee.”

Through the press, K. Kamlai appealed for Walee to come home and discuss the issue with her family, who are now obliged to repay Sunet’s family.

Lt Col Bunyang Bun-eam, an investigating officer at Bang Pla Ma Police Station, said that Walee’s relatives had come to the station to ask for help in finding her, but had not yet asked to press charges against anyone.

Police questioned Walee’s ex-boyfriend, who had not run away, and two other friends. All denied any involvement in her disappearance. Walee called Col Bunyan a few days after the incident had been reported to police, insisting that her ex-boyfriend had nothing to do with it. She also asked him to persuade her mother not to press charges, he said.

At last report, police were trying to track down the runaway bride through their network of informants.

A source in the police said that Walee had been with her ex-boyfriend for a number of years, since they were in school together.

When Sunet became interested in her, she was forced to marry him after a six-month engagement.