Body found off Koh Bon
RAWAI: The unidentified body of a “white” man was found floating near Koh Bon about 11 am yesterday. The body was discovered by hotel staff working in the area.
Lt Ratthakhet Manmuang, duty officer at Chalong Police Station, told the Gazette that the corpse was found about 300 meters from shore. The man is believed to have been around 40 years old and about 170 cm tall, with white skin.
“The body has some wounds but we still cannot determine whether they were caused by a weapon or crashing against rocks in the sea.
“We believe he died about three days ago. He was only wearing blue shorts and was carrying no form of identification,” he said.
“We asked the hotels around the island to determine if they were missing any guests, but they said they weren’t,” Lt Ratthakhet added.
Initial accounts in local Thai media reported that the body was that of an unidentified foreigner. However, a coroner who spoke to the Gazette on condition of anonymity explained that an examination of the body indicated that the corpse was that of a small, dark-skinned Burmese male who had been floating in the sea for about four days.
The coroner pointed out that seawater had blanched the man’s skin and caused him to almost double in size, leading the coroner to suspect that the man had fallen or was thrown from a fishing boat a long way from shore.
