Filipino fisherman’s death a “mystery’

PHUKET TOWN: A Filipino crewman was found dead at the fishing port near Phya Thai Hospital on Si Sena Rd, Phuket Town, on Monday evening. Though the body was naked when it was discovered floating in the water, a Taiwanese fishing boat skipper at the port identified it as that of Caderlon Ronelo, 26, who had worked for him. He had not been seen for four days. The cause of Ronelo’s death remains unknown. The corpse had two deep cuts under the left breast and one large open wound on the right side of the stomach. Pol Capt Surat Muangsri of the Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that there were two possibilities. “We’re not sure; the wounds could have been made by a knife or another sharp object, or by a boat propeller. One of the witnesses who saw him shortly before his death told me that the man was drunk, so it could be either. “We just know that he came back to the boat on a motorcycle taxi, alone, four nights before the body was found. No one saw him after that, until his corpse came to the surface when the boat was moving out of port on Monday. “We are sure that he didn’t die because someone wanted to steal his money. His friends told us that he didn’t even have enough to pay for the motorcycle taxi ride.”