Missing Russian’s body found at sea near Patong Beach

All hope is now lost for the safe return of the Russian woman who disappeared after a swim on a Phuket beach last week. The dead body of the missing woman, Elena Rusradchenko, washed ashore near Patong Beach earlier this morning. She disappeared from Sakoo in Thalang. Police and volunteers had been sweeping the island and the surrounding seas for the past six days in hopes of finding her alive.

Those hopes have now been dashed. The search team found the woman’s body some 30 to 40 kilometres from Nai Thon Beach in the north of the island where she had gone for a swim at 10am on Thursday. The 53 year old Russian tourist had been reported missing by her friends after they left her on the beach in the morning.

The Thalang District Chief received notification from rescue teams that Rusradchenko’s body had been spotted by a local fisherman. Thai media reported that a villager had gone fishing and reported the body to Kusontham Foundation Rescuers at 8.30am. They spotted her floating somewhere between Patong Beach and Karon Beach.

Rescuers from the search team went into the waters to retrieve the body and bring it ashore. According to The Pattaya News, the body was examined on Layan Beach, some 15 kilometres by sea from where she was found. The body was found wearing a swimsuit friends and relatives matched to the missing woman, and police had them identify the body as well.

Authorities including Minister of Tourism and Sports Pipat Ratchakitprakarn, and the commander of the Phuket Provincial Police were onsite at Layan Beach when she was brought ashore.

Rusradchenko had been staying at a hotel near Nai Thon Beach, located in the Sakoo subdistrict of Thalang in Phuket. On Thursday morning she went with her friends to the beach but she swam alone. Her friends went to their hotel without her, but went back in the afternoon and found her shoes and towel, still left on the beach.

Authorities feared that she had been lost at sea but, before her body was found, she was reportedly spotted coming out of the waters at Nai Thon Beach around noon. Lifeguards called for all swimmers to get out of the sea because a storm was arriving. A guard at the beach who witnessed it said that Rusradchenko came ashore with other swimmers but looked “absent-minded.” The Russian woman was known to have some memory issues. In the disoriented state described, she did not pick up her belongings but instead wandered off in the opposite direction.

It is unclear if that sighting was a case of mistaken identity or if she did indeed wander off and back into the water where she met her demise.

Her body has been sent to Vachira Phuket Hospital for an autopsy to try to ascertain details of her death and to be given religious services before being handed over to her relatives.