Thai man phones wife before going missing on Phuket mountain
A Thai man went missing on a mountain in Phuket on Sunday afternoon after calling his wife and saying, “I’m so tired, I feel like I’m going to faint.”
The man’s wife, 56 year old Tararat Payu, sought help from Choeng Thale Police Station officers and rescuers after her 61 year old husband, Surin Yadee, went missing on Sunday, March 23, on Ket Nee Mountain in Phuket.
Tararat said they had gone to the mountain together but lost each other because her husband walked faster.
Tararat explained that they lived in the Bang Tao community in the Thalang district of Phuket and had begun their journey up the mountain at about 9am on Sunday.
They aimed to collect fruit from the mountain for a ritual they believed would help them successfully sell their plot of land.
After gathering the fruit, they walked down the mountain together. However, she felt exhausted and stopped to rest while her husband continued walking. She saw him waving at her from a distance before they lost sight of each other.
Tararat said her husband called her later and said, “I’m so tired, I feel like I’m going to faint,” before the call was cut off. She tried calling him multiple times afterwards, but he did not answer. She suspected that he may have lost consciousness somewhere on the mountain or had got lost.
A relative of Surin told Channel 7 that he usually climbed the mountain once or twice a year.
His family members, worried about his safety, searched for him for several hours after learning of his disappearance. However, they found no trace of him and decided to perform a ritual to seek help from the spirits in the forest.
Channel 7 reported that the search operation was halted at 4pm yesterday, and officers arranged a meeting with Surin’s family and locals at 9am today to resume the mission.
Officers suspect that Surin may have got lost in the forest on the other side of the mountain, near the Kamala district of Phuket, and plan to search for him in that area.
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