Tell police they had only been on holiday
Five missing people were found at Wat Chong Lom Temple in Pak Kret district of Nonthaburi province on Friday after losing contact with family members for over two months.
On Friday, reports said that the group were found by officers from Provincial Police Region 8 and Provincial Police Region 1. The five people have been identified as U-sa Panrod, 43, Chonnikarn Tochanok, 22, Yasumin Jomrit, 22, Sasiprapa Rujit, 13 and Pornpipat Panrod, 13. Ms U-sa is the mother of Ms Chonnikarn and an aunt to the three other people.
Police were told that they had been waiting for someone to pick them up from the temple.
The investigation is being conducted by Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn, deputy national police chief.
Pol Gen Surachate said the five locals from Nakhon Si Thammarat went missing on April 22.
The group had been recently in the spotlight after a viral TikTok video made by a relative who feared that they had been abducted.
Police later found that they were taken by Lomkrod Saengsawang, 36, who is also Ms Chonnikarn’s boyfriend. Mr Lomkrod hired a van driven by Noppadol Songmuangin to pick the five up before they lost contact with their family.
Ms U-sa’s mother, Sujit Panrod, 72, had filed a missing persons complaint with Tha Sala Police in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Mrs Sujit said that all five of them were unreachable after April 22.
Pol Gen Surachate said that the missing people had insisted they were not kidnapped or victims of human trafficking.
The children were taken on a trip after Ms U-sa had successfully sold her land plots for 400,000 baht.
“All five of them have said that they were not abducted. They were on holiday,” said Pol Gen Surachate.
However, the motive of adults involved in this incident remains unclear, with Pol Gen Surachate saying that police will press charges against Mr Lomkrod for abducting children under 15 from their parents.
He also revealed that Mr Lomkrod had previously been charged with fraud worth 1.8 million baht.
Reports also said that Ms U-sa had called her sister on Friday morning, trying to convince her to have her mother withdraw the missing persons report. During the call, Ms U-sa reportedly said that the family was exaggerating the issue and assured them they were well.
When her sister asked why Ms U-sa did not contact the family, she said Mr Lomkrod had taken everyone’s phones. The call was instantly cut off, and no one could reach Ms U-sa afterwards, reports said.
Reports showed that Mr Lomkrod had gone out with Ms Chonnikarn for five months before she introduced him to her family.
He then invited Ms U-sa to invest in a gas station business with him.
Ms U-sa had sold her land plots for 300,000 baht and got a 100,000-baht loan using her car as collateral before giving her money to Mr Lomkrod.
On Thursday, the Nakhon Si Thammarat Provincial Court issued an arrest warrant to Mr Lomkrod for abducting children under 15 from their parents.