Elderly Woman Found Dead in Navy Housing After Days Missing
A 66-year-old woman was found dead in her room at a Navy housing complex in Samut Prakan after a coffee shop owner noticed her absence. She had refused to relocate when the Navy ordered residents to move for demolition, leaving her without utilities. Her decomposed body, estimated dead for five to six days, showed extensive animal scavenging, and police have sent it for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
On November 14, 2026, Police Lieutenant Chanaphon Kamoncham, investigator at Phra Samut Chedi Police Station in Samut Prakan province, received a report of a death inside a room at a Navy housing complex in Laem Fa Pha subdistrict, Phra Samut Chedi district. She proceeded to the scene along with an on-duty doctor from Phra Samut Chedi Swasdi Yanant Hospital and volunteers from the Ruam Katanyu Foundation.
The housing consisted of row-style wooden units. In room 15, officers found the body of Ms. Thongkam Phophet, 66, lying face down and unclothed on the floor. She had been dead for at least five to six days. Her body bore marks consistent with animal scavenging: her left leg was severed, her right leg reduced to bone, and her abdominal cavity was completely empty of internal organs.
Rescue workers faced difficulty retrieving the body due to piles of clothing and household items scattered throughout the cluttered room.
Mr. Narong, 66, the first person to discover the body, stated that the deceased had lived there with her husband, a Navy civilian employee, until his death ten years ago. She remained in the quarters because she had nowhere else to go and no relatives.
Five months earlier, the Royal Thai Navy had ordered all civilian employees and their families to relocate to newly built flats on the opposite side of the Navy base, as the old housing was slated for demolition and reconstruction. However, the deceased refused to move, having no alternative accommodation, and stayed behind even after water and electricity were cut off. She lived there alone ever since.
Previously, she worked as a seamstress, but after her sewing machine broke and she could not afford repairs, she earned a living by shucking shellfish. She habitually drank alcohol daily.
Before her body was found, the coffee shop owner across from the village contacted the village headman, concerned because the deceased had not come to buy coffee for several days — a daily routine before she went out to shuck shellfish each morning. The village headman investigated and discovered the grim scene.
Police documented the scene and logged the incident. The body was initially handed to the Ruam Katanyu Foundation for transfer to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.
