Woman Found Dead in Pond, Call Center Scam Suspected
A 39-year-old woman from Surin was found dead in a pond on August 4, three days after going missing; neighbors said she had been desperate to borrow money for an online romance scam involving a foreign national.
On August 5, police in Muang Surin district responded to a report of a body floating in a large pond near a rice field on August 4. Officers from Muang Surin Police Station, Surin rescue units, and a medical examiner recovered the body from the roughly 10-meter-deep pond. The deceased, identified as Ms. A (pseudonym), 39, had been missing since August 2 at around 2 p.m. after riding a Honda Wave motorcycle registered in Surin. Only a motorcycle key was found on her body, which showed signs of decomposition.
Her husband, Mr. B (pseudonym), 49, said they had lived together and had two children. He reported her missing on August 3 after she left home alone. He stated they had never argued and he did not know why she would take her own life. When police opened the motorcycle with the key found on the body, they discovered her phone tucked under the seat, powered off, with a locked screen that no one could unlock.
The field owner who found the motorcycle first said he noticed it parked on August 3 and reported it to local authorities the next day, fearing it might be stolen. A pair of shoes was found discarded beside the pond, and the body was spotted floating in the water.
Neighbors revealed that the woman had been trying to borrow money from multiple people around August 3. She claimed she needed 30,000 baht to transfer to a foreign national she had been in contact with for about three months to pay for customs clearance fees, promising a large sum would be returned once the payment cleared. Colleagues warned her it was a scam, but she insisted she was not being deceived. The woman worked as a housekeeper at a subdistrict health promotion hospital and had two daughters in grades 4 and 6 who are still unaware of her death.
