Elderly Korat woman seeks help finding US-resident daughter after 20 years apart

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Elderly Korat woman seeks help finding US-resident daughter after 20 years apart

By Prasit Tungprasert 
The Nation

 

Image: Spring News

 

An 80-year-old woman in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Bua Yai district on Wednesday sent out a public plea for help to locate her daughter, who left home to work in the United States 20 years ago and has not been in contact since.

Pook Prajit, from Tambon Bua Yai, met with The Nation and other reporters in Muang district to get out the message.

 

She produced a wedding photo of her daughter, Duanpen Ritthisuk, 48, explaining that she had married in 1999 before leaving Thailand with her husband to work in Chicago. She has not heard from her daughter since she moved the US.

 

Duanpen Ritthisuk. Image: Spring News

 

Pook said she has six children and is now living with her second son.

 

She said she missed her youngest daughter, Duanpen, very much and would like to hear from her before her final days. She hoped Duanpen would see the reports and contact her.

 

Anyone with information about Duanpen can phone Pook on 089 917 4877.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30371773

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-06-26

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[bluesofa]

It seems baffling to me that someone appears to have left it for twenty years before getting to this point.

Perhaps she has been down the Thai embassies US route in the US already, although nothing was mentioned about any previous attempts.

 

[DepDavid]

A simple public records search will clear this up. 

[pacovl46]

1 hour ago, DepDavid said:

A simple public records search will clear this up. 

Just did one, nothing for the US.

[NCC1701A]

I don't recognize her.

[NCC1701A]

weird when you Google her name there is only this story. One hit listed.

[Briggsy]

If a Thai daughter has not contacted her mother for 20 years without explanation, there is probably only one reason and it ain't good news. 

[Mel52]

WOW, my wife was in the same situation when we met in the states 22 years ago. And we’re currently living in the same area in Thailand Korat. I remember when we first located her family after like 20 years back in like 1999 apparently the same year this lady left Thailand. When my wife’s family found us or rather we found each other they called us early one morning and that was the day my wife found out that her father had already passed away a few years before they found us. We had a Thai monk in the United States who was working at a local Thai Buddhist temple nearby where we were living in the United States at the time find my wife’s family. He was traveling back to Thailand anyway so we just gave him a little extra money for expenses to go out of his way to Korat and he found my wife’s family.

 

We live fairly close to this lady here in Korat. Bua Yai is a country area of Issan about an hour and a half north of where we live in the city of Korat. We live smack in the middle of the city but we have family up there so we go up there out in the rural areas all the time.

 

I’m tempted to call her and have my wife talk to her because we’ve seen stuff like this before and I really could probably find her with my wife’s help in reading Thai and calling immigration or better yet the local Thai Consulate in Chicago assuming she’s still in Chicago. So it would probably take some time and a lot of work but it can be done unless she’s missing because of foul play God forbid in which case law enforcement would have to get involved. There are a lot of missing people in the United States though who are never found.

 

Here’s the link for the local Thai Consulate in Chicago that she can call at about 7 or 8PM every week night local time:

 

http://www.thaiconsulatechicago.org/pages-Visa.html

 

That’s obviously assuming she’s still in Chicago and assuming that she’s ever used the Thai Consulate to renew her Thai passport, Thai ID Card, or any other Thai citizen service in the United States. If that doesn’t work I’d try the main Thai Embassy in Washington, D.C. because you never know they might have something. It would definitely help if her mom had a copy of her Permanent Resident Card or at least her INS number but I doubt it.

 

All you need is her name and Thai ID card number which can be found on her page in their family TAMBIEN BAAN book and just maybe the Thai Consulate in the states has information on her, in fact it’s quite possible that they do after 20 years in the states. I would also try United States Immigration as well. She’s probably alive because if she had died in the United States normally, NORMALLY the Thai Embassy would have been notified of the death and her family here in Thailand would have been notified soon after in theory if everything went the way it’s supposed to go unless unforeseen circumstances prevented anyone from being notified of a death which can happen.

 

But chances are she’s alive. Some people just lose touch with family overseas it happens. My wife did for about 20 years as well she found her family after about 20 years shortly after we met 22 years ago and I’ve seen multiple cases like this with my wife’s friends in the United States as well.

 

As long as she has a good husband and as long as they’re still together after 20 years it’s probably not a human trafficking situation either but unfortunately that’s another possibility in which case law enforcement would have to find her good luck with that if that’s the case God forbid. Or if God forbid the husband did something to her it’s possible that no one found out depending on the situation.

 

I also have a brother in Chicago I’ll send him this article and have him post it on Facebook and spread the word. I’m just thinking of ways we could help because my wife was in this situation before when we first met 21 years ago just because she lost touch after so many years but not immediately after she first left Thailand as it sounds like is the case in this situation. These things happen all the time. My wife made an effort to get back in touch with her family though that’s partially why we ended up retiring here in the first place. Plus we live nearby her mother here in Nakhon Ratchasima but we’re in the city but still she’s only 90 minutes away from where we live. I’m gonna think about and see if we might be able to help because finding people is one of the things I was good at.

 

There’s probably a lot of people reading this article that know exactly how to help find her it’s not that hard it could be time consuming but it is very possible to find her. I bet I could track her down in a few weeks at the most if my wife and I were to speak with this mother and start with her daughters full legal Thai name and her Thai ID card number, and Thai passport number. It’s definitely possible and it’s not as hard as some people might think. I also have a “Skip Tracer” friend in the United States that I served with in the military who now works for a bail bondsman and his sole job is finding people I could send this lady’s name, Thai ID card, and Thai passport number to him in an email and see if he can do anything.

 

Also it’s been 20 years right so another possibility is that she could now be a full naturalized US Citizen today after all these years. But immigration in the United States INS should have records of that if so. So it still would be very possible to find her. These days with today’s technology the only people you can’t find are the people making a great effort not to be found who don’t want to be found but even those kind of people can be found if you are smart enough and determined enough. I’m going to save this article and maybe see if we could help.

 

 

 

 

[Mel52]

If a Thai daughter has not contacted her mother for 20 years without explanation, there is probably only one reason and it ain't good news. 

 

Not necessarily I’ve seen many situations like this that is unfortunately possible but you’d be surprised how often this happens when the family is still alive and well.

[Mel52]

It seems baffling to me that someone appears to have left it for twenty years before getting to this point.
Perhaps she has been down the Thai embassies US route in the US already, although nothing was mentioned about any previous attempts.
 

I know it seems baffling but I swear it happens here all the time I’ve seen many situations like this just read my post above, I actually have experience dealing with situations like this between Thailand and the United States. It’s very likely that she’s still alive and well. I bet she probably is. Probably has a few kids by now working a job in the states trying to make ends meet and she just lost touch with her family here you’d be surprised how often this happens.

[Mel52]

A simple public records search will clear this up. 

That might help but it might also be a little harder than that. Contrary to popular belief not everything about everyone can be found online even today. Although sometimes it can quite often there’s something online if she ever got a speeding ticket renting or buying a house might show up on a public records check. A professional online records check conducted by a licensed investigator with access to the NCIC and other databases that the rest of us can’t access would probably find her fast. I doubt they could hire a PI in the states but there’s still ways you don’t have to be a professional to find her.

[Mel52]

You know it’s sad but one of the reasons why this happens is because when a lot of Thai people go abroad to work they send money back home to their families. And quite often when a Thai person especially women can’t afford to send money back home to the family from the states or wherever sometimes they are ashamed and they don’t call home for a while and unfortunately sometimes that just goes on for a while and just sort of becomes permanent sometimes. That’s how it starts quite often sadly.

 

Like I said above when I first met my wife in the states she had come to the United States to work in factories originally and she had lost contact with her family for about 20 years as well. Shortly after we met a monk we knew who was going back to Thailand found my wife’s family for her back in 1999 if I recall was the first time my wife spoke to her family in 20 years I still remember that phone call that morning before I went to work that day. I remember my wife was crying like I’ve never heard before because she learned that her father had passed away back in 1997 I think during her first phone call with her family after about 20 years as well. Now we’re living next door to them a few houses down.

 

[Mel52]

If I spoke to the mother one question I would ask after I asked for her daughters full legal name, (and maiden name) Thai ID card number, and her Thai passport number would be what about the husbands family? Has anyone in Thailand heard from her husband? If so when was the last time they heard from him? And if not is anyone in her husbands family looking for him? If they are looking for him as well have they made any progress. Is it likely that they’re still in Chicago? That would be just to begin searching. I’ll bet she’s alive and well I’d bet on it I’ve seen this a hundred times, and not just in my wife’s situation when we first met some of her friends in the states as well and some of them I remember were reunited with their families. We helped with one of her friends in the states after we moved here to Thailand. One of my wife’s friends in the states that we helped after moving here had not spoken to her family in 35 years so these things are extremely common I know they are.

 

 

 

[Mel52]

Also sometimes because of some of the things that used to go on in Thai families with daughters all the time commonly several years ago which still happen today but just not as often. That’s another reason why, some just choose not to contact family. Sometimes it just depends on whether or not it’s a good Thai family as well.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel52]

A simple public records search will clear this up. 

You know another potential variable is the possibility that maybe she divorced and married an American and it’s possible that her last name might be totally unknown after 20 years to her family here in Thailand. There’s a lot of potential variables and a lot of reasons that these things happen.

[IAMHERE]

What is her name after marriage ?  Should be registered at the Illinois DMV.

 

"We Have Found Records For Duanpen Ritthisuk in THE UNITED STATES"

https://www.dmv.us.org  I wonder if that is her name still, anyway it was found in a search but that is as far as I'm going due to fear of the internet.

[ericthai]

3 hours ago, Mel52 said:

I bet I could track her down in a few weeks at the most if my wife and I were to speak with this mother and start with her daughters full legal Thai name and her Thai ID card number, and Thai passport number. It’s definitely possible and it’s not as hard as some people might think.

 

If she over stayed her visa in the USA and therefore no longer legally in the USA, it would be very very difficult to find her.  I know a few Thai girls in the USA that have overstayed and use friends to rent apartments for them, put utilities in their name etc. So no records. 

[Mel52]

What is her name after marriage ?  Should be registered at the Illinois DMV.
 
"We Have Found Records For Duanpen Ritthisuk in THE UNITED STATES"
https://www.dmv.us.org  I wonder if that is her name still, anyway it was found in a search but that is as far as I'm going due to fear of the internet.

Exactly is that still her current last name? Also after 20 years in the states I’m sure she drives but does she still live in Chicago? And what about the husband? Is anyone looking for the husband here in Thailand? Has anyone in Thailand heard from the husband. Lots of what ifs. Still good find it might be her you never know. Finding her could be very easy or pretty hard depending on the circumstances. You might have just found her. I think I’ll try at least a little bit. Who knows.

My wife and I reunited a friend from the states with her family here after 35 years back in 2015 and she’s now a US Citizen and visits her family here once a year now so you never know. I’d bet a paycheck that she’s still alive because I’ve seen this kind of thing so many times. My wife had another friend in the states who’s parents tried to sell her into prostitution back in 1975 and she ran away from home and she was lucky because she made it to the United States and made a good life for herself after a lot of years and hard work. So like I said this happens a lot for lots of different reasons. It’s mostly about money they go to the United States to work as my wife did before we met thinking everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows and that they’ll be able to send lots of money home to help out their families living here in Thailand and then they quickly realize that life in the states is just as hard as it is here in Thailand for them, maybe harder as a foreigner living in the big USA. Then they can barely afford to make ends meet they end up working 2 or 3 jobs in some cases and they stop calling home because they’re so busy or to ashamed that they can’t afford to send money back home, it’s sad but this happens to so many families in this area of the world. So after a while they eventually just lose all contact with relatives back here in Thailand. This same thing happened to my wife before we met just because of her work and losing information before the days of email, internet, and Social Media became all the rage. Now the world is a lot smaller because of modern technology so hopefully in the future this won’t happen as often.

[Just Weird]

6 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

weird when you Google her name there is only this story. One hit listed.

What's so weird about that?  When I google my name nothing comes up either.

[Mel52]

What's so weird about that?  When I google my name nothing comes up either.

You know there isn’t much on google about myself except for a few news stories that occurred by chance. One story after I retired about 6 months before I came back to Thailand to retire and a few news stories from my days of running marathons several years ago. Other than that there’s nothing on me on google. If it wasn’t for a few things in my life you would not find jack sh on me on google. It just depends on the individual.

[Scott]

I was living in Thailand in the early 90's and took an posting in another country for several years.   A close friend arranged for me to store many of my personal affects at his parents' home in rural Thailand.   This was not stuff of any real value and nothing they would use.   I had the address written in English and in Thai.   There were repeated attempts to write to them, but nothing every got through.   Even with the address written in both English and Thai.   I wasn't able to re-establish contact until I returned on holiday.   They had never received any correspondence.   At the time no one had a phone in the village.

 

So, It's pretty easy to lose contact especially if a few tries go unanswered.  

 

I hope they are able to re-connect and I hope the daughter is alive and well.  

 

[Ulic]

I suggest Facebook as a start and let the Facebook army do the heavy lifting. Best of luck to the lady. I really think she is going to be lucky. 

[Mel52]

If she over stayed her visa in the USA and therefore no longer legally in the USA, it would be very very difficult to find her.  I know a few Thai girls in the USA that have overstayed and use friends to rent apartments for them, put utilities in their name etc. So no records. 

 

That’s possible but even if that is the case after 20 years the Thai Consulate or embassy might have information about her. Our immigration system in the United States isn’t like here at all she probably wouldn’t be hiding from INS. Although these days in the states because of the current administration if you are an illegal alien from Mexico, anywhere in South America, or anywhere in the Middle East then you might have to be worried. I bet she’s probably a permanent resident or even a full US citizen by now. It’s a lot easier to get those things in the states then here.

[Damrongsak]

On 6/26/2019 at 8:01 PM, Ulic said:

I suggest Facebook as a start and let the Facebook army do the heavy lifting. Best of luck to the lady. I really think she is going to be lucky. 

I helped locate the mother of a fallen US soldier so someone could give her a memorial flag.  Happened to see the name mentioned in some other lady's Facebook.  Managed to pass word to her and contact was made. The flag was presented to her in person ... in Puerto Rico!  That was a long shot.

 

I was less successful in finding another (Tibetan) mother who had gone back to live in Nepal or India or someplace.

Edited June 28, 2019 by Damrongsak

[Mel52]

Oh yeah I don’t want to forget about this I was planning on looking into it for myself with my wife’s help

 

 

[NokNokJoke]

What kind of skills would a Thai couple from rural isaan have to get work and a visa to the USA? Just curious if they actually made it to the USA, or were trafficked somewhere else, or they arrived in America with different identities and murky?circumstances?

Sent from my Nokia 6.1 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Mel52]

What kind of skills would a Thai couple from rural isaan have to get work and a visa to the USA? Just curious if they actually made it to the USA, or were trafficked somewhere else, or they arrived in America with different identities and murky?circumstances? 

Sent from my Nokia 6.1 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

 

I don’t know about today but back then lots of Thai people did it successfully all the time. That’s how I met my wife in the states and now we’re retired here in Thailand after 22 years of marriage. Most of my wife’s Thai friends in the states and she has A LOT OF THAI FRIENDS in the states did exactly the same thing. Twenty years ago and back in the day before that even it was A LOT easier for them to get work visas to the United States. Today I hear it’s a lot tougher. My wife is a United States Permanent Resident but still a Thai citizen most of her Thai friends in the states have their naturalized United States Citizenship but some of them are still permanent residents in the United States

 

[Mel52]

What kind of skills would a Thai couple from rural isaan have to get work and a visa to the USA? Just curious if they actually made it to the USA, or were trafficked somewhere else, or they arrived in America with different identities and murky?circumstances?

 

Sent from my Nokia 6.1 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

A lot of my wife’s Thai friends in the states have been in the states for several years going back to the 80’s. I’ve been all over the world and there are Thai people working everywhere. When we lived in Tokyo there were lots of Thai people running Thai restaurants. It’s the same in the United States. After all the United States was founded by immigrants and it’s no different today.

 

Like I said in my above posts these things happen all the time, even my wife lost contact with her family for 20 years and she didn’t make contact with them again until shortly after we met in the states. It was a Thai monk who located my wife’s family who was traveling back to Thailand from the states and I remember my wife’s first phone call from the states with her family after 20 years of no contact it was very emotional for her. Now we live just down the street from my wife’s family here in Thailand. Life can be weird like that sometimes but it does happen. This happens more than you’d think it’s sad one of my wife’s friends lost contact with her family here for 35 years until we helped them reunite back in 2015.

[scorecard]

On 6/26/2019 at 6:41 PM, Mel52 said:

 

I know it seems baffling but I swear it happens here all the time I’ve seen many situations like this just read my post above, I actually have experience dealing with situations like this between Thailand and the United States. It’s very likely that she’s still alive and well. I bet she probably is. Probably has a few kids by now working a job in the states trying to make ends meet and she just lost touch with her family here you’d be surprised how often this happens.

 

 

It happens with folks from many countries either across to other countries or just within one country.

 

My father deliberately cut himself off from his mother and for very good reasons and a few years later a brother found my dad to tell him their youngest brother had passed away, in the same phone call dad discovered that 6 of his 9 siblings had progressively cut themselves off from the mother and discovered that his mother had passed away and not one family member attended her funeral. 

 

It happens.

 

I'm also aware of a case of a refugee family from Vietnam moved to Australia under a refugee assistance program, mother, father and 4 kids (kids were all born quickly one after the other so their ages quite close).

 

They had been in Sydney for several years, kids all in high school, good kids, doing well, suddenly mother and father disappeared and couldn't be found by the police, welfare services took care of the kids.

 

Quite a few years later (the kids now around 20 to 24 years old, all at uni or finished uni and in good jobs) the parents were found in VN, they had moved back to VN without telling their kids.

 

In this case the kids all decided they didn't want to return to VN and indicated to the parents that if they came back to Australia the kids would not contact them or support them. 

 

It happens.

Edited June 28, 2019 by scorecard

[Mel52]

 

It happens with folks from many countries either across to other countries or just within one country.

 

My father deliberately cut himself off from his mother and for very good reasons and a few years later a brother found my dad to tell him their youngest brother had passed away, in the same phone call dad discovered that 6 of his 9 siblings had progressively cut themselves off from the mother and discovered that his mother had passed away and not one family member attended her funeral. 

 

It happens.

 

I'm also aware of a case of a refugee family from Vietnam moved to Australia under a refugee assistance program, mother, father and 4 kids (kids were all born quickly one after the other so their ages quite close).

 

They had been in Sydney for several years, kids all in high school, good kids, doing well, suddenly mother and father disappeared and couldn't be found by the police, welfare services took care of the kids.

 

Quite a few years later (the kids now around 20 to 24 years old, all at uni or finished uni and in good jobs) the parents were found in VN, they had moved back to VN without telling their kids.

 

In this case the kids all decided they didn't want to return to VN and indicated to the parents that if they came back to Australia the kids would not contact them or support them. 

 

It happens.

 

You know my dad was previously married and had 5 kids in his previous marriage, half brothers and sisters of mine who I’ve never met in my life. I also have 3 brothers and one sister with in my immediate family. And I just recently started making contact with my brothers and sisters from my dads previous marriage a few years ago thanks to Facebook. Long story but they’re not to happy with my dad for probably good reasons but his ex-wife did have Bi Polar disorder and serious psychological problems so there’s two sides to it but I don’t take sides because it was nothing I had any control over. I do think my dad abandoned them but he was a young Sailor in the Navy at the time before I was born. It’s a long story and I don’t even know all the details of it myself just some things. When I was a kid my parents never wanted to talk about it and I didn’t start using Facebook until right after I retired.

 

Reminds me of what Tyler Durden said in that movie fight club when he was talking about his dad doing the same thing having multiple families he said in the movie “he was setting up franchises man” lol.