'Spook for fun' - US man probed in Bangkok over parcels containing human parts

[kannot]

They struck gold with this guy in the plan for the quality end of the tourist market...

Actually it's people like him & all the Euro kiddie-fiddlers who are fueling the drive for a better quality of tourists. After reading through many of the posts on TV you quickly realize they still have a long way to go.

Yeah guess it wasnt a Thai who sold these parts then?...takes two to tango

[kannot]

That is one sick puppy.

Probably only a misunderstanding!! Since it was his first visit to Thailand, he read in his guidebook about ladies selling their bodies, but didn't understand that the bodies sold normally have a pulse!!

But could be brain dead?

[kieran2698]

As they are made professionally and labeled for display and especially considering that one of them is labeled as a stab victim, they point to the Siriraj Medical Museums, I would be asking if they have had anything go missing.

[loongdavid]

I have never heard of a country that does not lay charges against those found to have interfered with a corps or body parts. And whose idea was it to have a representative of the American Embassy there whilst he was being questioned?

[dotpoom]

Some very sick people in this world think nothing of beheading beautiful people who give all of themselves to help their fellow man.....now we have this....how sick does one have to be to post parts of another human being around the world........ for a joke. ....Who's child could it be next?

[BngkkB]

You see a Rolex in the market, you think it's real? Are the DVD you buy in the market real? Everyone knows that most of the items in the markets are fakes, copies, not real. Honestly if you saw body parts in a jar in a market in Thailand you think they would be real? So the guy bought them as a novelty and sent them back to friends to USA. The only thing I can't figure out is why DHL? If you knew they were real it's obviously illegal so why send via DHL as the chance of X-Ray would be a lot higher than regular mail. My guess is that he honestly didn't know they were real. So no accounting for taste. If he knew they were real then he is sick.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I have never heard of a country that does not lay charges against those found to have interfered with a corps or body parts. And whose idea was it to have a representative of the American Embassy there whilst he was being questioned?

The whole purported story laid out in the OP seems a bit absurd... first time tourist... trip to Siam Center... got the parts, doesn't know where or from whom. U.S. Embassy rep present for questioning. Guy released.

It could be Thailand just being Thailand. Or, you'd have to wonder, perhaps U.S. law enforcement has some interest in this guy and is waiting for him to land back in the States.

[tingtongtourist]

Or it could be a welcome distraction from another big case in Thailand. And it has farang as the psycho this time for a nice change

[webfact]

UPDATE:

Police drop probe into human parts case



BANGKOK: -- Bang Pong Pang police said they will stop investigation of human parts in postal parcels sent to the United States after they considered the human parts were only medical parts.

The police considered these parts as medical parts and therefore they would stop further investigation, said one police to FM 91 radio station this morning.

The police’s latest movement Monday came after reports that forensic doctors have examined five body parts packed in three parcel boxes sent to the US by two westerners.

The parts comprises an infant skull, infant toes, adult skins, and heart with a hole in it.

Chulalongkorn hospital’s forensic doctors said the parts were not from infant parts alone but also adult parts as one part which is the skin had tattoo on it and had a tag which dated in 2001.

All the parts were preserved in formalin for a decade and were handled by operated by experts before, much ng from the knife cuts on these parts.

A metropolitan senior police said interrogation of the two Americans revealed they just arrived in Bangkok and that they were taken by a Tuk Tuk driver to a black market just 30 minutes ride from their place in Pathumwan area.

They bought the human parts at just 100 dollars as they thought that they were strange and they sent to friends in the US just to surprise them.

The officer said there was no law to pursue against the two Americans and both had been released with no criminal charge being imposed on them as the human parts were just considered medical parts.

The officer also said they were trying to locate the black market that sold such things and suspected it might be the Thonburi night plaza which is within the 30- minute ride from Pathumwan.

Earlier yesterday DHL alerted police after X-ray of three parcel boxes sent by two westerners showed suspicious objects inside.

An X-ray of one of the three boxes showed half of a skull of a baby.

The three parcel boxes were later withtheld and the police were called in to investigate.

Pol Maj-Gen Chavalait Prasobsilpa, commander of the 5th division of Metropolitan Police Bureau, said yesterday that the two foreigners who were interrogated said that they could not remember where they exactly bought the human body parts claiming that it was their first time in Thailand.

He said that it was not known who the receiver of the three parcel boxes was and what the human parts were meant for.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/police-drop-probe-human-parts-case


-- Thai PBS 2014-11-17

[Mango Bob]

I wonder what US customs is going to do when they discover what is inside the box.

[BigBadNIN]

All I keep reading about is what a scumbag this guy is. What about the person/people who sold the stuff to him. Where is the outrage against them?

[jamiesilver]

just a bad joke gone wrong - what the police should be more concerned about is where the guy bought them from and why there is a market for this shit?

[draftvader]

Unreal. Surely knowing that these things are for sale in an unmonitored, untraceable, environment should be of massive concern for all involved.....apparently not

[T_Dog]

Isn't anyone asking who is selling stuff like this? Where did the human remains come from? This is sick to the core any way you look at it.

[Sviss Geez]

Guy is caught shipping body parts and they let him go??? <deleted> Thailand?

Possibly because he didn't commit any offence?

[Sviss Geez]

Get over it people, you can buy a damaru drum made from skulls in India, amulets made from burnt still birth ash in Thailand, and practice ritualistic cannibalism on any sunday in a catholic church.... These parts he sent are long dead, while I don't think they should be allowed to be imported to the U.S. he bought them at a public market so there should be no legal penalties involved.

I think you'll find that the Catholic Church experience is all about the spiritual aspect of the body and blood of Christ [nonsense in my thinking but each to their own] whereas these are possibly stolen or at least illegally sold items.

One involves bread and wine and words, the other body parts

One is a crime, the other is not.

Buying preserved body parts is an offence? Since when?

[Sviss Geez]

one of the address he sent was to a video production company, seems like he was going to use it for video production, and perhaps spook his friends. Either way, he should not have been released, who knows if he did the killing himself and made up a story?

The other place where these body parts may have came from would be funeral homes or those "poh tae tong" emergency workers who pick up and transfers the dead / injured before hospital ambulance can get to the accident scenes.

"...he should not have been released, who knows if he did the killing himself and made up a story?"

Why not? It's fairly safe to assume that the police did not think he was involved in any killing. He was interrogated for several hours and the police found nothing suspicious about the man and he co-operated fully. The items he bought had been preserved for several years.

But what killing are you referring to? There is no allegation of anyone being killed.

Edited November 17, 2014 by Sviss Geez

[Sviss Geez]

Selling CD's collected from the trash: Almost two years imprisonment!!

Sicko trying to export bodyparts: Released!!

Thailand is as sick as this guy!!

One act was illegal the other wasn't. Nothing sick about it.

"Thailand is as sick as this guy!!"

What was Thailand's "sick" part in this anyway? This is about an American buying something unusual.

Edited November 17, 2014 by Sviss Geez

[Sviss Geez]

This is serious sick stuff. Never a dull moment in Thailand. Amazed at how this guy has not be detained.

He wasn't detained because he didn't do anything wrong.

[BestBitterPhuket]

How can they let this disgusting piece if garbage leave. He should be detained until they all DNA testing and investigations are done. Fortunately the US embassy reps where presents and I am sure they will alert FBI to look into these people. Utter filth.

[BestBitterPhuket]

Selling CD's collected from the trash: Almost two years imprisonment!!

Sicko trying to export bodyparts: Released!!

Thailand is as sick as this guy!!

One act was illegal the other wasn't. Nothing sick about it.

"Thailand is as sick as this guy!!"

What was Thailand's "sick" part in this anyway? This is about an American buying something unusual.

Who was selling him and in which country did I it happen?

[davidmann]

must have a elite Visa ,come go as he likes ,when Mr Normal now gets hard time ,i give up

[gemini81]

How can they let this disgusting piece if garbage leave. He should be detained until they all DNA testing and investigations are done. Fortunately the US embassy reps where presents and I am sure they will alert FBI to look into these people. Utter filth.

They SOLD it in a market in THAILAND. Read the article before name calling and prayers for police state treatment, c'mon!

Edited November 17, 2014 by gemini81

[Colabamumbai]

We should be more concerned about the live body parts that are being sold.

[loongdavid]

This is serious sick stuff. Never a dull moment in Thailand. Amazed at how this guy has not be detained.

He wasn't detained because he didn't do anything wrong.

Well, that remains to be seen. Not knowing Thai law I am surprised that he wasn't charged with at least illegal possession of human remains. Or at the very least making a false (I assume) Customs declaration on the packages he attempted to ship back to the US. I think the BIB just wanted him out as it was plain and simply beyond their scope.

[webfact]

Thai police seek two Americans over baby body parts

Bangkok, Thailand | AFP |

BANGKOK: -- Thai police said Monday they were seeking two Americans after the body parts of several babies -- probably stolen from a medical museum -- were found in five parcels destined for the United States.

The two men, aged 31 and 33, crossed into neighbouring Cambodia on Sunday soon after the gruesome discovery of a baby's head, at least one foot and sheets of skin, during a routine scan of packages at a DHL package depot in Bangkok.

The parts, some of which were packed in a parcel marked "antique train set collection", were found in containers filled with formaldehyde solution, very similar to those used to preserve corpses -- some dissected or mutilated -- at Bangkok's Siriraj Medical Museum.

The packages were addressed to Las Vegas, Nevada, prompting Thai police to ask the FBI for help to check the destination, deputy national police chief Ruangsak Jritake told reporters.

"The initial assumption is that the body parts were probably stolen... as the hospital said some items were missing from an exhibition room," he added.

The deputy police chief said the boxes contained a left foot, skull, face and heart of babies as well as pieces of skin tattooed with Khmer letters and tiger patterns.

Security camera footage appeared to capture "foreign men" around the time the parts went missing, he said.

Local media said the men were initially interviewed on Sunday but released after insisting they bought the body parts from a street market.

Police have asked the two foreign men to come back "for further investigation" over breaching customs laws, Ruangsak added.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2014-11-17

[Andre0720]

When we find out the purpose of all those tattoos,

Perhaps then we would find out the purpose of all those body parts....

[Thaiwi]

http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2014/11/17/bumfights-producers-stole-body-parts-siriraj-medical-museum-doctor-says

They stole them.

[Andre0720]

Get over it people, you can buy a damaru drum made from skulls in India, amulets made from burnt still birth ash in Thailand, and practice ritualistic cannibalism on any sunday in a catholic church.... These parts he sent are long dead, while I don't think they should be allowed to be imported to the U.S. he bought them at a public market so there should be no legal penalties involved.

Quite right.

But then I do not know anybody who would think of buying body parts....

[Docno]

So they were likely stolen from a medical museum. I'm dumbfounded that the police released the suspects, along with their passports, before first verifying the source of the specimens. Sigh... maybe I shouldn't be.