rooster59 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Family of well-known Houstonian killed in Thailand trying to raise money to bring his body home HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The family of a Houston man tragically killed in a motorcycle crash in Thailand is desperately trying to raise money to bring his body home. From the club scene to the gym scene, Clark Shao is a well -known name and face in Houston. His cousin, Oscar Chen, said, "He's a hard working person. He shows you work hard, you play hard and live life a day at a time, minute at a time." He was even once named Houston's hottest bachelor by "Inside Edition" in 2014. His positive, energetic workouts and training sessions have tens of thousands of YouTube views. His friends add his sense of adventure was contagious. YouTube posts show him tasting bugs and worms in Asia. Full story: http://abc13.com/news/family-of-man-killed-in-thailand-trying-to-bring-his-body-home/1567466/ abc13 2016-10-22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrycallahan Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 No. If you don't have the money to fly his body home in a casket then have him cremated in Thailand, at a discount developing world price, and carry him free in the overhead locker. Those with the spare change to pay for your desired extravagance can give it to an orphanage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hdkane Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 1 minute ago, harrycallahan said: No. If you don't have the money to fly his body home in a casket then have him cremated in Thailand, at a discount developing world price, and carry him free in the overhead locker. Those with the spare change to pay for your desired extravagance can give it to an orphanage. Thank you for the thoughtful and realistic comment...I hope people follow your suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGS1244 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 1 hour ago, harrycallahan said: No. If you don't have the money to fly his body home in a casket then have him cremated in Thailand, at a discount developing world price, and carry him free in the overhead locker. Those with the spare change to pay for your desired extravagance can give it to an orphanage. Think this is a sensible suggestion, guess he didn't bother to have travel insurance, normally that would have paid for the deceased to be returned to Houston. I am sure no one is going to pay for me when my time comes, why should they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impulse Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 9 minutes ago, DGS1244 said: Think this is a sensible suggestion, guess he didn't bother to have travel insurance, normally that would have paid for the deceased to be returned to Houston. I am sure no one is going to pay for me when my time comes, why should they? Quick question... How would your family know if you had bought travel insurance? Until long after they had access to your accounts and computer and credit card statements. By which time it's too late. My family certainly wouldn't know whether I had travel insurance - for weeks after my demise. And even if he did have travel insurance, they generally reimburse for expenses looong after you send in the receipts. Which means my family would need to scrape up the up-front cash anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impulse Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 1 hour ago, harrycallahan said: No. If you don't have the money to fly his body home in a casket then have him cremated in Thailand, at a discount developing world price, and carry him free in the overhead locker. Those with the spare change to pay for your desired extravagance can give it to an orphanage. If it's a question of releasing the body as indicated by the linked article, it may be the hospital bills rather than repatriation expenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil B Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Quote Family of well-known Houstonian killed in Thailand trying to raise money to bring his body home Sounds like the mob finished him off... Not that he meet his unfortunate end in a motor cycle accident, would not died in Thailand be more accurate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerryd Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 I can't find any news report from Thailand about this accident and I notice that the one story (copied by a couple of sites) doesn't mention anything other than "in Thailand" and "near a beach". There are also a couple of facebook posts by different people and like the "news" articles, they all have a direct link to the gofundme page. That "gofundme" has raised (so far) over $71,000 (US) of the target goal of $100,000. I was trying to find out more about the accident because of the mention that "they won't release the body" in the article. Maybe because no one has paid the hospital bills ? Surprised we didn't hear about this while he was (allegedly) still in the hospital. The details of the "crash" are also pretty sketchy "A rainy, bumpy ride turned tragic when they crashed into another vehicle, possibly another motorcycle. " (Seems we can't use coloured fonts now.) We've seen a number of stories of various nationalities ending up in the hospital as a result of a crash and finding out they weren't insured and needed money for hospital bills. His family (allegedly) flew over right away after the accident and he supposedly died earlier this week. Personally, I would have thought that someone who makes a living as a personal fitness trainer would have made sure he had travel insurance before going to a place like Thailand but it seems not. "GoFundMe" - making begging and scamming legal on the internet for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGS1244 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 21 minutes ago, impulse said: Quick question... How would your family know if you had bought travel insurance? Until long after they had access to your accounts and computer and credit card statements. By which time it's too late. My family certainly wouldn't know whether I had travel insurance - for weeks after my demise. And even if he did have travel insurance, they generally reimburse for expenses looong after you send in the receipts. Which means my family would need to scrape up the up-front cash anyway. Its called 'communication' my family would certainly know. A reputable insurer would pay out sooner, check the conditions when you buy, or as they say 'buyer beware' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil B Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 16 minutes ago, impulse said: Quick question... How would your family know if you had bought travel insurance? Until long after they had access to your accounts and computer and credit card statements. By which time it's too late. My family certainly wouldn't know whether I had travel insurance - for weeks after my demise. And even if he did have travel insurance, they generally reimburse for expenses looong after you send in the receipts. Which means my family would need to scrape up the up-front cash anyway. How would your family know if you had bought travel insurance? Some insurance companies issue a card that you can carry in a wallet, I always have either this card or a copy of my cover note with emergency contact numbers in my wallet, I also have a file containing all my travel documents to hand in my room. Not sure but I think there is a system that the UK Embassy/Consulate can use to check with most, if not all travel insurance companies. maybe USA has. That,s a good one, make an appeal for money, then find deceased had insurances, will they refund the the money to the contributors??? Many UK travel insurances have a limit well short of the average cost of repatriation. Quote More than 6,000 Britons die abroad every year, causing travel insurers to increasingly restrict payouts towards the costs of funerals or repatriation. Travellers, particularly older globetrotters, are being advised to read the small print carefully, as some of the wording is far from clear and policies can be riddled with exclusions, leaving bereaved families facing bills for many thousands of pounds. The bodies of nine out of 10 people who die abroad are brought back for funerals near home, says Saga. Yet repatriation can cost anything up to £17,000, according to Rowland Brothers International, which brings back the bodies of about 2,000 British residents a year. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/travel/10895307/Travel-insurance-policies-and-the-17000-cost-of-dying-abroad.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impulse Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 2 minutes ago, Kerryd said: "GoFundMe" - making begging and scamming legal on the internet for years. Also interesting that Houston's hometown newspaper/ website, chron.com doesn't pull up anything recent by a search of his name. They do mention the hot bachelor thing... But zippo about Thailand. And, being from Houston, I'd have noticed if a hometown guy made the Thai news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdgbb Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 (edited) I'd have more sympathy for his friend's situation (why aren't his family asking for funds as the text of the report says?) if he hadn't been responsible for, and the star of, so many of those bloody annoying fitness ads that interrupt so many times when trying to watch something on YouTube. The linked article reports that "many of his relatives are now in Thailand", so it seems that all these relatives can afford to travel here but cannot afford to get his body back? Something wrong with their priorities, I think. As for whether he had insurance the best person to ask may be his girlfriend who was with him. Edited October 22, 2016 by gdgbb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisemonkey Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 The headline reads as though his family died as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impulse Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 (edited) 20 minutes ago, DGS1244 said: Its called 'communication' my family would certainly know. A reputable insurer would pay out sooner, check the conditions when you buy, or as they say 'buyer beware' People have this vision and internal sense of justice for how things SHOULD work out. They often don't work out that way. Google travel insurance scams for thousands of horror stories from people who found that out the hard way. Edit: The link in Basil B's post #10 gives some reasons why... Edited October 22, 2016 by impulse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balo Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 47 minutes ago, impulse said: Also interesting that Houston's hometown newspaper/ website, chron.com doesn't pull up anything recent by a search of his name. They do mention the hot bachelor thing... But zippo about Thailand. And, being from Houston, I'd have noticed if a hometown guy made the Thai news. I wonder if its a scam ? It should be possible to locate this guy youtube page , he posted some videos there according to the article. And what about FB? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longtom Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 From the original article: "I don't know how Houston will function without Clark because he impacted so many people's lives," said Chen. Shouldn't be a problem to find donors then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunPer Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 4 hours ago, harrycallahan said: No. If you don't have the money to fly his body home in a casket then have him cremated in Thailand, at a discount developing world price, and carry him free in the overhead locker. Those with the spare change to pay for your desired extravagance can give it to an orphanage. I read so often in the newsfeed – and not only from Thailand – about people that save their travel insurance, and if something goes wrong, they wish everybody else to feel so sorry for them in their misery, and start a money-collection or fundraising on the Internet, "gofundme", or whatever called. I think it's a really sad trend and preferred to Like HarryCallahan's post, rather that funding – thanks – instead I support some that really need it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkey4u Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 I may be insensitive but why take the body home ? Cremate him and leave here, you can still hold a service and have a headstone for him back home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil B Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 58 minutes ago, monkey4u said: I may be insensitive but why take the body home ? Cremate him and leave here, you can still hold a service and have a headstone for him back home. Neighbour keeled over while abroad. long and short of it was even though his wife and daughter who signed the declaration for the insurance form concealed the fact that he had a stroke one 6 month prior, it was only after many days in hospital and he had passed onto a better place (a place away from his wife) that the insurance company got hold of his medical history, they refused to pay for his repatriation, but after many weeks of her berating them they gave in, she had the body shipped back for a simple services at the crematorium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil B Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Anyone know how much a cremation would cost in Thailand? Presume the charges will vary depending where. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonray Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 14 minutes ago, Basil B said: Anyone know how much a cremation would cost in Thailand? Presume the charges will vary depending where. Depends on whether you do it the right way or out back behind Uncle Somrik's shack in Mahasarakham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilsonandson Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 I wonder if its a scam ? It should be possible to locate this guy youtube page , he posted some videos there according to the article. And what about FB? Located and confirmed that the man died, his girlfriend was injured and this is not a scam. I won't post any links to back this up but facebook doesn't lie. Articles in newspapers don't lie. This is 100% real. Be careful what you post. You might upset the family. Just saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psimbo Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 i'm afraid I'm not a fan of this crowdfunding thing. in my day one paid one's own way in life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psimbo Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Houston- we have a problem! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreign Jim Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Horribly written headline. How about "Houston Family Tries to Raise Money to Bring Son Home." The way you have it written sounds like the family was killed in an attempt to bring their son home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGS1244 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Cremation in Thailand, Max 50,000 TBhat although most places cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tukkytuktuk Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Cremation in Thailand, Max 50,000 TBhat although most places cheaper. 5,000 baht in Isaan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunPer Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 2 hours ago, Basil B said: Anyone know how much a cremation would cost in Thailand? Presume the charges will vary depending where. In a tourist area a cremation only may be around 6,000 baht (actual cost last December), but if any service at a temple is required, there will be some additional fees. A Buddhist ceremoni can easily run up in 50,000 to 100,000 baht, but that's typically for three days service at temple and some level of accommodation (food etc.) for guests. Moving the body from city morgue to temple may be 1,000 baht (ambulance fee). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 I always take out travel insurance with a reputable company when I travel and every time I have been required to nominate a beneficiary with their contact details . Additionally I did some research a few years ago on repatriation of a deceased person, at that time it cost 250,000 baht to repatriate a body to the UK whilst a cremation Urn could be carried as hand luggage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F4UCorsair Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Did I read $71,000 raised already? If so, the family can send him on a couple of round the world trips, first class, before dispatching him, and then a HUGE party. If he couldn't be sent home for under $10K I'd be surprised. Bodies are freighted at premium rates, but $100K campaign??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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