Missing British Children In Thailand

[Flashermac]

When Rob Day brought his two daughters, Annie and Aleena, from their home in the sleepy county of Kent to visit their Thai mother here in Pattaya, Thailand, he expected the visit to be over in a few weeks, and for them all to return home with memories of a good time. That was never to be.

 

Divorced for 4 years, the mother and father had lived in various countries, for over a year the mother had, at one time, cut all contact with the children and, as they settled into their English home, they both attended local schools, enjoying a wonderful extended family lifestyle with their grandparents and aunt and were well known in their home area. Unbeknown to him his former Thai wife, Onwarat Gamlem, had been planning in advance for the visit and been online chatting with several groups who gave her advice on how to kidnap her children and disappear. This despite Thai authorities having granted custody to the father some 4 years ago.

 

Arriving on British passports, the girls, their father and his current partner met with the mother and her 3rd child, by a Norwegian Fisherman,Tor Gamlem , her Norwegian husband, and the girls were allowed to stay with her for several days as planned.

 

On the night they were due to be returned the mother called to say that they were running late as they were at the Zoo, dusk turned to dark, a panicking father went to her apartment and, finding it vacated, realised he had been tricked.

 

By the following morning it became obvious that this was a well planned kidnap ( under Thai law this was kidnap), the children had IPads, both of which had obviously had the SIM Cards removed, the mother too removed her simcard from her phone, a check of her car registration plates showed them related to a BMW and not the white Toyota she was driving and the police were called for help.

 

A difficult case to describe to Police, who are used to Mothers having custody, they finally accepted the case and, with a warrant issued for the mother, the search began.

 

It was at this point that the story filtered onto the chat boards around the city. Rob’s pal, back in the UK, posted details and they were passed by him to Fabulous 103Fm.

 

After first meeting with Rob we ran the story, ThaiVisa kindly allowed us to cover the story on their forums too, and when there were suggestions that the mother had fled to Phuket, our friends at the Phuket Gazette took up the story to give it full coverage there too. We forwarded it to the Thai media and many covered it too. IN the UK it made the national newspapers.

 

There were no end of leads . The Mother was originally from Ban Pa In, close to Bangkok, her family were contacted. Phuket Police were updated with the search, and the British Embassy was requested to help, One by one the leads died off.

 

The British Embassy, despite huge pressure, appears to have done absolutely nothing to help. A call several weeks after the kidnap saw an embassy official telling the father that the official dealing with his file was on vacation, nothing was being done.

 

Meeting with the aunt and grandparents in the UK, my first impression was of a wonderful loving couple who adored their only grandchildren. Visiting their business it was obvious that customers and staff all knew the children as happy, lively and fun kids, a wall in the office was covered with pictures of the girls growing up, as typical English children, raising yet another question, how would they survive on the run. Children who should be in school, who were used to a western way of life, now living in hiding with a woman they really didn’t know except for the odd skype call.

 

It was known by then that the woman’s current husband was due to fly in from Norway and it was hoped that he might be apprehended on arrival and persuaded to help. There was no indication at the time that he knew the depths to which his wife had gone to evade the authorities, but one thing is for certain, he was quick to join her and managed to pass through arrivals on a short term visa without being recognized.

 

The father, Rob Day, meanwhile made his own investigations and, with the help of local authorities, a check was run on the mother’s SIM Card. It appeared to be inactive for a long time and then, a week after their disappearance; a single ping was collected from a phone tower in Sri Ratcha, the neighbouring town to Pattaya.

 

That was enough for Rob to borrow a truck and travel to the area every day for weeks on end. Tirelessly he mapped out a radius from the mast and drawing a circle on a map he visited each and every housing area, shop and mall, chatting with security guards, and leaving posters that he had made up, laminated and printed in both English and Thai. He hired trucks with huge 4 metre signs on the back which drove around the area. The search was relentless and designed to make sure that a neighbor, a family member or the children themselves would see that the search was on.

 

A reward of 100,000 baht ( two thousand pounds) was offered to anyone who could help.

 

It could only go one of two ways, the woman would either be caught, or they would flee deeper into Thailand and become harder to find.

 

Enlisting the support of Sri Ratcha Police, Rob Day’s search went on for weeks, 7 more weeks in fact. One of the children had a birthday, on that day he was in tears. A huge man, unable to talk without breaking down, a man who’s love for his children was unquestionable.

 

With the internet awash with the story of the missing children , the amount of support, advice and tips he received from fellow westerners was incredible. Each suggestion was mulled over, many ideas incorporated in the search. One night, when we met up, it was obvious that he was reaching exhaustion point, but he refused to take a single day out from the search to relax, afraid that he might miss the one clue that would lead to his recovering his children

 

Finally, on 23rd of July, some 7 weeks after their disappearance he got the call he had been praying for.

 

Local police in Pattaya, where the search had started have received a call from the mother or her direct family . She offered to return the children IF she was promised immunity from prosecution.

 

Initially the children were expected to be handed over two weeks ago, that changed to last weekend.

 

A Week later and the children have not been recovered. The mother’s family is trying to negotiate with the police for their return in exchange for the father to drop all charges against her, he as agreed to that. The so called negotiations are between the police and the mother’s family and still no real evidence has been shown that the mother has any intention of returning the children.

 

With Thai media now covering the story, and interest from British media growing daily, Rob Day having exhausted his own funds and now relying on help from home and the mother abusing the legal system here, its hoped that intervention from the higher authorities in the country will be forthcoming and see the girls reunited with their family.

 

http://pattaya103.co...ren-thailand-2/

[cavanami]

Wanna bet the mother/her family/the police are drooling over that reward

[radioman]

And figuring out how they can use the situation to crank it to the max! He went to 100k early on so what would it take to make it 1 mil?

[King Kung]

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the police were in contact with the kidnapper in an advisory role. Nobody knows extortion like the BiB.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

This bit is also reassuring... NOT!

 

The British Embassy, despite huge pressure, appears to have done absolutely nothing to help. A call several weeks after the kidnap saw an embassy official telling the father that the official dealing with his file was on vacation, nothing was being done.

 

Makes you wonder what the role of the embassy is.

 

Sanuk!

[cavanami]

In the past 40 years, being out and about, I have seen only one Embassy help in the time of need,

the Canadian Embassy!

 

When my friend dies in Malaysia, the Canadian Embassy handled everything; contacting his parents,

getting him cremated and the ashes sent back to Canada!

 

Outstanding job!!!

 

While the American sat on their hands while Ol' George laid on a slab in Bangkok for over three months,

as the American Embassy said, "...we cannot do anything..." and they certainly did not do anything...useless

azzholes!!!

 

I guess George should had gotten an appointment with the Embassy to get his death approved...

[Flashermac]

From what I'm told, the Aussie embassy is the best of the lot. The US embassy is certainly crap.

 

p.s. I worked for the Oz embassy once up on a time, nothing but pleasant experiences.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

When Eyebee died the UK embassy was involved as well. IIRC they arranged the funeral and got in touch with next of kin.

 

Sanuk!

[King Kung]

While the American sat on their hands while Ol' George laid on a slab in Bangkok for over three months,

as the American Embassy said, "...we cannot do anything..."

 

At least they didn't say, "What difference does it make," like they do when their own employees are gunned down.

[YimSiam]

It seems unlikely that the reward would have been the motive from the beginning, it's just too loose and problematic a path to start down, I would think - risking jail time for kidnapping, for a few thousand dollars from which expenses have to be subtracted, too?

 

There's two sides to every custody battle - the article above has put a lot of energy into making out Rob's side as sympathetic, but what were her motives, I wonder? Thai moms are great at handing children off to grandparents and aunties and so on, and living with that - but here the mom is, kidnapping her own kids and planning to do.. . what? Escape to Darkest Norwegia with them, where the law would never follow? And after she had - according to this report - cut the kids off from communication with her... Would make more sense if Dad had cut them off from mom, but even then, what was she planning?

 

Curious. Too organized to be some out-there yaba rationale, so.. what?