RATCHABURI – After searching all night, railway police uncovered the body of a Canadian man who had gone missing from the train.
Railway police officers requested assistance from police at 191 at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 20, to locate a foreigner named Ralph Ryan Joseph, 26 years old, a Canadian tourist travelling on train number 168 from Bangkok to Chumphon and Kantang, fearing that he would fall off the train.
They learned that Mr. Ralph and his friends had bought a ticket to Chumphon train station, but he vanished from the train around Ban Kluay Temple in Tha Rap Subdistrict, Mueang District, Ratchaburi Province. He had told friends that he was going to smoke outside the bogie.
After more than 30 minutes, he did not come back. His friend then alerted the railway police. Later, 191 police officers and rescuers from the Prachanukul Ratchaburi Foundation arrived to assist with the search on foot.
Mr. Ralph’s companions then reported to the railway police at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 21, that the GPS signal from the Canadian man’s phone had ended up near Khlong Bang Tan Railway Station, Nong Kop Subdistrict, Ban Pong District.
Then, the Ban Pong Police Station in Ratchaburi Province and the Traffic Police Station joined forces with tourist police, railway police, and rescue teams to conduct a search from Khlong Bang Tan Railway Station in Nong Kop Subdistrict to the contact area of Photharam Police Station, which took several hours.
The Photharam Police Station received information about the discovery of a foreign man’s body beneath the Chet Samian train station platform in Village No. 1, Chet Samian Subdistrict. The platform’s cement bars revealed blood stains, and the body, near the train tracks, had cuts, particularly on the left thigh.
Mr. Makala, a 23-year-old Cambodian worker, stated that during his lunch break, he normally sleeps under the platform. Today, when he went in, he discovered the body of a foreign man. He felt shocked and quickly alerted his boss to notify officials to come and investigate.
According to authorities, a cement bar next to the platform may have struck Mr Ralph in the leg. It was just about 50 cm from the train, and there was insufficient light, so the Canadian man may not have seen it. When he raised his leg, he might have hit a cement bar, causing the body to fall. He probably tried to crawl beneath the platform to seek aid, but he died from blood loss.
Authorities sent his body to the Forensic Institute to perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death and coordinated with the embassy to contact Ralph’s family.
