Police have found no evidence of murder in the death of actor Papangkorn "Beam" Lerkchaleampote, 25, with one medical expert suggesting his death was likely to stem from sudden unexpected death syndrome (Suds).
According to the police, the actor had gone out to play football from 8-10pm on Tuesday and dropped by a food stall for a meal at 11.30pm before returning to his condo in Bangkok.
His body was found in his bedroom by his mother the following morning, said Pol Lt Gen Samran Nualma, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau.
She found the actor unresponsive as he had stopped breathing and rushed him to a hospital, where attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.
"Police found no traces of a struggle in his bedroom," Pol Lt Gen Samran said, adding Papangkorn's body was taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for a post-mortem.
A source said the preliminary autopsy result pointed to Suds as the cause of death.
Meanwhile, Dr Manop Pithukpakorn, an internist and clinical molecular genetics expert at Siriraj Piyamaharajkarun Hospital, posted his analysis of the actor's death on Facebook, saying Suds is likely to be the culprit. He said Suds is often linked to sudden deaths among young Asian men.
Victims often complain of malignant arrhythmia prior to their death, and the diagnosis can be confirmed through genomic sequencing, he said.
Arrhythmia that is severe enough to cause sudden cardiac arrest is often inherited, he added.
Papangkorn played Coach Ton in the Netflix series about the 2018 rescue of 12 young footballers and their coach from the flooded Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai, which is due to air on Netflix later this year.
