A second autopsy will be conducted on a two-year-old Myanmar boy found dead on Tuesday in a sugarcane field in Suphan Buri province to clear his parents’ lingering doubts.
Piew, 26, a Myanmar worker and his wife Mor, 20, have questioned the results of the autopsy of the Police General Hospital’s Institute of Forensic Medicine, which showed no sign of physical assault.
The Myanmar couple vowed not to cremate the body of their son Salui Piew until the truth about how their son had died was revealed.
Worawee Waiyawut, director of the DNA Division under the Justice Ministry’s Central Institute of Forensic Science (CIFS), said on Thursday that the police handling the case had coordinated with the CIFS for a second autopsy of the Myanmar boy at Thammasat Rangsit Hospital.
Pol Lt Col Wannapong Khotcharak, director of the CIFS, signed an order to set up a panel to conduct the autopsy on the body of Salui, said Dr Warawee.
The CIFS autopsy team, comprising forensic experts from the institute, Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine and Ramabhibodi Hospital’s Faculty of Medicine was in the process of coordinating with the Police General Hospital’s Institute of Forensic Medicine about the result of the first autopsy.
Salui, the son of migrant workers from Myanmar, was sent to the Institute on Wednesday for examination after he was found near a ditch in the plantation in Suphan Buri’s U Thong district, about five kilometres from a spot where he had gone missing.
The boy went missing on Dec 17 when he went out to play near the sugarcane plantation where his parents worked. The boy was found dead inside the plantation on Tuesday, about 5km away from that spot.
The autopsy showed no injuries or broken bones. There were no bloodstains on the boy’s clothes. Doctors had said Salui had died since Dec 17 before his body was found, said Dr Worawee.
The second autopsy would focus on the questions raised by the boy’s parents, particularly a deformity in the joints, he said. Forensic experts would look into possible DNA traces of other people who might be involved in the death as suspected by the boy’s parents.
Deputy permanent secretary for justice Tawatchai Thaikyo said on Thursday that the family of the boy would be entitled to a payout of 110,000 baht from the Justice Fund if the probe showed he had been murdered.
“The payment can be made when there is clear evidence that he was an assault victim in a criminal case. To prove that, the family is required to show the results of an autopsy from forensic experts and a report from police handling the case. The Justice Fund’s committee will approve the payment of 110,000 baht, including funeral and other expenses,’’ said the deputy permanent secretary for justice.
