The mother of a 14-year-old Thai boy who went missing from a hotel room in Tokyo on Monday night said yesterday she had found her son, adding that he had died peacefully after an "accident".
Yuwajitra Watchara-arpa did not reveal the cause of her son's death.
She wrote on her Facebook page yesterday morning: "Dear All, many thanks for your concern and encouragement. We have found Tien and he passed away peacefully from an accident. At this moment, we beg you to give our family privacy. We will neither answer any queries nor accept any contact requests.''
Many netizens expressed their condolences on her Facebook page. Tien Sookhanonsawat, Ms Yuwajitra's eldest son, went missing while staying at the Mercure Tokyo Ginza hotel shortly after the family arrived in Tokyo on Monday afternoon for a holiday.
On discovering her son had vanished, Ms Yuwajitra alerted police and asked to see the hotel's security video footage, which showed the boy leaving their room on the fifth floor at 11.35pm.
Wearing hotel slippers, the boy was seen walking towards a lift.
Ms Yuwajitra turned to social media for help, posting pictures of her son on her Facebook page on Tuesday, saying he had no jacket, money, or mobile phone.
She feared he might have been abducted or had an accident while walking the streets at night. She said her son had been missing for 22 hours at the time of her post. The post went viral, and netizens reacted with shock and sorrow upon hearing of the boy's death.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Busadee Santipitaks said the ministry had been informed of his fate, and that embassy officials were helping the family. Ms Busadee said they were still waiting for autopsy results to determine the cause of death.
Thai media reported that Japanese police found the boy's body at 1.19am (local time) yesterday. No further details were immediately available.
