CHIANG RAI – A heartbreaking outcome befell an entire community after a two-year-old girl was found dead after a nonstop search by villagers, rescue teams, and local officials. More than 300 to 400 people joined the effort day and night.
Her body was discovered caught on a branch in the middle of a stream about 2 kilometres from her home.
On Wednesday, police were informed by a family in Huai Maduea, a satellite village of Ban Mae Poon Lang, Moo 9, Wiang subdistrict, Wiang Pa Pao district, Chiang Rai, “Nong Pi Mai”, their two-year-old Hmong girl had gone missing.
That day, both grandparents had errands, so they asked the child’s aunt next door to look after her. The aunt watched her closely and last saw her at around 9.30 am. She then took a short nap inside the house and woke at about 11 am, but the child was gone.
Relatives began searching right away. By around 4 pm, they still could not find her, so they informed community leaders, who then coordinated neighbours and rescue volunteers to widen the search.
Search teams spread out through hills, forests, and streams around the village. They later found “Nong Pi Mai’s her body stuck among branches in the stream at the edge of the village, roughly 2 kilometres from her house. The discovery left everyone in deep sorrow.
Phiphop Thaiwijitkorn, headman of Ban Mae Poon Lang, contacted officers at Wiang Pa Pao Police Station to conduct a post-mortem and determine how the child ended up in the stream. After the examination, the body will be released to the family for funeral rites.
Nong Pi Mai lived with her grandmother and stepmother in Huai Maduea. She disappeared under unclear circumstances on the morning of October 8. Relatives searched nearby but could not find her, then alerted the headman and rescue teams. The joint operation continued for one full day and night, until the body was found.
In April, a six-year-old from Ban Nong Dan in Chiang Rai slipped into a nearby pond during a brief moment without supervision. His friends shouted for help, but the adults reached him too late. Police warned about the risks of unfenced water and called for basic swimming lessons. In many villages, open ponds and canals sit close to homes, quiet but dangerous.
Across Thailand, more than 1,500 people drown each year. Most are children under 15, with 173 deaths last summer alone. Boys are 2.8 times more at risk than girls, often due to bolder play near rivers and reservoirs.
The problem is worse in Chiang Rai’s lowlands, where monsoons swell the Sai and Kok Rivers into fast, muddy torrents. Poverty deepens the danger in remote Akha and Lahu areas, where parents work long hours in the fields and young children wander near open water.
