Mother and 10-Year-old Son Die in Leap from Burning Home

In the early hours of Wednesday a mother and her young son were killed and two other family members injured as they jumped in desperation from their burning five-storey home in Bangkok. Police, rescue workers and firefighters were summoned around 2am.

Fires were burning throughout the five-story townhouse as fire vehicles, workers, and rescues hurried to the scene. On the main floor of the structure was an advertising agency for billboards, while on the higher stories were apartments. About 30 minutes later, firefighters put out the fire.

At the scene, there was one dead woman. The family’s other three injured members were taken to a local hospital where one of them was subsequently declared dead.

Six persons, including Thotsaphon (whose last name was withheld), 44, his wife, their 15-year-old son, their 10-year-old son, Mr Thotsaphon’s older brother, and his wife, according to the police, resided in the building.

When the fire broke out on the second story and soon spread to higher floors, everyone was asleep. On the third story, Mr. Thotsaphon’s brother and his wife resided. They yelled exhortations to go as soon as they woke up and fled from their chamber.

On the fourth level, Mr. Thotsaphon, his wife, and their kids resided. Before he and his oldest kid leaped from a second-floor window to the ground, they made their way down the stairs. As they attempted to escape, his wife and the younger boy leaped from the fourth floor as the flames had already reached the third floor.

The mother died as a result of the fall. Despite suffering severe injuries, the 10-year-old child was still alive. Rescue workers transported him to Lerdsin Hospital, sadly the boy passed away soon after.

To ascertain what started the fire, forensic police were inspecting the scene.

Teen mother released from Jail

The public prosecutor failed to file an accusation against the teenage mother who tossed her 8-month-old baby into the Tha Chin River in February, and the Juvenile and Family Court ordered her released. The Win Win Foundation had provided the 9,000 baht bail.

The teen mother showed up in court today as planned with a representative from the foundation to hear the public prosecutor’s verdict.

Due to the police’s inability to complete their investigation the prosecutor was unable to bring the case to court by the deadline. Instead, he asked them to look into five more matters. On July 25, the prosecutor will decide whether to charge the young mother.

As a result, the judge mandated the suspect’s release and the return of the bond money to the organisation.

The child’s disappearance from its Bang Len neighbourhood house on February 5th, initially suspected to be an abduction, made headlines. Police, volunteers, sniffer dogs, and underwater drones started a thorough search within a five-kilometer radius of the baby’s home on land, in a canal, and in the Tha Chin River, but there was no evidence of the missing child.

The deputy national head, Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn, who oversaw the inquiry, had a suspicion that the adolescent mother might have told the police the whole truth regarding her missing child.

She finally revealed after lengthy questioning that she unintentionally caused the baby to tumble onto the floor of the house and that the infant might have perished in the fall. She disposed of the body in the river out of concern about legal action.

The adolescent mother admitted in an interview with the Mirror Foundation that she never daydreamed about what she would do with her life. She also mentioned that her family was struggling financially and that they had to rent a home on a fish farm. According to her, she never had a close friend and experienced bullying in school.

“I did everything by myself and lived alone. I didn’t really feel the need to attend school. One day, my father inquired as to why I wasn’t attending school, and I said that I no longer desired to do so. But I wanted to study and my marks weren’t horrible,” she said in an excerpt from an interview she gave to the Mirror Foundation.