MURDER OF TEEN
Japan urged to detain freighter
Thai authorities have asked for co-operation from the Japanese Embassy to help keep the Panama-registered freighter, Prince of Tokyo, docked in Japan pending the ongoing investigation into the death of a 14-year-old Thai girl on board.
An autopsy also showed that she was sexually assaulted. "But we are unsure whether all crew members are still on the freighter," Sri Racha Police Station superintendent Colonel Worapon Intase said yesterday. He said he was informed that the freighter had 21 Filipino crewmen. The victim was last seen alive in Chon Buri's Sri Racha district on May 31 as she accompanied her mother onto the freighter, which docked in Sri Racha that day. The mother was hired to do some menial work on the cargo ship. After the mother finished the job, she could not find her daughter and decided to lodge a complaint with the police. A week later, the captain of the Prince of Tokyo reported the victim's body had been found. When the freighter arrived in Japan, the body was sent to Thailand and an autopsy was conducted. The girl's funeral will run till tomorrow in Buri Ram. Yesterday, the girl's mother gave further statements to police. Worapon said police were now co-operating with the Institute of Forensic Medicine to determine whether the girl was killed in Thailand - or outside its territory. A crime outside Thai territory would fall under the jurisdiction of the Attorney-General.
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