Divers recovered the bodies of two teenage boys from a reservoir in eastern Thailand after the pair were dragged beneath the surface by a whirlpool while swimming during their school holidays, in a drowning reported October 27, 2024.
The victims were identified as Kwun, 13, and Kan, 15. They vanished at the Bang Phai Reservoir in Moo 2, Phlu Ta Luang, in the Sattahip district of Chon Buri province. Police Lt. Pornchai Lueaphon, an investigator at Phlu Ta Luang Police Station, received the distress call at 5 p.m.
Divers from the Sawang Rojana Thammasathan Sattahip Foundation, the Sawang Porn Rescue Unit Rayong and the Sawang Boriboon Foundation Pattaya joined officials at the scene. They combed the water around the overflow reservoir for roughly an hour before bringing up the two boys, whose bodies had become tangled together on the reservoir floor.
Whirlpool Pulled Two Swimmers Under
Friends of the two said the group had ridden motorcycles to the reservoir to cool off while school was out. As they swam above the overflow reservoir, a strong current swept both boys into it. Both had already drowned by the time officers reached the water. “But suddenly, they were pulled under. We called for help immediately, but it was too late,” one friend said.
A Snake and a Capsized Boat
Reservoirs have produced far heavier death tolls elsewhere. A country-made boat, known locally as a “putty,” capsized on January 31, 2010, in the Tandava reservoir in Visakhapatnam district, India, while 14 villagers from Ammapeta village in Golugonda mandal were returning from rituals at a hillock. One of the passengers saw a snake in the boat, and in the panic that followed everyone moved to one side, overturning the craft. Two people swam to safety.
The Navy sent seven expert divers, who worked alongside local swimmers to hunt for those still missing. Visakhapatnam District Superintendent of Police Vineet Brijlal said the recovery of six more bodies that day accounted for all 12 victims, including eight children between the ages of nine and 12, and that the rescue operation had been wound up.
Cuddly Toy Led Police to Bodies
The bodies of Emma Sillett, 41, and her son, Jenson Spellman, five, were pulled from Valehouse Reservoir in the Derbyshire Peak District two days after the two were reported missing on November 20. Officers were guided to the spot by a child’s cuddly toy and a flashlight lying at the water’s edge. Stones had been loaded into a rucksack Sillett was carrying and into the boy’s pockets, and the pair were found lying together face-to-face. She had bought her son a McDonald’s Happy Meal before driving to the reservoir.
An inquest at Chesterfield Coroners’ Court heard that Sillett, from Glossop, had struggled with depression for years. She had suffered three miscarriages between 2015 and 2017, the last of them a year before her death, and her older brother, Jonathan, died in July 2012 at age 42 after collapsing during a confrontation with a driver in the street where he lived in north Wales. Detectives initially treated the death as a murder, but he had suffered a heart attack, and a man later pleaded guilty to using threatening behavior. Police described the breakdown of her relationship with the boy’s father as a major issue in her life.
Detective Constable Rebecca Fearon told the inquest that officers found Sillett’s black Peugeot 308 at the reservoir the day after the two were reported missing, less than 3 miles from the family’s home in the village of Dinting. Inside were a mobile phone, the remains of a Happy Meal, a handbag, a purse and a number of handwritten letters. In one, Sillett wrote that she would leave a marker to help locate their bodies and that she had tried to carry out the plan the previous day but stopped because Jenson became frightened. “She said she could not stand the thought of Jenson living without her,” Fearon said.
Sillett’s partner and Jenson’s father, John Spellman, dialed 999 when she and their son failed to return home. He told officers she had been very low in the preceding days and had talked about ending her life, though he said she had given no sign she might hurt their son. She also wrote to relatives, apologizing for what she intended to do and setting out her reasons for killing the boy. Neither mother nor son had suffered injuries, and toxicology screening found no drugs in either body. She had spoken to her GP and to a mental health service in the area about her low mood and thoughts of taking her own life, and a referral for treatment followed, but she missed appointments more than once.
In Chon Buri, officers documented the scene and interviewed the friends of the two boys to establish how the drowning unfolded, and the bodies were sent for autopsy to determine the exact cause of death. In a separate case in Buriram, a 40-year-old mother collapsed in tears as she embraced the body of her 13-year-old daughter, who drowned after slipping into an overflow dam. Friends tried to save the girl, but a strong current swept her away.