A 20-year-old veterinary student has sought help from the Pavena Foundation for Children and Women to investigate the mysterious death of her mother, a Thai masseuse who was found dead in a spa in Japan last week.
Pavena Hongsakul, president of the foundation, visited Kanyavee, a second-year veterinary student, at her home to gather more information about her mother, Nongnaphat, 47.
According to information collected by the daughter, her mother died in unclear circumstances at a spa in Yuki City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, on October 5.
Kanyavee said her mother, who had divorced her father, trained in Thai massage before moving to Japan for work in April this year, aided by a friend who acted as an agent.
“She used to call me every day,” Kanyavee said, adding “She told me that, at her first workplace, the owner forced her to do things beyond massage, so she moved to another spa, where she had been working for about three months.”
Their last phone conversation was around 11pm on October 4, when her mother mentioned that the spa’s owner, a Thai woman from Maha Sarakham known as “Nana”, had been drinking.
The next day, October 5, Kanyavee was unable to reach her mother.
A friend in Taiwan told her that she had spoken to Nongnaphat around noon that day, before the line suddenly went silent.
At first, a coworker speculated that her mother “might have gone off with her boyfriend,” which Kanyavee found unbelievable.
Later, one of her mother’s friends contacted her to say that Nongnaphat had been found dead between 2 and 3pm on October 5, lying naked on a massage bed inside the spa.
The owner allegedly tried to conceal the news and, after learning that Kanyavee had found out about her mother’s death, deleted Nongnaphat’s photos from the spa’s social media page.
According to Kanyavee, the owner later contacted her, offering to cover funeral expenses and to send her 300 baht per day, the same amount her mother used to send, on the condition that she delete her Facebook post about the case, claiming it was damaging the spa’s reputation. She refused.
Kanyavee has already alerted the Thai Embassy in Japan and applied for her mother’s death certificate from the Department of Consular Affairs in Bangkok.
The department informed her that the document would be available after Japanese authorities release the autopsy results on October 9.
Pavena said the foundation has coordinated with Interpol Thailand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant agencies to ensure Japanese police conduct a thorough investigation.
“We will seek justice for the victim and arrange for the mother’s body to be brought back to Thailand for religious rites,” Pavena said.
