Workers at a recycling plant in Thailand got a nasty shock when they opened up a shipment of cardboard from the US to find a pair of human legs inside.
Thai police are now liaising with US authorities amid fears the owner may have been murdered before being hidden in the container and crated across the Pacific.
‘It is possible the person was the victim of a murder,’ said Lieutenant Colonel Dechanut Thayasirichuti of Sriracha police.
‘It did not happen in our country though.’
The grisly cargo was delivered on Tuesday to a plant just outside Sriracha, a town around 100 miles south of the capital Bangkok.
When a worker began unloading the layers of compressed cardboard he saw a shin bone sticking out of a brown sports shoe with pink laces.
The badly decomposed limb was still wearing a black sock and appeared to have been severed at the knee.
‘I thought the bones were white poles,’ the operator told local media.
‘But then I saw the knees and the trainers. I was shocked when I realized they were from a human.’
Police were called and officers sent into the container found a second limb that stretched up to the pelvis, compressed in a cardboard cube and also wearing a black sock.
‘We do not believe that the remains are from a local Thai person,’ said Thayasirichuti.
‘The body had already decomposed, so we believe it had been in the container for a long time before it arrived in Thailand.
‘We suspect that the person was a foreigner and the remains travelled here.
‘The shipping company will co-ordinate with foreign police.’
The remains have been removed from the rubbish and sent to the Forensic Science Institute at the Police Hospital in Bangkok for analysis.
Thai authorities have not revealed the name of the recycling firm or the company which sent the cargo on its 8,000-mile journey from the US.
But the area is well-known to American tourists who frequent the popular Pattaya beach resort just ten miles to the south, and it is home to the Unithai Shipyard which serves as the main repair facility for US Navy ships in the area.
Readers were quick to comment on the story as it gained traction in Thai media, lamenting the secrecy around the case.
‘Mention the name of the factory. Be careful of getting sued. You know it. It’s better to keep quiet,’ wrote one.
‘In the past, some people were lucky to get money, gold,’ wrote recycling worker Pramonthat Maithong.
‘This time, they get human legs.’
Dailymail.com has reached out to the State Department for more details.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
