Brit Expats Discover Bloated Corpse Floating Just Off Koh Phangan Beach

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Expats swimming off the Thai holiday island of Koh Phangan at sunset found a bloated human corpse floating in the azure waters.

Five expatriates taking a pre-dinner swim in the blue gulf waters first spotted something large bobbing offshore, and were horrified when they realised the floating shape was the body of a man. British expat Jamie Wrate told reporters he’d though the shape was a dummy, as it was very pale and rigid, adding the soon realised it was a man when he spotted veins under its skin and smelt the unmistakable odour of putrefaction. The bloated body, he said, was wearing trousers and a sweater and appeared to be Asian from its mop of black hair, with Jamie also saying he couldn’t see any wounds.

Jamie swam back to the beach and asked a Thai speaker to find a fisherman and a resort employee and tell them to contact local police. By this time, around 12 people on the beach had realised a dead man had been found in the ocean. Koh Phangan police have now confirmed the gruesome discovery, but have no clue to date about who the man was or how he died, although they now believe the body had been in the water for around three days.

No-one has been reported missing during the time frame, and police are awaiting forensic evidence from Bangkok’s Institute of Forensic Medicine as to how the mystery man died. The local police colonel doesn’t believe the mystery death should lead to any expat or tourist concern about the island’s safety, a view with which Jamie agrees, saying the local and expat communities are totally separate, so much so that the two seem like different worlds. If the dead man had been a backpacker, he added, that would be a different story.