After holding a fake cremation to allow a secret autopsy, the parents of a cadet who died during military training found that their son’s internal organs were missing.

 

On 20 November 2017, the parents of Phakhaphong Tanyakan, a freshman cadet who died on 17 October, told the media that their son may have been beaten to death. This is in contrast to the military’s previous explanation that Phakhaphong died from “sudden cardiac arrest”. 

 

Pichet and Sukanya Tanyakan said after their son’s death, the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School sent them only Phakhaphong’s death certificate without further details, informing the couple that the official autopsy report would take two months.

 

Pichet and Sukanya therefore decided to hold a fake cremation ceremony to trick the authorities into believing that Phakhapong’s body was cremated. They covertly removed the cadet’s body from its coffin the night before the cremation and sent it to a private hospital for autopsy. 

According to the cadet’s sister Suphitcha Tanyakan, the autopsy result revealed that the internal organs, including the kidney, liver, heart and intestines, had disappeared. His brain was also removed and the skull was filled with toilet paper. 

 

The autopsy also revealed that four of Phakhaphong’s ribs and his collarbone were broken. The doctor who performed the autopsy commented that the bones were broken by heavy impact, inconsistent with CPR. The doctor also found fist-sized bruises along Phakhaphong’s stomach and back.

 

Supitcha reported that academy staff expressed surprise when informed that the family had performed their own autopsy. 

 

“We want an explanation about the removal of the internal organs from the corpse and why the hospital did not inform us. We also got a rather unclear statement from the director of the medical department of the cadet academy. ... He more or less said that no one knew as well that you would take the body for a second autopsy. I don’t know either what he meant,” said Supitcha.

 

The following day, however, Superintendent of the School Maj Gen Kanokphong Channuan claimed that removal of internal organs is a normal step in the official autopsy process to which the parents already agreed.