Body of missing toddler found in Thai sugarcane plantation

BANGKOK – The search for a missing 2-year-old boy in which even elephants were employed ended grimly Tuesday with the discovery of the toddler’s body in a sugarcane plantation in central Thailand.

Suphan Buri provincial governor Nimit Wanchaithanawong said the boy’s body was found around five kilometres (three miles) from where he was last seen, and officials are collecting evidence to determine his cause of death.

Sului Piew, the son of migrant workers from Myanmar, went missing Dec. 17 when he went out to play near the plantation where his parents work. Hundreds of rescuers combed through an 80-acre (32-hectare) field of 2-meter-high (6.6-foot-high) sugarcane plants to search for the child, whose body was finally discovered near a small irrigation stream on the plantation.

Police Col. Ronakorn Prakongsri told television station ThaiPBS that Sului’s body was found with injuries on his legs but he added that officers would wait for an autopsy report before they pursued investigating the point. Governor Nimit said the missing boy’s family had informed authorities of his disappearance when his 3-year-old friend told her parents that she saw Sului being abducted.

The search for Sului, which officially began Dec. 19, involved hundreds of people including scuba divers, dogs and four elephants with their trainers riding them.