It was the spot where the villagers had found the chequered loincloth of missing land rights activist Den Khamlae a week earlier. Banjong Sanitnit, Den's brother-in-law, stopped at a nearby tree. He lit six incense sticks and poured rice whisky into a clear plastic cup so that it was a quarter full. And then he prayed.
"Let us see whatever can be seen," he told the forest spirits.
It had been four months since Den, 65, disappeared in the woods on April 16 in Chaiyaphum's Konsan district. That day, Den tied the piece of fabric to a 50-kilogramme fertiliser bag, which he would carry like a backpack to collect bamboo shoots in the Kok Yao forest.
Villagers believe the ripped loincloth that was found on Aug 1 was swept away by heavy rainfall when they found it next to a tree stump. Den's wife Suphap Khamlae confirmed that the fabric belonged to him. After all, she wove it with her very own hands.
"I will keep searching for him," said 54-year-old Mr Banjong, a rubber tapper. "I don't know who did it, but this is definitely the work of human beings."
On Aug 8 when Mr Banjong visited the spot with Spectrum, he had a new theory: Den might have been killed and stuffed into the fertiliser bag. He decided to venture into a new area, cutting his way through thick bamboo trees, hoping that he would find more clues.
The team went back empty-handed, except for a bag full of mushrooms and prickly leaved herbs.
Back at Kok Yao village, residents who are accused of encroaching on forest reserves are living in constant fear that they too will be killed.
"We are concerned that what has happened to Father Den might happen to us too. Nowadays we travel in groups just to be safe," said 57-year-old Boonmee Wiyarot, a close friend of Den.
His disappearance came shortly after forest and military officials circulated copies of a court writ among Kok Yao residents. The writ, dated March 10, ordered residents to vacate their homes within eight days because the properties encroached on the Phu Sum Puk Nam Sanctuary.
Affected residents led by Den had sought help from state agencies to overturn the court order and allow residents to continue using the land until a resolution to the dispute was found.
"I am afraid that I will also disappear like Father Den because I always accompany him during visits to government agencies," said Mr Boonmee. "I didn't expect that such a thing would happen [to him]. He didn't have any conflicts with locals. There is only one explanation: he was kidnapped. But we don't know who did it."
THE SEARCH
Feeling hounded: One of the dogs that accompanied Den in the forest the day he vanished returned with injuries.
There have been many stories and theories about what happened to Den. Some accuse government officials of silencing the local activist, while others say he was a known poacher who was a victim of an extrajudicial killing by anti-poaching teams. Other possibilities include being killed by animals or, according to police, that he might have absconded while on bail.
Den left his house at 9am on April 16, telling his wife he was going to look for bamboo shoots. He took along some sticky rice, a bottle of water, a fertiliser sack and a machete.
He would usually arrive home by 3pm to sell the goods at a nearby market, but by night time there was still no sign of him, except for the two dogs that went with him that day who returned to the village. One of them had injuries to both ears. A physical examination later revealed that the injury on the left ear was caused by an animal, according to results from Kasetsart University's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine seen by Spectrum. The report failed to mention the right ear.
Around 10pm on the day Den went missing, locals heard a gunshot.
Mrs Suphap first entered the forest alone the next day to look for her husband, shouting out his name along the path.
"I still have trouble sleeping sometimes. I'm alone and I'm scared," she told Spectrum at her 12m by 12m wooden house with a zinc roof built by her husband. "I like to think that his spirit lingers here. I often dream about him, but I never get to talk to him."
Local police were initially slow to act on the complaint and did not start investigating the case until early May.
Oranuch Phonphinyo, a coordinator at the Chaiyaphum-based Northeastern Land Reform Network, recalled Den's younger sister telling her that during an interview, the police claimed that Den had fallen from a tree and was "eaten by animals until nothing was left".
Locals, however, have ruled out the theory, maintaining that an animal attack would have left behind clothes and other items Den had taken along that day.
Residents of Kok Yao initially led the searches, but were later joined by forestry officers and eventually police.
After several searches, locals were able to find a spade, bullets, an aspirin powder packet and bones -- which were later identified as belonging to a deer.
By May, Mrs Suphap had submitted petitions to several government agencies in Bangkok to seek their assistance in the search for the human rights defender, calling it a case of an enforced disappearance.
On Aug 1, three search teams consisting of around 200 locals, military, police and forest officers again scoured Kok Yao forest. A team of locals found a torn loincloth, bones and cartridges. Mrs Suphap confirmed that the loincloth belonged to her husband.
Police have sent the objects to the Justice Ministry's Central Institute of Forensic Science for testing, with results expected to arrive by the end of the month.
A SLOW START
The fact that he vanished without a trace has led locals -- including Mrs Suphap -- to believe that his disappearance involved foul play. She brushed aside the possibility that Den became lost, saying that he is familiar with Kok Yao forest.
Suriya Jaknowan, superintendent of Huai Yang provincial police station, said police are investigating all possibilities but are not treating the case as suspicious.
"Without any concrete evidence [to point towards a certain direction], we are treating this as a missing person case," said Pol Col Suriya.
Two men who had entered the forest later on the same day that Den went missing have been arrested and charged with illegal hunting and selling animals. Police have also charged Den in absentia with poaching, according to an arrest warrant issued by Phu Kiew provincial court in May and seen by Spectrum.
"According to the two men, Den did not go into the forest to collect bamboo shoots but to hunt deer," said Pol Col Suriya.
Mrs Suphap, however, said the two men had phoned Den a day earlier to invite him to hunt monitor lizards, but denied her husband hunted large animals as he had sold all his guns five years ago.
Police have looked at Den's phone records and bank accounts and found nothing suspicious.
Pol Col Suriya admitted that initial investigations have been slow and media attention has resulted in increased pressure for local police to look into the issue.
"Normally the family files a missing person report, and that's that. No investigations are needed," he said. "But in this case, the family believes [Den] was kidnapped."
Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, director of the human rights group Cross Cultural Foundation, condemned authorities for not taking quick action and pushed for a serious investigation.
"We suspect the case is an enforced disappearance, until there is verification that there are personal issues involved," she said. Residents of Kok Yao say Den had no personal conflict with local villagers.
This is not the first time a land rights activist had gone missing. Porlachee "Billy" Rakchongcharoen disappeared after he was detained by the then Kaeng Krachan National Park chief Chaiwat Limlikhitaksorn in 2014. The Karen activist is on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights list of Enforced Disappeared Persons -- the 82nd for Thailand.
"The question is whether the same methods were used. In the case of Kok Yao, where many people are affected [faced with eviction] and the leader is well known, there is a tendency for the leader to be removed," said Ms Pornpen.
Thailand has yet to introduce legislation that would criminalise enforced disappearance, meaning that a missing person case is not treated as a criminal offence unless a body is found.
Front Line Defenders, an Irish human rights NGO, expressed "grave concern" at Den's disappearance, saying it was "solely motivated" by his "peaceful and legitimate" land rights work.
A LONG BATTLE
It was around 7am when over 200 police, forest officials and local administrators came to Kok Yao village in July 2011. Ten villagers were charged for encroaching on forest reserves, including Den and his wife.
Lleft alone: Suphap Khamlae holds a portrait of her missing husband Den in front of their home. She calls his case an enforced disappearance. Photos: Pornprom Satrabhaya
The Phu Kiew provincial court in August 2012 sentenced Den and his wife to six months in prison and ordered them to leave their residence. They were jailed for 12 days and released on bail pending an appeal in 2013. The Appeal Court upheld the earlier ruling. They were preparing to fight their case in the Supreme Court when Den disappeared.
The country's highest court will read its ruling on Sept 20.
A native of Kalasin province, Mrs Suphap relocated to the Kok Yao community in 1968 with her parents, five years before the land which she and other farmers occupied was declared part of the Phu Sum Puk Nam Sanctuary.
Tanomsuk Rawaschai, a pro-bono lawyer for Den, and Mrs Suphap said the couple had no intention to encroach on forest reserves because they owned the land prior to the declaration. However, the court said there was no evidence to show the date Mrs Suphap's father had owned the land, according to the ruling seen by Spectrum.
"I don't have any land title deeds. The only evidence [that proves I lived there before the announcement] is the tamarind tree and mango tree that I planted," she said.
In 1985, government officials began growing eucalyptus trees in the area and forced residents to relocate, promising to provide them with new land.
But residents found out the land officials had allocated to them was already occupied. The residents instead returned to near Kok Yao forest and vowed to stay put, arguing that with the land intended for them already occupied, they had nowhere else to go.
Since they were left with little land following the planting of eucalyptus trees, residents now make a living by growing a few crops, looking for mushrooms and bamboo shoots in the forest to sell at a local market. As the community overlaps a forest resever, it has no electricity.
Affected residents led by Den had sought help from state agencies to allow them to continue using the land until the dispute was resolved.
Mr Boonmee, one of the locals, said Den, who is also a former member of the Communist Party of Thailand, had participated in protests led by the Assembly of the Poor in the 1990s and learned methods to mobilise people.
"Father Den is a fighter who is devoted to the people. He wouldn't run away from a six-month jail term," he said. "Society portrays us as encroaching on the forest when in fact the forest [the planting of eucalyptus trees by the government] encroached on us."
A 2011 cabinet resolution under the Abhisit Vejjajiva government allowed residents living in several communities overlapping with forest reserves to remain in the area pending attempts to find a solution to the issue. A similar proposal was approved under the Yingluck Shinawatra government, and Kok Yao is also in the process of obtaining community land title deeds.
However, the residents were again under pressure following an order by the military-led National Council for Peace and Order in 2014 to take firm action against forest encroachment.
In March this year, forest and military officials circulated copies of a court writ among Kok Yao residents, ordering them to vacate their homes within eight days. That was one month before Den disappeared.
A HISTORY OF DISAPPEARANCES
It's not the first time a person had disappeared in the forests near Kok Yao. Chansri Sorabut, a former village chief, said Den would be the eighth or ninth person who was killed in the forest in the past 30 years. Locals believe that all but one of the disappeared were victims of extrajudicial killings by forest rangers -- two bodies were never recovered.
One of them was a well-known poacher called "Hunter Kan", who disappeared almost 20 years ago. His body was never found.
Mr Chansri quoted Kan's son as saying that he saw his father being shot by a forestry officer and ran back to the village. When he went back with other residents, the body of his father could not be found.
"The search lasted for two to three weeks, but it was not as intense as this time," said Mr Chansri, 68.
Mr Chansri claimed that at the time, Den was working under Kan, and both were on the Phu Khieo Wildlife Reserve blacklist of poachers. Hunting activities are common in the forests near Kok Yao. Poachers would hunt in groups of three or four, armed with a pistol for self-defence, a cap rifle and a shotgun for killing deer.
"They [forest rangers] must have intended to kill him," said Mr Chansri.
Although Den's wife claimed he had stopped poaching, Mr Chansri alleged that he would still act as a guide for younger poachers. Mrs Suphap said she did not know if this was true.
Phu Khieo Wildlife Reserve chief declined Spectrum's request for an interview, saying permission is needed from the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department.
Pol Col Suriya, the superintendent overseeing the case, brushed aside allegations that forest rangers may have killed Den, citing no instances of enforced disappearances in the area.
"However, we have not dismissed this possibility," he said, adding that the police have summoned forestry officers to provide testimony.
Mrs Oranuch of the Northeastern Land Reform Network said Den's disappearance had affected the morale of local activists.
"If they [authorities] had to target someone, they would target the leader first," said Mrs Oranuch, who had worked closely with Den. "They are trying to win the war by weakening the troops, and [enforced disappearance] is the easiest method that leaves no traces."
But Mr Chansri played down the link between Den's activism and his disappearance, saying that the sense of fear among locals is temporary.
"His activities weren't violent, and his lawsuit isn't serious," he said. "There is no reason for anyone to give him such a harsh punishment."
Seeking traces: The place in Konsan district's Kok Yao forest where the loincloth of missing land right activist Den Khamlae was found on Aug 1. Den has been missing since April 16.
CROSSING PATHS: Villagers and NGO volunteers search the forest for any trace of Den Khamlae, who went missing four months ago leaving few physical clues as to who or what may have been responsible.
Fragments of evidence: Bones, bullets and a torn loincloth are among the objects found during the Aug 1 search and sent for forensic examination. Photos: www.Facebook Esaan Land Reform News
THE BEATEN TRACK: An NGO representative shows the paths already travelled in search of Den.
Chansri Sorabut, a former village chief, recalls many forest killing cases in the past 30 years.
Boonmee Wiyarot, a friend of Den who often accompanied him to government agencies.
Oranuch Phonphinyo, a Northeastern Land Reform Network representative.