The 12-year-old Karen girl, kidnapped, enslaved and brutally abused by a Thai couple in Kamphaeng Phet, appeared to be more happy, cheerful and relaxed on Thursday, <i>Daily News</i> reported on its website.
Daily News quoted Thanawat Sathit, head of the Child and Family Emergency Home in Kamphaeng Phet, where the girl is staying pending an investigation into her case, as saying that she arrived on Wednesday night after meeting with doctors at Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok over the horrendous scald wounds covering her body.
He said she did not look exhausted as she had slept all the way from Bangkok to the upper-central province where she was taken from her parents and recently freed from years of captivity.
Mr Thanawat said the 12-year-old had put on four kilos in weight since her escape and could now eat three times a day. She appeared to be more cheerful and wanted to be more beautiful, he said. The girl was keen to have her hair dressed up and receive a manicure. She talked and teased more with staff at the facility.
However she would immediately show anxiety and stress when told that she would have to go to the police station or hospital.
When a television crew came to interview her and ask about her ordeal. she became so emotionally vulnerable that she apparently answered questions very slowly. However, she was happy shortly after that when her parents visited her, Mr Thanawat said.
Police are hunting for Nathee Taeng-on, 35, and his wife Rattanakon Piyaworatham, 33, who have fled bail on charges of kidnapping and torturing the girl.
Pol Gen Akkasorn Srisupat, chief of Kamphaeng Phet provincial police, played down speculation that the suspects may have gone into hiding in a neighbouring country. He said he was confident that the couple had not fled the country because a team of experienced investigators were following their trail closely. He believed the couple were now hiding with an influential figure near the Thai-Myanmar border.