SURAT THANI: The body of a missing Ukrainian woman was found in a ditch on the resort island of Samui on Sunday, police said
Pol Capt Supot Khaokhwan, an investigator of Bo Phut police station, said the dead woman was found by Uthen Ruangnon, 47, a hotel employee.
Mr Uthen said that on Friday he was out looking for mushrooms in an area covered by scrub, near a dirt track about 30 metres from a local road linking Lamai and Mae Nam villages.
He noticed a foul smell, walked to a nearby ditch and saw something like a human leg in the water, but did not dare take a closer look.
He went back home and told his wife and some friends what he saw. On Sunday, they went together to the spot to take a better look. They found it was the body of a dead woman.
Pol Col Yuthana Sirisombat, the Bo Phut police chief, led police to the scene, Pol Capt Supot said.
They found a decaying body, with some bones partly visible. The woman was estimated to have been dead 15-17 days. A backpack was found near the body, containing 700 baht cash, some medicines and a phone charger and earphones.
Shortly afterwards, a Ukrainian man, Dimas Frolov, 40, a freelance photographer, viewed the body and confirmed it was his wife Olha Frolova, 32, who had been missing since May 25.
Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Frolov said he and Olha had been married for 12 years and had a son. They had been living on Samui about five years.
During the past year his wife had met another foreign man. Two months ago she left him and went to stay with her new boyfriend, taking their son with her. Olha had contacted a lawyer and they were preparing documents to file for a divorce, he said.
During the past two months, she had visited him several times. She sometimes left their son with him.
On May 25 she visited him and left their son in his care, saying she would return to pick him up later.
Mr Frolov said he waited until May 29. She had still not returned so he filed a missing person report with Bo Phut police and asked them to look for her.
Pol Capt Supot said the woman's death had been reported to the Ukrainian embassy. The body was taken to Koh Samui Hospital for an autopsy.
Police were investigating her death, he said.
Mr Frolov and people who knew the couple would be questioned and surveillance camera recordings from the area would be examined for clues.