BANGKOK – A 15 year-old boy is believed to have hanged himself because he was upset that his father refused to give him money to buy cigarettes.
Police were on Sunday told that a body had been found dangling from a rope at a construction camp site in Bung Kum district.
Investigators said the body of a 15-year-old boy (name withheld) was discovered by his father, hanging from a large iron beam behind the worker’s living quarters.
Police said he has been dead for 2-3 days. Nobody spotted the body earlier because there are several giant plastic sheets hanging from the girder. The sheets were used to keep dust from the construction site away from worker’s living areas.
According to the boy’s father, Boonsong (surname withheld), he usually gave his son 5-10 baht before heading to work every day. However, about three days ago his son asked him for five baht to buy cigarettes, and he refused.
"He was upset, but I didn’t think much of it and I left for work," the child's father told police.
"When I came back that night he wasn’t home, so I went out searching for him. I looked for him for three days but I couldn’t find him anywhere. I thought he was upset with me so he had run away to a friend’s house to cool off,” Mr Boonsong said.
He finally found his son’s body when he went to use a tap behind the living quarters and noticed a foul smell coming from behind the plastic sheets.
The teenager's body was sent for a post mortem examination to clarify whether it was suicide, police said.