A “missing” British backpacker feared kidnapped in southern Thailand has been “found” alive and well after his panicked family sent out a worldwide appeal for help after not hearing from him for four days.
Jordan Jacobs, 21, from the English town of Lyneham in Wiltshire, was found by police on a beach in Krabi province Thursday, international media reported.
A screenshot of two Facebook posts to friends and family circulating this afternoon on the social media network indicates he was fine. All the fuss kicked up over his "disappearance" was because his parents "over-reacted because I said I'm not coming home" for Christmas.
When he failed to update his Facebook page for several days, his family panicked.
"Just stop all of you freaking out," the bearded, tattooed traveller implored in a second Facebook post, which could not be verified by the Bangkok Post.
Police said the man, appeared in good condition and unharmed on a beach in the Phi Phi islands.
"He was walking around, looking for a diving centre either to apply for a job or do a course," said a police spokesman.
"We took him to the police station and contacted the embassy and explained everything. He is fine and healthy."
Mr Jacobsw also had plenty of money, and police released him to continue his Thai holiday.
British media exploded with stories late Wednesday that Mr Jacobs had last been at a restaurant on the largest of the Phi Phi islands where he had borrowed another traveller's phone to call home, his sister Emily wrote Dec 15 on Facebook. He was missing both his shoes and his pack.
A supposedly distraught Mr Jacobs told his mother, Debbie, that he was with a man who "wouldn't let him leave", British media reported.
The British Foreign Office confirmed that the backpacker had been reported missing and said it is supplying consular help to the family, the Telegraph reported.
The phone call had followed a Facebook message that, his mother told the media, basically said he would never see them again.
According to his Facebook page, Mr Jacobs "moved to Asia" in October and had been travelling around the region since. But he had been expected to return to the UK on Wednesday for Christmas. He didn't make the flight.
He was last seen in Krabi town with a Thai man in his late 20s who reportedly had offered to take him to Phi Phi. The man supposedly owns or works at a farm on Phi Phi Don island.
On Monday, Debbie Jacobs said, she was able to talk with him for 90 seconds using a Facebook messaging app. "He couldn't or wouldn't tell me where he was. He said "I need to keep you all safe", Mrs Jacobs told the Daily Mail Online.
In the Facebook posts circulated online Thursday, Mr Jacobs said he had been out of touch simply because he had no internet connection.