Body still lost, but brother’s song eases pain for family

Michelle Bond will return to the spot where her brother died to hunt for his body under the sand. Picture / Brett Phibbs

All Michelle Bond wants to do is find her brother Stephen's body so she can wash him, clothe him and put him somewhere nice.

The woman, who spoke to the Herald on Monday about her days of searching through swollen, rotting corpses in a Thai temple, had yesterday still not found him.

But she has found a tape of him singing that is bringing some solace to the family.

She is grasping at any clues which may lead to her brother and plans to return again to Khao Lak beach, where he and his Thai wife Janjira were likely to have died while having breakfast, and search under the sand for him.

Ms Bond and Stephen's ex-wife, also a Thai who has a strong Buddhist faith, have consulted a Cambodian psychic reader who has told them where the bodies are.

"He told us the bodies were about 1km from the scene. They died together but their bodies are not together.

"He said they are under the sand."

Ms Bond knows Stephen may not be under the sand. She has a photo of a corpse she believes is his and it is this that she has been carrying during her search. If the photo is of her brother, he is probably at the nearby temple lying among more than 1000 other corpses. Or he may already be on a shelf in one of the refrigerated containers at the makeshift morgue.

The Thai Government has now banned foreigners from the morgues and Ms Bond accepts that she cannot go back there, but she intends to search on, this time at the beach.

Yesterday Ms Bond flew to Bangkok to get dental records. Her brother's children, Andrew, 10, and Joshua, 8, are there with their mother..

Ms Bond will also visit Janjira's daughter, who lies badly wounded in hospital, and find out how she survived. A piece of wood went through the 19-year-old's leg.

Ms Bond says she is determined to then get on with the search. She finds the thought of her brother lying with so many others in such a condition hard to bear.

"If I can just lay my hands on his body I'd like to wash him and put some clothes on him, give him some dignity. I just want to put him somewhere nice."

Out of the horror something good has happened.

Before going to Bangkok Ms Bond went to Stephen's business in Phuket and among his things found a tape cassette of his voice.

"He's singing on it. It's him playing the electric guitar - Take it Easy [by the Eagles].

"It is so nice to have his voice. We're never going to have his voice again," she said.

"I actually laughed because he's not singing very well because he's a bit drunk."

Young Andrew has been playing the cassette over and over so Ms Bond will get it copied and send it to family in New Zealand.