Stressed, British Backpacker Found in Thailand

BANGKOK - A 21 year old backpacker from Dorset who was reported missing in Thailand last week has been found. Grace Taylor disappeared on 16 February from Pattaya in east Thailand but later phoned her mother on Monday from Ao Nang, 500 miles away on the west coast.

“She was very stressed and frightened, saying that people were trying to hurt her and were following her and she wanted to come home,” Taylor’s mother, Sam said in a Facebook post as released Mirror.

Sam Taylor said she calmed down her daughter and booked her a flight to the UK from nearby Krabi airport. She then said her daughter had reached the airport but didn’t catch her flight and had gone missing again.

But a British embassy spokesman told the Guardian, that local authorities in Krabi airport had found Taylor on Tuesday.

“We are providing consular assistance to the British national and their family,” the spokesman said.

The Thai Khaosod news website reported that when officers found Taylor at a coffee shop at the airport , she walked outside the terminal and blew a whistle, confusing other passengers. The police official Somphi Kongduang said Taylor told officers she did not need help, the report said.

Somsak Kaewchana, the director of the tourist assistance centre at Krabi airport, said Taylor was resting in a medical room. He said she appeared disoriented and was suffering from anxiety and hallucinations.

“She can talk to our female staff, but not with men. I have to oversee the situation from afar because she’s scared of men. We have contacted the British embassy and her family member will arrive at Krabi airport around 7pm tonight to pick her up,” he told the Guardian.

Nittaya Phiewdee, 42, a female employee at the tourist assistance centre who was looking after Taylor said the Briton had become calmer in the last few hours.

“I talked to her, told her jokes and also gave her a massage. She just had a nap in the medical room. I am trying my best to take care of her and I’m doing everything to make her feel like she is my family. She’s getting better now. We also just had lunch together,” she said.

The Taylor family, from Swanage, had reported their daughter’s disappearance to Dorset police on Sunday. The Bournemouth Echo newspaper reported that Dorset police had launched an international investigation to find Taylor.

Concerns were raised about Thailand as a tourist destination after two British backpackers were killed in 2014 on Koh Tao island. A court in Thailand convicted two Burmese men for the crime in December last year.

Many British tourists are reported missing in Thailand every year. Jordan Jacobs, who disappeared in December after telling his parents he was being held against his will, was found on a beach “trying to apply for a diving job”, police said.