Mystery deepens in disappearance of Si Sa Ket female official

Juthaporn Oun-on, 37, director of the education and culture division of Tambon Cham administration organisation in Kantharalak district, has been missing since July 3. 
Despite social media posts stating that she intended to “take a break”, police are continuing to investigate possible motives for her disappearance, including a debt dispute and her relationship with an Army captain who allegedly resold her car. 
She was last seen dropping her eight-year-old daughter off at school before going to collect a debt from the officer at an Army camp in Ubon Ratchathani’s Warin Chamrap district.
Days after she went missing, friends and relatives were unable to contact her by phone. However, her Facebook and Line accounts became active on July 7 with messages saying she wanted a break, would resign from work, and that her parents should not worry and should take care of her child.
However, no one believed she would leave her child and her friends insisted that it was not Juthaporn who sent the messages. The family filed a missing person complaint at the Bung Malu Police Station on July 20.
Concerns were raised that Juthaporn might have been abducted after her Toyota Vios car was later found at an Ubon garage after being resold three times. 
The inquiry led to the questioning of the unnamed Army captain, who is in his 30s, who was the woman’s close associate. Facing an accusation of reselling her car using fake documents, the Ubon Ratchathani captain has insisted he was innocent. 
Juthaporn’s family urged reporters to follow the investigation as they suggested there might be influence or threats against the family.
A close friend of hers reportedly told police that she had tried in June to collect a debt from the officer at the camp and narrowly escaped an assault. 
She added that Juthaporn was determined to collect the debt and again went to the camp on July 3 but did not return. 
Another friend said Juthaporn had befriended the captain in November 2015 and they were close. 
Her family and friends have insisted that she is not a loan shark, but instead simply generous and a good saver. She reportedly is married to Wittaya Ketkaew, who makes a good salary as a sailor, and she comes from a well-to-do farming family. She had lent money to friends on several occasions.
Following a report that a woman’s body had been found in wooded area on the Thai-Lao border near the Morakot Tringle of Ubon Ratchathani's Nam Yeun district, Wittaya went with local administrative officials to the area late on Saturday afternoon. 
Lao police initially did not allow the group to access the spot where the body was found due to a failure to formally coordinate between the two countries, but the team negotiated for a few members including Wittaya to visit the site. 
Along the way, they reportedly retrieved three pairs of burned plastic gloves and a piece of a burned rubber boot about one kilometre away from where the gloves were retrieved. However, they were prevented from visiting the spot where the body was located, with Lao authorities saying the vicinity was dangerous due to old land mines. As of press time, Juthaporn’s family was still waiting to determine if it was her body that had been found.
On Friday, local villagers helped to search for Juthaporn in the wooded area, with two villagers who went to the area two days earlier claiming to have smelled something that could be a body decomposing.