Cadet’s family determined to fight on as funeral held

Only people close to the family attended the ritual, which was held at Wat Wiwekkaram in Tambon Bang Phra at 3.30pm. 

Phakhapong’s mother Sukanya Tanyakan said the family was still worried about news reports about Phakhapong’s death. Some reports had presented incorrect information, she said, citing the example that her son’s fourth rib was broken – not four ribs as had been reported. 
She declined to give further information about the case as she wished the family could complete all the religious rituals for him first. “Our family still wants to know the whole truth about what happened,” she said.

Phakhapong’s elder sister Supicha was grieving and refused to give any comment during the funeral, while his father Pichet said he still could not cope with the loss. 
“Since the day it happened until now, our family still cannot sleep and cope with losing him,” he said, adding the family would not give any comment about the case investigation. 
He said they would keep some of Phakhapong’s ashes at home and scatter the rest in a river in line with the Loy Angkhan ritual.
The case captured national attention after Phakhapong’s family came forward last month |to demand a transparent inquiry into the death |on October 17 of the first-year cadet at Nakhon Nayok’s Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School. His organs, which were removed in |the first autopsy at the military-run Phramongkutklao Hospital, were later sent for a second autopsy at the Central Institute of Forensic Science. 
The family has said they thought Phakhapong’s death might have been caused by corporal punishment that he had received at the military school, and not by cardiac arrest as the academy had claimed and as Phramongkutklao Hospital stated in the initial death certificate and hospital autopsy report. 
The latest autopsy reports have been widely shared on social media, while the cadet’s family declined to confirm the claim that Phakhapong’s body showed signs of physical injuries. 

Nakhon Nayok deputy police chief Pol Colonel Nipon Panitcharoen said yesterday that police had already received the latest autopsy results from the institute and would hold a meeting of investigators in one or two days to consider evidence linked to the young man’s cause of death and whether he had been killed. 
He said police had interviewed more than 10 witnesses and received useful information so the case would be concluded soon. He added that no one could interfere with the police probe, which would follow the evidence and facts.