THAILAND: The father of a 12-year-old Swedish boy missing in Thailand said yesterday he was convinced his son was alive and in the hands of traffickers. Swedish police have flown to Phuket to help Thai police investigate what has happened to Kristian Walker. His father, Mr Dan Walker, believes his son survived the tsunami but was picked up in its chaotic aftermath by someone involved in the child sex industry.
"I am sure my son is alive, that is one thing I know," Mr Walker said yesterday from his home in Stockholm, where he is caring for his daughter Anna (7), and son David (14), who survived the disaster.
Mr Walker's father, an American citizen, is in Thailand hunting for Kristian. A former marine and paramedic, he has been told by doctors that his grandson was seen twice at the Tai-Mueang hospital, three miles outside the Khao Lak resort - once after the tsunami, when he was treated for minor injuries, and again the next day. Both times the boy was in the care of a middle-aged man of European appearance.
Kristian went to Thailand on holiday with his brother and sister and his mother, Madeleine, and her partner, Carl-Axel von Platen - both are missing presumed dead. - (Guardian service)