Dan Walker, center, with his children Anna, left, and David, right, pictured at their home in Stockholm, Sweden. Inset: 12-year-old Kristian Walker. Photo: AP
Posted on 01/03/2005 7:52:11 PM PST by 1066AD
January 04, 2005
Thailand
Search for abducted survivor By Sean O’Neill Police and family fear that child traffickers may have abducted Kristian, 12, from hospital
A BOY reported to have survived the disaster is believed to have been abducted from hospital by suspected child sex traffickers.
Kristian Walker, 12, who is Swedish, was treated in a Thai hospital where he was taken as an outpatient by an unknown European man, who has not contacted his family.
Two Swedish police officers have arrived in Thailand, which is notorious as a centre for child trafficking and sex tourism, to help the boy’s family and Thai police to search for him.
“This case has been handed over to police and they are treating it as a suspected kidnapping,” a spokesman for the Swedish Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed yesterday.
Aid agencies in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand have reported that local children orphaned in the disaster have been snatched but this is the first case of a Western child being taken.
“Children left homeless by war or natural disaster become incredibly at risk of being abducted and trafficked for prostitution or domestic slavery,” said Christine Beddoe, director of the British group End Child Prostitution and Trafficking.
“We are particularly concerned that children are not being properly looked after.”
Kristian was on holiday with his mother, brother and sister in the resort of Khao Lak in southern Thailand when the waves hit. The family became separated and his mother, Madeleine, 45, is missing presumed dead.
Dan Walker, his father, heard the news of the earthquake at home in Stockholm and arranged to travel to Thailand to search for his children. He found his elder son David, 14, and daughter Anna, 7, at a hospital in Phuket, where they were being cared for by other Swedish tourists, but found no sign of Kristian.
Mr Walker has returned to Sweden with the two children leaving his father Daniel, a volunteer paramedic and former US Marine, in charge of the search for the missing boy.
Equipped with pictures of Kristian, Mr Walker Sr has visited every hospital, shelter and mortuary in the area and traced positive sightings of the boy to Tai Mueang hospital.
Two doctors and a nurse there identified Kristian from the family photographs and said he had been taken in for treatment to minor injuries on December 27.
They described the adult who accompanied him as a middle-aged European man with dark hair and a moustache, wearing a red shirt. Mr Walker, 78, has returned to the hospital four times to confirm the identification and search for his grandson.
“I have spent a week visiting hospitals and mortuaries and the doctors at Tai Mueang are certain he has been there,” Mr Walker told The Times.
“The Thai police were sceptical at first but they too are now convinced. I am working with the police every day in the search. It is a terrible situation but I hope that he has been kidnapped because at least that means he is still alive.”
The family fears that Kristian may have been taken out of Thailand in the confusion after the tsunami when thousands of foreigners were able to leave despite having lost their passports.
The boy’s father said he was using every method at his disposal to find his son.
Mr Walker, 48, said: “I believe Kristian is in the hands of traffickers and I do not think he is in the country any more. I have to assume the worst until the opposite is proved.
“I am having to shut everything out. I am working as hard as I can for as long as my legs can bear me up to pull every string and do everything I can possibly do.
“I have lost my ex-wife, with whom I still had a good relationship. I must take 100 per cent responsibility for the kids — which is like staring into the abyss. And my missing son, who has been seen alive, is kidnapped. It is unbelievable.”
Mr Walker said he did not think his surviving children were fully aware of what had happened. He added: “Anna has been told we are looking for her mother and brother. David is very quiet, is not eating and has lost weight. He has cuts and he swallowed a lot of water but he will recover.”
Radda Barnen, of the Swedish arm of Save the Children, said that children separated from families after the disaster were potential targets for paedophiles.
“The experience from other catastrophes is that children are particularly vulnerable,” said Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, the charity’s director.
She said there were “indications” that surviving children had been sexually abused in Sri Lanka, one of the countries suffering worst from the tsunami.
Kristian’s family said that he was an articulate, intelligent boy but, finding himself alone and injured in a strange place, may have been persuaded to go with an abductor who promised to find him treatment and get him safely home.
I wondered the same thing. This is just unbelievable.
Prayers for this poor kid and his family...
Thanks. Wonder if they ever found his parents??
Equipped with pictures of Kristian, Mr Walker Sr has visited every hospital, shelter and mortuary in the area and traced positive sightings of the boy to Tai Mueang hospital.
Two doctors and a nurse there identified Kristian from the family photographs and said he had been taken in for treatment to minor injuries on December 27. They described the adult who accompanied him as a middle-aged European man with dark hair and a moustache, wearing a red shirt. Mr Walker, 78, has returned to the hospital four times to confirm the identification and search for his grandson.
The US Marines are really, REALLY good at finding people.
They take a map, quadrant it off, and start searching.
Either they will find the kid, or they will find which jet took him out of the country.
I wonder how much a 12 year old Swedish boy is going for these days in Saudi Arabia?
Similar-story-over-here ping to the Swedish Ping List.
Paedophile alert ... then Kristian, 12, is 'abducted'
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=7632005
Swedish boy who survived tsunami feared kidnapped in Thailand
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/January/theworld_January79.xml§ion=theworld
Swedish family fears 12-year-old boy was kidnapped after sightings at Thai hospital
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=597448
Survivor, 12, feared kidnapped in Thailand
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,15671,1382952,00.html
from this one...
Survivor, 12, feared kidnapped in Thailand
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,15671,1382952,00.html
Kristian was on holiday with his mother Madelaine and her boyfriend Carl Axel von Platen and his two siblings, Anna, 7, and David, 14. The couple are missing, but the two children survived and are back home in Stockholm with their father.
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I wonder if the boyfriend of the mother has him?
Fears for children after boy vanishes [Abducted from Thai hospital?]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1313397/posts
Strange, Shri Lanka is known for being the most pedophilic nation in the world with 20,000+ Child prostitutes. This tidal wave was rather anti-pedophilic. Every nation that was wiped was either financialy engaged with pedophilia or engaged in extreem martyrdom of Christian communities. Either God stepped in, or the entire region just happens to bes a pit of darkness.
If God meant to smite the pedophiles then he missed by about a thousand miles (Bangkok, Colombo).
Maybe this will awaken some in the ultra permissive societies.
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