Thai Woman Commits Suicide by Being Eaten by Crocodiles by Phairath Khampha 21 August 2002 In a story that could possibly only happen in Thailand, a woman in there killed herself by jumping into a pit full of crocodiles in front of scores of horrified tourists. The jealous wife leapt into a pool with 300 crocodiles at feeding time; swimming towards them when they showed no interest. She had scaled a high fence and jumped into the concrete enclosure at the Samut Prakarn Crocodile Farm on the outskirts of the capital, Bangkok. Visitors looked on in shock as the woman was dragged into another pond and dismembered. "She did not cry or scream when she was bitten," said a tour guide. "It happened so quickly. Nobody could do anything." Police said the woman left a suicide note in which she complained about her husband's peccadillos and apologised to members of her family. Gruesome death The woman, identified in media reports as Somjai Setabul, was seized by one crocodile and then swarmed by more than 100 others, witnesses said. Workers at the park were only able to look on helplessly as she was torn apart. They were finally able to retrieve her body about 20 minutes later. Park guide Thanes Wiriyaporn said the incident took place around feeding time, when the tourists were purchasing buckets of chicken parts to give to the crocodiles. "Just right in front of me, she just jumped into the pond without a word. The moment the crocodile grabbed her body, she even hugged onto him," he said. Charoon Yangprapakorn, one of farm's executives, insisted that the park had very strict safety measures. The last similar suicide happened in 1992, but every year there have been several attempts which park officials have been able to prevent, he said. "But this woman showed no sign of depression or absentmindedness like the others did, so nobody noticed her at all." The Samut Prakarn Crocodile Farm, just south of the capital, is a popular tourist attraction and claims to be the biggest such park in the world, housing 60,000 crocodiles. The woman left two letters saying "life isn't worth living". The mother of two had been seen drinking whisky and tearfully talking on a mobile phone before she climbed a security fence and leapt into the farm's biggest pool, which holds about 300 crocodiles. "She wasn't swarmed [by the crocodiles]," said Sombat Warunsat, 41. "It was horrifying. She didn't attract their attention after jumping in and she had to swim toward them." Finally, one crocodile grabbed her and dragged her towards another, larger, crocodile. The larger animal grabbed her in its jaws and dived in a bid to drown the woman, he said. Crocodile farm workers frantically attempted to save her by beating the crocodile and using chicken to lure it. But the crocodile held onto the woman's body, not letting go for 20 minutes, after which time it was too late to save Somjai. Somjai, from Surin, suffered deep cuts on her face, chest and left arm and leg. Her neck was broken. Her body was recovered intact, leading doctors to initially say that her death was due to drowning, which is normally how crocodiles kill their prey. "She swam fearlessly toward them," said a witness, Kornkanok Jaiwang, 21. "Nobody could do anything about it. What problems did she have that made her decide to do something like that?" Somjai left two letters to her family in her purse found near the security fence. A bottle of brandy was also found there. "She basically said that her life wasn't worth living," said Captain Narongchai Chaisaeng of Muang district police station. Her distraught teenaged son and daughter said Somjai had suspected that her husband, Samut Sethboon, was having an affair. "She had been under a lot of stress, particularly after having a major operation recently," said her son, Wilai. "The thought that dad might have another woman was hard for her." "Dad betrayed her," said the daughter, Pisamai. Samut, who works at a tanning factory in Bang Poo, said he had a fight with Somjai in the morning, but never thought she would commit suicide. "We always quarrelled and every time she was the one who hit me," he said. Both children said they had planned to give their mother gifts and jasmine flowers for Mother's Day, which in Thailand falls on August 12. "I wish I had told her I love her more than anything in the world," said a weeping Wilai. "I never told her that." Charoon Yangprapakorn, one of the farm's executives, said the park had very strict safety measures, but this particular incident could not be prevented. "Every year there have been at least two or three people who were intent on [committing] suicide here but we talked them into changing their minds," he said, adding that Somjai did not attract much attention before she jumped. Grisly suicide was planned The woman who committed suicide did not do so in a momentary loss of self-control, but had planned to die that way, her husband and mother said. "She told me she would have crocodiles bite her to death, but I never thought she would really do it," said Samut Sethboon. The two suicide letters she left behind also confirmed that Somjai Sethboon had intended to kill herself before she visited the Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm on Sunday. Police said an autopsy showed that skull and brain damage were the causes of her death. There was no pond water in her lungs. Somjai had earlier undergone brain surgery, which resulted in complications that left her face slightly contorted. This worsened her relationship with Samut, who she suspected was having an affair. Thai men typically abandon their wives when they are no longer attractive in some way, especially if after surgery "She had been crying a lot recently, complaining about her husband," said her grieving mother, Boonmee Kluika. "She talked about killing herself by jumping into a crocodile pond but I didn't believe she would really do it. I even joked that one who wanted to die that way had to keep an ID card in the pocket because the body would be unrecognisable." Samut said their two teenage children were heartbroken. "I'm feeling so terrible. The kids had pooled their money to buy gifts for her," he said. Charoon Yangprapakorn, one of the farm's executives, said the park would increase its "already strict" safety measures. But he added that if someone was determined to die, there might be little others could do. "Our farm is used as a standard for other local and international crocodile farms," he said. "The only other suicide here took place more than 10 years ago, after which we enlarged and reinforced the fences." In typically morbid Thai style, thousands of Thais visited the Samut Prakan farm the day after the incident. Many visitors said they wanted to see with their own eyes the pool that Somjai had jumped into.