‘Police in Thailand leading the search for the missing French academic Manon Junot say they are now looking for a body. Ms Junot, whose disappearance was alerted when she didn’t board her flight from Bangkok to Paris on New Year’s Day, has been missing for four months now. With no new leads, police in Thailand say it’s most likely she has died. Our Asia correspondent Clarence Meek sent this report.’
SCREEN CUTS TO A PICTURE OF MANON JUNOT ON HER TRAVELS.
‘It’s nearly five months since Ms Junot was photographed with this elephant at a sanctuary in Northern Thailand, and almost as long since her family last heard from her. Now they are heartbroken at the news that Thai police have changed tack and are searching for a body, rather than a missing person.’
SCREEN CUTS TO POLICE CHIEF SOMSAK KONGDUANG, WHO IS SURROUNDED BY MICROPHONES AND FLASHES.
‘It’s with sadness that we’re turning this into a different type of investigation, a different kind of search. But in this… this digital era of regular contact and surveillance, we have reason to believe that Ms Junot is sadly no longer alive.’
SCREEN PANS TO CLARENCE MEEK, STANDING A FEW METRES AWAY FROM THE POLICE CHIEF WHILE HE TALKS.
‘The family in Alsace gave a press conference this morning with their reaction to the news, saying they are heartbroken by the suggestion and they will not give up hope of finding Ms Junot alive.’
SCREEN CUTS TO MANON’S BROTHER ANTOINE AND FATHER ANDRE, AT A PRESS CONFERENCE IN FRANCE.
‘The Thai authorities have made no allowances for Manon’s mental-health condition. It was me and my father, a beekeeper not a police officer, who traipsed around hospitals and mental-health wings and asylums in their country, showing photographs of my sister to staff, photographs they hadn’t been shown before. We searched for her among their units, the police haven’t, and if they are not searching properly, we refuse to believe that Manon isn’t alive.’
SCREEN CUTS BACK TO POLICE CHIEF KONGDUANG.
‘We are disappointed and disagree with what the family say, that we’re not searching. Thailand has spent a lot of money and used a lot of resources in turning every stone in the search for Manon Junot. It’s a very difficult thing to disappear in 2016; even people who want to disappear struggle to. So, with great sadness, we have to change the focus of the investigation and be realistic about what it means when someone doesn’t contact home, doesn’t use their bank account, doesn’t use their devices. We are just being realistic.’
SCREEN CUTS TO REPORTER WALKING TOWARDS A CAMERA DOWN A BUSY STREET IN BANGKOK.
‘So what does this difference of opinion mean? What’s next in the search for the body? The police say they’re going to return their focus on Chiang Rai and scrutinise rubbish sites, tips and industrial areas, to see if they can find clues in the town in which Ms Junot was last seen alive. The family in France are appealing to their government and the new French Minister of Foreign Affairs for help sending investigators out to Southeast Asia, saying they can’t afford to do the search alone. The family, and the world, wait with bated breath. Clarence Meek, BBC News, in Bangkok.’