Danish citizen Carl Drewsen who went missing in Phuket in December 2015 is now no longer missing. The joint office of the Nordic police forces in Bangkok informs ScandAsia that Carl Drewsen has been located and is alive and well.
The story began when Carl Drewsen moved to Thailand from Denmark in 2014. Carl is a butcher of trade and used to work in Denmark on “Grøntorvet” (The green square), a wet market in central Copenhagen. He would often visit Thailand with a close friend and coworker. The two would usually stay in Phuket at the now closed “Big A Resort” in Rawai, Phuket. Carl and his friend enjoyed their time in Thailand very much and wanted to move there permanently. When the owner of the Big A Resort, Thomas Flindt, offered them a job at his restaurant “Rundetaarn” in Patong, they both accepted the offer, pulled up stakes and moved to Phuket in 2014.
In Phuket, Carl was working in the kitchen of the Rundetaarn restaurant a popular hangout place for the Danish community in Phuket. In the beginning, all was going well but the temptations of the close by Bangla Road party street started affecting the work. According to Thomas, Carl began partying too much which eventually made him neglect his work at the restaurant. At the same time, Carl met a Thai woman, Sirikanya, that he entered into a relationship with. Together with her, Carl also started gambling. Ultimately, Carl’s lack of attention to his work forced his employer to terminate the employment.
On the 30 December 2015, Thomas went to Carl’s home to tell him that their cooperation was over and asked him to hand over the keys for the restaurant. A few hours after this meeting, Carl had disappeared.
Where did Carl go?
The theories about what might had happened to Carl was many. Thomas Flindt believed that a leading factor behind his disappearance could be money problems. Carl was rumored to be in debt to different people, and this could have prompted him to go into hiding. Thomas, who still has a copy of Carl’s passport, checked with the immigration office and there was at that time no record of Carl leaving Thailand. This led Thomas to suspect that Carl was most likely living illegally on an overstay somewhere in Thailand. He had on multiple occasions been contacted by Sirikanya who was asking for money claiming that she was together with Carl, and that they were in dire need of them. The last of these messages from Sirikanya came no later than a month ago. Thomas however never got to speak with Carl himself. He tried to use his network around Thailand to enquire if anyone had spotted Carl in another part of Thailand, but nobody had seen anything of him.
The theory about Carl living on overstay was also subscribed to by Carl’s close friend from Phuket who is now living in Denmark.
Another more sinister theory was that Carl could have been hurt or killed. It was suggested that Carl could have owed money to people engaged in criminal activities and that he, being unable to pay the money back, could have been victim of a crime. It was also speculated that these criminal people could still be looking for Carl and that this could be the reason for his hiding.
The ongoing uncertainty about Carl’s fate prompted a family member of him in Denmark to report him missing in a Danish-Thai Facebook group on the 27. September this year. Likewise, she reported the disappearance to the Danish police. This was the first time that Carl’s disappearance had been reported. It was ultimately also this police report that led to the finding of Carl.
Located at last
After contacting the Nordic Police Liaison Office in Bangkok, it was confirmed that Carl had now in fact been located in safe condition. The Liaison office can also inform that Carl was located in Thailand, but they cannot comment on what further action the discovery of him would entail. Since he is found Thailand, it is likely that he has been overstaying and in this case he will be deported back to Denmark.
It is unclear exactly what motive Carl had to disappear, where he has been all these years and what he has been doing. It seems however apparent that he wished to remain cut off from his former life.
I thought I was going to die of old age before I got to the end.