PATTAYA, Thailand – A mother has sought help from the Pavena Hongsakul Foundation for Children and Women after alleging that her biological daughter was switched with another child by a nanny and has since been missing for three years, in a case now being revisited by police in Chonburi.
At 1:00 p.m. on May 7, Ms. Pavena Hongsakul, president of the Pavena Hongsakul Foundation, accompanied the victim, identified as Ms. Joy, 24, to meet police investigators at Banglamung Police Station.
Ms. Joy told police that she gave birth to her daughter on October 6, 2022, and later entrusted the child to a nanny known as Ms. Som for care, paying a monthly wage of 8,000 baht. When the child was around five months old, the nanny returned a baby and later disappeared from contact.
Years later, in 2024, another woman contacted Ms. Joy via Facebook, claiming that the child she was raising was her biological daughter and provided video evidence. Suspicious of the claim, Ms. Joy conducted a DNA test, which reportedly showed no biological relationship with the child she had been raising. Investigators later found allegations that the nanny had switched the babies and returned a different child to Ms. Joy, while claiming that the biological daughter had been taken by a Myanmar couple for raising.
Ms. Joy previously filed a complaint against the nanny on charges related to child abduction for profit. The court reportedly sentenced the suspect to 10 years in prison, later reduced to 5 years due to a guilty plea, with the case now under appeal and the suspect out on bail. Ms. Pavena said she has coordinated with provincial police in Chonburi to urgently locate the missing child and investigate possible links to human trafficking networks, including tracing the alleged Myanmar couple and another woman who claims to be the child’s biological mother. Banglamung police, led by Pol. Col. Sarawut Nutnart, confirmed that while the original case remains under appeal, the investigation into the missing child will be fully reopened, with all involved parties to be recalled for further questioning in an effort to locate the child and reunite her with her mother.
