Search for son in vain—but hope still

Press, 31 May 1977, Page 3

Search for son in vain—but hope still

A Loburn father, Mr Gerald Ward, has returned from Thailand without his son, but not without hope that he will find him eventually. A medium has told Mr Ward that his son is still alive, but it being held captive in a hut in the hills in Northern Thailand. She repeated the story after she had been given one of the sori’s shirts, but said that Mr Ward would be going back to Thailand. “That is my answer about the future,” said Mr Ward, when he was asked whether he would return for a further search for his son. Jeremy Ward, aged 22, left New Zealand in August for an overland trip to Eurone through Asia, India and the Middle East. Letters home arrived frequently, until the last one on November 17. Three months later the Bank of New Zealand telephoned to say that money forwarded by the Wards to Jeremy had not been collected by him at the Thailand agency. Mr Ward and his son Christopher, who lives in Napier, have been in Thailand for the last four weeks trying to trace Jeremy’s movements, and track down anyone who may have seen him since November 19. It is feared that he may have become involved in a drug traffiking ring, or guerrilla insurgency. Or he may have packed a small day pack, and wandered off on his own. His passport, travellers cheques, and other money was missing from his pack, which Mr Ward and Christopher found in a hotel room in Bangkok. Jeremy had a bone-marrow disease which has to be treated with antibiotics from time to time. Most of his supply of these pills were still in his pack. Their latest hopes are pinned on a Mr and Mrs Girvan, who checked into the

Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok at noon on November 16, the same day as Jeremy. “Unfortunately the couple’s parents tell us that they are travelling around Europe, but we have had a great deal of co-operation from their parents and we hope to be hearing something from Europe soon,” said Mr Ward. Jeremy was last seen on November 19 in Bangkok. Mr Ward and Christopher found no evidence that he was dead and they believe he has not left Thailand. Their biggest breakthrough was discovering his pack in the hotel in which he stayed in Bangkok. The pack contained a book of addresses and a map with the areas he had visited, or was likely to visit. Mr Ward and Christopher checked the areas Jeremy had ringed, but all turned out negative. “We were not entirely surprised, as it was difficult to check hotel records. Records in the cheaper hotels were not kept very well,” said Mr. Ward. The address book had addresses of New Zealanders! land other people he had met! in Thailand. All were! checked. ! Five sailors were checked thoroughly, after a long, in-' volved process. All remembered Jeremy, but not one had seen him since. “It is not easy for Thai peoplp to remember a foreigner, just as it isn’t easy for us to remember a Chinese,” said Mr Ward. If Jeremy had wandered' over the borders of surrounding countries several organsiations were keeping a look out. he said. These included the New Zealand and British embassies, who gave the Wards excellent co-operation, and voluntary organisations such .as the Red Cross, the United Nations High Commission I for Refugees, and the Save the Children Fund. i

The Thai police worked in a much different manner to their western counterparts, said Mr Ward. “They were not very well paid, and relied on information given to them rather than on detection. The detection had to be done by Chris and myself. We told them that we wanted some area or address investigated, and they would then give us a lieutenant who accompanied us—and of course we had to pay expenses.” The search has been expensive. The cheap living attracted young people to Thailand, said Mr Ward. The cost of living was lower than Singapore, and young people travelling overland to Europe found that they stayed longer than intended in Thailand. “The whole trail overland from Singapore to Istanbul is a long, ant-like drug trail and a large number of young people trying to do a Marco Polo voyage on a shoe-string (budget get caught up with shady customers,” he said. } “We have fears that Jeremy may be caught up in (this sort of thing, but ,we don’t have any evidence. It |is a possibility we must not rule out.” There were a great many temptations for the young there, especially in northern j Thailand. Thai people were very kind, said Mr Ward. If Jeremy did not have money he could have lived off the land quite easily; village people would take him in and feed him. “Unfortunately, he could have been travelling alone and been ‘knocked off’ by bandits, would stop at nothing to get an expensive camera, or passport, and then dispose of the body. There is a lot of ways Jeremy may have met his fate,” said I his father.