Missing Boy's Granddad Still Hopeful

German Cleared In Disappearance Of Boy

Jan 5, 2005 10:08 am US/Pacific
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) A 12-year-old Swedish tsunami victim who was the focus of reports that he may have been kidnapped was never treated at any Thai hospital, the health ministry said Wednesday.

A child matching the description of Kristian Walker was seen leaving Taimuang hospital, in devastated Phang Nga province, a day after the tsunami struck on Dec. 26. He was last seen with an unidentified foreign man leaving the hospital.

But police said Wednesday the man, Stephan Kayser of Munich, Germany, has been cleared after questioning.
Police Sgt. Vichai Boonruen said police had confirmed Kayser’s account that he had helped seven people, including a Swedish boy named Martin Samerud, who later was reunited with his mother.

“We have ruled out the theory that this man kidnapped anyone,” Vichai said.

Vichai Thienthavorn, permanent secretary of the Public Health Ministry, told reporters that Kristian never showed up in Taimuang or any other hospital in Thailand.

“The reports about the disappearance of the boy might have resulted from a misunderstanding,” he said. “We have make thorough checks of the records, and no such name arrived at any hospital.”

Police brought Kayser and his wife, Annette, from their home in badly hit Phang Nga province to meet with media in Phuket. The couple said they have lived in Thailand for about half of each of the last five years in a house about three miles from the beach and not far from the hospital. It was unscathed by the tsunami, so they wanted to help out.

They initially took in two German couples and their two children who had no other place to stay except the hospital. On another trip to the hospital, they met Martin, who they said has shoulder-length blond hair and has only a slight resemblance to fellow Swede, Kristian.

“His parents were missing and he had no bed of his own. He was lying in the bed of some huge, strange man and there were two Swedish people who were not injured” looking after him, Mrs. Kayser said.

The Swedish men asked Kayser if he and his wife would look after Martin if the doctors said the boy could leave.

“We asked the boy whether he wanted to come, and he wanted to, and the next morning we brought him back,” Mrs. Kayser said, noting that Martin was reunited with his mother then.

Kristian’s grandfather, Daniel Walker of Vero Beach, Fla., attended the news conference and said Kayser had “absolutely zero” to do with his grandson. He also applauded the Kaysers for helping tsunami victims.

Daniel Walker has been going around with photos of Kristian, and doctors at Taimuang hospital said they had seen a boy who looked like him come in for treatment for water in his ears.

“I will be hopeful until the last minute,” Walker said Wednesday.

Kristian had been on vacation with his mother, Madeleine, who is still missing, along with bother David, 14, and sister
Anna, 7, who were found and are back home in Sweden.

Two Swedish police officers have been assisting in the investigation, Swedish National Police spokeswoman Carolina Ekeus said.

In the wake of the devastating tsunami, there have been unconfirmed reports of dozens of orphaned children being taken by unidentified people, some of them possibly child traffickers.

Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said Tuesday his government was working closely with hospitals to prevent human trafficking gangs from taking advantage of the situation, although he stressed that there was no firm indication that they were.

This week, the Swedish branch of Save the Children warned governments in south Asia to be mindful of children left orphaned or without families in the disaster, saying they could be potential targets for pedophiles.

“The experience from other catastrophes is that children are particularly vulnerable,” said Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, managing director of the agency.

On Wednesday, UNICEF spokesman John Budd, based in Banda Aceh, said the group had two confirmed reports of attempted child trafficking but he did not immediately provide further details.

Fueling the suspicions, many Indonesians have received mobile phone text messages this week inviting them to adopt orphans from Aceh. The police are investigating the messages. It’s not clear whether they are pranks, real adoption offers or linked to trafficking networks.