Rescuers Find Missing Man's Body After 3-Day Flood Search

After a three-day search marked by the son's anguished waiting, rescuers found the body of a 48-year-old man who vanished after falling from a bridge into floodwaters. On October 20, 2026, media reported progress in the search for Rangsan (surname withheld), a 48-year-old resident of Bang Phli subdistrict, Mueang district, Chachoengsao province. His son had reported him missing from their flood-inundated home since October 18. It was suspected Rangsan slipped off a bridge and into the water; neighbors last saw him going out to receive distributed flood relief food boxes.

At 3:00 PM, Chachoengsao rescue unit officers discovered Rangsan's body in a decomposed state, lodged within a dense thicket of water spinach in the middle of Khlong Bang Phli, approximately two kilometers from the bridge where he was believed to have fallen. Since morning, rescue teams had boated along both banks of Khlong Bang Phli in a meticulous search. In the afternoon, they adjusted their plan, deploying two motorboats to navigate inside the canal, turning back to carefully inspect water spinach clusters and thick vegetation along the banks before finally locating the body, concluding the three-day search amid the family's grief.

During the recovery operation, a heavy downpour struck, forcing officers to exercise extreme caution before they could bring the body aboard and navigate out of the area to the landing point. They then coordinated with Pol. Lt. Col. Bandit Thongkhong, Deputy Inspector (Investigation) of Mueang Chachoengsao Police Station, along with forensic doctors from Buddhachinaraj Hospital, to examine the body before releasing it to relatives for religious funeral rites at Wat Don Sai.

Phairoch Bunhiran, head of the Chachoengsao Rescue Unit operations team, revealed that the search began on the night of October 18 when the canal current was extremely strong. Divers searched the suspected fall point but found no body, surmising it may have been swept downstream. The next day, officers boated along both banks but still found nothing. Today, they focused on a concrete pipe connecting to an irrigation canal before switching back to re-examining water spinach and vegetation along the entire canal, finally locating the deceased.

"The reason the body wasn't found earlier was because the dense water spinach clusters covered and concealed it," Phairoch explained. "Additionally, the odor from the body may have been absorbed by the water spinach, so even when officers passed by or moored nearby, they could not detect it unless they parted the vegetation for a detailed inspection."