The body of Canadian Dave Walker, which was found in May inside the Angkor archaeological park more than two months after the journalist and filmmaker mysteriously disappeared from his guesthouse in Siem Reap City, was cremated in Bangkok on Monday, according to a close friend of the deceased.
The cremation followed the completion of an autopsy in Thailand last month that was commissioned by his family in Edmonton, Ontario, who believe the journalist was murdered.
“Dave Walker was cremated in Bangkok, Monday Sept 15 at 11:00 a.m., Peter Vronksy, a history professor at Toronto’s Ryerson University, said by email.
Mr. Vronsky said the cremation service was arranged by Dave Walker’s Thai ex-wife, Praiwan—who lives in Canada—and was attended by her family, who brought his ashes back to their homeland in Surin, Thailand, as per his wishes.
In February, Dave Walker’s friends and family launched a campaign beseeching police to carry out an investigation into the death of the longtime Cambodia resident, who disappeared without a trace after telling staff at his guesthouse in Siem Reap that he was going for a walk.
When two boys stumbled upon the journalist’s badly decomposed body near the entrance to Angkor Thom temple on May 1, Cambodian police came under fire for quickly proclaiming that he had died of natural causes.
Siem Reap provincial immigration police chief Chao Mao Vireak, who led the initial investigation into Dave Walker’s death, on Wednesday said the case was no longer a matter for Cambodian authorities, because the journalist’s body was delivered to the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok at the end of May.
“The investigation is out of our hands, as we provided the body to the embassy,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Ben Sokhean)
