Si Quey’s body cremated at last
The body of notorious serial killer Si Quey was cremated in Nonthaburi yesterday after six decades of being on public display at a museum in Bangkok.
However, the final resting place for his ashes is yet to be decided.
Si Quey’s body was cremated at Wat Bang Praek Tai, near Bang Kwang Prison in Nonthaburi.
Pol Col Naras Savestanan, directorgeneral of the Corrections Department, who presided over the cremation ceremony, said the ashes would not be kept at the temple nor in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Thap Sakae district, where Si Quey lived and worked as a labourer before he was arrested.
“Si Quey was an executed convict who committed many crimes,” Pol Col Naras said. “We will handle it properly to prevent any issues from arising.”
“We will treat Si Quey like other executed convicts who had no relatives,” he added.
He feared if the ashes were taken to Thap Sakae district, a shrine would be built, and people would go there to worship.
Jeerarote Jeerapornsawat, 78, a Thap Sakae local, travelled to the Bangkok temple to participate in the cremation ceremony.
Mr Jeerarote claimed that when he was 10 years old, he used to speak with Si Quey, noting the man could not speak Thai, but was employed in a chilli pepper field run by Mr Jeerarote’s family.
A firing squad executed Si Quey after he was convicted of murdering seven children across the kingdom in the late 1950s.
His mummified body was studied and put on display for decades.
When the case made headlines, most people in Thap Sakae district did not believe Si Quey was the murderer, Mr Jeerarote said.
“We don’t believe that Si Quey did it,” Mr Jeerarote said. “We want the cremation today to mark the end of the story of Si Quey.”
“If DNA testing at the time was as advanced as it is now, we might have been able to prove whether he really did it or was a scapegoat,” he added.
Sarawadi Thongchim, 38, another Thap Sakae local who travelled to Bangkok for the cremation ceremony, said she was born after Si Quey was executed, but relatives said he was once hired as a labourer at their family farm.
She said Si Quey’s story had become a topic of discourse for decades.
Ms Sarawadi said Siriraj Hospital should have laid Si Quey’s body to rest after it was studied, noting the hospital needed to return Si Quey some human dignity.
From 1959 to 2019, Si Quey’s preserved cadaver was exhibited for education purposes at the Songkran Niyomsane Forensic Medicine Museum, Siriraj Hospital.
The Si Quey exhibition was recently removed, and the body was taken from the museum for cremation as requested by the people of Thap Sakae and the National Human Rights Commission.
Siriraj Hospital said it had arranged a merit-making ceremony for Si Quey every year since his body had served as a “teacher” for many medical students for a long time.
Actor Therdphon Manophaibun, who played Si Quey in a TV drama in 1984, attended the cremation ceremony. He said the event finally set Si Quey free and had given him justice after six decades of confinement.
“No one can say they’re 100% sure of what’s true and what’s not,” Mr Therdphon said.
“The truth might only have been passed on by word of mouth.”
Si Quey was convicted of murdering seven children, removing their internal organs and boiling them before consuming them.
He was arrested in Rayong in 1958. He confessed to the murders but denied cannibalism charges before being convicted and executed in September the following year.
His name has often been used by parents to warn children to behave. “If you misbehave, Si Quey will come and catch you,” mothers would often say to their naughty kids.