SURIN -- Two sisters missing since they left home to buy food on Dec 31 for the New Year celebration have been found dead in their submerged sedan in a pond in Kap Choeng district near the Cambodian border.
The black Toyota car with a Bangkok licence plate was found in a roadside pond behind Phon Thong village in tambon Takhien on Monday afternoon, said Pol Lt Veerapong Hatthakit, a duty officer at Kap Choeng police station.
Police and rescue workers discovered the two bodies when they hauled the vehicle from the 2-metre deep water.
A rescue worker and his team haul the submerged sedan from a pond in Kap Choeng district of Surin on Monday afternoon. (Photo by Nopparat Kingkaew)
The women were identified later as driver Kanuengnut Thientong, 35, and her elder sister Wiphada Thiengtong, 37, both of Non Samran village in tambon Dan of Kap Choeng district.
Police investigators said signs found at the scene suggested the car had been travelling fast when the driver lost control and the vehicle hit a eucalyptus tree before plunging into the roadside pool.
The car overturned, trapping the probably unconscious women inside.
Relatives told police the two sisters had left Non Samran village for downtown Kap Choeng to buy New Year supplies around 10am on Dec 31. They did not return.
Relatives had search unsuccessfully for them and posted their disappearance online, but the first they heard was when their bodies were reported found in the crashed car on Monday.
The family raised no doubts about the cause of death and the bodies were returned to them for funeral rites, police said.