Woman allowed to spend time alone in ambulance carrying Shane Warne's body, police admit security breach
A German woman was caught jumping into the ambulance carrying Australian spin legend Shane Warne's dead body off Thailand's Koh Samui island on Monday.
Shane Warne, arguably the greatest leg-spinner to grace the sport, passed away on March 4 at a luxury resort villa in Koh Samui. The 52-year-old was found unresponsive at about 5:15 pm after not arriving for a scheduled dinner with friends.
From Koh Samui, he was taken to Surat Thani via ferry and then to a local hospital where an autopsy was conducted. A video recorded by ABC News showed the woman in question alongside a Thai woman talking to officials on the ferry where the ambulance was parked. The latter was heard saying "Yeah, yeah she knows him" in English followed by "Thank you very much, she's a friend" in Thai.
The two women were escorted to the ambulance where they had a short chat with the driver. He showed the blonde woman, who was carrying flowers, to the back of the ambulance where she spent over half a minute alone.
This raised serious questions about the security of the transport of the cricketer's body, prompting the Thai police to conduct an investigation. It was later reported that Australian officials and two of Warne's friends were seated upstairs in the passenger section of the ferry and didn't see the woman enter the ambulance.
Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn, an adviser to the Royal Thai Police, accepted the police's error. He, however, also remarked that the woman "did not mean harm."
He said:
“We have to accept that it was [a mistake] for police to miss her and we investigated. We found that she did not mean harm. She just wanted to pay her last respects.”
The woman, identified as 'Barbara' and a Koh Samui resident, also apologized to the police, saying she's just a "big fan" who wanted to pay her condolences but did not mean it as a "negative act".
Autopsy shows Shane Warne died of natural causes
RIP Shane Warne (1969-2022) https://t.co/WMmknYmuGa
Police spokesperson Krissana Pattanacharoen claimed to have received the autopsy report on Monday, saying that it concluded Shane Warne had a “natural death”.
The police have reportedly informed his family and the Australian embassy and will now forward the report to the prosecutor to close the case.