He died in a cell while suffering from mental illness; his family blames the authorities for inaction.
The search for 41-year-old Danish citizen Jacob Jensen, who went missing in March, has ended tragically in Thailand. It has been revealed that he died on 26 March while in custody at a police station in Bangkok. Jensen’s identity remained unknown for more than two months, raising many questions.
Jakob Jensen’s disappearance received widespread public attention after his family posted a request for help on the social network Reddit. In their post, they described Jensen’s mental health issues, his last known movements in Thailand, and their fears that he was in a state of psychosis without access to the necessary medication.
According to his family, Jensen arrived in Thailand in early February and stayed in the southern province of Ranong. There, his mental state began to deteriorate, presumably due to the discontinuation of his prescribed medication. On 21 March, after an incident at a guesthouse in Ranong where Jensen damaged property, the tourist police helped him board a bus to Bangkok.
Authorities report that Jensen told officers he was planning to visit a friend, although his family knew nothing about this. Later reports of his appearance in Prachuap Khiri Khan province suggested that he may have gotten off the bus earlier. However, his phone had been turned off since 23 March, raising serious concerns for his safety.
In May, the Danish authorities announced Jensen’s disappearance. It turned out that he had made it to Bangkok on 22 March and had been seen in several places in a disoriented state. On 26 March, the police responded to a report of a foreigner in distress and behaving inappropriately near Klong Toey.
He was reportedly shouting threats of suicide and was in a state of mental distress. The man was detained by police from the Phra Khanong police station. Due to the lack of identification documents and signs of mental disorder, he was placed in a detention cell, where he was later found dead.
Despite attempts at resuscitation, he was pronounced dead that evening. The body was taken to the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University and registered as an unidentified foreigner. The delay in establishing his identity, which lasted more than two months, raised questions about inter-agency communication, especially given the international alert for a missing person. Only after the family hired a private investigator, with the support of expat volunteers and a Thai non-governmental organization, was a connection made between the unidentified body and the missing Dane.
Jakob Jensen’s family expressed disappointment at the lack of progress on the part of both the Thai and Danish authorities. Despite appeals to embassies, police, and the media, they were unable to confirm his fate until the end of May. This tragic discovery ended a difficult search but also brought deep disappointment.
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