The rattan baskets were full of Duangpetch Promthep’s favourite foods – from sticky rice with grilled pork, to fried squid with eggs and preserved plums.
In the dark market in northern Thailand, the 17-year-old’s shocked family had gathered early on Thursday morning, still digesting the news that Duangpetch – known as Dom – had suddenly died in an English hospital some 5,000 miles away. The food, as well as flowers and water, were presented as offerings to local Buddhist monks.
“It's been hard for us to sleep,” his mother, Thanaporn Promthep, told local media. “We woke up at 2am and prepared the food and incense for the monks.”
As Ms Promthep searches for answers about exactly how her son – one of the 12 boys saved during the Thai cave rescue in 2018 – had suddenly died, her thoughts have also turned to logistics. How will Dom return home?
“Our family is worried that his spirit may still be lost in the dormitory or in the hospital,” she said during a press conference late on Wednesday night. “We are waiting for his body to return.”
The 17-year-old was in England after winning a spot at the prestigious Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicestershire last year. According to some media reports, the family are keen for a monk in England to visit Dom and help coordinate his return to Mai Sai, a district in Thailand’s northernmost Chiang Rai province, to perform a burial ceremony.
“It's a shock, we're all still shocked,” Ms Promthep said. “We have to accept what has happened and pray for him.”
Dom was captain of The Wild Boars football team who, along with their coach, became trapped in a complex cave network in 2018 for two weeks. Sudden heavy rain flooded their exit, forcing the team further and further into a warren of caves to avoid drowning – triggering a treacherous rescue attempt that captured global attention.
Efforts to locate the group were initially hampered by rising water levels and strong currents, and no contact was made for more than a week. But eventually, after advancing through narrow passages and muddy waters, British divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton found the group alive on an elevated rock about 4km from the cave mouth on July 2.
“When John Volanthen and I first found the Wild Boars at the end of a fraught nine day search, it was Dom who took the lead and wrote the first messages to the outside world,” Mr Stanton told CNN, adding that he was shocked by the news of his death.
“As a personal recollection, it was Dom whose unconscious body I swam with as I escorted him to safety on the second day of the rescue mission. I carefully held his precious life in my grasp, bearing the full weight of responsibility towards his survival through the most extreme of circumstances.”
Eventually, all 12 boys and their coach were rescued. But the incident claimed two lives – a 37 year old former Royal Thai Navy Seal, Saman Kunan, died of asphyxiation during an attempted rescue, while rescue diver and Thai Navy Seal Beirut Pakbara died a year later from a blood infection contracted inside the caves.
Five years later, Dom’s hometown – where jubilant scenes were broadcast around the world as the boys were pulled to safety – is “full of sorrow”, according to the Thai government.
The cause of the young footballer’s death is unclear, but he was found unconscious in his dorm room in Leicestershire on Sunday and taken to hospital, where he died on Tuesday.
Tributes to the 17-year-old continued on Thursday.
“Have fun playing football in heaven,” said Kiatisuk Senamuang, a former striker and head coach of Thailand’s national football team, who founded the Zico Foundation which helped Dom win his scholarship to study in England.
“I wish you have a safe journey. If you are free, please come to visit me or just come to see me coaching. Tonight I will remember all the memories we had. I don’t know when I can fall asleep. I will remember all the memories. I love you so much,” he added on social media.
Eakapol Chanthawong, the coach who was with Dom in the caves, was one of many to reference the many dreams the teenager had yet to fulfil.
“Didn’t you ask me to cheer you once you’re in the national league? Why did you break the promise? Didn’t we make all the plans when you come back to play football and go cycling with us?
“Since you were young, you kept saying that you wanted to play in the national league. Why didn’t you do as you said? Rest in peace my little brother, if the next life exists, we will see each other again,” he said.
For Dom’s family, many questions remain. But for now, the most urgent is how to bring Dom home.
“We want him to return – his body – because our family doesn’t have much … We don’t have money; none of us do. We would like to ask for your help to bring his body home, please,” Ms Promthep said during a press conference on Wednesday, addressing the footballer Mr Senamuang.
“Yes, I will liaise for that,” he said, adding that a post mortem will first have to take place in England before a visa is issued, and the Thai authorities are helping with the process.
“I am grateful for Dom's friends,” added Ms Promthep. “They have always loved and cared for each other dearly. All of the parents of the other Wild Boars players have said they will help us bring Dom's body back.”
