An elderly Thai woman committed suicide by crocodile last Friday by jumping into a pit full of the fierce predators. The 65-year-old woman was identified as Wenpai Inyai after police found her healthcare card floating in the water after she jumped.
Inyai reportedly went to the Samut Prakarn Crocodile Farm & Zoo on Friday, and was caught by CCTV leaving her shoes on the walkway before jumping into a crocodile pit. The pond was 3 meters deep and reportedly full of hundreds of crocodiles. Staff members of the popular Thai tourist attraction tried to use long sticks to keep the crocodiles from getting to the woman, but failed to protect her, according to the Bangkok Post.
Woman in Thailand is said to have committed suicide by leaping into crocodile farm in Bangkok: http://t.co/AZKkQQz2k0 pic.twitter.com/tiIjde29ex
— AOL.com (@AOL) September 17, 2014
Woman commits ‘suicide by crocodile’ by jumping in zoo enclosure http://t.co/8aFVfEzZu8 pic.twitter.com/Ogtpm4pSSU
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) September 16, 2014
Relatives of Inyai said that she had been suffering from stress and depression, and had not spoken to anyone for days before she committed suicide. Her family apparently tried to file a missing persons for Inyai on Friday morning, but were told by local police to wait for 24 hours before doing so, as required by law.
In an interview with a local Thai radio station, Uthen Youngprapakorn, owner of the crocodile farm, said that additional fences and security measures had already been installed in the walkways such as the one from which Inyai had jumped. He reportedly described her death as “force majeure” and expressed condolences to her family.
Previously, two other suicides using the same method as Inyai’s were reported at Samut Prakarn Crocodile Farm & Zoo, one in 2002 and another a decade before that. The farm was established in 1950 and claims it is the largest crocodile farm in the world, reportedly housing over 100,000 crocodiles. The farm spans 3 acres and was established to save the reptiles from extinction. One of its popular draws is that tourists can feed crocodiles from the walkway.