US Student Disappears in Thailand

By GABRIEL FALCON

 

CNN

 

National News, World News

 

(July 29) - An international search is under way for a 29-year-old Auburn University veterinary student who vanished under what appears to be unusual circumstances in Thailand.

The family of Michael Griffin Harrie is pleading for help in locating him. "We just don't know what happened to him," Paul Harrie told CNN about his missing son. "I now know the meaning of living a nightmare."

 

Michael Griffin Harrie

Auburn University / AP

 

Michael Griffin Harrie, a veterinary student at Auburn University in Alabama, disappeared while on vacation in Thailand.

In a media release, Alabama's Auburn University said Harrie, a second-year student at the veterinary school, was attending a summer study abroad program in Morioka, Japan. He informed a professor he was going to take a one-week vacation with friends to Bangkok, Thailand, that would begin on July 7.

"He said he would be back on the 14th," his father explained. But Harrie never returned to his studies. And when he failed to meet up with his parents in Tokyo on July 16, they reported him missing.

The investigation into Harrie's disappearance is being led by Bangkok police. The American Embassy in Thailand has also been notified, and Auburn University has dispatched two representatives to Japan.

"The role there is to provide assistance to the family," Auburn University communication director Michael Clardy told CNN.

The best clues to finding Harrie appear on video.

Harrie's father, who hired a private detective agency to assist in the search, said surveillance tape from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport on July 14 shows his son entering the airport but then exiting the terminal before checking in for his flight. Why would he suddenly turn around and leave remains a mystery.

Efforts to track him through automated bank transactions also add to the complexity.

His father said his son stopped withdrawing money out of ATM machines a day earlier, on July 13.

While his family calls Harrie an avid traveler, Paul Harrie said his son's behavior is out of character.

 

"The idea of picking up and not telling anyone is very unlike him. He likes to explore areas but always under some sort of controlled circumstances so we know where he is going. The concern is he didn't tell anybody where he was going," he said.

The worry was heightened on Tuesday because Harrie was not on his scheduled flight home to the United States where his veterinary school training was to resume in the fall. His family, desperate for answers, has a message they hope will reach their missing loved one.

"If anybody sees him, please ask him to contact us," Paul Harrie said. "We love him, and we are worried sick about him."

Michael Harrie is from the San Francisco, California, area. He has blue eyes and brown hair, wears eyeglasses and is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 175 pounds. The Auburn University Department of Public Safety and Security is asking for anyone with any information on his whereabouts to call at 334-844-8888.

I don't see how this is a blow to Thai tourism. There is no suggestion that he was kidnapped out of the airport, merely that he turned around and left on his own.

 

Maybe he met a girl/boy who he became infatuated with... Or who knows what he could be involved in. What about the friends he said he went there with on vacation? What happened to them? What do they know?

I think it will turn out to be foul play, but we will see.

Maybe he stole something from the duty free shop and had second thoughts.

 

Or let's say he got caught with drugs by a dirty cop or an extortionist. In that case one might want to go underground, not use a credit card or perhaps the credit card would have been maxed out by paying bribes.

 

When leaving the country under those circumstances, one might perfer to exit by land instead of air.

 

Or maybe he was going to smuggle drugs and chickened out at the last minute?

 

I know the above may not explain his continued absence but just thinking outside the box.