Woman With Dementia Walked 400 Miles To See Son Nearby, Returns Home

A Thai woman with dementia, who accidentally walked 400 miles to China after leaving home to see her son nearby in June last year, returned home Friday.

Kaeomanee Arjaw, 59, lived in the Thai province of Chiang Rai and was reported missing from her home on June 12, 2018. Arjaw, who belongs to the ethnic Akha hill-tribe, was found in the southern Chinese city of Kunming in January with a Thai identity card. Officials then contacted the local consulate.

On Thursday, the woman’s daughter, 35-year-old Suchada, flew down to Kunming along with the Thai officials. The pair was filmed hugging each other in an emotional reunion. In the footage, officials can be seen asking the woman where she was going when she left home last year.

“I went to see my son… I met him, then I kept walking. There were no cars around,” she answers.

Her daughter said Arjaw had lost over 44 pounds along the journey.

China borders both Laos and Myanmar and it was not clear which route the woman took.

Colonel Aekkorn Butsabarbodin, of Chiang Rai immigration police, told AFP, “She told officials she went there by foot, she kept walking, asking for food from stalls along the way.”

Arjaw and her daughter flew back to Thailand on Friday and was finally reunited with the rest of her family.

In a similar incident in December 2018, a 17-year-old mentally challenged girl returned home five years after she went missing in a flood that hit the Indian state of Uttarakhand in 2013. Chanchal had gone for a pilgrimage with her family when the tragedy struck. She got lost and reached a shelter in Jammu. The staff of the Indian charitable trust Childline tried communicating with her during which she mentioned the city of Aligarh several times. They contacted a local legislator who found her home.

She was brought back to her home and handed over to her grandmother. The family was initially hesitant to take her back because of her disabilities and asked the officials if she could be kept at a hostel. However, after counseling, they agreed to keep her.