Update -- Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2005
The most important thing about today’s update is to thank Matt Sullivan, Ben’s friend from Colorado who went to Thailand with David. Matt is returning to the States after spending a week tracking across Thailand with David and Steve (our private investigator). As Steve says, Matt will be greatly missed. And he will be forever in the Abels’ hearts for what he has done to help.
David, Matt and Steve returned to Phi Phi today with Ellen Wong (our representative from the State Department) and other diplomats and local volunteers. While there, David collected more sand to bring home. Clean up efforts are proceeding quickly there. They screened the left side of the bay, on foot in the surf, and using a small boat, just on the off chance that it had not been done. They found much evidence that the coast off of the island had been inspected. No human remains linger there. The clean up efforts on Phi Phi are serious. Steve says he would not be surprised if the Thai authorities have it completely cleaned up and reopened for tourism within the next three months. They are working that quickly and aggressively.
Ellen Wong reported that the US Navy SEALs screened the coastline of Phi Phi earlier in the day, and Steve is expecting a briefing soon. Thus far, they had nothing significant to report. Steve expects that the briefing will help him determine what his next steps should be.
In the meantime, Steve will remain in Krabi until he senses that no more remains will be recovered from the environs of Phi Phi. It will not be long. He will then likely relocate to Phuket, to concentrate on interfacing with the international Detection of Victim Identification team there.
At that point, we will continue to wait, hope and pray. And we will continue to be grateful to all of our friends and family for their help and hope. We continue to hear from people we have never met - friends of Ben’s from across the country, members of the community, people who simply read the New York Times article and want to express their sympathies. Each and every call and story and prayer helps. Also, the donations to The Tsunami Relief Fund in Honor of Ben Abels have been more than we ever expected. We will keep you updated as to where the money is spent, and the lives we are able to touch because of it. Thank you.
David, Matt and Steve returned to Phi Phi today with Ellen Wong (our representative from the State Department) and other diplomats and local volunteers. While there, David collected more sand to bring home. Clean up efforts are proceeding quickly there. They screened the left side of the bay, on foot in the surf, and using a small boat, just on the off chance that it had not been done. They found much evidence that the coast off of the island had been inspected. No human remains linger there. The clean up efforts on Phi Phi are serious. Steve says he would not be surprised if the Thai authorities have it completely cleaned up and reopened for tourism within the next three months. They are working that quickly and aggressively.
Ellen Wong reported that the US Navy SEALs screened the coastline of Phi Phi earlier in the day, and Steve is expecting a briefing soon. Thus far, they had nothing significant to report. Steve expects that the briefing will help him determine what his next steps should be.
In the meantime, Steve will remain in Krabi until he senses that no more remains will be recovered from the environs of Phi Phi. It will not be long. He will then likely relocate to Phuket, to concentrate on interfacing with the international Detection of Victim Identification team there.
At that point, we will continue to wait, hope and pray. And we will continue to be grateful to all of our friends and family for their help and hope. We continue to hear from people we have never met - friends of Ben’s from across the country, members of the community, people who simply read the New York Times article and want to express their sympathies. Each and every call and story and prayer helps. Also, the donations to The Tsunami Relief Fund in Honor of Ben Abels have been more than we ever expected. We will keep you updated as to where the money is spent, and the lives we are able to touch because of it. Thank you.
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