Porlajee "Billy" Rakchongcharoen (Thai: พอละจี "บิลลี่" รักจงเจริญ), a Karen environmental and community activist, was last seen alive in Kaeng Krachan National Park, western Phetchaburi Province, Thailand on 17 April 2014.
Three years earlier, in 2011, Billy had filed a lawsuit against Chaiwat over the May 2011 destruction and burning of houses, and eviction of over 20 Karen families living in Jai Paen Din, meaning 'heart of the land'[1] in the park's Pong Luk Bang Kloy village, in the Huai Mae Phriang Sub-district of Kaeng Krachan District.
The national park chief later swore that Billy had been arrested and released on the same day after being questioned for possession of an illegal wild bee honeycomb and six bottles of honey.
[10][1] In May 2011, Kaeng Krachan National Park officers forcibly evicted and burned about 100 houses and rice barns of Karen villagers in Pong Luk Bang Kloy.
[1] On 11 September 2011, Phetchaburi local activist and former Pheu Thai candidate Thatkamon Ob-om, 55, was shot dead while driving.
[14] Shortly after Billy's disappearance, his wife, Pinnapha Phrueksapan, requested that the court hold an emergency trial under Article 90 of the Criminal Procedure Code to investigate his alleged unlawful detention.
Thailand has no forced disappearance laws,[15] so Karen villagers filed a lawsuit against the alleged perpetrators for unlawfully detaining the activist.
[6] In June 2018 the Supreme Administrative Court reaffirmed that ethnic Karen villagers cannot return to their homes in Kaeng Krachan National Park.
[17] The Bangkok Post called DSI's newfound interest in the case, "...a ceremonial move to appease international human rights defenders.
[1] Chaiwat Limlikhitaksorn and his three former subordinates were summoned to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), to acknowledge murder and other charges in connection with the enforced disappearance and presumed death of Karen activist Porlajee Rakchongcharoen [38] Chaiwat acquitted of murder, but sentenced to three years in jail for dereliction of duty in connection with Billy’s detention for not reporting the arrest and handing Billy over to police.
While Namthip, the fictional name of Billy's wife in the film, is treated indifferently by authorities when she tries to file a missing persons report with the police, Woon, the fictional wife in the parallel story, is enthusiastically aided by police in finding her husband who was killed in a helicopter crash in the jungle.
[44] In 2013, the Bangkok Post reported that Police General Vasit Dejkunjorn, founder of the Thai Spring movement, told a seminar that forced disappearance is a tool which corrupt state power uses to eliminate individuals deemed a threat.