SIEM REAP (Khmer Times) – Just over a year ago, on Feb. 14, 2014, two housekeepers came by Dave Walker’s room at the Green Village Angkor Guesthouse to clean.
The Canadian filmmaker lived at the guesthouse, so he knew the process would take about 20 minutes. That Friday afternoon, Walker put his computer to sleep, put his cell phone on its charger, and walked out the door.
The receptionist was eating his lunch by the pool when he saw Walker – donned in a black top with black trousers and grey sneakers – pass through the restaurant and pool area, cross the parking lot and out the main gate.
He would be one of the last people to report seeing him alive.
Walker had nothing on him. His cellphone was in his room. He wasn’t wearing a watch or jewelry. He wasn’t known to carry much money, just a small bottle of water.
Ten weeks later, on May 1, the water bottle he was last seen carrying was found in woods near Angkor Thom’s Victory Gate, about 11 kilometers from Siem Reap. Lying nearby was Walker’s badly decomposed body. He was still dressed in black and wearing his gray sneakers.
Walker’s body was transported to Thailand for an autopsy at the request of the Canadian embassy on May 23. By Sept. 15, his body was cremated in Bangkok.
Beloved Member of the Community
As evidenced by the shock and grief, Walker was a beloved member of the Siem Reap community.
As a journalist and filmmaker, he opened up Animist Farm Films in Siem Reap and had completed a number of short documentaries about locals. He was in the process of completing another film before his disappearance.
He was known in Siem Reap for his generosity and love of the country. When news of his disappearance broke, expats in both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh mobilized to determine what happened.
In Canada, relatives and colleagues pushed Canadian authorities to investigate the disappearance. When his death was confirmed, they pushed the Canadian embassy in Bangkok to investigate.
Unanswered Questions
But, one year later, close friends still ask the same questions.
His cousin and next of kin, Tammy Madon, has stopped commenting publicly about the case.
Last January, the Journal de Montreal quoted Ms. Madon as saying: “The autopsy report is inclusive. We are moving on...turning the page.”
Two days later, Madon clarified: “That is not what I said at all. I have not even received the report. The only official document I have is the death certificate, which states death caused by loss of consciousness.”
One year after his disappearance, there are more rumors than facts about the reasons for his death.
The Canadian Embassy in Thailand sent a representative to Siem Reap. Siem Reap provincial immigration chief Chao Mao Vireak said the Embassy also sent: “Thai examination experts, four doctors, two autopsy experts, a cameraman and an assistant.”
Cambodian doctors performed their autopsy at Siem Reap’s provincial referral hospital.
“After the autopsy, our doctors concluded that the victim died as a result of a heart attack and we did not see any injuries caused by someone or evidence of any kind found on the body that would point to this being a murder,” Touch Malai, deputy chief of the provincial technical and scientific police unit, said in a statement.
Asked how Walker’s body ended up in the Angkor temple complex, Malai responded: “We have not investigated how the victim came to be in the Angkor Thom area because we believe that he walked there by himself.”
Walker was known to have bad knees, and the temples are a two hour walk from his guesthouse.
The provincial police chief, Sort Nady, said police working with Apsara Authority discovered no clues as to how Walker entered the park.
“We are still concluding that the victim died of a heart attack,” Nady said. “Because there is not enough fresh air in that forest and it is easy for people to fall unconscious.”
‘Nothing But Rumors’
One year later, many concerned about Walker’s death have given up and moved on. Yet Peter Vronsky, a friend of 20 years, is still looking into the case.
After one year of investigations through friends of Walker in Cambodia, Vronsky says even he is unsure of what actually happened.
“My belief is that there are multiple circumstances that could have led to Dave Walker’s death by foul play,” he reflected. “But knowing Dave for 20 years, there is a very good chance that Dave fled those circumstances to avoid their escalation and might have died of natural causes that afternoon while avoiding a confrontation, perhaps even from the stress of the looming confrontation.”
There are suspects and people of interest in Siem Reap who Vronsky believes may know more about what happened to Walker. But he said that without the backing of Canadian and Cambodian authorities, these leads are not being pursued.
“There is no evidence, to my knowledge, or witnesses, to Dave Walker being abducted – not a single sighting,” he said. “That’s why I say it’s 50-50. The other 50 of course, is the possibility that Dave was abducted in front of his hotel, and there were no witnesses. Or they did not come forward. Certainly there were sufficient motives for Dave to have been targeted. We just don’t have any substantial clues or evidence for it. Nothing but rumors.”