A physician said the cause of death was brain inflammation caused by violent impact. Police are pursuing the suspect.
Mrs Janya Sarach, 28, told a reporter during the child's funeral Thursday morning at Ban Klong Hin Mosque cemetery that her daughter, Apinya 'Jasmine' Jantkiao, "had bruises all over her body." The girl reportedly died en route to hospital. Janya said Jasmine also had deep bruises on her throat and back.
Janya said she had left her daughter with a babysitter for day care "on the road to Wat Tam Seua." She was paying the woman B4,500 per month to look after the baby. Janya, meanwhile, was working in a food shop at Tara public park.
"I am all alone," she explained, "since my husband and I broke up."
On the day in question she received a call from the babysitter: "She said my daughter drowned in a pool and that her body was at Krabi hospital."
But when Janya went to view the corpse, she noted the body was badly bruised: "It made me doubt the drowning story – that, and the fact that the babysitter couldn't keep her story straight."
Janya therefore filed a complaint with police.
"I talked to the doctor: he said the child couldn't have drowned, because no water filled the lungs. He said she died from violent impact to the head, and I expect it was the babysitter who did it."
Janya said the woman had since disappeared with her possessions from the house where she took in children for day care.
Krabi Meuang district police duty officer Pol Capt Prapant Nhuchaikaew said officers had questioned Janya and people near the day care operation, and were assembling information preparatory to requesting a warrant for the suspect's arrest "because she fled the house."
"Initially, we expect that the woman took the child for a bath and that she slipped from her hands, hitting her head violently. The woman then brought her to the hospital, but in the end she died.
"After that, fearing she had done wrong, the woman fled."
It was not reported whether the suspect was taking care of other children at the time of the incident.