The pond is used as a public water source for residents in Phuket Town and nearby areas.
Panya Duangrat, 28, a cleaner in the park, found the body in a pond at the rear of the park, near the entrance along Wirat Hongyok Rd, at about 9:20am and reported it by calling the 191 police hotline.
Col Prawit Ang-chuan, Chief Investigator of the Phuket Provincial Police, and other officers soon arrived to find the body of Banyat Chusri, 42, floating face down, naked in the water.
Police with the assistance of rescue workers recovered the body of Mr Banyat, a resident of Phuket Town near the Polytechnic College at Saphan Hin
On examining the body, officers found no signs of a physical struggle, police confirmed.
Initially police were unable to identify Mr Banyat, who went by the nickname “X”, as his clothes were not found in the area, Lt Col Rachan Panwai of the Phuket City Police told The Phuket News.
However, Mr Banyat’s neighbour happened to be present when police were recovering his body from the water, and believed it looked very much like Mr Banyat.
The neighbour then called Mr Banyat’s mother, who arrived in person and identified the body as that of her son, Col Rachan explained.
Despite other local media reports, Col Rachan denied that his officers had confirmed that Mr Banyat suffered bouts of epilepsy.
“His mother did not tell us anything like that,” he said.
“We were told that although Mr Banyat was 42 years old, he had a mental disability and that he had the mental age of a child about four to five years old,” Col Rachan said.
Mr Banyat was last seen leaving his family home last night, Col Rachan added.
“His mother went looking for him, but failed to find him,” he said.
Police believe that Mr Banyat went into the water for a swim, but drowned, leaving the presumed cause of death as misadventure.
However, Col Racha noted, “We still have to wait for doctors at Vachira Phuket Hospital to confirm that.”