BANGKOK — What began as a routine recovery of a lost phone took a macabre turn when a man in Thailand discovered images of decomposed human remains on his returned device.

News site Khaosod English reported that Nattapon, who lost his phone in Nonthaburi Province, north-west of Bangkok, contacted the person who had found it and arranged to retrieve it. 

Upon inspecting the phone at home, he was horrified to find photographs of skeletal remains inside an abandoned building.

Police from Pak Kret Station in Nonthaburi Province were called in to investigate. 

Officers examined a four-storey derelict building in Soi Chaeng Watthana-Pak Kret 43/1, Khlong Kluea subdistrict, and found badly decomposed human remains on the third floor. Officials estimated the body had been there for three to four months.

An identity card found beneath a nearby mattress identified the deceased by his surname La, 55, from Lampang Province. 

His family told police he had left Chiang Mai years ago in search of work in Bangkok and had not been heard from for over a year.

Authorities questioned 30-year-old Srayut, known as “Bass,” who had found the phone. 

Bass explained that he could only access the camera when he picked up the device. 

While wandering into the abandoned building — where he sometimes sought shelter — he discovered the body on the third floor and, startled, photographed the scene. 

Bass, a regular scrap scavenger at the site, claimed he had never encountered anyone else there.

Police found nothing suspicious in Bass’s account, though he was visibly traumatised and reportedly unable to eat. 

The exact cause and time of death remain under investigation by the Institute of Forensic Medicine. 

La’s family has made arrangements to claim the body for funeral rites.