Saturday, May 23, 2009

Ongoing...

This was published today. We are glad they are still looking into it...
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/phi-phi-deaths-officers-check-guesthouse-11145/

Also we DID get the tissue samples this week and they are now in the proper hands. I won't go into much detail as everything is still extremely preliminary, but the very very early results do seem to coincide with something affecting the lungs. Read Ryan's account.

Rob

Friday, May 15, 2009

What is going on in Thailand?

Another German tourist, Ernst Hermannweid, died very much the same way as Jill and Juile while staying in Patong!

http://www.phuketgazette.net/news/index.asp?id=7359

Thursday, May 14, 2009

A slide show by Paul...

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Back in the States...

Ryan, his folks, and Jill's remains arrived in San Fransisco this morning. Jill's ashes are now with her mother. Thank God every one made it back safe.

I came across this article today and thought it was interesting. Pretty much confirms that the officials in Thailand would like to keep this quiet.
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/why-pursuing-truith-matters-tourism-11084/

Also the US Embassy in Bangkok has a Twitter page. There isn't anything on there about Jill's death, but maybe we can use it as another avenue to let them know we are watching this closely.

Warm Regards to you all,
Rob

Friday, May 8, 2009

The Jill St. Onge Memorial Fund

We have received an enormous amount of requests from people asking how they can help.
  • First and for most please keep the story alive. The longer this is in public view the more likely we will get a real answer.
  • Second - Hug your loved ones because they can be gone in the blink of an eye with out any rhyme or reason.
  • Third - We would like to have something good come of all this. We have set up a Jill St. Onge Memorial Fund. It will be used in a way we feel would represent Jill in the best way. Some ideas are starting a scholarship, establishing a memorial (Bench at a vista point or something along those lines) for every one to enjoy, helping other troubled travelers, using it to fund children art programs. This is very fluid right now. All thoughts and ideas on what would be a good way to represent Jill would be greatly appreciated.
You can donate using the PayPal button below. A website for the Jill St. Onge Memorial Fund will be coming soon to follow where the money goes and all the good things it will be used for.

Thanks to everyone. As soon as we get any new info we will be sure to share.
Jill's Family

The Jill St. Onge Memorial Fund
(The button wasn't working...It should be working now)



Or in person at any Chase (formerly WaMu) bank.


Jill with Loveable mutt 'Sugar'

A tribute to Jill...

One of Jill's closest and oldest friends wrote a loving article in her blog about Jill and how wonderful she was. Please give it a read. Thank you Shannon.

http://knitosphere.blogspot.com/2009/05/jill-st-onge.html


If there are any others out there please send them my way.

***EDIT Got some more great tributes to Jill. Check them out.***

http://thedoblereffect.blogspot.com/2009/05/tribute.html

http://lovedogranch.blogspot.com/2009/05/great-joy-and-great-sadness.html

http://goodtobetrebes.blogspot.com/2009/05/strange-week.html

http://thelek.com/blog/dating-in-la/for-jill/


Thanks,
Rob

Thursday, May 7, 2009

In the Media...

The story has finally been picked up by the Associated Press. This is a great tool to keep this in the NEWS. We now have more places to go to let the officials in Thailand and the Embassy know that this is important, we all care and to please get to the bottom of it.

One of the best things we can all do is to find the articles and post some comments on how you feel this whole ordeal is being handled and if you knew Jill let the world know what a beam of sunshine she was. The old saying "The squeakiest wheel gets the grease" is how we can keep this going.

It's easy to find where the articles can be found. I have been using Google News and searching "Jill St. Onge". The blog search found on the Google News search results page is also real handy. Here is a link to Google News with "Jill St.Onge" as the search...
http://news.google.com/news?ned=us&hl=en&q=jill+st.onge&cf=all&as_qdr=d&as_drrb=q

Thanks to all of you for your comments and interest. I'll post again when any more news comes my way.

Rob -Jill's Brother

P.S. Sorry if the wording is weird. My sleep fuel tank is on fumes.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Latest: Phi Phi 'Poisoning' Kills Two Tourists - Phuket Wan

***>>>As new links to articles about Jill and Ryan come out I have been adding them to the list below. Once we get some more significant, verified info I'll post a new blog entry (which we hope is real soon). Our thanks goes out to the media, family, friends, and the kindness of strangers on getting this story the recognition it deserves.<<<***

It looks like some news agencies and blogger's are starting to take notice. Thank you to Rex for sending me this most recent article.

Latest: Phi Phi 'Poisoning' Kills Two Tourists - Phuket Wan


There are more articles out there too. Please visit the following links and keep the story alive so this isn't just swept under carpet. If any one finds any thing else please leave a comment with the link.

Thank you,
Rob


  1. http://www.komonews.com/news/44513197.html <---News video from KOMO 4 Seattle, WA

  2. http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_050609WAB-thailand-death-KC.2878404c.html <---NEWS video from KING 5 in Seattle, Wa

  3. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/peninsula&id=6800461 <--- NEWS video from ABC 7 San Fransisco, CA

  4. http://www.kirotv.com/video/19390080/index.html <---NEWS Video report from KIRO TV in Seattle, WA

  5. http://www.andamantimes.com/news/editorial/editorial-everyone-deserves-answers/ <-- With great pictures of Jill. Thank you Andaman Times for your persistent coverage.

  6. http://www.andamantimes.com/krabi/phi-phi/urgent-cyanide-found/

  7. http://www.andamantimes.com/news/update-phi-phi-deaths/

  8. http://www.andamantimes.com/news/22-year-old-tourist-dies-at-phi-phi/

  9. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Norwegian-Woman-22-Died-Hospital-t262695.html&st=25

  10. http://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=16574

  11. http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-254369

  12. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293920-i5037-k2765227-Tourists_poisoned_in_Phi_Phi-Phuket.html

  13. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1769166&tstart=0

  14. http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nettavisen.no%2Futenriks%2Farticle2619285.ece&sl=no&tl=en&history_state0=

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

How it went down straight from Ryan via Skype

Jill and I had been on the island for 6 days in a bungalow with no A/C. We decided to splurge and get one with A/C for two days. So the night before we moved into the new place we went out late, because we planned to sleep all the next day in this A/C room. So we got to the new room around 11 am. slept for about 3 hours. I cant ever sleep that much but Jill was great at sleeping. I told her I was going to go check the internet, she said she would stay there.

I was gone about an hour. I came back hung out for another hour or so. We both were feeling hungry then. So I said I would go get some food, and bring it back, Jill stayed in the room. It took me about 45 minutes to get food and drinks. I went back to the room. We ate there. hung out another hour or so. We then decided to go walking around. We went and sat on the beach for a while, watched the sunset and had a little pizza. After that we met some friends, but the whole time Jill was saying her stomach wasn't feeling that great. So around maybe midnight she said she was going to go lie down. But I should stay out a bit.. So I did, I went back to the room around 2am, Jill was looking real bad, vomiting, I laid down with her to try to make her feel better still thinking it was the burger that was making her feel bad.

Probably around 4 am I started to feel bad and vomiting myself. That is when Jill looked horrible. I ran outside and found a kinda shopping cart thing, brought it back, scooped Jill up and put her in. I then started running towards the hospital screaming for help. That is when I met Per. He came out of his dive shop, and helped me push her the rest of the way,( about a mile) We got her to the hospital. They did CPR for about an hour to no avail. I now think that is why I didn't get sick, because I kept getting these breaks from the air in the room, while Jill kept staying in bed. She was exposed to the air in the room for probably 5 or six more hours than I was. I was vomiting at the hospital, but I thought it was just because of the situation. Now maybe it was from my shorter exposure to the air in the room

Monday, May 4, 2009

A shaky time line...

Here is what needs to happen to get Jill home...
  • The funeral home in Bangkok has a person in Phuket to get Jill released from the hospital and transferred to Bangkok for the autopsy.
  • For Jill to get transferred to Bangkok the guy in Phuket needs to fax the paperwork to the funeral home in Bangkok. The funeral home then faxes it to the police in Phi Phi. The Police in Phi Phi need to sign off on it and then fax it back to the funeral home. The funeral home in Bangkok then faxes it back to the guy in the hospital waiting to transfer Jill. (This seems like a mess waiting to happen)
  • If all that works out Jill will be transferred to Bangkok Tuesday (our Monday...so today)
  • The autopsy will be done on Wednesday.
  • The cremation will happen no earlier then Thursday. If something gets delayed and she doesn't make it to that stage by Thursday the next time they can cremate would be Saturday as they do not cremate on Friday's.
  • Best case scenario is all this gets done and they can release the ashes to Ryan on Thursday. If any of the steps are delayed even a little bit this would set us back to at least Monday as the US Embassy is closed this Friday along with Saturday and Sunday.
This is very fluid and we hope changes for the better.
Rob and Paul

How it went down...

Jill and Ryan (her fiancee) were on vacation in Thailand from February 12 through May 12. They went all over the place.... Bali, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as, several small islands over the span of 3 months. They were due back on May 12th. On May 2 on an island called Koh Phi Phi (google earth it) is when and where Jill died.
From what we understand (and this most likely will be refined as more information becomes available) Jill had a mild case of food sickness. Pretty typical in Thailand and no cause for real concern as it happened a few times before. Jill went to her room to rest for a spell. Ryan stayed out to get lunch and check the Internet. When he returned a couple hours later he found Jill in pretty bad shape. Jill said she needed to go to the hospital. She was so weak he carried her until he found a cart. Ryan was screaming in the streets for help as she was deteriorating fast.
They got help from a great guy named Per. He helped Ryan get Jill to the clinic. Unfortunately by the time she arrived she had stopped breathing. They worked on her for around 45 min but to no avail. It happened very fast.

Where we are now...
  • Ryan took Jill's remains via jet boat from Ko Phi Phi to Phuket (google earth it)
  • Ryan is in Bangkok with his parents.
  • Jill's remains are en route to Bangkok for an autopsy and cremation.
  • There is news that two tourist staying in the same guest house as Jill and Ryan were struck ill the same way as Jill the very next night (apparently they rented it right away the next night!). One died very fast and the other is still in ICU.
  • We're waiting for the cremation and autopsy. The autopsy report will take around 3 months to get. Ryan and his folks will be bringing Jill's remains back. This could take a week.
Information is coming in slow and sparse. The time difference is a killer. As we get more substance or refined details we will post it here.
There will be a memorial in California. Ryan said there will be one is Seattle too. The locations have yet to be decided.

Thanks for all your support, prayers and love,
Jill's Family