Thailand police on Monday questioned a German woman who had entered the back of the ambulance transporting Shane Warne's body off Koh Samui island to Surat Thani for the autopsy. (More Cricket News)
In a possible security breach, the woman, later identified simply as 'Barbara', was able to enter the ambulance van. According to reports, the woman lives in Koh Samui.
As the ferry made its final preparations to leave Koh Samui for the mainland, the ABC captured footage of two women approaching the ambulance.
The video footage showed the woman accompanying a Thai woman. The pair was escorted to the ambulance parked on the ferry where the German woman approached the driver’s window holding flowers.
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They had a brief exchange before the driver escorted her to the other side of the ambulance van. He then opened the door for her.
Warne’s body was accompanied by his friends, as well as the Australian ambassador to Thailand, Allan McKinnon. But they were not with the van when it was parked on the car ferry, according to reports.
According to the ABC, the footage was played for the Australian officials and Warne's friends, but none of them appeared to know the woman. Warne's family members in Australia have also been made aware of the incident by his management.
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After the incident, Thailand police tracked down the woman and questioned her. But she was not charged.
Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn, an adviser of the Royal Thai Police, later said that “We have to accept that it was [a mistake] for police to miss her and we investigated."
“We found that she did not mean harm. She just wanted to pay her last respects.”
Shane Warne, one of the greatest cricketers of all, was found unresponsive in his hotel room on Friday. He was 52.
His body was transferred Sunday to the Thai mainland for the official post mortem at a state hospital. The autopsy shows the cricket great died of natural causes, confirming the initial report.
Hakparn added Warne’s body would be taken to Bangkok on Monday night by road and then flown to Australia on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Shane Warne's family has accepted the Australian government's offer of a state funeral. It is likely to be held at the iconic MCG in front of an expected crowd of 100,000 people.
Warne’s manager James Erskine did not confirm MCG as the venue for the state funeral but hinted that no other stadium would be an appropriate one considering the stature of the legendary Australian.
“But where else?” Erskine told 'The Age'.
A date has not been fixed for the funeral as Warne’s family waits for his body to be returned to Melbourne.
