In mid-November 2010, residents living near Wat Bowon Rangsri, a Buddhist temple in Bangkok's old city

In mid-November 2010, residents living near Wat Bowon Rangsri, a Buddhist temple in Bangkok's old city, began complaining of a powerful and persistent smell. On 16 November, police investigated and traced the odour to the temple's mortuary, a room normally used to hold bodies awaiting cremation, a process that under Thai Buddhist tradition can take place years after death.

Inside, authorities found more than 300 foetuses stored in white plastic bags.  They returned two days later. A total of 1,654 more foetuses were found in two further rooms. Some had been stored there for more than a year. The final count exceeded 2,000.

Police raided three clinics in the Thon Buri neighbourhood of Bangkok and arrested a 33-year-old woman named Lanjakorn Jantamanas. She confessed to transporting foetuses from illegal abortion clinics to the temple morgue, saying she had been doing so for at least five years. The clinics paid her 500 baht, approximately $17 per trip. She said she had later begun performing abortions herself after a doctor she worked with moved to another clinic, charging patients between 5,000 and 30,000 baht depending on how far the pregnancy had progressed. 

Abortion in Thailand is illegal except in cases of rape, risk to the mother's health, or foetal abnormality. The public health ministry estimated that of one million pregnancies in Thailand each year, 80,000 were illegally terminated. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva ordered a nationwide crackdown on illegal clinics but refused to revise the law, saying it was flexible enough. 

Jantamanas was sentenced to five years in prison. One undertaker involved in concealing the remains was jailed for 20 years. A second undertaker received 40 months.