Death on the hippy trail: from the pristine beaches of Malaysia to the Killing Fields of Cambodia
In 1978, three young men sailing through Southeast Asia strayed into Cambodian waters and were captured by the Khmer Rouge. Four decades later, the unthinkable atrocity that unfolded has left surviving family still struggling to forgive
It was June 1978 when Hilary Dewhirst received the final letter from her brother John. “He used to write to me on his travels,” she says, 40 years later. “They were getting the boat ready and he was going on his final trip before coming home.”
John Dewhirst was 26 years old. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in education with English from Britain’s Loughborough University, he had headed for Asia. He had always been adventurous, says Hilary today, “and outdoorsy. He loved writing – poetry, fictional stuff – he had a very unusual, quirky style.” Also known by friends to be sensitive, gentle and thoughtful, family members would find out much later that John had been described by the person who ordered his murder as “a polite young man”.
In Japan, John worked briefly as a teacher, and then as “a headline writer”, Hilary thinks, for The Japan Times newspaper between June 1977 and January 1978.
Hilary knows that after John left Tokyo and The Japan Times, he travelled extensively. “South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia …” He made friends along the way, including Stuart Glass, a Canadian, and New Zealander Kerry Hamill. They met in the Malaysian city of Kuala Terengganu, at the time a small harbour town facing the South China Sea, with a palm-lined beach and traditional stilt houses dotted across a river.
In the summer of 1978, six months after John had left Japan, the three decided to take a trip on Kerry’s yacht, Foxy Lady. They set off on a course towards Bangkok, three experienced sailors on a relatively short hop across the water. John, a keen photographer, took pictures of islands along the way, splitting his time between navigating and cooking simple food below deck.
Then they vanished without a trace.
