The Indian Ocean Tsunami made landfall on 26th December 2004. It was unprecedented in its scale, destroying parts of Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand and resulting in over 250,000 deaths within the region.
During the summer month of December, Southern Thailand is a popular tourist destination for many Europeans. Approximately 5,000 non-Thai nationals from 30 different nationalities died as a result of the tsunami. As a result of the high number of international deaths, over 30 individual Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) teams were deployed by their National governments.
The Royal Thai National Police had overall responsibility for the response operation closely supported by the Australian Federal Police and senior officers from other response police agencies. Kenyon was contracted by the Australian Government to support the international disaster response operation in Thailand.