In the quiet, suburban neighborhood of Melbourne’s east,
The mystery remains how a bright young student disappeared on her way to school, never to be seen again.
Siriyakorn ‘Bung’ Siriboon, 13, usually walks 1km from his home in Melbourne’s east-east to Boronia Heights College to join one of his year seven classmates.
But one morning on June 2, 2011, the Boronia teenager said goodbye to stepfather Fred Pattison and walked to school by herself, wearing her blue and white uniform and carrying her backpack.
He could not attend school and never returned home to his elder sister Pang, mother Vanidda and stepfather.
Twelve years on, Bung’s unsolved disappearance continues to baffle police, despite a $1m reward, police investigating numerous leads and a renewed public appeal two years ago.
His family’s long search for answers continues and another anniversary of Bung’s disappearance was recently marked with prayers at Melbourne’s Wat Dhammarangsi Buddhist temple.
Siricorn ‘Bang’ Siribun (pictured) disappeared without a trace on 2 June 2011
Bung’s mother Vanidda and stepfather Fred Pattison (pictured last month) are still fighting for answers 12 years on.
His closest friends never forgot their classmate and have a tattoo of Bung’s name in his honor.
Police revealed they were still receiving calls ‘every week’ in 2021, the 10th anniversary of Bung’s disappearance.
‘Ten years is a long time to go without answers and I’m sure the loss of cannabis feels as raw today as it did in 2011,’ Detective Leading Senior Constable Justin Tippett said at the time.
‘Despite an important and thorough investigation, we were unfortunately unable to solve this case and either provide answers to Bung’s family or hold the perpetrator to account.’
‘We have never given up hope that one day we will find out exactly what happened.’
Prosecutors offered immunity in exchange for information identifying the person responsible for the missing teenager’s disappearance.
Victoria Police said in a statement at the time, “The Department of Justice will consider compensating anyone who provides information about the principal offender or the identity of the offender.”
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Victoria Police for an update on the case.
Sirikorn ‘Bang’ Siribun (pictured) would be 25 years old if he were still alive today
Police launched a week-long search in Old Joe’s Creek Basin near Bung’s home in 2013 after a man claimed he accidentally ran him over and dumped his body. No trace of the juvenile was found
Bung’s mother and stepfather have faced numerous public appeals and conducted several television interviews, most recently with The Project in 2021.
‘He was very conscious, he didn’t know to get into a car with strangers, it was only a 5-10 minute walk,’ Mr Pattison recalled.
No one realized anything was wrong until a few hours later when his best friend Diamai called Bung’s house the next day to tell him about football.
Mr. Pattison asked Diamai why she didn’t tell Bung at school that day.
The friend assumed she was home sick because she wasn’t at school that day. Daimai still feels terrible about Bung’s parents missing their daughter.
‘She said she wasn’t there so I was very confused and she wasn’t home even after my bath,’ recalls Diamai.
Bung’s disappearance took a painful toll on his friends
‘It was a really bad time. I couldn’t walk the streets alone,’ Damai said.
‘I couldn’t walk down the road we used to go to school together. It took me five years to walk that path again.’
In 2016, it was claimed that a girl matching Bang’s description was seen driving behind a white EA in an EF-model Ford Falcon station wagon (as pictured).
Best friend Diamai (pictured) can no longer walk down the road he and Bung used to walk to school together.
In 2013, a Boronia man who claimed he accidentally ran over Bung and dumped his body in a nearby reserve sparked a week-long search of the Old Joe’s Creek retarding basin, a few kilometers from where the teenager was last seen.
However, despite a large-scale search, no trace of him was found. The man was interviewed twice by police and released without charge.
Taskforce Puma, a strike force dedicated to the disappearances, was disbanded in October 2013 as leads dried up as the case returned to homicide detectives.
Three years later, police released reports of a heavily tattooed man driving a white Kingswood station wagon with an Asian-looking girl in the passenger seat on the day Bung disappeared.
Police never confirmed if it was Bang or if the car had any connection to her disappearance.
In 2021, Mr Pattison told The Project, ‘We’re stuck in a deadlock, no answers, nothing’.
‘It was very empty because there was no physical evidence, no sightings, as if he had disappeared off the face of the earth.’
‘It leaves a hole in your life where there’s something missing that’s supposed to be there.’
‘It would mean getting some sort of information on the world to at least be able to move forward.’
There is a $1m reward for information about what happened to Bung
Bang’s mother Vanidda (left) and stepfather Fred Pattison have been part of numerous public appeals.
Last month, the Wat Dhammarangsee Buddhist temple shared photos of an emotional visit by Bung’s mother and stepfather to commemorate the 12th anniversary of his disappearance.
Born in Thailand, Bung and his family immigrated to Australia in 2007.
She was a very good student who excelled in mathematics.
‘Bung wasn’t worth missing school. She was a diligent and intelligent student. When the school roll marked him as absent for the day, his teachers and friends just assumed he was sick,’ said Temple.
‘His parents did a thorough search of their property before contacting all of Bang’s friends that he wasn’t staying with them. When his parents tried to contact him on his mobile phone, they realized that Bung had left his phone at home that day.
Bung will be 25 today.
Bung was seen by neighbors on 2 June 2011 at around 8.30am leaving his LC Street home in Boronia heading towards Albert Avenue.
He was wearing his school uniform and carrying his school backpack, which was never found.
A $1m reward remains for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons responsible for Bung’s disappearance.
Siriyakorn ‘Bung’ Siriboon, 13, was last seen walking to school. But he could not attend Boronia Heights College on 2 June 2011
Bang’s school friends (a current issue photo in 2019) never forgot the teenager