Bangkok ( CNN ) -- The distraught mother of a 13-year-old girl raped and thrown from a sleeper train en route to Bangkok has told of her daughter 's dreams for the future , amid angry calls for a mandatory death penalty for child rapists . `` She wanted to be an angel , she wanted to be an air hostess , '' her mother said of Nong Kaem . `` If she was still here I would do everything to support her , but now I have nothing left . '' Kaem 's sister , one of two who was traveling with her on the overnight train from southern Thailand on Saturday , wrote on Facebook of her guilt at not being able to protect her . `` Kaem , I am so sorry that I failed to look after you . I am a terrible sister . Please forgive me , '' she wrote , according to the Bangkok Post . Journey turned to horror . It was Kaem 's first time on a train . She was returning from the city of Surat Thai with her two sisters and one of their boyfriends to the Thai capital Bangkok , a popular route for tourists going to and from the country 's popular southern beaches . They were sharing a sleeping carriage , and turned in for the night . By the morning Kaem was gone . Police searched the train and the track as the teenager 's frantic family turned to the media for help in finding her . Three days later , her body was found naked near the track ; she 'd been raped , suffocated and tossed out of a window by her attacker who told police he had been drinking and was high on methamphetamine , according to Police Major General Thanet Soonthornsuk . Tracked down by phone . Police named Kaem 's alleged murderer as 22-year-old railway employee Wanchai Saengkhao . They said he confessed to the crime after he was tracked down via his victim 's mobile phone . Wanchai sold the girl 's phone to a shop owner in Bangkok , who took a copy of his I.D . which was later passed to police . Police said Wanchai admitted carrying the sleeping child to another carriage where he raped and strangled her , before throwing her lifeless body out the window as the train passed through the Pranburi District in Prachuabkirikan Province . Wanchai has been charged with murder , rape of a child under 15 years old and theft , police said . He faces possible execution for the murder charge , but activists are using the case to call for tougher charges for child rape , which currently carries a jail term of four to 20 years and a fine of up to 40,000 baht ( $ 1,200 ) . Rage vented online . The reaction on social media was swift and scathing as angry Thais bombarded Wanchai 's Facebook page with abusive messages . The page is no longer available . Junta leader , army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha , expressed his sorrow , and the former transport minister , Chatchart Sitthipan , said he took the blame for failing to do more when he was in charge of the railway . `` It is the worst news in many years for the State Railway of Thailand and the Ministry of Transport . I feel that I am also responsible for this event , because I did not do my job well enough when I was the Minister , '' Chatchart said . As word spread that Kaem had gone missing , Thai actress and former Miss Thailand , Panadda Wongphudee , posted a message on Instagram urging people to back a campaign to change the law under the slogan , `` Rape , will be executed . '' A Change.org petition was set up calling for the tougher penalties -- `` no more sentence reduction , parole or pardon '' -- which at the time of writing had more than 25,000 signatories . There were also calls for State Railway of Thailand governor Prapas Chongsanguan to step down , as officials scrambled to assure passengers the trains were safe . A ban would be slapped on the sale of alcohol on all trains , they said , and background checks would be stepped up for all employees . Are new laws the answer ? Amid the anger , some called for calm . `` We have to listen to this news with full consciousness . To design or change a law base on emotions and hatred will never produce effective law . It will only promote more hatred in society , '' said Dejudom Krairit , Chairman of Lawyers Council of Thailand . Writing in the Bangkok Post , columnist Sanitsuda Ekachai said : `` I seriously doubt if the angry calls for the death penalty as the only punishment for child rapists and rapists/murderers will make our society any safer . `` These calls stem from the belief that this heinous crime was possible because the punishment is not heavy enough . This is not new . We hear such calls every time a shocking rape or murder happens . '' Violence against women : By the numbers . 3 suspects confess to gang-raping girls in India .
Nong Kaem vanished while riding night train to Bangkok . The Thai government has said it will investigate the disappearance of a British backpacker who went missing in Thailand last month. 22-year-old railway employee charged with rape and murder . Campaign calls for tougher penalties including mandatory death sentence for rape .