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WASHINGTON (AP) ― Two years after his mysterious disappearance in Thailand, there has been no sign of Yer Vang, a Hmong-American from Minnesota, according to family members and U.S. authorities.

The U.S. embassy in Bangkok has pressed Thai police to try to find out what happened to Vang, who went missing in the northern part of the country in March 2006 along with several others, including his wife and daughter, both of whom lived in Thailand. Embassy officials say that Thai police have told them they are continuing to look into the case. Vang was the only U.S. citizen in the group.

In late March 2006, several weeks after his disappearance, Thai police found seven decomposed bodies that were believed to include several missing Hmong Americans. But the U.S. embassy says that none of them turned out to be U.S. citizens.

Officials at the Thai embassy said they were not able to provide any information about the case, and attempts by The Associated Press to reach police officials in Thailand were unsuccessful.

Vang, 55, is a retired social worker who spent many years in St. Paul before moving to Lino Lakes -- from where he maintained a long-distance relationship with his 29-year-old wife and 2-year-old daughter.

Vang is originally from Laos and moved to the United States in the mid-1970s. Vang was in Thailand vacationing, says his nephew, Lee Pao Xiong, who has headed up the family's efforts to locate him.

Xiong questioned the U.S. embassy's handling of the matter, suggesting the Thai police may be behind the disappearance.

"For the embassy to wait for the police to tell them -- if the police had something to do with it, they're not going to tell you," said Xiong, who is director of the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University in St. Paul. "That's our frustration. We're getting the runaround."

In a letter to the U.S. embassy last month, Xiong cited a story in the Thai newspaper The Nation, which reported that border police had made money by extortions and kidnappings. That case, Xiong wrote, made him wonder if it had anything to do with his uncle's disappearance.

Embassy officials said they could not speculate on the circumstances surrounding Vang's disappearance.

Vang's daughter, Pang Vang, also suspects the police were involved.
"And if it was the Thai police, who can help us?" she asked. "The embassy maybe. But they haven't been as supportive as we thought they'd be."

Pang Vang, 28, who is one of Vang's nine children in the U.S. from a previous marriage, said her father had just retired from working as a social worker.

"He made sure my brothers and sisters were stable, he worked so hard to get where he was, he got the family on track, and boom, in a blink of an eye -- what happened?" she asked.

"The first year, we had a lot of high hopes," she said. "But after two years, we all talked about it, in our hearts, we believe he is gone. We just want to know what happened, who killed him, what was the purpose. He was a really good man."

According to Xiong, the other people missing in Vang's party were all Thai nationals, including his wife and daughter, two cousins and three groundskeepers who worked at his cousins' property in Thailand.

"We hold out hope that he's still alive," said Xiong. "He might be detained somewhere."

Xiong said he's convinced that his uncle's disappearance has nothing to do with politics, because Vang was not involved in any political causes.

In a separate case, three Hmong Americans have been missing in neighboring Laos since last August. The Hmong advocacy group Lao Veterans of America says the men were arrested by Laotian military and security forces; the Lao government has denied that.

The Hmong live in several countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Laos, as well as southern China. Large numbers from Laos came to the United States after the end of the Vietnam War, with the majority settling in Minnesota, Wisconsin and California.

In April 2006, three members of the Minnesota congressional delegation wrote a letter to the Thai ambassador in Washington to express their concern about Vang's case.

"Given the troubling nature of this situation, we would greatly appreciate your government's continued resolve in bringing this case to a swift and, hopefully, favorable conclusion," wrote Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican, and Rep. Betty McCollum and then-Sen. Mark Dayton, both Democrats.

But Coleman's spokesman, LeRoy Coleman, said that his office doesn't have any new information about the disappearance.

"This has been a deeply distressing and difficult time for the Vang family, and going forward, Senator Coleman will continue working towards his safe return home," LeRoy Coleman said. McCollum's office said it hasn't heard anything new about the case either.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)