Drug Muled: Sixteen Years in a Thai Prison: The Vanessa Goosen Story

It’s 1994 and South Africa is on the brink of freedom. On the verge of a big break in modeling, Miss South Africa finalist, 21-year-old Vanessa Goosen is caught up in every traveler’s nightmare. Duped into carrying books with 1.7 kilograms of heroin hidden in them, she is arrested and tried on drug trafficking charges. Deaf to her pleas of innocence, the Thai courts sentence her to death. On appeal her sentence is commuted to life, to be served in Bangkok’s notorious Lard Yao prison. Pregnant, terrified, and desperately alone, Goosen begins a harrowing 16-year journey behind bars. Forced to part with her beloved daughter three years later, Goosen’s story traces the joy and hurt of motherhood behind bars, the depression that comes with long-term incarceration and separation, and her return to a hugely changed South Africa in 2010.