PHUKET: The broken romance that led to the tragic death of the girl in the pink pyjamas was causing people all over Phuket to shed a tear today.

Netchanok Mankaew, aged 19 and a law student at Rajabhat University, must have been crying inside as she wrote two farewell letters late yesterday: one to her family, and one to the boyfriend she still loved, the young man who recently told her their romance was over.

Having written the two letters, one telling her mother and father that she was sorry for what she was about to do, but to take care of her sister, Khun Netchanok climbed onto the ironing board in her sparse student dormitory room, attached a cord to the ceiling fan and around her neck, and kicked the ironing board free.

At the same moment her friends around the dormitory, aware of Khun Netchanok's deep distress, had contacted her uncle, who lived nearby, and prevailed upon him to come to her dormitory room to give her good advice.

By the time the uncle arrived at 10pm, the door to her room was locked and there was silence inside.

With a feeling of great dread, he called in paramedics who had a sense what they were about to find.

They cut down the first year law student in the pink pyjamas, who once had a wonderful life ahead of her, but it was too late.

Before long, the tears of her friends were flowing. More tears were falling across Phuket today.