Nate Thayer, an American freelance journalist who scored a huge scoop with his 1997 interview with Pol Pot, the genocidal leader of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, passed away at the age of 62 on January 3, 2023, according to his family.
Nate Thayer’s body was discovered by his brother Rob Thayer at his home in Falmouth, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, January 3, 2023.
“He had a lot of ailments. He was seriously ill for many months,” the brother told Agence France-Presse.
Nate Thayer spent years covering Cambodian politics and society, including the Khmer Rouge, a brutal communist regime that killed over a million people between 1975 and 1979.
He received several journalism awards, including the ICIJ Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting, and was proud to be a freelancer, advocating for greater respect and better pay for reporters who are not employed full-time.
Thayer, slowed by long-term ailments, some of which stemmed from his mine explosion injuries, spent the last decade reporting online on right-wing extremism from Washington and Massachusetts.
He spent his final months, as his health deteriorated, posting poetic odes to his “best pal,” his dog, Lamont.