Backhoe rivalry, robbing granny, thief caught on job

He’s all thumbs

Ekkachai Bunthong

An uncle in Si Sa Ket flared up when his nephew taunted him about his lack of ability managing a backhoe and slaughtered him with a machete.

Phrai police nabbed Somporn Chanmun, 54, for the grisly murder of his nephew, Ekkachai Bunthong, 30, in Khun Han district last week.

The young man’s body was found in the field where the pair worked, the back of his head smashed in. Police also found a long slash wound on his back, and the five fingers from his left hand severed.

The pair worked together tilling fields, and were having a few drinks when Ekkachai taunted his uncle about his lack of prowess with a backhoe.

The pair hire out their services turning over and filling soil to local farmers. While Mr Somporn drives a dump truck, his nephew, who no doubt thought he was doing the more skilled work, would drive the backhoe.

Somporn Chanmun

A hut sits nearby but the two would often sleep out in the field to guard their machines. On the day of the attack, their employer had just paid their wages and Mr Somporn shouted a few drinks.

He complained to relatives later that Ekkachai teased him about his lack of ability with the truck.

“You drive the backhoe like a novice, and can barely fix your own truck,” he teased, not once but many times, Mr Somporn said.

Tiring of the teasing, Mr Somporn put his hand over the young man’s mouth to shut him up, but Ekkachai struggled and fell off his seat.

“Uncle, why did you have to do that?” he asked angrily.

According to Mr Somporn, his nephew then grabbed a beer bottle, smashed it to create a jagged edge, and whacked him in the forehead with it. The injury was to need seven stitches.

Now it was Mr Somporn’s time to fly into a rage. He fetched a machete from the hut and slashed his nephew about the body and the head with it.

When Ekkachai held his wounded head in his hands, the next blow with the machete took off his fingers. Mr Somporn kept hitting him until he lay still, before heading into the village to tell relatives what he had done.

He did not flee but waited for police to arrive and later offered an apology to the victim’s family through the media.

Noi, 33, a friend of the victim’s, said she and another friend went to see Ekkachai in the field about 7pm.

“He said he had been in a fight with his uncle and had a bloody arm. He asked me to help him wash it off but I am scared of blood so had him do it himself. The next we heard, at 5am, he was dead,” she said.

Ekkachai was a friendly guy devoted to his friends and did not deserve to die such a horrible death. “If his uncle had a problem with him, why not go to the police?” she said.

Siang Bunthong, 65, the victim’s father, said Ekkachai was the youngest of his three children. He was not aware of any problems between the pair, who worked together every day.

Police charged Mr Sompong with premeditated murder.

Even granny’s a target

Kiat Sawasdee, in tears.

Police in Buri Ram are looking for two ruthless young women who posed as good samaritans but robbed a grandmother of her valuables before abandoning her 50km from town.

Nang Rong police say the pair, driving a five-door Toyota sedan, robbed Kiat Sawasdee, 72, of a gold necklace, gold ring, cash, and phone, together worth about 200,000 baht.

After taking her belongings, they kicked her unceremoniously from their car about 50km from Muang district.

They left her in a remote spot by a waterway before heading off at great speed. A local who saw the car race off went to Ms Kiat’s aid after hearing her cries for help.

The saga started earlier that day when the pair saw the grandmother sitting by a bus stop outside her village and offered to give her a lift into town. Fatefully, Ms Kiat accepted.

Ms Kiat was heading into Muang district to sell a gold ring worth 50 satang in gold weight to help her granddaughter in Bangkok, who had fallen on hard times and could no longer feed herself.

Without telling her own husband, Ms Kiat decided to take a bus into town to sell the ring and sent the proceeds to her granddaughter.

On the journey into town with the women, she said she was careful not to display her gold necklace, nor tell them that she was going in to sell a ring.

“I told them I was going to buy some silk to weave into clothes, and immediately they asked if I could buy 10 pieces for them too. They offered to pay 3,000 baht up front,” she said.

Ms Kiat demurred, and the women dropped her off at her destination. They were heading off to pay respects to a local deity, she said.

However, after Ms Kiat had sold the ring, raising 14,100 baht, the pair miraculously re-appeared, and offered to take her back home. Police believe they targeted her from the outset and were waiting for her to finish her transaction at the jeweller’s before making their next move.

“On the way back they said they were going to inspect some land in Ban Bua sub-district, which they were about to buy. I told them I owned land in that area myself and wanted to sell it for 2 million baht,” Ms Kiat told police.

“They said in that case, let’s go and have a look at your land first. They drove around various spots, but I knew they had taken me off the route I needed to get home,” she added.

Ms Kiat said one of the women sat next to her, “locked” her arm and forced her to hand over her valuables. When she struggled the pair brought out a gun and threatened her, she said.

After robbing her they dumped her by the side of the road. “I want the police to track them down, as my granddaughter still has nothing to eat, and I have nothing left I can offer,” she said. Police were looking for the pair.

He wishes he’d kept it now

Metanee Phutthaso, shot in his left arm.

A burglar with an attack of the guilts decided to return a stolen item to the house in Chon Buri from which he had taken it earlier.

However, he came upon the angry homeowner, a navy sharp-shooter who decided to put his skills to the test.

Sattahip police nabbed Metanee Phutthaso, 44, wearing a ski mask and with a bullet wound to his left arm.

He was lying inside a two-storey home owned by Capt Patsmith Nimruang, 51, a graduate of the Royal Thai Naval Academy (Naval Air Wing), according to an internet bio.

More importantly for this saga, he is also a navy sharp-shooter who had grown fed up with recent burglaries of his home — seven over the last month.

Capt Patsmith, who is seldom home, said he decided to sleep over on the night of the latest break-in. He was resting when he woke to hear the sound of someone prying open a window.

The burglars entered from the side of the house, which adjoins a forest. “I found two burglars inside. I shouted but one of them reached into his bag as if to pull out a weapon. I was worried about my safety and wanted to deter the burglary, so fired at him,” he told police.

Patsmith Nimruang

Capt Patsmith pulled out his SIG Sauer P320 and shot the intruder in the left arm. The bullet passed through the victim and lodged in a wall.

 “When the sound of the gun subsided, the burglar who had accompanied Mr Metanee fled into the forest, leaving him to it,” media reports said.

Mr Metanee’s bag was found stuffed with amulets, one of which he had stolen from the house earlier and was trying to return, he told police.

“He was worried that something bad might happen to him if he did not return the religious icon, so snuck back to the house to replace it,” news reports said. “However, he met Capt Patsmith first.”

Police, still mulling charges, are also looking for the burglar who fled.

Overcome by jealousy, missed delivery, fateful glance

Killer takes up challenge

Prai standing by the fence where he took aim.

A man in Udon Thani who killed his ex-wife’s new lover says he gave both plenty of warning that he was on the warpath, but they ignored him.

Ban Dung police nabbed Prai (no surname provided), 47, for shooting to death Sompong (no surname provided), 58, at a wrist-tying ceremony at the home of a Tambon Administrative Organisation ex-chairman.

News reports focused on his shooting skills; Prai balanced his cap gun on a barbed wire fence and took out his target in the dark from 30m away.

Sompong was shot twice in neck, and once in both shoulders. One bullet lodged in his breathing pipe and lungs, leading to his death despite guests’ efforts to save him.

Sompong and the shooter’s ex-wife, Ratchanee, or Sai Fon (no surname provided), 43, had both joined the ceremony.

They were getting to know each other romantically, which incensed Prai, who was trying to appease his ex-wife even after she ended their relationship three or four months before.

Prai and Sai Fon, together for less than a year, split up after she tired of his jealous antics and decided he wasn’t much use as a partner. “He said while I could quit with him, he wasn’t prepared to quit with me,” Sai Fon told reporters.

“He would not let me talk to other men, and even spoke ill of my daughter, aged five,” she said.

Speaking to police following his arrest, Prai said he had warned both of what was coming. He said he had to act to bring the “love triangle” to an end because his injured pride couldn’t stand the constant insults.

“On the matter of love I will not yield. Before the incident I circled the place 3-4 times to get the law of the land. I saw my wife join the ceremony. She had dared me, saying if I wanted to kill them I should turn up.”

He had also warned Sompong to stop flirting with his ex-wife, or he would kill him.

A group of four men including Sompong had gathered at the rear of the house for a few drinks following the ceremony, held to welcome into the world the offspring of the owner’s child.

Witness Songkran (no surname provided), 39, a relative of the house owner, said he heard the shot but at first thought it was someone clapping.

“We didn’t know the shooter’s position as it was dark. Sompong was calling out saying he had been shot. He was sitting in his chair at first, but fell over as he ran out of air. I gave him CPR. He regained his seat but had lost a lot of blood. Rescue workers took him to hospital, where he died later,” he said.

“The suspect shouldn’t shoot someone at an auspicious event like this, in front of everyone. They should try talking it out instead. He quit with Sai Fon, so she has every right to talk to whoever she likes. It’s all very sad,” he added.

While Sai Fon responded to Prai’s threats by challenging him, Sompong decided to take out life insurance.

His mother, Pan 74, said her son’s wife died two years ago, leaving him a widower and a father.

After he met Sai Fon, he told his mother he was getting ready to start a new family. The only problem was Sai Fon’s ex-husband, who would not let her go.

“My son’s last words to me, half an hour before he died, were prophetic. He said if Prai wanted to kill him, so be it, as he had taken out plenty of insurance,” she told reporters.

Police charged the shooter with premeditated murder.

Angry words carry price

Atthapon Mongkolthanasap

A Suphan Buri delivery man’s ill-chosen words with a customer, within earshot of her hothead son, cost him his life.

Dan Chang police nabbed five youths for shooting to death Atthapon Mongkolthanasap, 27, at an intersection close to the home of a customer, Pla Sadsri.

Atthapon and his wife, Venuka (no surname given), 31, who accompanied him on the back of his bike, had tried to drop off a parcel at Ms Pla’s home in the early evening of March 17, without success.

“When Atthapon arrived he saw a bunch of youths outside the house and asked if Ms Pla was in. They told him she wasn’t home, so he wandered back to his bike to call her,” Venuka told police.

Ms Pla told him she wasn’t available to accept delivery of the parcel, and asked him to come back the next day. This upset Atthapon, who said she wasn’t the only customer in those parts waiting for a delivery.

Nirut ‘Puen’ Sadsri

The two exchanged words, with Atthapon calling her an expletive. Ms Pla’s son, Nirut “Puen” Sadsri, 18, who was among the group of lads nearby, overheard the exchange. Moments after Atthapon and his wife left, he decided to get his revenge.

CCTV vision shows the pair leaving the house at 6.39pm and the teens following on their bikes at 6.44pm. They kept tailing him as Atthapon entered a nearby soi to make a delivery, apparently without attracting his attention.

The teens left the soi at 6.47pm, ahead of Atthapon, so they could lie in wait at the intersection. The victim was shot barely two minutes later.

Venuka said the teens beckoned to Atthapon, who did not suspect foul play.

The group started beating and kicking him. She got her foot caught in their Honda Wave bike, and the pair toppled over.

When Atthapon saw Ms Pla’s son Nirut pull out a Thai-modified .38 calibre handgun, he fled, but the group followed and resumed their attack.

Before Mr Nirut shot her partner in the back, she heard him say: “Why did you insult my mother?”

The young attackers kept up their barrage of kicks and punches, even after he was shot, before fleeing the scene.

When police arrested them later, the teens admitted attacking Atthapon. All were charged with premeditated murder.

Ms Pla, who was at an ordination function when Atthapon called wanting to deliver his parcel, said turning up at that hour amounted to harassment.

She claims Atthapon did not call in advance to say he was coming, which his wife Venuka said would be a departure from his normal practice if true.

Ms Pla also insisted that he was the first one to speak rudely.

However, she did not seem surprised that her son would decide to take matters into his own hands in such a brutal manner. “He is always telling people, Don’t do anything bad to my Mum,” she said.

Atthapon’s mother, Chalalai Sarakham, 50, said her son can be late turning up for deliveries if he has a lot of stuff to drop off. However, the other side went too far in taking his life, she said.

The victim leaves behind a young child, in his third year of kindergarten. “He loves his Dad and runs after him every day,” she said.

Mr Nirut also faces firearms charges.

A moment’s impulse

Danupol attacking Wattanasak on the road.

A druggie in Khon Kaen attacked a well-known eatery owner with a knife but says he can’t remember why he did it.

Regional police nabbed Danupol (no surname given), 46, for stabbing Wattanasak Sanpittaya, 60, on soi Mittraphap 11.

Mr Wattanasak, owner of a Japanese eatery in the municipality, had gone out for a meal when he came across the offender driving his motorcycle, which bore no registration plate, on the wrong side of the road.

“Our gaze met. He was cross-eyed and looked as if he was high on something,” he told police after his admission to hospital with wounds to his throat and arms.

“When I left the eatery via another road, the attacker started following me,” he added.

“I thought I was in trouble for sure, so I decided to do a U-turn and seek help, but lost my balance. The bike overturned and the suspect started chasing and stabbing me,” he said.

Mr Wattanasak made it back to the eatery, where he asked customers for help. The attacker fled.

Police arrested Danupol at a rented place in the soi, opposite the spot where the attack occurred, after earlier posting a 10,000 baht reward for information leading to his capture.

Danupol said he can’t say why he did it, as he went blank before the attack started.

“I recall stabbing him, but not what led up to it,” he said, admitting he was a drug user in the past but hadn’t taken any in the past month. A police urine test failed to turn up evidence of illicit drugs.

Danupol said he also had been treated for a psychiatric condition, but didn’t go back to see the doctor, and stopped taking his meds three months ago.

Mr Wattanasak is now out of ICU. Muang police charged Danupol with the attack.

Rich woman scorned, oath works magic, beating regret

She can have the lot

Malika Kolaka

A millionairess in Pathum Thani hopes her ailing husband can live with his decision after he left her for another woman.

Malika Kolaka, 57, alerted Muang police and the media last week after her husband of 10 years, Sarayut “Yut” Yingcharoen, 53, left home with a handful of gold and cash for a former employee of hers.

Ms Malika said she was worried the other woman, Sai Fon, or Fon (no surname supplied), 44, perhaps working in cahoots with others, had tricked him into leaving, which could put her husband’s precarious health at risk. Mr Sarayut, she said, had suffered debilitating strokes and lost the use of half of his body and may not have known what he was doing.

He left home with a gold necklace worth three baht gold weight, gold amulets worth two baht in gold weight, and 10,000 baht in cash. He had also transferred money to Fon’s brother-in-law, she said. Ms Malika offered a 20,000 baht reward for information leading to her husband being found.

By Wednesday, however, she was singing a different tune after her husband and Fon reported to Muang police to clear the air and declared he wanted nothing more to do with his wife. He said he was not lured away from Ms Malika, but in fact left of his own free will, as she cared for him poorly, and abused him.

“She would say things like, ‘When are you finally going to die?’ ” he told the media, adding that he left home to be with Fon, who understood him and took better care of him.

Mr Sarayut said he called a taxi to his home on March 5 and later met Fon at a local hotel. The next day, they left for a van terminal opposite the Future Park Rangsit shopping mall, where CCTV cameras apparently failed to capture where they went next.

Speaking to police, he denied any improper conduct in his marriage, insisting Fon had cared for him as a former employer. Ms Malika, according to a contorted backstory she gave the media, had employed Fon at her laundry business at one time, but noticed she and her husband growing close and apparently making furtive phone calls.

Sarayut ‘Yut’ Yingcharoen

Mr Sarayut said he didn’t come forward earlier after his wife alerted police and the media, as he didn’t want to talk to her. He had sold the gold to help him make a new start. The money transfer was to discharge a debt for travel expenses.

He had wanted to flee for the past two years, he said. “My muscles are wasting but my wife treats me like a burden,” he added.

Fon told police that Ms Malika pressured her elder brother, elder sister, and even her daughter at school to get her to come forward after Mr Sarayut left home.

When Ms Malika turned up at the station while Mr Sarayut clearing the air, the two sides had to be separated after Ms Malika apparently started abusing her.

Ms Malika talked to her husband, while Fon waited outside. The two sides agreed to part ways, with Mr Sarayut renouncing any future stake in earnings or assets they had accrued together.

Media reports said he gave up any interest in the couple’s house and land in Muang district; a 9mm calibre gun; two Uea Athon housing estate units, also in Muang district, and several life insurance policies.

He would take up work as a driver for an officer in the armed forces, as he could still drive despite his illness.

Speaking on the Hone Krasae TV show, Ms Malika said she hoped her husband could live with the consequences, now he had made his choice. “He is at risk of another stroke, and will need close care,” she said. “On the day he falls, I hope he realises he made the decision himself.”

Phoning into the show, Mr Sarayut told her not to meddle in his life again, and if he died first, not to bother coming to the funeral. “Don’t worry, I won’t be there for sure,” she said bitterly.

Missing temple cash angst

Luang Ta Tu

Roi Et locals are asking police to re-open inquiries into the disappearance of 400,000 baht from a Muang district temple after a monk’s daughter admitted to theft.

The daughter of a monk at Wat Chockchai Non Kwang temple last week owned up to taking 186,00 baht of the temple’s funds, all of which she spent.

Mystery surrounds the fate of the rest, despite suspects, including the accused, having taken an oath before an image of the temple’s founder, Luang Pu Chockchai, agreeing to submit to whatever grisly fate awaited them if they took it but failed to come forward.

On March 9, after intense questioning, Punyanuch Intakhot, 44, daughter of aling monk Luang Ta Tu, admitted taking two bundles of cash from the top of two safes in her father’s quarters on Feb 18-19.

Senior monks and local body bigwigs who took responsibility for the funds, donated by temple faithful for building works and a planned fund-raising concert, put the security safes in Luang Ta Tu’s quarters. However, he was not given a key, and simply told to watch over the money.

Ms Punyanuch said she was cleaning the place when she spotted the cash. She put it in her apron and took it home.

The cow that Punyanuch bought with the stolen money.

She spent the cash on one baht’s weight of gold jewellery; a cow; and an air con unit which she fitted to her house. 

She also spent the ill-gotten gains paying off debts and personal expenses until there was nothing left. Police sent her to court to be detained on charges of theft.

Ms Punyanuch came forward after almost 10 original suspects including herself took a sacred vow before Luang Pu Chokchai’s image to submit to hellish punishment if they were guilty but did not confess to the theft, within a deadline of three days to a week. She came forward before deadline, prompting triumphant news headlines that the holy vow had worked its magic.

Entertainingly, abbot Phrakru Pithun Anantho said he was in two minds about the vow, as drinking holy water before such a sacred figure could invite disaster upon those who did wrong.

But assembled locals outvoted him and decided the vow should go forward, no doubt thinking: “That’s precisely the point.” The holy water was taken from a water jug in the temple founder’s image hall.

The suspects included the ex-president of the tambon local authority, who kept the key; the village headman who opened the safe and withdrew funds; Luang Ta Tu, the safe’s custodian; his daughter; and others connected to the saga.

Resident Amornrat Pathumnet said temple faithful want to know what happened to the rest of the money, and if they can get it back. They have asked police to expand their probe.

A dismayed Luang Ta Tu said his daughter had never shown any signs of being a thief.

She had gone to Bangkok to find work and came back to Roi Et after starting a family, he said. “I gave her money whenever she asked for it; she wasn’t hard up.”

As for himself, he never touched money. Even when someone dropped it, he would give it to the abbot.

“I can’t read, and have been a monk here for more than 10 years,” he said, insisting on his innocence. Police are mulling the request.

Druggie’s tearful regrets

Yothin

A Nakhon Pathom druggie says he regrets beating his 11-year-old son after the boy lost five ya ba pills he ordered him to buy.

Muang police nabbed Yothin (no surname given), 45, after an incident in which he beat his son savagely with a PVC pipe.

The boy, left with injuries to his left cheek, back, and nape of his neck, was seen in media images crying by the side of the road. Onlookers, some of whom filmed the assault on their phone, alerted police.

Yothin, who said he takes several ya ba pills a day, admitted sending his son into the housing community nearby to buy a stash of five pills.

The boy’s injuries.

Earlier, he had told the boy, unnamed in news reports, to go to a local temple to get fed. This drew scorn from newsreaders who noted the boy’s drug-addled father was evidently unable to support him so asked the monks to do it.

On his way back from buying the drugs, he lost the pills after the plastic bag which held them came free from his motorbike.

Yothin beat his son in anger over the loss. In tears, Yothin told police later that he didn’t want to hit the boy, but his son was often misplacing things.

A handyman by trade, he said he raises the boy alone. He also collected old goods for sale to help make ends meet, as the boy’s mother was in jail on drugs charges.

The boy said his father would often beat him if he lost his pills, or when he had taken them but forgotten, and assumed the boy was at fault.

Following news of the attack, the lad’s grandmother came forward to say she will take care of the boy. Police have charged Yothin with assault.

Dope fiend strikes, taunt reprisal, Dad starts son early

Pot head runs amok

The house where the killings occurred.

A drug addict in Ubon Ratchathani killed his grandfather and blind elder sister after they refused his requests for a cash handout to buy more cannabis, family members say.

Muang police nabbed Natthaphong Hongthong, 27, for the double murder in a bedroom on the upper storey of the two-level family home in Kham Yai sub-district.

Natthakamon Hongthong, 35, who is blind, the suspect’s elder half-sister, was found nearby Tubtim Hongthong, 85, his maternal grandfather. A relative broke open the locked door of the bedroom to discover the pair after he was unable to find them for hours.

News reports were unclear about the weapon used, describing it as a blunt object. The suspect also left a crude message scrawled in red felt pen on the door of a wardrobe: “I did it”.

Mr Natthaphong, who fled the scene, was found hiding in bushes by a local hotel. Reports say he had initially handed himself in to police, and was taking them to the scene when he fled. Police caught up with him some hours later.

While he admitted killing his relatives, he insists he believes they were intruders aiming to kill him. Police, who charged him with premeditated murder, say he was hallucinating and made little sense.

Four people lived at the house: Tubtim, Natthakamon, Mr Natthaphong himself, and Tubtim’s grandson, a 12-year-old boy.

When the boy left home to work outdoors, he left the other three at home. When he arrived back, he waited downstairs without knowing the pair were upstairs, already dead.

It wasn’t until an uncle, Surin (no surname given), 54, showed up and broke down the door that they found the pair, who had been dead six to eight hours.

Surin said Mr Natthaphong, who had a psychiatric condition brought on by years of cannabis abuse, asked the victims often for money to feed his drug habit. He suspects they refused and he attacked them.

“His mother tried to take him to Prasrimahabhodi Psychiatric Hospital but he would not go,” he said.

The suspect’s mother, Phromnapat Hongthong, 57, said Mr Natthaphong had recently returned from Phuket in a terrible state.

“He justified his cannabis smoking, saying it was now legal. However, when he lived in Chiang Mai previously, he was in a much better condition — a heavier build, clear complexion, and looked well.”

News reports say Mr Natthaphong was with the family just a few days after his return from Phuket. The family noticed he was hallucinating and talking to himself.

“I gave him 400 baht three times, and spent it all on dope,” she said, adding he had smoked cannabis regularly since he was aged about 10.

“When cannabis was still illegal, I called the police to take him away for rehab,” she said, adding he kept relapsing. Once the drug was legalised, he claimed he could smoke as much as he liked.

Jilted lover turns the tables

Rescue workers attending to Thotsaporn.

A man in Bangkok who grew sick of a rival taunting him over his ex-lover has been charged with killing him after the two fought it out on the street.

Phra Khanong police nabbed Ness, or Piya (no surname given), 38, for the stabbing death of Thotsaporn Siritanggnam, 28, in soi Sukhumvit 77 (Onnut) last week.

Thotsaporn, who like his rival worked as a motorcycle delivery guy, was found stabbed once in the left side of the chest. According to some reports, he had pulled a BB gun on Ness, but the magazine fell from the weapon before he could fire.

Ness said his rival would send him messages almost daily, taunting him after he managed to lure away his girlfriend, “Mile”. He grew tired of the sarcastic baiting and demanded they meet to clear the air, the reports say.

When Thotsaporn arrived, he immediately pulled out his weapon. Ness charged at him and the magazine fell from Thotsaporn’s gun before he could fire it. As Thotsaporn bent down to retrieve it, Ness pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim, who fell to the ground.

Ness fled on his bike and was later nabbed by police, who charged him with premeditated murder.

Another report, by Channel 8 Thailand News, however, paints a different picture. CCTV vision taken from the scene shows Ness, carrying a knife, charging at Thotsaporn along the footpath in broad daylight.

He believes Thotsaporn has a gun, so dares him to fire. However, he manages to reach Thotsaporn first and stabs him. The victim retreats a few metres before collapsing from his injuries.

The CCTV vision also shows a man wearing yellow following the pair on foot as they fight it out. He is carrying a knife before the fatal stabbing occurs, and on his return, heading away from the scene and back to their motorcycle, is carrying a gun as well.

The man, who gave his name as Prasong (no surname provided), said he and Ness were taking their bike in for repairs when they came across Thotsaporn. The two started to argue and chase each other on foot.

He said he didn’t know what the fight was about but followed Ness, his junior, in case he needed help. He denied reports Ness had arranged to meet his rival.

He took his knife in case he would have to come to Ness’ aid, though in the end did not get involved. After the stabbing, he picked up the injured Thotsaporn’s gun and took it with him, he said, in case Thotsaporn revived and started shooting.

Camera footage taken at the scene shows rescue workers trying to revive Thotsaporn, without success.

Thotsaporn’s father, Noppadon, 48, who drives a motorcycle taxi, went past on his bike without realising at first that the victim was his son. He said he and his son live apart and he had never met “Mile”, the woman at the centre of the love duel. Nor did he know his son carried a gun.

The victim’s grandmother, Amporn Prathapsil, said Thotsaporn was a good lad who would take her to the market and the doctor and after work every day would turn up at her place for a meal. She turned up at the stabbing scene in tears and had to be consoled by friends.

Dad teaches son bad tricks

The teen suspect in the cow hut.

An Ayutthaya drug bust led police to a teen cattle farmer, now aged 15, who admitted taking ya ba since the age of 12.

“When I finished primary school my father said there was no need for me to study further; I should raise cows and sell drugs for him instead,” the boy, unnamed in news reports, told police.

Wiang Sa district police in Nan province, Nan provincial police, and officers from the Office of Narcotics Control Board found the boy when they turned up to search a hut in a cattle pen, owned by a man nabbed in a drugs bust a day before. The boy is the son of one of the suspects. An expanded probe led police to the hut.

The search of the hut turned up 5,870 pills, branded “99”, which the boy said his father had given him to sell and consume. The two would often take pills together, he said. The boy claims he took 130 of the pills, originally part of a three-bundle haul of 6,000 pills in total, and woke up in time to find the police there. He was pictured in news images sitting in the hut as police conducted a search.

The saga started on Feb 29 when Region 1 police, and Narcotics Suppression Bureau officers intercepted a truck taking ya ba pills from the northern border in Phayao province to customers in Ayutthaya and Bangkok.

They stopped the truck at a petrol station on the Asian Highway in Bang Pahan district of Ayutthaya and nabbed two occupants, Charat (no surname given), from Pua district in Nan province; and Theeranan (no surname given), 45, from Nan’s Wiang Sa district.

Charat is the father of the teen whom police a day later found at the hut, looking after the cattle and the drugs. Reports say that, despite his tender age, the teen faces charges of possession with intent to sell, and taking the drug. Police also seized a six-wheeler, a pickup truck, motorcycles, and cows worth a total of 2.2 million baht.

Woman cremates lover at tip; case of mistaken identity

Troubled journey to heaven

 Phaichit Khonkid shows how she cremated the body of Benyapa

A Khon Kaen woman killed her same-sex ex-lover of seven years and kept the body in the back seat of her car for 24 hours before finally cremating it in a rubbish dump, police say.

The unusual tale emerged last week as Khon Kaen provincial police, joined by their Waeng Noi district counterparts, nabbed Phaichit Khonkid, 39, for the Feb 12 death of her ex-lover, Benyapa Panphanprapa, 47.

Ms Phaichit, who denies murdering her, says Benyapa merely choked on her food as the pair were visiting Benyapa’s home in Samut Prakan. They were there alone when Benyapa, who had multiple health problems, had a fit, choked and died, she said.

However, rather than seek medical help, Ms Phaichit wrapped up the body and stowed it in her Honda Jazz for the return journey to Khon Kaen where the pair lived with her parents. She told police she was worried she would be blamed for her partner’s death.

Ms Phaichit said her partner accompanied her seven years ago when she moved from Bangkok, where they met, back to her family home in Khon Kaen to help look after her parents, who are themselves ill.

They sold vegetables in a local market though neither seemed to lack money. Benyapa’s aunt, Tim, 73, who asks why didn’t take her niece to hospital, said Benyapa owned a house, car, money, and even land in Khon Kaen where she moved to live with Ms Phaichit.

Back in Khon Kaen, Ms Phaichit hid the gruesome truth from her parents that she had brought Benyapa’s body back with her, claiming she had left her in Samut Prakan to visit her family.

She then set about plans to quietly dispose of the body. The night of her partner’s death, police say, she did an internet search on how to cremate a body with rubber tyres. In Khon Kaen, she went for a search and found a couple of old tyres in her village.

Phaichit Khonkid

On Feb 13, the day after her partner’s death, she also bought a gallon of petrol from a gas station on Waeng Noi-Chaiyaphum Road, while being careful not to get out of the vehicle in case someone saw the body.

Earlier that morning, she took the couple’s foster daughter, aged five, to school, though had her sit in the front seat, once again to avoid the body in the back. That afternoon, after picking up their daughter from school, she drove to the rubbish tip alone to dump the body.

Police say she piled the tyres on top of the body, set the pile alight and told Benyapa’s spirit: “Don’t go off or start to smell. Ascend to heaven like an angel.”

She drove home and did an internet search on how to sell property. She also recorded a video for YouTube in which she sang about how her relationship status had changed, and was now an “ex-girlfriend”.

The next day, she drove to Bangkok to see a wealthy businessman identified as Sia Kluai (no surname given), with whom she had struck up a relationship five years before. He had helped repay a mortgage she had taken out on her parents’ Khon Kaen place.

She told police she put the mortgage proceeds towards caring for Benyapa, who had suffered a stroke and was paralysed down her left side. Sia Kluai emerges as a potential key figure in this unusual drama, though Ms Phaichit insists her partner knew about their friendship and had no reason to feel jealous.

In Bangkok, Ms Phaichit asked Sia Kluai to help her do up her parents’ house, as it floods easily.

She returned to Khon Kaen and waited for the obliging Sia Kluai, who runs a business selling cooking gas appliances, to transfer her money to hire a tradesman. However, police caught up with her first, following the discovery of her partner’s charred body in the rubbish tip.

Back in Khon Kaen before her arrest, police say, she cleaned out her car, posting about it on social media. She removed the back seat on which the body had rested, and fumigated the vehicle.

On Feb 18, she posted to social media about her visit to a temple, and recorded another song. That was her last social media activity before her arrest on Feb 24.

Police say she told locals she was heading elsewhere to find work. Offering a theory for her partner’s demise, police say Ms Phaichit went straight 2-3 years ago, and told friends she was single, which led to problems with Benyapa.

The autopsy showed Benyapa had stab wounds in her back, though police said more work was needed into her exact cause of death. Police charged Ms Phaichit with theft, hiding a body, and premeditated murder.

While Benyapa’s family is suspicious about her death, Ms Phaichit’s parents say the public should not jump to conclusions. Ms Phaichit’s father, Udom, 63, said his daughter cared for him, his wife, and her ailing partner without complaint.

“I asked why she had taken on the burden of looking after Benyapa rather than finding someone who could look after her instead, but she wouldn’t answer,” he said.

Apart from the stroke, Benyapa, he said, also had a kidney problem, a growth in her uterus, and a gastric reflux problem.

“She choked and vomited on her food often, and my daughter would give her first aid,” he said.

As for her decision to dump the body in a pit and burn it, he said Benyapa had told Ms Phaichit that if she died first, she wanted her to hide the body, as she didn’t want any fuss.

Angry ex-lover shoots wrong target

Phongsak Saengpakdee was shot in the back of the head.

An Udon Thani man shot a supposed rival in the back of the head, mistaking him for his ex-girlfriend’s new lover, police say.

Non Song police in Muang district were looking for Phaithong, or Oros (no surname given), 35, after he allegedly shot Phongsak Saengpakdee, 37, as the victim was sitting with his wife by a hut in Ban Tat district.

Mr Phongsak was shot in the back of the head. His wife, Sirimas Nowarit, 33, was tending to her husband when rescue workers arrived.

They found 17-18 pellets embedded in the back of his head but miraculously, the victim was still able to talk.

Police believe suspect Oros mistook the couple for his ex-wife and her new man. In fact, they were mere friends of theirs, taking a break from a funeral they were attending nearby as they recharged their phone batteries.

The suspect earlier had tuned up at the funeral and argued with his ex-wife, Noi (no surname given), and her new man, and threatened to kill them, according to Ms Sirimas.

When the shooting occurred, Ms Sirimas was sitting with her husband while waiting for their phones to charge.

They had borrowed Noi’s motorbike for the ride to a hut nearby, which the shooter no doubt recognised.

Confounding things further for the shooter, Ms Sirimas had borrowed Noi’s jacket and was wearing it when Oros turned up and shot her husband.

“He shot Phongsak, who fell to the ground complaining of a headache,” she said.

“Oros no doubt tracked us down, but thought I was Noi, as I was wearing her jacket. We had also borrowed Noi’s bike.”

Oros took off on his motorbike after the shooting, but she recognised the orange jacket he was wearing.

Police also spoke to Noi at the home where the funeral was being held.

She said ex-boyfriend Oros, who had served time for theft, was jealous of her relationship with her new man.

“He turned up at the funeral the day before and harassed us but a local intervened.

“Last night he turned up with a gun, and now he has shot an innocent person,” she said. Police were looking for him.