Ex-model jumps to mystery death
Former sexy model and socialite Kae Lederer left behind plenty of traces when she decided to take her own life by jumping from her Wang Thong Lang beauty clinic last week.
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Kae, also known as Kae Laprim or Kanyakorn Supkankarcharoen, 30, left a suicide note accusing her business partner, ex-model and close friend, Ongart “Aerk” Lederer, of fraud.
Her friends say CCTV footage at the clinic shows she jumped from the building’s third storey on the evening of Sept 7, after initially taking weed-killer but finding the pain too much to bear. She was taken to hospital but died the next day from her injuries.
The day before, she appeared on a TV show to make similar claims against Aerk, telling her host dramatically that it would be the last time her fans saw her.
Her host, long-time friend Teerasak “Ko” Puntujariya, with whom she had confided about her problems in a Line chat shortly before her TV interview, did not twig to her meaning that she intended to end it all.
At her family’s consent, Maya Channel was belatedly set to air the programme last night, which media outlets gleefully reported would “bust open” the proceedings at the city temple where her funeral is being held.
Kae’s bizarre death, accompanied by over-wrought personal dramas reminiscent of a Thai soap opera has kept Thais riveted all week as friends came out to air doubts about why she took her life, with some even suggesting she was poisoned rather than deciding to take her life voluntarily.
Her business partner Aerk, who has largely avoided her funeral, emerged as the villain of the piece, though insists he did nothing wrong and they remained in contact until her death.
According to a muck-raking FB site which claims to have obtained her suicide note, Kae was angry at Aerk, whom she says was using her name to deceive people out of their money.
She claims she herself fell victim to Aerk’s scheming, after she gave him 14 million baht saved for a green Lamborghini. Kae said that rather than buying it with cash for her as intended, he quietly put a deposit on the vehicle and pocketed the rest. A similar fate befell a Mercedes Benz of hers with Aerk allegedly taking it in to be financed.
Kae was so upset with the shenanigans that she declared she no longer wanted to be known as Kae Lederer, an industry name she took from a beauty clinic she used to run with Aerk, but in future wanted to be known as Kae Laprim, which takes its name from her new clinic where she was to jump to her death.
Muddying the waters further, Kae was said to have got engaged shortly before her death to a businessman known as Paul, who hails supposedly from the family running the Huawei telephone empire.
Paul, who also took a stake in her Laprim clinic, was said to be close to Aerk, with both causing their share of headaches for Kae, who had kept her parents in the dark about her engagement.
The funeral started on a dramatic note with Aerk ordering followers to erect large white barriers around the pavilion where her body was held. He also asked the media to stop covering the story.
He wrote on social media that the family requested privacy and harboured no doubts about the cause of death. Kae’s parents later complained about the barriers, saying they wanted the funeral to be a more open affair.
By mid-week, news of the suicide note and her tell-all interview had emerged.
On Thursday, Aerk broke his silence to post an image of himself at the funeral, to counter claims he was too scared to show his face.
“I was at the hospital all day with Kae before she died but didn’t feel the need to say anything,” he said. “I couldn’t stay on at funeral as I was tied up elsewhere. I created and molded her...there’s no way I would try to bring down this star that I created by my own hand,” he wrote.
His post was savaged by Kae’s friend, actress Kamonwan “Elle” Srivilai, who suggested he turned up briefly for water pouring rites on the first day then quickly left before the monks had finished chanting.
Elle added she had seen Kae four days before her death, when she complained of being tired and having little time for friends. “She had a history of depression going back three or four years, had been to see a psychiatrist and had tried to kill herself many times,” she revealed.
Another friend, model Perawatch “Aa” Herabut, who knew Kae for about 10 years, doubts depression or financial worries alone lie behind his friend’s mysterious death, as she was a resilient type. “I believe something else triggered it, and want like the media to investigate,” he said.
Chokchai police say they are are waiting until the funeral is over before the probe gets properly under way.
Last drinks for ex-host
TV host and actor Warut “O’’ Woratham wasn’t ready to die when alcoholism-related illnesses took his life on Tuesday, says his close friend, Maethanee “Nino” Buranasiri.
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O, 49, was admitted to intensive care at a Chiang Mai hospital after collapsing at his home. He had just returned from a work event in Lamphun and was about to take a shower when he lost consciousness. Doctors said he suffered from renal failure complicated by a kidney and blood infection.
A former hard drinker whose wild ways made him unpopular with industry bosses, O, who had a history of drink-related health problems, had reportedly told friends he did not expect to live beyond 50.
Despite complaining in the months before his death about a lack of work, O, Nino said, had cause for hope. He had lined up a TV show in which both would appear as co-hosts, as they had done previously, to start airing in January next year. Two or three lakorn producers had also been in touch with the former heartthrob.
“While his body might have been ready, in his heart he had not prepared himself to go so quickly,” Nino said.
Among mourners at his funeral were his former wife and 9-year-old son, and O’s two adult foster children.
Former close friend, Suthita (Kethanon) “Oui” Botha, said O called last week, stressed about having no work. She was not surprised he should end up like this as he had lived a hard life.
“He had many friends who took him in a direction where he was unable to pull himself back, despite warnings,” she said. At the height of his fame, O said he could spend 10,000 baht a day on women and booze.
His mother, Oraphin Worratham, 83, said O was upset about being axed as a presenter of a TV show he had fronted recently.
DJ Keng’s new trolley ride
Convicted road rager and DJ Pattarasak ‘‘Keng’’ Thiemprasert is laughing off an incident in which authorities confirmed they had cancelled his driver’s licence for life, after Keng boasted he had managed to retrieve it.
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| DJ Keng |
Keng, also known as “DJ Keng Gear R,” last week posted an image of himself on social media with his driver’s licence, which he had persuaded the Land Transport Department to return to him after his court case stemming from the road rage attack had run its course.
Keng, who was convicted of backing his pickup into a city motorist’s vehicle in a famous road rage attack in 2016, said the two year, eight month wait to retrieve his licence had been worth it.
However, his post prompted netizens to do some digging after some recalled the courts had axed his licence for life. Reporters also called the department, which admitted it had issued him with a smart-card update to his licence after Keng asked for it back.
LTD deputy director-general Kamol Burunapong says the DJ took in a copy of the Bangkok North Municipal Court’s decision in his case. He said the police had seized his licence as evidence but the case had now come to an end.
“It was in the old paper format, so we turned it into a smart card for him. In doing so we discovered we hadn’t heard formally about the outcome of his case. We decided it must be on the way so didn’t look into the details of his licence confiscation but treated it merely as evidence which had been seized. In the end we contacted the court, which asked us to cancel it,” he said.
Prosecutors later confirmed the court had ordered his licence cancelled for life.
Kosolwat Inthujanyong, deputy spokesman for the Attorney-General’s Office, said the lower court sentenced Keng to 3 months, 15 days in jail.
Keng appealed against the decision and the Appeal Court decided he should spend the same period in detention, not jail. Keng appealed again and the Supreme Court imposed a suspended sentence of three years, plus two years of probation.
“However, Keng only appealed against the jail part of the sentence, not the licence part, and the lower court ruled it be taken away. That’s as far as that decision goes because it wasn’t appealed,” he said.
“Keng had told the LTD that the court had ordered it merely suspended. However, his social media post backfired on Keng as it drew attention to what he had done,” he said.
Refusing to take the news to heart, Keng has now posted an image of himself atop a goods trolley, saying he could always ride that instead. He said he takes buses or goes on foot when he needs to get around, and doesn’t hold any bad feelings.
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