Ball's blaze drama, Jay's family outing fun, Tar comes up heads

Families clash over fatal fire

Ball

A former singer whose girlfriend perished in a fire at his family home last week is sparring with the young woman’s father, who accuses him of starting the fire which resulted in his daughter’s death.

Supanee “Benz” Sin-anantrakul, 27, died in a blaze which broke out in the two storey family home of former Bangkaew singer Pongpet “Ball” Sinsuwan, in Thanya Thani housing village, Lum Luk Ka, Pathum Thani, late on Sunday.

She was staying with Ball’s family supposedly after a row with her father, Banyat, who has gone before the media to say he cannot accept the cause of death was an accident. Forensic workers have pinned down the source of the blaze to a second storey praying room where the family keeps Buddha images. Police say that based on an early post-mortem, Benz is likely to have died of smoke inhalation.

Mr Banyat visited Lum Luk Ka police to lay a complaint of assault against Ball, after he detected signs of bruising on his daughter’s wrists shortly before she died. He says Ball and Benz, who started seeing each other about six months ago, argued constantly. 

Ball, he said, was a hot head who resorted to force to get his way. He had hurled a stone through the window of his home during an argument with her, and had once set fire to her belongings out of spite.

“I think he set another fire this time and it spread out of control,” Mr Banyat said, referring to the night of the blaze. He aired his claims on television, accompanied by his wife and Benz’s elder brother, Leng.

“I would like the chance to meet Ball and ask him if he was with Benz at the time she died, and why he didn’t go to help,” Mr Banyat said.

Police say they found Benz’s naked body in the second storey bathroom, where she had been taking a bath. Ball, who was also at home at the time along with five other members of his family, but on the lower floor, said he tried three times to get upstairs to help, but the force of the blaze and the thick smoke held him back.

Ball, who went on TV on Friday to put his side of the saga, denied claims by Mr Banyat that he had mistreated Benz, and released a Line message she sent him shortly before her death in which she likened him to a prince and apologised for being a drag on his life. “Dad criticises me so much, but all I can think of is you hugging me,” she said.

The former singer says Benz had argued with her family on Jan 10 and fled to Chiang Mai the next morning in search of work. He persuaded her to return to Bangkok and the next morning took her around to her parents’ place. 

However, on Jan 14 she packed her belongings in a taxi and moved to Ball’s family home, claiming her family had thrown her out.

Mr Banyat’s concerns centre on an incident on Jan 11 when Benz and Ball argued. Benz asked her brother Leng to pick her up but when he arrived Ball refused to let her go, grabbing her by the arm. Leng said Ball threatened to shoot him unless he let the couple talk alone. 

Benz, he said, had discovered Ball was also seeing another woman, “Rin” on the sly.

Referring to the incident, Ball denied holding Benz against her will. He also denied threatening Leng, and said “Rin” was a woman he saw romantically about 12 months ago. The two remained friends, but were not seeing each other.

Mr Banyat, insisting his daughter had called him several days before to claim Ball had hit her, says he pleaded with his daughter to stop seeing him. “However, she loves people intensely and wouldn’t listen,” he said.

Banyat, Benz's father

Ball’s younger sister, Pongchompoo “Nan” Sinsuwan, said she was in a second storey bedroom with her younger sister at the time the fire broke out.

“I didn’t know Ball and his girlfriend were also at home, as I hadn’t seen them. About 8pm, my sister and I were doing Facebook live, when we saw smoke enter the room. I called out ‘Fire!’ and heard Benz cry out. That’s when I knew she was in the house, though I wasn’t sure where. I tried to reach her but the lights in the house had cut out and the fire held me back,” she said.

“I understand how Benz’s family feels, as everyone but Benz survived, but I sure it was a simple accident. The electric circuitry in the room where we keep Buddha images was faulty, dating back to the Bangkok floods. No one would think of torching his own home. I spoke to Ball. He said he tried to reach Benz three times but was unable to get to her.”

Police inquiries are continuing.

It’s just motherly love

Pin, Jaokun

Singer Jetrin “Jay” Wattanasin says he is puzzled by criticism of an image in which his wife, wearing a flimsy two piece bikini, nuzzles up to their second-born teenage son on a yacht.

His wife, Kejmanee “Pin” Pichaironnarongsongkhram, posted the image taken on a recent trip to Phuket in which the couple’s son, Jaokhun, 15, wearing a pair of swimming shorts, is lying on his back as his mother drapes herself along his right side, kissing his cheek and placing her arm across his waist.

Netizens, who note the couple’s three children, all boys, are overseas-educated, say they are shocked that Pin would pose for such an intimate picture, as Jaokhun, despite his tender age, is growing into a young man, and she is barely dressed.

“Even farang wouldn’t do such a thing with their young adult children,” one netizen sniffed.

Accompanying the message, Jay left a playful message saying he knew Jaokhun’s fanclub would be jealous of his mother, managing to steal such a kiss, but he was jealous of his son.

“When the school term ends and the kids come home to see us, Pin devotes her care and attention to the kids and forgets about me,” he joked.

Jay, who is downplaying the fuss on social media, said families have their own ways of raising their children, but he and Pin have always emphasised the importance of affection in building family bonds, and have told their sons that they will hug and kiss them until they are grown up and have families of their own.

“Some teens grow distant as they get older, but not in this case,” he said.

Referring to his first born, singer Jaonaay, 17, he said: “Some nights I get back from a concert there’s just the two of us, Jaonaay and I, having a meal, and before bed I ask him for a kiss and a hug. We’re lucky he has grown up but still lets us do it. I would like to urge parents to do the same ... don’t let distance grow between you.”

Unfriendly gesture

Car coiner

Actor Navin “Tar” Yavapolkul is staying mum about reports than a well-known figure is responsible for coining his BMW sports car in Thong Lor last year, as a CCTV image emerged of a woman acting suspiciously around the vehicle.

The leaked image, captured at his city condo last year, emerged on a website last week. A woman in dyed blonde hair, wearing shorts and a white shirt, is wandering about the BMW. The culprit scratched the entire bodywork, and left a message “F- you” for good measure.

Tar, who laid a police complaint at the time about the incident, declined to comment on reports that the woman looked remarkably like a well-known figure in the industry. He said he would rather let the law take its course.

Pol Captain Tognern Wattankul, an investigator at Thong Lor station, said he has sent the case file to prosecutors at the Pra Nakhon South District Court, and can’t comment on who released the image.

He is waiting to hear from Tar about what to do next.