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| Sumarin Yordthong |
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| Patikorn, or ‘Pong’ |
Police have arrested a Phetchaburi woman and her lover for killing her jealous husband when he came between them and clumsily staging an accident scene to make it look like he was killed when his car hit a tree.
Pitthayut Popakdee, 42, was found dead in his pickup in Cha-am district of Phetchaburi after his vehicle supposedly left the road and hit a tree on the southern leg of the Cha-am-Pran Buri bypass on July 13.
While the vehicle and tree suffered little damage, Pitthayut’s facial injuries were extensive, with bruising to both eyes, a cracked skull, chest and chin wound.
The victim’s wife, Sumarin Yordthong, emerged as a suspect in his death when his family, joined by Ms Sumarin’s own mother, Urai Yordthong, quickly cast doubt over whether he had been killed in an accident.
Ms Urai said Ms Sumarin was seeing another man and she and her husband had argued the night before.
Ms Sumarin had been seeing a well-known cock-fighter in the province, identified as Patikorn, or Pong, for the past two years. She and her husband would break up but reunite again for the sake of their kids, Ms Urai said.
“He caught her at it many times. Whenever someone sent word that she was seeing Pong again, he would track her down so he could see it with his own eyes,” she said, adding that she knew it wasn’t an accident as soon as she saw the vehicle.
By the next day Ms Sumarin’s story was straining credibility, after Pitthayut’s younger sister, Yaowapa, 40, from Suphan Buri, turned up at Cha-am station bearing autopsy results on her brother’s body.
She said the autopsy by Phrachomklao hospital suggested it was not an accident.
Ms Yaowapa said the doctor who performed the autopsy had seen news coverage of her brother’s death and told her the accident scene looked like a set-up. Blood was found on the pickup’s outer doors but apart from a pool of blood by the victim’s feet, no blood traces were found in the vehicle itself.
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| Pitthayut |
If Pitthayut had indeed suffered injuries to that extent in the collision, items inside the vehicle would be scattered about, and blood spatter would be evident, he said. Even more suspicious, the vehicle was found in first gear, suggesting it did not hit the tree at speed.
Ms Urai, the victim’s mother-in-law, said Pitthayut sought shelter at her place the night before he died after a row with his wife. She revealed later that her daughter had admitted killing him, though Ms Urai said she suspected Pong was the main culprit.
Pong had chased him with his firearm last year and threatened to kill him. On the night of July 12, Pitthayut found her having a meal with Pong and the pair argued. Pitthayut went to her mother’s place with their children while Ms Sumarin called her father to complain he had beaten her.
Ms Urai said she and her husband visited Ms Sumarin at their rental place later that night and urged them to make up.
By late Tuesday, Ms Sumarin had tired of the pretence. She gave herself up to Cha-am police, claiming she had killed her husband after luring him back to their place to clear the air. Pong, she said, was hiding in a forested area outside.
When Pong came to the window he saw Pitthayut come at her with a knife, and went to her aid. Pong knocked him over, and she attacked him with a broom. Later they took the truck to the “accident” scene and drove it into the tree. Pong hauled his body into the cab and they left together on a motorbike.
Police later arrested Pong, who took part in a crime re-enactment. The pair were charged with assault causing death and concealing a body.
Busy fraudster fleeces lover
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| Preecha |
Police are looking for a Lampang woman accused of defrauding a man she met over the internet of more than 4 million baht, as reports emerge she was charged with embezzlement in a case as recently as last December.
Preecha, 53, a former boss at an auto parts maker in Saraburi, complained to Sao Hai police in the province that Nipaporn “Jaeng” Yuenmark, 32, had conned him out of his savings with a written promise she would one day be his wife.
Mr Preecha, who also sought the help of celebrity lawyer Ronnarong Kaewpetch, said they met on Facebook, and spoke day and night until they decided to be a couple.
He and Jaeng never met, he admitted, but he grew infatuated with her and sent her money, including 80,000 baht supposedly to help with her parents’ funerals, and 1.3 million baht to help her buy a piece of land she needed to enlarge the frontage of a property she was having problems selling.
He presented receipts which showed he had transferred more than 4 million baht, which he took from a 2 million baht early retirement payout in January, a vehicle loan, and credit card.
Preecha, who has asked police to track down the money, said he has only 10,000 baht left of his retirement payout, but in the meantime appears to have lost Ms Jaeng, who has moved to Malaysia to work and found a new partner. When he asked for the return of the money she called him stupid for having sent it, he said.
Shortly after they started chatting, Jaeng claimed her father died, so he sent her 40,000 baht to help with funeral expenses. A few months later she claimed her mother died, and he did the same, after she sent pictures taken from the supposed funeral.
Later she claimed she needed help with a mortgage, and a vehicle loan guarantee which fell through. He sent her money to deal with those problems, and another 400,000 baht after she claimed an insurance company had sued her for embezzlement.
After that he helped her buy the land adjoining her own three-rai property, sending 1.3 million baht in a phone banking transfer. In return, she wrote pledging to be his wife. However, the union was never sealed. Towards the end of their relationship, as Mr Preecha’s money started to run out, she started blocking his phone calls and messages, he said.
Despite her claims that her parents had died, reporters tracked them down to a humble farm in Lampang. They said Jaeng had worked in Lampang and later moved to Chiang Mai, where she married and started a family. Later still she moved to Malaysia, visiting them as recently as a month ago.
They did not believe she had taken the money from Preecha, as Jaeng had not helped her own family pay off their debts for the past two years. However, if she did take it, she should return it and come clean, her father, Chuen, aged 67, said.
Pol Col Bancha Intha, superintendent of Sarapee police in Chiang Mai, said police are looking for Jaeng, who surrendered last December on embezzlement charges unrelated to the latest complaint.
Auntie’s gang points the finger
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| Somjit Kampa |
A loan shark lender in Pathum Thani, the so-called 100 million baht auntie, denies hiring a gang to attack a trader who owed her money, even though the co-suspects have identified her as the mastermind.
Police on Thursday rounded up the last of four suspects in her alleged gang, who claim she paid them 100,000 baht to attack trader Weerapat Kampiranon, 63, in the underground car park of the Zeer Rangsit IT centre on March 12.
The attack with a wooden cudgel left him with permanent brain damage and a huge dent in his head after brain surgery.
The man arrested last week, Prawit Kamso, 31, a security guard, was found hiding at a friend’s place on Rama II Road. He said he received 29,000 baht in two instalments to carry out the attack.
He is the latest of the gang to be arrested after police from Region 1, Pathum Thani region and Kukot station on July 11 announced they had arrested the auntie herself, Somjit Kampa, 70, along with three other members of her gang.
The suspects comprised one man who was on lookout; another who found the weapon; and the motorcyclist who took Mr Prawit to the scene and enabled his escape.
Police also seized a ledger book which Ms Somjit kept showing how much she had lent and repayments received, and the club that was used to hit the victim.
The gang has been charged with criminal conspiracy, and hiring people to assault a third party with the result he was put in critical danger. Ms Somjit has also been charged with lending in excess of the official rate.
While the gang she hired has admitted the charges, and took part in a crime re-enactment, Ms Somjit admits only to lending money to traders at the market.
The men she allegedly hired say she paid them 100,000 baht for the attack, which was intended to serve as a lesson to Mr Weerapat to pay his debts, and scare other debtors at the market.
One suspect arrested in the first sweep, Banlu Bunrerm, who was in charge of finding the weapon, said Ms Somjit also wrote off a 20,000 baht he owed her as part of his payment.
Mr Weerapat, 63, who has run a market stall outside Zeer with his wife Patcharaporn Parakunna selling crab fried rice for the past eight years, complained to Kukot police about the assault, which took place as he and his wife were packing up for the day.
A man wearing a cap and face mask struck him with a solid object four times over the head, leaving him with internal bleeding and temporary loss of functions requiring two months’ hospital treatment.
Mr Weerapat, who took part in the crime reenactment last week as victim, said he was relieved the last member of the gang had been caught, as he was worried about reprisals. He said many traders resort to underground lenders because they are wary of the large amount of paperwork which banks routinely require for loans.
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