Slain student mystery, airport mafia strike, toothy promise

No sugar daddy needed

Amnat Saetung

A middle-age man who killed a first-year university student in a hail of bullets as she was heading to school insists the pair were in love but fell out over money.

Her grieving parents, however, know nothing about the relationship and have challenged the killer to own up about his real motives. They say they are hardly poor and their daughter, victim Kanokpath “Nam Fon” Sukkasem, 19, had no need of his support.

Tha Kham police arrested Amnat Saetung, 53, near the Big C on Rama II Road in Bang Khun Thian district on May 26 after he shot Nam Fon seven times inside a taxi where she had sought shelter from his wrath just moments before.

After shooting Nam Fon, whom he pursued from a bus which had arrived shortly before, he walked into a nearby market still holding his unlicensed 9mm Glock until being overpowered by good Samaritans.

Nam Fon, a scholarship student studying microbiology, had taken the bus that morning as she did every day on her way to class. Mr Amnat, who was lying in wait, having travelled from his nearby home in Samae Dam, boarded the bus as soon as it arrived and the pair started arguing.

Nam Fon fled the bus and climbed into the back of a taxi, with Mr Amnat in hot pursuit. As he tried to pull her from the vehicle, Mr Amnat warned Nam Fon that if she didn’t cooperate, he would shoot. She managed to kick him as she tried to free herself. In response, Mr Amnat took the pistol from his hip and fired off a rapid volley, killing the young woman.

CCTV footage shows Mr Amnat walking calmly into the market, still holding his weapon. While many passersby fled, a plainclothes policeman who was making merit nearby and a brave trader approached Mr Amnat and he peaceably laid down his weapon. The footage shows him being pinned down until police arrived.

Speaking to police, Mr Amnat, a former taxi-driver and messenger who says he lost his job during Covid-19, said he and Nam Fon met online and had been seeing each other since 2014. They started having sex when she was in Matthayom 6.

“We went everywhere together. I supported Nam Fon, including her school fees; it was genuine love, I didn’t imagine it,” he told reporters as police took him to Thon Buri court two days after the shooting to seek another spell in detention.

If the couple did go everywhere together, no one else saw them. Amarin TV spoke to a bunch of her friends, none of whom had heard of Nam Fon seeing anyone.

One close friend said she was single “for sure” at least until she finished school. However, she was aware that Nam Fon in February had complained to Rat Burana police about a man pestering her. Mr Amnat admits that man was him.

Mr Amnat said he and Nam Fon had argued in late December. She said if he didn’t agree to buy her a bracelet she wanted, she would call it off.

“I sent her 50,000 baht for the bracelet and hoped we could carry on seeing each other. But the day on the bus she said I was stupid to send it so I killed her. However, I regret what happened and feel for her parents. I am happy to accept society’s punishment.”

Asked about her complaint to police, Mr Amnat said he had threatened to release a clip of them having sex if she refused to see him.

The victim’s father, Wiroj Sukkasem, 58, said he didn’t know his daughter was seeing anyone, and didn’t believe the killer’s claims they had been together for seven years.

“I have never seen the guy before and want to know why he really killed her,” he said from her funeral at Wat Bang Bon.

The family was not poor, he said, and he doubted she would need to turn elsewhere for support. Her term fees were 37,000 baht but her scholarship paid for all but 12,000 baht.

As far as general expenses were concerned, he gave her 150 baht a day, which she topped up with earnings as an online teacher making 250 baht an hour.

A nephew of the killer’s, Keht (assumed name), said he was shocked to hear his uncle was involved. Although he did not see him much, he knew Mr Amnat was supporting a woman, though he never met her.

Police have charged Mr Amnat with intentional killing, having an unlicensed firearm in his possession, and taking it into a public place.

Airport rogues meet match

The taxi driver’s scout

An Udon Thani man has complained about “mafia types” who overcharged him for a fare to Samut Sakhon when they picked him up at a city airport.

Team Chavala said he took a flight to Don Muang on May 30 and was heading for the taxi stands with his girlfriend when a stranger called him over. A woman in white asked if they wanted a cab and offered to arrange it for them. She borrowed his girlfriend’s phone to call a taxi.

As they left the airport, another cab approached, but the woman shoo-ed it away. When the yellow and green cab she wanted pulled up, Mr Team and his girlfriend climbed in the back, while the woman in white joined the driver in front.

“I assumed she would get out as soon as we cleared the airport, but no...the driver was taking along his missus for the ride,” he said, referring to the woman.

Team

The woman started chatting to them, asking what he did and how much he earned. “We were distracted and didn’t notice the driver had not put on the meter,” Mr Team said.

“When we asked how much the fare was, he replied 800 baht, and told us that all the cabs charge the same on that route.

“She must have assumed I had never taken the trip before, but in fact I had. The last time it cost less than 500 baht,” he said.

When he asked the driver to turn on the meter the pair grew upset, and the woman abused him. When Mr Team asked the pair to let them out of the cab, the driver refused.

Mr Team picked up his phone as if to call the police, when the driver finally relented. In a clip which Mr Team posted, he is arguing with the woman, who has left the cab and is demanding 200 baht. They are outside Vibhavadi Hospital, having barely cleared the airport precinct.

Mr Team filmed the vehicle’s registration plate and after the pair drove off, visited Don Muang police to complain.

Airport police, who also made contact, said the couple were mafia types who had been fined repeatedly for over-charging and warned to stay clear of the airport. However, they keep coming back.

Mr Team posted another clip later in the week of the Land Transport Department hauling in the driver and the woman in white for a dressing down.

Officers said the driver, “Veera”, admitted driving a taxi for which he was not licensed. He had borrowed his dad’s taxi on the day of the encounter with Mr Team, he said.

He was fined 3,000 baht for charging a fare in excess of guidelines, and will also face legal action for driving a taxi without being licensed. His father will be fined 2,000 baht for lending him the vehicle.

Hooked on a smile

Surat and Thong Kam

A Chai Nat man who sprang to fame for his friendship with a “smiling buffalo” has entered the monkhood to say thanks after the beast was stolen from him and then recovered again.

Surat Phaewket, 37, has donned the saffron robes for 15 days after the safe return of the water buffalo, Thong Kam (“Gold”), a couple of weeks after the animal was stolen from its pen in tambon Suk Duean Ha of Noen Kham district.

Mr Surat and the water buffalo he cares for came to fame in late 2018 when Mr Surat posted images of the beast, which appears to smile before the camera, as he appealed for public donations to help him buy the animal. Thong Kam’s owner, he said, had threatened to sell it to the slaughterhouse.

Public donations of 100,000 baht poured in, with Thais taken by the buffalo’s toothy smile and attractive appearance, and Mr Surat’s sad tale. However, he ended up facing fraud charges when the owner, who pays him to care for the beast, came forward to deny he intended selling it.

A celebrity lawyer, among those who donated money, claimed Mr Surat set out to dupe the public and complained to police.

They seized the animal and took it to Bangkok briefly as evidence. Mr Surat insisted the saga had arisen from a misunderstanding and he did not mean to pocket the funds.

On May 17, long after the pair had been reunited in Chai Nat and had dropped out of the news, Mr Surat said he was startled to find Thong Kam had been taken from his pen.

He followed the beast’s footprints leading from the pen for hours the first night, without success.

After he contacted police and posted about the saga, a farmer came forward to say he had seen a pickup carrying a buffalo carrier pass by his place. He noticed the buffalo was a good-looking beast and CCTV footage suggested it was Thong Kam.

Mr Surat said police tracked down the animal to Wat Sing district and found it had been re-sold to a farmer for 60,000 baht. They have issued a warrant for the thieves, locals whom Mr Surat said he knows.

Thong Kam has since been returned to his field and reunited with his buffalo friends. A grateful Mr Surat said the last time he and Thong Kam were in the news, he made a votive promise to the spirit of a famous monk that he would enter the monkhood if he surmounted his case.

However, he did not get the chance as his legal troubles lingered and then Covid-19 struck.

This time around, after the beast was stolen, he made another votive promise to enter the monkhood if Thong Kam was returned. After police found the beast, he decided he had better redeem his promise.

After taking Thong Kam for a quick dip at a nearby stream, Mr Surat took part in an ordination ceremony at Wat Kositaram in Sak Buri district on May 29.

“He gave Thong Kam a quick peck as he left,” news reports said.