Who is Mae Moo?

Sunday 12 June 2022

Rejection hurts, marriage no-go, any disguise will do

When a better man calls

Suwan Anumat

A Chiang Mai man with a fondness for the drink killed the new lover of his ex-wife after she spurned his attempts to make up.

Chiang Dao police nabbed Pongdej Nuprom, 52, on June 3 for killing Suwan Anumat, 64, with a crowbar outside a relative’s house following an argument. He also hit his former wife, Sai Dongkaew, 41, when she came out to protect the victim as her two children, aged 7 and 10, looked on.

Mr Pongdej was married to Ms Sai a mere month from Feb 28-March 28 before she quit with him and took up with Suwan, a labourer who had worked with the killer and whom he once regarded as a friend.

Pongdej Nuprom
“I wasn’t sure at first why we had to split up, but her behaviour began to change,” he told police following his arrest. “She was indifferent, like someone who no longer felt any love. She said she was going back to her place in Mae Ai district.”

Ms Sai, who hails from Myanmar, said she was tired of her husband’s nightly drinking habit and lack of interest in work. She complained he was incapable of supporting her and her children, who come from a previous marriage.

In April, Mr Pongdej heard from a friend that she had taken up with Suwan, who lives in the same village, and by the next month, they were openly living together at the victim’s younger sister’s place.

He said he resented his former mate taking up with his ex-wife and believed he was responsible for keeping them apart. He called Ms Sai repeatedly until she blocked his number.

On the night of the attack, he was drinking and started to think of his ex-wife. He called on a relative’s number, impersonating someone called “Uncle Pom”, asking why they had to quit. When that call ended in recriminations, he walked around to see her, taking a crowbar, he said, as protection against wandering dogs.

“I placed it on the fence in front of the house and called out. About 10pm, Suwan came out holding a kitchen knife. He spoke to me insultingly, saying ‘Given you are incapable of supporting her, you needn’t bother coming around here, no one is leaving the house today”.

“I asked him: ‘Did you speak too strongly?’ I was drunk and tried to wrest the knife away but without success, so I grabbed the crowbar and struck him. Sai came out and was hit as well,” Mr Pongdej said.

Mr Pongdej hit Suwan over the head and neck with the crowbar about 10 times, killing him. He fled back to his place about 6km away where he was nabbed the next morning. Ms Sai, who was injured when she tried to stop the fight, needed 14 stitches to treat wounds to her head, back and arm.

Speaking to the media, Mr Pongdej said he wasn’t willing to say sorry to the victim at his funeral because it would be beneath his dignity. However, he was prepared to apologise to his family and his former wife, whom he still loves.

Ms Sai said her ex-husband drank every night and refused to work.

Her children witnessed the attack from behind the front door, as the pane in the door was broken. “I was lucky I locked the door when I went out to help, or he may have attacked them too. I will never love him again after what he did,” she said.

Among the mourners at Suwan’s funeral was his former wife from 16 years ago, Sri Chantapanya, 64, who said he was hard-working but possessive.

Mr Pongdej has also been married once before, according to his mother, while Ms Sai, according to locals, has some five husbands from prior relationships.

Police say Mr Pongdej had told locals that one day he would stab the victim in the head. They charged him with murder with intent, trespass and assault.

Dowry? But we’re partners
Pramote Kamlangkla

A Chaiyaphum man shot his former partner after she insisted they marry if he wanted to move in with her.

Nong Bua Daeng police nabbed Pramote Kamlangkla, 50, for killing Noothong Puangyod, also 50, after she spurned his demands that he move in, days after she attended her ex-husband’s funeral.

He tracked her down to a friend’s house after earlier threatening to take her life. He shot her in the head with barely a word, said her friend, whom the killer also attacked before fleeing.

The pair had been together for 1-2 years after she split up with her ex-husband and father to their two children, but had parted ways before his death, according to the victim’s family.

Noothong Puangyod
The ex-husband died recently from an illness and his funeral had wrapped up just days before. It is unclear why Mr Pramote chose this moment to ask if he could move in.

However, apparently concerned about appearances in the Ban Nong Hai Dai village where she lives, she asked Mr Pramote to take part in a wrist-tying ceremony and pay a dowry of 10,000 baht if he wanted to resume their relationship.

Thanom Kamlangkla, 81, Mr Pramote’s mother, said her son told her before the incident to say he intended to kill Noothong.

He was stressed after she refused to talk to him, and suspected she had found someone else. “He staked out her place for two or three days but she didn’t come home, so he felt resentful,” she told the media.

“She also asked him to marry her, even though they had been together for ages. He helped her family build a house in Si Sa Ket, and the house she lives in now. They also bought a motorcycle together. But when he said he had no money for the dowry, she wouldn’t let him move in.” She pleaded with her son to let bygones be bygones, but he refused.

Noothong sought the shelter of a friend, Thawil Thongdee, 58, at the time of the attack. He said the victim came to see him at 7pm asking if she could stay the night as she wanted to avoid the suspect. He had threatened to kill her and been causing problems over the past week.

“We sat and watched TV until about 9pm when I saw a torchlight outside. I thought it was locals looking for frogs. The light drew closer until I heard Pramote say, ‘Oh, so you’re here, are you’.

“He rushed at her and shot her in the head. There was no argument beforehand, and she had no time to beg for her life.

“Pramote rushed at me too, kicking me in the head and stomping me in the collarbone area. He also hit me with the barrel of his gun,” he said.

The victim’s eldest son, Thawatchai Krajangsri, who works in Bangkok, said the killer and his mother had looked after each other previously for 1-2 years without any dramas.

The motive was partly financial, he said, with the killer asking his mother to help pay for fertiliser or farm equipment. “He had turned up, measured the house, and taken her documents. When my mother found out she laid a complaint and was back only a short time before the shooting occurred,” he said.

Mr Thawatchai, who also has a younger sister who works in the provinces, said he was sad to lose his mum so soon after his father’s death. Police charged Mr Pramote with murder with intent.

He’s done it all before
The burglar wearing a fertiliser bag as a disguise.

Trang police are looking for a thief who wears a trademark fertiliser bag over his head when robbing motor repair shops.

He also wears a football shirt with the number 13 on the back, and is known to have robbed at least two motor repair shops of metal scrap, parts and equipment over the past month.

One of his targets was Boonrod Kan Chang repair shop in Naphla, Muang district, which he robbed on May 22.

Owner Sitthisak Chumekha, 33, said the thief, whom he suspects is a professional, threw a cover over two of the shop’s four CCTV cameras.

Images from the other cameras suggest he was also wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet around his leg. He made off with metal plates, a chain from a backhoe, and equipment worth about 10,000 baht.

“My friends in the trade said the guy wearing the sack has robbed a number of places in Nayong Tai, Ban Pho, Ban Kuan, Naphla, and Thap Thiang sub-districts recently,” he grumbled.

Two days before, the hooded man also robbed a repair shop for 10-wheeler trucks, Boonrod Kan Chang, in Naphla sub-district.

Owners Kosin Phitak and Nattakrit Chanchai, both 39, say the hooded thief made off with gear oil, a grinder, drill, starter motor, diesel oil, storage battery and 10kg of scrap metal, worth about 20,000 baht in total.

“He’s daring. The thief came back to carry stuff away twice in one night. Nor is he scared of the CCTV,” Mr Kosin said.

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