No way to end it
Husband, wife after the tragedy
Somlak Amramorn, 61, had been married to Supoj Kanchanakanngam, 50, for 16 years but she left him after discovering the week before that he had strayed and was seeing someone else.
Somlak declared she could not tolerate such behaviour and told her husband that she was leaving him. Supoj could not accept it and tried in vain to persuade her to change her mind.
In the end he shot her rather than go without, or let another man win her affections, and then ended his own life for fear of the repercussions.
Two days before the shooting, Somlak, who is retired, asked to stay at her sister-in-law’s place.
Her husband, who works for the air force, had himself gone absent from their home off soi Phahon Yothin 54/1 Road for a couple of days.
The night before the shooting, Supoj returned. The next morning he called his wife, asking her to come around to sign papers for their motorcycle, transferring ownership to him.
He claimed that as she had decided to leave she might as well come around and sort out their affairs.
Somlak’s sister-in-law, Jum, 61, took her back to the house, much against her will.
“I didn’t want her to go as Supoj had posted a picture of his gun on FB a week before and I thought he could be dangerous. However, Somlak said if he had wanted to shoot her, he would have done it before now.”
Jum said she waited outside as Somlak and Supoj went inside to chat. “Somlak told him that anything he wanted, he should just take,” Jum said later.
After they had talked things over for about five minutes, Somlak re-emerged at the front of the house to sign the papers.
Supoj followed her, looked over her shoulder, and before she had a chance to sign pulled out his .38 revolver and shot her in the head, taking her life.
He turned to Jum and said: “I am sorry, but I love her very much,” before shooting himself in the head.
Police, who say the weapon was unregistered, found his body slumped over hers as if the pair were holding each other.
Supoj’s boss at the air force, a flight lieutenant unnamed in news reports, said Supoj called him earlier that day to say goodbye.
“I was alarmed and tried to call back, without success,” he said.
He had spoken to Supoj about his marital woes, and he had asked for a week off before the incident.
“Both he and his wife, who also worked for the air force before she retired, looked stressed,” he said.
Somlak’s sister-in-law says Supoj loved his wife very much, despite the fact that he strayed. He had tried to clear things up with his wife, but their time ran out.
He didn’t see it coming
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| Phumiphat Yoomunkhong |
A young man’s luck ran out when he was killed by a mentally ill assailant with a pestle, in what relatives say was a random attack.
The victim, Kittiphon Chobsil, 23, was attacked outside a two-storey townhouse in soi Phetkasem 62, Bang Khae Nuea where he went to visit his girlfriend.
The killer, Phumiphat Yoomunkhong, 46, who lives nearby with his mother and his own son, struck him brutally from behind.
CCTV footage shows Kittiphon fleeing to seek help from neighbours, but Mr Phumiphat, who was wearing white pyjamas for the 3am attack, followed him.
He kept striking him over the head until the victim collapsed. Kittiphon, originally from Khon Kaen, succumbed later to extensive head injuries.
Kittiphon had just left his taxi and was heading into the townhouse to ask his girlfriend to help with the fare. His girlfriend cares for the bed-ridden relative of the place’s owner.
The killer’s home is 50m away. When police tracked him down to his house, Phumiphat had showered and changed and was waiting for them.
He claimed to have met Kittiphon before and that the victim had abused his relatives, so he decided to get back at him.
The killer’s relatives say Phumiphat is a psychiatric patient with no work. They say the killer and victim did not know each other and the attack was unprovoked.
Police charged him initially with murder with intent, and are waiting to see evidence from a psychiatric hospital that he was indeed mentally ill.
Thank the divorce gods
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| Supaporn Nilbodee, centre |
A Kamphaeng Phet woman who battled her husband for years to obtain a divorce ran 20km to redeem a vow to the city spirits for “intervening” in the matter.
Supaporn Nilbodee, 31, said she made a vow to the city pillar shrine to run 20km if the city’s spirits helped her obtain the divorce from her husband, who demanded 20,000-30,000 baht if she wanted him to sign divorce papers and avoid a costly court battle.
Ms Supaporn, who makes just 7,000-8,000 a month as a dental assistant at the subdistrict health promotion hospital in Muang district, and is raising two children, does not have that kind of money, but was desperate.
She and her husband had been married for 15 years but the love had worn off and they now argued often, she said.
“I could no longer tolerate his behavior but when I asked him to sign the papers, he refused unless I was prepared to pay,” she added.
Ms Supaporn moved out of their marital home with the kids but he would follow her to her new place, pestering her to return.
She did not bar his access to the children, even though he paid nothing towards their upkeep, she said.
She consulted a lawyer, the district office and the Dhamrongtham Centre on how to get a divorce at minimal cost.
Seeing how much anguish she was in, her friends rallied around and raised enough money for the lawyer and court fees.
The court found in her favour, ending the marriage after a five-year battle. Her husband didn’t bother turning up for the decision.
Ms Supaporn, who said she felt as if she had been given a new start on life, last week ran 20km from the shrine to the hospital where she works to redeem her vow to the shrine’s spirits.
Media images showed her jogging along the city’s roads, accompanied by friends and supporters, as she made the three-hour trek.
Lamphung Klomtrakul, 50, relative of her husband’s, who accompanied her on the run to boost her morale, said she was happy for Ms Supaporn.
“Her husband demanded payment if she wanted to avoid a court battle yet contributed nothing towards the upkeep of the kids. I felt sorry for her as I could see how much anguish she was in,” she said.
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