Samurai savagery, hi-so Dad says sorry, druggie trips up

Nation’s pride kills GF

Sunai Thanaen

A soldier consumed by jealousy says he coolly took a samurai sword from on top of his girlfriend’s wardrobe and stabbed her with it through the heart, taking her life.

Pvt Sunai Thanaen, 24, initially denied being behind the June 29 murder of his girlfriend, Khemruethai “Amm” Chueakhamhot, 30, whose body was discovered in her Dusit district condo last week after lying there undetected for about seven days.

However, following intensive questioning by Mae Sai police in Chiang Rai, where he was initially detained before being transferred to Bangkok on Friday, Pvt Sunai changed his tune, admitting he murdered his girlfriend out of jealous rage.

Police have disclosed few details about what spurred him to take his girlfriend’s life, though he was known to be intensely jealous, to the extent of checking Amm’s Line and FB activity via his own phone.

The pair were last seen together on June 29, which is also the day that he took her life.

CCTV images showed him leaving Amm’s apartment that evening, having quietly cleaned up the scene of the murder, showered and donning his soldier’s uniform, ready to return to duty in Chiang Rai.

Pvt Sunai, based with the 18th Armoured Regiment, 3rd Armoured Brigade in Phetchabun, was serving on the northern border and would return on leave to see his girlfriend every six or seven days, her friends say.

Earlier that day, the two were seen going out to fetch a meal from a convenience store, and everything seemed normal enough.

As he walked out the apartment later that evening, Pvt Sunai was clutching a handful of his belongings, having killed his girlfriend in the hour or so before.

Locals who saw him teased him about how he, a “defender of the nation”, appeared to be fleeing the scene. “Here you were saying you were going back to work for just a few days. If you’re taking this much stuff, it looks like you will be gone for some time,” one joked.

Pvt Sunai could not be seen in the footage. However, he told police that he went out earlier that afternoon to see a friend, returning at about 5pm.

Back at Amm’s apartment, he took a samurai sword which she kept on top of her wardrobe and approached his girlfriend from the rear.

Amm was applying make-up at a dressing table when he spun her around, lifted up her shirt, and plunged the 58cm sword through her heart. He took the body and put it on her bed, using her clothes to clean up the blood. He returned the sword to its place on the wardrobe.

The killer left Amm’s body there, where it was to be discovered a week later. He appears to have made no effort to conceal the body, though friends say that on July 3 they received a mysterious chat message, purportedly from Amm, saying she was heading into the forest on a trip and was leaving her phone with her boyfriend.

Her friends, aware that Pvt Sunai knew her password and would check her social media activity on his phone, were sceptical about whether the message really came from her. Given the timeline which police have established since his arrest, Pvt Sunai appears to have logged on to her account and written the message himself to buy some time.

Amm, a former housekeeper at parliament, met Pvt Sunai online eight months ago, friends say. Her younger sister, Darika, 29, said Amm did not talk much about her personal life, but the pair looked happy enough.

“They loved and took care of each other like any other couple. I am shocked he could be so brutal, and want to know why he did it. Why couldn’t they talk out their problems?” she said in tears, adding she saw the pair most recently during the Loy Krathong festival late last year.

Amm quit her job last month because her mother, who looked after her two children, was moving to the provinces to work. She would have to return home to look after the kids, her friends recall.

Darika said her parents were taking the news hard. She, and Amm’s friends from work turned up at Vajira Hospital to claim the body before returning to her home province of Mukdahan for funeral rites.

Police charged Pvt Sunai with premeditated murder.

Dad apologises for violent son

Kew, with the broken arm

The Bangkok father of a hi-so man accused of habitually beating his former girlfriend insists he brought up his son the right way but has offered to make amends for his son’s errant behaviour.

Speaking to the media last week, the father, unnamed in news reports, denied reports that his son, “Cheep” (no surname given), 26, was raised in a violent family, and that he was merely inflicting his learned behaviour on his girlfriend, Kew (no surname given), 25.

“The most I did was criticise my son. Kew knows I was only ever good to everyone,” he said, as Kew looked on.

The two sides met at Makkasan police station, after Kew, accompanied by victim’s advocate Ekkapop Luangprasert, founder of the “Sai Mai Tong Rod” group, asked police for an update on her case.

She said she sought Mr Ekkapop’s help after Cheep’s family threatened her if she complained to police.

Kew alerted police after Cheep attacked her on July 4, breaking her arm.

Cheep

She said Cheep would beat her regularly in the 12 months they were together, pulling her hair, slapping her face, and punching her. She showed pictures of her body covered in bruises.

“I took him for treatment and the doctors said he had depression. Cheep said he was unable to control his impulses; and when he regained his senses, would beg me for forgiveness. I would weaken every time,” she told reporters.

Cheep, she said, claimed he was raised in a violent family, and came to understand that hitting people was one way to solve his problems.

By July 4, she had tired of his ill-treatment and declared she wanted to quit seeing him. This sent him into another rage, when he swung at her with a pair of scissors, and also broke her arm.

“I told his family, who said a certain amount of rough stuff was inevitable. They also said that if I went ahead with a complaint, they would pull strings to make a counter-complaint against me,” she claimed.

An apologetic Cheep and his father turned up at the station for conciliation talks. Cheep’s father said he was saddened by what happened and would pay Kew’s hospital bills in full. Both sides would now go their own ways, he declared.

He insisted he raised Cheep well, but also acknowledged what he was like, news reports said. Cheep also apologised for his conduct. No word was to hand as to what charges he will face.

Disability no barrier

Illicit drugs were found in Joe’s car.

A Kanchanaburi man suspected of trafficking drugs had to be helped from the vehicle in which he moved the merchandise, as he has limited use of his legs.

Police, soldiers, and local administration officials stopped Natthapol, or “Joe Hindat” (no surname given), 34, at a roadblock, after hearing that a large consignment of drugs would be moved from Sangkhla Buri district to Thong Pha Phum district in the province. He was driving a Chevrolet with Bangkok plates.

Officers had to help Joe from the vehicle, as he has difficulty walking. He was held aloft on each side as officers conducted a search. Officers found 20,000 ya ba pills wrapped in rice paper and bound with tape, secreted in the door on the driver’s side. They also found a stash of heroin secreted in the doors on all sides: a total of 49 packs weighing more than 17kg.

Joe said he agreed to transport the drugs after visiting a friend in Sangkhla Buri district. There, a relative of his friend’s proposed a swap in which he would pay a 12,000 baht repair bill for Joe’s motorbike, if Joe would drive the Chevrolet with the drugs hidden inside to Hindat sub-district of Thong Pha Phum.

He said someone else would take over driving from there. However, Joe did not make it that far, he was stopped at the checkpoint first. A urine test found ya ba in Joe’s system. Police charged him with driving while high, and possessing drugs with intent to supply.