Teen boyfriend prime suspect in young woman’s murder

Tried to kill himself to evade arrest

A teenage male suspect was in police custody on Wednesday, after allegedly trying to kill himself to evade arrest, as police released more details of the gruesome murder of a young woman about to enter university.

Police detained the suspect, 18, only hours after the woman’s bound, bagged and handless body was found among rubbish beneath the Udon Ratthaya expressway in tambon Bang Phun in Pathum Thani on Wednesday morning. 

A motorcyclist had been seen dumping something there about 5am by a car mechanic in a garage. When questioned, the motorcyclist had replied it was a “thing he loved”.

A source said the suspect was apprehended in premises at a housing estate in Pathum Thani and had tried to take pills to end his own life. Police took him to Krung Siam St Carlos Hospital in Pathum Thani. 

Pol Maj Gen Yutthana Jonkhun, chief of Pathum Thani police, said investigators examined suveillance camera footage of the roads leading from the scene where the body was found to the house

Investigators from Pak Klong Rangsit police station, Provincial Police Region 1 and Pathum Thani police were all involved in the case.

They named the suspect only as Thanakorn, 18, of Bangkok, and the victim as Waranya, also aged 18, of Uttaradit.  Both were about to enter university as freshman students.

A source in the investigation team said the suspect’s elder brother, who lives in the same house, told police he heard his brother quarrelling with his girlfriend inside their room during the night. He shouted out at them to stop and they fell silent.

The elder brother said when he and his girlfriend left for work about 6am on Wednesday he noticed his younger brother’s motorcycle had some fresh reddish stains on it. He did not know if it was blood or not.

About noon, he received a call from his mother, asking him to return to the house and check on his brother. When he arrived, the door to Thanakorn’s bedroom was locked. He broke in through the door and saw his young brother lying naked and having convulsions. He believed his brother tried to commit suicide.

Their parents arrived later, and then the police, the suspect’s brother said.

The suspect was unable to give his side of story. He was still in a hospital in Pathum Thani, according to the police source.

Forensic officers were examining the house where the murder allegedly occurred. The father told police his son had a mental problem and had treatment records.

Pol Lt Gen Jirasan Kaewsaeng-ek, commissioner of  Provincial Police Region 1, said on Wednesday evening that police took about two hours to track the suspect to a housing estate in Rangsit. The suspect and the victim had lived together for three years. 

The suspect allegedly left the house to dump the body around 5am following a quarrel with his girlfriend. On returning to the house, he took an overdose of pills, but his elder brother came to his rescue.

The suspect had received mental treatment at a hospital a long time ago, and had a prior record of obscenity. A court had approved a warrant for his arrest for murder and concealment of the body,  Pol Lt Gen Jirasan said.

There were blood stains in the bathroom in the victim’s bedroom. Police had also found a blood-stained machete. The search was continuing for the victim’s missing hands. 

Rescue workers took the victim’s body to the Justice Ministry’s Central Institute of Forensic Science for autopsy. (continues below)

Rescue workers prepare to remove the body of the young woman from beneath the Udon Ratthaya expressway in Pathum Thani. (Photo supplied/Wassayos Ngamkham)

The woman’s body was found wrapped in a bedsheet and bound with three black belts worn by students at Phranakhon Rajabhat University, tied around her knees, waist and neck. From the waist down, her legs were fastened with coat hangers. 

She had slash wounds to her neck and both her hands had been cut off at the wrists. Her hands were mssing.

Initial reports in Thai media said she was wearing only a skirt, but later said she was unclothed.

Thongdaeng Bonsungnern, 49, owner of a car garage beneath the expressway, said he saw a man riding a motorcycle dump something beneath the expressway about 5am. Mr Thongdaeng had been sleeping inside his car at the time.

The motorcyclist first attempted to cover the object with grass and then picked up bags of garbage lying nearby and emptied them over the spot before riding his bike away.

About 8am, Mr Thongdaeng’s wife Amphawan Sudsawang, 46, saw the garbage scattered over the area,  went to look closer and saw what appeared to be a human foot. She immediately called police.