Police in Pattaya have reportedly detained a Lithuanian man whose transgender girlfriend was found dead in her house in Surin on Wednesday.
The man was previously widely reported to be a Russian national.
Thai media reports said the man, whose name was not known, was tracked down by the signal from the mobile phone he allegedly took from his dead lover. He was about 30 years old.
He was being taken back to the lower northeastern province for DNA testing. If his sample matched evidence found at the scene, he would be formally arrested and charged with murder, the reports said.
The body of Thiraphong Lamluea, 31, was found inside a closed room at her two-storey house on Wednesday.
Police said the body was wrapped in a thick blanket. There was a strong smell and it was believed she had been dead at least a week.
Thiraphong's mother said neighbours told her that there was a bad smell coming from the house. She called a local rescue team to inspect the house.
They found drag marks on the floor and traces of hair and bloodstains outside the door to a spare room. She opened the door and found her son, a transgender woman, lying dead under a blanket.
Thiraphong had been romantically involved with a Lithuanian man for 6-7 months. They met in Phuket.
The mother said the Lithuanian had stayed at Thiraphong’s house for one week. He drank a lot of beer. On May 26 the man had brought a box of beer to her house and he drank it with her. She noticed what looked like bloodstains on his legs, and she also saw some bruises.
He had said a bottle had fallen and broken and pieces of it hit his legs.
Around 2am the next day she got up to go to the market and passed Thiraphong’s house. She did not see the car her son had rented and driven from Ubon Ratchathani province. She assumed they had left together.
She was shocked to discover on Wednesday that Thiraphong had been killed. A dog had also disappeared and she suspected it had been killed and buried somewhere.
Police had surveillance camera footage showing the rented car left at the Prasat district bus terminal. The Lithuanian man was seen boarding a bus to Rayong.
She said Thiraphong also had a British boyfriend. They had known each other for seven years. He lived in the UK and had not returned to Thailand for a long time. She suspected the Lithuanian man was jealous of him.
A police source identified the man as Marius Kunickas, a Lithuanian national.
