A Bangkok taxi driver killed his lover with a hammer and tried to pass off her body as a Buddha statue as he prevailed on two men to help him remove the body from his rental room.
Pathumwan police arrested Cheuy Datthuyawat, 70, for the premeditated killing of his lover, Ketsuda Sriworakul, 36, on April 5.
Mr Cheuy struck her repeatedly with a hammer after they met at his room in Charat Muang Road for sex. The taxi driver, who had been seeing the victim for three or four months, had just given her 1,000 baht and they started to argue, he told police after his arrest.
After hitting her with the hammer, he washed down the blood and wrapped her naked body with a bedsheet. However, he had to reckon with the problem of moving the body from the second floor. The building where he lives is a former commercial premises converted to rentals.
Mr Cheuy hired a tuk-tuk driver, Adul Maneekort, 47, for 200 baht to help him move the body. He did not want to give away the fact he had just murdered someone so claimed the body wrapped in the sheet like a shroud was really a Buddha statue.
CCTV images show him parking outside his place at 9.02pm with Mr Adul and the pair entering the building. Mr Cheuy kept the lights turned off when Mr Adul, whom he had hired previously to help him move his belongings, helped him lift the body.
It is not clear where Mr Cheuy intended to take it. However, they did not get that far.
One news report said the men discovered the body was too heavy so three minutes later returned to the street below where Mr Cheuy asked a neighbour, Chaiya Promma, 48, to help. However, another report said Mr Adul suspected it was not a statue at all and fled the place, followed closely by Mr Cheuy.
After Mr Cheuy talks to Mr Chaiya, the three are seen entering the building at 9.06pm but a minute later return below. Mr Abdul returns the 200 baht which Mr Cheuy had paid him for the lifting job.
Mr Adul told the media that he suspected the "statue" was really a body and handed back the money in case police later accused him of abetting a crime.
"In the darkness, I grabbed what was probably the woman's leg. It felt soft, unlike a statue," he said. He went downstairs to ask Mr Chaiya to help him decide if it was really a body or not.
Mr Chaiya was just as sceptical. "I got there and discovered it was dark. When I told Cheuy to turn on the light, he went silent. I took a look and saw the object was wrapped up like a body. I decided it wasn't a Buddha statue after all, ran out and alerted the police," he said.
After Mr Adul hands back the money, Mr Cheuy is seen leaving to find someone else to help him. However, police later caught up with him and he admitted killing his lover. The CCTV images show authorities finally removing the body at 11.42pm.
The building's supervisor, Charoon Chanprasit, 55, said Mr Cheuy rented the place two months ago. The victim came to see him every week but they often argued.
Darunee Konhan, 53, the victim's mother, said she met Mr Cheuy three times, most recently on April 2 when he came to see her along with her daughter. He announced he would save 30,000-40,000 baht as he wanted to ask for her hand in marriage.
Despite the 34-year age gap between them, Mr Cheuy thought he was in with a chance. "I told him that my daughter was not interested in him as she wasn't yet ready to settle down. I suspect it is a case of jealousy but Cheuy was mistaken. He thought Ketsuda was keen on him," she said.
Amarin TV travelled to Sikhoraphum district in Surin, where they met his ex-wife, Wandee, 62. She said the couple, who have four children, split up 16 years ago. Her daughter had called that morning with the news that her father had been charged with murder.
"We quit because he liked playing around, was hot-tempered and drank heavily. He slept with women at motels, barely the same person twice, and even brought them home. When I chased them out, he would hit me," she said.
Pol Col Phansa Amaraphirak, head of Pathumwan police, said Mr Cheuy said he murdered her out of jealousy and because their appetite for sex was "not the same".
Wife slays hubby with lady gun
A Rayong woman killed her engineer husband in a dispute over gambling debts then turned the gun on herself, police say.
Rapeeporn Thawornphat, 54, an online gambler, shot her husband Natthawat Salakkam, 55, four times in the head in Muang district on April 4. She fled to a coffee shop at a nearby petrol station where she shot herself.
Witnesses say she arrived at her husband's construction site in Sai Ban Laeng-Khao Phrabat Road in a red-plate Toyota Yaris. She had four A4 documents in her hand and asked Natthawat over for a chat. The couple spoke for just a few minutes before Rapeeporn whipped out a 6.35mm and shot him.
The killing took place by a commercial building in front of Wat Chulamanee, where the victim was construction supervisor for a company hired to enlarge the road.
"Jack", a member of his crew, said Natthawat and his team were discussing the project when his wife turned up. "I heard shots and turned to see her standing over him. She was shooting at him but the gun jammed. She pulled on the gun's slide and shot him another four times. That done, she walked calmly back to her vehicle and left. I called the police," he said.
A spokesman for the company said the couple had money problems as she was an online gambler. Natthawat was a good worker and they regretted the loss.
At 12.30pm the same day, a woman identified as Rapeeporn shot herself twice in the chest at the rear of a coffee shop at the PTT Chak Yai petrol station and died soon after.
Witnesses say she parked, sat there for a while, and walked in and out of the spot where she was to shoot herself. Police say she had tried to make her husband sign debt repayment papers and when he refused, shot him. Later, aware she'd be nabbed for the crime, she decided to take her own life.
Those pesky temple ghosts
A drug addict who killed a monk at his Udon Thani temple mistook him for a ghost he decided to slay, police say.
Police nabbed Panit Kuridee, 38, on April 4 after he killed Phra Sangwan Chaksan, 60, at Chaeng Sawang Wanaram temple in Phen district with an axe.
The pair started talking when Mr Panit, who mistook him for Phee Pop, a Thai ghost, attacked him with a small axe he had brought with him to the temple.
The monk fled but Mr Panit cornered him in toilets behind his living quarters and finished the job. He left the body propped up against a wall and fled to a hut at the end of the village where police had to talk him down from his hallucinated state before he would surrender.
Phra Sangwan, a monk who travels from place to place looking for temples he can help restore and invigorate, had travelled from his home in Chiang Kham district, Phayao to spend Lent at the Udon Thani temple, which had been without a resident monk for a year, locals said.
The monk was found with wounds to his head and body. Police found a 30cm axe propped against a log near the hut where the killer took shelter.
Mr Panit's mother said her son had abused drugs for years and had previously mistaken her for a ghost in the same manner. He had been hallucinating for the past week.
Sodawan Sriboonmee, a member of the Naphoo sub-district administrative organisation in Phen, said the monk had led locals in prayer, and went on alms rounds often. "He was good natured and connected with people easily," she said. Phra Sangwan had been there less than a month. Previously he helped restore a temple in Chachoengsao.
His niece, Mongkut Haituk, 39, whom Phra Sangwan had raised since she was a child, said she had spoken to her uncle about his trip to Udon Thani, which had the blessing of his relatives. They intended visiting the temple to join locals in making merit. Instead, they were to travel to the province for his funeral before taking his remains back to his home province.
Media reports showed Mr Panit's mother turn out with the monk's relatives and 200 locals for a crime reconstruction following the grisly murder. The killer's mother, who was in tears over what her son had done, said he should work off his sin in prison.
Mr Panit told police that he took cannabis and ya ba before the killing. He had just returned from a rubber plantation when he went to the monk's quarters where he came upon Phra Sangwan. He was charged with premeditated murder.
