PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN: An arrest warrant has been issued for a 20-year-old Prachuap Khiri Khan resident suspected of murdering a 21-year-old girl whose corpse was found off the side of the highway earlier this week in Phetchaburi province.
UPDATE: The suspect was arrested by police on Sunday June 9) night in Prachuap Khiri Khan. See below for more details.
As originally reported in Tricove.Asia, citing a Thai source news report, police suspected the corpse was that of a “teen girl’ previously reported as missing from Phuket province. See original report here.
The victim was subsequently identified as Miss Benjarat (or Cream), aged 21, from Nong Khai Province; her body was discovered in bushes near the roadside of Petchkasem Road, on the southbound side, at Kilometer 144, in Khao Yoi District.
The victim was identified from a description of a ‘pooh bear’ tattoo on her left shoulder.
Police suspect foul play and have initiated a manhunt for a suspect named as Mr. Anuwat (last name withheld), aged 20, from Prachuap Khiri Khan Province. He is wanted on several charges including “nighttime theft”, and charges related to corpse and crime concealment.
Thai Channel 8 investigate TV news reported that the victim was working in Phuket as a masseuse, and was last seen in Phuket on June 2, leaving in a truck with an unidentified male, en route to Prachuap Khiri Khan to “return the truck to her boyfriend”.
*Though the 21-year-old victim is not technically a “teen”, Thai media and society in general broadly refer to younger men and women who resemble teenagers as “teens” (“Wai Roon” or วัยรุ่น) regardless of their actual age.
UPDATE: According to the Phuket news here the victim had traveled to Prachuap Khiri Khan in order to return a vehicle to a family member, though other media have reported that the vehicle was intended for a former boyfriend. Both the Thaiger and the Bangkok Post report that the victim was strangled to death by her lover, the suspect in question, whom she reportedly meant through an online dating app. The suspect has allegedly confessed that he strangled the victim to death after she slapped him near Sam Roi Yot district — culminating a dispute that arose when it was discovered the man had another lover, who had telephone him while the two lovers were on route heading north.
Author: TriCove.Asia
TriCove.Asia Administrator.