A first encounter after chats on the Web leads to horrible murder; suspect said to have confessed during questioning
A tentative meeting with a new friend met through an Internet chat service, was apparently what led to English teacher Dissanee Thongnarkthae's murder.
Hua Mak Police on Monday night arrested a Pakistani man suspected of killing the Thai woman and dismembering her.
Maj-General Witthaya Kosiyasathit, chief of Metropolitan Police Division 4 who is supervising the case, quoted Mohammad Arif as saying he had killed the victim in a fit of rage after she was rude to him about using someone else's picture during the Internet chat, and lying about his nationality. According to Arif's confession, Dissanee had demanded that he pay for her air ticket home. "She turned angry when he refused to give her the money, an argument ensued, and the man killed her," said the officer quoting Arif's confession.
The officers said that Arif, now in police custody, initially protested his innocence, despite significant evidence found in his hotel room, including Dissanee's ID card and a large amount of blood.
Major Somphob Lekklang, an investigating officer from Hua Mak station, said Arif then gave conflicting information, by confessing to killing the victim, after joint questioning by Pakistani embassy staff and police investigators, then later retracting his account.
Forensic tests are underway to determine whether the blood found on the premises matches the deceased, whose head, arms and right leg were later found near a petrol station close to the Ratchadaphisek-Lat Phrao intersection. The victim's torso, cut into two halves, was found dumped off Soi Ramkhamhaeng 24 on Monday night.
Acting on a tip-off from a taxi driver, police obtained a search warrant and entered a room at Racha Palace Hotel on Soi Ratchadaphisek 14 where they found Arif, along with evidence including blood in the bathroom and on the carpet of the room, and women's shoes and clothing.
Other items found in the room included a butcher's knife and two chopping knives, a toy pistol and a travel bag with bar-coded tags attached that matched the barcodes on the two travel bags found containing the body parts.
Police said Arif had admitted that the items belonged to Dissanee, whom he claimed that he had sex with the night before, but that she had later disappeared. The police officer said that Arif said he had met Dissanee at an online chat site about a month ago, and that she had travelled to Bangkok on Sunday to meet him at a coffee shop. Police later escorted the suspect to his room at an apartment building in Soi Lat Phrao 23 where they found a pair of jeans soaked with blood.
The Criminal Court approved the arrest warrant and granted custodian authority to Hua Mak police after receiving the initial evidence report.
Witthaya said he believed the police had been lucky, because the unnamed taxi driver who had earlier collected Arif from the hotel, tuned into the Jor Sor 100 traffic radio shortly after the body parts were discovered.