Police of Chiang Mai arrested a man Monday evening allegedly for killing, dismembering and trying to burn the body of his wife after reading messages from another man on her phone.
Phiphat Kanthima, 41, was arrested while dressed as a monk at a monastery in Sansai district after investigators identified him as a suspect in the murder of Suree On-sanit, a 46-year-old owner of Jasmine massage spa in Muang Chiang Mai district. Her body was discovered at her house in Pacharaporn Park Home housing estate in tambon Sannameng of Sansai Sunday evening.
According to police, Mr Phiphat was a resident of tambon Nong Hoi in Muang Chiang Mai district. He had lived with Suree for years and lately gone to Turkey to be a construction worker.
The suspect was quoted as saying that he had sent his earnings, about 1 million baht altogether, to Suree. He returned to Thailand about a month ago to find that she had invested part of his money in the spa and the rest was missing.
On Feb 4, while Suree was taking a bath, repeated alerts from her phone's Line messaging app kept annoying Mr Phiphat so he picked it up and read the texts. That was when he found out she had had romantic conversations with another man, he said.
They then quarrelled and fought as Mr Phiphat thought she had spent his money on the other man. Mr Phiphat said that Suree threatened him with a knife and he tried to snatch it from her but the knife accidentally hit and killed her.
Mr Phiphat said he tried to chop up her body and drop parts into the Ping River. But he hurt his own hand after cutting her into six pieces, so he stopped.
Then he tried to make it look as if Suree had been killed in her burnt house. He managed to light a candle and put it on a burner normally used in floating lanterns and left the house hoping it would set fire to the whole property. It turned out that the fire he set burned only a small part of the room.