An Israeli man faces a murder charge after police discovered body of his compatriot, a former police officer, encased in newly poured concrete at a house in Bang Bua Thong district in Nonthaburi.
Shimon Biton, 50, was apprehended at the rented house in the Pattrawan housing estate in tambon Laharn on Saturday after the body of Eliyahu Cohen, 63, was found buried under a staircase.
Police said Mr Biton, 50, confessed to having killed his Israeli friend in a fit of jealousy on Tuesday after learning that the latter had had an affair with his girlfriend.
The investigation began on Friday, after officials from the Israeli embassy filed a report with the Crime Suppression Division that Mr Cohen had disappeared from the Thana City Hotel in Bang Phlad district of Bangkok.
The embassy was responding to a request from Wathinee Peerek, 31, to help find Mr Cohen, who had not been seen since Tuesday evening.
The focus of the investigation soon turned to Mr Biton after officers discovered that he had used a credit card to buy packs of mothballs, black plastic bags and razors at a department store in the Rattanathibet area and a travelling bag at a department store in Chaeng Watthana. He and his 17-year-old son had rented the house in Bang Bua Thong for about one year.
Police on Saturday went to the house to interrogate Mr Biton about the disappearance of his friend. They also found a Toyota car with a Chon Buri licence plate belonging to Mr Cohen abandoned on a road, about 10 kilometres from Mr Biton’s house.
Initially, Mr Biton denied any knowledge of the disappearance of his compatriot. But police found bloodstains on the hinge of a door and detected a strong odour inside the house. A closer inspection revealed freshly poured concrete near the bathroom under the stairs.
When police broke up the concrete, they found the body of the missing Israeli man.
Mr Biton is being held in police custody at the Bang Bua Thong police station.
Rescue workers remove the body of former Israeli policeman Eliyahu Cohen, 63, from a rented house in Bang Bua Thong district on Saturday. (Photo by Thanarak Khunton)