Police charged three women with premeditated murder and two other counts on Sunday, hours after taking them from the northern border with Myanmar to the police headquarters.
The trio of Preeyanuch “Preaw” Nonwangchai, 24, Kawita “Earn” Ratchada, 25, and Apiwan “Jae” Sattayabundit, 28, were immediately whisked away to an awaiting plane at a police airbase and flown to Khon Kaen province.
The three will participate in a series of crime reenactments on Monday in the location where Warisara Klinjui, 22, was cruelly murdered.
The three were transported by police from the immigration office in Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province on Sunday morning after Myanmar authorities handed them over to Thai counterparts on Saturday night.
National police commissioner Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda said that after questioning, all three were charged with premeditated murder, hiding a body and receiving stolen items.
Two other suspects, Wasin Namprom, 22, and his girlfriend Jidarat Promkhun, 21, are already in police custody. They identified Mrs Preeyanuch as the person who killed and dismembered the victim.
Warisara's body was found cut into two pieces and buried in two plastic bags in Khao Suan Kwang district of Khon Kaen on the evening of May 25.
Mrs Preeyanuch told police during the interrogation session that she did not intend to kill Warisara and only wanted only to "teach her a lesson" after the two bumped into each other shortly after midnight on May 23, the police chief said.
Instead, Warisara was strangled to death. The police chief said Mrs Preeyanuch planned to dump the body, weighted with stones, into water -- but became worried that the corpse might float to the surface. He added that Mrs Preeyanuch said Mr Wasin had helped her cut the body into pieces.
Mrs Preeyanuch had been furious with Warisara since last year, said the police chief, because after being arested on a drug charge in Khon Kaen, Warisara had identfied Mrs Preeyanuch as a member of a drug gang. He added that the victim also owed her 40,000 baht.
Pol Gen Chakthip ruled out a theory that the murder was ordered by a transnational drug gang.
Video by Pattarapong Chatpattarasill