RAYONG - A 58-year-old man has confessed to indecently abusing and strangling to death a friend's 11-year-old daughter, whose naked body was found dumped in a forested area in Chon Buri province, according to police.
Wichai Chotsena, a construction worker, admitted to the crime following intense police questioning on Thursday, Pol Maj Gen Traisoon Niamsap, chief of Rayong police, later told a news briefing.
The suspect earlier said the girl had fallen off his motorcycle. He denied raping the girl, but did admit to indecently assaulting her, Pol Maj Gen Traisoon said, according to media reports.
Police investigators were still awaiting the results of an autopsy on the body.
The father of the 11-year-old victim (name withheld) filed a complaint with Rayong’s Pluak Daeng district police late on Tuesday night that his daughter had been missing for some hours.
Police launched a wide search. She was found dead in a forested area, near a cassava field, in tambon Bowin of Chon Buri’s Si Racha district around 8pm on Wednesday.
A police investigation found that Mr Wichai, who was a friend of the victim's father, had met the girl on his motorcycle at her school in Pluak Daeng district on Tuesday evening. Instead of taking her home, he took her to tambon Bowin, which adjoins Pluak Daeng district, where he allegedly raped her.
When the girl tried to flee afterwards he chased her down and strangled her.
The suspect said he took off the girl’s school uniform when he dumped her body in the forest at Bowin because as he did not want people to know where she came from.