The Koh Tao murder drama took unexpected turns a few days ago, with the main spotlight on the country's two top security men suddenly plunging into a sideshow that supposedly proved who did not kill the two young English tourists on Sept 15.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha effectively took charge of the case. He hardly mentioned the two men awaiting trial for the brutal murders of Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24.
But he made it clear that he has the back of national police chief Somyot Pumpunmuang. Pol Gen Somyot spent the entire first month in his new job under fire from cynics, disbelievers and self-described crime solvers of the internet. Social media inside Thailand and abroad is massively certain that there is a conspiracy to railroad two Myanmar migrant workers to protect the real killers of the English visitors.
Much of the online "CSI" speculation has focused on the influential family of Koh Tao phuyai ban Woraphan Tuwichian, and specifically his son, Warot, 22.
The internet and social media provide armchair detectives and manic conspiracy theorists plenty of opportunity. And the past six weeks has seen constant theories put forth. They range from Occam's razor (police incompetence) all the way to a high-level cabal run by the (supposedly) worried Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) trying to buy silence in all media.
But they all agree on this point: The Myanmar men are scapegoats. In the online world, the chief suspect is Mr Warot. He claims he wasn't even on the island the night of the murders, and his lawyer has provided various documents to prove he was at school, in Bangkok.
The keyboard sleuths reject such evidence. This is where, last week, Prime Minister Prayut emerged with one of his now-trademark paraphrases.
According to the prime minister, the visiting UK police team, just before they left to return to Scotland Yard, told him that the Royal Thai Police had conducted an exemplary investigation.
He said the British police said the Thai police did exactly as they would have done in the case. He said the British police said it was clear that they (the British police) and the Thai police had studied from the "same textbooks".
The British police were unavailable for comment.
Then Gen Prayut did a curious thing for a national leader charged with both formulating a national policy for the future, and with running the day-to-day affairs of the country.
He said it would be fine if the two Myanmar men had a DNA test rerun, just to check.
Then, with the prime minister off to Cambodia and out of the case for a couple of days, the whole Koh Tao affair got nasty. Correction: It got nastier.
Pol Gen Somyot agreed to shill for a media event to show youthful Koh Tao resident Mr Warot giving a DNA sample and fingerprints.
He went further. He warned keyboard detectives to "stop posting or sharing false information" about the case, or he would bring the full punitive power of the Computer Crime Act down on them.
Among the most popular charge by social media's self-styled crime experts: That Pol Gen Somyot is being used as a dupe for Mr Warot and his very influential father.
Gen Prayut, Pol Gen Somyot and Mr Woraphan were unintentionally recalling the taunt of the infamous OJ Simpson murder trial in the United States. His lawyer famously quipped to the jury: "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit."
After submitting to double tests, Mr Warot's challenge to the keyboard detectives claiming he is involved in the Koh Tao murders is similar: If DNA can't convict, your theories are licked.