Police are looking for a Singaporean man who was seen with his Thai girlfriend at a condominium building in Bangkok where she was later found dead.
A preliminary investigation indicated that the man might be in Chiang Rai or possibly across the border in Myanmar, according to Pol Maj Gen Noppasin Poonsawat, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau.
Two women informed police at the Thong Lor station on Wednesday that they had lost contact with their friend Praopilat Paladon, a 30-year-old native of Khon Kaen province, since Monday evening.
They brought a police record of their complaint to the Marque building on Sukhumvit Soi 39 in Watthana district at 6pm on Wednesday. When they went to Praopilat’s room on the 22nd floor, it was not locked and its air-conditioner was turned on.
Praopilat was found dead on the floor in the bathroom. The body, naked from the waist up, was wrapped with a blanket and a bedsheet stained with blood. The head was wrapped with blood-stained bath robe.
The two women told police that Praopilat had a 32-year-old Singaporean boyfriend and that she had complained of frequent fights and violence. He was identified as Daniel.
The couple moved into the condominium, which rents for 170,000 baht a month, two months ago. A check of immigration records showed the Singaporean man had made 31 visits to Thailand and each stay usually lasted 10-15 days. However, his most recent stay lasted for one year, although his visa expired on May 28 last year.
Security video from the condominium building showed the couple at an elevator at 6.42pm on Sunday on their way to leave the building. At 9.17 on the same night, the Singaporean man brought the woman back to the room.
Praopilat had not exited her room since Sunday, which was her birthday, and no one else entered the room except the couple, said Pol Maj Gen Noppasin Poonsawat.
CCTV showed the man returning to the condominium at 12.12am on Monday. At 10.29am, there was a call from the woman’s phone to her mother but the latter did not answer it. The mother called back at 10.35am and received no answer.
At that time the Singaporean man was believed to have been in the room and police do not know who made the call from the phone, said Pol Maj Gen Noppasin.
The Singaporean man was seen leaving the room with his luggage at 3.15pm on Tuesday. Two minutes later he got into a black Mercedes-Benz car he had called via a ride-hailing app. Police subsequently discovered the car was registered in Bangkok to a Thai man who is deceased.
The man went to a restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 41 and then to a hotel on Phetchaburi Road. There, he met two men and then got into an Isuzu pickup on Phetchaburi Road. It was later learned that the pickup was headed for Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai.
Police in Chiang Rai and officials in the adjacent town of Tachilek in Myanmar have been asked to look for the man, said Pol Maj Gen Noppasin.
The mother of the woman, who identified herself as Pla, said by phone on Thursday that she was travelling from Khon Kaen to Bangkok to receive her daughter’s body.
Ms Pla said her phone calls to her daughter had gone unanswered since Monday, so she had asked her daughter’s friends to check.
The Singaporean man initially did not answer her phone calls and later turned off his phone, she said. She described the man as her daughter’s “husband”.
According to Ms Pla, Praopilat had met the man in Singapore and both returned to Thailand three years ago. The man told her to quit her job and promised he would take care of her. He often travelled between Bangkok and Singapore.
The mother said she had witnessed some fights between the couple but they were not violent.
Ms Pla said her daughter had sent her pictures of bruises on her body, which she blamed on the Singaporean man. The daughter said that if she disappeared, it would be because of him, the mother said.
