A ruthless Nakhon Pathom couple lured a young woman to their home and killed her, dismembering her body, and hiding the body parts, after she threatened to expose them over a 5,000 baht job scam.
Nakhon Chai Si police, working with their Chiang Mai counterparts, nabbed Patraporn “Mint” Lamjuang, 21, and her husband, Narongchai Suwankeo, 26, for the brutal slaying of Piyawan “Ann” Pongphao, 23.
The pair admitted luring the victim to their house in Don Tum district, killing her, and chopping up the body.
They buried upper-body parts in the backyard, and tossed the rest into a canal near Wat Phaniang Tak in Muang district.
After luring Piyawan to her death, the couple took advantage of the opportunity to extract money from her family.
Piyawan’s family reported her missing on March 16, after the couple, impersonating the victim, demanded eight cash transfers amounting to 70,000 baht, supposedly to pay off debts she owed.
The payment demands raised the suspicions of her family, along with her refusal to call or appear in a video call.
Despite later being called in by police, and fleeing to Chiang Mai where they were ultimately caught, the couple took few precautions to disguise their misdeeds.
Police turned up the victim’s bones and clothing in the backyard. They also found a recently extinguished bonfire and a box of ammunition inside the house, along with the victim’s grey Honda Wave motorcycle.
Nattawi (surname withheld), Piyawan’s 43-year-old sister, said the victim left her home in Nakhon Chai Si on March 4 to confront Ms Patraporn about the debt.
She asked her sister to take care of her child and expressed frustration the couple had scammed her into transferring the 5,000 baht under the pretence of securing her a job at Nakhon Pathom Hospital.
Piyawan was angry and wanted to confront Ms Patraporn. After that, she disappeared without a trace.
Earlier, Ms Patraporn had contacted the victim offering to find work as a nurse’s assistant at the hospital. The 5,000 baht fee was supposedly to cover the cost of a nurse’s uniform, fake qualifications, and a medical check-up. However, the job offer was bogus.
When Piyawan demanded repayment, the couple, afraid she would expose them, decided to kill her.
In testimony before police, Ms Patraporn claimed her husband killed the victim. Her husband, however, insisted they both played a part. Under further questioning, Ms Patraporn agreed she ordered her husband to do it, and he obeyed.
Later, while impersonating the victim on Line, the couple claimed she was being held at an undisclosed spot.
Ms Patraporn used the victim’s mobile phone to communicate with her family, claiming she could only chat via text and could not make calls.
The family transferred almost 70,000 baht in eight payments from March 8 to 14 to three accounts: five times to Ms Patraporn’s account, two times to her husband Narongchai’s account, and once to a mobile phone shop account.
Officers invited the suspects for questioning twice but lacked enough evidence to proceed. However, as the probe closed in, the couple fled to Chiang Mai, where police arrested them at a motel on March 21.
They kicked open the door of their unit at 3am, only to find the couple, apparently oblivious to the gravity of their offending (news reports said), having sex.
The suspects confessed to killing the victim and disguising her body parts.
Inquiries revealed co-accused Narongchai and the victim had known each other previously. Mr Narongchai started dating Piyawan when she was just 14 years old.
The victim’s family demanded 30,000 baht from Mr Narongchai, after which both parties broke up.
Mr Narongchai’s sister and mother, contacted by reporters, said he visited their home at the end of February. They refused to accept Ms Patraporn as a daughter-in-law because she had previously entered their home and stolen 200,000 baht, they said. That case is with Sam Khwai Phuak police.
Piyawan’s father, meanwhile, said he did not know Ms Patraporn personally but was familiar with Mr Narongchai, after he started seeing his daughter seven years ago. He had demanded compensation from him because his daughter was not of legal age.
Don Tum police charged the couple with murder and concealing a body.
A Songkhla woman assaulted a local teacher after smashing her vehicle in a fit of jealous rage amid suspicions she was seeing her husband.
Angry wife runs amok
A Songkhla woman assaulted a local teacher after smashing her vehicle in a fit of jealous rage amid suspicions she was seeing her husband.
Police arrested “A”, after she allegedly assaulted “B”, 36, outside the Central Mosque in Songkhla on Feb 23.
The suspect is the wife of the former principal of a technical school in Hat Yai. He is the victim’s former boss who kept up his contact with B even after he left the school.
News reports say B and the former principal earlier met for coffee, with some reports saying he asked B if they could move from the coffee shop to his sedan.
When A found out, she pursued the hapless victim in her pickup, chasing her past the mosque, smashing into the back of her sedan, and forcing her to a stop.
A video clip shows A in her pickup bearing down on B at great speed before the collision, which left B with facial injuries including a bloody lip.
When B stops on the roadside, A exits her own vehicle, yanks open the door, and demands she gets out to talk. When B refuses, she breaks her windscreen wipers and smashes the front and rear of the vehicle.
A’s husband, the former principal, is also pictured, holding his wife back before police arrive.
“He urged me to come out and talk. I had already called the police, so complied. However, once I exited the car, his wife grabbed my hair and began hitting me,” B recounted.
“I defended myself, leading to the chaotic scene captured in the video. When the police arrived they suggested we resolve the matter at the station,” she added. A, who refused to accept her denials she was seeing her husband, had been harassing her for over a year, and assaulted her once at the school in 2023, she said.
B insists the relationship was strictly professional, although she acknowledged the former director had sent her heart emojis, which she did not reciprocate.
Worried about her safety, B, appealed to social media activist Guntouch Pongpaiboonwet, alias Gun Jompalang, who accompanied her before the media.
Speaking after a conciliation meeting at the local police station, lawyer Suwat Nakawajana, representing the teacher, said they have filed additional charges against the wife, including attempted murder and defamation. The case continues.
An armed man in Ayutthaya who relied on a motorcycle taxi to flee the scene of a daring gold shop robbery has been caught after evading police for several days.
Careful robbery comes astray
An armed man in Ayutthaya who relied on a motorcycle taxi to flee the scene of a daring gold shop robbery has been caught after evading police for several days.
Phra Intharacha police on Thursday announced the arrest of Worapoj Chuduangkaew, 43, for stealing items from a gold shop in a Bang Pa-in district shopping mall on March 23.
He was caught at his home in Sai Mai district of Bangkok. Police seized 12 gold necklaces, a .38 calibre firearm, clothing, shoes, and a hat used during the crime, along with a bronze Toyota pickup. The stolen jewellery was valued at 7.8 million baht.
Mr Worapoj, wearing a disguise, arrived on foot at the store to evade nearby CCTV cameras. He hopped onto a motorcycle taxi outside as he made his exit, after threatening to shoot staff if they tried to follow.
The motorcycle taxi took him north along the Asian Highway, stopping by the roadside near kilometre marker 3 from where he fled in his pickup. After that, he disappeared for several days.
Police tracked him down after finding witnesses who recalled his disguise and his truck, which he had left there before setting off on the rest of the journey by foot.
Police said there were no surveillance cameras in the area, which showed he planned the escape well.
Under questioning, Mr Worapoj said he owed debts of 500,000 baht and had no other way out. He had been researching information online about melting gold, the likely fate of the items he stole.
He had been travelling between Bangkok and his family home in Ubon Ratchathani every Friday. He had previously visited the mall to use the restroom and noticed the jewellery store was located near the entrance, which would make it easier to rob.
The incident took less than a minute, with Mr Worapoj demanding big jewellery pieces only. He wore a hat that obscured his face. Police charged him with the robbery and firearms offences.
