Sa Kaeo—
On January 15th, 2024, Thai national media reported about a case where a mentally ill person was found with a head wound in a pond next to a school in Aranyaprathet, Sa Kaeo, on January 12th.
An update on this story can be found here.
Aranyaprathet police performed an investigation and found that the victim, publicly identified only as Ms. Buaphan (whose last name was withheld by the police), 47, had wounds on her face and head, and was deceased for more than 1 day.
Aranyaprathet investigative police transferred the deceased for an autopsy at Aranyaprathet Hospital and Chao Phraya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital to determine the exact cause of death and also gathered CCTV footage in the incident area as evidence.
On the next day after the incident, the husband of the victim, publicly identified only as Mr. Panya (whose last name was withheld by the police), 54, reportedly confessed to the police that he physically assaulted Buaphan, a mentally ill person, to her death and gave a testimony describing the crimes in detail. The police then took him into custody at Sa Kaeo Provincial Court on January 13th.
However, the Aranyaprathet police were still not convinced by Panya’s testimony and further investigated and gathered additional evidence. The police discovered that Panya was not present at the crime scene and there were 5 teenagers aged ranging from 13 to 16 who committed the crimes.
According to a report by the police, on January 10th, at 10:00 PM, a group of teenagers gathered near a pond in Aranyaprathet and two of them teased the victim who had a mental illness, causing her to be angry and throw a bottle at one of the teenagers.
At 2:00 AM, on January 11th, the teenage group went back to find the victim 800 meters away from the first scene and one of the teenagers kicked at the victim’s face before kidnapping her to the school and threw her into the pond, according to the police.
All teenagers reportedly confessed to the police that they committed crimes as they followed their peers. However, two teenagers,16, reportedly were the gang leaders and were sons of local police. Further investigation was put on hold as they were youths, and a multidisciplinary team must be present during the interrogation for transparency reasons, according to the police.
As for Panya who confessed to the police that he physically assaulted his wife to death, Aranyaprathet police would investigate further the reasons why he admitted and could tell about the crime in detail even though he was not present at the crime scene.
