Mystery surrounds death of "Pearl of Asia"
The death of 69-year-old former actress Pawana Chanajit on Monday has shocked her fans and is a more perplexing mystery than the plot of any movie she starred in during her glorious three-decade career.
The body of Pawana was found in a three-metre-deep ornamental pond in front of her home on a 16-rai plot in Nakhon Pathom’s Nakhon Chaisi district. Her slippers were at the edge of the pond.
Pawana – real name Aranyaporn Laosaengthong – was a prominent actress from the 1960s to the ’80s, starring in dozens of films, including many Hong Kong productions. She was known as “the pearl of Asia”.
She then embarked on a success?ful business career, dealing in real estate, opening a second-hand car dealership and selling pomelo from her own orchards.
The complexity of circumstances surrounding her death stems from her vast wealth, believed to be in the billions. Her assets included land in Bangkok, Chon Buri and Nakhon Pathom. She also had more than 20 second-hand automobiles as well as a collection of classic cars, valuable amulets and antiques.
Two sides are at odds over the dead actress’ estate – her relatives and her younger live-in boyfriend of 10 years. They are also divided over whether her death was an accident or a murder.
Pawana’s siblings and her boyfriend reportedly locked horns over financial matters even before her death. And right after her disappearance and before her body was found, both sides almost got into a violent fight.
Her brothers, Sukhum and Waipoj Laosaengthong and her sister Hattaya Laosaengthong have all voiced suspicions of foul play.
The boyfriend, Natthapong Luangsirikul, 57, has proclaimed his innocence.
Natthapong said he believed her death was an accident. Pawana might have fainted and fallen into a pond, or perhaps one of her many pet dogs jumped on her and caused her to fall.
Natthapong has said there was no way he wanted Pawana dead because they had plans to register their marriage and have a grand wedding at the end of the year.
They ran many businesses together and were about to open restaurants, spas and traditional massage houses.
Sukhum, however, says he has suspicions. After learning that Pawana was missing, he and his wife went to her house to find Natthapong rushing to take three bags filled with documents and land-title deeds.
They tried to stop him from leaving before police arrived.
Natthapong was furious, Sukhum said. He pulled a pistol and fired two shots into the air, telling Sukhum and his wife to leave.
A police source said Natthapong gave conflicting statements. He told police that he did not register a marriage with Pawana so he would not benefit from her death. But when police asked why he made Pawana’s relatives leave the house, Natthapong said he feared they would take his and Pawana’s joint possessions.
While Natthapong told police that he and Pawana had lived peacefully and never quarrelled, Pawana’s 21-year-old adopted son Apicha Laosaengthong and her servants refuted the statement, saying the pair had fought often in the past few months.
Hattaya Laosaengthong, Apicha’s biological mother and Pawana’s younger sister, said they did not want Natthapong to take the land-title deeds because they learned that lately Pawana had given him authorisation to do business transactions on her behalf.
The duration from which Pawana disappeared to when her body was discovered is also suspicious. Police said Pawana’s cook could not find her at 6pm. The cook made phone calls at 7pm to Natthapong and Pawana’s relatives, who then arrived at the house to start searching.
Natthapong said he found Pawana’s body at 3am the following morning – seven to eight hours later. But couldn’t her body have been found much earlier, given the fact that her slippers were near the pool?
Police, who arrived at the scene at 4am, said Pawana had been dead for eight to 10 hours.
Nattawut said he was not home when Pawana disappeared and he had witnesses to back him up.
Waipoj said he believed foreign workers were hired to kill his sister. More than 10 Myanmar migrants were on staff at the house and workers whom his sister had hired earlier had been fired. Waipoj has also offered rewards for evidence of foul play.
Hattaya has urged police to put Natthapong on a lie detector. She said after her sister’s death, jewellery worth Bt1.5 million, keys to safe boxes and important documents have disappeared.
Pawana’s ex-husband Paijit Supawalee said he was saddened by Pawana’s death, adding that he believed it was unusual. “It is suspi?cious. But I do not know if she had conflicts with people close by,” he said.
The autopsy showed that Pawana had drowned and although there were slight bruises at the back of her neck and under her left eye, they were not serious enough to determine that she was physically assaulted.
Police drained the pond to look for further clues and found a stick of wood at the bottom that’s about the same size as the bruise on Pawana’s left eye. They suspect she fell into the pond face down and her face hit the stick.
Her health records show that she suffered diabetes, high-blood pressure, high cholesterol, blood clots and heart disease. Police said it was pos?sible she fainted while bending down to wash her hands and fell into the pond.
Medical examiners are running toxicology tests on the contents of her stomach and samples were taken from under her fingernails. The result of those tests will be known within two weeks.
