Police arrest five Thai suspects allegedly hired to kill two women from Laos

The suspects reportedly confessed to the murders, saying they were hired by an influential Laotian woman identified only as “Nang” to kill the victims in exchange for a payment of Bt400,000, Kalasin police chief Pol Maj-General Apichit Thianphermpoon told a press conference yesterday.

The bodies of Kong Phomsalee, 40, and Jansamon Sensakda, 26, were found last Thursday in a wooded area between Ban Kudwa and Nong Hang villages in Tambon Nong Hang. Both had gunshot wounds to the head.

One of the slain women reportedly was involved in a romantic relationship with the husband of the woman who allegedly commissioned the killing.

The names of the suspects were announced – Chalermpong Chaisawai, 32; alleged gunman Okart Tangjaimandeekul, 36; Thongchai Teechandramat, 24; Punnapop Phusilataen, 53; and Kulnant Saengsopon, 37 – but they were not presented to the media. 

The five were taken later to re-enact the crime but the media was not allowed to observe the process following an order from the junta that public re-enactments violated suspects’ rights.

Apichit said the two women were from Xaiphuthong district in Laos’s Savannakhet province and had entered Thailand on August 28. 

They were reported to have been lured into two trucks by the group, which killed them and disposed of their bodies in the forest. 

The bodies were transported back to Laos yesterday for religious rites.

A representative of Laos’s Consulate General in Khon Kaen, Sonpetch Pianbuppha, thanked Thai police on behalf of the victim's families for their swift arrest of suspects in the case.