Man claims he killed wife and two children over loan shark threats
A Thai man who attempted to kill himself after he stabbed his 25-year-old wife and two children to death, has claimed the family agreed to die to avoid the threat of loan sharks.
Police said Natthasak Khamkhern, 46, admitted murdering his wife and two children, aged five and one, in their shop house on Hathairat Road in Bangkok's Khlong Sam Wa district on Thursday afternoon.
Natthasak - who had no prior criminal history and was described as a diligent family man - was recovering from serious injuries in hospital. Metropolitan Police Bureau Division 3 chief Pol Maj General Somnuek said Natthasak is grief stricken and is on suicide watch.
Natthasak admitted to the triple murders and claimed that all consented to die as a solution to the family's financial problems, said Somnuek.
Despite the man's claim, police would continue to probe the incident to confirm if the motive stemmed from the debt to a loan shark, as Natthasak claimed, or a domestic dispute was involved, Somnuek said.
Police would probe the loan shark motive speedily as the government has a policy to crack down on illegal moneylenders and influential figures, he added.
A source at the Metropolitan Police Bureau said that the city police chief Pol Lt-General Suttipong Wongpin had also signed an instruction for his subordinates, including Somnuek, to speedily investigate the case and provide him with periodic updates.
The deceased wife's foster mother, Udom Sombut, 48, has collected the three bodies from the Police General Hospital morgue for religious rites at a temple in Min Buri.
She said she had taken care of Kingkaew (last name withheld) since she was three months old and her biological parents only paid child support for a while.
She urged Kingkaew's biological parents to attend the funeral.
Udom said that Kingkaew had earlier tried to borrow money to repay a debt. On Wednesday, an unidentified lender had demanded that the family repay an original loan of Bt20,000 plus interest (based on a Bt1,000 per day rate) so Udom promised to ask others to help Kingkaew.
"I never though it would turn out like this ... I forgive Kingkaew's husband and the children's father because I don't want to hold a grudge, but I still don't understand why he would kill his wife and children because this debt problem was his own creation, the children were innocent," Udom said.