Foreigners charged after body found in fridge

According to the police detention application at the Criminal Court in Bangkok yesterday, the three suspects have been charged with having guns and ammunition in their possession without permission, forging state-issued documents, possessing illicit drugs and hiding a dead body to conceal a crime.

British national Peter Andrew Colter, 56, who allegedly shot a policeman during the raid on the building, has also been charged with obstructing police in the performance of their duty and the attempted murder of an on-duty police officer.

Colter is being held in custody at Police General Hospital, where he is being treated for an injury.

Police yesterday brought the two American suspects – Gabel Aaron Thomas, 33, and James Douglas Eger, 66 – to appear before the Criminal Court for the detention order and objected to them being released on bail on the grounds that they are a flight risk. 

The court approved the three suspects being detained for an initial period from yesterday until October 5. The two Americans were sent to Bangkok Remand Prison.

Metropolitan Police Area 5 chief Maj-General Somprasong Yentuam said Colter claimed to be a US-based chemist who had travelled to the region to do business in Malaysia.

Somprasong said Colter claimed to have had a legal dispute with his Malaysian wife, resulting in him moving to Thailand, where he befriended Thomas and Eger and operated a battery-selling business with them.

Sompraspong alleged that Colter admitted that he “unintentionally” shot Sgt-Major Kanchanapong Chedech and claimed he had been trying to shoot himself. But Kanchanapong had said Colter had aimed the gun at him. 

The dismembered body was found in a commercial fridge on the building’s ground floor.

Somprasong said police would send DNA from the dead man to US authorities so try and determine his identity and the result should be known within a week. 

He quoted Colter as saying the fridge belonged to a friend who had lived in Ekamai and died of a serious illness and the British national claimed he did not know what was inside it. 

Police described Colter as being in a stressed state, with his testimony confusing and contradictory. He also apparently threatened to kill himself.

An informed source reported that the police probe found that Eger used to work for an oil firm in the US and had separated from his Thai wife and their 17-year-old daughter. 

Thomas, meanwhile, had a Thai wife in Hua Mak and allegedly visited the building that was raided to have Colter forge a passport for him. 

City police chief Lt-General Sanit Mahathaworn said the police raid on the building found some 200 bottles of chemicals on the second and third floors, which experts were checking, but there were no substances for making explosives.

Sanit said it was unclear if the men were involved in drug trafficking or terrorism, adding that police had enough evidence to hold them for alleged passport forgery. 

He said that since the suspects had many passports with different names and nationalities, police would ask the US and the UK embassies to help determine their real identities, while Immigration Police would try to find the dates the men entered Thailand. 

Eger reportedly told police he would only testify in court, while Thomas reportedly gave useful information and denied having anything to do with the dismembered body.

He said police believed the body was a man who was killed somewhere else, because a Myanmar maid at the building told police the fridge in question was moved from a premises on Ekamai Soi 12 to the building four months ago and the suspects told her not to open it.

Early yesterday morning, police took the two Americans when they searched the men’s apartments.

Police searched Thomas’ apartment in Sukhumvit Soi 59 and made him submit to a urine test to check for illicit drug use, before sending him back to Phra Khanong Police Station.

Eger was taken on a search of his apartment in Sukhumvit Soi 77.