Missing novice’s body found, three in custody
Two men and a woman are in police custody as suspects in the murder five months ago of a 17-year-old novice monk whose body was found buried under concrete at Wat Wang Tawan-tok in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Mueang district superintendent Pol Colonel Adisak Theppawan said on Friday that formal arrest warrants for the three had been approved following an investigation into the novice’s disappearance in January.
Piyachat Arunsakul, 40, Denchai Phumniyom, 36, and Suriya Kusolsuk, 18, are now in custody charged with conspiring to commit deadly assault and hiding a body to conceal a crime.
Adisak said Piyachat maintains her innocence, but the two men had confessed to the crimes.
Denchai allegedly confessed to killing the novice and was then ordained as a monk to repent.
He and Suriya were taken back to the temple on Friday morning to indicate where they allegedly killed the novice and buried his body in front of the temple library.
The location, paved over with concrete and with a Buddha statue on top, was excavated and the body found.
Police asked the court to grant a warrant to search the temple.
Colonel Adisak said police believe the murder stemmed from the victim’s discovery of a conflict of interest at the temple and that he was killed to silence him.