Locked computer holds key to possible murder case, parents of missing woman tell police
The parents of a Thai woman who has been missing for over two years filed a request on Friday with the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) to re-investigate her missing person case, as they suspected her Israeli boyfriend – a suspect in another murder case of a male compatriot last November in Pathum Thani – might be involved.
Anan Saeng-urai and wife Napa Timyen lodged a request with Pol Lt-Colonel Soneuk Santipatanant to probe the 2015 disappearance of their daughter Nanthiya Saeng-urai, who was with Yaakov Shimon Sakira Bitton, 50, at the time.
The Israeli man was charged with premeditated murder after the body of Eliyahu Cohen, a 63-year-old Israeli policeman, was found buried under freshly poured concrete at Bitton's rental home in Nonthaburi.
That body was found just three days after Cohen had been reported missing. Bitton reported owed Cohen money. Bitton’s teenage son reportedly implicated him for killing Cohen and concealing the body under concrete pavement.
Anan said that the teenage son of Nanthiya and Bitton had told him the clue to his mother’s disappearance could be found in CCTV footage on the notebook computer police confiscated as part of the Bang Bua Thong police investigation into Cohen's murder.
Anan said police officers had told him they couldn't yet open the computer, as it required an Israeli password.
Anan said he believed his daughter was already dead and Bitton might be involved because he gave him inconsistent accounts about Nanthiya's whereabouts.
Anan said Bitton at first claimed Nanthiya was arrested in Laos and later said she had died from cancer. He therefore wanted police to check the seized computer for footage that would back their grandson’s claim that the couple had a fight before Nanthiya disappeared.