Did burned severed limbs belong to missing Italian?
Police in Phichit are hoping an Italian man reports himself alive and well after body parts – one bearing a similar tattoo to his – were found partially burned in a bonfire of rubber tyres.
Josef Stephani, 61, is known to have a similar tattoo in the same place as was noted on the right leg discovered along with an arm last Friday in the ashes of a fire in a wooded area near Bung Thab Chan Pond in Tambon Laemrang, Bung Narang district.
Bung Narang Police Superintendent Pol Colonel Chaisathien Maneejak urged Stephani, if he is still alive, to call 056 902 260.
Police on Sunday searched the nearby home of Stephani’s Thai ex-wife, Rujira Eiumlamai.
They found Stephani’s lapsed passport and a bloodstain on a carpet, DNA from which is being tested.
Chaisathien said Stephani had lived with Rujira for a year, reportedly leaving last October. A witness testified that the Italian had the same tattoo as was found on the burned limb.
The police superintendent said a business conflict might represent a motive for murder, if that turns out to be the crime in this case.