Seventh and final suspect detained over Supaksorn murder
The last suspect wanted for the 2017 abduction and murder of 28-year-old Supaksorn Polthaisong has been taken into police custody, bringing the total number of detainees facing prosecution to seven, a source at the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) said on Thursday.
Former soldier Panumet Meela, 37, had been hiding in a neighbouring country but returned home to visit relatives earlier this week for Buddhist Lent merit-making and was apprehended by CSD officers at a gas station in Kanchanaburi’s Muang district on Wednesday.
Although he admitted he was the person named on a court-issued arrest warrant, Panumet maintained that he had nothing to do with the 2017 abduction and murder. He is being held at Bangkok’s Nong Kham Plu police station to await prosecution.
The six suspects already in custody over Supaksorn’s murder are; Colonel Amnuay Pongsawat, 60, the former superintendent of Ratchaburi’s Ban Pong police station, plus Niwat Suaythong, 34, Kannikar Krumram, 40, Phumithat Phiboonsawat, 26, Chaiyuth Benjachat, 43, and Samart Saengsin, 52.
Police claim Amnuay paid Niwat and the other gang members a total of Bt200,000 to abduct Sa Kaew woman Supaksorn from her apartment in Soi Phetchkasem 114 in Bangkok’s Nong Khaem district on the night of December 13, 2016. It was, said the police, carried out to “teach her a lesson” due to a Bt4-million debt Amnuay claimed she owed his mistress Kannikar.
The men allegedly killed and buried Supaksorn in an abandoned resort in Kanchanaburi’s Muang district, where her body was found on January 11, 2017. She had been the sole breadwinner supporting her mother, who suffered from a chronic illness and had separated from her husband some years earlier.
Her family say she did not borrow the Bt4 million as Amnuay claimed.