Bail denied for Polish murder suspect in Bangkok, Thailand

UPDATE #2

A court in Bangkok, Thailand, denied the bail request of the Polish tourist accused of murdering and dismembering his Ukrainian girlfriend at a high-rise condo last weekend.

South Bangkok Criminal Court denied bail to 25 year old Jan Jerzy Lagoda-Filippow, citing that he is a flight risk since he already tried to flee the country for Cambodia once.

Lagoda-Filippow was arrested on Monday evening at the Khlong Luek Border Checkpoint in Aranyapratheth district, Sa Keao province under suspicion of murdering and dismembering 25 year old Alona Savchenko of Ukrainian nationality.

The suspect allegedly stabbed Savchenko in the chest and mutilated her body with a handsaw on the 32nd floor of the Key Sathorn-Charoenraj condo building in the Bang Kho Laem district. Her head was “nearly dismembered.”

A taxi driver who picked up Lagoda-Filippow on Monday afternoon said that the tourist asked him to help finish dismembering and disposing of his girlfriend’s body via Google Translate.

The taxi driver informed the condo’s security guard of the Polish man’s strange behaviour leading to the discovery of Savchenko’s body. An autopsy reveals that Savchenko was killed at least 24 hours before her body was found.

The victim worked as a marketing specialist for an Estonian firm. She graduated from Zaporizhzhia National University in Ukraine with a BA in English language and literature and completed a business course at the Guangdong University of Finance in China.

Lagoda-Fillipow owns an advertising firm registered in London.

UPDATE #1: Polish killer asks Bangkok taxi driver to help cut up Ukrainian woman’s body via Google Translate

In an interview with Thai news platform CH3, a taxi driver revealed that the Polish man, who was arrested for allegedly murdering his Ukrainian girlfriend, “Alona,” and attempting to dismember her in a Bangkok condo room, asked him to help get rid of her body via Google Translate.

The taxi driver said that he picked up the suspect, Jan Jerzy Lagoda-Filippow, on the roadside outside a condo in the Bang Kho Laem district yesterday and communicated with him via Google Translate. The Polish tourist told the taxi driver that he wanted to gamble at a casino. The pair drove around but couldn’t find one.

Then, the suspect allegedly asked the driver via the app, “Can you help me find a cleaner?” So the driver asked him, “What for?”

“I’m looking for a cleaning machine for a corpse,” said Lagoda-Filippow. “I’m looking for liquid to clean a corpse,” he added. Then, Lagoda-Filippow allegedly said, “Do you have a tool to cut up a body?”

Confused, the taxi driver pulled over and sat down at a restaurant to speak to the suspect. The driver invited his friend Ek, a Tuk Tuk driver who speaks better English than him, to speak to the Polish man.

Lagoda-Filippow confessed, “I stabbed my wife.” When the drivers asked him, “Why?” he responded…

“Do you have friends? Can you help me put the body parts in a bag?”

The taxi driver realised something was seriously wrong and dropped off the Polish man outside a hotel on Sathorn Road. Then, he turned back to the condo to tell the security guard, leading to the discovery of Alona’s body. In the interview, the taxi driver recalled a foul smell emanating from the Polish man’s clothes.

The driver’s 47 year old friend Ek told reporters that at about 1pm, he was approached by his friend, the taxi driver.

Ek said that the taxi driver informed him the Polish man had shown him a message via Google Translate which said, “Can you help find something to get rid of the smell? Because I killed my girlfriend and I’m looking for someone to help me go up there and cut up her body,” reports Kapook.

Both of the drivers couldn’t tell if the tourist was telling the truth, so they decided to inform the condominium’s security guard.

About 30 minutes later, the killer returned to the condo and came back downstairs before disappearing in a taxi.

CCTV last captured Alona walking down the corridor at the condo with Lagoda-Filippow at 11.52pm on Friday, May 12.

On Sunday at 12.15pm, Lagoda-Filippow was pictured walking down the corridor with a box, thought to contain the saws found in the room. At 12.35pm that day, the assailant was pictured taking the lift downstairs holding a large bag.

Police arrested Lagoda-Filippow at the Khlong Luek Border Checkpoint at 7.30pm yesterday as he tried to flee into Cambodia.

ORIGINAL STORY: Polish man murders and dismembers Ukrainian girlfriend in Bangkok condo

A Polish man allegedly murdered and dismembered his 27 year old Ukrainian girlfriend “Alona” inside a condo room in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. He tried to flee the country via taxi yesterday but was arrested near the border of Cambodia in Sa Keao province last night.

Yesterday, police from Wat Phraya Krai Police Station were informed that the body of a Ukrainian woman was discovered in a condo room in Bang Khlo subdistrict in the Bang Kho Laem district of Bangkok.

Inside room No.708 on the 32nd floor, police found 25 year old Alona Shevchenko’s bloody, dismembered body lying on the bed. A saw was laid across her partially dismembered body, police said. Police estimated she was killed one to two days prior.

Police say Alona stayed with her 25 year old boyfriend Jan Jerzy Lagoda-Filippow of Polish nationality. The couple entered Thailand as tourists on April 29, 2023, and rented a condo room in Bangkok together.

At noon yesterday, Lagoda-Filippow packed his bags and ordered a taxi to the border in Sa Keao province for 1,500 baht. The taxi driver noticed that Filippow was acting suspiciously hasty and informed the security guard at the condo.

The security guard asked Lagoda-Filippow to wait, but he refused and insisted on leaving in the taxi. The security guard contacted the owner of the condo unit and requested to inspect the room, discovering Alona’s body.

At 7.30pm, soldiers and police arrested Lagoda-Filippow in front of a hotel at the Khlong Luek Border Checkpoint in Aranyapratheth district, Sa Keao province, before he attempted to cross into Poipet, Cambodia.

Police coordinated with the Polish Embassy in Bangkok to request an interpreter to assist in the suspect’s interrogation.

Lagoda-Filippow was picked up by officers from the Metropolitan Police Division 5 and taken back to Bangkok to face prosecution.

Staff from the Ruam Kantanyu Rescue Foundation have taken Alona’s body to undergo an autopsy at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Chulalongkorn Hospital in Bangkok.