Mother and 8 year old son murdered in northern Thailand

Police have launched a murder investigation after the bodies of a woman and her eight year old son – from Myanmar – were discovered yesterday in a rented room in Lamphun province in northern Thailand.

At 7.15pm, officers from Mueang Lamphun Police Station were called to a rented room in Ban Hua Fai in Nong Chang Kwan subdistrict after locals reported a foul smell.

Police, doctors from Lamphun Hospital, volunteers from the Sawang Lamphun Rescue Foundation and Ruamjai Lamphun Rescue Association travelled to the scene.

Officers found the body of 37 year old Thor [surnname withheld] and her eight year old son [name withheld].

Police say there was evidence that both of the deceased were hit on the head with blunt objects and sustained many other wounds and bruises on their bodies.

A bloody hammer lying nearby, believed to be the weapon used in the murder, was collected as evidence.

The owner of the dormitories, 69 year old Manit Jisanti, said that Thor rented a room with her son and her 38 year old husband Chaitun. The couple worked in construction, said Manit.

On Friday, April 7, Chaitun drove away from the accommodation in a Nissan Navara pickup truck, telling a friend that he was taking his wife to Fang district in Chiang Mai province. After that, no one saw him again.

Other tenants nearby didn’t report the foul smell until yesterday, three days after the murder likely took place.

Police suspect that Chaitun murdered his stepson and his wife Thor before fleeing the scene. Police have launched a murder investigation and are in the process of tracking down the perpetrator, who could be anywhere in Thailand now or fled the country.

Three weeks ago, the bodies of three men, suspected to be migrants from Myanmar, were found murdered and dumped in the forest in Songkhla province in southern Thailand.