Salon owner who stabbed 2 charged with premeditated murder

More details have emerged regarding the customers who were stabbed to death in a Pathum Thani shopping centre, as it was confirmed that the salon owner accused of the stabbing turned himself in and has been charged with premeditated murder. The horrific incident took place Saturday afternoon around 3pm at a Lotus superstore in tambon Bang Kadi in Muang district at Pimmy Hair Salon when a 41 year old woman and her husband, both television actors, were stabbed in front of their eight year old child.

Prasart Rangyai, the 51 year old owner of the beauty salon is now being held at the Pak Klong Rangsit Police Station, where officers are seeking a court order to keep him in custody after he confessed to stabbing the couple after the disgruntled customer and her husband refused to leave his store. He turned himself in at 11pm on Saturday, eight hours after the stabbing.

A revised timeline of events reveals that a 27 year old hairdresser styled Warisara Wimulrakchart’s hair on Thursday, giving her a cut she was unsatisfied with. According to Warisara’s 20 year old daughter, her mom complained the haircut was too short and not the style she had requested. The hairdresser said she apologised and sent the woman to another branch of the salon to have the haircut fixed.

Warisara’s 60 year old father said that his daughter called the shop owner to complain already, and then on Saturday, the woman returned to the shop with her husband and daughter, demanding to speak with the owner of the salon. The conversation was heated and escalated quickly, with the shop owner telling police that he was enraged when the couple threatened to complain to the Lotus shopping centre management and sue him.

Security camera footage captured the moments after those threats when the salon owner pulled out a knife from his pocket and stabbed the man and the woman, once each, Warisara in the chest and her husband Weerapong Pumpruek in the neck.

The couple’s eight year old daughter looked on in terror as they both died on the spot from the stabbing wounds. The owner fled the scene of the crime on a motorbike at the time before surrendering to the police late that evening. He has now been charged with premeditated murder and illegally possessing a weapon in public.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post