Thai police find body believed to be kidnapped Chinese woman

In the central province of Nonthaburi, Thai authorities discovered a body that they suspect to be that of a Chinese woman who was abducted, inside a banana plantation. The body was found in the Bang Yai sub-district of Bang Yai district yesterday. The victim, believed to be a Chinese student named Jin Can, had reportedly been kidnapped for ransom before being killed.

A villager in Village 6 was riding his motorcycle when he smelled a strong odour of decomposition. He said he then discovered the body in a ditch. Forensic officers estimate that the victim had died three to four days before being found.

The body was found in a bag with knife wounds and a sheet tied around her neck, Thai PBS reported.

Thammasala Police received a report about an abduction on Friday. An advisory lecturer at Bangkok Thonburi University, Mingkwan Narkhirun, said that one of his music students, 22 year old Jin Can, had been reported kidnapped in Thailand.

Mingkwan said that Jin’s father, who is in China, received a call from a stranger demanding a ransom of 500,000 yuan ( around 2.5 million baht) for the freedom of his daughter. The caller used Jin’s VSAT application, and demanded that the money be wired to the Bank of China account number 6217853600064XXX196. The caller had also sent an image of the student with her hands and legs tied. However, the father did not pay the ransom, suspecting it to be a prank.

An investigation by the university found that Jin Can had last been seen at the fountain of the university between 5pm and 7pm on the same day that her father received the ransom call. CCTV footage revealed that she had left the campus in a taxi, which took her to the Central Westgate shopping mall in Bang Yai. The police are now tracing the taxi driver for questioning.