Thai transwoman and boyfriend arrested for killing brother
Police in Pathum Thani arrested a Thai transwoman and her boyfriend after uncovering evidence that they had murdered her younger brother and managed to keep the crime hidden for three months.
The victim, a 28 year old Thai man, Jakkarin Charoenpha, went missing in mid-December last year. Jakkarin left his rented room in the Isaan province of Nakhon Ratchasima on December 12 to meet a customer who contacted him to buy aluminium alloy wheels for his motorcycle for 500 baht.
On the day of the meeting, Jakkarin brought his nephew along. The nephew later rushed home to inform other family members that Jakkarin had been shot.
It was unclear whether the family went to the scene to check on Jakkarin. However, they later informed the police that Jakkarin had never returned home, leading them to file a missing person report at Mueang Nakhon Ratchasima Police Station on December 15.
With no developments in the case, the family sought help from the non-profit organisation Mirror Foundation.
With the foundation’s assistance, they discovered that Jakkarin’s older transgender sister, 33 year old Narongsak Charoenpha, and her boyfriend, 36 year old Nattawut Meemang, might be the suspects.
The transwoman and her boyfriend relocated from Nakhon Ratchasima to Pathum Thani after Jakkarin’s disappearance. Further investigation confirmed their involvement in Jakkarin’s death, leading to their arrest on Tuesday, March 25.
The couple confessed to murdering Jakkarin, claiming they had a conflict over a motorcycle. They admitted to luring him to the meeting by posing as a customer interested in the wheels.
During the meeting, an argument broke out before they fatally shot Jakkarin and buried his body in a forest within the 2nd Development Division of the Royal Thai Army in Nakhon Ratchasima.
Police escorted the two suspects to the crime scene for a reenactment yesterday, March 26, and ordered them to identify the location where they buried the victim.
Both suspects face two charges:
- Section 288 of the Criminal Law: Intentional murder. The punishment is the death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for 15 to 20 years.
- Section 199 of the Criminal Law: Secretly burying, concealing, moving, or destroying a corpse or parts of a corpse. The penalty is imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to 2,000 baht, or both.
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