UPDATE: Corpse found floating in Gulf of Thailand

UPDATE:

A man has confessed to the murder of 23 year old Chalermchai Siang, whose body was found floating on the surface of the ocean 500 metres away from the shore in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province on Monday. Three rocks had been attached to Chalermchai’s body in an attempt to weigh it down and his wrists and ankles had been tied up with rope.

Police identified the rocks and ropes as fishing equipment that was used by only a small group of fishermen in the area, leading them to narrow down their search for the culprit to a certain number of local fisherman. Their investigation revealed that one fisherman, Sompin Kaewiad, was the uncle of Chalermchai, who had been missing for several days.

Police questioned witnesses who said that Sompin and Chalermchai had quarrelled several days ago. Police brought Sompin to the police station for questioning where he confessed to attacking and murdering his nephew Chalermchai. After he killed Chalermchai, he took his body out to sea on a fishing boat and threw him into the water in an attempt to get rid of the evidence of his crime.

Tomorrow, April 28, Pol. Lt. Gen. Surachet Hakpal will personally announce Sompin’s arrest.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Fishermen discovered the body of a man floating on the surface of the sea around 500 metres away from the coast in Nakhon Si Thammarat province in southern Thailand yesterday. The man’s wrists and ankles had been tied up with ropes and weighed down with rocks. His identity remains unknown.

The swollen corpse of a man, around 165 centimetres tall and estimated to be around 30-35 years old, was pulled to shore by police, doctors and rescue workers yesterday evening in Pak Phanang District. The team expects that the man had been dead for around one week.

The police are treating the incident as a murder because the man’s wrists and ankles were tied up with nylon rope and three rocks had been attached in an attempt to weigh the body down.

Local fishermen discovered the corpse while they were out fishing yesterday. The fishermen say they expect that the deceased is a fellow fisherman who perhaps had an altercation with his crew members, who murdered him and threw him into the sea, but details about his murder are still unknown.

The man’s body will be sent for an autopsy at the forensic department of Maharaj Nakhon Si Thammarat Hospital.

SOURCE: ThaiRath