National manhunt after rape, shooting suspect evades police

An arrest warrant has been issued for a 29-year-old suspect accused of shooting a male third-year university student in the cheek in Kalasin’s Na Mon district and abducting and raping a female sophomore student.

The female student was later released in a Phuphan forest early Tuesday morning.

Thisanu Thonarat was described as armed and dangerous, Kalasin police chief Pol Maj-General Montri Charanpong said on Thursday, adding that police might have to kill him to apprehend him.

Police were looking for the rubber tapper in the Phuphan Mountain Range area in Kham Moung district, at his relatives’ houses in Sakhon Nakhon and in Bangkok, where he might have fled to, Montri added.

Thisanu narrowly escaped arrest by police officers on Wednesday night when they raided his home in Kham Moung district, Montri said. Thisanu’s Toyota pickup truck was recovered at the house and identified by the rape victim as the culprit’s vehicle, he added.

After police collected evidence, including semen, hair, pubic hair and Thisanu’s documents, Kalasin Court approved his arrest warrant for attempted murder, coercion using a weapon, carrying a gun in a public place and rape.

Thisanu’s relatives claim that the man has been under stress from an earlier family dispute earlier, but it was unclear whether the incident was related to the subsequent crimes.

The suspect allegedly followed the two students, whom he did not know, as they were riding a motorcycle to buy food at night. He allegedly cut in front of the victims’ motorbike, shot the young man and dragged the young woman into his pickup before speeding away. The female student was later found in the forest and filed a rape complaint against her abductor. The male student was still recovering at Kalasin Hospital and could not give a full account of the incident to police, while the female victim was reportedly traumatised.

STORY: The Nation