Can I have your wife?

LOEI: A long friendship ended in tragedy on the night of August 30, when a man visiting his buddy’s house without warning asked if he could have his friend’s wife.

At 7 am on August 31, Pak Chom Police duty officer Thongphum Premlao received a call from a villager, who reported a dead body hidden in a banana plantation near Ban Na Khor Village 12, in Pak Chom District.

The body was identified as that of Suphachai Phawan, 56. He had been slashed in the face and beaten with a blunt instrument.

Questioning Suphachai’s neighbors, police pieced together the details of how the victim met his fate.

Neighbors said that at about 7 pm the night before, Suphachai’s friend Jaroen Jan-ngam, 43, came to the victim’s house.

This, however, was no ordinary social call; Jaroen had a somewhat bold request to make of his buddy.

Not one to beat around the bush, Jaroen asked Suphachai if he could take his wife, Wilai, 40, to live with him; this despite the fact that Jaroen already had his own wife and children to love and look after.

At the time, Wilai was in Udon Thani, where she was reportedly being cured of some black magic spells she believed Jaroen had placed upon her.

Unsurprisingly, Suphachai did not react well to the request. A scuffle broke out and Jaroen, perhaps having prepared for the worst, pulled out a knife and slashed his friend across the face. While Suphachai was reeling in pain, Jaroen grabbed a length of tamarind wood and beat his friend to death, police said.

Jaroen dragged the body to the banana plantation to hide it, then went back to get Suphachai’s motorbike, which he torched at a corn silo. After returning home, Jaroen drank a large amount of pesticide in an apparent attempt to kill himself.

He was not successful, however. Friends took him to Pak Chom Hospital, where police later caught up with him and arrested him for Suphachai’s murder.