Return to sender!

TAK: A mother in Sam Ngao District paid the ultimate price for letting her curiosity get the better of her – when she opened a parcel addressed to her daughter that turned out to be a letter bomb. The victim, 56-year-old pig farmer Phayao Ruamsuk, had collected the parcel, which was addressed to her daughter Kannitha. Kannitha, 22, had married just a few days earlier and gone to live with her husband, a veterinarian from Lop Buri. It is not uncommon for Thai mothers to open their children’s mail, and at about 11 pm on May 24 that’s what K. Phayao did. The force of the ensuing blast blew off her clothes, except for her underwear, and left her unconscious with deep wounds to the body and head. When police arrived at the house they found K. Phayao lying face-down and in a pool of her own blood. She was rushed to Somdej Prajao Thaksin Maharaj Hospital in Tak, where she died of her injuries. Her husband Khaen, 59, said the package had contained what purported to be a wedding gift – a plastic doll shaped like a cat – accompanied by a note congratulating their daughter on her recent wedding. The parcel also contained a piece of wire and a battery, which presumably served to detonate the device. K. Khaen said he only survived the blast because he went out behind the house to cook, apparently leaving his wife to fiddle with the unusual wedding present – before it exploded. Police arrested a 25-year-old car salesman, Jamriang Pumanat, in his house in Tak’s Muang District the following day and charged him with premeditated murder. He reportedly sent the bomb to K. Kannitha after she broke his heart by marrying the vet. Police checked with the Sam Ngao Post Office, and staff there remembered seeing Jamriang coming to the office to mail the parcel on May 15. Jamriang denied sending the parcel, but his handwriting on the outside of the parcel, along with the posting record made a strong case against him, police said. K. Kannitha told police that she had known Jamriang as a friend for seven years but had rejected his attempts to become her boyfriend. She added that she had asked Jamriang to stop calling her after she got married on May 14, but he phoned her on May 15 asking for her husband’s mailing address in Lop Buri so he could send her a wedding gift. She refused to give the address in Lop Buri and asked Jamriang not to send her anything.