That’ll teach him

NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: Mystery surrounds the murder of a who was found beaten and stabbed to death, his penis burnt to a crisp. The grisly murder was reported to Thung Yai District Police around dawn on November 2. Arriving at the scene, in a rubber-tapping community in Tambon Prik, police led by Duty Inspector Pol Lt Col Leuachai Thongsin found the body of 31-year-old Wacharakorn Krainara in front of his home in Village 2. Clad in a red shirt and black pants, the corpse was covered in deep slash marks. The victim appeared to have been beaten with a blunt object. Police found a lit candle stuck on his forehead, along with extinguished candles in each ear and one more in his mouth. Strangest of all was the victim’s penis, or what was left of it. His killers had used a rubber boot as fuel for a fire to burn the sex organ. Police didn’t have to travel far to find a prime suspect. Right across the street from the murder scene was the home of Rarn Klomsuk, quiet with doors shut and apparently unoccupied. When the owner returned some time later, police asked to search the house. There they found bloodstained clothes belonging to Rarn’s 30-year-old son, Preuksa. He was taken in for questioning, but denied involvement in the killing. Preuksa’s younger brother, however, told police that he was home the night before when Preuksa returned home with three or four friends, all drunk. The group sat in a wong lao (“whisky circle”) and continued drinking at the home. The younger brother left the home for a quiet place to sleep. Returning the next morning, he discovered his neighbor’s dead body across the street. Pol Lt Col Nithitorn Tanserisakul, Deputy Superintendent of the Thung Yai Police, said initial attempts to track down the other members of Preuksa’s wong lao had failed. Thung Yai Police Superintendent Pol Col Prasert Reeyaphan said that Preuksa and his friends were members of a gang of drug-addicted rubber tappers whose nefarious activities were well known to local police. He suspected that the group, engaged in a drug-fueled drinking session at Preuksa’s home, became enraged when Wacharakon approached them about the noise they were making. Preuksa would be the first charged with murder and the others will follow after warrants are issued for their arrests and they are apprehended, he added. The use of candles may have been to “trick” or “block” the spirit of the deceased from escaping the body and exacting revenge upon his killers, he surmised. There is a widespread belief in black magic in the area, he noted. Naowarat Cheubaankoh, the 29-year-old widow of the deceased, said her husband was a rubber tapper and a nephew of Pol Lt Col Siri Krainara, former Deputy Superintendent of the Thung Yai Police. Her husband liked to socialize and drink alcohol, she said. She had no idea why someone would want to murder her husband, she added.