Woman’s body found floating in Rayong pond prompts police probe
A grim discovery was made at dawn today when a woman’s body was found floating in a durian orchard pond in Rayong province, triggering a police investigation. The unidentified victim, estimated to be between 35 and 40 years old, was found naked and bound, with her head covered by a pair of black and white striped trousers and encased in a plastic box.
Upon receiving the report at 8am today, March 7, Police Lieutenant Colonel Kongsak Chaitonchue, the investigator at Paknam Prasae Police Station, promptly coordinated with the medical examiner from Klaeng Hospital and the Phutthasat Songkroh rescue team, along with a squad of detectives, to inspect the scene.
The scene of the crime, a pond roughly one acre in size with 2-metre-high banks, presented a chilling tableau. The woman’s body was facedown, bloated, with her hands tied behind her back with shoelaces.
No further evidence was immediately apparent in the vicinity, apart from trampled grass. Rangsan Kongsanoh, a 37 year old, caretaker of the orchard, recounted his shock upon discovering the body in the morning while watering the durian trees.
Rangsan mentioned that the pond had not been in use for three months due to a faulty water pump, and his routine did not typically involve a close inspection of the pond. The orchard’s location, adjacent to a road and without nearby houses, suggests the perpetrator may have acted under the cover of darkness, reported KhaoSod.
Local village head Songkran expressed that no one from the community was missing, which led to the conjecture that the victim was from outside the area.
The police extended their investigation to nearby districts and found a report of a missing woman from Khaeng Hang Maew Police Station in Chanthaburi, whose description matched the found body. Relatives are being contacted to identify the body, while the police disseminate forces to gather clues and review CCTV footage around the incident area to unravel the case further.
