74 year old German arrested for alleged murder of teenage Thai wife in 2010

A 74 year old German, accused of stabbing his much younger wife to death, has been arrested after nine years on the run.

Siam Rath reports that Heinz Jurgen Theil has been arrested in Chiang Rai province and is now in custody, charged with murder.

Police say Theil is accused of stabbing his 17 year old wife, Janjira Jantapool, in the house they lived in Chiang Rai province back in 2010. Heinz was 65 at the time of the murder. Janjira was found with more than twenty stab wounds all over her body, including her face.

Police say that Theil had lived in Thailand for twenty years and had began a relationship with Janjira when she was just 14 years old.

Theil was married once before but his first wife had died, police said. The pair had a daughter from that marriage.

Janjira then took in her disabled father to live with the couple in a house in Chiang Rai, where they lived up until her death.

Siam Rath reports that Theil was taken into custody for murdering Janjira back in 2010 but was later released after paying 400,000 baht bail and had been on the run ever since. Police say that he had frequently moved house and lived in many provinces in northern Thailand since going on the run in 2010.

Police learned that Theil was back in Chiang Rai province where they arrested him outside a clinic on Tuesday.

SOURCE: Siam Rath