Construction worker’s death was ‘suicide’

THALANG: Local villagers yesterday found the body of a missing construction worker in woods behind the site near Thalang where the new Phuket Coastal Aquaculture Development Center is being built. Pol Capt Somkit Kaosung of Thalang Police Station named the dead man as Sunate Dokkemklong, 32, from Khon Kaen, and said that all evidence pointed to Sunate having committed suicide. He said that the corpse was found on the ground, already considerably decomposed, and that the head was detached from the body. Above it, on a branch of a banyan tree, was tied a pakhowma (a Thai-style wraparound). Before his death, Sunate was helping to build a dormitory for employees at the Aquaculture Development Center in Moo 4, Tambon Pa Klok. Co-workers told the police that on the night of April 19 Sunate had told them he wanted to die. They said they had not seen him since then.