Jilted lover stabs girlfriend, plunges to death

KOH RACHA, PHUKET: A luxury resort on Racha Yai Island was left reeling after one of its employees stabbed another to death before plunging to his own demise.

Harin Tipnarong, an electrician at The Racha resort, planned the murder after his girlfriend and colleague Voraporn Pithom told him she wanted to end their relationship, police said.

Superintendent Chinarat Rittakananon of Chalong Police said Mr Harin, 31, stabbed Ms Voraporn in the staff bathroom six or seven times with a kitchen knife before fleeing.

An all-night search for Mr Harin yielded nothing until 6am when his broken body was found at the bottom of a mobile phone mast about 300 meters from The Racha.

“We assume he was trying to hide from the search party by climbing up the mast,” Col Chinarat said.

“He either decided to kill himself because of what he had done or fell down accidentally.”

The couple’s relationship hit the rocks after Mr Harin was repeatedly unfaithful to Ms Voraporn, 36, a reservations agent at the resort, Col Chinarat said.

At the urging of a friend, Ms Voraporn told Mr Harin she wanted to break up.

Enraged, Mr Harin plotted to kill Ms Voraporn and the friend who had helped end the relationship, Col Chinarat said.

The electrician told a friend two days before the tragedy he was going to ‘deal with the lot of them’, he added.

Danai Phuujareon, a senior manager and shareholder at The Racha, said security staff informed him Ms Voraporn had been stabbed around 9.45pm.

She was taken off the island by speedboat, but died before she could reach hospital.

A search party including 10 officers from Chalong Police, security guards from The Racha and villagers who lived nearby scoured the island in the dark for Mr Harin, who they suspected was responsible for the murder.

At around dawn, a staff member found Mr Harin’s body in a field at the bottom of an AIS mobile network tower.

— Kitima Pornmongkhonwat