Man arrested for Nanai Rd murder

PATONG: Phuket City Police early Saturday morning arrested a man for the stabbing murder of a woman who ran a snooker club and bar on Nanai Rd.

Kathu Police Superintendent Col Grissak Songmoonnak identified the deceased as 31-year-old Krongjit Kantakart, from Lamphun province.

Miss Kronjit’s murder was reported to Kathu Police at 1 am by her boyfriend, Suppachai Julawong, owner of the TG Bar snooker club on Nanai Rd.

Mr Suppachai told duty officer Lt Col Nitikorn Rawang that he had found his girlfriend stabbed to death at their shared home, also on Nanai Rd. He also reported that a pair of gold bracelets she was last seen wearing and about 1,000 baht in cash had been stolen.

Miss Kronjit had suffered multiple stab wounds to the ear, neck, back, stomach and chest.

After Suppachai named Pairote Taweehan as a possible suspect, police patrolled the streets of Patong in search of his motorcycle.

They found a motorcycle that matched the description, but with its license plate covered, parked in front of a shophouse on Phra Barami Rd Soi 1.

There, police waited in surveillance until Pairote and another young man got on the vehicle, and then followed the pair as they drove towards Phuket City.

When one man alighted and went into TK apartments on Wichit Songkram Rd in Wichit, the officers radioed Phuket City Police, who have jurisdiction in that area.

After the city police arrived at about 5:30 am, they moved in and arrested 20-year-old Pairote Taweehan of Phitsanulok province.

Col Grissak said that Pairote used the apartment as a base to carry out criminal activities and was apprehended just as he was packing his bags and getting ready to leave the province to hide at a friend’s house in Phattalung.

Col Grissak added that during questioning Pairote confessed to the murder. He said he knew the owners of the bar well, as he was a regular patron. He entered the home with the intention of robbing Miss Krongjit, but killed her when she fought back, said Col Grissak.

Pairote told police that the man who had driven him to the apartment, who he identified only as “Gay”, was only his driver and lookout and played no direct role in the murder, Col Grissak added.

Col Grissak said police were aware of Pairote’s possible criminal behavior after the management of a hotel he once worked for alleged that he had stolen company property.

Although police were never able to gather enough evidence to make an arrest in that case, the information they gathered at the time made it easy for them to track down Pairote after he became a suspect in the killing of Miss Kronjit, he added.

Pairote, who has been charged with murder while carrying out an armed robbery, has been in prison since Sunday. His accomplice Gay is still at-large.