Two found murdered near fishing port

PHUKET TOWN: Two men, thought to be fishermen, were found dead on Si Sena Rd near Phya Thai Hospital in Phuket Town, one on Tuesday and another yesterday. Pol Maj Vinai Kongkaew of the Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that the first body was found at around 10 pm on Tuesday. The man is believed to have died about an hour earlier. The victim was estimated to be 24 to 27 years old. He had a dark complexion and was clad only in underwear at the time of his death. On his chest he had a tattoo of a hawk eating a snake, and Khmer inscriptions. The victim had five stab wounds in his stomach and chest, possibly from a sharpened steel reinforcing bar. There was no identification on the body. The second corpse was found at the entrance to the Sangaroon-Mai fishing raft, also on Si Sena Rd, at around 7:40 am yesterday. Police believe he was killed elsewhere, seven or eight hours earlier, and that his murderers then dumped his body where it was eventually found. According to Pol Maj Amnuau Kraiwuttianant of the Phuket Town Police Station, the victim had 43 stab wounds in his chest and around the body, also, police believe, from a sharpened steel reinforcing bar. As in the first case, there was no identification on the body. The two corpses mark a grim beginning to the new year in the fishing port area, which saw an average of two murders a month in 1999.