Two homosexuals found dead in as many days

PHUKET: Phuket City Police this morning announced the results of their investigation into the strangling murder of a Patong resort worker whose body was discovered at his home in Wichit last night.

The body of the late Yusop Wattanarot, age 35, was discovered by friends who went to visit him at 7:30pm yesterday.

Sathien Chartsuksiridej, a close friend of the deceased, said he went to visit Mr Yusop in his home in Wichit Village 5 after he failed to return phone calls.

When he got there, he found another friend, Sutthirak Kaenbutr, waiting outside the door.

Mr Sutthirak, who often traveled from Krabi to visit Mr Yusop and stayed in the guest room, said he was unable to enter the home.

Mr Sathien opened the door and the pair entered the room looking for their friend, initially without success.

However, the pair suspected foul play because they knew Mr Yusop, who was gay, had been entertaining a group of four or five youths the night before and the room appeared to have been ransacked.

Mr Yusop’s motorbike was also missing.

A check of the guest room where Mr Sutthirak usually slept discovered Mr Yusop’s body stuffed beneath the bed.

An initial inspection of the body indicated he had been strangled with a necktie.

There were no other signs of trauma on the body.

Neighbors said they heard what sounded like a fight in the home for about five minutes on Wednesday night.

It was the second death of a homosexual reported in as many days in Chalong Police District.

At 11pm the night before Chalong Police were notified that a decomposing body was discovered in an unnumbered home on Soi Bangla in Karon, according to one local media report.

The deceased was identified as 48-year-old Pipop Noopoj, listed as a resident of Nanai Road in Patong.

Finding a blood-filled chamber pot in the room and bloodstains on the floor, police presumed Mr Pipop suffered an attack from a pre-exisitng medical condition and was unable to seek help before he passed away.

From the state of the body police estimated that Mr Pipop had died five days earlier.

Neighbors discovered the body after they asked the owner of the rental room to open it because they noticed a foul smell emanating from within.

Police found no signs of trauma to the body or foul play and are treating the death as resulting from natural causes, according to the report.

— Yodsak Jarana