Wife’s lover “hacked officer hubby to death’

KOH MAPHRAO: Desha Shum-nina, a 40-year-old community police officer for the Samphan community, was hacked to death yesterday morning, allegedly by his wife’s boyfriend. Called to the scene, police led by Pol Col Paween Pongsirin, Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, entered K. Desha’s single-story wooden house, which was surrounded by hundreds of local villagers, and found his body lying face down in a pool of blood. He had been hacked in the face and the head six times with a machete. Officers believe the murder took place at about 5 am. While questioning local villagers, officers discovered that Daeng Phosawasd, a 36-year-old rubber plantation worker, was known to be having an affair with K. Desha’s wife, Somjai, and that Daeng and K. Desha had been seen arguing many times. Villagers also told police that K. Somjai had tried many times to get a divorce from K. Desha, but that he refused to file the papers, apparently hoping that he could save the marriage. Officers found Daeng at his sister’s house, three kilometers away, and arrested him. He was taken to Phuket Town Police Station where he was charged with murder.