Dutchman charged in Koh Samui murder

BANGKOK (AFP): Thai police investigating the strangling of an elderly Dutch woman on the southern resort island of Koh Samui said today that they have arrested a fellow Dutch national. Helmut Johan Beute, a 35-year-old from Enschede, was arrested yesterday after police found the body of 65-year-old Martha Johanna Jansen, from Haarlem, in her holiday bungalow on Saturday. She had been dead for two days. Police Captain Thanongsak Aksornsom of Samui police station said Beute had befriended Jansen and helped her find a site and construction company for the holiday home she planned to build on the island. “He was charged with premeditated murder,” Thanongsak said, adding that Beute had denied the charge but that witnesses had lined up to testify against him. Jansen had been a regular visitor to Koh Samui for years. According to the police, Beute, married to a Thai woman and a resident of Koh Samui for several years, was caught after withdrawing money from Jansen’s bank account — funds that she had planned to use for her new home. Police said 2.7 million baht (US$73,000) had been transferred into Beute’s account.