NAKHON SI THAMMARAT: A university student has confessed to strangling his girlfriend to death in a fit of jealousy after learning that she was still in touch with her ex-boyfriend, police said on Saturday.
Thattapong Promchaisri, 22, a fourth-year student at Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya, was arrested on Friday night in a dormitory at the school's Nakhon Si Thammarat Saiyai campus. Police had gone there to question him about the disappearance of his girlfriend, Pornthidarat Sriwichian.
Pornthidarat, 23, who attended the same school, had not been seen since July 3, when she visited a friend at the Kapang military camp in Thung Song district. Her worried parents were unable to contact her and sought help from the police.
Investigators traced the last signal from her mobile phone to tambon Kurae in Thung Yai district, where her boyfriend’s house was located.
During the police interrogation, Mr Thatthapong acted suspiciously, they said. After hours of questioning, he finally admitted to having killed the woman.
He told police he was upset after learning that his girlfriend had pawned his five-baht-weight gold necklace, worth around 110,000 baht, to obtain money to help secure bail for her ex-boyfriend.
When Pornthidarat went to visit her former boyfriend at the military camp, Mr Thatthapong followed her there. He later took her to his house in Thung Yai, where she told him she wanted to end the relationship.
In a fit of anger, he said he strangled her to death. He later dragged her body away and buried it in a bamboo forest near his house and returned to work as a trainee at a car firm in Thung Song as usual.
On Saturday morning, police took the suspect to the site of the makeshift grave and Pornthidarat's body was recovered.
Pol Maj Gen Wanchai Ekpornpit, chief of the Nakhon Si Thammarat police, ordered police to immediately take the suspect away for fear that angry crowds might assault him.
Police said they had already been gathering evidence to issue a warrant for Mr Thatthapong's arrest in connection with two other unrelated investigations before they began looking into the disappearance of his girlfriend.